Come Here, Kitten (God of War Book 1), стр. 41
I hopped out of the car and walked right up to Tony. “What the hell are you doing here?” I lowered my voice and looked around the dark, grotesque forest. Trees loomed over us like hellish monsters, ready to attack at any moment. “We’re in Hound Territory.”
Tony stepped toward me, and I noticed some of the other warrior wolves from Mom’s pack behind him. “I’m bringing you home.”
Bringing me home? I wasn’t going anywhere with the one man who had willingly stolen my place as alpha. I wanted to run from Ares, but I wasn’t going to run into the arms of a weak man like Tony. And plus, this seemed all too convenient for him to show up on the exact route we were taking to Elijah’s.
“You’re not safe with Ares,” Tony said.
From behind me, Marcel jutted his chin and tilted his head, as if he was about to kill Tony if he got too close.
I furrowed my brows at him, trying to figure out why he was here. How could he have known we’d be here?
“Let’s go.” Tony grasped my wrist and pulled me in the other direction.
I yanked myself away from him and glared. “I asked why you were here.”
He clenched his jaw and stepped closer to me. “Because I know about the stone,” he said under his breath.
My heart stopped, a lump forming in my throat. Tony knew about the stone? No … he was just bluffing. He didn’t know anything about it.
“I know why you can’t shift,” he said even quieter. “I know that the stone has been inside of you since your brother passed.”
“How?” I shook my head in disbelief. Nobody knew. How did he? “Wait, you knew and you still told Ares that Elijah had it?!”
Fury raced through my veins. Ares was about to rip Elijah to shreds because of this piece-of-shit alpha wannabe. Everything had been going just fine until this happened. I could’ve hidden it from Ares longer, but Tony had had to ruin it for me, just like he’d ruined my chances of becoming alpha.
Wrapping my hands around his throat, I squeezed as tightly as I could. “Fuck you for everything that you’ve ever done to me. Jeremy wouldn’t have wanted this. You know what Elijah meant to him. Even when he’s dead, you continue to disrespect my brother.”
What was this all for? Why did Tony want me back? He had everything he could ever want, everything he’d been lusting after since Jeremy left—a pack to call his own.
Tony grasped my hands and tried to pull them away. “I’m doing this to protect you. You think that the rogue and her kid just ran out in front of your car when you were leaving with Ares just because? I’d hired her to tell him what I knew, so he’d run off, power hungry, to Elijah’s, and then I could get you back.”
“No,” I said, refusing to believe anything that came out of his mouth and squeezing his neck even tighter. “You’re doing this to have me, to own me, so I am always in your debt.” And I was done being his little puppet. I pulled him close, so my lips met his ear. “Leave now, and I won’t tell Ares to snap your neck. I would do it myself, but Ares would relish in how good it felt.”
And plus, I couldn’t kill him, no matter how hard I tried. I didn’t want to see Mom’s pack—my old pack—go up in flames. I still cared about them. I still wished the best for all the pups. I wanted them to thrive too. I just wished it could’ve been me leading them.
When I walked back to the car, Marcel raised his brows at me. “Actually have some fight in you.”
I slammed the car door shut and clenched my teeth together, staring at Tony as he disappeared back into the woods with his posse.
Marcel got into the car and gazed at Charolette and then at me. “What was that about?”
“Drive, Marcel. Just drive.”
After ten more minutes of complete silence from Marcel and Charolette, I sat in the backseat, nearly shaking. What was Tony’s problem? Why did he always think that I needed saving? The only one I wanted to save me was Ruffles. Only Ruffles. I didn’t need any alpha-holes thinking that they owned me.
Deafening victory howls sounded through the forest. I gazed out the car window in the direction of the wolves, my heart dropping. About a quarter mile east, warrior wolves were gathered around a man—a god—Ares, who stood naked on two feet with blood dripping down his chin to his chest, holding a beaten Elijah by the throat.
Ares was seconds away from ripping Elijah’s throat right out of his neck, punishing him—for something that was my fault. He would kill him, and I would be that weak alpha Mom had always said I was for letting it happen. My heart tightened until I could barely breathe.
“Stop the car,” I said to Marcel.
Charolette gazed at me with wide eyes and shook her head. “Ares never lets him stop the car while he’s hunting.”
“Stop the damn car, Marcel, or I’m jumping out.”
From here, all I could see was how utterly cruel Ares was treating Elijah. Throwing him around like he was a rag doll. Punishing him like he deserved it. But it wasn’t Elijah who deserved anything. It was me. I deserved this all. I deserved to be punished for this. For being an alpha who could barely shift, who couldn’t protect, who had made her entire family and pack so ashamed that they traded her.
Marcel pressed onto the gas and drove us further into Elijah’s property. “No.”
When he didn’t stop the car, I opened the goddamn door—because I had to do everything myself—and jumped out. Not caring if it would hurt me because watching Ares torture Elijah