Ares took the bottle from my hand and chucked it at the ground, shattering it. “Stop this!” He grabbed my injured arm making me scream in pain.
Koda appeared behind him and growled.
Ares growled back. “I didn’t know her arm was broken.”
Koda stopped growling and stepped away from him.
Ares looked at my arm for a moment then sighed. “We need to set it.”
The world started to spin from the mixture of pain and alcohol. My knees gave, and Ares caught me before I hit the ground. “Let me go. You don’t want me. You should be with one of them…a woman.”
“Shut up.” He picked me up in his arms and the world spun more. “I love you, and you are a woman, a beautiful, pigheaded, wild, and crazy woman.”
“Spinning,” I said softly.
Ares started sprinting, and it took all of my willpower not to throw up on him. He set me on the floor of the bathroom in our house and pulled my hair back. Matt and Koda came into the bathroom and each placed a hand on me while I puked up everything in my stomach. The physical contact of my pack comforted me and soon the nausea and pain in my head disappeared. “So, alcohol can get me drunk.”
Ares laughed softly. “Yes.”
I stood, but my arm began throbbing. I whimpered in pain and Ares stood up quickly. “We need to set your arm. It’s going to hurt…”
Koda stood on my other side and took my hand in his. “It’ll be over in a second.”
Matt grabbed a roll of gauze from underneath the sink and stood in front of me. “Ready.”
Ares lifted my arm up and pushed on a bone in my upper arm. I screamed and all three men growled. Matt wrapped my arm to my body with the gauze in seconds and then they all wrapped their arms around me, giving me a group hug. The pain lasted another thirty seconds and then disappeared. Ares licked my cheek in apology for hurting me, and I nuzzled his neck.
My arm began throbbing again and then felt normal. Matt unwrapped the gauze and smiled. “Healed,” he said.
I stepped away from them and quickly brushed my teeth. “I’m sorry,” I said softly as I turned around. Ares and I were the only ones left in the bathroom. I hadn’t heard the others leave.
“Artemis, I love you and only you. I’m sorry for flirting with them. I shouldn’t have done that.”
I folded my arms across my chest as the first tear fell down my face. “No, you shouldn’t have.”
Ares opened his hand, which held my diamond heart necklace with its broken chain. “Do you not want this anymore?” he asked softly, without looking at me.
I rushed forward and quickly took the necklace and chain. “I didn’t want one of the women to break it or make me lose it. I’m sorry, Ares.”
He wiped the tear tracks off of my face. “You’re so beautiful. Every eye was on you tonight. Did you know that?”
I laughed bitterly. “Lots of women were glaring daggers at me, if that’s what you mean.”
Ares kissed my lips, pulling up my desire for him. “Lots of the males were looking at you. So many of them longing just to do this.” He kissed me again and ran a hand up my arm. “If I were weaker, I would have a lot of challenges for you.”
“Lots of women want to challenge me for you. They all want you. They all have pasts with you. How can I compete against those beautiful women?” I said softly.
“They have pasts with me, but only you have my present and my future.” He ran a hand along my side. “This dress looks fantastic on you.” I unbuttoned his shirt and ran my hand along his chest. He whispered, “I can’t wait to see how great the dress looks on the floor, too.”
He picked me up by my butt and set me down on the counter. My heart rate tripled, and I kissed him fiercely. He started to push up my dress when someone cleared their throat. Ares growled loudly. “Leave.”
He started kissing me again and the person said, “Stop!”
I recognized the voice as Achilles’. Ares pulled away from me and the sight of his golden wolf eyes in his human face startled me. He glared at Achilles who was standing in the bedroom doorway. “What do you want?”
“I want you to stop touching her,” Achilles hissed. His body glowed softly, and his hands balled into fists at his side.
Ares growled. “She’s my mate. That means I mate with her. Leave us.”
Achilles took a step into the bedroom. “No. While we’re deciding what to do, you agreed not to do anything.”
“I didn’t mean that I wouldn’t mate with her!” Ares snapped.
“It’s not fair for you to share her flesh when I can’t,” Achilles said through clenched teeth.
“She doesn’t want to sleep with you. She wants to sleep with me!” Ares bellowed.
Achilles eyes filled with pain, and he turned them towards me. “Artemis…”
I turned away from him. “Ares, maybe he’s—”
Ares glared at me. “You agree with him?”
I hopped down from the counter and touched his arm. I opened my mouth to say something, but the anger he was holding in flooded over me like a wave of fire, scolding my skin. I screamed and the world went black.
Chapter Four
I woke up surrounded by heat and the smell of forest and wolf fur. “Mm, warm,” I said softly.
“Artemis!” Koda yelled next to me.
“Shush. Not so loud.” I groaned.
“Artemis, open your eyes,” Matt said.
I opened my eyes and looked at their concerned faces staring down at me. “What happened?”
Ares spoke from somewhere in the room, “I hurt you.” His voice was laced with pain.
I slowly sat up and looked at him sitting on the floor across the room. Achilles stood beside Ares, glaring down at him.
Frowning, I said, “I don’t understand. I remember you were mad at Achilles and I said that maybe he was right and then your anger washed over me and…that’s all.”
Achilles spoke through clenched teeth. “He couldn’t control his emotions. Your words upset him, and he caused you to faint.”
I slid off of the bed and walked towards Ares. He stood up and turned his face away from me. “I’m sorry,” he said softly.
I reached out towards him, but ended up touching the wall. I turned around and found him standing in the bathroom doorway. “Ares, stop moving away from me. I’m not mad at you. Come here.”
Ares shook his head. “No, I should have more control than this…”
I sprinted across the room and knocked him to the ground, sitting on his stomach. “There, much better.” Ares turned his head away from me. I grabbed his face and turned it towards mine. “Ares! Stop doing this. I’m fine. Sure, you made me faint, but I’m fine. I forgive you.”
Ares smiled and hugged me against his chest. “I am sorry. I love you,” he said as he kissed my cheek.
I stood up, taking Ares’ hand as he rose next to me.
Achilles gaped at me. “That’s it? Just like that, you forgive him?”
I shrugged. “He didn’t mean to hurt me. Plus, I can’t stay mad at him for too long.”
Ares kissed the back of my hand. “It’s one of her many great traits. She forgives easily and in turn allows us to forgive ourselves easily.”
I looked at Achilles and then at Ares. They looked similar. “So, do you want to tell me why you two hate each other?”
Achilles rolled his eyes. “I don’t hate him. He hates me.”
Ares growled. “I hate all of you, but you the most.”
“Why?” I asked.
Achilles smiled. “Yes, why don’t you tell her?”
Ares shook his head. “I don’t want to discuss it right now. It’s painful enough that you’re here and trying to steal my mate from me.”
“I’m not stealing her! She was mine before she was yours.” Achilles ground out.
I stepped between them and held up my hands. “Stop bickering!” They both stared at me in shock as I groaned. “You’re both acting like two spoiled kids fighting ove
r a toy. I’m not a toy! I have feelings and opinions, and my opinion is that I don’t know how I feel about Achilles. What I do know is that if we are honestly discussing the issues he has with us, then we need to be fair. Achilles, you have to understand that because of our bond I need the physical contact with Ares. Now, can you two not try to fight each other and just…” I stopped talking as a wave of fear rolled over me. I turned away from the men and ran towards the window that looked out over the forest behind the village. Dark shapes darted between the trees one hundred or so yards out. “Ares!” I said urgently.
Ares rushed to my side and looked out the window. He growled loudly. “Koda, warn the town. Achilles protect the house. Matt, protect the village,” Ares ordered. The men didn’t hesitate. Each one ran to do his job.
I looked at Ares. “What are we going to do?”
He picked me up in his arms. “We’re going to hide and keep you safe.”
I shook my head. “No! Ares, the town needs you to help protect them. You’re the prince for a reason.”
Ares turned his head so I couldn’t look at his face. “I can’t.”
“What? Why not?” I asked, confused.
“I can’t…I can’t lose you again,” he said softly.
I turned his face to look at mine. “Ares, you have to protect the children. I can fight.”
Ares shook his head. “No. You can’t fight. I won’t let you be taken from me again.” He kissed my cheek and laid his head against mine.
“Ares,” I whispered. “You have a duty to protect your village. Let Koda protect me, or Matt, or even Achilles.”
Ares growled. “Not Achilles.”
Matt ran up the stairs. “There’s a group of twenty dhampirs and ten vampires surrounding the village. I smelled ogres, too, but haven’t seen them. What do you want us to do? Do we try to talk to them?”
Ares looked at me and sighed. “Matt, guard Artemis. I’ll go.” I kissed Ares’ cheek and smiled. Ares looked at Matt. “Don’t let anything happen to her.”
Matt nodded and held out his arms. “I swear.”
Ares set me in Matt’s arms and walked towards the bedroom door.
“I love you, Ares,” I said softly.
Ares turned around and smiled. “I love you, too.” He disappeared from my sight and I heard the front door open and close.
Matt set me on my feet. “We’re going to stay in here. Achilles will keep them from coming in downstairs and if you’re here by the bathroom I can keep them away from you if they get to the second story.”
“So, you want me to hide in the bathroom?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
Matt clenched his teeth. “My job is to keep you safe and keeping you in this room, where they have the least access to you, is the best way to do that.”
“I can fight, Matt,” I hissed.
Matt smiled. “I know, Love, but I need you safe more than I need to help your ego today. Just stay there and hide if I tell you to.”
I groaned, but walked to the bathroom doorway and sat down. “I hope none of the children get hurt. Why would dhampirs and vampires be attacking us if we’re allies?”
“I’m not sure.” He turned away from me to look out the window nearest him. His answer seemed off, like he was hiding something.
Snarling, growling, and screaming, slowly filled the air. Matt paced from one window to the other as the sounds of fighting grew closer and closer to us. A window shattered downstairs.
I started to get up, but Achilles called up to us, “It’s fine. He’s dead.”
Matt continued his pacing. He suddenly stopped and cussed. “Shit. Achilles, they’re swarming us.”
Matt ran to me and picked me up in his arms.
“What are you doing?” I squealed.
“I was wrong. We can’t hide you. We need to run,” Matt said as he ran from the bedroom down the stairs. He was talking so quickly that his British accent was making it difficult for me to understand him. “Achilles, they’re coming for her.”
Achilles blinked at me for a moment before answering, “Let me take her. I can fly her up away from them.”
Matt shook his head. “No, Ares doesn’t want you touching her. Just follow us. I need to get her away from here.”
Achilles opened his mouth to argue, but the front door splintered as someone ran through it. A short black man stood in the doorway glaring at us. “Give me the girl, and we’ll leave you alone,” he said slowly.
Matt growled. “Not a chance, dhampir.”
Achilles’ body began to glow and then he shot blue fireballs from his hands at the dhampir. The dhampir ran to the right to avoid the fire, and Matt dashed through the door and out of the house. Ten men rushed towards us from the tree line. I spotted Ares across the town, fighting with a vampire. It surprised me that Ares was still in human form, but the vampire didn’t look like he was giving Ares too much trouble. Ares turned his head, noticing me and started running towards us.
Matt ran towards the heart of the town. Ares caught up to us and yelled, “What are you doing? Why did you bring her out here?”
Matt didn’t look at Ares as he ran towards the castle in the center of the town. “They’re coming for her, Ares. They were swarming the house. I couldn’t keep her there. She’ll be safer away from the edges of the forest where they’re coming from.”
Ares ran beside us as Matt rushed into the castle and into a room that had no windows and only one door. Matt set me down in the back corner. “Stay here,” he said sternly.
Ares smiled at me and then they both ran out of the room, leaving me alone. I knew it was stupid, but I was worried about Ares. Just the thought of him being hurt or killed brought tears to my eyes. The sounds of fighting were still loud, but I couldn’t figure out who was winning.
Why was my life so crazy now? It felt like years had passed since I was with my little human pack of Bret and Billy and their friends. I gasped as I realized why Darren had allowed me and Bret to be alone all that time and sleep in the same bed together. He knew that I wouldn’t have wanted to mate with Bret, that he was just a pack mate to me. It made sense that I had craved physical contact even if it was from humans since I was, by nature, a pack animal. It would have been a lot easier on me if I’d known all of that back then though.
“What do we have here?” asked a female voice. I turned and looked at the doorway where an ugly woman with black hair and alabaster skin stood, smiling at me. “Now, why would they hide a girl in this room? You must be special for them to want to protect you.”
“Leave if you value your life.” I growled and stood with my back to the wall.
She laughed. “You don’t scare me, girl. I bet you’re the one all this commotion is over, aren’t you?” She walked slowly towards me, her fingers elongating into six-inch daggers.
Fear consumed me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The words came out weak instead of strong as I’d hoped.
“I can’t believe your mate would leave you unguarded like this. He must be overly cocky to think you’d be safe.” She stopped twenty feet away from me and closed her eyes. Her face shifted and the ugly woman turned into a hideous monster with fangs and a distorted face. “I’m hungry, let’s finish this.”
She jumped at me, and I shot a purple fireball at her. I only had a moment to enjoy the color of the fireball, which matched my eyes, before she jumped to the side, my fireball only grazing her. She dropped to the ground and smacked the spot where the fire had caught on her clothes. She extinguished the flame, screamed in rage and charged at me. I lobed ball after ball of fire at her as she ran towards me, but she dodged them all. The daggers of her right hand jammed into my side making me scream.
“You were never meant to live. It’s sad your mate chose you because now he’ll have to deal with your death!” She jammed her other set of dagger-fingers into my stomach and smiled as I screamed again.
My skin began glowing brighter and brighter, until the vampire hissed and pul
led her daggers from me. The anger I’d been holding in since I’d met Ares boiled to the top and spilled over. My skin glowed white and all logical thoughts left my mind. Kill. Kill the vampire. Lunging at the vampire, I grabbed onto her shirt and rode her body down to the ground. My right hand became covered in fire.
The vampire screamed, “Please. Mercy.”
“You weren’t going to give me mercy, so you shall receive none.” The words came from my mouth and it was as though my wolf and I became one in that instant. No longer was it my wolf and me, but it was me and the animal instincts, urges, and thoughts, together. In one swift motion I plunged my fire covered hand into her chest and ripped her heart out. She screamed long and loud as I held her heart in my hand. The sounds were annoying.
I repositioned myself so that I was sitting above her head to get into a better spot. The heart had begun to blister from the fire in my hand, and long black smears surrounded it. With one quick squeeze of my hand, the heart turned to ash and sifted to the floor beside the vampire’s head. Her scream turned into a high-pitched shriek. Ares appeared in the doorway and gaped at me as I picked her head up off the floor, gave one violent twist, and tore her head from her body.
The screaming stopped, and my anger dissipated. I dropped the head onto the ground, turned and vomited.
“It’s alright, Artemis. Everything’s alright now,” Ares said softly as he stroked my hair.
I looked at my hands, expecting them to be covered in blood, but surprisingly they were clean. My wounds however were still open and blood poured from them, staining my white dress. “Ares, my wounds,” I whispered as I started to faint.
Ares picked me up and ran. I faded in and out of consciousness, closer to out, than in. Ares kept talking to me, “Artemis, Sunshine, stay awake.”
“I am awake. I’m awake and in pain. Where did you go?” I asked.
“I was protecting the front entrance to the castle. Matt was supposed to be protecting the back,” he said through gritted teeth.
Artemis Lupine- The Complete Series Page 33
