The next morning, I woke up in Mars's arms. My head was pressed against his chest, and I just listened to his heart beat and beat and beat, the rhythm soothing me. We stayed up until the wee-hours of the morning talking about how he always wanted a strong female mate, one that could put any other she-wolf to shame, one like me.

But he didn't know me.

I tried to tell him last night about the stone. I really did. But... by the way he kept smiling at me with so much love, I didn't want to ruin the moment. I wanted him to be happy for a little bit; I wanted to clear his head of those bad things and replace them with me. I wanted to feel wanted—not by my parents, not by Toni, by Ares.

My wolf wouldn't let me tell him anyway.

"There she is," Marcell said, his stupid silver hair blowing in the early morning breeze. "Princess decided she wants to join us warriors for practice?"

"Don't push it," Mars said, releasing my hand and peeling off his shirt. "Train her like you do with Charolette. They should both be training higher than any of the other she-wolves here."

Marcell fake-saluted Ares, and we watched him walk all the way toward the other warrior wolves to start practice. "Long night last night?" Marcell asked. "I'm sure Ares kept you up."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What's your problem?" I asked. "What's always your problem?"

"Not getting enough sleep weakens your reflexes."

"My reflexes are fine," I said. He walked around me, looking me up and down, and lunges forward to see what I'd do. I stepped out of the way and slammed my fist into his side. "Like I said, my reflexes are fine."

He stumbled back and chuckled. "Feisty."

"Yeah, well, she's about to be intrusive too when she puts her fist up your ass, especially if you keep messing with her," Charolette said. She threw her gym bag down on the ground next to me, bumping her hip against mine. "Hey girl."

Marcell clenched his jaw. "Charolette, what are you doing here?"

"Keeping Aurora away from your stupid, flirtatious remarks."

"If you're staying, you're training," he said. She crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow at him. The tension between them was thick, and I didn't know if they had been together before or were itching to sleep with each other. It was obvious by the way that--

"Well, Big Shot, show me what you got against an alpha like Aurora," he said to her.

She hmmft in his direction and pulled me onto some softer grass, so we could fight each other. Though she was small, she was fierce. Running at me, almost faster than I could react. Landing punch after punch on my abdomen. Even taking me down once.

I let her, not knowing how much she could take and not wanting to give away that my abilities far-surpassed hers--but weren't available in my wolf form. Only my human. After fifteen minutes of Marcell critiquing our forms and giving me tips that I already knew, he crossed his arms over his chest. "Okay, let's run," he said.

Charolette disappeared behind a tree and returned as a petite wolf. Her fur wasn't blonde like her hair but was a deep brown, similar to Mars's.

I gazed at her, then at him, then at Ares watching me from across the field. Liam said something into his ear, and Ares clenched his jaw. His thick muscle glistening with sweat, his eyes gold, he let out a ferocious growl and stormed my way.

Marcell cleared his throat. "Aurora, shift."

I parted my lips and shook my head as Ares approached. "We have insight on the stone," he said to Marcell, but didn't take his eyes off of me. I parted my lips. Oh, Goddess, please don't tell me that he knew about me already. "The Alpha Elijiah had half of it."

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

He gazed at me with eyes so golden that I thought they'd burn right through me. "Did you know about this?" he asked, jaw clenched. "Your mother's pack's closest ally is the Elijiah. You had to know."

My heart pounded against my chest. Someone found out about the stone, someone found out that the doctor from Elijah's pack had put it inside of me, and now someone was going to pay for it.

I tried to think of the best case scenario when Ares found out about the stone, my back, and the inability of my wolf to shift. I tried to remember how much love he gazed at me with last night, when we had a stupid-cute dinner in bed. Pretzels and cheese. His smile lighting up the whole damn room. Those beautiful soft eyes.

"Aurora," he said my name. Not Kitten. Not mate. Aurora with distaste.

I shook my head. "Ares, I-I didn't know." My fingers shook. This was Ares... but this was not the Ares that I had seen last night. This was the terrifying side of Ares, the side that would kill for power and for that stone, the side that the rumors always mentioned, the side that scared the living hell right out of me.

He growled, his jaw twitching. "I will tear whoever has that fucking stone piece by fucking piece, rip that stone right out of their power-hungry body, and take it for myself."

My eyes widened, and I curled my arms around myself. Oh, Moon Goddess, no.

No. No. No. No. No.

This was what I never wanted to happen. This was why I told him not to mark me. I had hoped--prayed--that he wouldn't do that to me... but this wasn't the Mars nor the Ares that was lying with me last night.

He gazed at Liam. "Ready the warriors. We run to Elijiah's tonight."

I wrapped my arms tighter around myself. Moon Goddess, save me. This man was a god with an insatiable hunger for violence, for war, for fury and rage. When I told him to ruin me, I didn't mean like this.