The Candles Will Protect You

Chapter 17

I heard Ares let out a growl, but he greeted his brother as well.

"Now, my dear Rhea, I didn't have a chance to introduce you to my lovely mate yet. This is Chloe."

He put his arm around the girl's waist, pulling her closer to him.

"Nice to finally meet you," she shook my hand, smiling.

She was really beautiful with her long black hair and chocolate eyes.

"You too," I smiled back. "Thanks for the clothes, by the way."

Chloe chuckled, waving her hand.

"Oh, it was nothing."

"Well," Ares cleared his throat, "it was great to meet you two, but we should be going now."

She nodded immediately, but Eros just let out a deep sigh.

"You're so fun to hang out with, brother. Oh well, I guess we'll see you two later. Bye!"

With that, he took Chloe's hand, then they disappeared in the crowd.

"Finally," Ares groaned quietly, which made me chuckle.

He smiled, then we sat down on a bench. He took my hand in his, caressing it with his thumb.

"How are you holding up? Is it too much?"

"Oh, no, not at all. I'm fine," I reassured him with a smile.

"I'm glad."

After a few minutes we stood back up, but when we were about to go inside, a loud, obnoxious laugh filled my ears.

"Oh, great," Ares mumbled. "They're here too."

I furrowed my eyebrows, then we turned towards the source of the high pitched voice.

It came from a tall, skinny girl, who had extremely long, ginger hair, which looked more like orange to me, to be honest.

There was an arm wrapped around her tiny waist, which belonged to a tall man with a buzz cut.

"The guy is a very distant cousin of mine, he's also the leader of a small pack if you could even call that a pack," Ares scoffed. "And that lady on his arm is no other than his mate. Lovely creature, isn't she?"

"Hey, don't be so rude," I glanced up at him, trying to hide my smile.

"Wonderful! They noticed us!"

I looked over again, and Ares was right. They had their eyes on us, then they started walking in our direction.

"Here we go," he mumbled.

The pair stopped in front of us, the guy looking rather creepy with his strange smile.

"Ares, my man!"

"Good evening, Lysias," Ares greeted him in a stern voice.

"What's up, Ary?" The ginger girl asked while twirling a strand of hair around her fingers, which made my eyebrows rise.

He clenched his jaw, ignoring her completely. I didn't blame him.

"I see you have finally found your mate after all those years," Buzz Cut spoke up once again.

Ares managed to force a smile on his face.

"Rhea, let me introduce you to Lysias Vitale, and his mate, Bich."

"Rhea?" She asked, a cynical smirk on her lips. "Is that short for Diarrhea?"

"Yes," I smiled back at her sweetly. "I didn't really feel Dia, so I decided to go by Rhea instead."

She just furrowed her eyebrows, I wasn't sure she understood my sarcasm.

"Would you look at that?" I heard another voice.

Turning my head, I noticed Tiffany standing next to us, her arms crossed on her chest.

"Walmart versus Gucci," she smirked.

Bich smiled proudly, flicking her orange hair behind her shoulder.

"No, girl, you're the Walmart one," Tiffany laughed dryly.

She scoffed at her, then she started examining her nails.

"You two should be going now," Ares told them in a demanding tone.

Lysias clenched his jaw but ended up nodding his head, pulling High Pitch with him.

After they were out of sight, Tiff turned to us with a smile.

"The nerve of those two, am I right?" She rolled her eyes jokingly. "Anyway, I just wanted to say hi, I didn't want to interrupt you guys."

"Oh, it's okay. Where's Drake?" I asked.

"He's –" She turned around, then looked back at us. "Lost, probably. I should go find him. See you guys later!"

Laughing, we said goodbye to her, then she hurried away.

We heard a slow song come on, and Ares broke out in a smile.

"Can I have this dance?"

He bowed a little, offering his hand to me. I chuckled, then I nodded my head, placing my hand in his.

Ares led us back inside the house, and we took our place between the other dancing couples.

His arms wrapped around my waist, while I put mine around his neck.

"Why do I feel like everyone's watching us?" I whispered after a few seconds of dancing.

"Because they probably are," he smirked.

I let out a quiet laugh, leaning my head on his chest.

"You will make a wonderful Luna, love," Ares said to me quietly.

He pressed a kiss on the top of my head, then we continued swaying to the song, feeling like we were the only ones in the room.