Ares gazed over at the car, a vicious growl escaping his lips and echoing throughout the entire forest. He shifted into his wolf, running toward the car, when I noticed more and more Hounds running through the forest toward us.

The Hound hit the side of the car again, foaming at the mouth. His teeth were covered with fresh blood, and his eyes were a terrifying black. He thrusted his snout into the broken window, trying to bite me. My first instinct was to throw myself over Ruffles to save her life, like I wish I had done with Jeremy. If I could save someone, it would be her.

But Ruffles had other plans.

She hissed, jumped on my shoulder, and swat at the Hound with both paws, tearing into his skin. It wasn't hard, but enough to be annoying. She caught him in the eye, and he howled.

My heart pounded against my chest, and I wished that I could shift so I could kill him instantly. The wolf thrust himself further into the car. I glanced back at Ares, hoping that he was okay. Hoping that the boy and his mother were okay.

Two Hounds were lying dead in the middle of the street, but Ares was surrounded by four more.

Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

I felt useless. Completely useless. My mate was fighting the mere beings that I had dedicated my life trying to figure out a way to kill, while I just sat in the car trying to protect myself and Ruffles from being killed this time.

This was how it went down with Jeremy. Surrounded by four wolves. In the pouring rain. Unable to escape. In one vicious bite, the leader of that group had killed him instantly.

I tossed Ruffles to the driver seat and scooted into the seat myself, kicking the wolf's snout with my heel. He latched onto my foot,. I grabbed the silver knife from my backpack and threw it right into his mouth.

He released my foot, shaking his head from side to side. I kicked him again, crawled over to my seat, wrapped my hand around his neck, and snapped it. When I looked back at Ares, he had his teeth in one of the Hounds necks and the other three were lying dead on the cement with their friends.

The wolf fell onto the cement. Ares's teeth were dripping with blood. He gazed over at me with the darkest golden eyes that I had ever seen. He growled lowly, and I lured Ruffles back into my backpack with the bag of chips before he had a chance to notice her.

Ares gazed around the forest twice and shifted into his human. Blood gushed out of a bite mark in his chest. He hurried over to the car, opened his door, and pulled out his phone, glaring at me.

"Liam. Hounds. Sycome Forest. Get here now." He threw his phone onto the seat and growled at me. "What was that?"

My eyes widened, and I pushed my backpack into the backseat. "What do you mean?"

"He attacked you."

Oh, he was talking about the wolf. Not Ruffles. Good.

I nodded. "Yeah, and they attacked you--even after I told you not to go out." I pressed my lips together. "Why the fuck are you angry at me for your stupid ass decisions? I told you not to go out there."

He clenched the door handle in his fist, muscles flexing. A bead of blood rolled down his abdomen. "You didn't shift." His eyes were wild. "You could've gotten killed because you didn't shift, Aurora."

My heart sunk, and I parted my lips to speak but nothing came out. How was I supposed to tell my mate--one of the strongest alphas of our time--that I couldn't shift? That I wasn't the alpha he thought I was. That I was useless to Mom and that I'd be useless to him too.

My wolf whimpered at the thought. Mate won't want us if we tell him. Nobody would want us. We can barely even protect ourselves. She disappeared in the back of my mind, and I wrapped my arms around myself. Ruffles would want us. She would always want us. But Ares might not.

He continued to glare at me with eyes so rageful and so hateful that I thought he would kick me out of the car right then and there for not protecting myself. And I didn't know how to feel about that.

A part of me thought that it was great. I could go back to my pack, my pack that didn't want me. The other part of me dreaded the mere thought of being without my mate, without Ares.

Then he nodded to the woman and boy. "Come out of the car, so I can watch you."

"I can watch myself."

He clenched his jaw. "I'm not going to say it again. Now get out of the fucking car."

I grumbled to myself, trying not to touch the shattered glass that was sprinkled along the seats, and stepped out of the car. Some had cut into my leg, but I hid it quite well. It didn't need to be treated now. I'd deal with it later.

The woman and boy were hugging each other in front of us. She turned to Ares after he had found a spare pair of pants in the back of the car. "How can I ever repay you? I--I don't know how. We don't have anything."

"You can repay me with information and by accepting membership into my pack, so we can keep you safe."

My eyes widened. He was going to let her into his pack just like that? She was a rogue, and while I had sympathy for her and her son... rogues were known for betraying, slaying, murdering wolves.

She nodded her head. "Yes, of course." She grinned. "Moon Goddess, you're my savior today. What kind of information do you need?"

"The Malaverite Stone. Tell me all that you know about it."

I stiffened. I should've fucking knew that he was after that.

The Malaverite Stone. Half of it was in my back, the only thing that healed me after we were attacked. The other half... the other half was with the Hounds—lost forever. The stone had powers that not many knew about. Healing properties. Strength properties. Power properties. Properties that hadn't even been unlocked yet.

It was the rarest stone in the world. Every alpha wanted their hands on it, but nobody knew where it was. That was probably the reason why Ares wanted it. His thirst for power was too strong.

Her cheeks paled. "I don't have any information about the Malaverite Stone. As far as I know it's not even around here."

"Don't lie to me," he said in his alpha tone. So frighteningly deep and stern. My pussy clenched just listening to how powerful he sounded. Damn mating bond.

She stepped back toward the woods. "I--I don't know anything about it." She snatched her son's hand, tongue clicking against her teeth. Her gaze was fixed on the ground, and I knew she was lying. Ares knew it too.

He snatched her chin in his hand, hard. "Tell me." His voice was deadly quiet. "What do you know?" When she didn't say anything, Ares gripped her chin tighter. "Tell me now before I have to make you."

After parting her lips a few times and squeezing her son's hand, she nodded. "Okay," she said quietly. "I... the Hounds have the stone... a man named Karto. That's as much as I know."

He glared at her for a few minutes, then shoved her back, releasing her chin. Wow, damn, what a total bipolar--

Liam and a few other warriors pulled behind Ares's car. They sniffed out the forest around us, looking for other Hounds. When they were satisfied, Ares instructed them to take the woman and their pup back to his pack, to get the food and water and shelter.

But something wasn't sitting easy with me.

All of the stories I had heard of Ares were about him being ruthless and cut-throat, killing anyone and everyone in his path without a care in the world. This was different, and I didn't know how I felt. Scratch that--I felt like he was bringing them back to his pack to get information out of them, like he knew that she knew more than she was saying.

Ares grabbed my hand and brought me to the car that Liam had showed up in. I wasn't sure where they got the cars or why they hadn't just followed us in the first place, but I didn't question it. I didn't want to speak to him and his annoying ass. I grabbed my backpack from Ares's car and brought it Liam's new one and sat with it in my lap.

I just wanted to get out of this forest, to go home, to go to Ares's pack for all I cared. Just away from here, somewhere where I could rest with Ruffles on my chest. Without interruption. Without a mate claiming me. Without feeling like shit.

Ares slid behind the wheel, started the car, and said, "I need to clean off."

"Can't you wait until we get to your packhouse?"

"I'm covered in blood and my property is hours away."

I turned toward the window, gazing out at the darkness that suddenly laid upon the forest. It was an eerie kind of dark. "Well, who's fault is that?" I asked.

He growled lowly under his breath and continued driving until we came to a dirt road. He turned onto it, fingers tapping against the steering wheel.

"Great," I said. "Turn down a dark dirt road. Always a good choice."

"You always have something to say, don't you?" His jaw was tight, and I glared over at him.

"Yes, I do." I pressed my lips together. "Especially when people make stupid decisions." And apparently that was too many people to count lately. Mom. Tony. Ares. Too many.

He stopped the car and put it in park, cutting the headlights and stepping out of the car. He disappeared into the woods, and I followed after him. Just because I wanted to say something more to him--not because we were still in rogue territory and it was pitch black and I was scared. Definitely not.

"You know what else too?"

"What?" he asked me, peeling off his shirt. I gulped and looked toward the lake we had approached. Moon Goddess, he was too damn sexy.

"You're disgusting," I said, gazing out at the moon reflecting off of the lake. It was shimmering so brightly.

He shimmied out of his jeans. I forced myself to stare at anything but his sculpted back and his flexed abdomen and that ass. After giving me a hard look and clenching his jaw, he stepped into the water. "What did I do that disgusted you so much?"

"Wanting that stone." I pressed my lips together, trying not to think about the way beads of water rolled down his chest, the way my hands could glide over his biceps, the way I would feel in that lake with him. "You don't know what people would do to have that stone, what people have to give up for it."

He submerged himself all the way in the water, and I cursed myself for even being here with him. When he came back up, he shook out his wet hair, letting it fall into his face. "Not everyone is who you think they are, Aurora." He turned his back to me, showing me the scars from years of fighting on it. "Not even me."

I took a deep breath. Control yourself, Aurora. Control yourself. My wolf purred just watching him in that water. She wanted to get in there with him. She wanted him. Now. And, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't control myself.

I pushed all of my insecurities, all of my doubts, all of my anger toward him away, and dipped my toes into the water. "Then show me who you are, alpha."