Marking Melody

by R. E. Butler

  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.”

  Melody and Tristan clinked glasses with him, and they drank the ice cold, fruity drink. As they ate cold fried chicken, potato salad, and cut watermelon, they talked about their future and what they all wanted. Melody wanted to start up her photography business again. She already had one customer, because Callie wanted pictures taken of her three children. She’d made arrangements to do a session outside of the converted apple barn they lived in the following week. Tristan and Micah were going back to work on Monday, and it was going to be difficult to leave her after spending so much time together, but they needed the jobs to support her and their future kids. Micah watched her kiss his brother and smiled at the thought that they’d soon be proposing to her, and by the end of the night, she’d be their fiancée. One word had never sounded so sweet in his mind.

  She was perfect. If he’d sat down to compose a list of the qualities he would have wanted in a mate to share with his brother, she would have been the epitome of everyth
ing he wrote. She was protective and had proven it by doing what she did during their capture. She was loving and gave herself freely to them without restraint. He could see the love she had for them in her pretty blue eyes. She was warm, sweet, and kind. And the fact she was a lioness didn’t really matter, but he was thankful in some ways that she was. Just by being raised the way she was, she proved that females could be different, and not just by being mated to their truemates the way that Jilly had been.

  Tristan glanced at his watch and made eye contact with Micah, whose heart sped up with excitement. It was time!

  “Guess we should head back,” Micah said as nonchalantly as possible. Tristan made a face at him, and Micah guessed his nonchalant tone was not very good. But if Melody thought anything was strange, she didn’t say anything.

  They packed up the remainders of their dinner and walked back to the boarding house, hand in hand. Micah said, “Are you happy here?”

  “What, in the woods?” she asked.

  He squeezed her hand and laughed. “No, sweetheart, I mean the boarding house.”

  They’d chosen to move into Tristan’s bedroom that was slightly bigger than his. The king bed was topped with the comforter that she had brought, what Tristan called a purple floral nightmare, but it hadn’t stopped him from smoothing it on top of the bed. Her small furniture items — her father’s recliner, a wooden plant stand, and a tall oak bookcase — fit in the room easily. It had taken some maneuvering to fit all their clothes into the closet, but after some finagling, they’d managed it. Micah liked seeing her clothes hung with his and Tristan’s. Purple and white striped towels replaced the faded beige ones that Tristan had in the adjoining bathroom, and the edge of the tub was now filled with body wash and soaps that made everything smell sweet.

  Melody said, “I do like it. It’s been fun helping to make breakfast with Tristan and Sam in the mornings and playing with the kids outside. But I think the best part is going to sleep between you two every night.”

  “That’s my favorite part, too,” Micah promised, and Tristan echoed the sentiment.

  John and James sat inside the screened-in back porch and greeted them.

  “Melody?” John said. “Do you mind taking some pictures of the kids? They’re out front playing, and I’d like some pictures for my wallet.”

  “Sure! I’ll grab my camera and be right out.”

  Tristan stowed the picnic basket on the kitchen table, and he and Micah dashed out to the front of the house to make sure that everything was in order. The entire pride was there, and Micah knew that they’d surprised Melody when she came out of the house adjusting the strap on her camera and froze in her tracks.

  “What’s all this?” she asked, her brows furrowed.

  The five youngest children in the house stood in a row on the grass with the pride around them in a semi-circle. They each wore matching blue shirts, and their backs were turned to the porch as they faced the adults.

  Micah and Tristan stood on either side of the kids, and with a soft word from Micah, each child turned around slowly and revealed the front of his shirt. One word, printed in bold white letters, was on the front of each shirt and read:

  Will. You. Marry. Us. Melody?

  As the last child turned around, Micah and Tristan dropped to their knees and pulled out the ring boxes they’d grabbed from where they’d been hiding in a drawer in the kitchen from the moment that Micah purchased them. He and Tristan picked out the rings on a jeweler’s website, and Micah picked them up on Friday when he’d been out picking up the shirts and picnic supplies.

  Melody gasped. Her hand tightened on the strap on her camera, and she looked at each of them for a long moment before she said, “Yes!”

  The word came out as a mixture of a laugh and sob, and tears flowed down her cheeks as the pride cheered. Micah and Tristan stood and joined her on the porch. The rings were matching diamond bands with channel cut stones, and Micah slipped his ring on her left ring finger first and then Tristan slipped his in front of Micah’s. Many of the males chose to put the bands on both ring fingers, but he and Tristan decided to honor their mutual mating by putting the rings on the same finger.

  “I love you,” Micah said. He pulled her into his arms. She melted into him with a soft purr, and as their lips met in a kiss, the world dropped away. She was his in every possible way, from the top of her golden blonde head to the bottom of her feet, and every delicious part between.

  “I love you, too,” Melody whispered against his mouth before turning in his arms to kiss Tristan. The pride’s cheers turned into a celebration, and Micah, Tristan, and Melody joined in.

  Chapter 19

  John Fallon stood in the bedroom next to the one his nephews, Owen and Ben, shared. Jilly slept on the couch in John’s bedroom, but she needed a room of her own. She’d chosen this one instead of the room next to Henry’s on the third floor. Many of the males lived on the third floor, but all the younger kids stayed on the second floor, along with Aaron, Grant, and their mate Sam, and James, who had a room down the hall from John’s.

  He took Jilly to pick out paint on Wednesday, and she’d chosen a light purple color, her favorite. He, James, and Henry painted the room on Thursday and let it air out so the fumes didn’t bother her sensitive nose. He’d chosen furniture for her that was a little more mature than she’d had in her childhood home. It was difficult for him to think of her as almost an adult, but she was definitely growing up. And the twin panthers who were sticking to her like glue were proof of that as well. He didn’t feel anything but genuine appreciation for the young males, since their aggressive natures had allowed Jilly’s true mountain lion nature to be revealed. Without their sharing of blood with her, the lions might never have known the truth of their history. And he wouldn’t have his daughter back in his life.

  John had asked Wyked and Fate’s dad to help him put together the new furniture for Jilly’s bedroom. While they worked on Thursday, attaching full-size head and footboards to the new mattress and box spring, and making a desk, nightstand, bookshelf, and dresser that matched, they talked. He wasn’t sure that he’d ever spoken to a man who was not a lion for such a long time. Dag explained the nomadic nature of the panthers.

  When John asked why he hadn’t chosen to settle down when he married Dionne and raise their family, he had paused in tightening a bolt on the dresser and said, “If she’d wanted to, I would have. Her family was part of a really large clan that traveled through the south mainly. So this life was all that she knew and what she had grown up wanting. I was the same way. I can already tell that Wyked and Fate want to settle down here in Ashland permanently because they know how important the pride is to Jilly.”

  John smiled. “Isn’t the clan as important to them?”

  Dag chuckled. “Wouldn’t you do anything to make your mate happy?”

  Nodding, John said, “Absolutely.”

  “It’s the same for us. I’m happy traveling because Dionne loves the life. She has a cousin who mated to a human male who didn’t want to live on the road. Everyone’s lives take them in different directions at one point or another. When the kids are mated, we’ll move on ourselves and stop in every time we’re in the area.”

  “And that’s not for three years?” John asked, wanting confirmation that he didn’t need to plan a wedding for his seventeen-year-old daughter. Yet.

  “That’s correct. They will need to perform a bonding ceremony. Our males ink their clan name and their mate’s name on their backs when they join together. Think of it like a permanent engagement ring. They’ll promise to mate her when she turns twenty-one. Until then, it’s a reminder to everyone that they’re all taken. And no, Jilly won’t have to get inked. It’s strictly a male thing.”

  Turning their attention back to the furniture, John smiled inwardly. He was glad that Jilly had found her mates and they were honorable young males. When he was nineteen, the last thing he would have wanted to do was wait to marry the woman who was his tru
emate. Jilly had missed out on a lot because of the curse, and he intended to give her every experience she wanted so she could live the next three years without regret.

  The following afternoon, Aaron hung the curtains Sam had picked out. They were white lace adorned with purple ribbons. The comforter and decorative pillows matched, and Grant took the boys to the mall and they’d each made her a stuffed animal from the make-a-buddy store.

  “I have a question,” Sam said, holding the ladder Aaron stood on with one hand but turning her attention to John as he plugged in a small lamp on the nightstand.

  “What’s that?”

  “Why didn’t you go to the police? Jilly was a minor. You could have accused the females of kidnapping or coercion or something. Why did you let her go? And how did she get out of school, get her license, and get her GED if you’re her dad?”

  John sat on the edge of the bed. “There was a male in King who had a daughter who was a few years older than Jilly. She shifted for the first time a few months into her sixteenth year. The following morning, a group of females showed up at the house and she packed her bag. Her dad stood in her way, tried to keep her from leaving, but she got out any way. He called the police to file a report, and the girl came back that night, but with a note from the females. It said that if he didn’t let her go where she was supposed to be, that they would kill him, his two sons, and then her.”

  Sam’s mouth dropped open on a soft gasp. “Oh no!”

  Nodding, John said, “Of course he let her go. He was terrified for all of his kids’ lives and with good reason. The females can be vicious, even with their own females. Jilly said the females called her a traitor for trying to free Melody and Micah and was certain they were going to kill her, or what they called putting her down.”

  Aaron stepped off the ladder and put his arm around Sam, comforting her. John’s heart panged a little. He’d never had a woman to hold and comfort.