“I can’t leave your mother,” he said through the mind link. A flash of lightning cut through the fog. “She’s my mate. I need to protect her with everything I have.”
I frowned at him, my heart hurting. Mom was cruel to me, and he sometimes fought her because of it … but he loved her like all mates did. No matter what, how could I think he’d leave her? But I wanted someone in my family to survive this.
“Just, please, don’t get hurt.”
“Tell Ares to stand down,” he said, brushing his snout into my hair.
The touch was so soft, and I remembered how he used to do that when Jeremy and I were both pups. We’d run around the backyard, and Dad would chase us. We had been happy. So fucking happy.
I pushed my face into his, feeling torn. “I can’t.”
“You’re his mate. You can tame him.”
“I could.” I definitely could. “But I don’t want to.”
The words made Dad recoil and stare at me with such confusion. “Aurora …” His voice sounded so fragile in my mind, like he didn’t recognize the name or who I was anymore. “He’s changing you.”
My chin trembled slightly, and I shook my head. “No, he’s not, Dad. He’s giving me a backbone. He’s making me strong.”
“He’s killing your pack members. He’s turning you against us. For no good reason at all.”
Dad slowly backed away from me, and I reached out to touch his fur one last time. Yet he recoiled again. And I felt that common feeling of loneliness and rejection that I had always felt in this pack … just not ever this much from him.
“Dad, he’s a good man. I promise.”
After staring at me for another few long moments, Dad turned away from me and ran toward Mom. I sat there on my knees and tried hard to hold back my cries. Every single time I was here, I just hurt and hurt and hurt, and I didn’t know what was wrong with me.
Why had the Moon Goddess given me this life? Why couldn’t my family just love me for me? Was that too much to ask of her?
Ares growled harshly, and I broke my gaze with Dad’s departing figure. The stench of blood was unsettling, and I screamed at the top of my lungs for everyone to stop, but nobody heard me. I hadn’t wanted this to happen. I hadn’t wanted there to be a fight.
Blood dripped from my mate’s mouth, off of every single tooth. His eyes were so black that I couldn’t see any trace of his browns or golds. Those claws dug viciously into anyone that got in his way. I watched two, three, four of Mom’s warriors die by his hand.
He was darkness. He was war. All he wanted was for everyone to hurt.
My heart clenched, and I stared around at everyone. Everything seemed as if it were moving in slow motion. Men. Women. Wolves. Everyone was fighting, and nobody knew the reasons why. They were fighting to fight. They were fighting because they had been born into war, born with these innate feelings to kill to protect. They were fighting because they didn’t know any better.
And I could do nothing about it.
I reached behind me into my pocket, wanting to grasp my silver knife for protection because I didn’t know if Mom would command her warriors to capture and kill me too. I wouldn’t put it past her to try to break Ares. But when I went to grab for it, it wasn’t there. I must’ve dropped it somewhere.
After scanning the bloody battlefield, the knife shimmered under another flash of lightning just at the edge of the field before the woods. I sprinted to it, weaving through the wolves attacking from every direction. And just as I was about to grab it, someone latched their teeth into my shoulder and shoved me to my back.
Tony landed on top of me, paws on each of my shoulders, his soft eyes staring down. “We have to go.” He looked toward the forest, as if searching for something, and then turned back to me.
I shoved my hands into his chest and pushed him off of me. “What is your fucking problem?” I clutched my shoulder to stop the bleeding. “I’m not going anywhere with you. How do you know so much about Ares? Why have you been meeting with the hounds? What are you planning, you stupid piece of—”
Something growled deep in the woods, and my heart stopped.
Oh Goddess, no. Please don’t let that be what I think that is. Please don’t let it be hounds. Anything but hounds.
“Please, Aurora. If you come with me, they won’t hurt you.” Tony grabbed my hand between his teeth and pulled me through the crowd of wolves, away from this side of the forest.
He’d said the words with too much certainty that I knew something wasn’t right.
I yanked my hand out of his mouth and watched the first hound run from the forest and toward the packs. And then it hit me.
Tony was a fucking traitor. A traitor that I couldn’t fucking kill.
“Stop!” I screamed at everyone around me. “This is a setup! A setup!”
Everyone continued to fight, not listening to a single word I’d said.
I stared at Ares, hoping that he’d hear me. “Ares! Please, stop! Please!”
My heart pounded in my ears when he didn’t turn around. I tried the mind link, but he must’ve been too overcome with bloodlust that he couldn’t hear me.
Tony growled and tugged on my hand again.
I kicked him right in the underbelly. “Leave, you fucking piece of shit.” I seethed at him, and then I kicked him right in his tiny little balls and watched him scurry away and off the property like the fucking coward he was.
Hounds emerged from the forest, their black eyes piercing right through the thick fog.
I grasped on to someone, not caring who it was, and tugged hard on their
