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Chapter 6

MARS

Lying in bed beside Aurora, I smiled at her sleeping figure. She shifted in my arms and curled into my chest, resting her head in the crook of my shoulder and mumbling something about Ruffles in her sleep.

I rubbed circles with my thumb across her bare forearm and inhaled deeply. Mixed with the scent of salt from pretzels we’d had earlier, she smelled like lemons on Sunday mornings when Mom used to bring Charlotte and me to Buckleberry Farm to pick fruit.

After sinking into the sheets, I turned onto my side and laid one arm around her waist to pull her closer to me before I slept. The Luna Ceremony was over a week away, and this woman made me want her more and more every single damn moment.

I didn’t think I’d be able to resist her. I’d barely gotten through tonight.

Either way, she’d be ours, and she would forever be ours. In just over a week, we’d announce her to Sanguine Wilds as the new Luna to the Ironman Pack. And she’d finally get the respect that she deserved.

My only wish was that Mom could be here to meet her. I wanted to make her proud.

AURORA

Orange sunlight glared through our bedroom window, bouncing off the mirror on the other side of the room, and reflecting right into my eyes. After stretching out in our bed, fit for gods and goddesses, and mumbling that it was too early, I rolled over to wrap my arms around Ares but instead got a face full of pillow.

I curled into the pillow anyway because I loved how Ares’s scent seemed to linger on everything he touched. The unmarked side of my neck burned slightly, forcing me to groan. Goddess, this Luna Ceremony couldn’t come sooner. I had been craving Mars’s bite, his mark, his claim on me for so long now. But my Mars had way more self-control and restraint than the rash god of war Ares.

Mars would try to hold out until the Luna Ceremony. Try.

“Kitten,” Ares said from the doorway, white V-neck thrown over his shoulder, body covered in a layer of thick sweat, pronounced veins in his arms teasing all the dirty parts of me.

Pushing myself to a seated position, I gazed down at my mate’s body and clenched my jaw, so I wouldn’t jump him. By the looks of it, he was trying to get me riled up for him. And he was too damn good at it.

It drove me insane.

“Looking for me?” he asked with playful gold eyes.

After I hopped out of bed and stripped my shirt, I walked to the closet to scavenge for one of his oversized shirts. “As if …” I tugged on one that read The Flaming Chariot across the chest and ended just below my ass. Then, I tossed him my shorts and my panties and walked to the kitchen.

I wanted payback for last night.

Drenched in a layer of maple syrup, two heaping stacks of pancakes waited for me on the granite kitchen tabletop. I pulled one plate closer to me stuck my fork into one pancake, bit down, and closed my eyes in bliss.

Ares followed me in, stuffing my lacy panties into his jean pocket, and hopped onto the counter. He opened the chocolate-colored cabinet and pulled something out, lips set into a small smirk. “I bought you something while I was out.”

“You did?”

He tossed me a white plastic bag. I placed my fork down, hesitantly peered inside, and fished out the item.

“Are you serious?” I asked, a giggle escaping my throat as I stared at the human-sized blue cap that matched Ruffles’s hat to a T.

“Put it on.”

“Ares! No!”

After snatching the blue hat, he slapped it on my head and flicked the bill with his index finger. “Thought I’d get you one,” he started, and for a moment, he sounded like Mars. He gazed at me with the brightest eyes, and my heart felt warm. “You know, since you’ve been jealous of Ruffles.”

My lips curled into a smile I couldn’t stop. Though Ares was violent, arrogant, and rude sometimes, he always tried to make me smile. He was mine, and along with Mars, he made me feel things I’d never before thought I’d experience.

“Hey, Ruffles!” Ares grabbed his plate of pancakes and dunked a piece into the pool of syrup. He leaned against the counter and gave me a lopsided smile as he looked between the door and my hat. “Get your ass in here and bring your hat!”

Usually, Ruffles came sprinting down the hallway faster than a damn wolf when Ares called her, but she didn’t.

After waiting another moment, I furrowed my brows, leaned back in my chair until the front legs hovered off the ground, and peered into the hallway. “Ruffles?” No response.

“Ruffles!” Ares shouted in his alpha tone.

Still nothing.

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