"You're fucking kidding me," I said through the phone. Pure rage rushed through my veins. Tony. Tony fucking knew where the other half of the stone was. Or, at least, he knew who might have it. All this fucking time.

Ares stared at me from down the hall, his voice ringing in my mind and asking me if everything was okay. I gave him a curt nod and stepped back into his old playroom, shutting the door behind me.

"I don't think he has it," Elijah said. "But since he told Ares I knew where the stone was, I have had warriors watching him."

I sighed deeply through my nose. My wolf bared her teeth at the forest outside, wanting to be let loose so she could run right on Mom's pack and kill him with her canines. Why did he cause all this trouble? What was the point? To drive Ares insane? Maybe it was Mom's sick plan, because honestly... I didn't think Tony was that intelligent.

Sure, he was strong like all alphas had to be. But that boy was stupid.

"What makes you think he knows where it is?"

"He met with a Hound."

My heart dropped. A Hound? Tony met with the fucking Hounds who have been trying to kill me for years since Jeremy's death? The same Hounds who ripped him piece by fucking piece? I balled my hands into tight fists, my nails cutting right through the skin on my palms.

"Have you seen him before?" I asked, jaw clenched tightly. "Was it one from the attack that killed Jeremy?"

"My warrior told me that she had never seen him prior to their meeting." Elijah growled lowly over the phone. "Ares isn't listening in, is he?"

I glanced back at the closed door, unable to think clearly. "No."

"Meet me at Pink Moon Tavern, near the cave you and Jeremy used to run to when you were kids. I can tell you more there." He paused for a long moment. "And... if you can, come without Ares. Ares thinks with his emotions. I need you who'll help me come up with a plan."

"I'll be there in twenty." I ended the call and dialed Marcel's number. The Pink Moon Tavern was near Hound Territory, and I knew that Ares wouldn't let me go alone. Hell, it'd be difficult to persuade him to let me go without him, but I needed to.

As soon as he heard that Tony might have the stone, he'd run on Mom's pack without a clear thought in his mind. He'd go there for blood and he'd get it... but he wouldn't find the stone that way.

Marcel answered on the third ring. "What?"

"Marcel, I need you--"

"You're not the only one who needs me at the moment, Princess."

I heard a woman moan in the background and scrunched up my nose. "Are you fucking someone right now?" I shook my head. "Forget it. You need to pick me up in two minutes outside Ares's father's house."

"I'm busy."

"Two minutes, Marcel."

After I shoved my phone into my dress pocket, I walked back down the hall to the dining table, looked at Ares who had a slice of some very delicious cheesecake in front of him, then nodded to the other room. He stood up almost immediately and followed me. Brows drawn together, hands grasping my hips, he stared down at me. "What's wrong, Kitten?"

I placed my hand on his chest, hoping to calm him down before he even got riled up. "I need to go meet with Elijah. It's important... like stone-related important."

His eyes flickered gold--Ares appearing. "He knows where it is, doesn't he?" He balled his hands into fists against my waist. "I should've kept him here, should've tortured him for all the fucking information that he ha--"

"He doesn't have the stone." I grasped his chin in my hands and forced him to look at me. "Settle down, please Ares." His eyes flickered back and forth, and I glanced over at the table to see Charolette and Liam looking in our direction. "I have to go. I promise that when I come home tonight, I will tell you everything that I know."

"You can't go alone. It's not safe."

"Marcel is going with me."

A look of hurt crossed his face. "You asked Marcel to go?" He furrowed his brows, canines emerging from under his lips. I glanced out the window to see a car pull up to the side of the road. "Why didn't you ask me?"

I took a deep breath. "Because you make irrational decisions sometimes," I said, hardening my stare. Chasing me out into the forest, nearly killing Elijah, the list went on and on and on, but I didn't want to bring any of those up. I didn't want him to feel bad for wanting to protect his sister, because if I had another chance... I'd do anything to protect Jeremy.

After taking his face in my hands and bringing it down to mine, I placed a kiss right on his lips. "I love you," I whispered. The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them, my heart racing in my chest.

Love? I loved Ares?

I didn't even know that I had fallen so hard for such a vicious, daunting man. Yet... here I was... telling him that I loved him and watching his beautiful golden eyes shift through a thousand colors until they melted.

"Love." He mouthed the word. His lips moved, yet no words came out of his mouth. He grasped my hands holding them to his chest and grinned down at me with the same boyish smile I had seen in that picture he had taken with his mother.

"I have to go, Ares." I kissed him again, my eyes closing softly, and I smiled. "I'll be back in an hour. If you need me, text me."

Ares nodded his head, eyes in a daze, as if he was still thinking about what I had just said, that I loved him, that I wanted to be with him forever and ever, that I never wanted to let him go, and that he'd always be mine.

I gazed over his shoulder, smiling at Mr. Barrett and Charolette. "I have to go," I said. "Thank you so much for dinner. Hopefully, one night, I can stay for dessert."

Someone laid on the car horn outside, and Charolette got up from her seat. "That's Marcel, isn't it? Goddess, it sounds like that car is shrieking." She hooked her arm in mine. "I'll walk you out."

She pulled me down the stairs, and I gazed back at Ares who had sat down at the table and was gazing down at his dessert and grinning widely to himself. And I knew that, yes, I really was in love with that man.

Charolette tugged me outside and gave Marcel the finger from the door. I hurried to his car and hopped into it, my mind still buzzing with thoughts of my Ares and how three silly little words meant the world to him.

Marcel stared at me, then at Charolette, jaw clenching. "You had dinner with them?" he asked, pressing on the gas. "Liam was there, wasn't he?"

I raised a brow at him, watching his knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.

"Fucking idiot," Marcel said under his breath, then stepped on the gas harder, heading toward the pack exit.