AMelodyInParadise (4 page)

Melody moved to sit on the bed. “Then having him here will do them some good.” She grinned. “Everyone should have a pet in their life for at least a little while.”

“Maybe, but…” she glanced back toward the door. “We have to talk.” Carmen sat next to her and turned to look her in the eyes. “What happened at the theater was no accident. Uncle Mitch called in a team of investigators and they said that someone had tampered with the lines and chains holding that fixture in place.”

“But…” Melody couldn’t finish what she’d been about to say. It was just too horrible to put into words, too bizarre. “This can’t possibly be happening to me.” She watched as her friend became blurry and wavered in front of her. She didn’t even realize it was tears blurring her vision until they began to run down her face. She swiped them away.

“I know, Mel. It means your hate mail guy is more than your hate mail guy now.” Carmen wrapped her arm around Melody and drew her close. “You can’t go back to the Philharmonic. Whoever is trying to hurt you will surely try again and I would rather they didn’t” She grinned. “I’ve kind of gotten used to your slobby ways and want to keep you in my life a bit longer.”

“Hey!” Melody gave Carmen a shove. Reaching down, she rubbed her tummy. She didn’t feel good. Something was wrong. A strange warmth settled low in her middle and began a slow burn deep inside her. “I’m not a slob.”

What was wrong with her? A minute ago she was fine. Now, all of a sudden, she felt as though she was coming down with the flu or something. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Maybe it was just nerves and she could breathe through it.

“What’s the matter?” Carmen rubbed her back and it felt as though someone stuck her with thousands of little needles.

“Don’t!” She jumped up to get away from her friend. She knew Carmen meant well, but the pressure of the other woman’s hand brushing over her skin felt like the worst kind of torture.

Standing, Carmen ran from the room. “Uncle Mitch, Uncle Wyatt, come quick! Something’s wrong with Melody.”

Intellectually, Melody knew that it wasn’t more than a few seconds later that the men ran into the room to see what was the matter, but it felt like an eternity with a blowtorch in her belly. Melody fought the urge to curl up into a little ball and cry. She didn’t know what was wrong, but whatever it was, didn’t seem like it was going to go away anytime soon.

“I was afraid of this.” Mitch turned to leave the room. “I’ll be right back. Try to keep her from hurting herself until I return.”

“Where’s he going?” Carmen asked, her face filled with worry.

“He’s going to get the experimental drug that the doctor gave us to hold the
el calor
at bay. Doc Parker said he thought it would work on humans and if we saw a need to experiment because the heat was hitting our mate too hard, we should use it. It definitely won’t hurt her, but it could help.”

“Work on humans? What? Mate? What is he talking about?” Melody clenched her teeth against another wave of heat as it washed through her, burning her from the inside out. Her teeth chattered either from the pain or fear, she wasn’t sure which. “I think I caught something. The flu, maybe.” She frowned. “I don’t want some drug meant for animals. Don’t let him give it to me, Carmen.”

Carmen bit her lips and shook her head as she backed away.

Wyatt settled down next to her on the bed and stroked her hair. Melody flinched at first, thinking it would hurt the way it did when Carmen touched her, but it didn’t. His touch felt almost soothing.

The burning subsided to the strange heat she felt when she first came down with whatever this was and her stomach no longer cramped with pain. Instead, a different kind of heat settled in her middle, billowing out from inside her as Wyatt continued to stroke her hair.

Her womb clenched as he continued to touch her. She shouldn’t allow this. Melody knew there was no way she could ever choose between the two men and she was afraid she was in love with them both already. She had heard too much about them from Carmen. Tears ran down her face as he continued to stroke her hair. She couldn’t fight the feelings that his touch invoked. The more he touched her, the more she craved his touch and she didn’t know why. Melody knew that her infatuation was nothing more than the leftovers of a schoolgirl crush. Still, it didn’t stop her from wanting more and needing more.

Mitch came back into the room, moving with the silence and grace of a jungle cat. If anyone had asked, Melody would have sworn that she had
felt
him come into the room. Somehow, she had known he was back before she saw or heard him. As ridiculous as it seemed, it was as thought she felt him enter the room. Wyatt moved out of the way and Mitch sat down beside her. He swiped her arm with an antiseptic wipe.

“I’m going to inject you with something our doctor gave us, Melody. I hope it will help you.”
It certainly can’t hurt.

She heard that last in her mind, but she could swear his lips hadn’t moved. What was going on? Was she feverish, delirious? Whatever this was she had, it wasn’t something she ever wanted to catch again.

Under normal circumstances, Melody never would have let someone who wasn’t her physician inject her with something, but at the moment, she couldn’t think of anything but stopping the horrible pain that twisted her insides like a limp dishrag.

The pinch of the needle piercing her skin was nothing compared to the pain searing her insides and burning through her blood. She wasn’t sure how, but somehow, she felt desire for these two men through the pain of her illness. It clawed at her just as surely as the pain that caused her to curl up into a little ball on the bed.

“It isn’t an illness, Melody. This is something our people get when we meet the person who is right for us. The person we are destined to spend the rest of our lives with.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have the flu.” Her teeth began to chatter all over again. “See? I have a fever or something.”

“You don’t have a fever. You have the heat.
El calor.”

“Of course I’m hot. I have a fever.” Melody glared up at them and wondered what it was she ever saw in these two. Geeze, the two of them were as dumb as a box of rocks!

Chapter Five

Mitch watched as the injection moved through her system. He could actually see it working. Her muscles grew less tense, her breathing slowed from short, quick pants to something closer to normal and her heart rate slowed to a more sedate pace.

“It worked!” He felt himself relax. The last thing he wanted to do was mate her here in front of their niece. Carmen may be a shifter and she knew how things worked, but it didn’t mean that he and Wyatt wanted to be under the same roof with her when they first took their mate.

“Is she okay?” Carmen moved closer. Tears streaked down her face as she watched her friend gather more and more control over her body.

“I think so.” Mitch set the syringe aside and scrubbed at his face with his hands. “That was close.” He looked over at Wyatt who wore a strange expression. “What’s the matter with you?”

“I think I need a dose of that as well.” He met Mitch’s gaze. “Do we have enough of that to hold us together until we can get to Paradise?”

He didn’t mention that they might not need much more of it if they could convince Melody to mate with them.

“I have no idea.” He glanced at Carmen. “Will you stay here until your guards arrive?”

“I have rehearsals and a show tomorrow.” She looked at Melody. “How are we going to explain her disappearance?”

“She can play tomorrow’s performance. Your guards won’t be here until Sunday as it is.” Mitch sighed. “We can manage to stay here another day. We’ll just have to draw out our doses a bit. Perhaps we can manage to hold out for a few hours more between injections.”

“What are you three talking about?” Melody sat up, brushed her hair back and stared up at them looking so sexy Mitch wasn’t sure if he could hold out for much longer.

Wyatt groaned behind him, letting him know that he felt the same. “This is going to be the longest few days of our lives.”

Carmen knelt on the floor in front of Melody and smiled. “Remember how you’ve felt over the last few years?”

A little wrinkle formed between Melody’s eyes as she watched her friend. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Um…” Carmen wiped her hands on her jean-clad legs. “Well…you know these are my uncles, Wyatt and Mitch.” She waved her hand and smiled. “We…we aren’t quite human and you’re their mate.”

“Get off it, Carmen. You’ve always tried to get me to believe some nonsense about what you
really
are because you get those strange feelings about people.” She turned to Mitch and Wyatt in turn. “She knows when you’re near, you know.” She shrugged when she got no reaction from them. “Good. She told you. I told her that secrets could only be a bad thing.”

“Which is why I’m telling you this now.” Carmen stood up and began to pace. “I know you remember that night in our freshman year. You thought you saw a big cat prowling around outside our window. Well…” she paused. “That was me.”

In the blink of an eye, Carmen changed from a beautiful young woman with dark hair and an olive complexion to a large jaguar, with dark swirling rosettes covering its body. She stared at Melody with wide, unblinking eyes, then lifted her lip and gave a low snarl.

“Oh, my God! Where’s Carmen?” She looked around, her actions frantic as she pulled her feet up onto the bed as though that would stop the large animal from attacking her.

Mitch grabbed her by the ankle. “She won’t hurt you. She’s the same girl you’ve shared your room with all these years. She’s just taken a different shape.”

“I’m not seeing this, I’m not seeing this.” Melody chanted the words over and over as though saying them would somehow change the way things were. She shook off Mitch’s hand and danced around on the bed, shaking them as she moved around, obviously trying to find an escape route.

“Carmen, you’re scaring Melody. I think she gets the picture. Change back to your human form a little slower, would you?”

Mitch watched Melody’s reaction as Carmen changed back into her human form, slower this time so Melody could watch the transformation. Her legs and arms changed shape. They elongated, loss muscle mass and grew slender while they watched. Her muzzle lost its hair and reshaped into the face of the beautiful woman she had become.

Her flat chest blossomed outward, growing large bosoms any shifter male would love to rest his head upon. Thankfully, she’d had the forethought to dress herself as she changed. Mitch shook his head. When had Carmen grown into such a beautiful woman?

“Carmen! How can you do that?” she jumped from the bed and pushed at Carmen’s shoulder. “All of these years and you never told me? Why?” Tears ran down her face and she reached up to swipe them away with the back of her hand.

“You know how cool I think stuff like that is. You know what kind of books I read. Dammit, Carmen. You were supposed to be my friend. How could you hide this from me?”

“We’re not allowed to tell outsiders.” Carmen moved around as Melody crossed her arms and turned away. “Don’t do this, Mel. I wanted to tell you. I really did. Why do you think I kept trying to fix you up with my uncles? I
want
you to be a permanent part of our lives. Nothing would make me happier than if you mated with my uncles.”

“What?” Melody threw her hands up in the air. “Do you even hear what you’re saying?” Her face grew so red Mitch wondered if she was going to have a heart attack, or perhaps explode. He didn’t think he’d ever seen a woman so embarrassed, or was she angry?

“Yes. I do.” Carmen turned to glare at him, then at Wyatt. “You two could help me, you know.” She crossed her arms and scowled. “Tell her. Tell her why she felt so horrible just a few minutes ago and tell her why she feels better now.” She paced the room for a minute before continuing. “Better yet, tell her how you can fix it permanently because from where I’m standing, this whole situation sucks."

“I’ve been trying to get you three together for the last five years.” She turned to face both Mitch and Wyatt. “Yes, she’s my best friend. Yes, she’s a year younger than me.” She stomped her foot. “But she’s an adult. Mating with her will not mean you’re pedophiles.
I
am an adult and so is she. And,” she paused to take a deep breath. “She’s obviously your mate, or she wouldn’t have had her first bout of
el calor
attacks, or whatever they are.”

Melody walked to the chair in the corner and sat down with a plop. “You’re shapeshifters? All of you are shapeshifters?” She licked her lips and Mitch felt his pulse jump as he imagined what she could do with those lips and that tongue.

“Paradise…is Paradise filled with shifters?” She shook her head and half-smiled. “I knew it sounded like paradise, but to have an entire town filled with shapeshifters…well, that’s awesome!”

“She’s hearing you, but she’s not hearing you, Carmen. Either that, or she’s ignoring the pertinent parts about her being our mate.”

Turning her attention on him, Melody’s cheeks turned a gorgeous shade of pink before she looked down toward the floor. “No, I haven’t. I’ve heard every bit and…and I don’t know what to think.” She looked up at him. “It’s one thing to read about something like this in an erotic novel, but it’s totally different to live it.”

Mitch felt himself grow hard while he watched her contemplate a life with him and Wyatt. He wanted to say he loved her, but he barely knew her. He’d spent too many years trying to put thoughts of her out of his mind as Carmen tried to throw them together. Perhaps if they had gotten to know her sooner, they would have known each other as individuals before she matured enough to trigger
el calor
in all of them.

Was that why the heat hit her so hard? They hadn’t been together for long. It had been less than twenty-four hours since they had been exposed to each other’s scents and body chemistry. Was it the repeated exposure to each other’s scents over the last several years that made her first reaction to them so virulent? Or was there something else going on? Whatever it was, he was certain it was going to make them come together much faster than she would like.