the art of love

Tatum-

The pain of losing my first love still haunts me. For the past three years, I have been surrounding myself with women I can’t necessarily stand, but give me a distraction from what I lost. That and whiskey, lots of it. The only time I have been able to sleep without the demons of my past from haunting me, is by making sure I was thoroughly drunk.

As a werewolf, it wasn’t an easy feat. Unlike humans, when we drank we needed a lot of alcohol to even feel the effects of it. We could get drunk but for us, it was like drinking a fifth of whiskey compared to their one beer. So if it takes five beers to get a human drunk, we would need five of the equivalent in hard liquor.

Basically, we just needed nearly ten times the amount of alcohol in our system to be effective. With the way our metabolism burns through it. It didn’t last long, which is probably why I was once again up pouring myself a big glass of whiskey. Taking a large gulp, I turned to face my bed.

Chasity Summers, the biggest whore in the pack, was currently sprawled out on my bed, naked. As much as I liked looking at her body and taking what I needed of her to release my tension, I hated the idea of her sleeping in my bed. She knew the rules. She accepted the rules. Except right now, she was breaking at least two of my rules.

No sleeping and absolutely no staying over. After I had finished with her, I had gone to take a shower and expected her to be gone when I returned, but instead, I found her still in my bed with my bedsheet tangled around her. If I wasn’t so agitated with the fact she was still in my bed, I would probably have my way with her again and then toss her out.

Finishing the rest of the whiskey in my glass, I walked over to the bed and literally kicked her out of bed. She fell onto the hardwood floor with a thud.

“Ow!” She yelled, then sat up and glared at me. “What the hell was that for?”

“Out.” I told her simply, ignoring the way she had just talked to me.

I don’t know where she got off thinking she could just speak to me any way she deemed necessary. Every single woman I have brought into my bed has all been given the rules. Hell, they even signed a contract of a non-disclosure agreement. If they went around telling anyone what we did, they understood they would be kicked out of the pack.

I hadn’t always been like this, but when you lose the love of your life and your fated mate, it changes a person. I had no intentions of being tied to another she-wolf, under any circumstances. Chasity was the only one who thought she was immune or something. At least with the others they didn’t complain or break any of my rules.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Chasity just happened to be the hottest female in the pack, and a great lay, I probably would have terminated our agreement. But as much as she annoyed me, she did the job better than any of the others.

“I just fell asleep, you don’t need to be an ass about it, jeez.” She said as she gathered up her clothes and got dressed.

“You know the rules.”

“You and your rules. You know it isn’t exactly a bad thing to break a rule every now and again. If I remember correctly, you use to be the biggest rule breaker in the pack.”

“Things change. Out.”

“Yeah, yeah, I am going.”

With that, she left the room and shut the door just a bit too loud. Groaning, I went over to the dresser and poured myself another glass of whiskey. Not long after Chasity left, I heard a knock on the door.

“What!” I snarled, thinking she was back for something.

“Oh good, you are dressed.” My mother said, poking her head in the door, then waltzing in like she owned the place.

“Now is not the time mother.”

“No, now is a perfect time. I figured if we gave you just a little more time you would come around, but you haven’t so I have come to tell you the Elders have decided for you. After you sober up and get a bit of rest, you are going to go over to meet with the Alpha of Lunar Eclipse and his daughter. The Elders are giving you one week to find a Luna or they will force you to step down.”

Seriously, this was not the time to be throwing this on me. I had a hard time quelling my temper as I looked at her. I loved my mother but I was no pushover either. I was getting tired of the Elders making up the rules for me. So what if I didn’t want another mate? I’ll be damn if I make the Alpha’s daughter from Lunar Eclipse the Luna. She is rotten to the core.

“I will not agree to make her my mate.” I grounded out, trying to keep my temper in check.

“This isn’t up for discussion. I am not saying you have to choose her, but you will go meet with them. An alliance with them would be ideal since they are our closest neighbors and we could potentially expand. We are just thinking of what is best for the pack.”

“Fine I will go, but I can assure you, it will be just a waste of time.”

“We won’t know until after you meet with them.” My mother said, then left the room.

As soon as she shut the door I threw the glass I had in my hand at the door. Why couldn’t everyone just leave me the hell alone? Ignoring the now shattered glass, I grabbed the bottle of whiskey and started chugging it. The buzz I had was now gone and I was burning with a rage so intense that I wanted to punch something.

A picture of Leslie and our parents caught my attention and I went over to take it from the wall. With the bottle in hand and picture, I moved to sit at the foot of my bed. Leslie had been the perfect mate. She had been my childhood sweetheart when we found that we were mates, it had been the best day of my life.

Now when I looked at this picture all I felt was anger. Anger that she left and anger that I hadn’t found out sooner that her father had been abusing her and in league with hunters that wanted to wipe our kind of existence. The same hunters that took the love of my life away from me.

I may have killed her father, but I was still waiting for the day that I would come across the hunters and show them they are in the wrong field of work. The only reason I even keep this picture was to remind myself of what I lost and what I still have to accomplish. One day I will get my revenge on everyone that had been involved in Leslie’s death. That is a vow, I will always honor, until my last breath.

Finishing off the bottle, I laid back and tossed the bottle across the room. Holding the picture up, I rubbed the padding of my thumb over Leslie as gave the camera one of her very beautiful rare smiles. There hasn’t been a day that has gone by that I wished that I could hold her just one last time. I never even had a chance to say goodbye.

“I will avenge you and make sure they all pay for what they did.” I whispered aloud.