Come Here, Kitten (God of War Book 1), стр. 8
But for my pack, I clenched my teeth together and stormed to Ares, ripping Tony from him. “You’re a monster.”
He chuckled lowly, drew his fingers up the side of my neck, and grasped my chin in his hand like he had done last night, making me look into those golden eyes. “And you’re mine, Kitten.” He roughly brushed his thumb over my bottom lip. “All mine.”
Chapter 6
Aurora
I clenched my teeth together and ripped myself out of his grip. “Don’t you dare touch me like that again.” I crossed my arms. “Let’s get one thing straight. Just because I’m going with you doesn’t mean that you own me. And it sure as hell doesn’t mean that you”—I gazed around at his pack, who were all staring at me intently—“or any of you will disrespect me.”
Gasping for air and clutching his neck, Tony stepped forward, as if he wanted another chance at fighting Ares.
I turned on my heel to face him and pointed a sharp finger at him. “No,” I said, my voice coming out stronger than I’d expected it to with all the pent-up anger I was holding back. “War with Ares is over, just like our alpha”—I gave Mom the most bitter side-eye I could muster—“wanted it to be. Go get Ares clothes, so he doesn’t have to walk around here half-naked with his ugly ass.”
Without another word, I stormed to the pack house, tracking someone’s blood throughout the entire forest. Ares growled behind me, and I growled back.
Hit a nerve, did I?
I’d hit a damn big nerve. Ares wasn’t ugly, but his heart and his soul were.
“Aurora,” Mom called, following after me.
I rolled my eyes and walked faster until I reached the pack house. I slammed the large wooden front door as hard as I could and hoped it hit her right in the face. It was childish, but at least I hadn’t sold her out to Ares just because I was afraid of him and at least I’d shouted for her before I went out to fight our enemy.
After kicking off my bloody sneakers, I stormed up the stairs and threw my bedroom door open. Ruffles stared at me with wide eyes from my desk, gnawing on the plastic of a potato chip bag. I opened my closet door, threw my suitcase onto my bed, and angrily unzipped it.
Stupid. This is so stupid.
She sold me out. Fucking sold me out.
To Ares. To Mars. To whoever the fuck he is.
I bet she did it because she doesn’t think I’m fit to become alpha.
My bedroom door opened, and Mom walked into the room.
“Aurora,” she said softly, rubbing her palms together and acting as if she were really sorry for doing what she had done. But she wasn’t.
“Alpha,” I said, hurling my clothes into my suitcase. “Excuse my language, but I’m fucking busy, packing my fucking bags to leave this fucking pack.”
She growled at me and snatched my arm, claws digging into my skin. “Do not speak to me like that. This was our only choice. He had us cornered. He would’ve killed everyone here without a second thought.”
“There’s never only one choice,” I said, staring her right in the eye. “There’s always another way. You taught me that, but you seem to have forgotten about that since you got Jeremy killed.”
She glared at me with glowing gold eyes and slapped me hard right across the face. I clutched my stinging cheek, my eyes wide. She’d just … she’d just—
“Do not bring Jeremy up. This has nothing to do with him.”
I was done with backing down from her. I was done with being treated like garbage.
I stepped toward her. “It has everything to do with him, and you know it. Ever since that day, you’ve been terrified of losing your pack members. Ever since that day, you’ve lost your spark, you’ve lost your edge, you’ve been scared of being an alpha.”
“He was your brother,” she said harshly. “Don’t talk to me like you know anything about losing a child or like you know anything about leading a pack. I’ve been preparing you for years to become an alpha like Jeremy was going to be, and you—” She stopped herself before she could finish the sentence.
My heart raced. Shame. All I felt was shame. “What, Mom? What did I do?”
She pursed her lips together and turned away. “Forget it, Aurora.”
“No,” I said, heart tightening. “Tell me … tell me how I will never fill his shoes. Tell me how you’ve trained me for years, yet I’m still not good enough for you. Tell me that you’ve never thought that I’d be strong enough to lead this pack.”
“Aurora, stop.”
Tears filled my eyes to the brim, but I refused to let them fall. “Tell me, Mom.”
Her chin quivered. “I never meant to make you feel that way.”
“Well, you did.” I turned back to my suitcase and stared down at the contents from the past nineteen years.
All the memories of Jeremy’s death flooded my mind, and I bit back the cries. Ever since that day, our family hadn’t been the same. We didn’t go out together, didn’t eat together, and didn’t fight together anymore. We were broken, and she was the one who had broken us.
“Aurora,” she said softly. She placed her hand on my shoulder, but I pulled away from her. “You can’t even shift into your wolf.”
“I can shift,” I whispered.
My wolf whimpered inside of me, feeling defeated. She knew she couldn’t shift like we used to. She knew she was a disappointment to Mom and to this whole pack. If anyone found out, we’d be an easy target.
“When are you going to admit it to yourself, Aurora?” she asked. “It takes you ten minutes to shift sometimes. Ten minutes, and all I hear is your wolf whimpering the entire time.”
I stared down at my clothes, curling one of