Kiss of a Star Artemis Lupine

by Banks, Catherine

I stopped shaking and glared at the women. “If any of you come near my mate again, I’ll tear you apart.”

  Ares stroked my arm. “Artemis, nothing happened. We were all just talking.”

  I turned my gaze on him and saw him flinch. “Talking? I think the correct term is flirting.”

  Two women stood up from the table and started to walk towards us. One, a tall brunette who looked like a bull dog smiled evilly. “Why not let her fight to keep you? She doesn’t deserve you, Ares. You deserve someone more beautiful, someone stronger.”

  I scoffed. “Look here bull dog, I may be small, but I know I’m more beautiful than you and more powerful.”

  “Prove it,” she said.

  Ares released his hold on me and took two steps towards the girl. “Enough.”

  A woman two rows down leapt out of her seat, changing forms and shredding the skin tight dress she had had on. She leapt at me, but I dodged, sliding to the right and kicking her in the stomach. She yelped in pain and landed on top of the table where the women were still sitting. Achilles was a few seats down and stared at the wolf on the table next to him. “Always drama with the werewolves,” he said quietly.

  Two more females changed and started towards me from behind. Koda grabbed one of the females, but the other one jumped around him and charged at me. I ripped Ares’ necklace from my throat, putting it on the table next to me and changed forms in a matter of milliseconds. Luckily the dress was short enough that it didn’t tear and only slid up underneath my front legs. The girl growled at me and my ears pinned to my head. I leapt forward, dodging her outstretched paws and bit into her throat. Why was her guard down? Was she so consumed by jealousy that she wasn’t thinking right? I tossed her to the side, missing Ares by inches.

  Three more females from the table changed forms and Ares yelled, “ENOUGH!” The females stopped moving and stared at him. I growled and Ares turned to me, his eyes were golden wolf’s eyes and his wolf looked at me from within him. “Be quiet.” I stopped growling, but started walking down the aisle towards the exit. “Change back,” Ares commanded.

  My body twitched once and then changed back to human. Two tears leaked out of my eyes before I stood up. Being forced to change was not a pleasant experience. I continued walking down the aisle, away from the women and Ares. A woman stepped out in front of me and Ares yelled, “Stop!”

  The woman’s body instantly stilled. I couldn’t move my legs for a moment, but I pushed through the command he had given and took one slow step at a time. A black haired woman jumped at me, but I punched her in the chest, knocking the wind out of her and making her stumble backwards to fall on her butt. Ares growled and all of the woman cowered. They seemed to have finally decided to obey him. The steps were becoming easier, the further away I got from Ares.

  “Artemis,” Ares said softly. The softness of his voice and the request in them made me stop moving. “Don’t leave,” he said.

  My entire body was hurting, begging me to turn around and run to him, but I wouldn’t do it. “I’m going home,” I said softly, “when you’re finished, please come home too.”

  “Artemis…” He began, but then Koda shushed him.

  I hurried out of the building and away from the stares of the hundreds of werewolves who had witnessed everything. The cool night air felt like I had jumped into a lake of ice. I gasped and turned towards home. A human servant ran out of a shed to the right, carrying a box of wine. Alcohol. Ares said I could get drunk if I drank enough. I ran towards the shed and took three bottles of wine out. The cork was a pain to get out, but I finally managed to get it. I guzzled the wine and the liquor warmed my stomach.

  Carrying the two unopened bottles in my left arm, I took long drinks out of the open bottle with my right hand. “Artemis,” Koda called when he stepped out of the building. I ignored him, heading towards home. “Artemis, wait,” he said softly.

  I turned to him and took a long drink from the wine bottle. “What?” I asked between drinks.

  “What are you doing?!” He tried to grab the bottle from my hand, which was now empty. I let him take it and jogged down the road as I opened one of the other bottles and started drinking from it. “Artemis, give me the wine.”

  “No,” I said as I jogged backwards, away from him.

  Ares stepped out of the building and stared at me in shock. “What are you doing?”

  I took a long drink out of the bottle, keeping my eye on Koda. “Drinking,” I said through a hiccup. The bottle was empty, but I pretended to drink out of it again.

  “Give me the bottle,” Ares said calmly.

  A smile crossed my lips as I tossed him the empty bottle and then ran down an alleyway as I tried to open the new bottle. “Artemis!” Koda and Ares called after me.

  The bottle finally opened and I guzzled the entire thing down just before Ares stepped in front of me. I tried to slide to a stop, but my reflexes weren’t up to par. My foot slipped out from under me and I fell on my butt, flinging the empty bottle of wine. Ares’ hand shot out to the left as he caught the bottle. “Why are you doing this?” he asked. “I didn’t do anything with them.” He started to reach towards me and I scrambled backwards.

  “They’re right,” I said as I backed down the alleyway.

  Ares sighed. “Stop this. You’re being childish.”

  The words stung worse than I had expected them to. I knew I was being childish, but for him to say it to me was worse than a slap in the face. Tears streamed down my face. “That’s all I’ll ever be to you, won’t it? A child. A stupid little girl who you got matched with.” Koda popped up behind me. I squatted down and whispered, “I’ll leave.” Ares opened his mouth and I jumped upwards as high as I could. Grabbing a hold of the roof, I swung upwards and started running on the rooftops back towards the shed.

  “Artemis, STOP!” Ares commanded.

  My legs stopped moving just as I reached the edge of the house I was running on. I fell off of the house and hit the ground on my side. My arm crunched and I screamed in pain. The pain released my body from Ares’ power so I could move again. When I stood up, my right arm hung limply beside me. Ares was coming around the corner, but I didn’t want to see him yet. I ran the last yards to the shed and grabbed another bottle of wine. There wasn’t a way for me to pull the cork out with my hands now, but I improvised and grabbed the cork with my teeth to jerk it out. The cork tumbled out of my mouth and I replaced it with the bottle, guzzling the liquor.

  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, pig headed, 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 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 up, 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?” Ares asked angrily.

  “I want you to stop touching her,” Achilles said angrily. His body was glowing softly and his hands were 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 decided 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 his eyes towards me. “Artemis…”

  I turned away from him. “Ares, maybe he’s…”

  Ares turned to me in shock. “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 in pain 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 was standing beside him, glaring down at Ares. “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 stood up next to me. Achilles stared at me in shock. “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 said angrily.

  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 over 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 ran between the trees one hundred or so yards out. “Ares!” I said urgently.

  Ares ran 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 pr
otect 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 his head 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 down on my feet. “We’re going to stay in here. Achilles will keep them from coming in the 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 in shock.

  Matt nodded his head. “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 said angrily.

  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?”

  Matt shook his head. “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 towards us!”