Moon Goddess, I had absolutely no words for it. She had gone through pure hell, had been screaming and crying and hurting for nearly thirty minutes before she shifted. And it was all just to show me who she was... but it was not what I was expecting.

Her spine had been bent at three different angles like an ugly contortion. Her bones broke and rejoined so many times that I had lost count. The pure experience made my whole body ache. I couldn't imagine what she had just gone through, my body couldn't even process it.

But... now... she stood right in front of me as a wolf. Her fur was a chocolate brown, eyes a piercing blue. I didn't know what to say. I just stood there and stared with wide eyes, trying to take in every single inch of her because I didn't know when I would see something so fucking beautiful again.

"Ares," she said through the mindlink. Her wolf was big, nearly as big as mine, which shouldn't have been a surprise. But it had made the whole shift so much worse for her. If she didn't have the stone at all, a shift like this would probably kill her.

And to see the pain on Aurora's face that whole time made me and Ares want to find the other half of the stone so our mate could shift so easily and we could run every night with her.

But... we had Charolette. We had to find it for Charolette, so she could get better, so she wouldn't die and leave me. I didn't want another death plaguing my mind with nightmares. If I didn't get it for her, if I didn't try as hard as I could to keep her alive, I would regret it every single fucking day. Just like I regretted not doing as much as I could before Mom died.

Aurora gazed at me. The moonlight bounced off of her eyes and made her fur glisten. "Say something, please." Her voice sounded so fragile, so desperate in my mind. And I wanted to kill anyone who had given her these insecurities.

I walked over to her and brushed my snout against hers, and she tensed. I never expected that this would be the first moment that I saw her wolf, I didn't expect that she would hurt so bad to shift, but I wouldn't change her. Ever.

When I curled my neck around hers and licked her mark, she relaxed. She lifted her snout to the moon and let out a harmonic howl, one that I was already in love with. Then she turned to me and... smiled. "Run with me, Alpha."

She turned on her heel and started through the forest, her tail swaying back and forth. Pushing herself hard, she disappeared behind the trees. I lifted my nose to the air, howling deep into the night. I followed her vanilla scent through the forest, running after her. Aurora was mine, and she wasn't going anywhere.

"Aurora can outrun the great and powerful Alpha Ares?" she teased through our mindlink. I couldn't see her, but I could smell her, and she smelt close. Ares stirred inside of me, wanting to run faster, to chase our mate, to put her in her place--right by my side. But... I hadn't given him full control again.

Since he marked her in the prison and chased after her, I reined him in. Never letting him control me like that again, at least not with Aurora. He wanted her so fucking bad it hurt, but when she finally found out who he was and what he was capable of... we didn't know if she would run away from us for good.

The rumors that he killed entire packs, would burn anything to the ground, would slaughter for power were all true, and they didn't even do him justice. Everyone feared Ares, but they didn't know that his want for power was because he never wanted to feel helpless again.

I pushed myself harder, seeing her tail wagging only a few yards ahead of me. Her scent had become overwhelming and her playful threats were riling Ares up, just as she wanted him.

"Alpha Ares," she said. "So strong, so powerful, so slow."

He growled inside of me and pushed me harder. I caught her tail between my teeth, tugged on it ever-so-gently, and leapt onto her. We tumbled onto the ground, somersaulting a few times over the forest floor.

She struggled under us, playfully swatting me with her paw, her teeth lightly grasping my fur. I fought her back and pinned her to the ground. Her body wiggled under our weight, trying to move away. But I stuck my nose into the crook of her neck, right where my mark was, and brushed my canines against the spot, digging them in lightly, just not enough to break through her flesh.

For a moment she tensed, then her whole body shuddered in delight. She stopped struggling under me and sighed deeply through her nose. I lifted my head, inhaled her vanilla scent, and sat up above her. Her eyes glistened under the moonlight, and we could see the lightness in them.

Gazing down at her, at our mark, at his mark... Ares saw that though she was terrified of him earlier, she wasn't afraid any longer. She trusted me not to hurt her, and we would never hurt her again. At least, we would try our hardest not to.

She howled to the sky, and I smiled down at my mate. This was the moment I had dreamt of since I was a child. All I wanted was my mate, to play with her, to laugh with her, to tease her... but I didn't know when I would ever get this moment again.

Earlier today, she had bared her entire soul to me, showed me all of her insecurities, let me feel how she did during her shifts so I could understand her. And, now, it had to be my turn. I had to show her mine.

Sooner or later, she'd find out about all of the secrets that I had been hiding from the world. Secrets about Mom. Secrets about Charolette. Secrets about--I gazed down at my arms--myself.

All I wanted was to be enough for her before I told her. All I wanted was to make sure she knew how much she really meant to me. I hoped that I could, because... I didn't want this feeling to ever go away. I felt like I was walking on the cloud with the Moon Goddess herself, staring down at utter perfection.

She caught me in a moment of adoration and turned us over, so she was pinning me to the ground. She stared down at my neck, her hungry eyes taking in the spot that she would mark. I turned my head to the side, giving her access. "Do it, Aurora." I closed my eyes, inhaling her scent. I wanted her to be mine.

Her teeth glistened, and all I imagined were them inside of me. Claiming me. Reassuring me that I would never be alone, that she would never leave me, that I was hers.

One moment passed, then two, then her teeth were grazing against my neck and I was fucking hard. Goddess, I was ready to be hers.

Suddenly she pulled away from me, colors flickering back and forth within her eyes, and stood up. After a few moments of watching her fight with her wolf, she turned back to me, lifted her snout to the moon, and said, "Shift."

It wasn't a question. It was a command. Her alpha command.

I shifted into my human and watched her struggle to shift back into hers. It didn't look as painful as the shift to werewolf, but she still struggled. I leaned back against my forearms and watched her.

Though I was disappointed that she didn't mark me, I knew that she was still wary. She still needed to keep her guard up. She wanted to be sure. Completely sure.

I went to stand up, but she shook her head. "No," she said once fully shifted. She pushed me onto my back, in the middle of the forest, and crawled on top of me. She cracked a smile, resting her hips right against mine. I could feel her wet pussy glide against my cock, could see that lustful look in her eyes, could feel her core clench. "You've had your fun with me, Ares."

She grabbed my hard cock in her hand and rubbed my head against her wetness. "It's my turn," she said, letting my head slip into her pussy and then sitting all the way down on my cock.

Her fingers curled into my chest, and she gave me that same look she had given me the first night I met her: that look of passion, that need for me.

I rested my hands on her hips. She was a fucking goddess. She was my fucking goddess.