Elijah sat against the wall, in an open cell, when I reached the prison. When he saw me, he burst into tears and hung his head between my legs. "Goddess, Aurora, I thought he killed you."

I grasped his swollen face. "I'm sorry. This is my fault. This is all my fault."

Blood soaked through nearly all his clothes. I slowly took them off of him, careful not to hurt him more than Ares already did, and cleaned out his wounds. It took nearly an hour, but by the time I finished he was sitting in freshly cleaned clothes and wasn't bleeding from anywhere anymore.

His eyes, though still swollen, weren't nearly as bad as Ares left them. He grimaced and leaned against the wall. "The way he marked you. The way he ran after you. The look of pure fear and terror in his eyes. It is nothing that I had ever seen before, not even during the Hound attack." He sighed through his nose. "Whatever you decide to do with him, please be careful."

I knew, from the moment I came here, that I needed to be careful around Ares. He was a loose cannon, could snap at any moment.

"Can you get my glasses?" he asked, holding his side. He squinted his eyes, looking toward the wall. "I think they fell over there."

Smudged with blood and cracked on both lenses, his pair was sitting in the corner of the room. I wiped off as much blood as I could and handed him his broken glasses. Though he could barely see out of them, he put them on and leaned against the wall.

"Why did you tell him about the stone?" he asked.

"I rather him kill me for the stone, than him kill you for protecting me."

"If he killed you..." He took a deep breath, took off his glasses, and tossed them to the side. They were no use anyway. "I don't know what I would've done. Jeremy wouldn't have ever forgiven me."

I cracked a smile. "He wouldn't have forgiven me either if you died." I grabbed his glasses and put them into my pocket. "I'm going to get you some new glasses, then I'll have someone take you home."

We walked through the property, trying to find somewhere to get new glasses. I hadn't really had the chance to check out everything yet, since I had only been here a couple of days and with everyone whispering about Elijah and me, it was hard to find anyone helpful.

After walking around aimlessly for a good fifteen minutes, I retraced my steps to the pharmacy I went to earlier to pick up supplies for Elijah, faintly remembering that I passed some reading glasses on the way.

At 8pm, the store was relatively empty. There was a small optic center within the pharmacy near the back that closed at 7:59:59PM on the dot. I gazed over the counter at the doctor with thick bifocals. He was gathering his belongings for the night.

"Excuse me," I said.

He gazed over his shoulder, eyes widening when he saw me. "Aurora," he said, holding out a hand. "It's great to finally meet you."

I furrowed my brows at him and placed my hand in his. "I'm sorry. What's your name?"

He chuckled. "I'm Ares's father. You can call me Mr. Barrett or Steve. Actually Steve works better." He winked. My eyes widened, and I grasped his hand tighter. This was Ares's father? He was so warm and loving and calm... and nothing like Ares.

"What can I do for you?" he asked.

"You're a doctor?" I asked.

He cracked one of Ares's infamous smiles. "Picked it up as a hobby when Ares took the pack from me." He gazed behind me, face brightening even more. "Ahh, Alpha Elijah." He cringed for a moment, noticing his bruises, and leaned closer to me. "Did Ares..."

"Yes," I said.

"I'm fine," Elijah said before Mr. Barrett could apologize. "I just need a pair of glasses."

"Give me a second. Let me see what I can do." He disappeared into the back. After ten minutes of talking to Elijah about the stone, Mr. Barrett came back out with a prescription in his hand. "This is what I can do for you for now." He gave them to Elijah. "Free of charge." He hiked his briefcase back up onto his shoulder and walked out from behind the counter.

Elijah put the glasses on and thanked him.

"Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you, Aurora. You can find me and Charolette just down the street from the packhouse. Second house on the left. Bright blue shutters. You can't miss it." Before Mr. Barrett left the pharmacy, he leaned closer to me. "And, Aurora, Ares is... harsh, at times, I know. He just loves too much. And..." He paused. "Look, all I'm trying to say is... give him a chance. He's had it rough after his mother passed." Then he walked down the aisle and out the door.

Elijah placed a hand on my shoulder. "Well, I should get going."

"I'm going to find someone to drive you," I said. Ares would flip again if I left without warning. So, I looked around, found my suspect Marcel standing at the pharmacy counter, and walked his way. He leaned against the counter, raised a single brow at me, and crossed his arms over his chest. "What do you want?" His gaze shifted behind me to Elijah.

"You are going to give Elijah a ride back home."

"Does it look like I'm a servant?" he asked.

"I don't care what you are. You're going to bring Elijah home because I told you to."

Elijah tugged on my shoulder. "I can get home myself, Roar."

Marcel cracked a smirk. "Roar, is that your little nickname?" He tugged on a strand of my hair. "Do you roar for Ares, instead of purring like he wants you to?"

I punched him straight in the nose, watching the blood spurt out of it. "Do you bleed out of your nose or do you bleed out of your nose, Asshole? Take him home."

The pharmacist walked up to the counter, scanned an item, and handed it to Marcel. "Pick-up for Charolette Barrett."

Marcel took the prescription from him and stuffed it into his pocket. He gazed at Elijah. "Come on," he said, then looked at me. "And don't fucking tell anyone about..." He nodded toward the counter with a clenched jaw. "... this."

He stormed out of the store and started his car. Elijah leaned closer to me. "When you have time, I need to talk to you about the other half of the stone."

I nodded, watched them speed out of the parking lot, and then I walked home. Home, as in, the packhouse. Not home as in Mom's packhouse.

On the whole way home, all I could think about was what I would say to Ares when I saw him. Though Elijah's scars would heal--quickly because he was an alpha--my scars would take longer. Marking me without my consent, charging after me, standing over me with such a vicious expression.

When I made it to the packhouse, Ares was nowhere to be found. He wasn't in our bedroom, wasn't in the kitchen, wasn't even in his office. I walked around aimlessly, listening to some sort of breathing.

I wanted to love him. I really did, but this made it so much harder.

On the bright side, he didn't belittle me like I thought he would. He didn't rip me piece by piece. He didn't act like everyone else did when they heard I couldn't shift. He treated me like an equal when the Hounds attacked, he treated me like I had wanted so many people to treat me.

The door to Ruffles's room was cracked slightly, and my eyes widened. Goddess, this cat, if she got out and was walking all over Ares's cloth--

"Do you think she will forgive me?" Ares asked from inside the room. I peeked my head inside. He laid on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, stroking Ruffles's fur. She laid across his body, purring loudly. Ruffles meowed in response and headbutted his palm with her head.

My heart softened when I saw them lying together. Did Ares know about Ruffles the whole time? Wasn't he-

Ares sneezed, his whole body jerking in the air. Ruffles curled her claws into his chest and clung to him, as if he was the most magical man in the world. And, then, he continued to pet her. "Do you think she hates me?" he asked.

Meow.

"Have you seen her wolf before?"

Meow.

"Is she beautiful?"

Meow.

"Did she--" He tensed sharply. "Did you just fart?" He scrunched his nose. "We need to get you off of those chips. Damn."

Meow.

I leaned my head against the doorframe, stifled a laugh, and smiled. These two would be the death of me.