Chapter 25

MARS

With my white Flaming Chariot T-shirt hanging off her body in shreds, Aurora struggled to squirm away from the hound bastard at the foot of the bed. He snatched her ankle and

yanked her to the edge of the mattress, forcing himself between her legs and fondling her in places only I should touch.

“Stop!” she screamed, tears streaming down her face. Blood dripped down her throat from the large claw marks on her neck and pooled by her collarbone, her skin paling. “Please, stop! Don’t touch me!”

I roared at Mom’s rapist and tried so hard to move, but I felt glued to the spot near the door. With heavy legs and a racing heart, I clutched my chest. Aurora … he couldn’t take Aurora from me.

She screamed and kicked him, punched him as hard as she could. But she wasn’t strong enough to push him off of her. He grabbed her tighter, claws digging into her skin and ripping the rest of her clothes off to leave her bare to him.

Half of the Malavite Stone glowed brightly on our nightstand, and I cursed myself for not giving it to her sooner or forcing her to take it. We had thought Fenris was after the stone, but he had been after her the whole time. He wanted to do to her what he had done to Mom as I watched helplessly from the door.

Fenris flipped her over so she sat on all fours facing me, pushed himself between her legs, and shoved three sharp claws into her. She shrieked and grasped the sheets as droplets of blood spilled down her thighs.

“Please,” she pleaded, hiccuping, “please, stop …”

After thrusting his fingers into her harder, he pulled out and gripped her left shoulder in one hand and dug his claws into the back of her neck with the other, right above the Malavite Stone that helped Aurora live a decent life. She froze—almost instinctively—as if she couldn’t move, as if she was immobilized from the action.

My heart pounded in my chest, and I growled at her to move, to struggle, to do something to get away from him. I didn’t care if he ripped the stone out of her. I didn’t care if she couldn’t walk anymore. I didn’t care if she was paralyzed for the rest of her life. I could make that better for her as best as I could.

But I couldn’t take away the pain I’d see on her face every day if he raped her, the shame, the guilt that she shouldn’t ever have to feel. He couldn’t destroy someone else that I loved just for the hell of it.

“Come here, Kitten,” I begged, my lips trembling. I tried to move but couldn’t. “Please, Kitten.”

She stared at me, her entire body frozen, except her eyes, which looked so helpless and so glossy.

“Don’t stop struggling.”

For a second time, I found myself unable to help the one person I cared about the most. I was weak. Totally and utterly weak. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be happening. I needed to protect my mate. It was what I had been made to do. If I couldn’t do that … I didn’t deserve to fucking walk this earth anymore.

As she knelt, incapacitated and defenselessly with a look of sorrow on her face and trembling lips, he rubbed the head of his dick against her entrance and thrust himself into her. A tear slid down her cheek, yet she still couldn’t move her limbs.

“I-I’m so-so-sorry,” she managed.

“Stay strong, Kitten …” I pushed myself to move. I had to move. I had to help her. “Stay strong for me. Please.” My feet felt like stone, heavy and anchored. “Don’t let him win. Don’t let him take you too. You’re so much stronger than you think.”

Aurora’s body jerked back and forth as he raped her. Blood flowed down her thighs her back and around her ribcage from his grasp on the Malavite Stone. More tears streamed down her face, staining our bedsheets.

Fear ran through every one of my veins, as I could do nothing but watch. I saw Mom in her eyes, the look of shame she had worn on her face every day, her dead body lying in the bed with a goodbye letter to her children and her mate.

“No,” I whispered, crouching down in the corner and wrapping my arms around myself. “No, Goddess, no.”

Fenris used Aurora to thrust deeper into her, his claws sinking further into her flesh. The life faded from Aurora’s eyes, all that liveliness and hope and happiness completely gone. Just gone. Just like Mom.

After grunting, he pulled out of her and made me watch his cum mix with blood dripping out of her pussy. With his hand lodged in her back, he tossed her around like she was a rag doll.

“Mine,” he said to me, kissing her on the neck but staring at me. “She’s mine. Not even an alpha like you can stop me from taking her. With or without Ares, you’re weak, Mars. I’m coming for her.”

Then, he tore the stone out of her spine and snapped her neck, letting her lifeless body smack against the bedpost with a thump and onto the ground. Blood leaked from her throat, creating a sanguine puddle underneath her.

Fenris disappeared into thin air, and I finally found the strength to move my legs. I doubled over Aurora’s dead body and clutched her to my chest.

“No!” I pressed my hands against the back of her head and her neck to stop the blood, but it kept pouring out of her. “No,” I said softer this time, body trembling back and forth. “Please, Aurora, don’t leave me. You’re the only thing I care about, my only reason for living anymore.”

“Mars,” she said softly. But her eyes weren’t open, and her heart wasn’t beating.

“Someone, help me,” I screamed. But I was all alone. “He killed her.

He killed my mate.” “Mars,” she said again.

I squeezed my eyes shut. How was I hearing her? How was I—