~~


    Artem


    ~~


    I watched as Chay pulled Star away from me. I could tell from that alone that neither of them trusted me anymore. I knew it was over. I knew I had fucked up and blown my chance with her.


    I love Star, but I will never again hurt her in any way. I will only ever be there to protect her from now on. I would see to it that nothing bad ever happened to her again.


    With every foot, no every inch that was put between me and my Star I felt like the man in me was slowly being killed. My beast was left to howl in pain and scream in self loathing. I hated it, I hated it all. I wanted my mate, I wanted my Star. But until she wanted me I would stay away.


    Rage. Hate. Loathing. All of them directed at myself and all of them was all I could feel. Them and despair, loneliness, anguish, heartbreak. I was a broken man now, a man lost without a north star to guide him home.


    "GGRRAAAAAHHHHHH!" I screamed, long and loud, at nothing in particr. I needed to vent this anger, to get it out of me before it reached a breaking point that I could never return from. I needed to do this for me and for my Star.


    In a blind rage I stormed into the house, flinging the door shut behind me so forcefully that I broke the ss and split the wood. I didn''t care, I was in here to destroy something. Why not everything?


    I couldn''t stop myself as I stormed to the couch in the living room. With a quick swing of my fist I punch the top of the couch, right in the middle. The wood splintered, the stuffing spilled out, and the whole couch just crumbled to the floor in a messy heap.


    Nothing was immune to my rage right now. I punched and kicked my way through the huge ind that I had made dinner with Star at. I ripped the cabs off the walls and punched my hands through the marbled counter top. The stove was destroyed, the fridge was caved in, the floor ruined and the walls crumbling. After that I moved to another room of the house.


    My next stop was the bedroom. The room where I had taken things too far. The room where I had ruined my rtionship with my beloved mate.


    I smelled the blood as soon as I was in the room, the memory of the previous nighting back to me in a flood of horror.


    Why? Why didn''t I think that the dazed and zed look in her eyes meant something? Why did I let myself do that to her? I was horrible. Such a horrible person.


    The bed was a four poster made from dark mahogany that matched the rest of the furniture in the room. It was the first thing that I set my sights on, having a strong desire to destroy the scene of my crime.


    I ripped the gray nket and white sheets away from the mattress. I was able to see it then, the blood that I had caused when I took her virginity. The blood that was proof of my stupidity. I grabbed the closest bed post and squeezed so hard that the wood splintered and broke apart in my hand.


    That was it, that was all I needed to start destroying the bed. I swung my fists out and pounded away at the frame until itid on the ground in splintered heaps. I transformed my fingers into ws and shredded the mattress into nothing but ribbons. The curtains, the dressers, the door to the bathroom. Everything was being destroyed and would no longer hold evidence of the night before.


    Maybe if I can make it look like it never happened here it would go away. Maybe it wasn''t real after all.


    But that was impossible. There was nothing to take away what I had done. Nothing that would redeem me in the eyes of the woman I loved. I had ruined it all. Destroyed it so thoroughly that I was now doomed to wander the alone for the rest of my days.


    I was about to put my foot through the freestanding wfoot tub when I finally registered my phone ringing. I was nning to ignore it until I realized that it was Chay''s ringtone.


    Chay had left with Star. Chay had taken my mate back to the pack house. She was supposed to be helping Star to feel better. So what was happening? Why was she calling?


    Still, I almost didn''t answer it. I waited until the veryst second before I pressed the answer button and put the phone to my ear.


    "What Chay?" I growled into the phone. "Now is not a good-." I was in the middle of telling her off when she screamed at me, cutting me off. Both my words and my heart stopped at her interruption.


    "STAR''S GONE!" Her words took a moment to sink it, a moment for me to realize that I was actually hearing what I thought I was hearing.


    "What?" I asked her just to make sure I really had heard those words.


    "Star is gone, Artem. She''s gone. I''m so sorry."


    "What happened? Where is she?" I was already on the move as I spoke.


    As Chay ryed what happened I ran to my truck. I needed to get out of here, now.


    "They rammed us off the road, Artem. They caused us to crash and then they took her."


    "Who took her, who caused you to crash." I had a feeling I already knew but I needed to hear it. I needed to hear it even though I was certain that it would anger me to no end.


    "Her family took her."


    I was right, about both things. I most definitely wasn''t happy and I was right about who took her.


    "Howard took her Artem. He took her right in front of me and there was nothing I could do to stop it."


    "You could have fought them." I yelled, feeling my heart break by the second.


    "I''m sorry Artem. I''m so sorry." She was crying, really crying. "Artem I am still trapped in the Jeep. I can''t get out."


    Now I know how they had done it. I know how they had been able to take my mate away from me. They were going to pay. They hurt what was mine. My family, my sister, and most of all, my mate.


    ''I''ming Star. I will be there soon. I will help Chay then I will go and save my mate. I will not let them hurt Star. Not now, not ever again.''


    "That bastard Howard was a fucking creep." I could practically hear the shudder run through her when she said those words.


    "I will end his pathetic existence. I will kill him with my bare hands. I swear to you and to Star, and to anyone else who wants to hear it. I will make this right again. I will get her back."