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Ares led me inside the airplane and to our seats. I pulled away from him and stared out

the window. Ares sighed. “Artemis, I wasn’t trying to upset you.”

I sighed. “I know. My wolf doesn’t like the idea that Koda is dominant to me.”

Ares rested his hand on mine and whispered, “All wereanimals hate enclosed metal

places. It’s natural for us to hate what amounts to a flying cage.”

I looked up at his sincere face and asked, “Does it bother you?”

Ares nodded his head. “Very much, but when you’re as old as me, you learn to hide the

things that bother you. When enemies learn what bothers you, they use it against you.”

The plane began moving down the runway and I gripped Ares’ hand tightly. He rubbed

his thumb across my hand and whispered, “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

I closed my eyes as the plane increased speed and began tilting upwards and lifting off

the ground. “Would we survive a plane crash?” I asked quietly.

Ares laughed softly. “Well, it depends, but most likely.” The plane leveled out and a high pitched ding made me open my eyes to look at the sign allowing us to move around the airplane.

Ares picked my hand up to his lips and kissed the back of my hand softly. “You alright?”

I looked at the blood trickling down his hand and gasped. “Ares, I’m…I’m sorry.” I tried

to let go of his hand, but he held on to me.

“Calm down, Artemis. Look.” He repositioned my hand in his so that he was still holding

mine, but I could see the wounds I had made from my fingernails. The half circles that were filled with blood slowly stopped bleeding and then the skin closed completely with no sign of the cuts except the blood staining his hand.

Victor leaned over the back of our seats and handed Ares a handkerchief. “Would you

mind? I’m hungry and I don’t think you want another incident like Bosnia.”

Ares rolled his eyes. “You should have eaten before we left and Bosnia wasn’t my fault.

Koda bit me.”

Koda sat down in an empty seat across from us. “I was only ten and you were being

rude.”

Victor scoffed. “It took me three
days
to heal from that crash and my father spent five thousand dollars on outside help to finally convince the humans that it had been a lightning strike.”

Ares rolled his eyes. “That’s pocket change to your father and besides it would have been fine if you had eaten
before
we got on the plane with two hundred humans.”

I looked at Victor as the pieces of what they were talking about fit into place. “You ate two
hundred
humans?”

Victor shushed me and whispered, “No, I tried to eat Ares and he changed and the

humans freaked and I
killed
the two hundred humans.”

I looked at Ares. “You killed them?”

Ares shook his head. “No, I was fighting with Koda because he was trying to eat the

humans. Victor killed them.”

Koda shrugged. “I’d only changed twice and humans smell
very
good when you’re a

pup.”

I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “If you say so.”

“You don’t think they smell good?” Asked Koda.

“They smell like humans, not food.” I said seriously.

Ares smiled at me. “Really?”

I blushed and looked down. “Something else that makes me not normal?”

Victor was tapping his chin with his finger loudly. “It must be because she was raised

around them and that boy was so close to her when she was fighting the changes so many times.

She must have just associated their smell with friends. You know the wolves’, friend, foe or food mentality.”

Koda scoffed in the seat across from us. “Food can be foe or friend also.”

I looked up at him in shock. “You’d eat a friend?”

Ares shook his head smiling. “Not a friend as in another wolf, but like a friendly dog.”

I stared at Ares then saw the smile Victor had to the side of me. “That’s really not funny.”

Victor and Ares laughed loudly and the overweight woman in front of us turned her head

and shushed us. I stuck my tongue out at her and she turned back around whispering loudly to the balding man beside her about “disrespectful youth”.

Ares reached across me and my heart sped up instantly at the nearness of his body to

mine. His smile widened as he pushed up the window cover so we could see outside the plane. I closed my eyes as he and Victor looked out the window. Ares whispered, “Artemis, just look.

It’s very beautiful.”

I shook my head and squinted my eyes closed harder. “No thanks. I’ll pass.”

Victor sighed. “And here I thought the Great Ares would get an adventurous mate, but it

looks like he got a wimp.”

I nodded my head with my eyes still closed. “Yep, sorry Victor, not falling for the bait.”

The plane bounced around as we hit a patch of turbulence and I gripped the arms of the

seat and squealed in fear. The arms began moaning in protest of my grip and Ares pried my left hand off the arm between us and held my hand. “Artemis, do you think I’m a liar?”

I turned my head towards him and opened one eye. “What?” The plane was jolted again

and I closed my eyes squeezing tightly on his hand and the right chair arm.

He whispered, “I told you that I wouldn’t let anything happen to you and yet you’re

destroying the plane in your fear of the plane falling. Do you think I’m lying when I tell you that I’ll protect you?”

The pain and sincerity in his voice made me open my eyes and loosen my grip. I looked

at him and it caused my stomach to knot up at the sight of his pain. “I don’t think you’re a liar, but you couldn’t possibly protect me from everything.”

Ares frowned. “So you do think I’m a liar? I’ll just have to prove it to you.” He leaned

towards me and cupped my face with his hands. His skin was warm and his breath was hot as he kissed me on the lips. Fire exploded in my body and I wrapped my arms around his neck. He pulled away from the kiss and whispered, “Nothing matters to me now except you. This plane could fall on my mother’s house and my only worry would be your safety. Trust me to protect you.”

I nodded my head and licked his cheek. “I’m sorry.”

He smiled. “You licked me again?”

I shrugged. “I am a wolf.”

He whispered, “Will you accept your place in my pack now?”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

Matt whispered from behind me, “He means will ya’ accept him as yer’ mate and me and

Koda as yer’ packmates?”

I turned my head so I could see Matt through the crack in the seats. “What happens?”

Matt smiled. “We go on a hunt and you finally sleep with us.”

My eyes widened and Matt shook his head. “Love, your mind is filled with dirty

thoughts. I only meant that we sleep in the same bed with you, not
sleep
with you.”

Ares growled. “No, not the latter.”

Koda sighed. “Ares has never been good about sharing.”

Ares sighed. “We hadn’t eaten in four days and I killed it! Besides I apologized the next day.”

I smiled and asked, “What happened?”

Koda leaned around Ares and talked just loud enough for me to hear, but not for the

humans on the plane. “We were running through Germany and hadn’t been able to find a house or food for a few days. Well as you can imagine we were ravenous. Ares here sees a lone stag and takes off after it killing it in like three seconds. I walked over to eat my share and he attacks me!”

I gasped, “No!”

Matt stood up and leaned over the tops of our seats. “So, while Ares is chasing Koda

around, I run over and started eating off the stag. As you can imagine that wasn’t alright with Ares. So he leaves Koda and charges after me!”

Koda laughed and shook his head. “We had to keep drawing him away and then sneaking

into eat like that for two hours before we got our fill and then we both ran off and let Ares eat.”

Ares sat back in his seat and frowned. “I apologized afterwards. Besides I’m supposed to

eat first and you both know it.”

Matt asked, “When are we going to test the new dominance layout?”

“It depends on how she feels. I don’t want to push her too soon.” Ares said softly.

“You’re talking about me like I’m not here.” I scolded.

Ares smiled and rested his hand on my knee and closed his eyes. “Sorry, baby.”

I smacked his hand off my knee and snarled, “Don’t call me baby!”

Ares opened one eye and looked at me with a completely calm, neutral face. “What

would you like me to call you?”

I frowned. “I don’t know, but not baby or darling or…well I can’t think of anything you

could call me.”

Ares closed his eye again and replaced his hand on my knee. “I’ll think of something.”

Matt smiled. “Glad I took Love already.”

Ares scoffed. “Yeah, thanks.”

I relaxed back into my seat and noticed the window still open from the corner of my eye.

I closed my eyes and reached over searching along the wall for the window cover. I finally found it and pulled the cover down and then opened my eyes again, only to find Ares, Koda and Matt watching me. I blushed and looked down at my hands in my lap. Koda sighed. “You think she’ll ever stop blushing?”

Ares rubbed his thumb across my kneecap. “I hope not.”

More blood rushed to my face and Victor whispered from behind Ares, “I can smell her

from here. Knock it off.”

Ares laughed softly and pulled his hand off my leg. “My apologies, Victor. We should all

rest. It’s going to be a
long
night once we arrive.”

The absence of his hand was like a bee sting. I pushed up the middle arm, scooted closer

to Ares and leaned my head against his shoulder. I closed my eyes and reveled in the happy electric current thrumming through my body. Ares kissed the top of my head and then laid his head on top of mine.

~~~~

I pulled myself out of a dreamless sleep as I heard the stewardess talking quietly to Ares in another language. Instnatly my anger began to well up. I opened my eyes and found myself

inches from her breasts. I sat up quickly and was about to snarl when Ares grabbed my hand and the anger disappeared. I stared at his hand as though it were a bear trap and asked, “How’d you do that?”

The stewardess handed me a pillow and then walked away. Ares whispered, “I wasn’t

doing anything with the stewardess and I very politely explained that we were getting married. I had no idea she would start discussing it with me and then she insisted on getting a pillow for you even though we’re about to land.”

The pillow fell off my lap as I moved back into my own seat and faced the closed

window. “I didn’t say anything.”

Ares whispered, “You didn’t have to. I could feel your anger like a growing forest fire.”

I looked at him and asked again, “How’d you do that?”

He smiled. “I took your anger from you. It’s a handy trick you learn when you become an

alpha.” The stewardess stood in the front of the plane and picked up the intercom. She began speaking in fluent French and I felt my anger rising again. She was pretty and thin, model thin.

Ares sighed. “I would never cheat on you.”

My anger rose at the thought of Ares with another woman and my body temperature

began rising. Matt growled softly behind me and Ares growled back. Koda whined softly and I took a giant breath then let it out slowly. The anger vanished and my body cooled down. Matt snorted and Koda sighed. Ares thumped my arm softly. “Cool down.”

I smiled and looked at his golden eyes. “I am. You seem to be upset still though.”

Ares shook his head and the gold faded. “To feel your strong emotions is hard on me.

Our connection is still new and not finished yet. The connection between our emotions is

designed this way to keep you safe, but you’re a little more volatile than most your age.”

His words stung as I deciphered between the lines and got the unspoken word of

“immature”. The light to put your belts on chimed over our heads giving me a chance to look away from Ares and put my belt on. The plane began to descend and I gripped on to the arm rests tightly. Ares held out his hand, but I ignored him by closing my eyes and leaning back against the seat as the plane landed on the runway. I kept my eyes closed until the attendant got back on the intercom and I could hear people beginning to stand up. I unbuckled my seat belt and stood up facing the front of the plane.

Koda walked up from the back, where his assigned seat had been, carrying my backpack.

I held out my hand and he shook his head smiling. “I’ll carry it.”

I wanted to argue, but Ares was watching me and we were next to walk out of the plane.

“Thanks.” The desire to touch Ares was growing stronger, but I refused to give in. There was no reason I had to touch him
all
the time. Victor led the way out of the airport and to a waiting limousine. I smiled at Victor. “I’ve never gotten to ride in a limo before.”

He smiled at me. “Well then get in.”

I ducked into the limo and climbed over on the seat to look out the large side windows.

The others climbed in behind me and the driver started the limo. I moved from one side of the limo to the other as we drove through France. The Eiffel Tower loomed over us as we drove by it and I asked, “Do we get to go see it?”

Ares frowned. “If we have time.”

I was about to pout when Koda said. “Matt and I will take you tomorrow while Ares is in

meetings.”

Ares shook his head and folded his arms across his chest. “Absolutely not. She’s not to be away from me while we’re here.”

Matt glared at Ares. “You think we wouldn’t be able to protect her?”

Ares growled. “I think there are too many leeches, no offense Victor, in this city.”

Victor frowned. “Why would any vampire want to bother Artemis? There are only a few

people that have seen her and those are either in America or my father.”