Light filed into the room through the sheer grey curtains. I blinked my eyes open, adjusting to the darker than usual room. Ares curled his arm around me tighter, snuggling closer to my body. Last night, after I told him I loved him, after he begged me to say it again and again and again, he picked me right up off of the couch and tossed me into his--our--bed.

We didn't have sex. We just laid together with my fingers brushing against his and stared up at the ceiling, talking for hours about us. And, it was such a freeing feeling because last time we had stayed up all night talking, we were talking about how he couldn't wait to run with my wolf. I had hidden the fact and was terrified of telling him... but now... we were good. I felt like nothing could break us.

Nothing.

"It's time to go," I said. "We have to get up." He mumbled something into my neck, and I turned to face him. "Don't you want the stone?" I asked, brows furrowed together. I threw the blankets off of me and scooted to the edge of the bed, but Ares pulled me back, growling deeply in my ear.

"We run at dawn."

"It is dawn," I said.

He smirked against his mark, sending shivers down my entire body. "We have time." Before I could stop him, he had thrown all of the blankets off of the bed, crawled between my legs, and hooked two fingers around the strings of my underwear, tearing them off of me.

"Ares," I said, brows drawn together. "We..."

He pressed his lips to my core almost immediately, staring up at me with his sinful golden eyes. "We, what?" he asked, tongue moving in small, rhythmic circles.

I swallowed hard, heat warming my core. "We have to..."

He pushed a finger inside of me, pumping it in and out of my slowly. "We have to, what?" I could hear the excitement in his voice, could feel his lips curl into a smirk against my entrance.

I curled my fingers into his hair, my back arching hard. "Ares, we can't."

"We can." He tugged my legs on his shoulders, wrapped his arms around my waist, and tugged me even closer to him so I couldn't move. I tried to squirm in his arms when the pressure got to be too much, but he held me still.

I moaned softly, my fingers curling into the bedsheets, my breath hitching, my whole body feeling like it was on fire. "Ares..." I closed my eyes, never before having felt such pleasure from his lips.

"You're mine, Kitten," he said against me. The pressure built in my core, higher and higher until I could barely hold myself together. "Mine to take whenever I want." He continued to massage small circles around my clit with his tongue. "Mine to pleasure every morning." I clenched around his fingers. "I want my mate to feel good."

Someone banged on the door, and Liam cleared his throat outside the door. "Ares, the warriors are ready."

"I'll be out in a minute, Liam."

I stared down at him with wide eyes and took a deep breath. Moments, I was mere moments away from...

"How long?"

Ares growled and tossed me back onto the bed, his eyes turning a darker color gold. "When I'm finished fucking my mate," he growled. My eyes widened even more, and Ares thrust two fingers deep into my pussy, pumping them hard and fast into me. I grasped the bedsheets, the pressure too much, and squirmed up the bed.

Ares pulled me back down, pinning me to the bed with his hand around my throat, and didn't stop thrusting into me until I had slapped a hand over my mouth and was cumming all over his fingers. Wave after wave of pleasure rolled out of me, my whole body relaxing into the bed.

When he pulled his fingers out of me, he stuck them right into his mouth and suckedoff the juices.His eyes softened, and he grabbed my hand, tugging me off of the bed. "Come on. We have to go."

After we threw on some decent clothes for the meeting with my mother, Ares took my hand again and led me down to the backyard where thirty of his best warriors were gathered. They were the same group of blood-loving, slaughtering warriors that Ares took on every raid.

Charolette and Marcel stood near the front of the group, glaring at each other and... fighting? Charolette had her arms crossed over her chest and was quietly yelling something at him.

What the hell had happened? Last night they were all lovey-dovey and now...

When Marcel saw us exit the packhouse, he walked up to Ares and grabbed him by the shoulder. "I don't care what you fucking say. I'm not watching Charolette today. I'm going with you. I'm the best fucking fighter you have. I'm not babysitting."

Charolette's cheeks flushed, and she glared harder at him. "I'm not a baby. You're just too fucking annoying to--"

"You're staying here with her," Ares said.

Liam cleared his throat, curling an arm around Charolette's waist. Marcel clenched his jaw and held his fists tightly by his side, not daring to even look in Liam's direction.

"You should stay with Charolette," Liam said. "Like you said, you're the best fighter here. You can protect--"

"Don't give me that fucking bullshit, Liam. You fucking stay back and protect her." Marcel stormed toward the other warriors. "If you fucking love her so much, you'd do that for your pretty fucking princess." Then he disappeared into the crowd.

Though I was secretly rooting for Marcel and Charolette--even though he was a complete ass sometimes--I glanced between Liam and Charolette. "Liam should stay," I said. "If things go bad at my mom's pack, we'll need Marcel." And... if Tony somehow escaped from our grip today--which he wouldn't--I didn't put it past him to try to take Charolette. She needed to stay here, not come with us.

Charolette peaked over at Marcel who was talking--flirting--with one of the prettier warriors. She pressed her lips together, clenched her jaw, and looked at the ground, pulling her arms even tighter around herself.

My heart ached for her. I didn't know what had happened but... I knew she was hurting. I wanted to comfort her, but I couldn't do it here. I'd wait until tonight when we got home with Tony. So, I pressed my lips together and looked back up at Ares, watching him nod his head.

"Liam, stay here. We don't need you bringing Charolette today like Marcel usually does. Just..." He stared at his sister, frowning. "Watch her."

Charolette furrowed her brows at him and crossed her arms over her chest. "You shouldn't even be going, Mars. How many times do I have to tell you that the stone isn't going to fix me. Nothing will."

Ares growled, and Charolette suddenly became quiet. She huffed at him, her nostrils flaring, and stomped into the packhouse, slamming the door behind her. My wolf pulled me in her direction, but I held myself back. I needed to go with Ares to my mother's pack.

If I didn't go, Tony would taunt Ares and all Hell would break loose.

After Liam exchanged a few words with Ares, he followed Charolette inside the house. Ares addressed the warriors briefly and then watched them run in the direction of my mother's pack. But instead of running with them, he led me to one of the pack car's out front and told me to get in. "If we're bringing Tony back, I'm not letting him run with us. We need a car," he said, but I really knew that it was because of me.

And, for the first time, I didn't mind it. I didn't mind him going out of the way to make sure I was comfortable. Sure, many people in Mom's pack had done it before I met him... but Ares just... he made me feel like a person and not someone that needed to be taken care of.

It took a good few hours to drive to Mom's pack on the road, but after I started to recognize the forest I grew up in. I saw the places Jeremy and I used to run to every night after Mom and Dad thought we were in bed, the secret little hideouts we created in the forest. Everything.

But... that was all gone. All the past.

Ares parked the car in front of Mom's packhouse. His warriors were already scattered throughout the forest. They were all deathly silent, yet I knew that they were there. It was like they had done this a million times before.

A handful of Mom's warriors were in the backyard to the packhouse, trying to gather as quickly as possible. I hopped out of the car, following Ares to the backyard. I could smell Tony close, could smell that same putrid stench I had smelled almost every night before Ares took me.

Him, Mom, and some of her strongest warriors were in the backyard. When they saw Ares and I, their eyes widened. She stared at me, then at Ares, giving him that goddess-awful stare she had when she was furious. "What is the meaning of this Ares? You've broken our agreement." Her eyes flickered to mine, making him known that I was the agreement. Like everyone forgot it already.

He growled lowly under his breath, stepping forward, his gaze fixed on the one and only Tony. Tony was staring directly at me, not caring for a single moment that Ares was about to pounce on him if he wasn't careful.

"Agreement is off," Ares said through clenched teeth.

"Are you bringing her back?" Tony asked, as if he thought he really was. "Because I'll be happy to take her."

My eyes widened, and I grasped Ares's wrist hard in my hand, stopping him from lurching at the stupid, stupid idiot that I once called lover. Tony smiled at me and held out his hand. "Come on, Aurora. You don't need to spend another day with an alpha that slaughters people for fun."

Ares growled again, his canines lengthening. My heart pounded in my chest, and I grasped harder onto him, digging my heels into the dirt and hoping I was strong enough to stop him from shifting.

Realizing that he was getting Ares angry, Tony curled his lips into a smirk and stepped toward me. "I'll take care of you, Kitten."

Ares pulled himself right out of my grip, lurching at Tony. He wrapped his whole hand around Tony's neck and lifted him off the ground as if he weighed absolutely nothing. And... in a few seconds... that's exactly what he would be: nothing.

Tony grasped his wrist, trying to pull his arm away but not trying hard enough. Something about him seemed off, like he was expecting us to show up with all these warriors, and it made me feel uneasy.

But instead of letting Ares kill him, I grasped his hand. "Mars," I said softly. "Mars, you can't kill him. Remember what we talked about." Ares's grip loosened around Tony's neck, his eyes fading into a lighter shade of gold. He relaxed under my fingers and tossed Tony to the ground.

"You've let him change you, Aurora," Tony said, grasping his neck. He shuffled to his feet. "He's changed you so much. That spark in your eyes is gone. You look... tired." He paused for a long moment.

I furrowed my brows at him. He was up to something. I had spent years trying to understand people, years when Mom wouldn't let me train with the warriors because of my condition. I should've been able to figure out such a simple man... but I couldn't.

"You should come back," Tony said. "With your pack."

"Ares's pack is my pack," I said to Tony. "More of a pack than you all ever were."

Tony scoffed. "More of a pack..." He shook his head and looked around at all of the warriors surrounding us. "They don't know, do they?" he asked, eyes a vicious dark color. I gnawed on the inside of my lip and pressed them together, knowing exactly what he was talking about. He took a threatening step toward me. "You think they'll treat you the same, you think they'll still protect you when you can't even do the same for them, when you can't even shift into your wolf?"

My heart dropped, and I could hear the murmurs start. All eyes were on me, and I wanted to deny the fact that I couldn't shift... but... but it was true and now Tony was using it against me.

Ares ripped himself out of my grip and lunged for him again, but I placed both my hands firmly on his chest and pushed him back. My disability couldn't get in the way anymore.

Tony's gaze shifted from me to Ares. "And you... you know you're fucking screwing with her head. You're lying to her too, just like she's lying to your entire pack." There was a glint of mischief in Tony's eyes, and I was terrified of what he was about to say. He was about to break Ares, I could just feel it.

Tony took another step toward Ares. "If you keep lying to her, you're going to drive her fucking insane. She's going to end up just like your mom. Lying in your bed, blood gushing from both of her wrists, sheets soaked in her own blood. Dead, Ares. She'll end up dead."