by Jade Thorn
They were so distracted by their bickering that they didn’t notice anyone approaching until it was too late. Shawna stood behind Nick, lacing her fingers through his hair, while the blonde frizzy-haired witch had her hands on Ryan’s shoulders. Jaynie had her arms wrapped firmly around Justin while she snuggled into his side, forcing his arm around her. At least Melody wanted to think that it was forced.
“What do you say, Nick baby, you wanna be my partner tomorrow morning, Melody already has both hands full of cock,” Shawna purred, and Nick scowled, ducking out of her grasp. Ryan stood and walked to stand behind Melody.
“I can’t shift in the room, which you would realise if you had half a brain,” he snapped.
“Oh baby, who said anything about going to class?” Shawna simpered, and her friends giggled like the sycophants they were.
“You’re fucking deluded if you think for a second that I’d be interested,” sneered Nick as he walked away from Shawna, also coming to stand behind Melody. Without saying a word, the others joined him.
“Where’s Trent?” asked the frizzy-haired witch.
“He’s in my cottage, trying to avoid a psycho bitch who won’t take no for an answer,” Melody snarked, but Shawna beamed.
“He can hide from you in my room any time,” she purred.
Melody rolled her eyes. There was no point in talking to these bitches, they were insane. “I’m going back to study with Trent, at least there’s intelligent conversation there,” she said, walking away.
“Hey, Slut?” called Shawna behind them. “If you’re so fucking amazing, and the Apex are all yours, why haven’t you bonded them? Why haven’t they challenged you?”
Shawna paused allowing the other students in the room to take notice of the drama unfolding, but Melody pushed on through the press of bodies that had gathered to watch the confrontation.
“Unless they’re not all yours after all. Justin seems to have found a better witch at least. I’m sure we can help the others to escape you as well. Who knows, even Dean and Asher might find a better offer heading their way.”
There were gasps from around the room.
You didn’t mess around with bonds and you didn’t steal a familiar from another witch, you didn’t even joke about it. Shawna’s taunt took it all a step too far, and she only seemed to realise it once the crowd had started to back away from her.
“I wouldn’t be the first witch to rescue a shifter from a bond that they didn’t want,” she declared, trying to regain her position.
“Woman, no shifter would be stupid enough to fall for your honey trap. You promise heaven, but you’re cruel and twisted and totally self absorbed. You see familiars as prizes, possessions, and you treat them accordingly. You were never interested in me, only in the status that my alpha lion brought to you. So give it up already,” Dean chuckled, a dark sound in the brightly lit hall.
“Although you’ve already given it up for me and a dozen or so other shifters here, none of us will challenge you. You can offer to spread your legs for Nick as many times as you want, he’s never going to take you up on it, none of us will. We’ve all got better taste than that, and we’d all rather spend another century in this prison than be bonded to the likes of you.” He turned his back on her and pushed to the forefront of their group, parting the crowd before him like a knife through butter, clearing the way for Melody and the others to follow in his wake.
Melody wanted to cheer, but decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Still, the whole thing had lifted her spirits a little. That was until she realised that Justin wasn’t coming back with them. He was still held in Jaynie’s clutches, now back at their table where the women talked and looked pointedly at Melody and the others as they walked to the exit. When they left the hall and Justin didn’t join them, a piece of her heart broke off and stayed with him.
11. Melody
The next meeting with the provost had come around, and at the end of the day, Melody nervously headed towards Mrs Hardinger’s counselling room. It caused less fuss for her to turn up there than at the provost’s office or house. People would just assume that she was meeting with Mrs Hardinger, and if the provost was seen in the vicinity, it was well known that the two women were close friends and had been for decades.
It spoke not only of the pressure on the provost to remain neutral, but the eyes on Melody that they needed such cloak and dagger tactics to meet in peace. She would do what she could, however, to reduce the attention on her, and to protect the woman who she suspected cared for her more than anyone had in a long time.
When Melody walked in with Dean and Asher in tow, she was unsurprised to find the two powerful women already sitting with tea in their hands and chatting animatedly—the last two times the provost had arrived in the middle of her session with Mrs Hardinger. The conversation stopped abruptly when she entered, hinting that it was likely about her situation.
Three chairs were waiting for them and Melody took the one closest to the provost, leaving the men to sort themselves out.
“How are your wounds healing, Melody?” the provost asked her.
“Slowly, but surely,” she replied, looking to her shifters to ensure they agreed. “Now that I’ve bonded Asher, they’re definitely healing, it’s just a lot slower than last time. I thought it may be because of my own weakened state, but Nick thinks it’s ….”
A warning heat on her back, and the gasps of her two shifters who felt it, let her know she was getting too close to maligning her coven. Goddess, Melody trusted these two women so much now, she’d forgotten the most basic of restrictions on her.
“Yes,” Mrs Hardinger broke in smoothly. “I am sure there are other important factors involved. We can talk with him later to see what can be done to ameliorate it.”
Melody nodded, there was little else she could say.
“And are these two louts behaving themselves? I can’t imagine it’s peaceful in your little cottage right now,” Mrs Hardinger asked with her customary directness.
Dean stilled beside her, but Asher gave off a low growl.
She sighed. Well, there went any opportunity of saying that all was going well.
“I’m not going to lie,” she said, finally. “The tension is thick enough to cut with a knife. The two of them dislike each other so much, that it’s almost a health hazard to move around them. I’ve told them that if they need to fight it out, to take it outside. I’m not wasting my magic repairing things they break because they can’t keep their tempers under control.”
Mrs Hardinger blinked at her, then looked at the two men.
“She really said that? She’s not just putting on a show for the provost and me?”
Dean’s bond vibrated. He wasn’t happy that Melody told them that, but honestly, what did he expect? Over half the fights between the two of them were instigated by Dean’s dominance plays and all but marking his territory around Melody. She was over it.
“She really fucking said it,” growled Asher, equally unhappy.
Mrs Hardinger barked a laugh. “Well, good for you. I didn’t think you had it in you, but I should have known that you were your mother’s daughter. You need to be firm with them from the start, if you’re ever to have peace. Especially when there’s antagonism between the two of them. Give them a century or two together and they’ll mellow out, I should think, but for now they’ll be all about measuring their dicks and wrestling for the rank of top dog. Or top beast, rather.”
Melody nodded, she’d expected as much. Something similar had happened back at the compound when Malcolm had arrived. It had caused quite the furor and the fights had been plentiful until the pecking order had sorted itself out. Then everyone had settled back down. Well, mostly. Still, something else Mrs Hardinger said pulled at her attention.
“You knew my mother?” Melody asked.
The two women looked at each other, an entire conversation held in a glance.
“Yes, we did,” Mrs Hardinger said after a mome
nt. “I was in Georgia’s year, but Augusta was in Adelaide’s.”
“You both attended here? I didn’t know that,” Dean said, surprise colouring his tone.
“We did,” Mrs Hardinger said, her eyes twinkling merrily. “It was eighty years before I came back to teach here, but yes, I once ran through these halls chomping at the bit to get my hands on a hot shifter.”.
The provost sighed, shaking her head and smiling. “Now Melody,” she began, trying to change the subject, but she was interrupted by Mrs Hardinger.
“Oh please, Augusta. Like you were any better. In fact, I remember that one particularly hot summer with you and the Carson twins and a large tub of cold water. It didn’t seem to shrink anything, come to think of it…”
“Janet!” screeched the provost, and the other woman subsided with an evil grin.
Melody gaped. This was the last thing she’d expected when they came here this afternoon.
“That’s better,” Mrs Hardinger said, looking at her. “Child, you looked like the sky was going to fall down and you were the only one who could hold it up. You’re much more relaxed now.”
The provost made a strangled noise, fidgeting in her chair.
“Oh, sit on it, Augusta. The last thing Melody needs is two more women with power over her, telling her what to do. She needs friends, she needs people she can trust, and she needs us to treat her like a real person instead of a problem.”
The two older women turned to look at her.
“Is that how you see yourself, Melody?” the provost asked her. “Do you see yourself as the problem? And what of your roommate, Carla? I thought you had made friends.”
Well, that was a whole other kettle of fish. After the brief moment of shocking levity, Melody felt her spirits sink again.
“She’s tied up with her new familiar. This is all new to her, so it’s taking her some time to adjust to the bond,” she lied.
She could feel the tension in her familiars, but hoped they wouldn’t give her away.
“Really?” Mrs Hardinger asked with a sly look. “As a newly bonded pair, they’ve been visiting me three times a week. I have to say, I’ve rarely met a pair so well suited. I think they’re going to be just fine once they’ve fully adjusted.”
“It doesn’t mean that her bond isn’t overwhelming and all-consuming,” Melody continued. She wasn’t exactly lying, Carla was probably enjoying it all and was completely distracted. It didn’t change the fact that they were no longer best friends, but she knew it was part of it. For some reason, Carla wouldn’t forgive her poor wording, and whatever had been between them was fading further by the day. Melody just didn’t have the energy to put into rescuing it. Not when she had bigger things to worry about.
The silence in the room made her skin prickle, but she wasn’t going to get Carla in trouble now, and she certainly wasn’t going to make the two women worry about her any more than they already were.
“You didn’t answer my first question, Melody. Do you really see yourself as a burden to us all?”
There was nothing she could say, and for once, it wasn’t the geasen stilling her tongue. Of course she was a burden. Melody could see clearly how they were worried about her, dancing around her, caring for her. That was the very definition of burden—taking action to care for another that wouldn’t normally be required.
The provost stood, walked over to her and then knelt down at Melody’s feet.
“Your mother was my best friend,” she began. “Adelaide was the brightest witch of our generation, loved by students and shifters alike and she shone like a beacon while she was here at Adolphus. We lost touch when we left to return to our covens. Her mother died shortly afterward and my own upbringing was, well, unusual.”
Mrs Hardinger murmured her agreement.
“Georgia was always jealous. Everything always seemed to come so smoothly, so perfectly to her older sister, that Georgia failed to notice just how hard your mother worked at it. Melody, your mother didn’t just take her gift for granted, she worked tirelessly to be the best beast tamer that this school has ever seen,” the provost watched her carefully. “Well, the best until the arrival of her daughter.”
Melody shook her head. No, no, she wasn’t as amazing as her mother. She couldn’t be better than her. Her mother was the best thing in the world, the best witch, the most amazing mother, the perfect woman. There was no way that Melody could outshine that. She didn’t want to. She was perfectly happy to bask in the light cast by her mother’s memory.
“It’s the matriarchal power,” Melody huffed out. “I’m stronger because of it. I’m not special, not like my mother was. She was ….” Words failed her as her throat tightened.
Dean scooted his chair closer to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her gently into his side.
“Don’t cry, Mel, please? We can’t stand to see you cry any more. Please, baby. No more tears,” he begged.
Asher was silent, but she could feel his support through the bond. She knew this was hard on him, hard on all of them, but he’d made this choice. They had tried to give him an out, but he had stubbornly chosen her, and now this was what he had to deal with. It was miraculous he tolerated her at all.
It was amazing how complex their bonds were becoming. She couldn’t hear their thoughts, only the strongest of bonds allowed for that, but she could feel their hearts, their desires. Despite her wish to hold them at arm’s length, these two shifters were rapidly worming their way into her heart. Even Asher. No wonder so many witches ended up secretly sleeping with their familiars. The bond urged them to come together.
Never before had Melody held onto a bond for this long. She’d had no idea of the depth that it could contain, the strength it had, and the purity they shared. What they felt for her was genuine and honest, and she could do little but return the sentiment. For the first time, she understood.
“You understand what?” Mrs Hardinger asked her.
Melody blinked, wondering what she had missed while she was distracted by the bond.
“Melody, you said for the first time you understand. What is it that you understand, child?”
Oh, goddess! She’d spoken that aloud. She couldn’t admit it to them, even if they could feel it from her. She couldn’t sit there and blandly tell them that the bond was winning, that she couldn’t hold her heart back from them for much longer. Even Asher was growing on her. The fact that the provost and Mrs Hardinger were there only made it worse. The first would smile happily at her, the latter would give her a knowing look and a wink. No, she couldn’t address this right now.
However.
She could address the other side of the coin.
From knowing how the beginning of the bond felt, she could only imagine how bad it would feel when an established one ended. No wonder so many shifters died. It wasn’t the magic, it was the shock. The heartbreaking horror of it.
“I know why so many came to us,” she finally answered. “Even after there were … irregularities, still many shifters came to us to be bonded. Some of them were much older than you would expect. Now that I’m experiencing a bond longer than half an hour, I know why they came. The older ones.”
Everyone looked at each other, confused.
“The shifters who came to us, they’d all been bonded before. All of them. They all came with broken bonds. I always thought it was because their witch had died, but it couldn’t have been. Not so many. They came, because their bonds were broken. Because the bond pulled on the witches to love their familiars, and those who succumbed were forced to break. Or maybe the coven didn’t approve of the familiar beast. It’s just…”
She looked at them all, lost for words. Yes, for her the bond was wondrous, because she had the freedom to explore it. Although the idea of her aunt jumping for joy at the thought of Melody pregnant to a strong shifter was enough to put her off the idea for life.
“I didn’t understand why they didn’t go back to the pack lands, and let the
alpha and the witches there help them with their shifts. But it wouldn’t have been enough, would it? They would have pined for a new bond for the rest of their lives.”
Mrs Hardinger sighed and nodded. “Yes, you’re right. I don’t know why nobody thought of that before. Probably because we didn’t really look exactly at who was joining their ranks, but it does make more sense.”
“I don’t understand,” Dean said, looking at her with sadness.
She knew he could feel her heart breaking. Craig had to be the latest. She bet if she looked him up, found out his life story leading up to his arrival at Bestia, he would be a perfect example of what she now feared.
“Not long before I came here, Craig arrived at the coven. There aren’t as many who come to us as there used to be, but some still come. He was older, but still in his prime, his panther was magnificent.”
Twin growls sounded from beside her.
“Enough of that, let her talk,” Mrs Hardinger snapped.
“I was brought out to break him in. It’s my role at Bestia, for the good of the coven,” she said with a sour taste in her mouth. “They’re ordered to challenge me. I don’t look threatening, I’m young, obviously young enough to bear children. Most of them don’t hesitate. They challenge me, I make them shift and the bond forms. It’s for the good of the coven.”
Maybe, just maybe if she could keep saying that, it would stop the geasen from silencing her this time. Maybe she could make them understand what a monster she was. It was too late for Dean and Asher, but they’d be able to warn the others away. Even if they couldn’t, the provost and Mrs Hardinger would protect them. The two older witches were clever and powerful, they’d find a way to protect the others.
“But it doesn’t make sense to have the youngest witch with the strongest shifters. So, my aunt would break the bond, and make the shifter challenge me again.” This was where things would get dicey. “Of course, it’s unpleasant to have it broken, and they’d be angry, and almost all of them would refuse. So, my aunt would discipline me for the good of the coven. The shifters would see how well cared for they would be, with routine and structure and discipline, and they would leap at the chance to try to join us again.”
