Marking Melody

by R. E. Butler

  Marking Melody

  An Ashland Pride Novel

  By R. E. Butler

  Copyright 2014 R. E. Butler

  Marking Melody (Ashland Pride Three)

  By R. E. Butler

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  Cover by Valerie Tibbs

  This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.

  Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.

  * * * * *

  I’d like to thank Jennifer Moorman for editing the story.

  Valerie Tibbs — thank you for the beautiful cover. You are a treasure.

  I sincerely thank Amanda Pederick for not only beta-reading the story for me, but writing the “curse” poem, and brain-storming with me over the storyline. You’re the best and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  To my Aunt B. L. and to my husband, B. B., I love you both. To Jackie G., your help and friendship are invaluable. To Jacq McNeill, I love you bunches. To Joyce B., my sisterfriend, I’m proud to call you friend.

  And many thanks and much love to the Shifter Babes Street Team for their endless support.

  Table of Contents

  Preface

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Contact the Author

  Other Works by R. E. Butler

  Coming Soon

  Preface

  *Thirteen Years Earlier*

  The tall woman with yellow hair held out the piece of candy to Jilly Fallon. The woman smiled, and so did several other tall yellow-haired ladies with her. “Go on, Jillian. It’s just a piece of candy.”

  “My daddy said I shouldn’t take candy from strangers,” Jilly answered. “And my name is Jilly.”

  One of the women knelt in front of Jilly in the park where she played with friends. “I’m a friend of your dad’s, Jillian, so I’m not a stranger.”

  Jilly took the candy, unwrapping it from the paper and looking at the pink candy. Jilly knew she shouldn’t take the candy, but it smelled like strawberries and that was her favorite thing. And the ladies were smiling. They seemed…nice. She popped the oval candy into her mouth. It tasted like strawberries.

  Jilly felt tired suddenly. Her eyes watered and her fingers tingled. She felt herself start to fall, but one of the ladies picked her up and carried her.

  “Don’t worry, little lioness, it will all make sense soon. You’re about to become part of our sisterhood and you’ll never be alone again.”

  Chapter 1

  Micah Harrison was having a difficult time keeping his body under control. Normally, he wouldn’t have to worry about a raging hard-on, his gums tingling from his fangs wanting to slide down, or his fingers aching to touch flesh. But nothing about the current situation was normal.

  Just hours earlier, he and his brother, Tristan, had helped a female mountain lion escape captivity from their own mountain lion pride. He couldn’t remember ever going against the pride before, but the situation demanded they act and act fast. Melody Marx was no ordinary female mountain lion. She was their mate.

  Her head rested on his shoulder, her long blonde hair tickling his skin where it brushed against his bicep. He held her hand as she sat between him and Tristan, and Tristan held her other hand. Nothing had ever felt so strange but so right in all his life.

  Before Melody, he’d never met a female mountain lion who had empathy towards anyone else. The females of their kind were known to be cold and cruel, desiring neither love nor family. Their pride had been in King, Pennsylvania, for many decades, but once a set of brothers named Ethan and Eryx Fallon found their truemate in a she-wolf named Callie, the pride split. Ethan and Eryx took their mate to Ashland, Indiana, and within months their family followed. The King Pride splintered after two females were killed breaking into the home of a pride member’s human girlfriend. The females left King and as far as the males knew, they were in Canada somewhere, but the females were not intent to leave the males alone. Even though the females didn’t want the males as mates, they didn’t want the males to find mates of their own either.

  Micah and Tristan had decided to join the males in Ashland with a handful of other males. Since they’d moved to Ashland, the females had tried to kidnap the cubs who lived in the boarding house they shared, and they’d also sent a den of were-bears to wreak havoc on the pride.

  That was where they found Melody. She’d shifted into her sleek cat form and saved the life of the she-bear who had mated to Alek Fallon, Ethan and Eryx’s younger brother. Melody had been knocked out in the process, and when the bears were dealt with, the elder lions in the house decided to lock her up in an empty storage room and interrogate her on the whereabouts of the females.

  Melody yawned and Micah’s mind drifted back to how she’d looked in the room when he and Tristan snuck in to set her free. Frightened, covered in nothing but a towel with a rope around her neck tying her to an old radiator, and so sad it broke his heart. He didn’t know much about her at all, but he did know that she was unlike the other females and that they were meant for each other. Him and Tristan for her, and her for both of them.

  He released her hand and put his arm around her. He would never have dared to touch a female mountain lion like this before unless he wanted to get clawed within an inch of his life. The females didn’t go for cuddling of any kind. But Melody proved in one more way how different she was as she snuggled against him with another yawn and rested her hand on his thigh.

  He groaned internally at the feel of her body pressed to his. It was the sweetest torture.

  Tristan said, “We’ll stop for gas in about two hours and get something to eat. If you want to take a nap, we’ll wake you when we stop.”

  “You must have heard me yawn,” she said, and Micah could tell she was smiling.

  Micah said, “It’s been a long, stressful night.”

  She snuggled even closer and let out a deep sigh. After several quiet minutes, he felt her relax and her breathing evened out as she fell asleep. He’d never felt anything quite as wonderful as his arm around his sleeping mate. She trusted him without knowing anything about him. He cherished that trust, and he hoped he never did anything to shake her faith in him.

  “I’m fucking toast,” Tristan muttered.

  Micah looked over at his brother and saw that he was rubbing the top of Melody’s hand with his thumb.

  Tristan glanced at him and shrugged, lowering his voice to a whisper. “She’s gorgeous. She trusts us to keep her safe. And her scent is making my cat yowl in my head. I’m toast.”

  Micah smiled, feeling the same way. He lowered his voice when he spoke, “Where should we take her?”

/>   “When we stop, we’ll find out if she knows where her uncles live in King. I don’t remember anyone with the last name of Marx, so I’m betting that her dad changed their name when he left. If she knows what their real last name is, then we can find them in the phone book. If not, then Dad might know.”

  Micah nodded. “I would have done the same thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “If I had a daughter when we lived in King with the females, I would have taken her out of town the minute she was born. Melody was raised entirely away from the females. It appears to be the only reason that she’s compassionate and not all fucked up like the others.”

  “I would have gone with you.”

  At Micah’s confusion, Tristan clarified. “If you had a baby girl and wanted to leave town to keep her safe, I wouldn’t have let you go alone. I wonder why her uncles let her dad go off on his own.”

  “Maybe he didn’t tell them? Maybe he was worried about being found?” Micah offered.

  Tristan hit the cruise control button and settled back in his seat, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “Whatever the reason, it scares me shitless that we might never have known her if the events of the last year of her life had never happened. If her dad had never died, if she hadn’t been kidnapped by the females and kept prisoner there. If she hadn’t come to Ashland to warn us of the bears’ attack.”

  Micah shivered inwardly and tightened his hold on Melody. “I don’t like thinking about that.”

  “Me neither. But we have her now, and I’m damn well never letting her go.”

  * * * * *

  Micah gently nudged Melody awake when Tristan pulled into the rest area two hours later at five a.m. She lifted her face and blinked slowly as she woke.

  “King?”

  “Rest stop.”

  Her brow furrowed a bit and she smiled sheepishly. “Right, I forgot.” She lifted herself and hugged Micah, kissing his cheek. “Thank you for letting me use you as a pillow.”

  He hugged her back. “It was my pleasure.”

  She leaned back and smiled. “I didn’t snore, did I?”

  Tristan chuckled. “Not a peep.”

  “Oh, good,” she said as Micah opened the passenger door and got out, holding his hand out to her. She took it, sliding across the bench seat and hopping down. “I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself so soon.”

  Micah squeezed her hand as they walked to the front of the truck where Tristan waited. He didn’t tell her, but it ran through his mind that she could snore like a foghorn and he wouldn’t care. She shouldered her bag and took Tristan’s hand, and Micah thought it seemed as though it was almost a natural instinct for her to touch them. He wondered if she was feeling the same connection to them as they were to her. He wanted to ask her, but he was afraid to push her too quickly. She had just met them a few hours ago, and the males from their pride hadn’t made a great impression.

  Inside the sprawling rest area, Tristan went into the men’s bathroom and Melody went into the ladies’ bathroom. Micah stood in the alcove between both and kept watch. He and Tristan decided not to both go in at the same time, in case Melody finished first and had to stand outside alone. It wasn’t that either of them believed that the pride would come after them to get to her, or that the females might somehow know where they were, but it was what their instincts told them to do.

  When Tristan finished and Melody was not out yet, Micah went into the restroom and used the facilities. When he came out, Tristan stood next to Melody with his arm around her. Melody had changed into her own clothes, and she stood in a pair of black shorts and a dark blue short sleeved top. He had grabbed the clothes laying on the ground next to her bag when he went to retrieve them after they set her free from the storage room in the boarding house. She had told him that the bag was important to her, not only because it contained her identification, but also because it had personal items in it. He was glad he had been able to find it. Although he liked seeing her wearing the pants and shirt that he and Tristan had provided for her, he knew she was more comfortable in her own clothes.

  The three of them, all holding hands, went into the food court. Only two places were open early – a coffee shop and a mini-mart. She stood between them as they looked over the coffee shop’s menu and a bored worker waited for them to make their choices.

  “Is it weird that I could totally go for a meat pizza?” Melody asked.

  “Pizza’s great for breakfast,” Micah agreed. “Too bad we can’t have it right now.”

  She smiled at him and then looked back up at the menu, finally ordering a yogurt and fruit parfait and a large coffee. He and Tristan ordered coffee and blueberry muffins and while Tristan took their tray to an empty table, Micah fixed both of their coffees while Melody fixed hers. They joined Tristan.

  After a few minutes, Tristan put his muffin down and said, “Melody, we wanted to ask you about your family.”

  She swallowed the spoonful of yogurt and nodded. “Ask away.”

  “We don’t remember any pride members with your last name. Do you know if your dad changed your name or if your uncles have different last names than you?”

  “I didn’t know until I was sixteen that he had changed both our last names to Marx. I was looking for my birth certificate in my dad’s file box so I could apply for my driver’s license and found an original with a different last name — Whitman.”

  Micah’s mouth fell open in surprise. “Your uncles are Holden and Jackson? They work at the gas station in King.”

  Tristan’s brows rose. “Your dad was Bradley?”

  She nodded and Micah saw her eyes shine with tears. “You knew my dad?”

  Tristan shook his head and reached for her hand. “No, sweet, but we know your uncles. Your dad left when we were little. Your uncles refused to talk about your dad when he was gone.”

  Her face scrunched up and she pressed her lips into a tight line like she was trying not to cry. Micah put his arm around her. “Melody, they must have kept quiet about you to protect you and your dad. Don’t be sad.”

  She pressed trembling hands to her face and took in a deep breath. “You guys must think I’m a mess.”

  “Of course not,” Tristan scoffed, and she lifted her head from her hands to look at him. “You’re not like any female we’ve ever known. You’re kind and sweet and clearly compassionate. Your father did something that no other males have done before – he kept you from being influenced by the females.”

  “My dad told me about my uncles, but he refused to let me talk to them or see them or for them to even visit. I think he communicated with them, but I don’t know if they ever really knew where we lived or not.” She opened her mouth to say something else, but then closed it.

  “What, sweet?” Micah asked, turning her face with his fingers on her chin.

  “What if they don’t trust me?”

  Micah felt his heart crack a little. “They’re your family, Melody.”

  “But isn’t the pride supposed to be like an extended family? The males in your group treated me like a criminal. If you hadn’t helped me, they were going to take me to jail.”

  “They didn’t know how special you are,” Micah said.

  She turned slightly in the seat so she could see both of them and then she stilled. “I’m not anything like the females in Canada.”

  He couldn’t place her tone, but she sounded almost defiant. “Of course you’re not,” Micah said.

  “Do you really think that we would have walked away from our home for a normal female?” Tristan asked. He leaned forward, resting his arms on the tabletop. “We saw you save that she-bear, Melody. You attacked a man to protect another woman. There isn’t a female lion who I’ve ever known who would do something like that except perhaps for another female lion. The minute I saw you, I knew you were different.” He paused, and Micah saw emotion fill his brother’s face. “We’d do anything to keep you safe. We wouldn’t take you to King if we thought you wou
ldn’t be safe there.”

  The silence hung heavy in the air between them. Micah struggled to find something to say, but Tristan had laid out a lot of truths about their beliefs on why she was different from the other females because of her actions and the way she was raised. Micah wasn’t sure what Melody was thinking.

  She flattened her palms on the table and stood, the chair scraping on the linoleum with the motion. “I’m not really hungry any more, but thanks for the coffee.”

  Grabbing her bag and picking up the yogurt container and coffee, she walked away, tossing the food into the trash as she walked by, and heading straight for the door.

  Chapter 2

  Shit.

  “Should we go after her?” Tristan asked as worry tightened his gut. Somewhere along the way they’d gone from Melody being comfortable with them to her distancing herself.

  “You’re asking me?” Micah said, snorting with disbelief.

  Tristan watched Melody walk towards the doors that led to the parking lot and every protective instinct in him roared to life. He stood, grabbed Micah by his shirt, and pulled him out of his seat. “She’s not going outside alone.”

  He released Micah, and the two tossed their trash and followed quickly behind her. By the time they passed through the doors, Melody was leaning against the passenger door of his truck with her arms crossed and her head down. She was around 5’7”, but she looked small and lost.

  He and Micah stood in front of her. She didn’t lift her head.

  “Melody?” Micah asked.

  She scuffed the ground with the heel of her sandal. “What if they are afraid of me the way that the males in your house were?”

  “Who?” Tristan asked.

  “My uncles. The King Pride.” She lifted her head slowly and met their eyes. She wasn’t crying, but grief and worry filled her eyes.