Hounds. Hounds everywhere. Coming out of the forest, baring their teeth in every which direction. A growl ripped from my throat as I killed each and every one of them. Aurora's pack had set us up. They had to have set us up. How else would the Hounds know to attack this pack while we were here? But how did they know we were coming?

The ground was covered in blood everywhere I stepped. My fur was matted in it. Bodies of wolves from both Aurora's mother's pack and my pack laid on the ground around me. But the Hounds kept coming. It never ended.

But Ares had one goal: protect Aurora.

She had screamed when she first saw them. Lying on the ground with a chunk of flesh ripped out of her body, she looked so helpless. My only goal was to protect her and get us out of her alive. I trusted my pack enough to do the same.

The last Hound leapt at me, and I sunk my teeth deep into its flesh, dug my claws into his underbelly and ripped him into two. I stared at the forest, at all the dead bodies, at Aurora's mother who laid at my feet dead. Then, I looked for her.

Everywhere. I looked fucking everywhere.

"Aurora," I said through the mindlink, desperately running through the forest, trying to find her. "Aurora, answer me."

I followed her scent through the woods for half a mile, then--suddenly--it vanished, as if it had vanished out of thin fucking air. My heart tightened. No. No. No. No. No.

This couldn't be happening. I didn't fucking believe it. My mate was not gone.

But I could hear her voice in my head. Her voice sounded like a haunted memory, a memory that I couldn't remember. Mark you. Have pups with you. Be happy. The words sounded so familiar, but Ares had been too desperate to kill the Hounds for her that... if she tried to get through the mindlink... I couldn't hear her.

I was terrified that those words--whatever they were--would be the last that I would ever hear from her.

I sprinted through the forest, trying to catch her scent again. Going back to her mother's backyard, shuffling through every single body, trying to find her. I just wanted my mate. Where was she? Was she gone? Did someone take her?

I shook my head, my heart pounding. No. No, this couldn't... this couldn't be happening. First mom, now Aurora. The only other good thing in my life, besides Charolette. After shifting into my human, pacing back and forth, ripping the bodies off of each other so I could make sure she wasn't one of them, so I could make sure a Hound didn't kill her like one had killed her brother, I growled.

"Ares," Marcel said, grabbing my wrist.

I pulled my hand out of his grasp and growled. "Don't fucking touch me."

"We have prisoners from Aurora's pack."

He nodded to a group of men and women from Aurora's mother's pack. I nodded to my warriors who, despite their wounds, grabbed them and started toward our pack. Aurora's father was among the men. I grabbed his shoulder, holding him back.

"Where the fuck is she?" I asked through clenched teeth. "Where would she have gone?"

Her father struggled in my grasp, yanking himself out of it. "Get your hands off of me."

I growled, the sound ripping through the entire forest, grabbed him by the back of the neck, dragged him all the way to the car, and threw him into it. "You're lucky you're alive. If Aurora didn't tell me to not kill you, you would've been dead." Before he had the chance to speak, I slammed the door in his face and looked at Marcel. "Drive him back. Get him there safe."

"You should come with us to heal your wounds before looking for Aurora," Marcel said, standing by the door. He gazed down at the cuts covering my body, all spewing blood.

"No," I said, pursing my lips together. I wouldn't allow myself to spend a second getting healed when she was out there. I needed to find her before something happened, if nothing had happened already. "Now leave," I seethed.

I stormed back to the battlefield for a solid thirty minutes. She wasn't gone. Maybe she was hiding. Maybe she'd be back.

Ares dropped onto all fours. Mars refused to speak to me. How could we not protect her? All we wanted to do was protect her, and we failed. We failed and she was gone and the next time we'd see her she'd be dead. Just like mom.

I doubted over in pain, heartbreak. She never got to mark me. I never got to feel those little canines break my skin and claim me. Mars never had the chance to mark her and claim her as his.

We wouldn't have pups.

We wouldn't have a life together.

I'd be alone.

That's all that I ever was. Alone.

My heart ached, and I let out a howl. It was broken like me. Broken and shaky and so fucking sad.

When I had gathered enough strength and anger and that innate violence in me, I sprinted home. I would have to find her, if it killed me. Dead or alive. I wouldn't let this haunt me like the rest of my life like Mom's death did.

Blood gushed from my wounds, my vision blurred, but I kept running faster and faster until I made it to the packhouse.

Everything was in utter chaos. Pack doctors were scrambling to find wounded warriors a hospital bed, hurrying some to surgery. I transformed back into my human and hurried through the disarray, trying to find a team. All I needed were trackers to pick up her scent where I couldn't.

Alpha Elijah was standing near the packhouse with some of his men and doctors. I grabbed him by his collar. "What the fuck was that?" I seethed. "You set us up. Aurora is gone because of the fucking advice that you had given her last night."

He pushed me back, not taking my shit this time, which only made me angrier. "This isn't my fault. I didn't know that Tony was setting you up. You have a rat in your pack. You have to."

I took a deep breath, my heart pounding against my chest. Who would betray me? Who would take their luna and try to kill their own people? Why would they do that?

I growled under my breath and pushed him away. I would find out later. I had to find out later. Right now I needed to find the only thing that mattered to me: my Aurora.

After pushing through the rest of the crowd, I gathered three of my best trackers: Mila, Kirsten, Ahmed. "Find Aurora's scent. You have until midnight."

"Oh my fucking goddess," Charolette screamed. I could hear her approaching from behind. "Ares!" She only called me by my real name when she was angry. "What the hell are you doing? You need to let someone heal you!" She hurried to me, eyes growing wide.

"Charolette, I'm not in the fucking mood for this right now."

She put one of her small hands on the wound on my chest, trying to stop the blood from gushing out. The trackers still stood in front of me, and I growled at them. "Go," I said. "Now."

They nodded their heads, obeying my command, and hurried through the woods all in different directions. I shoved Charolette's hand away, growling. "Don't touch me."

"You need to wrap these in bandages," she said, following me through the pack. "You need to heal."

"I need to find Aurora!" I growled at her, my canines emerging from under my lips, my vision growing dark, my nails lengthening into claws. "Don't tell me what I have to do. I'm not losing someone else."

"I'm being serious--"

I snatched her chin in my hand. Everyone around us stopped and looked over. I had never, ever laid a hand on Charolette. But I had never, ever lost my mate. Ares had never had this much control of me, this much control of Mars.

At least Mars knew when to stop. Mars knew what was right and what was wrong. Mars knew he needed to be healed. But Ares didn't fucking care. Our mate was out there. And we had to find her.

Charolette pulled herself out of my grip. "I told you not to go out to find that stone."

"Leave, right now, Charolette." She was testing Ares. "Leave now."

"Not until you get healed," she said stubbornly. "What would Aurora think?"

When she said her name, Ares growled lowly. I clenched my fists by my sides, everything in me hurting. What would Aurora think about this? I wasn't sure. But I knew what I thought about this: that it was all my fault.

If Aurora was dead, it'd be on my hands.