Come Here, Kitten (God of War Book 1) Page 8

  For someone who always thought things through before I acted, I couldn’t hold my wolf back from growling. Last night, he had brought me home, laid me in his bed, kissed my forehead, and begged me to call him Mars.

  Not the fierce Alpha Ares who took whores from packs.

  Mars.

  The silver-haired asshole nudged my shoulder. “Didn’t think you were his one and only, did you?”

  I should’ve known that it was all too good to be true. I should’ve thought with my head instead of my heart. I shouldn’t have trusted a man who had used me to get into my pack and taken me.

  He chuckled under his breath, threw an arm around my shoulders, and pulled me in close, his striking silver hair brushing against the side of my face. “You’re just an alpha, here as a trophy to add to his growing collection of whores.”

  Chapter 13

  Aurora

  “Don’t fucking touch me.” I ripped myself out of his grip and let out a guttural growl from deep in my throat.

  Without looking back at him, I stormed in Ares’s direction. Some people looked over, whispering, but I didn’t care.

  Who did that man think he was, calling me a whore in front of everyone? And who did Ares think he was—bringing me home, letting me sleep in his bed, acting as if he wanted a mate when he clearly had a relationship with a pretty blonde already?

  Was I arm candy? Another one of his trophies?

  My wolf whimpered. That’s all we will be, especially when he finds out that—

  Shut up. I was tired of letting my shifting abilities command my fucking life. Whether I could shift or not, it didn’t matter. I wouldn’t spend the rest of my life at the hands of a controlling man who had an insatiable thirst for war.

  Ares would never find out that I had the Malavite Stone because I would never tell him.

  The only other people who knew about it were Alpha Elijah and his doctor—the men who had found me and performed the surgery that saved me.

  Hell, at that time, I hadn’t even known if I would live … but now that life was certain, I wasn’t about to spend it like this. In the arms of a man who obviously had no respect for the mate bond. In a sea of thousands of blood-hungry warrior wolves. Inside a pack that would eventually become my own personal prison.

  I had kept it a secret over the past decade, even from Mom and my pack. I didn’t put it past her or Tony to take the stone from me, leaving me permanently disabled, just to absorb its power themselves. They’d say that if I wasn’t healed completely, then I wasn’t using it right or that the Moon Goddess didn’t want me to have it.

  Ares gazed over at me, that fucking smile falling from his face. He dropped that bitch’s arm and walked toward me. “Kitten, what’s wro—”

  I slammed my finger into his chest, seething. “Don’t Kitten me. I need to talk to you.” I stormed right past him, not daring to look at his side piece, who had the most innocent fucking expression on her face.

  Pushing past people, I continued deeper into the lush green forest, not stopping when he shouted my name and asked me what had happened or when he growled as viciously as he had yesterday morning when he was holding Tony by his throat and calling for me to come out of hiding.

  When we were out of earshot from the rest of the pack, I stopped and glared at him. He walked toward me, eyes a fiery gold.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

  “What do I think I’m doing?” I stepped closer to him, canines emerging under my lips, ready to kill him. “What the fuck are you doing? Taking me as a fucking trophy, bringing me to a fucking party, parading other women around after you say that you care oh-so much for me—your mate?” I said through gritted teeth.

  My wolf begged me to release her, so we could run through the forest, away from him, away from here. But she and I both knew that I couldn’t do that. Shifting was a big, fat no.

  He pressed his lips together, jaw twitching, and crossed his huge arms over his chest. “What are you talking about?”

  “Your warriors, Ares.”

  “Stop calling me that,” he said, growling under his breath.

  “That’s who you are.” I moved closer until I stood inches from him and glared up into his godlike eyes. “Alpha Ares. A god of war. An expert at deceiving others, even your own mate. A—”

  He grabbed my jaw harshly in his hand and pushed me against the nearest tree. His eyes became a dark, murky gold. “I am all those things, Aurora. I have deceived others for control. I have slaughtered entire packs for power. I have taken warriors as trophies.”

  I slammed my hands into his chest, but he didn’t move. Not an inch.

  “But have I done any of those things to you?” he asked with such fury.

  “Take your hands off of me, Ares.”

  He growled, an untamed divine vibe radiating from it. “I do what I want with what’s mine. And that’s not my name.” The last few words came out harsher than the others.

  The mere sentence made me clench, yet my anger didn’t dissipate. Two could play at this fucking game.

  I tightened my fist and grabbed his jaw in my other hand. “I guess that’s why you let that whore kiss you, isn’t it? Is she another one of your trophies too?” I asked. All I could think about was how hurt I was.

  Every day, I felt so fucking useless. Now, I had to deal with this shit.

  He shoved me against the tree harder and shook his head. “What whore are you talking about?”

  “The blonde. Charolette. Who knows if you have more of them?”

  His eyes faded back to their normal deep brown color. That expression of wild ferocity turned into a soft smile, light eyes, and a laugh that I would’ve thought was breathtaking if it were at any moment other than this. He released my chin and chuckled.

  “You’re psychotic,” I said. I pressed my lips together and stared at him.

  Why the hell was he laughing? What was so funny about this? He surely hadn’t been laughing when Tony was coming on to me. Why was he laughing when she came on to him?

  “Crazy, just like the rumors say.”

  He placed his hands on his hips, chuckled slowing, and stepped closer to me. “Kitten,” he said, head tilted to the side and a smirk on his face, “Charolette, that blonde that I was with, is my sister.”

  His sister?

  My eyes widened.

  Fuck, he had to be lying. But the lighthearted expression on his face told me that this was the truth, that though he was great at deceiving, this wasn’t a lie. Charolette was his sister. I’d gotten fired up for no reason at all, shown him that I actually cared about him like that.

  I fanned my burning cheeks, staring down at my shoes in embarrassment. I could hear Jeremy’s voice in the back of my mind, telling me that assuming always made an ass out of people and that I was the biggest ass here. In that big-brother kind of way.

  Mars stepped closer to me, one foot between mine, hips pressing into my side. He dipped his head, resting his forehead against mine, and drew a finger up the column of my neck to my chin. “I never thought you’d be so influenced by those rumors. From what I’ve heard, Alpha Aurora always thinks through everything before she acts,” he whispered.

  There was a sudden ease between us.

  He gently brushed his thumb against my jaw. “Tell me, Kitten, was that little outburst of yours a subtle plea for me to mark you? So everyone knows that you’re mine?” He brushed his nose up the side of my neck, and I shivered. “Or maybe you want to mark me? So everyone knows I’m yours?”

  I paused.

  “Yours, Kitten.” Mars tilted his head to the side, baring his neck and giving me permission to sink my canines into it and claim him as my mate.

  My wolf went wild, clawing at my insides to let her out, to claim our mate, to make him ours. But I couldn’t … I … not when I was hiding the biggest secret of the century from him.

  All I could do was stare at it, my heart racing fast, my canines lengthening just slightly. Aching to ma
rk him. Desperate to connect to someone, deeper than I ever had with Tony. I just wanted someone to love me for me.

  He grabbed my hand and placed it right on his neck. His pulse raced, and my wolf purred. She wanted all of the wolves here to know that he was hers. Nobody else’s.

  Mine.

  “This is all yours,” he murmured, moving my hand down his shoulder, down his taut chest, down his abdomen to the front of his pants. “Every part of me. The good, the bad, the big.”

  I stifled a laugh and nearly cracked a smile. Moon Goddess, I didn’t know how I’d survive here. One moment, he was fury; the next, he was peace. One moment, the infamous Alpha Ares. The next, Mars, the man I’d met at the lake. It was like a switch that he could turn on and off when he wanted, when his wolf craved violence or when his wolf craved me.

  “Mark me, Kitten,” he said boldly, but there was desperation in his voice.

  The same type of desperation I’d felt every day in my pack, when I needed to prove myself, when I needed someone’s reassurance that I was good enough.

  As quickly as I’d heard his desperation, it was gone. And for a moment, I wondered if I’d ever heard it at all because the Mars and Ares I’d seen so far didn’t need any type of reassurance. He was a self-serving asshole who did what he wanted for power, for land, for women, and for himself.

  He dug his nose into my hair and inhaled. “Sink those small canines into my flesh, let your claws dig into my back, purr for me.” He brushed his fingers down the sides of my body, hovering them over the front of my pants.

  I swallowed, trying hard to control my wolf. Marking his neck looked too inviting to pass up. But I couldn’t give in to him. Not yet. Not until I knew the real reason he needed that stone. I wasn’t going to be deceived, nor was I going to be used.

  My lips grazed against his ear, and it took everything inside of me to hold myself back. “Maybe tonight. Depends if you’re a good boy or not.”

  He growled lowly, digging a single finger into my abdomen and drawing it all the way up my body until he reached my chin. “Kitten, you don’t like good boys.” He smirked down at me, his golden eyes as bright as the sun. “You like them rough and dirty and bad, just for you.”

  We hadn’t even known each other but for three days, and he already knew me so fucking well. I didn’t know how long I’d be able to hide all my secrets from him. A few days? Weeks? Was that how much longer I had to live?

  After gathering up all the strength that I had left, I pushed him off of me. “That’s what you think.” I shrugged my shoulders and began walking back through the woods toward the pack house. Green brush grazed against my shins. I stepped over a couple tree branches, looking around the forest and trying to get used to my surroundings.

  Mars chuckled and grabbed my shoulder. “Wrong way.” After turning me around and leading me in the opposite direction, he gripped my shoulder tightly. “Now …” he started, any softness in Mars’s voice disappearing. And suddenly, the enraged Ares returned. “Who told you that I brought you home as a trophy?”

  “Some guy with long silver hair.”

  He growled, the guttural sound echoing through the forest. “What did he say to you?”

  “That I was a trophy to you.”

  His eyes clouded with gold, his jaw twitched violently. “And?”

  In the distance, the forest cleared, and I could see the silver-haired man with that arrogantly youthful look stretched across his face. I parted my lips and then smacked them shut. I could handle that asshole myself and didn’t need Ares blowing this up. I didn’t need to be treated like a baby, and I didn’t need more attention put on me.

  I’d handled things by myself back home; I’d handle them here.

  “Now, Aurora.” His voice was stiff, as if he wasn’t going to let this go anytime soon.

  After sighing deeply, I dismissively waved my hand. “He just said that you do this all the time, that I was another one of your trophies to add to your collection of whores …”

  I gazed around the party, locking eyes with the silver-haired freak. He had the damn audacity to wink at me.

  And when he did, I said, Fuck it.

  “He even told me that your sister was one of them.”

  Visibly shaking with fury in his eyes, Ares released my shoulder, stormed right up to the man, and grabbed him by the throat. “This silver-haired asshole, Aurora?” Ares asked, his voice eerily calm.

  A deafening silence fell upon the forest. Nobody said a word. Nobody laughed. Even the pups stopped playing. Everyone stared at the three of us, even Charolette.

  I parted my lips, adrenaline pumping through my veins. “Yes.”

  Ares growled viciously at the man and hurled him across the yard so hard that when the man hit a tree, the tree itself cracked.

  Before he had a chance to move, Ares grabbed him by the throat yet again. “You’re lucky I don’t kill you right here.”

  Eyes overtaken by darkness, the vein pulsing violently in his neck, large canines glistening with saliva, Ares gazed around his pack. “Let him be a fucking example to everyone here. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care how high you rank in my pack. If you don’t respect your luna, I’ll hang you by your fucking toes, latch my fingers into your pathetic throat, and watch the blood pool out of you, ounce by fucking ounce until you’re lying in my prison. Dead.”

  My eyes widened. Oh dear Moon Goddess.

  “Does everyone understand?”

  “Yes, Alpha,” his pack said in complete unison.

  Ares glared at Mr. Silver Hair, held the man by his throat, and squeezed tighter. “Now, apologize to my mate, Marcel.”

  Marcel grabbed Ares’s hand, desperately trying to claw his way out of the grip of a god, and looked at me, face reddening by the second. He parted his lips, but no words came out.

  “Say it.” Ares tossed him to the ground like he was a piece of trash. “Or I will kill you right now.”

  Marcel rolled onto his hands and knees, staring at the dirt and gasping for breath. “I’m sorry, Luna.”

  Ares growled again. “Look at her when you apologize. She’s your luna, and she’s an alpha. Respect her like you respect me.”

  Respect me? My eyes widened even more, and I gulped. Never in a million years had I expected Ares to tell everyone that I wasn’t just his mate, but that I was also his equal—that my alpha abilities weren’t to be ignored just because we were fated to be together—or to demand respect for me.

  I stared at him, my heart racing. Yes, he was crazy. Yes, he was even fucking psychotic at times. But he was nothing like any man before. Nothing like Tony, who had known about Mom’s plan to sell me out and gone along with it because he couldn’t become an alpha any other way. Nothing like the guys back home.

  Ares was a whole new level of man. Ares was a god.

  Marcel gazed up at me, looking me dead in the eye, jaw clenched. “I’m sorry, Luna.”

  “I’m done with this shit. Party’s over.” Ares snatched my hand and tugged me toward the pack house. “If you wish to meet my mate, you can come to the pack house tomorrow.”

  Chapter 14

  Aurora

  After two hours of letting Ares calm down in the pack house, I hopped off of the bed and grabbed my backpack. Inside, Ruffles munched happily on her last bag of chips. I needed to get her cat litter, cat treats, cat toys, and more chips—a growing list to keep this cat happy and quiet.

  “You’re not leaving me, are you?” Ares asked when I walked past his office.

  I peeked my head into the room. “No, not yet.” I threw him a smirk, listened to him growl, and hurried down the grand hall. “I’m going to the store. Why don’t you go talk about the next pack that you’re going to try to take or that stone that you’re looking for while I’m out? I know you’ve been aching to talk to your beta about it since this morning.”

  He walked to the door, arching a brow at my departing figure. “The next pack is the Firegazers. Four days. And that stone …
we’re going to find that stone.”

  “And if you do, then what?” I asked quietly, turning around to face him.

  Instead of answering me, he just chuckled and shook his head. “Go shopping. I’ll be waiting for you to return. I have a surprise for you tonight.”

  A surprise? My stomach filled with annoying little butterflies. I hadn’t felt this way in so long, and I knew I shouldn’t feel excited … I knew I shouldn’t get close.

  But the god of war had a surprise for me.

  “I’ll ask Charolette to accompany you,” he said, and my stomach tightened.

  After my possessive outburst this morning, it’d be a good idea to talk to her. But I couldn’t wait for her to come here. I needed to put space between me and him now, and I had to get Ruffles her litter and food as soon as possible.

  “No,” I said. “I’ll go alone.”

  He paused. “Go then,” he urged, a breathtaking smile tugging on his lips.

  I waved awkwardly in his direction, trying to brush off the sinful look he was giving me, and walked out the door. After receiving some gracious help from some pack members who looked beyond scared to talk to me, I stepped into Mad Moon Grocery and opened my backpack.

  Ruffles popped her head out and gave me a loud, drawn-out meow.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. We’re out of chips,” I said.

  She mewed again, climbing up onto my shoulder and licking the back of my neck.

  “Girl, I’m getting you some now. Settle down.”

  I pushed a cart down the aisle and stared amazingly at how big this place was. It looked like an indoor football stadium with about fifty aisles, food stocked on every shelf, and it was crowded beyond belief. Some people smiled at me, and others stepped out of my way and avoided me like wolfsbane, eyeing the cat on my shoulder.

  When I finally made it to the chips, Ruffles sighed in my ear. I needed to stop feeding her addiction. It was quite unhealthy. I glanced around at the large variety. Ruffles Flamin’ Hot. Ruffles Double Crunch Hot Wings. Ruffles Loaded Chili and Cheese. My gaze landed on the Ruffles Reduced Fat, and I smiled. This one would do.