Kiss of a Star Artemis Lupine (5 page)

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.

~~~

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.”