Come Here, Kitten (God of War Book 1), стр. 47
It was me who was fucking weak. The alpha who terrorized every other pack just to find the stone so he could save his sister. The alpha who couldn’t control himself. The alpha who hid behind the horrendous rumors so he wouldn’t be seen as a soft man—because soft men always got hurt in the end.
All I wanted to do was lay her on the ground and worship every inch of her body until she knew that I wasn’t going anywhere, but she let go of my hand and shoved it away.
I pushed away her tears with my thumbs. “Aurora, I don’t want the stone for power. I never wanted that stone for power.”
She hiccuped against my chest, her body jerking in my arms. “Yes, you do.” She stood up and stepped away from me. “All it seems you want is power. You nearly killed Elijah for it. You nearly killed him, Ares.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “If you had, I would’ve never forgiven you.”
Never would’ve forgiven me …
The words sank deep. If I had killed him, Aurora would’ve left me.
In that moment, I made a promise to myself not to ever kill Elijah or anyone Aurora cared about.
I stood up next to her and pleaded, “Don’t leave me, Aurora.”
I loved her with everything I’d ever had. She was one of the only people Mars felt comfortable around anymore, and she was the only damn person who could calm me down.
“Please, stay.”
After giving me a long, bruising glance, she walked away from the conversation and toward my property. I stood there and stared at her departing figure with a frown. I had so much shit to make up for, so many truths to tell her. I didn’t know where to start or if she’d believe me, but … I needed her to stay with me.
I’d do anything for her to stay.
Hell, I’d do anything to make her fucking happy.
Chapter 26
Aurora
“Aurora,” Ares shouted as he jogged after me.
I hurried through the dark woods, not because I was angry, not because I was childish, but because I was … unsure of his motives and confused about my feelings toward him.
So many rumors that ex-pack members had beaten into my head about him all seemed to be damn paradoxes. He’d sprinted after me in a rage, like I was his sworn enemy and he was a war god. Yet he hadn’t touched me and hadn’t hurt me, and I would go so far as to say that he wanted me for what I was—weak.
I just didn’t know if this was all to fuck with my head or if he was being truthful.
Did he truly want me? Would he really pick me over the stone, or was this all some elaborate scheme to get me to trust him, so he could slowly kill me? The god of war always had something up his sleeve. But the Moon Goddess wouldn’t have chosen him as my mate if the mate bond didn’t mean something to both of us.
Maybe it was because of his mark on my neck, or maybe it was because I had seen another side of him these past couple of days, but I wanted to trust him so badly. I wanted to be his. I wanted to be wanted for once.
Continuing to walk through the forest, I tried to ignore the growls from hounds in the distance. We were too close to Hound Territory, but I couldn’t gather enough strength to think clearly. All my mind wanted to think about was my mate.
“Please, talk to me, Aurora,” Ares begged, taking long strides to keep up with me.
Never in a million years had I thought that I’d ever hear the feared alpha beg for anything, let alone beg me to not only talk to him, but to also stay.
“I will do anything to get you to trust me again. Just tell me what you need me to do.”
When he grabbed my hand, familiar tingles shot up and down my arm and made everything even more difficult for me. I pulled away, not trusting my wolf around him, and a look of deep anguish crossed his face.
After walking in silence for another five minutes through the eerie forest, Ares suddenly stopped and tensed, his pitiful eyes hardening into an intense, divine gaze. “Aurora, don’t move.”
I stopped and gazed back at him, listening to the snarling hounds surrounding us. They sprinted through the forest in all directions. Branches snapped, thunder suddenly started rumbling overhead, and lightning flashed through the fog. First, one hound. Then, two more. Then, five more. Until we were surrounded by eight hungry beasts.
Ares pushed me behind him, shifting into his wolf and preparing to attack. But he couldn’t take on all eight alone and protect me at the same time, like I knew he wanted to.
He paused, looked around at them, and growled, “Go for the two north. The one with the shorter tail, the other with the one eye. I know that you can hold them off or kill them. And if you can’t, run.”
He leaped forward into the herd of six hounds, his razor-sharp teeth latching into their fur and his claws tearing through their flesh. I swallowed hard, trying to think of anything that I could use to help me fight them. Every other time I had come across hounds, I’d been armed with the silver dagger that Jeremy had given me. But now, I was defenseless.
So, I did the only thing that I thought I could do. I sprinted toward the one with a single eye, leaped into the