“Why? Why are they coming for me?” I asked with tears in my eyes. “For my stone?”
“For divine revenge,” Jeremy said. “Now, shift, Aurora.”
Divine revenge? What the hell did he mean, divine revenge?
“Shift!”
I pushed away all my tears and collapsed onto all fours. Fuck the reasoning. I would fight whoever tried to hurt Jeremy, my family, and my pack. If I could do anything, it was going to be trying to save us all.
But I needed to shift quickly. Tony was close, and I didn’t have much time.
Gathering all my strength, I willed myself to shift. My bones cracked and snapped back together. Every part of my body ached. Pain shot up my legs until I could barely feel them. My arms felt like they were being stabbed over and over from the inside out.
It hurt even worse because I was forcing this shift to be quick.
I let out a piercing scream and then saw Tony sprinting in my direction through the fog. My eyes widened, and I forced myself to shift faster than I ever had. There were four hounds with him, running directly at us. Elijah shifted beside me and started to fend them off, but Tony slipped past him.
The warriors and guards around me shifted, including Ares, who stood in front of me with Jeremy. When I finally finished shifting, I looked around and realized that there weren’t just four measly hounds with him. There were hundreds in the woods, surrounding Ares’s pack.
Pain shot through my body as I recovered briefly from the shift, but all I could feel was adrenaline, so much fucking adrenaline. Hounds leaped in my direction, but Ares kept as many off of me as he could.
Somehow, Tony made it past Ares and easily pushed Jeremy to the side. Keeping his head low, he stared at the bare side of my neck and leaped at me. I moved my head away just enough for his teeth to sink into my shoulder instead of my neck.
“Don’t resist it, Aurora,” Tony said through our mind link. “I want to help you survive.”
I thrashed from side to side, trying to shake him off me, and dug my claws into his underbelly. When he realized I wouldn’t give in to him, he ripped out a chunk of my shoulder, spit it out of his mouth, and then lurched at Jeremy, who reacted too late.
Jeremy struggled to stay on all fours, but Tony took him down within moments. Seeing Jeremy so physically and emotionally weak broke my heart. He had always been the strongest person that I looked up to and had always been my rock.
Tony went straight for the back of Jeremy’s neck, about to sink his teeth into it to pull out the stone. There was so much I didn’t know about why he was doing this or what this divine revenge meant, but deep in my heart, I knew that I couldn’t let the hounds have the stone.
So, milliseconds before Tony could rip Jeremy’s spine open to get the stone, I pushed my snout under Tony’s teeth and sank my canines into the back of Jeremy’s neck. My wolf whimpered as Jeremy instantly relaxed under me.
My body heaved back and forth, but I didn’t pull out my teeth from his neck. This was what I had to do. I couldn’t let Tony take the stone, couldn’t give him that kind of power.
Tony sank his teeth into the back of my neck—right where my stone was—yet he only pricked the first few layers of skin before he was ripped off me and thrown across the forest by Ares.
And even then, I didn’t let go of my brother. I stayed on top of Jeremy, knowing that once I pulled my canines from his flesh—whether he had the stone still in him or not—he’d be dead.
“I’m so sorry, Jeremy,” I said through the mind link, my voice cracking. My whole body felt so weak, yet I stayed strong. “I’m so sorry for this. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you all those years ago. I’m sorry that you couldn’t have a good life.”
“Go back to … cave, Aurora. Dig. Don’t go alone.”
“I love you with all my heart. I’ll never forget you, Jeremy. Ever.”
“I love you too.”
And those were the last words I heard from him.
I pulled the stone out of Jeremy’s neck, blood dripping from my mouth, and turned on my heel toward Ares and Tony, who were trying to rip each other apart.
That man had taken too much from me, and I was determined to take everything from him. I growled viciously at the two men, pulled Ares off him, and lurched at Tony myself. Ares had weakened him, but he was my kill.
Before he could even react, I latched my teeth into his neck and ripped out his throat. His throat fell from my mouth onto the ground, and a couple moments later, he fell with it. I collapsed next to him and crawled over to Jeremy, resting my head on his back.
It was over. It was all over.
For now.
Chapter 48
Ares
Aurora lay in a puddle of blood, her body struggling to shift back into her human. When she shifted back, she collapsed onto her brother’s lifeless body with tears streaming down her face. The Malavite Stone lay in her open hand.
I stared at her in shock, not knowing what to do. She had just killed her own brother after years of not seeing him to keep the stone away from the hounds. It was something that even I wouldn’t have had the courage or strength to do.
Elijah shifted next to Aurora, eyes glazing over to mind-link with someone. He nodded at me, as if to say that he’d protect her with his life as more hounds ran out through the forest.
They were coming.
They were coming, and again, we weren’t prepared.
But unlike last time, I wouldn’t let Aurora out of my sight. I’d protect her with my life because these hounds wanted the
