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“Sorry Victor.”

Victor laughed. “Do not apologize. You did nothing wrong. I will be leaving to my room

now. Jean Pierre and Francois will come to you in the morning, Ares.” He stood up beside me.

Ares frowned. “We need to discuss our plan…”

Victor waved his hand interrupting Ares. “Later. I am tired and need rest. Tomorrow, let

your guards take Artemis out to enjoy the town, and we will discuss business then.” Victor bent down and kissed my cheek softly. “Good night
mon papillon.
May your dreams be as sweet as you are.” He left the room in the floating gait vampires had.

Koda and Matt came back in the room smiling at us. I asked, “I take it that I don’t get to take a walk tonight?”

Ares shook his head and kissed my lips softly. “Not tonight, sweetheart.” He dropped my

hand slowly and walked to the bathroom. The click of the lock echoed in the still room.

Koda scoffed, breaking the silence. “What pissed him off?”

I walked over to the bed and bent down to get inside my bag. “Someone wants me and he

is afraid that they might attack you to get me.” I grabbed my favorite pair of pajama pants that were covered in pictures of a wolf staring at you with the line, “Bark Off” under his feet. I reached farther in and grabbed the night shirt that matched it. I started to undress to put them on when I remembered Koda and Matt. I sighed.
I’ll have to get used to indecent exposure
eventually.
I stripped my jeans and t-shirt off and put the pajamas on. When I turned around Koda and Matt were staring at me in shock. I frowned. “What?”

Matt smiled. “You changed in front of us?”

I shrugged. “What’s the big deal?”

Ares walked out of the bathroom and frowned at us. “What’s going on?”

Koda pointed at me. “She changed in front of us.”

Ares frowned. “You changed clothes in front of them?”

I shrugged. “I’ll be naked a lot in front of them if I keep changing to my wolf form and

besides I had a bra and underwear on and was facing away from them.”

I folded the dress and set it on the bedside table to return to Madeleine. Ares was

speaking quietly to Koda and Matt so I hopped up on the bed and pulled one of the pillows down to lay my head on. I felt the bed move, but stayed staring at the bedroom door. Koda stood in front of me and waved his hands at me. “Move over bed hog.”

I frowned. “What?”

He sighed. “We’re a pack and a pack sleeps together. We did it last night. Now move

over.”

I smiled. “So this must have looked really awkward when it was just the three of you?”

Ares nodded his head. “Yes, there were many questions floating around.”

I backed up on the bed until I touched someone’s body and repositioned my head on my

pillow. Koda took his shirt off and climbed onto the bed facing away from me. I felt someone at my feet and sat up to see Matt along the bottom of the bed. I frowned. “Why does Matt always have to sleep down there?”

Koda turned his head and body so he could see me. “It’s a pecking order thing.”

I shook my head. “Come on. At least trade every night.”

Koda frowned. “You don’t want me to sleep beside you?” Ares growled softly and Koda

shook his head. “You know what I meant Ares.”

“It has nothing to do with who it is, it’s just not fair that he has to sleep at our feet all the time. Tonight you can sleep here Koda, but tomorrow Matt gets to sleep up here.”

Ares asked, “Are you going to try to make me sleep at the foot of the bed too?”

I shrugged. “Why shouldn’t you? We’re all a pack, right? And that means that your pack

mates wouldn’t try to make a move on me anyway. Right? So then you should be a gracious

alpha and sleep at the foot of the bed every third night.”

Ares frowned and Matt laughed. “Oh I love this’n.”

I smiled at him and rolled over to face Ares for a second. “Am I overstepping

boundaries?”

Ares kissed my lips softly. “Definitely, but for you, I will concede this issue to you. We will rotate sleeping patterns, except for you. You must stay at the center of us.”

I frowned. “Because you’re worried about someone trying to get me?”

Koda leaned over us. “It’s a lot harder to take someone from the center of the pile than

the outside.”

I sighed and nodded my head. “Fine.” I kissed Ares’ lips one more time and rolled over

to lie on my back. Ares and Koda spooned themselves to me and Matt wrapped himself around us all. The heat started to become too much, but I quickly fell asleep to the sound of my pack’s breathing.

~~~~

As Victor had instructed, Ares left early the next morning to strategize with Victor and the twin vampires while Koda and Matt took me out to explore Paris. We took a limo from the mansion to the heart of the town nearest the Eiffel Tower. It was a three hour drive from the winery, so we walked everywhere once in town. The shops were cute and I bought a few souvenir shirts with the money I had taken from Darren. We also ate at a lovely outside diner. Koda ordered snails just so we could look at them. As we walked from the diner towards the Eiffel Tower, I felt someone watching us and looked around, but there were too many people looking at us for me to be certain. My purple eyes didn’t help our tourist looks, but Matt spoke fluent French so we were left alone and didn’t have to ask for directions. I moved closer to Koda when I still felt the threatening presence nearby. Koda looked down at me with the smile he had had on all day, but quickly vanished into a frown when he saw my face. “What’s wrong?”

I whispered, “Someone’s watching us.”

Koda looked around and smiled. “There are many people watching us.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s…it’s like I can taste their aggression, their threat.”

Matt sniffed the air and sighed. “There are too many bloodsuckers living in this city for me to be certain, but I can sense a little of the aggression she is speaking of.”

Koda rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe we should go back.”

I groaned. “Dammit. And we’re so close.” I looked longingly up at the Eiffel Tower and

sighed. “Alright, let’s go back.”

We turned around and started down the road towards the other town we had started from.

Matt pulled out a cell phone and spoke quickly in French. He whispered, “The driver is still at the town waiting for us.”

I nodded my head and tried to breathe slower. We turned down another road which was

nearly deserted and walked faster. We were almost to the end when three people stepped into the alley, blocking our path. Koda pushed me behind him and Matt pressed himself against my back.

Koda asked, “What do you want?” I peeked around Koda’s arm so I could see what was

happening.

The three men continued to walk towards us and I watched their feet, but they didn’t float like the vampires. The man in the center spoke in a deep voice, “You know what we want. Just hand her over and no one dies.”

Koda growled. “You’re pack! You can’t betray us!”

The man shrugged. “The leeches pay higher, and besides, after we kill you no one will

know what happened.”

Koda took a step forward and I grabbed his hand. He spun around and stared at me in

shock. “Koda, please don’t. I don’t want you to die.”

Koda snarled. “If I let them take you I might as well die! You are my pack and what they

will do to you will make you wish you were dead.”

The man laughed deeply. “Oh, we’ll be extra nice to the little pup. Won’t we men?”

The other men nodded their heads, smiling wickedly. I swallowed hard and stepped back

into Matt’s arms. Koda stepped forward and exhaled. The two men, who hadn’t spoken, ran

forward and started attacking Koda. Koda dodged and countered their attacks faster than I could keep track of. Grunts and cracking sounds made me cringe and hope Koda was alright. I watched in amazement as Koda grabbed the smallest man and threw him at the man who had spoken

originally. The impact was as loud as a car crash, as their bodies slammed to the ground. Koda grabbed the last man’s throat and squeezed tight.

I started to move forward to stop him, but Matt put his arm around my chest and

whispered, “This is the only way. Either we kill them now, or Ares will order us to kill them later. They have admitted to trying to kidnap you, the Prince’s mate. It is unacceptable.”

I watched in horror as Koda dug his fingers in and ripped out the front of the man’s

throat, exposing bone. The man fell to the ground convulsing and the other men stared in shock.

Koda reached into his pocket and pulled out a long black bag. He opened the bag to expose a silver stake inside. Making sure not to touch it himself, he drove the stake into the convulsing man’s body then yanked it back out. The body stopped twitching and his veins turned black. The two men who had been watching started to get up, but Matt let me go and ran over to them. He grabbed them by their throats and mimicked the attack Koda had done reaching into his own pocket to take out a similar black bag. I stared in shock at the three dead men with their throats ripped out, holes in their chests and black veins lying in the alley. Koda and Matt took out black handkerchiefs and wiped the blood off their stakes. When done, they carefully closed the bags and put them back in their pockets.

Koda walked back towards me and reached his hand out. I flinched away from him and

he smiled. “It’s alright. They’re dead now.”

I whispered, “You killed them. Why?”

Koda squatted down and stared into my face. “Artemis, they were going to kidnap you.

Do you know what they would have done between the time they took you and the time they got you to whoever wanted you?”

I shook my head. “You didn’t have to kill them. Don’t you have werewolf prison or

something?”

Koda shook his head. “We kill men who are this dangerous to our packs or they will just

come out of prison even angrier than before. If I hadn’t killed them, they would have come back for you. They wouldn’t have stopped until they had you, or they were dead. I couldn’t let them have you.” He extended his hand to me again.

I frowned, but took his hand and let him lead me past the dead men. We were almost to

the street when three more men stepped in our way, making us stop. I turned around and gasped.

“Koda, there’s more behind us.” Koda turned to the three other men walking behind us. Matt came to stand beside me so that I was in the between him and Koda. I sniffed the air and

frowned. “More wolves.”

The men held long hammers with silver heads as they walked towards us. I grabbed

Koda’s arm and whispered, “I don’t want you to die for me.”

Koda shook his head. “I won’t let them take you, Artemis.”

I shook my head. “No! Please Koda.”

Matt grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back against him as the six men circled

around us. Koda frowned. “State your intent.”

The six men looked at each other for a few seconds until one of them finally stepped

forward. He was tall and muscular and scary. A scar over his right eye made him look even tougher. “We are here for the girl.”

Koda shook his head. “Not going to happen.”

The man smiled. “We are here for the girl and your lives don’t matter. We will kill you

and take her.”

Koda leapt forward and began attacking the man. I watched as they punched and kicked

and realized that Koda knew some type of martial arts. The other man however knew some as well. As Koda and the leader fought the other five men moved forward. Matt started to attack them, but there were too many and after a minute three of them were holding Matt down. Koda punched the leader as hard as he could knocking him back into Matt, but the leader had

recovered and with one of the other men they grabbed Koda and tackled him to the ground. The last man took his hammer and held it up as if ready to kill them with it. I ran forward and held my hands up in front of them. “Wait!”

The man put his hammer down and the leader asked, “What are you doing? Someone

grab her.”

I turned to the leader and spoke in a voice barely audible to human ears, “If I go

willingly, will you let them live?”

Koda thrashed on the ground. “No! Artemis! No!”

The leader frowned at me then nodded his head. “We will knock them out so they can’t

follow us, but we won’t kill them.”

Koda got one guy off of him, but the leader pinned him down with a knee to his face. I

cringed. “Please! Please don’t hurt them. I’ll go with you, but you have to promise that you will only knock them out and not kill them or hurt them severely.”

The leader turned to the other men and nodded his head. They all stood up holding Koda

and Matt who were trying to fight. I felt tears falling down my face and whispered, “Tell Ares that I’m sorry, but I can’t let you die.”

Matt shook his head. “No! Artemis you don’t understand. You don’t know what they’ll

do to you!”

I wiped at the tears on my face. “You’ll be alive and that’s all that matters.”

Koda snarled and his body started to twitch. “If you do anything to her I will find you all and kill you!”

The leader smiled and shook his head. “We won’t harm a single hair on her head. Knock

him out before he changes!”

The man that was left took out a small black object and walked up behind Koda. He

swung the object and hit Koda in the lower back of the head knocking him out instantly. Koda’s body slumped forward and they lowered him to the ground carefully. Matt trashed and snapped his teeth. “No! Artemis!”

I smiled. “You’ll be alright Matt. It’s a small price to pay to keep you alive.”

Matt began twitching and the man hit him with the black object making Matt’s body go

limp. They set him on the ground next to Koda and turned towards me. With all of their eyes on me I suddenly realized that it may have been smarter to run, but it was too late. The leader grabbed my arm and led me from the alley towards a large black van with tinted windows. “Why do bad guys always drive vans to kidnap people?” I asked myself.