Marking Melody (16 page)

Holden nodded.  “We want that, too.”

After saying goodbye once more, Tristan turned on the engine and left the driveway, starting their journey home to Ashland, leaving King behind.

Chapter 18

Micah could feel how nervous Melody was as they parked at the side of the boarding house and Tristan turned off the engine.  Tristan turned in the seat and glanced at Micah for a long moment before turning his attention to Melody.

“It’s safe here now, Melody.  Even before James and John came to King to see Jilly, they had already decided that you were going to be welcomed into the pride.  What we’ve all learned about why the females are the way they are just reinforces what we already knew about you.”

Tristan tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.

“What did you already know?”  Her brow rose.

Micah grinned.  “That you’re different, but in a great way.  Not like any other female.”

“And ours,” Tristan added.

She smiled.  “I’m glad to be yours.”  She inhaled slowly and then exhaled sharply.  “Let’s go meet the pride under better circumstances.”

They got out of the truck, and Micah and Tristan both grabbed her hands and walked towards the front of the house.  Micah couldn’t help the snarl of unhappiness that rumbled in his chest as they walked through the front door and he recalled the night they’d had to steal Melody away.

“You’re growling,” she whispered.

“Sorry,” he replied, “my cat is feeling a little residual anger.”

She pulled them to a stop in the foyer and said with a low voice, “I don’t blame them.  They didn’t know any different, but now they do.  I’ve accepted their apologies and holding onto the anger isn’t going to do anyone any good.  Let’s put it behind us.  I have.”

His cat purred and Micah smiled down at his mate.  “You’re right.  I don’t want to be mad at my friends.”

“Me either,” Tristan added.

With a kiss to both of their cheeks, Melody started walking, and they fell into step with her, leaving the foyer and heading through the kitchen into the large family room.  Three big couches were set up in a U-shape with a coffee table in the center.  The entire pride was in the room, including Ethan, Eryx, Callie, their kids, and James and John’s older brother Rhett and his human wife, Lisa.  The couches overflowed, and chairs had been brought into the room so everyone had a seat.

James stood and motioned for them to stand in front of the fireplace that graced one wall.  Micah looked around the room.  Everyone was smiling.  He relaxed fractionally and felt Melody relax as well.

James cleared his throat.  “I’m not such a jerk that I can’t admit when I’m wrong.  Our whole lives, we’ve never known anything different than the detached relationship between the males and females of our people.  We accepted things as they were and although attempts were made to change them, most of our forefathers went to their graves with unrequited love for females.  When Melody swore she was different, I didn’t believe her.  I thought it was a trick, a way to get to us because it seemed like the females wouldn’t leave us alone to live our lives without them.  I was wrong.”  James looked at them and smiled sadly.  “I’m so sorry, Melody.  I know I apologized before, but I want to make sure the pride knows that I regret my behavior.  Aside from the fact that you’re different from the females and were telling the truth, I’m a police officer and should have never restrained you.  You’ve more than proven yourself to be a female of worth, and we welcome you into the pride with open arms and hearts.”

Melody’s voice was thick with emotion when she said, “My dad always wanted a pride like this.  If he were alive, he would gladly join your ranks, and I do as well.  With open arms and heart.”

Micah and Tristan released her hands, and James hugged her and kissed her cheek.  The pride cheered, and one by one, each member came up to welcome her.  The unmated males — Ray, Wesley, Chase, Dylan, and Hunter — shook her hand after Wesley leaned in to hug her and Tristan growled in warning.  Micah hadn’t much cared for the males touching her either, but somehow James and John hadn’t affected them.  Micah figured it was because they were older and had become more like father figures to them than romantic rivals.  Not that Melody was going to share her affections with anyone besides him and his brother.  Micah was positive that he and Tristan held Melody’s heart completely, the same way that she held both of theirs.

When the kids surrounded Melody, she broke down, falling to her knees and hugging all of them.  The kids, all very tenderhearted like their dads, cried along with her.  Micah’s eyes misted, and so did many of the other males.  It was difficult not to be affected by the sight before them.

James said, “It’s so easy for the kids.”  Looking at the other adults, he said with a sigh, “I wish it had been that way from the beginning.”

Melody wiped at her tears and gave them a watery smile.  Callie, Ethan, Eryx, and their young children were last.  They’d suffered a great deal at the hands of the females, but they were just as willing as the others to welcome Melody into the pride.  Their youngest, Cameron, who was going to be two in the fall, toddled into Melody’s arms and clutched a lock of her hair.

“Pwetty,” he said with a big smile, and Micah’s heart melted.  Melody stroked Cameron’s cheek and gave him a kiss, which earned her another smile.

Callie said, “Welcome to the pride, Melody.  I heard you like to take pictures.”

Melody stood, untangling herself from the mass of young kids, except Cameron, who clutched her leg with both chubby arms, and began to talk to Callie about the photography business she’d started in Bent Creek before her dad passed away.

Eryx came over to Micah and Tristan and shook their hands.  “Thanks for helping bring our cousin home.  I’m glad that you’re all okay now.”

Tristan nodded.  “Any news about the females who were arrested?”

Eryx shook his head.  “I’ve been in contact with the King police.  The Twin Pines police are keeping an eye on the house you were found in, just in case any of the females who escaped come back.  The others are supposed to be arraigned tomorrow, and Daniel Parker said that a good number of males were planning to go to the courthouse to protest bail.  I’ll let you know when I hear anything.”

Even knowing that the females acted the way they did because of an ancient curse didn’t change what had happened.  They’d caused untold damage to males over the years and, Micah was certain, would have eventually killed Melody and perhaps even him when he outgrew his usefulness.

The pride drifted away.  Ray and Wesley, who loved to play video games, turned on the game system, and several of the kids sat down to play with them.  Chase, Hunter, and Dylan, who worked at Kickers Bar in town, had to get ready for their shift and said goodbye, asking Micah, Tristan, and Melody to join them one evening for drinks after they’d settled in.  Jilly, her brother Henry, and John left the room, presumably to talk.  She still seemed a bit like a deer in headlights to Micah, as if she couldn’t believe where she was or what had happened.  He was just glad to see Henry and John happy and the haunted look out of their eyes after they had lost Jilly to the females.

He was grateful that their kids would never know the disappointment of not having a mother.  Their children would be the first full mountain lions to have parents who were together and not separated by a curse.

“What are you thinking about?” Tristan asked with a bemused look.

“Kids.”

Tristan grinned broadly.  “Me, too.  It was crazy seeing her with the cubs.  I’m anxious for it, to have kids of our own.”

“First, we have to propose.  I don’t want to have kids before we get married.”

“Then you better get on top of things and figure out a really great way for us to propose to her so we can get the ball rolling.”

“I’m working on it,” Micah promised.

* * * * *

He and Tristan were supposed to start work the following Monday, which meant they had less than a week to get Melody moved into the boarding house and propose to her.  Eventually, Micah had figured out how to propose, and Tristan was on-board with the plan immediately.

First, though, they had to take a trip to Bent Creek to get her belongings out of storage and visit with her werewolf friend, Scarlett.  On Thursday morning, they drove from Ashland to Bent Creek pulling a small trailer Tristan borrowed from the hardware store.  Melody said there was furniture in the storage unit, but most everything else was clothes and knickknacks.  When they pulled into the parking lot of the storage facility, Melody unlocked the unit.  It took them a little more than an hour to load up her things into the trailer and close out her account with the facility.

“So tell me about Scarlett,” Tristan said as they headed away from the storage unit and towards Scarlett’s apartment.

“Well, she’s a sweetheart.  Fiercely loyal.  Funny as hell.  She’s been my best friend for as long as I can remember.  We were together so much that people started calling us Melody-Scarlett, like we were one person and not two.”

“Are her parents alive?” Micah asked.

“Yes.  Her dad is Alpha of the pack and her mom is the Alpha Queen.”

“So Scarlett’s a princess?”

Melody laughed.  “No.  Her mom’s not a queen like a
queen,
but a breeding female.”

“Now I’m really confused,” Micah said.

“I don’t really understand it entirely, but it’s part of Scarlett’s family legacy.  All the women in her family marry alphas and become queens.  They basically become baby factories.  Scarlett has twelve brothers, and she’s the only female.  The Alpha Queen is supposedly an honorable position in the pack.  When Scarlett marries an alpha, she’ll become a breeding female.”

“I don’t know much about wolves,” Micah said, “but what if she doesn’t marry an alpha?  What if she doesn’t want to be a queen?”

Melody shrugged, but sadness flitted across her face.  “She doesn’t really have a choice.  Her pack is a big believer in destiny, in that it’s her obligation to mate with an alpha and become an Alpha Queen, because her mother and her mother’s mother and all through the generations have done it.  If she doesn’t mate with an alpha, her family will be shamed, and she opens herself up for banishment.”

“Because she might fall in love with someone else?”

“Wolves are strange,” Melody said with a shrug.

“Wolves probably think that mountain lions are strange,” Micah added.

“I know they do, because she never understood why I couldn’t be around other female lions and I never knew, either.  She’ll be really surprised to know that it’s because of an ancient curse.  Which is really strange in and of itself anyway.”

Which was very true.

Scarlett opened the door to her first-floor apartment with a squeal.  She and Melody embraced and hopped up and down, laughing and talking quickly.  Micah enjoyed seeing her so happy to be with her friend again.

Melody turned to Micah and Tristan and said, “Scarlett, these are my mates, Micah and Tristan.  This is my best friend, Scarlett.”

They shook hands, and she invited them into the apartment.  “Tell me everything,” Scarlett demanded after they sat down on a couch in the front room.

Melody had already shared a lot with her friend through phone calls, but she filled in the gaps about what had happened after being captured.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Scarlett demanded.  “Where are those females?  I’ll kill them with my bare hands.”

Melody laughed.  “I know you would, Scar, and I love you for it.  But they’re in the wind.”

Scarlett looked at them blankly.  “I thought a few of them were arrested?”

Tristan explained that they’d received word on Tuesday that the judge had given the females bail.  He was human and hadn’t had much contact with weres.  He didn’t believe the males who insisted that the females would bolt as soon as they could and he’d been wrong.  As soon as the females posted bail, they headed to the house in Twin Pines.  Even though two police cars had watched the house that night, by morning the females were gone.  It is widely believed that the females who had escaped during the melee on Sunday had been waiting for the females to be released and helped them get away from the house without being seen.

“We think they headed up to Canada where the other females are,” Tristan finished.

“You think, but you don’t know?”  Scarlett raised a brow.  “That sucks.”

Melody shivered.  “Tell me about it.”

“Well, if any of those females ever think about laying a hand on my bestie again, they’ll be in for the shock of their lives,” Scarlett growled.

Micah smiled inwardly.  He was glad that his sweetheart had such a fierce friend.

They spent the afternoon with Scarlett, who promised to visit soon.  It was dark by the time they returned to the boarding house, so they ate a late dinner and headed to bed.  Friday morning, Micah left Tristan and Melody to unload the trailer with the help of some of the males in the home while he went about preparing their surprise proposal.  Saturday couldn’t come fast enough.

* * * * *

 Saturday evening Tristan packed dinner into a picnic basket, and the three of them walked into the woods where there was a small clearing and settled in for dinner.  It was hot, but the trees provided shade, and there were plenty of cool things to eat in the basket.  Micah laid out the red plaid blanket, and Tristan arranged the dishes and food while Melody watched with a curious smile.  Toasting with sparkling fruit punch, Micah raised his glass and said, “To us.”