My heart raced.

Ares. He was... he was going to kill Elijah, seconds from ripping his throat right out of his neck and punishing him for ever taking the stone, for putting it inside of me.

"Stop the car," I said to Marcel.

Charolette's eyes widened, and she gazed over. "He can't. Mars never lets him stop the car while he's hunting."

"Stop the damn car, Marcel, or I'm jumping out." I growled at Ares, watching how utterly ruthless he was being with Elijah. Throwing him around like he was a rag doll. Punishing him like he deserved it. But it wasn't him who deserved anything. It was me. I deserved this all. I deserved to be punished for this. For being an alpha who couldn't shift easily.

Marcel pressed onto the gas, driving us further into Elijah's property. "No."

"Now, Marcel."

When he didn't stop the car, I opened the goddamn door--because I had to do everything myself--and jumped out. Not caring if it would hurt me because watching Ares torture Elijah hurt enough.

I somersaulted three times and landed hard on the cement road, leaving my whole body aching so badly. My wolf howled inside of me at the impact, but I clenched my jaw.

Marcel hit the breaks, and the car screeched against the pavement. Everyone in the forest looked over at it, except me. I hopped right off of the ground, dusted myself off like it was nobody's business, and stormed to Ares who had that sinister look in his eyes still.

"Put him down!" I shouted, my whole body trembling in both rage and heartache. If Jeremy was alive... Jeremy wasn't alive, so I had to keep Elijah safe or at least look out for him.

Elijah was more than just an alpha. He led a pack of intelligence instead of violence, had the best doctors and smartest wolves in the entire world, and had found love with my brother. They'd spend hours together every single night, and he was the first person I saw Jeremy truly happy with. He was family, even if Mom didn't approve of him.

Ares's large hands were around Elijah's neck, squeezing and squeezing and squeezing until Elijah's cheeks were purple. Elijah--already broken in three places and bruised all over the left side of his face--laid helplessly in his arms. I needed to protect him. Not only because he made Jeremy so happy and not only because he saved me, but because it was the right thing to do.

I dug my nails into Ares's forearms and pulled with all of my might. "Let go of him now, Mars!" I screamed, except he didn't budge. I didn't think that he even knew I was there. His eyes were pure black calamity, focused on his prey and only his prey. I gathered all of my strength, growling as loudly as Mom did, using my alpha-tone. "Mars. Now."

Ares stood there--shaking with rage. He spared me a single glance, pressed his lips together, and growled viciously. "What the hell are you doing here, Aurora? You're supposed to be with Marcel. Somewhere safe."

"Well, you're not supposed to be killing Elijah. Now are you?" I gave him a pointed stare and yanked on his arms one more time. "Think for one fucking second Mars. You need him. You need Elijah to tell you where to find the stone. You need Elijah because he's the only person who knows how to surgically place the stone into someone's body. If you want all the fucking power in the world, you need him."

I grasped onto anything to buy Elijah a few more moments. I wouldn't let him die, but I needed time. Time to get us all back to Ares's packhouse so I could say goodbye to Ruffles forever.

Simmering, Ares threw Elijah to his warriors. "Take him back home. Lock him in the prison. Kill any of his warriors who try to protest." Then he stormed through the forest, heading back toward Hound Territory.

But he wasn't getting away with anything that fucking easily. I rushed after him, running as fast as I could to catch him before he shifted, and snatched his arm. "So--What?--you're just going to throw him in a cage and torture him until he gives you an answer?"

"If that's what I have to do, Aurora, then that's what I'm going to do."

I clenched my jaw, both scared and angry. "Well... what if he gives you an answer that you don't like? What if he tells you where the stone is... but you don't... accept it?"

He rolled his eyes, let out a long and tense sigh, and dragged me back to the road where Marcel was waiting in the car by my wrist. "Let's be clear. There will be no answer that I won't accept. I will have that stone, if it kills me. I will trek to the ends of the earth, walk through fucking hell, to get it. Hurt anyone and everyone I need for it to be mine."

My heart nearly dropped. He would hurt anyone? All I wanted to do was ask--again--if he'd hurt me. But I was afraid of the answer because Ares looked deathly serious, Ares looked ready to kill me for just jumping out of the car. If he found out about the stone, he would want to do more than just kill me.

Marcell stood by the car, tapping his foot on the ground, with his arms crossed over his chest. Ares thrust me to him, and I hit his hard chest. "I told you to watch her."

"You didn't tell me that she would jump out of the fucking car," he said, pushing me in the backseat where Charolette now sat. And I didn't protest. Instead, I wrapped my arms around myself and refused to look at Charolette or else I would cry.

Ares... Ares was... frightening.

It was getting harder to admit this to him, but I knew at some point I needed to before he killed Elijah.

Ares slammed the door in my face, and I stared at the seat in front of me. He was either going to kill Elijah or he was going to kill me. And... I didn't want him to hurt Elijah. It wasn't in my blood to have someone hurt for my shortcomings. I was a damn alpha.

A damn alpha who couldn't shift. A damn alpha who couldn't protect the people she loved. A damn alpha whose mate wouldn't want them after he found out her secret: that she was useless, just like her mother thought.

It took thirty minutes to get back to Ares packhouse, and the whole car ride Charolette tried to soothe me, but there was no soothing something so deep, something that would ruin everything, something that would shatter her brother who then would shatter me into a hundred thousand little pieces.

When we reached the packhouse, Marcell escorted me up the stairs and stood outside the yellow-curtained bedroom--guarding me from leaving. After hugging Ruffles to my chest and telling her that she was the only person I ever loved--dramatic much but she deserved all the dramatics--I threw open the window and climbed out of it, hitting the ground with a thud for the second time tonight.

I followed Elijah's blood trail to the prison. There were seven guards in the front of the main and only entrance. They all tried to stop me, but I did whatever I had to do to get past each one: punch, kick, bite.

When I made it inside, I shut and locked the door--taking out the key from the knob and put it into my pocket. This way, nobody would be able to get in to stop me from doing whatever I had to do to get Elijah out of the dungeon.

I walked down the cold stone steps and into the dimly lit cells. It reeked of blood and rotting corpses and... I scrunched up my nose... shit. Though the smell was overpowering, I let Elijah's scent guide me to him.

In the back of the prison, Ares stood menacingly over Elijah's body with blood dripping from his fingers. I screamed for my life, for Elijah, for Jeremy. Ares gazed at me, his eyes widening in fury. He tried to grab my wrist, but I pushed him away and collapsed onto the ground with Elijah.

Silver chains were clasped around his wrists and his neck. Both of his eyes were nearly swollen shut. Blood spewed from multiple open wounds on his abdomen.

"Mars!" I screamed. "What--what did you do to him?" I took Elijah's head in my lap, brushing the hair out of his face. I could barely recognize him. "Wh--"

"Mars is gone, Kitten." He grabbed my wrist and pulled me off of the ground, holding me there like he was about to clasp a silver chain onto me too.

I clenched my jaw, trying to not be intimidated by all of the rumors I had heard of him. Mars was in there somewhere. He needed to be. He needed to see me, to see how much of a mess I was, to love me for my secret.

"You will stop this, now Mars," I said. "Let me clean Elijah up. I can talk to him about the stone. I can see if he knows where it is."

"No." Ares curled a hand around my throat, lightly, and forced me to look up at him. "Why do you want to protect him? What is your fascination with a man who isn't your mate?"

I parted my lips, then pressed them back together. "Ares..." I grasped his wrist, hoping that it would calm him down. When I told him about the stone, I didn't want him to be angry. Maybe I could talk some sense into him and convince him not to hurt me. His mate. His only mate.

"Answer me, Aurora!" he seethed, eyes blazing gold.

"He-he--"

"Do you like him?" he asked. "Does my mate like another wolf and not me?"

"Ares, what are you--"

"It's a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer, Aurora. Don't complicate it."

"Don't talk down to me," I said, pushing him away. He stumbled back for the briefest moment, and I took the chance to fall back onto the ground with Elijah and cradle him in my arms. No, I didn't like Elijah or Tony or any other guy for that matter.

I liked Ares and Mars... but... they wouldn't like me.

Ares growled, gazing down at Elijah's head in my lap, and yanked me up again. This time harder. He wrapped a hand around my throat and pushed me all the way to the cold, cement wall. "You're mine, Aurora."

I squirmed against him, trying to push him away, but he held me tighter to him--his hand closing around my throat. "Only mine," he said with more authority. My heart raced in my chest, watching his canines lengthen from under his lips. "And, you'll always be mine."

Then, in a heated moment, he snapped my head to the side and sunk his canines deep into my flesh.