Come Here, Kitten (God of War Book 1), стр. 42

I somersaulted three times and landed hard on the cement, leaving my whole body aching badly. My wolf howled inside of me from the impact, but I tensed and took it like any alpha would.

Marcel hit the brakes, and the car screeched against the pavement. Everyone in the forest looked over at it, except me. I hopped right off of the ground, dusted myself off like it was nobody’s business, and stormed to Ares, who still had that sinister look in his eyes.

“Put him down!” I shouted, my whole body trembling in both rage and heartache.

If Jeremy were alive … Jeremy wasn’t alive, so I had to keep Elijah safe or at least look out for him.

Elijah was more than just an alpha. He led a pack with intelligence instead of violence, had the best doctors and smartest wolves in the entire world, and had found love with my brother. They’d spent hours together every single night, and he was the first person I had seen Jeremy truly happy with. He was family even if Mom didn’t approve of him.

Ares’s large hands were around Elijah’s neck, squeezing and squeezing and squeezing until Elijah’s cheeks turned purple. Elijah—already broken in three places and bruised all over the left side of his face—lay helplessly in his arms. I needed to protect him. Not only because he had made Jeremy happy, not only because he’d saved me, but also because it was the right thing to do.

I dug my claws into Ares’s forearms and pulled with all of my might. “Let go of him now, Ares!” I screamed, except he didn’t budge.

I didn’t think that he even knew I was there. His eyes were pure gold calamity, focused on his prey with vengeance and valor, arrogance and superiority.

“Ares. Now,” I commanded in my alpha tone.

Ares spared me a single glance, pressed his lips together, and growled viciously. “What the hell are you doing here, Aurora? You’re supposed to be with Marcel. Somewhere safe.”

“Well, you’re not supposed to be killing Elijah. Now, are you?” I gave him a pointed stare and yanked on his arms one more time. “Think for one fucking second. You need him. You need Elijah because he’s the only person who knows how to surgically place the stone into someone’s body. If you want all the fucking power in the world, you need him.”

I grasped on to anything to buy Elijah a few more moments. I wouldn’t let him die, but I needed time. Time to get us all back to Ares’s pack house, so I could say good-bye to Ruffles forever.

Simmering, Ares threw Elijah to his warriors, as if he were throwing a spear into someone’s heart. “Take him back home. Lock him in the prison. Capture any of his warriors who try to protest.” Then, he stormed through the forest, heading back toward Hound Territory.

But I wouldn’t let him get away with hurting someone I loved. I rushed after him, running as fast as I could to catch him before he shifted, and snatched his arm. “So, what? You’re just going to throw him in a cage and torture him until he gives you an answer?”

“If that’s what I have to do, Aurora, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

I clenched my jaw, angry yet terrified. “Well … what if he gives you an answer that you don’t like? What if he tells you where the stone is … but you don’t … accept it?”

He let out a long and tense sigh and dragged me back to the road by my wrist, where Marcel waited in the car. “Let’s be clear, Kitten. There will be no answer that I won’t accept. I will have that stone even if it kills me. I will trek to the ends of the earth, walk through fucking hell to get it. Hurt anyone and everyone I need for it to be mine.”

Every word tore into me like claws, digging deeper and deeper until my heart nearly stopped.

I wanted to ask him again if he’d hurt me, but I was afraid of the answer. Ares looked ready to kill me now for jumping out of the car and onto his battlefield. Before, Ares had been calm when I asked him; now, he was the man the rumors loved.

Marcel tapped his foot on the ground, arms crossed over his chest.

Ares thrust me to him, and I hit his hard chest. “I told you to watch her.”

“You didn’t tell me that she would jump out of the fucking car.” Marcel shoved me into the backseat, where Charolette now sat.

Instead of protesting, I wrapped my arms around myself and refused to look at Charolette, or I would cry.

Ares … Ares was … more frightening than anyone gave him credit for.

Ares slammed the door in my face, and I stared at the seat in front of me. He was either going to kill Elijah or he was going to kill me. It wasn’t in my blood to have someone hurt for my shortcomings. I was a damn alpha.

An alpha who couldn’t shift when she needed to. An alpha who couldn’t protect the people she loved. An alpha whose mate wouldn’t want her after he found out her secret—that she was useless, just like her mother thought.

It took thirty minutes to get back to Ares’s pack house, and the whole car ride, Charolette tried to soothe me, but there was no soothing something so deep, something that would ruin everything, something that would shatter her brother, who would then shatter me into a hundred thousand little pieces.

When we reached the pack house, Marcel escorted me up the stairs to the yellow-curtained bedroom and stood outside the door, guarding me from leaving. After hugging Ruffles to my chest and telling her that she was the only one I’d ever loved—dramatic much, but she deserved all the dramatics—I threw open the window and climbed out of it, hitting the ground with a thud.

I followed Elijah’s trail of blood to