The pain in her eyes when she said it was Jason had me cursing every single goddess I knew in my head. She was devastated about something I didn’t understand. Oden linked, “I don’t even need Rocket to tell me this one, although he did earlier. Mate stayed away from us over a lie. That’s why she’s devastated.” That made sense. This was just too much for one day.
There was too much pain right now, but they McAlister’s would heal. I knew they would. We had centuries to get through it. It might take decades for their family to move on from this, but I’d make damn sure they did. Melanie would heal with therapy. Definitely group therapy.
Damn. This was going to get messy, but I’d be there every step of the way. I felt Melanie’s sense that her brothers were bloodhounds about her shoot up my foot. That all the McAlister’s all were. Oden said, “I do like our tattoo with her feelings. I want our Hackura bond too though.” So did I.
I understood her feelings about her family, but this time though she had me. I wouldn't let anyone push her. My mom would throw them across the damn room with her wind if they tried. Oden sighed, “Mate needs confirmation we want her.”
God, that sounded like such a cheap word for what I felt when I thought of her. I wanted it all. Everything. I needed her. I’d felt the earth shift when she was born. Hell, I’d wanted her for over a decade. I’d felt so guilty and conflicted about my feelings for Ashley. Which now made complete sense.
Where was Oden with that one? Oden snorted, “You didn’t even listen about Melanie for YEARS. I didn’t know they were same person, I just knew that Ashley was drawing us in. Now, we obviously know it’s because she’s the same person. It was mate.”
I asked Oden, “She sounds insanely confident when she says she knew I was hers.” Oden snickered, “Because she knew.” I reasoned, “That’s not possible.” Oden just laughed. Annoying wolf. He replied, “This annoying wolf has already told you she DID know we were hers.” Yes, but that didn’t make sense.
Oden snarled when Melanie started crying over the marking situation. “This is BULLSHIT! Freya said she’s certain it would be fine.” There were too many unknowns. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Melanie’s life was supposed to be easy with me.
She had a loving family and pack. Being convinced she had no wolf and wasn’t Drake’s daughter was never her destiny. To be told she got her parents and Tristan killed and Jason along with her pack hated her was never supposed to happen. Someone stole her life from her.
They ripped her sense of home and normality from her. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on that person. There was a lot of blame to go around here, but I would not have her blaming herself. She was a teenager at home alone whose home was being broken into. She had minutes to plan.
We discussed several things. Oden growled, “Mate knows we will kill Edward for what he did to her.” That stood to reason since she wanted to make sure we had every detail we wanted before I asked him questions. The thing was, I already knew I didn’t need a damn thing from them.
My mate was a Beta blood which meant Melanie had all the information I could want on a flash drive or a program, or somewhere technological. She already had it all. We snuggled until she drifted off to sleep. I’d keep her safe now. I gave it a few more minutes before I was willing to leave.
I linked Elise, “You’re up.” She opened the door right away. EJ was sitting on the ground outside. Elise came in and started crying again. I popped out of bed and squeezed her hand. I told her, “She’s here now and we will protect her. Nothing like this will ever happen again.” Elise nodded and got into bed beside Mel. I walked to the door and shut it, then popped with EJ down to the living room.
Gage was there waiting. I asked, “Where is your mate?” He answered, “I have her all set up in my room. She’s tired so you can meet her later.” I nodded, “Good.” He gave me a hug that conveyed so much. Oden told me, “Gun told me he’s here for us. He’s happy we have Melanie now and is promising retribution for all that hurt our Luna.” Good.
My dad said, “Let’s go see these assholes that have a lot to answer for.” I practically shouted, “Wait.” Everyone stopped. I asked them, “How did you know what was wrong with Freya? You’ve all been saying you know exactly how Melanie’s wolf was suppressed. How?”
Gage linked, “I’m sorry, what? That’s what was wrong? Phil did not catch a Gamma up.” I replied, “Yes, they keep saying it, but I’ve never heard of that.” He admitted, “Me either and I was looking into what could be wrong with her wolf. The word suppression did not come up in any search.”
Several people winced. I continued my thoughts out loud to the group, “We went down because her wolf was suppressed, but you didn’t know that’s why it happened all at the time. All these years we’ve been searching for answers and suddenly you have answers. Why?”
Dylan grumbled, “He’s your spitting image Saint God Alpha Prick. He’s making me be serious. I hope you’re proud and happy.” Huh? Dylan dramatically said, “Moody Mini Alpha Prick, allow me to explain. We know because my wonderful parents, Iblis torture their souls forever please, got obsessed with a legend.” Ok?
He continued, “They came back into my life when they found out Lacy was pregnant. They didn’t know we were having a boy because I didn’t want them in our lives. They were literally crazed over the thought of us having a girl.”
I glanced at my Gamma. Gage linked, “I’ve got nothing. This story makes no sense yet.” Ok, at least it wasn’t just me. Dylan continued, “They started searching for a way to suppress our pup’s wolf until she met her mate.” I stared at him waiting for the punch line.
Oden said, “Fang said he’s serious.” What? That was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard. Oden said, “I knew Fang was right to hate those people, but I did not know how right he was.” His party over their deaths was not big enough. We needed a redo.
Dylan sighed, “I did not know when you brought her to the pack that you’d unlocked Melanie’s wolf. I thought she’d been injured in an accident. I wouldn’t have let you leave if I had known her wolf was suppressed. I am sorry.” Oh god, he was being serious AND apologetic? No. That was not going to work for me.
He kept going, “Truly from the depths of my soul, I am so sorry.” I asked, “For what?” He had nothing to be sorry for. Dylan answered, “For the hurt my parents caused to you and the McAlister’s, but most of all MelAshley. My hopefully one day adopted daughter.”
Drake growled but I was happy Dylan was back to cracking jokes. Serious Dylan needed to go away. He creeped me out. Oden said, “He freaks us all out. Thor was lamenting how he was going to punch dead people.” Because dad had plans to bring fun Dylan back out as opposed to Serious Dylan.
I frowned saying, “First of all, I don’t need your apology because it’s not your fault. Your parents aren’t you. Plus, when we came here I was cagey and vague. I feel it should be stated I wouldn’t have been if I’d known that suppressing a wolf was a thing that could happen.”
I glanced at my big brother asking, “Why the hell weren’t EJ and I read into this when we became Alpha’s?” EJ chimed in, “That’s a damn good question.” Gage linked, “It was. I’m so proud of you right now. Don’t worry I’m berating my dad for not mentioning it too.” I glanced at him and cracked a smile. He and Phil always had my back.
My dad answered, “We thought that if we kept the information to ourselves, it would die there. The Bishop siblings had looked into it quietly, but nothing had ever come of it. No one had used the spell.” Aunt Katie added, “Nothing we found out about it said wolves would go down all over the world.” I shivered thinking about that pain.
She continued, “I mean there’s no way Melanie should’ve been able to fight the spell that long. You all didn’t go down until five in the morning.” Sam sobbed, “She fought so long and hard.” Gage boasted, “Because our Luna is a Warrior.” Pride filled me. She was an actual Luna Warrior.
Drake consoled his mate, “Our little girl has a strength I’ve never seen. She gave it her all to fight the suppression. I should’ve been there.” I told him, “I knew something was wrong before any of you did. I knew it was her but let myself get convinced it wasn’t.”
“I should’ve insisted you let me go to her instead of letting it go when you talked to the fake her on the phone. I let that damn bitch gaslight me and my mom’s a therapist! I know those warning signs and I fell for them all.”
