Come Here, Kitten (God of War Book 1)

by Emilia Rose

  He barely glanced my way and sipped another drink. “What?”

  “Two, please,” I asked the bartender. I glanced at Marcel and lightly bumped my shoulder against his. “I want to thank you for what you did earlier today.”

  “What’d I do?” Marcel asked through clenched teeth, his silver hair falling into his face.

  “You didn’t attack my dad. You stood up for me in front of all the other warriors. You called me Luna,” I said.

  For once, he had shown me respect and hadn’t been a blatant asshole, like he usually was.

  The bartender placed two shots in front of us. Marcel went to grab one, but I snatched them both before he could.

  He exhaled deeply through his nose. “What do you want me to say? You’re welcome? I would’ve done that shit anyway. Don’t think I did it just for you.”

  “I don’t think that.”

  “Then, why the fuck are you sitting up here with me?”

  “You like Charolette, don’t you?” I asked. Marcel growled under his breath and reached for one of the shots again, but I pulled my hand away. “You should go ask her out on a date—on a real date.”

  “And how the fuck am I supposed to do that, Aurora? She’s dating the fuckin’ beta.”

  “But she likes you too, doesn’t she?”

  He clenched his jaw and slammed his fist down on the bar. Some people looked over, including Charolette. Her blue eyes lingered on Marcel, and she frowned.

  He shook his head and lowered his voice. “She doesn’t fuckin’ like me.”

  I paused for a moment, unsure how to get him to see it. “I saw you guys together in her bedroom the other night. It was the first time I’d really seen you smile.”

  My heart warmed at the memory. They had both looked so happy together, and now … what had changed?

  For a split moment, there was a deep sorrow in his eyes. But almost as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared. Then, he snatched the shot glass from me. “Nothing happened between us, and nothing will ever happen between us. She has Liam. He’s good for her.” He downed the shot and stood up. “I’m not.” And then he walked right out of the bar.

  After sighing, I left the drink and walked back to the table.

  “What’d he say to you?” Mars asked me, watching Marcel’s departing figure with that thirst-to-kill look on his face. “I’m tired of his damn disrespect for you.”

  I pulled Mars to his feet, ready to talk to Dad. I didn’t mind Marcel’s attitude toward me today because I’d found out everything I needed to know about him. Marcel liked Charolette. And Charolette liked Marcel.

  Nobody could tell me otherwise.

  But I couldn’t tell Mars that because he would flip out. I would keep their little secret until one of them made a move on the other because Charolette was one of the only friends I had here, and Marcel … well, Marcel reminded me of Ares. Rough on the outside and soft on the inside.

  “We’re going to go see my dad,” I said to him, hoping that it was okay and that it’d take his mind off Marcel for a bit.

  Mars grabbed my hand and walked out of the restaurant with me, silently agreeing.

  Outside, the horse statue was still burning, brightening the forest around us. Bursts of flames flailed out from the horses’ manes, yet the stone wasn’t charred. I gazed at it in amazement, feeling drawn to the chariot, but I continued walking through the forest and toward the prison.

  We walked past the pack house, and I saw Ruffles sitting on her windowsill, gazing out at the lightning bugs.

  “One sec,” I said to Mars. I left him in the woods, ran to the pack house, and called for Ruffles. “You wanna come with us?”

  She hopped down from the window and met me at the front door. “Meow.”

  “Mars and I are going to the prison.”

  “Meow.”

  “Girl, he’s not your man.” I opened the door for her and let her hop onto the cement sidewalk. She rubbed herself against my leg and started walking toward Mars.

  My stomach fluttered with butterflies as I thought about telling Elijah and Dad the good news. I wanted to go back to the cave now to see that hound again, but I knew it wasn’t the right time. Something was telling me that I should just wait for him to come to me.

  Ruffles swayed her little butt back and forth, chip dust all over her long gray fur. “Meow.” She rubbed up against Mars, and I cut my eyes to her. She gazed up at me with an evil I’m going to take your man expression.

  We walked farther through the woods until we reached the small cement building with a single light on and three guards posted around it.

  My phone buzzed in my back pocket, and I pulled it out. “Are you here?”

  There was some chatting in the background, and then Elijah finally spoke, “I’m about to start a meeting with my warriors. We’ve spotted hounds at our southern borders. I won’t be able to make it over until this is taken care of.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks. “More hounds? Do you need Ares to come help?”

  “No,” Elijah said. “I’m not planning to attack. Something doesn’t feel right. What did you need? Is it important?”

  “I’d rather tell you in person. It isn’t … just anything. It’s important.”

  “All right. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said.

  Ruffles ran ahead to the guards, who all stared curiously down at her and blocked her passage. She meowed up at them, and they moved out of her way, as if she were a queen. She walked into the prison and disappeared down the steps.

  Before Elijah hung up the phone, I warned him to be careful. Tony was still out there, and he was dangerous. If he’d betrayed our pack and let the hounds kill everyone, I wouldn’t put it past him to try to kill other packs too. He wanted to instill fear in everyone, wanted to be just like Ares.

  But he was nothing like Ares.

  Tony ran from battle. Ares ran toward it.

  After pushing my phone into my purse, Mars and I walked past the guards and into the prison. Ruffles stood in front of Dad’s cell, staring at him through the silver bars. I had let her come as a kind of welcoming gift for Dad—a piece of home.

  Dad used to love Ruffles up, but now, he just stared emptily at her and sat against the concrete wall in the same cell Ares had beaten up Elijah in. He glanced up at me when I walked into the room.

  I furrowed my brows at him. “Hey, Dad … I had Ares bring you her—”

  “You should’ve let him kill me,” Dad said.

  I stopped in complete shock. Never in my life had I heard him sound so utterly furious yet so lifeless. Dad wanted to be dead? He’d rather have death than have me?

  “He doesn’t mean it, Kitten. He’s just angry,” Mars said through the mind link.

  But I didn’t believe it. All I had tried to be was a good daughter for him and Mom, yet time and time again, they had continued to disappoint me. It was never-ending. It was vicious. It hurt.

  I gazed at my father, at the man who had once loved me but who was now looking at me with so much hatred. My heart shattered, and my chest tightened. Ruffles stood between my legs and hissed at Dad, baring her little teeth.

  “All your mother wanted was to keep you safe.” Dad shook his head at me. “And you betrayed her. You brought your mate back to our pack, and everyone died because of it.” He walked closer to the silver bars and stared down at me. “Everyone’s dead because of you.”

  My eyes filled to the brim with tears at his harsh words, but I refused to let them fall. He was just angry and sad that his mate was dead. That was why he was saying this. He didn’t mean it … did he?

  “Dad, I didn’t … I didn’t cause—”

  “Your mother. Your packmates. Your friends from high school. All of them are fucking dead.” He grasped the silver bars in his palms, letting the metal sear his skin, and stepped even closer to me.

  Mars let out a vicious growl—and I knew it was Ares here now instead—and stepped in front of me. “Don’t try to intimid
ate her. You disrespect her one more time, and I’ll have your fucking head.”

  “She’s my fucking daughter, Ares,” Dad said. “I can talk to her any way that I please.”

  Ares grabbed Dad by his throat and pulled his whole body against the silver bars. “She is your daughter, and she’s a fucking alpha. You out of all people should know to respect her, but you’ve never respected her, have you?” The silver against Dad’s skin sizzled, and I winced at the sound, but Ares didn’t back down. “You and her mother put her down for years and acted as if you did nothing wrong. But you’re in my pack now. You don’t get to talk to her like that.”

  I grasped Ares’s arm and pulled him back. “Ares, stop.”

  “He deserves to die, Aurora.”

  “No,” I said softly. “He doesn’t.”

  Maybe he did, but I didn’t want him to die. I hoped that, one day, we could be a happy family again even if it was just him, Ruffles, and me. But I wasn’t sure if that would ever happen.

  After a few more moments of tugging on Ares’s shoulder, I finally brushed my fingers against his mark and felt him relax. Ares threw Dad to the ground, and Dad smacked against the concrete, hitting it with a loud thud. There were red lines on his skin from where the silver bars had burned him.

  I grasped Ares’s wrist. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  This was a mistake. My mistake. I had come here to tell him one thing, and all I had gotten was yelled at and put down by him. Maybe trading me to Ares was the best decision of his life too. Maybe I was and had always been a burden.

  “You’re just going to leave me here, A?”

  I turned on my heel, anger running through my veins. “You don’t get to call me that anymore. When you decide you want to be civil with me and actually have a conversation about what happened, then we can talk, but until then”—I paused and swallowed hard—“all I wanted to tell you was that your son is alive.”

  Dad stared at me with wide eyes. “Jeremy …” he whispered. He took a shaky, deep breath, his eyes filling with tears. “Why didn’t you tell me? How long have you known this? He could’ve saved us all.”

  It was stupid and dumb and so damn weak of me, but I couldn’t stop my heart from breaking into a million tiny, jagged pieces. I loved Jeremy with all my heart, but Mom and Dad had always loved him just a little bit more than they loved me. They’d always looked to him first, always compared me to him.

  Jeremy could’ve saved us.

  Jeremy could’ve been our protector.

  Why’re you so selfish to keep this to yourself?

  Why can’t you be strong like him?

  All their words—and their unspoken words—filled my mind until it felt like I was suffocating. Why did I care so much about Dad? Why had I ever even cried for Mom when she died? They hadn’t cared about me. It was so fucking obvious. During the hound attack, he had run off to protect her and left me there to fend for myself, knowing that I couldn’t shift.

  Instead of responding to him, I walked up the stairs and out the doors with tears in my eyes. I’d be back to talk to him. I just needed time to process how unwanted he had made me feel.

  The guards shut the prison doors behind us, but I could still hear the disgust in Dad’s voice, woven into every sentence, every word, every fucking syllable.

  Ruffles walked beside me like my little sidekick, shaking her little booty back and forth in front of Ares and trying to get his attention.

  When Ares finally caught up to me, he grabbed my hand and held it to his chest. “What do you mean, your brother is alive?”

  I grasped his hand tighter. “I’m almost certain that he is.”

  “How? I thought you said he was killed.”

  Ares opened the pack house door for me and waited for Ruffles to hop into the house. But she just stared up at him, waving her tail back and forth.

  “Move your ass, Ruffles,” Ares said, pushing her along.

  She jumped into the house, looked up at him, and meowed.

  “I’ll come lie down with you later.”

  She purred and ran up the stairs, disappearing into the hallway.

  I smiled weakly at her departing figure. Even when I was a mess and on the verge of tears, she could always bring a smile to my face.

  Ares wrapped his arms around me from behind and placed a kiss on my neck. “She takes after you.”

  “I’m not that sassy.”

  Ares chuckled against me, and my stomach filled with butterflies. The chuckle sounded like home, like my future, like a promise that everything would get better with time even though I knew it wouldn’t.

  “You’re both needy,” he said, walking up the stairs and guiding me into the kitchen. “For me.”

  I playfully rolled my eyes and stared out the kitchen window at the dark forest. Jeremy was out there somewhere, and one day—even if it wasn’t anytime soon—I’d have to find him. It had been over ten years since I had seen him, and I wasn’t about to let him disappear from my life again.

  Ares placed two frozen pretzels and a container of dipping cheese from the fridge into the microwave for us, and then he leaned against the counter, brushing his fingers against my chin and giving me that infamous smirk. “So, are you going to tell me, Kitten?”

  I rested my forearms on the counter and frowned. “My brother is alive. The other day, when those two hounds were fighting each other, when that one stood in front of me and protected me … that was him …” I smiled, my heart clenching. “I just … I didn’t know it was him at the time. He smells different and he looks different and he …”

  I wanted to tell him that Jeremy had the other half of the Malavite Stone—which must’ve been keeping him alive all these years—but I knew that as soon as Ares found out that Jeremy had it, he’d have every tracker in his pack trying to find him, so he could get it for Charolette.

  So, I slumped against the counter and stalled, hoping that if I told Ares his life story, he wouldn’t chase after him like he had with me.

  “He was an alpha,” I said quietly. “A damn good alpha. One day, we were attacked by hounds, and he was torn into tiny pieces. I saw them shred every piece of his flesh, saw all his blood nearly drained. Mom pulled me away before I had the chance to say good-bye, but there was no doubt in my mind that he was dead.”

  Ares leaned closer to me and squeezed my shoulder, his hazelnut aroma calming me. I pursed my lips together, thinking of the only solution that would save my brother from Ares’s wrath.

  Me.

  There was no way that I could or would lose Jeremy again. If I had to trek to the ends of the earth to find him one last time, I would. If I had to live every single day in pain and in terror, I would. I was the only solution to all of our problems.

  “Ares,” I said quietly, placing my hands on his chest and gazing up into his brown eyes, “the only way that Jeremy survived that attack was because someone put the other half of the stone inside of him.” My voice was nearly a whisper toward the end.

  As soon as the words left my mouth, I wished they hadn’t.

  Ares’s eyes turned a light shade of gold—his wolf—and then a darker shade, his nostrils flaring. “Your brother has the fucking stone?”

  His body tensed, and I thought he was going to rip himself out of my grasp. There was a darkness lurking deep within him, ready to come out, aching to kill. When he reached for my hands, I almost flinched.

  But instead of hurting me, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

  My eyes widened slightly at his surprising response, and I grasped his face in my hands. “Listen to me, Ares. And listen to me good. I will not let you kill him for it.”

  “I’ve been looking for that stone for years, Aurora,” he said, voice taut. “Charolette doesn’t have much time left.”

  “I know”—Please don’t hate me for this—“which is why Charolette will use my stone. Jeremy is my only brother, just like Charolette is your only sister. I love them both, and I don’t want either of them to d
ie.”

  He shook his head. “No. I’ve already told you before, that will not happen.”

  “But, Ares—”

  “No.” He growled down at me, his canines emerging from under his lips. “You will not trade your life for Charolette’s.”

  “It’s not trading my life,” I pleaded. “It’s keeping people alive. I won’t die from removing the stone. I’ll just …”

  “You’ll just what?” He stepped toward me, and I moved back, tears filling my eyes again. “You just won’t be able to shift? You just won’t be able to move? What if the procedure doesn’t work? What if the doctor fucks it up and you die?” I opened my mouth to speak, but Ares held his finger to my lips. And while I wanted to protest, something about that subtle action made me comply. “No,” he said in his alpha tone this time. “That’s final.”

  I stared at him and grasped his hands. “Please, Ares. I don’t want your sister or my brother dead. I’ve already lost him once. Do this for Charolette. She deserves it.”

  Playing the sick-sister card on him was shitty, but I needed to do it. He might not agree to use my stone at the moment, but hopefully, he’d consider it in the future. Because if worse came to worse and Charolette didn’t get better, I’d already made Elijah promise to take the stone from me and put it in her.

  I didn’t need Ares’s permission to do what I wanted with my body.

  I just hoped that he’d forgive me for it.

  The microwave behind us beeped, startling me.

  Ares stared down at me, lips pressed together, eyes as golden as the sun. “I said, no.” Then, he pulled out the pretzels, handed me one, and walked to our bedroom.

  Chapter 45

  Mars

  Curled up next to me, Aurora drew soothing circles across my chest. A slight early morning breeze blew the sheer gray curtains open and against the bed. Last night, I had to wrestle my wolf into submission, so I could try to get some sleep … but all I could think about was Aurora’s proposition.

  Ares, our wolf, and I didn’t like it at all.

  Aurora hadn’t slept either. She had tossed and turned all night in my arms. Sitting up and lying back down. Glancing out the window and staring up at the bland ceiling. Back and forth until she finally laid her head on my chest and shut her eyes for a few moments. She must’ve been thinking about the stone too.