Chapter 19

ARES

Thank the fucking Goddess that Elijah and Adrian seemed to be mates because I’d loathed seeing Adrian with Aurora last night. I’d wanted to kill the bastard for even walking her home, never mind inviting her out tonight.

“Elijah”—I cleared my throat—“I need to speak with you.”

Elijah paused and glanced from Aurora to me, breathing hitched. The last time I’d talked with him alone, I’d beaten his ass for keeping the Malavite Stone a secret from me. Now, I needed to chat with him about something twice as important.

“Now.”

Aurora looked at me oddly but scooted out of the booth. I walked to the other side of the Pink Moon Tavern, near a group of rowdy wolves drinking to the new moon, so Aurora wouldn’t hear.

Elijah stopped a few feet away, pushing his hands into his jeans pockets. “What do you want to talk about?”

“My sister doesn’t want the stone. I’ve asked her a hundred times over. I’ve had everyone ask her …” I started, my chest tightening. I’d searched long and far for that stone, so I could heal Charolette, and she refused to

take it. “And if she doesn’t want it, I can’t force her.”

Elijah raised a dark brow. “You could force her. You’re Ares.”

“I’m not the man people think I am.”

So many rumors ran rampant around Sanguine Wilds about me, ones that had terrified my mate at one point. And because of me and the way I acted sometimes, we were in a dire situation with little to no help from other alphas.

“So?” Elijah asked. “What do you want from me?”

“If she doesn’t accept the stone by the Luna Ceremony, I want you to place it in Aurora.”

Elijah crossed his arms and chuckled. “You want me to put the stone, which you tore every pack to the ground to get for your sister, inside your mate now?”

Growling, I lengthened my nails into claws and dug them into my palms to keep my anger caged. “Listen to me. I know that you and she have talked about it already. I know that you want to give it to her too. Aurora is … getting stronger every day with proper training. With the other half of the stone, she will be stronger and faster than me. She’d be unstoppable, and that’s exactly what we need with these hounds showing up all the time.”

Since she’d left her old pack, she had improved every day with Marcel training her. I found it astonishing that her mother never trained her as hard, especially because she was to be the next alpha. For years, her parents had thought of her as weak, as a burden, not able to be a true alpha because she couldn’t shift.

They were wrong. I had known it from the beginning.

“I can do that,” he said, leaning toward the window. The pink neon lights from the Open sign glimmered against his dark skin. “I told Aurora that I would rather put the stone into her than your sister. As long as she agrees to it, my doctor would be happy to do it.”

“Ares!” Aurora called over the busy tavern. She stood up in the booth, waving me over and tapping her wrist as if to hurry me up. “We have dinner with your father!”

After I thanked Elijah, we walked back over to the table.

Aurora pushed Elijah into the booth next to Adrian. “Well, we’re off to Ares’s father’s house for dinner. So sorry that we can’t stay longer. Hope you both have a good night.” She winked at them, giggled, and pulled me out of the tavern.

When the door closed, she didn’t head for the woods but peeked in through the tavern window and ogled at Adrian and Elijah. “Oh, they are mates.”

I grasped her arm and pulled her away, shaking my head but feeling warmth on the inside. “Kitten, you can’t peep on people.” I dragged her through the woods and watched her roll those big eyes of hers.

“I wasn’t peeping. I was, uh, fixing up my best friend with a man.”

“You’re a matchmaker now?”

She hummed to herself, a huge smile on her face. “Maybe.”

Chuckling to myself, I tightened my grasp on her hips and continued through the woods. No matter what she said about rumors and gossip, she loved it so much. Or maybe she just loved seeing people happy and in love because she hadn’t gotten that affection, growing up.

When we reached Dad’s house, he stood on the front porch, slapped me on the shoulder, and hugged Aurora. “How is my favorite couple doing?” he asked, ushering us into the house.

“Good, Mr. Barrett,” Aurora said.

“Everything okay?” he asked me when Aurora disappeared into the dining room.

“No.”

When Dad had been alpha, he hadn’t had to deal with the hounds. After the War of the Lycans, they had disappeared for hundreds of years. Now, they were back and were building an army for what we thought was to destroy Sanguine Wilds.

Without saying more, I walked into the dining room and saw Charlotte and Marcel sitting at the table, tensely chatting with each other. I eyed them suspiciously and glanced at Aurora to see her smiling widely again, and then at Marcel.

“What are you doing here?”

Aurora playfully shoved my shoulder and pulled me down next to her. “He’s here to eat,” she said. Then, she took my hand and trailed it up her thigh to her pussy, knowing exactly how to distract me. “Like you should be doing.”

My wolf howled inside of me, barking at me to shove Aurora into the back room and eat her wet little cunt until she couldn’t stand. Even after I’d told her I wanted to wait until the Luna Ceremony so her first time as Luna would be relatively special, she continued to push and push and push me about fucking her. She knew that I didn’t have the patience or tolerance for her teasing. And her pussy smelled fucking amazing. I had imagined drawing my tongue up and down those folds so many times today.

Walking into the room with four boxes of pizza, Dad sat at the head of the table and across from us. Cheeks flushing, Aurora quickly pushed my hand away from her pussy, thinking that she was only going to give me a tease.

But I wanted more.

I always wanted more of her.

I slid my hand up her thigh, gently rubbed her pussy through her thin leggings, and drew my fingernails right down where her folds were. When she gushed through her panties and leggings, I slipped my fingers into her pants and nearly groaned at the way her juices coated her soft pussy lips.

“I heard the hounds attacked,” Dad said, grabbing a piece of pizza from the box.

“One hound. Northern borders,” I said.

Aurora stayed quiet next to me and pressed her lips into a tight line. I cupped her pussy in my palm and pushed my middle finger into her hole.

“Aurora killed him.”

Dad turned to Aurora with wide eyes.

She dug her claws into my wrist—a weak attempt to make me stop— and nodded. “Yes, I-I did.”

Wanting to ruin her in front of my family, I sank two more fingers into her pussy. “What’s wrong, Kitten?” I asked through the mind link, rubbing my thumb over her swelling clit.

She squeezed her thighs together, but I forced her legs apart to give myself even more access.

“Spread your legs and keep them spread. Be a good pup for your alpha.”

Aurora spread her legs for me without making it obvious to everyone else. As her pussy tightened around my fingers and her legs started to tremble, my cock twitched in my pants. I imagined slipping into her pussy right here and right now, taking her so ruthlessly. I’d had to stop myself so many fucking times lately. I had even jerked off and taken a cold shower this morning before she woke up.

I stared at the bare side of her neck, where Mars would mark her one day. I hoped it was fucking soon because part of me wanted to do it again and feel that rush of adrenaline pump through my veins. Though I respected Mars, I was a greedy bastard and still wanted to keep Aurora as mine.

Quickening my pace, I pumped my fingers in and out of her until she scooted to the edge of her seat and was trembling. “Is my Kitten going to come for me at my father’s dinner table?” “Ares …”

“Alpha,” I corrected.

She glanced over at me, cheeks flushing. She parted her lips to say something, but when I curled my fingers around her G-spot, she pressed them back together to hold back a moan and stared down at her lap.

“Ask me for permission to come,” I said.