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009 | THROWN TO THE WOLVES
Ares was still smug and amused by the time we reached his room on the very top floor. Even so, my hand had not once left his as we’d rounded the curling staircase. My heart thundered, a traitor in our midst, and my gaze kept snagging on his strong jawline and the whorls of ink peeking out from the top of his shirt.
“You wished to thank me?” he purred, dropping his gaze to meet mine. We hovered outside his room, one of his large hands pressed to the door – which was an actual door, made of wood with another ridiculous golden handle, unlike mine – and the other gripping mine, the warmth of it sending tingles down my spine.
“For this agreement.” My breath caught in my throat, making my usually unwavering voice came out as a breathy whisper. I could’ve smacked myself.
“I don’t see any reason for me to have refused it.” He cocked his head and pursed his full lips. It took everything in me to resist pushing onto my toes and kissing him. “My people get to live in pe
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Alpha Ares 010 | BLOOD AND BONE
I woke in a haze of dawnlight, streaks of sunshine glinting off the snow outside and spilling in through the uncurtained windows. I snuggled back against the warm body holding me close, an arm resting heavily across my waist. Slowly, carefully, I rolled over, turning to face him. Ares pulled me flush against him, pressing a lazy kiss to the top of my head before his breaths evened out and he tumbled back down into the bliss of early morning dreams. I stared up at him, my lips parted on an exhale as I traced the handsome lines of his face, wanting to commit every beautiful part of him to memory, wanting to burn every inch of him into my brain. His eyelashes formed dark crescents on his cheeks, fluttering slightly and casting pale shadows down his skin. His dark hair was sleep-mussed, tousled down the side of his face and curling by his ears. Unable to resist, I raised a single finger and curved it down the hard edge of his stubbled jaw. He murmured approvingly,
Alpha Ares 011 | A PERFECT CURSE
By the time I found my way back to Ares’s room I’d managed to school my face into something vaguely calm. My heart thundered in my chest, every unsteady beat of it reminding me that it might be its last. I had enemies here – real enemies lurking in dark corners that could strike at any moment. Though I was used to fighting wolves on the battlefield that hungered for my blood, it was another thing entirely to hear the words spoken so callously in a place I was supposed to call home. But what could I do? If I went up against Nazte and won, it sounded like there were more Winterpaw wolves – many more – that wanted me dead just as much as he did. And, even if I managed to kill most of them, it would fracture the fragile peace that my being here had created. I sucked in a deep breath and knocked on the door. A wave of genuine calm crashed over me as Ares yanked the door open and wound an arm around my waist to haul me inside. He pressed a lazy kiss t
Alpha Ares 012 | WITHOUT WORDS
Somehow, two weeks had passed in a blur. I didn’t want to think about why the time had gone so quickly, but the ridiculous pounding of my heart and the way my bones melted beneath my flesh every time Ares was near pointed it out whether I liked it or not. Even now, sat in the banquet hall, pale sunlight sending colours from the stained glass scattering across the dented wooden table, I could feel his presence more keenly than I could feel the bite of the cold air that swept through the room every time the door was opened. I picked at a stale hunk of bread, tearing off a small chunk and balancing a thin slice of cheese on top of it. The meagre portion of bread, cheese, and berries we were given every morning for breakfast was something I was slowly getting used to, but my stomach ached for cinnamon buns and jam-filled pasties and fresh squeezed orange juice. With no suitable farmland in their territory, the Winterpaw Warrior Pack relied solely on the goods they
Alpha Ares 013 | A REALM OF STARLIGHT
I chewed on my bottom lip, stewing over what to write back to my parents. I hated lying to them, but in this instance I knew I had to. I couldn’t very well tell them that the Beta of the pack I was now living with wanted me dead, and probably a good handful of the Omegas that served me every day did too. So far, all I had managed to write was ‘Dear Mum and Dad,’ and I wasn’t even sure about that because the letter I’d received had been from Dad, not Mum, so maybe I should have started with his name first… I had to get a grip. I adjusted my seat on the stiff-backed wooden chair, winced as a splinter poked at my calf muscle, and took a deep breath. I just had to focus on the things I could be honest about. By the time Ares returned to the room I’d not only finished penning my letter – making sure to leave out anything that a sneaky Omega or worse, a duplicitous Beta, could read before it got sent – but I’d tidie
Alpha Ares 014 | FROSTBITTEN
Our dinner had long since gone cold on the table. I’d forgotten about it, swept up in the excitement of seeing a new part of Ares’s territory. More than that, I’d wanted to go somewhere that meant something to him. I wrinkled my nose at the idea now, my face hidden by shadow as he lit a fire in the hearth. My heart was a frostbitten thing. The fire took, crackling and sending heat spilling into the room, but even it could not thaw my heart. He lit the torches hanging from the walls in silence. I’d started to think of our altercation as an argument, but it had been nothing of the sort. It was worse: a dreadful acceptance of the fact that, no matter the mate bond holding us together, we could never work as a couple. The hope I’d felt earlier dissolved into ash, suffocating my heart even as the mate bond gripped it tighter, pressing me to apologise when I had done nothing wrong. We were from different worlds, and there was no way to bridge th
Alpha Ares 015 | BAD MOON RISING
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Alpha Ares 016 | HATRED AND DESIRE
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Alpha Ares 017 | PLAN OF ATTACK
I was falling for Ares.I knew it now, for he resided in every fibre of my being. I woke and I thought first of him, where once I would have thought of my pack and of my duty to them. I fell asleep with my legs tangled through his, heat radiating from his chest and the steady beat of his heart lulling me into dreams that were, almost always, about him.I felt like a love-struck teenager: the sort that got giddy over penning their initials and his in a little heart down the sides of their parchment in lessons and linking their hands together beneath the table, imaging their fingers were his and squeezing. That was so far from the person I had been for the last twenty years of my life that I found it hard to look in the mirror each morning, because the flush to my cheeks and the glazed, dreamy look in my usually sharp green eyes did not belong to me.Even as we sat in a council meeting, in a dimly lit room deep inside the cavernous mountain, I could not tear
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- Alpha Ares 141 | EPILOGUE
- Alpha Ares 140 | COME TOGETHER
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- Alpha Ares 138 | SURRENDER AND SACRIFICE
- Alpha Ares 137 | BATTLE OF THE MOUNTAIN
- Alpha Ares 136 | THE END OF US
- Alpha Ares 135 | BE AMONGST THE STARS
- Alpha Ares 134 | HAUNTED
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