Marking Melody

by R. E. Butler

  Snagging her into his arms, he took off towards the campsite, hoping that his parents or their clan healer could help. The most important person in the entire world to him let out a soft sob and he cradled her closer, hoping that she would be okay.

  * * * * *

  Jilly’s head felt as though it exploded. The twins had brought her to one of the campsites and taken her inside a camper that Wyked said was owned by their clan healer. She wasn’t sure what a clan healer was — or a clan for that matter — but all she did care about was stopping her headache.

  Fate pressed a cool, damp cloth to her forehead and made a worried sound. “Where is Uncle?”

  “Right here, nephew,” a deep voice said.

  “Help her,” Wyked demanded. He’d been pacing somewhere by her feet since he laid her down on the couch.

  She felt someone approach, and Fate whispered in her ear, “This is our Uncle Hanai. He’s our clan healer.”

  Slowly, she cracked her eyes open. It hurt as much to open them as it did to keep them closed. The man in front of her looked like an older version of the twins, with graying, black hair and a handsome face. His eyes were piercing green like theirs, and the scent of big cat intensified.

  “What are you?” She turned towards Fate and took his hand with her clammy one.

  “Panthers, Jilly.”

  “And what are you?” Hanai asked.

  “Mountain lion.”

  He hummed in his throat. Jilly let her eyes close again as the pain in her temples throbbed. Her mind was spinning. It was as if someone was inside her brain, rolling clips of her childhood. Emotions raced through her. She couldn’t remember feeling anything but apathy for such a long time, and to feel love at the thought of her father and brother was almost a relief. Almost, since it was so odd. She hated them, right?

  “Where are you going?” Wyked demanded as Hanai turned to leave the room.

  “I need to see my books. Dionne, make her some tea from the bronze tin in the cabinet. It will help her headache.”

  She felt Wyked’s hands land on her leg, his fingers massaging her knee and thigh. “Little kitten, what can we do?”

  When she had first seen him, she thought him proud and maybe a little arrogant. He sounded worried and desperate now. But when he touched her — when both of them touched her together — things felt very right. And the jumble of thoughts in her head weren’t quite a mess.

  But something wasn’t right here. Was it? She wasn’t supposed to be lying in a camper with two males who seemed very intent on keeping her. No, she needed to be with her people. Her…clan? No…pride.

  Forcing away the images in her mind, she ground her teeth together and forced herself to sit up. Her head swam, but she ignored it. She was stronger than whatever the hell was going on in her brain. What would Layla or the other females think? That she’d been bewitched somehow. And maybe that was true. Was it?

  Releasing Fate’s hand and pushing Wyked’s hands away from her leg, she stood up and grabbed her bag off the floor. Her knees trembled, threatening not to support her, but she stiffened her spine. She was a female mountain lion. Proud. Independent. Unmated. Resisting the urge to touch the two healing marks on the inside of her bottom lip, she turned to Dionne and said, “No thank you for the tea. I’ll be leaving now.”

  Their uncle walked into the room with a thick, leather-bound book tucked under one arm.

  Wyked growled angrily. “Like fuck you’re leaving.”

  Oh, how she wanted to stay!

  No!

  She marched for the door even though her heart ached strangely. When Wyked stepped in front of her, she hissed at him. “Move!”

  “You’re ours, Jilly. You’re not going anywhere.”

  “Fuck you, stranger. Move or I’ll move you.”

  His nostrils flared and his eyes flashed from emerald green to bright gold. He opened his mouth, but their uncle said, “If she must leave, you will let her go, nephew.”

  He snarled. “I will not!”

  Their dad shoved Wyked away from the door, and Wyked cursed and shouted. Hanai opened the door. He handed her a packet of paper the size of a teabag. “If you must go, go swiftly. But listen to your heart, Jilly. It will lead you where you need to go.”

  She made a face at him and stormed out of the camper.

  “Jilly!” Fate called for her, but she ignored him, hugging her arms around herself and leaving the campgrounds, following the signs to the parking lot where her car waited. She found her keys in her backpack and got in the car, driving off as quickly as she could. Afraid the twins would follow her. Afraid they wouldn’t. Terrified of what it meant that she couldn’t get the spicy scent of them out of her nose, or the way her lips still felt swollen from their kisses.

  It was all so fucking wrong.

  Chapter 5

  Tristan was woken up by soft talking in the kitchen. He tried to stay in dreamland, but the scent of coffee, along with the scent of his mate, filled his nose and stirred his body. He’d never in his whole life spent the entire night with a woman. Before they left King, after the females were gone, he had dated a few humans. He’d only been with a mountain lion female once. Micah never had, because Tristan hadn’t wanted his brother to go through what he went through. Tristan was only thirteen months older than Micah, but he had always been his brother’s protector.

  When Tristan shifted at age sixteen, he was approached by a female named Raquel who offered to have sex with him. His father and uncle had told him and Micah that the females would never be in relationships with the males, and no matter how much the males wanted that fact to be different, it would never be. Raquel, who was also sixteen, had smiled at him and flirted with him, promising to make him happy if he would follow her home. So he did. It was her first time, too, and Tristan wanted to be so good for her that she would forget that females didn’t mate with males and she would want to be his mate.

  But as they finished, he heard laughter and realized that at some point, people had joined them in her bedroom. Females of all ages had watched. Raquel sat up and said to one of the females, “You said it wouldn’t hurt.”

  An older female shrugged. “All first times hurt, unless you’re in one of those romance novels silly humans like. Go again.”

  Tristan was shocked. He moved to get up from the bed, and two females snarled at him. One said, “You’ll fuck her, you worthless piece of shit, or we’ll call the police and tell them that you raped her.”

  Fear coursed over him. The police in town were mountain lion males, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t take the situation seriously. He could screw up his entire life tonight. Hell, he already had. He’d been warned not to trust the females by his dad and uncle, but he hadn’t listened.

  He turned back to Raquel, and this time it was like he could see her clearly. Her smiles and flirting had been a show, a trap that he had all too willingly fallen into. He had sex with Raquel again, his heart torn into pieces along with his pride. The females had made fun of him the whole time, comparing him to his dad and uncle. He snatched his clothes from the floor, raced from the small house Raquel shared with some other females and ran all the way home. His dad had found him bawling like a baby in the shower.

  Tristan discovered that night that he wasn’t the only male who had fallen for the females’ wiles. It seemed the females only wanted the males for sex. They didn’t want relationships or to start a family. If a male approached a female to have a child, the female didn’t even seem to care which male it was, only caring that he had enough money to support her during the pregnancy. They abandoned the babies at birth, and it was only if the baby was a female that they would show interest in her, but not until she was older. The sweet little girls would slowly morph into the uncaring females who had ruled over the pride for generations.

  He’d taken what happened to him to heart and told Micah that he was never to be alone with a female for any reason. Micah was more tenderhearted than Tristan, and Tristan had a d
ifficult time recovering from the devastating blow to his ego and heart. Micah had promised, and Tristan had watched over him, careful to keep him safe. There was a time during Micah’s senior year of high school that he wanted to date a human female, and Tristan had helped them to sneak around for a few weeks. She was Micah’s first, and Tristan had wondered at the time if they might be meant for each other. But the females had found out somehow and scared her off. Micah hadn’t tried to date again. Neither of them had. At least not until the females had scattered from King and then, like all the males, there had been a flurry of dating humans, as if the floodgates had been opened.

  But no one had touched his heart the way that Melody did. He inhaled slowly, drawing in the sweet scent of her. She was tucked perfectly against him, and he wanted to stay like this forever. Well, maybe not exactly like this. It would be better if they wore fewer clothes and there were no scowling uncles in the house.

  His stomach rumbled when he heard the sizzle of meat in a hot skillet and smelled bacon cooking. Melody and Micah stirred at the same time, and Melody stretched and wiggled in front of him, making everything in his body tight. He groaned inwardly and watched as she rolled to her back and covered her mouth as she yawned.

  She blinked beautiful sapphire eyes at him and smiled. “My back hurts.”

  He chuckled. “Mine, too.”

  Micah rolled over to face them and looked hopeful. “Tonight we need to find a real bed.”

  She lowered her voice. “And some privacy.”

  Tristan purred and the sound rumbled in his chest. “Sounds good to me.”

  Micah said, “We can go to Tom’s. I’m sure they’ll have a room available.”

  “Who’s Tom?” Melody asked.

  “Tom and his wife Dana run the Charming Bed and Breakfast here in town. Micah and I worked for them during the summers to earn money. They’re human, but really great people.”

  “You’re decent, right?” Holden asked as he stepped into the family room carrying three cups of coffee.

  Melody sat up and smiled. “And in desperate need of coffee.”

  “I thought you might like it the way that Bradley did, lots of milk and two sugars.” He handed her a mug, and she held it between her hands, inhaling the steam.

  “I do, thanks.”

  He handed Micah and Tristan coffee and said, “Your dad told me how you like your coffee.”

  Tristan looked over his shoulder into the kitchen and saw his dad and uncle setting up a folding table. Holden smiled reassuringly. “They were upset last night because they thought you two had been tricked.”

  Melody frowned. Holden sat down on the end of the bed and said, “Don’t blame them, baby girl. All most males know are females who are cold and use deception to get what they want. Jax called your dad last night to tell them the truth about Melody, after he called James and chewed him a new one.”

  Micah’s brows rose. “Jax yelled at James?”

  “Damn straight. And then I yelled at him some, too. He had no right to treat Melody that way. If he’d just talked to her, he would have known she was different.”

  Tristan knew that wasn’t true, because James and John had both talked to Melody and neither believed her. The males in Ashland really hated the females and with good reason. Aside from trying to destroy the mating between Ethan, Eryx, and Callie, they’d attempted to kidnap the cubs, and then they’d sent a bear den in search of Alek’s mate, Lachlyn, and the male who shared her, Jericho, because they were hiding from the den. The males’ track record with females had been subpar to say the least.

  Holden had done their laundry early that morning, so after Melody cleaned up and changed, Tristan jumped in the shower. Melody and Micah waited for him in the hallway, and after he kissed her good morning, they walked into the kitchen.

  Their dad, Oliver, and their Uncle Mark, sat at the folding table. Holden and Jax sat at either end of the table.

  “Dad. Uncle Mark.” Tristan squeezed Melody’s hand. “This is our mate, Melody Marx.”

  Their dad and uncle stood and slowly walked around the table to stand in front of them. Tristan had the distinct feeling that he was a kid again, waiting for his dad’s approval. Their dad’s face was unreadable, as was their uncle’s.

  Their dad stared at them, his gaze shifting from Tristan to Micah and then settling on Melody. He took in a sharp breath and said, “My sons told me that you were their mate. I didn’t believe them.”

  Micah protested. “You said you understood, Dad.”

  He shrugged. “I know. I was lying. I thought you were under some kind of delusion, that Melody had tricked you into believing that a female could be a mate.”

  Mark put his hand on their dad’s shoulder. “I thought you were fooled, too. We’d heard that some of the males were sharing mates in Ashland, but we knew the mates weren’t lions, and we thought it wasn’t something that all lions would do.”

  Their dad exhaled slowly. “When Jax called last night, he told us what Bradley had done and how they’d been in touch all these years. They swore she was different. We still weren’t convinced. But this morning, we came here to talk to you again and saw the three of you all curled up together. And it wasn’t you two holding onto her, it was her holding both of you.” His eyes turned bright with unshed tears. “I’ve never seen that before. It was…beautiful. I’m sorry that I doubted your feelings for her, and Melody, I’m sorry that you’ve had a rough time with the males in the pride. I’m glad you found my sons.”

  She released Tristan’s hand and stepped to their dad. “It’s okay. Whatever else happens, I’ve got Micah and Tristan and my uncles.”

  “And you have us, too,” their dad said.

  “Definitely,” their uncle echoed.

  She hugged their dad and his brows rose in surprise, but then he hugged her back, and Mark joined them. Both males grabbed hold of Micah and Tristan and pulled them close.

  “Welcome to the family, Melody,” their dad said.

  After a long moment, Holden and Jax joined them, saying they felt left out, and everyone laughed.

  “Breakfast is getting cold,” Holden reminded them, and everyone sat at the table. Melody sat between Micah and Tristan, and the rest took their seats.

  Micah fussed over Melody’s plate, making sure she had plenty of everything, and Tristan smiled at their dad and shrugged. Although Tristan enjoyed taking care of his friends and family, Micah enjoyed it even more so. While they ate, their dad and uncle peppered Melody with questions about her dad, her life in Bent Creek, and what happened with the pride in Ashland.

  Tristan had thought he’d live in King forever. When the pride fractured because of the Fallon family, the whole town changed. The females left and the males were suddenly in a world that wasn’t like anything they’d ever known before. John Fallon and his son, Henry, had stayed in King until his daughter, Jilly, turned sixteen and then they’d moved to Ashland to be with their family. Jilly, like all females, left her father’s home at age sixteen and never looked back. Tristan and Micah were close friends with Chase, Dylan, and Hunter Hall, and when they had decided to start over in Ashland, Tristan and Micah thought it was a good idea, too. Their dad and uncle hadn’t wanted to come with them, and it hadn’t surprised Tristan. The older generation had trouble processing that they could do whatever they wanted and not worry about the females any longer. The pride wasn’t a hierarchy like a wolf pack. There was no real leader, no king lion or anything like that. There were no rules to live by or punishments for doing something wrong. The females ran the pride as a group and ensured that no males ever found happiness with a human or shifter mate. Although there was no leader, the females held all the cards.

  When Chase and his cousins had opted to leave King and follow the Fallons to Ashland, Micah and Tristan decided to go, too. They’d both worked at the tire factory outside of town after high school, neither of them inclined to go to college. Their dad and uncle hadn’t wanted to leave King, but they encour
aged Micah and Tristan to do whatever their hearts desired. He’d not regretted their decision to move, but he did regret how Melody had been treated by the males he’d come to think of as an extended family.

  Melody touched his arm and he looked at her. “Are you okay?”

  He slid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, kissing her temple. “I am now.”

  With the meal over, and her uncles shooing everyone out of the kitchen, they went out onto the back porch. The July sun was scorching hot already, and it made him think about the lake where they had spent summer afternoons swimming. He bet that Melody would enjoy it.

  “So I have a question,” their dad said, settling onto a plastic patio chair.

  Micah and Tristan sat on plastic chairs as well, with Melody between them.

  “What?” Micah asked.

  “Well, Melody is not like any other females we’ve ever known. We’ve always wondered what it is about the females that makes them not want to be mated to their own males. There are a lot of rumors about why the females are the way that they are, but no males have ever known for sure. It seems, judging from Melody, that whatever changes a female from a loving child to a cold, cruel adult is not hereditary.”

  Uncle Mark chuckled. “So what is the question?”

  Their dad laughed. “Sorry. I guess the question is, what the hell happens to the females?”

  Melody asked, “What are the rumors?”

  Holden and Jax joined them, pulling up more plastic chairs. Their dad looked thoughtful. “I was told that the females take the little girls and tell them that females are not allowed to take a male as a mate or they’ll die.”

  Jax said, “I heard that the adult females brainwash the kids.”

  “Our grandfather used to say that the females would steal the little girls away and drug them,” Uncle Mark said.

  The males grew quiet for several moments. Melody said, “Well it’s definitely not hereditary because I don’t act like females at all. From what dad told me, they don’t even recognize their own kids or want to be part of a family.”