by R. E. Butler
The remainder of the drive to King passed quickly as she talked with her mates. Micah and Tristan were the sweetest guys she’d ever met. Tristan was older than Micah by thirteen months, but they were clearly very close. They both worked at a home improvement store and lived at the boarding house. She was worried about them losing their friends in the pride because of her, but they assured her that they felt as if they had gained more in a day with her than they’d had in their whole lives. Their words humbled her.
King, Pennsylvania, was a small town in the mountains. The original pride numbered more than one hundred males and females who had lived in King for many years. For as long as anyone could recall, the females and males had never mated because the females refused. Typical females were cold towards the males, agreeable to sex but not relationships. They didn’t care about the children they bore except wanting the young females once they were old enough to shift.
“Dad said he always thought that the females did something to the young females to change them into the cold creatures they become,” she said.
Tristan hummed in his throat. “No one really knows, but they must do something, because I remember when John’s daughter, Jilly, was a baby. She was the cuddliest little girl and gave kisses to everyone. She was three or four maybe, when she started to change. It was gradual, but eventually she pulled away entirely and refused any sort of contact with the males. Did your dad say why he decided to leave with you when you were a baby?”
“He said that when the doctor handed me to him when I was first born, because the female who bore me didn’t even want to touch me, he looked at the female and asked her how she could be so cruel as to carry a child for nine months but not even care whether I was breathing or not. She told him that she was a vessel for carrying on the mountain lion race, and eventually I would become a vessel, too. He said that he knew in that moment that if he stayed in King, he would lose me. He left with me that night and settled in Bent Creek. He made friends with the local werewolf alpha, who is Scarlett’s father, Quentin, and he promised that if the females ever showed up looking for me, he would make sure that I was safe if my dad couldn’t.”
Tristan asked, “Would you like to live in Bent Creek?”
She chewed on her bottom lip. “You think that I won’t be welcome in King or Ashland?”
Micah hedged, “We can live wherever you want.”
“That’s not what I asked,” she said as she folded her arms.
“Don’t be mad, sweetheart,” Micah begged, pulling her arms apart. “We just don’t know.”
Tristan sighed. “James left a message that they were sorry for not believing you and that you were welcome to join the pride with us.”
“Really?”
He nodded but she didn’t think he was really happy about it. She waited for a moment, and he finally glanced at her before sighing deeply. “He said you were welcome as long as you don’t start acting like a female.”
Ouch.
“So they’ll be watching me.”
Tristan nodded. His jaw tensed and his knuckles turned white on the steering wheel.
“I don’t blame them.”
Tristan snorted and looked at her in disbelief. “They don’t even know you. They have no right to judge.”
“You don’t really know me either,” she pointed out.
He snarled. “I know you’re my mate and that means you’re different than the females. That should be enough for them. I won’t have you feeling like your every move is being monitored or your every motive questioned.”
She opened her mouth but closed it when she realized she didn’t know what to say. The Ashland Pride was welcoming her conditionally and who knew how the King Pride would react. She leaned her head on Tristan’s shoulder, wrapped her arm around his, and reached for Micah’s hand. “As long as we’re together, I feel like everything else will work out okay. No matter where we are, we’re mates and no one can take that from us.”
Micah pressed her hand to his cheek, and although they seemed to relax fractionally, she could tell that they were worried about what would happen when they arrived in King. Her father had wanted her to go to his brothers, so she was going with the assumption that they would be happy to see her, not try to run her out of town on a rail.
* * * * *
King Automotive was a large brick building with three garage bays and four gas pumps. According to Tristan, the garage was owned by Brad Fallon, who was a cousin of several of the males in the boarding house, and her uncles worked for him. Tristan pulled the truck in front of one pump and turned off the engine. Micah opened his door and held out his hand to her. Her mouth was dry and her heart was pounding in her chest. She didn’t know what she’d do if her uncles rejected her because she was a female. Although she believed that her dad had been in contact with them all these years, she didn’t know for sure. She hadn’t called them after her dad died because she wanted to tell them in person.
She took Micah’s hand and climbed out of the truck.
“Fill up?” a man’s voice said to her left, and she looked at the man who had spoken.
He froze mid-stride. “Melody?”
The man had her father’s light brown hair and green eyes. She didn’t know which uncle he was, but she didn’t care.
He closed the distance to her in two long strides, snatching her up into his arms and crushing her against his chest. “Shit, baby girl, we thought you were dead.”
Her feet weren’t even on the ground as he hugged her tight. She could feel him shaking as he tried to rein in his emotions, but she didn’t mind him losing it, because she was losing it, too. She was crying right along with him, twisting her hands in his work shirt.
“Holden? What’s going on?” another man said.
Uncle Holden lifted his head from her shoulder and grinned down at her, his green eyes bright with tears. Not taking his eyes from hers, he said, “It’s Melody, Jax. Where have you been, baby girl?”
Uncle Jackson, who went by Jax, came up to them, stared at her for a few heartbeats and then hugged her, too, sandwiching her between them until she could hardly breathe. Seeing her uncles again reminded her how much she missed her dad and how important family was.
“It’s a long story,” she said, looking at her Uncle Jax who was scrubbing at his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Come on into the office,” Jax said.
“Wait, my mates.” She felt a little weak-kneed when Holden put her down, and Tristan and Micah raced to her side to support her.
Holden and Jax both looked at her with curious, suspicious gazes. “Mates?”
She chuckled and tears slipped over her cheeks. “I think you know Micah and Tristan Harrison. They’re my mates and, well, we have a lot to talk about.”
Jax, the older of the two, narrowed his green eyes at her mates and said, “Thank you for bringing Melody to us. Let’s go talk.”
Holden said, “Pull your truck around to the side and then come inside.”
Tristan kissed Melody’s cheek and went to move the truck, and she and Micah followed her uncles into the garage.
They walked past a counter with a cash register, a set of double doors that led out to the bays, and several storage rooms with shelves full of automotive supplies. Holden opened a door and stepped into a small office. It contained a metal desk with a worn office chair, metal folding chairs, bookshelves stuffed with books on automotive repair, and in the center of the top shelf she saw a picture of her father and her uncles.
She left Micah and moved to the shelf, picking up the wooden frame and brushing away a light layer of dust.
Jax spoke softly, “It was the only thing we kept out for people to see.”
She turned around, unsure of what he meant. Jax gestured to the folding chairs, and she sat down. Micah sat in the chair next to her, and Tristan walked into the office, shut the door, and stood behind her, his hand resting on her shoulder.
“Bradley had been talking about leav
ing with you for several weeks before you were born. No one had ever left the pride before, not with a baby, so we encouraged him to reconsider. The night you were born, when we came to the hospital and he told us what your birth mother said, we realized that he was right. He had to get you away from the females before you were corrupted by whatever it is they do to turn the young girls away from their families and other males,” Jax said. He sat down heavily in the desk chair and ran his hands through his dark hair.
Holden leaned against the wall behind the desk. “I was a senior in high school so I couldn’t leave, and Bradley refused to take Jax with him and leave me alone. He disappeared and promised to stay in touch. Every few months he would send a package to us. Sometimes just an envelope, sometimes a box. The postmarks were never from the same place, and he never said where you two had settled.”
Jax nodded. “The only things we knew for sure were that he’d made friends with a wolf pack for extra protection and that you were happy and loving, and unlike any other females. He did the right thing by taking you away.”
Holden straightened slightly and swallowed hard. “Is Bradley dead?”
She almost lost it again, but Micah reached for her hand and laced his fingers with hers. She told them how he had died and about her capture by the females as she came to King to tell them the news. Her voice grew too thick with sorrow to continue. Micah recited the rest of the story to her uncles when she couldn’t form the words herself.
When the story of the last year of her life was finished, Jax snarled angrily. “Why the hell would James tie her up? I will skin him alive.”
She wiped at a few tears. “He didn’t know I was different.”
He shook his head, handing her tissues from a box on the desk. “He has two ears, doesn’t he? To hear the truth of your story. Two eyes to see that you’re compassionate and risked your life for someone else. A brain in his head to tell the fucking difference between one of those brainwashed blonde bitches and you.”
She smiled at his harsh words and dabbed at her eyes. He sounded as put out by James’ actions as Tristan and Micah.
Tristan said, “Do you think there will be a problem with us being here?”
Holden’s brows rose. “I don’t know. There haven’t been any females in King since the pride split up.” His voice lowered, and she felt as though they were hearing a secret. “Thirty-two miles from here is a town called Twin Pines. There’s a small group of thirteen females who live there.”
Judging by the way Tristan and Micah stiffened, she guessed that it was a surprise to them. An unwelcome one.
“They’re not welcome here. The police force and remaining males are adamant about keeping King female-free. So asking if we believe that Melody will be welcome here, the simple truth is we don’t know.”
She shared with them how the females in Canada had monitored Ashland, and they decided to discreetly pass along a hint to the police chief — who was a pride member — that they should look into the traffic monitoring system to see if the females watched them.
Tristan said, “We need to check in with our dad. Would it be alright for Melody to go home with you guys and we’ll come over in a little while?”
“Of course. You know where our place is?” Jax asked.
Tristan nodded. Jax and Holden left them alone in the office.
She was feeling as though no one wanted her around. It was like hating someone because of the color of his or her skin. She couldn’t control that she’d been born a female. She and Micah stood, and he cupped her face, his light brown eyes sad. “They just don’t know you, sweetheart.” He chuckled. “I know what you’re thinking. I don’t care if I’ve known you less than a day. My cat knows you and my heart knows you.”
Her heart thudded. “That was really romantic, Micah.”
He shot a grin at Tristan who groaned. “No one-upping me in the romance department, bro.”
“I can’t help it if you don’t have my skills when it comes to our woman.”
She laughed and leaned into Micah, letting him fold her against his warmth. “Go home with your uncles, and we’ll come for you in a few hours.”
“Will you stay with me?”
Tristan snorted and cupped her hips with his hands. “Did you think you could get rid of us so quickly? We’ve just found you and we’re not about to spend a single night away from you.”
Her whole body warmed at the thought and her mind flipped through decadent images of the three of them together. Tristan leaned against her back and kissed her neck, inhaling slowly. His voice was deeper and laced with a growl. “You smell so good.”
She shivered and Micah groaned, nuzzling under her ear. She felt pleasurably assaulted on both sides and would have done something about all the clothes in the way of more pleasure if Tristan hadn’t nipped her neck and taken a step back.
He exhaled loudly. “We should get going.”
She squeezed herself against Micah a little tighter. “How can you think straight?”
Micah ran his hands up and down her back. “The first time we’re together shouldn’t be in a dirty office at the garage.”
She peeked at Tristan and he shrugged. “I can’t think straight when I’m touching you, baby, and my cat is snarling in my head to do more than kiss, but we can’t. Not here.”
She agreed.
They kissed her goodbye, and after Micah returned with her bag and kissed her once more, she was alone in the office. But not for long. Holden knocked and came in ten minutes later. Then he and Jax led her out the back of the garage, and she climbed into Jax’s F-250. Holden followed in his matching truck.
It had been heartbreaking to watch her uncles deal with her dad’s death. They had both said they wished they’d known so they could have been there to support her. She wished the same.
The home Holden and Jax shared was a ranch on a bit of property less than two miles from the garage. Located at the end of a cul-de-sac, the house butted up against a stand of pine trees.
Jax told her that pride members all lived on the street, and the home had belonged to their father who had died before she was born. He pulled underneath the carport and turned off the engine. Holden parked behind him, and the three of them went into the house.
The country blue kitchen with striped curtains and a small butcher block table felt cozy. Holden took her hand and said, “I’m so glad you’re here, Melody. I want you to see something.”
He took her into the family room. She gasped. Scenery pictures, taken by her, were framed and hanging on every wall, on the mantel over the fireplace, and on every flat surface. Some of the photos were from when she was a teenager and just learning how to take pictures, and some were from the year her dad died. Jax went to one wall where pictures hung with twisted wire. He flipped the pictures over one by one, and she saw each of her school pictures and candid photos of herself and her dad throughout the years.
Jax touched a picture of herself and Scarlett roasting marshmallows at a bonfire. “This was the last picture we got from him. When six months passed and we hadn’t heard from him, we knew something was wrong. We looked for you, baby girl. But your dad was so afraid that if he told us where you lived that somehow the information would get back to the females and you’d be taken from him. We thought it was in the Midwest somewhere, and we made contact with a lot of wolf packs, but none of them would say whether they knew you or not. And there are a lot of packs that don’t want to be found, so we had no way of knowing if we’d even contacted the right one. And we didn’t know what last name he had chosen, either, which made the searching even more fruitless.”
“I was on my way here to King to tell you in person when I was taken. I lost so much time.”
They hugged her and cried together, standing in front of the images of her life.
* * * * *
While Holden tossed chopped vegetables in a bowl for a quick salad and Jax marinated chicken breasts, they asked her about Micah and Tristan. She blushed and
looked everywhere but at her smiling uncles.
“Don’t be embarrassed. You found your mates. That should be celebrated,” Holden said.
“Not too celebrated,” Jax said, making a face.
Laughing, she shook her head. “They said that the males in Ashland are sharing their mates, so they weren’t surprised to feel connected to me.”
“Were you surprised?” Holden asked.
“I was too upset with the way the pride treated me to even realize that it should feel strange to think of both of them as my mates. I can’t really explain it, but we just fit together. Now that I’ve met them, I can’t imagine my life without them in it.”
They remembered Tristan and Micah from when they lived in King and had nothing but good things to say about them, which didn’t surprise her. Her mates were lions-in-shining-armor. So to speak.
By the time the table was set, wine poured, and chicken pulled from the skillet, Micah and Tristan walked through the front door, looking like men who’d been missing part of their bodies.
She enjoyed being sandwiched between them in a tight hug and laughed at the way they scented her and held her close.
While they ate together, she listened to her uncles tell her mates about the state of the King Pride. With the females gone, the males had regrouped and taken up the slack for the ones who had left. The Fallon family, who she knew well from when they tied her to a radiator, had been the police force in town. Now, the peace was kept by four brothers with the last name of Parker. Tristan said it was ironic that the law in town was now being upheld by the biggest troublemakers he’d ever known.
When dinner was over and the dishes were clean, her uncles made up the pull-out couch for them.
She didn’t have anything to wear to bed, so after showering, she changed into one of Jax’s shirts, which fell almost to her knees. They said goodnight to her uncles, and after Jax gave them a stern warning to go to sleep, they were alone.
