Dad widened his eyes, his fingers slipping from the silver bars. "Jeremy..." he whispered. He took a deep yet shaky breath, eyes filling with tears. "Why didn't you tell me? How long did you know this? Why'd you keep this from me? He could've saved us all."

It was stupid and dumb and so damn weak of me, but I couldn't stop my heart from breaking into a million tiny, little pieces. I loved Jeremy with all my heart, but so did Mom and Dad. They always loved him just a little bit more than me, always looked to him first, always compared me to him.

Jeremy could've saved us. Jeremy could've been our protector. Why're you so selfish to keep this to yourself? Why can't you be strong like him?

All their words--all their unspoken words--filled my mind. I couldn't think of anything else, and I felt like I was suffocating. So, I didn't respond to him like I should've. Instead, I walked up the prison stairs with tears in my eyes and marched right out of the prison. I'd be back to talk to him, I just didn't know when.

Ares hurried after me, brows drawn together. Faintly, I listened to the guards shut the door to the prison, but I could still hear Dad's hurtful words.

Ruffles walked beside me, my little side-kick, shaking her little booty back and forth in front of Ares and trying to get his attention. When Ares finally caught up to me, he grabbed my hand and held it to his chest. "What do you mean that your brother is alive?"

I grasped his hand tighter and nodded. "I'm almost certain."

"How? When did you find out? I thought you said you saw him die."

The packhouse came into view, and I tugged Ares toward it. He opened the front door for me and waited for Ruffles to hop in too, but instead she stared up at him, waving her tail back and forth. "Move your ass, Ruffles," Ares said, pushing her along. Even when she jumped into the house, she stared at him. He sighed. "I'll come lay down with you later." Ruffles purred and ran up the stairs, disappearing into the hallway.

I smiled weakly at her. Even when I was a mess and on the verge of tears, she could always bring a smile to my face. Ares wrapped his arms around me and placed a wet kiss on my neck. "She takes after you."

"I'm not that sassy."

Ares chuckled against me, and my stomach filled with butterflies. The chuckle sounded like home, like my future, like a promise that everything would get better with time even though it wouldn't.

"You're both needy," he said. With his arms still wrapped around me from behind, he pushed me up the stairs to the kitchen. "For me."

I pushed him away, playfully rolling my eyes, and stared out the kitchen window at the dark forest. Jeremy was out there somewhere, and one day--even if it wasn't anytime soon--I'd have to find him.

Ares put two frozen pretzels and a container of dipping cheese from the fridge into the microwave for us. Then he leaned against the counter, brushing his fingers against my chin and giving me that infamous smirk. "So, are you going to tell me, Kitten?"

I leaned over the counter next to him and frowned. "My brother is alive. The other day when those two Hounds were fighting each other, when that one stood in front of me and protected me... that was him..." I smiled, my heart clenching. "I just... I didn't know it was him at the time. He smells different and he looks different and he..."

All I wanted to say was that my brother had the stone, which had to have kept him alive. Without that stone, he would be dead. Completely and utterly dead. And if someone removed it from him, he'd die too.

But I knew that as soon as Ares found out that Jeremy had the stone, he'd have every tracker in his pack trying to find him so he could get the stone for Charolette. So, I slumped against the counter and stalled, hoping that if I told Ares his life story, he wouldn't race after him like he had with me.

"He was an alpha," I said quietly. "A damn good alpha, and one day we were attacked by rogues and he was torn into tiny pieces. I saw them shred every piece of his flesh, saw all his blood nearly drained. Mom pulled me away before I had the chance to say goodbye, but there was no doubt in my mind that he was dead."

Ares leaned closer to me and squeezed my shoulder, his sweet scent calming me. I pressed my lips together, thinking of the only solution that would save my brother from Ares's wrath.

Me.

There was no way that I could or would lose Jeremy again. If I had to trek the ends of the Earth to find him one last time, I would. If I had to live every single day in pain and in terror, then I would. I was the only solution to all of our problems.

"Ares," I said quietly, placing my hands on his chest and gazing up into his brown eyes. "The only way that Jeremy survived that attack was because someone put the other half of the stone inside of him." My voice was nearly a whisper toward the end, and as soon as those words left my mouth, I wished they hadn't.

Ares's eyes turned a light shade of gold, then a darker shade, his nostrils flaring. "Your brother has the fucking stone?" His body trembled, and I thought he was going to rip himself out of my grasp. There was a darkness lurking deep within him, ready to come out, aching to kill. And when he reached for my hands, I almost flinched. But instead of hurting me, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

My eyes widened slightly. Ares wasn't going to flip out like he had last time. He wasn't going to chase me. He wasn't going to rip me piece by piece. I grasped his face in my hands and gathered all the courage I had left. "Listen to me, Ares. I will not let you kill him for it."

He held my hands tighter. "I've been looking for that stone for years, Aurora." His voice was tense, and I could still sense that he was teetering on his breaking point. "Charolette doesn't have much time left."

"I know..." Please don't hate me for this. "... which is why Charolette will use my stone."

His eyes snapped open, and he shook his head. "No. I've already told you before that will not happen."

"But Ares--"

"No." He growled down at me, his canines emerging from under his lips. "You will not trade your life for Charolette's."

"It's not trading my life," I pleaded. "It's keeping people alive. I won't die from removing the stone. I'll just..."

"You'll just, what?" he asked me, stepping toward me. I stepped back and stared up at the man, my man. "You just won't be able to shift? You just won't be able to move? What if the procedure didn't work? What if the doctor fucks it up and you die?" I opened my mouth to speak, but Ares held his finger to it. And while I wanted to protest, something about that subtle action made me comply. "No," he said again, in his alpha tone this time. "That's final."

I stared at him, shaking my head, and then grasped his hands. "Please, Ares. I don't want your sister or my brother dead. I've already lost him once. Do this for Charolette. She deserves it."

Playing the sick-sister card on him was shitty to do, but I needed to do it. He might not agree to using my stone at the moment, but hopefully he'd consider it in the future. Because... if worse came to worst and Charolette didn't get better... I already made Elijah promise to take the stone from me and put it in her. I didn't need Ares's permission to do what I wanted with my body. I just hoped that he'd forgive me for it.

The microwave behind me beeped, and I jumped in surprise. Ares stared down at me, lips pressed together, eyes as golden as the sun. "I said, 'no'." Then he pulled out the pretzels, handed me one, and walked to our bedroom.