Chapter 49
Aurora
Sitting around me in the fog, the pack watched me cling on to my brother and cry my damn eyes out … and I felt so weak. I’d let them fight without me. I’d let them protect me without trying to protect them. I was supposed to be their luna. I was supposed to care for them. I didn’t want to be like Mom or Dad and let other wolves protect me, so I could lead. I wasn’t better than any of these warriors.
After letting out my last few tears, I grabbed the stone, feeling its power swell in my hand, and stood on shaky legs. Instead of taking the stone back to the pack house to keep as a memory of Jeremy, I placed it at Ares’s feet, unable to look him in his eyes.
When I turned around to get Jeremy, Ares shifted behind me. “Aurora, let me help you,” Ares said.
“No.” I scooped Jeremy’s dead body into my arms, held him tightly to my chest, and walked through my pack members to Elijah and his pack, who waited on the outskirts of the forest to show their respect. Tears still streamed down my face, but I bit back my cries.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Elijah, handing him Jeremy. “He was hurting. He couldn’t go on any longer.” My lips trembled. “Please don’t hate me like my family does. I’m sorry, Elijah.”
Elijah took Jeremy in his arms, a tear falling down his cheek, but he quickly pushed it away. He took a deep breath, inhaling Jeremy’s unfamiliar scent, and closed his eyes. “I could never hate you, Aurora.”
My chest tightened. At least someone I had known before this whole mess didn’t hate me for everything I wasn’t … or was.
I grasped Elijah’s elbow in my hand and leaned my forehead against his shoulder, staring down at Jeremy. “Please,” I said quietly, “when you’re finished mourning, take him to my father. He deserves to see Jeremy one last time.”
I couldn’t face Dad right now. It was too painful to even think about him. Last night, I’d told him that Jeremy was alive, but now, he was dead, and I had been the one to kill him.
Without looking back at the pack, I walked through the eerie forest to the pack house. Everything was silent, not even the birds chirped in the trees above. I wiped some tears from my face, walked into the house, and collapsed in bed with Ruffles. She walked around on my stomach for a few moments and then settled on my chest, rubbing her face against my cheek.
All I felt was pain. What had I done? Why had I done it? Dad was right. Maybe Ares had changed me into a cold-blooded monster. Was this who I had always been? Had I just really killed my brother?
The front door opened, and Ares shuffled through the house. He didn’t call my name. He didn’t make much noise. And he didn’t barge into the room like I’d thought he would.
Instead, he knocked quietly on the door and said, “Aurora, can I come in?”
I pet Ruffles and gave my weakest, “Mmhmm,” as a response.
The door opened, and Ares walked into the room with that stupid stone in his hand. Eyes an unusual delicate brown, he crouched by the bed. I sat up and kicked my feet over the edge.
Instead of meowing at me like she usually did, Ruffles hopped off me and lay by my side, her tail brushing against my back.
Ares took my hands and placed the stone in them. “This is yours,” he said.
I shook my head and pushed it back to him. “No, it’s Charolette’s. Give it to her.”
He unfolded my fingers and laid the stone on my palm. “If you want her to have it, you give it to her,” he said with such finality. There was no room for argument in his voice or on his face. This wasn’t a rash decision he had made … he meant this.
The stone emitted a slight white glow, its power radiating through me. I wanted to be able to shift more than anything, but I wanted Ares to be happy, and I wanted Charolette to have a chance at a long life.
My fingers curled around the stone, and eventually, I placed it on the nightstand. Ares squeezed my knees lightly and brushed his fingers across my lower lip. I stared down at him, wanting to feel something other than this pain, so I grasped his face in my hands and pressed my lips to his.
Ares tensed and pulled away. “Aurora,” he said breathlessly before I kissed him again. All I wanted was to feel like myself, to be happy and to feel good. He pushed me away. “Stop, Aurora. You’re hurting.”
“Please, Ares …”
Desperate. I was desperate to feel good, to feel something.
When he didn’t say anything, I pushed my lips back against his. The pain didn’t subside like I’d hoped it would, but Ares dulled it. I pulled him onto the bed with me and wrapped my legs around his waist, tugging his hips closer to mine. He was sweaty and bloody and dirty, but I didn’t care.
After one long kiss, he pulled away from me again. “Aurora, let me hold you.”
“I don’t want to be held.” I grasped his hand and held it against my core. “I want to forget.”
Forget about everything that had happened in my family.
He closed his eyes, blowing out a low, steady breath. “Kitten …”
“Please, Ares.”
After sighing one more time, he laid light yet passionate kisses down my neck, his mouth lingering by his mark. Then, his lips traveled lower and lower, down my chest and abdomen, up my thighs, right
