My dad asked, “How are you getting so much faster?” I shrugged, “My wolf said it’s because she’s getting stronger.” Jason raised an eyebrow asking, “So your wolf is theFlash?” I pointed out, “I mean… I’ve always been fast.”
Jason snorted, “Not that fast. You made it across the Daniels’ territory in five minutes. Probably less.” I reasoned, “Ok so…yes, but it was to save two pups… one of whom is my future sister is law. There was a lot of adrenaline going and… stuff.”
My mom said, “You know how to shoot a bow and arrow.” It wasn’t a question since they’d seen me do it. I nodded, “I mean… I can use most weapons. I get bored and I learn things. Archery was one of those things.”
Elise chimed in, “You can see through Fairy charms.” Several people glanced sharply at her. I disagreed, “No, I can’t. No one can do that… literally no one. Not even King Aiden. He’d know there was one… but he can’t see through it.” I’d read a lot about Fairy charms.
Elise rolled her eyes at everyone. She turned to me saying, “Yes, you can. At the party the other night Cassie was wearing a charm. I had no idea it was her, but you knew. No one can see Lexi and Chase’s house in the woods unless they’ve been brought inside by Lexi, Chase or their pups.” My jaw dropped.
If there was a Fairy charm on Lexi’s house that would mean Haley had probably cast the charm. If Cassie had a charm on… then her uncle or mom would’ve cast the charm. Which meant I might owe Alpha Emmett an apology.
I tried to link him, “So… I seem to be able to link who I want… and it was brought to my attention… your deal about the seeing your parents’ house… is not the insulting question I thought it was… that’s my bad… but to be fair… you didn’t say it was Fairy Charmed… so I’m still sorry. I thought you were insulting my eyesight or something.” Alpha Emmett snorted out a laugh. “It does work and it’s fine, Luna Melanie.” Ok then.
Why could I see through a Fairy Charm Haley and Aiden did then? Freya linked, “Because we are special. They don’t need answers right now.” I asked her, “Do I?” Freya answered, “You have always been able to do things others haven’t.”
“I don’t know how she did it and we all know that. We can look into that.” Phil snorted, “Quietly, right?” Gage chimed in, “Ever so quietly.” Xander agreed, “Yes. Extremely quietly. I actually think we should leave it to Uncle Aiden.” Phil nodded.
My mom whispered, “You were shot six times?” I nodded, “In a fight….yes.” Tristan asked, “So you’ve been shot more than seven, no eight times then total.” I internally cringed but didn’t say anything. Grandpa Ben demanded, “Ladybug, answer him.” I sighed, “Yes.”
Jason asked, “How many times have you been shot?” I pursed my lips, “I’m not actually keeping track.” That was a lie, I was. The looks on their faces told me they knew it too. Tristan narrowed his gaze, “Bullshit. You know the number. Even if you didn’t you could ballpark it.”
I evaded, “If I was ballparking I’d say more than eight times, big brother.” Tristan growled but Jason shot me a smirk. It was contentious but it felt more like a sibling disagreement than any of our other conversations.
It was a silly thing to make me smile, but it did. It was a normal sibling argument… not the topic, but the tone we were using. Gosh… I needed help. Freya snorted, “Their wolves are happy too, so you don’t need help.” We all needed therapy. Immediately.
My dad urged, “Ladybug, come on.” I sighed, “I’d have to look at my spreadsheet.” I’d cataloged them all and it counted the number of times, but I kept getting shot… so…it kept going. Freya snorted. My mom started crying, “The number is so high you kept a spreadsheet?”
I couldn’t exactly tell her doing what I did was dangerous. It wasn’t just fighting other packs. I was the Resistance leader. Not that anyone outside of a very small group knew that, but they knew the people in all black were Resistance members. People tended to shoot at us.
I shrugged, “It’s not a big deal, I have spreadsheets and pivot tables for a lot of things… and like I said, I usually get hit in the vest.” Grandpa Ben growled, “Why do you think that makes it better?” I linked Freya, “Do you see why we can’t tell them about our back?”
Freya sighed, “You might have a point. They will flip out about the whole Swiffer thing.” I argued, “Only if they find out.” Someone cleared their throat because I hadn’t answered. I sighed, “Because it’s better to get shot in a bulletproof vest… that I made… than somewhere else. Or with a bullet resistant vest… that hurts more…. but it hurts a lot more to actually get shot, without either kind of the vests.” They all winced.
I sighed, “Can we end the questioning sessions of questions you don’t actually want the answer to?” Haley spoke, “It’s not that they don’t want the answer. They wish the damn answer was different.” That was semantics in my opinion.
Tristan asked, “Is that the worst thing that happened to you?” I asked, “Huh?” He clarified, “Is getting shot the worst thing that happened to you?” I stared at my brother because I was not answering that. Jason quietly asked, “Ladybug?”
I evaded, “That would depend on the definition of what you’re asking. It requires further clarification on by whose definition. Because in mine there is nothing that compares to thinking I got Tristan, mom, and dad killed. Waking up in Nashville with no one and nothing is easily worse than getting hit by any bullet.” I felt Xander’s shock.
I winced, “I’d rather be shot than be told Xander would reject and hate me. Or that he was desperate not to be my mate and working to make sure it didn’t happen.” Alexander snarled loudly. I continued, “Thinking everyone hated me is worse than being shot. If you mean physically, I’m not answering that and I don’t have to.”
Tristan looked away, but his jaw was flexing. My mom started crying harder. I linked Tristan, “That’s why I can’t answer you on the physical aspect.” Tristan replied, “Not answering is an answer.” He was wrong, because their pack would never do the things done to me. So, their imagination wasn’t even the worst thing here. The truth was.
I asked, “Then why did you ask the question?” Tristan replied, “I want the answer.” I snarked, “You know the answer, evidently.” My brother asked, “Is it sad that even though you’re snarky and feel your back against the wall, you’re answering and that makes me happy?”
I replied, “No, I had a similar thought earlier.” Tristan said, “You never used to have your back against the wall with me.” He was right. I didn’t…and I hated that I did now. It was just a default I had now because I had to on guard twenty-four seven.
My dad said, “You said they couldn’t take you with several knives in your back. Did you mean that literally?” I answered, “Yes.” My dad growled, “Why did you have knives in your back?” I raised an eyebrow, “No matter if the wolf is a partial or full blooded Werewolf… bad Hunters that belong to those groups don’t like them.”
“No matter if there’s an understanding with their Alpha... who is a piece of crap for agreeing. That particularly time, a group of bad Hunters were tormenting one of the wolf less members of Black Path. I stopped them and took a few knives to the back doing so. I still kicked their butts.” I’d had to get the guy untied and the bad Hunters used that to stab me. They didn’t get me that deep anyway.
I whispered, “I stood there, not knowing a pup was going to be killed when they wanted me to join. I didn’t think an Alpha would allow such a thing. I wasn’t prepared to save that boy… he was barely old enough to have lived any type of life.”
“I was never going to let someone die like that again. I had to free that pup they had tied up and I got knives for it. But he wasn’t dead… and he’s still alive today. It was worth it… because he’s not in the ground like those poor pups who did nothing wrong the first two times I went to Hunters meetings.”
Eric sighed, “Ok. I think that’s a lot of information for one night. Let’s go somewhere else. The gym seems likely.” Haley said, “I agree. That is information that needs to be digested and processed. Melanie, I think we need to have some sessions. Those children’s deaths were not your fault.”
I admitted, “We probably should… I’d probably take up a lot of your time though… and your time is valuable.” Haley replied, “I will always make the time for my children. I consider you one because you’re mated to my son. Whenever you’re ready my door is open.” I nodded. Haley inclined her head in a signal to my mate. I knew it meant take this moment to leave and he took it.
