I nodded saying, “I’m thinking our Mating Ceremony could be the weekend after you mark me… or the one after if I shift on a Friday or something.” Xander’s joy shot up from my foot. My mate spoke cautiously, “We can wait. If it’s too much with your feelings about your family. I am a patient man when it comes to you.”
I sighed, “It’s a lot but… I’m tired of waiting for big moments with you. We are already having to wait…” Xander interrupted, “We don’t have to, I’ll marry you tomorrow.” I replied, “I know. Part of me just wants something about us to be normal…and my wolf doesn’t seem to think anything about us will be.”
Xander laughed, “We are normal. How we are with each other is perfectly natural and normal. We may have things that are in our way, and we might even have things in our way later. I love you though, and it’s the most natural thing in the world to me.” I replied, “I love you too.”
Xander kissed me then pulled back, “So, about what happened downstairs…” He trailed off. I groaned, “Which part?” Xander asked, “Obviously those are Warlocks from Nashville. I thought they came with the Hunters and were killed.”
I cringed explaining, “That was just one coven. As you know…there are lots of covens in Nashville. Not all of them are bad but… I mean… a lot are so….there is that.” Xander told me, “If you’d give us the names of the bad ones, we’d take care of them.” He had a point. I agreed, “Ok.”
Xander smiled, “That was easy enough. Elise has you set up to observe some Luna disputes Monday. I’d like you to observe some of my meetings after hers.” I asked, “What day?” I tried to sound nonchalant but I wasn’t sure I pulled it off.
I asked Freya, “Would saying I peeked in on their meetings previously… be bad?” My wolf snorted, “It would give away more than you want.” Xander answered, “The same day. Elise, Buttercup, Micah, and Jane hold their Luna disputes in the morning. Zoe attends if she can, but she’s the head of the kitchen now. That’s her passion and we have more than enough Luna’s to help out with disputes.”
“I want you to sit in on some of our afternoon meetings. Normally, Elise would join, but she’s got some things to catch up on afterwards.” I definitely already knew all those things about the Luna’s and Micah as the Alpha Male…but I didn’t say that.
I agreed, “I could do that.” Xander replied, “I love you.” I smiled saying, “I love you too.” We laid in bed and fell asleep in each other’s arms.
When I woke up, I went to dance. My phone stopped playing my music when I got a call. I answered out of breath, “Hello.” Tiffany’s voice came across the line, “Hi, Melanie.” I whispered, “Tiffany.” She replied, “Yeah, it me. Tiffany. How are you?”
I cleared my throat, “I mean… I’ve been worse… that seems obvious since… word definitely went around about where I’ve been… so… yeah… I’m good now.” My old friend laughed, “And your Xander is your mate.” I replied, “I told you that.” Tiffany agreed, “You did. I reached out to T for this number when I heard about what went down with you.”
I hummed, “Well… I thought you had my number… and… obviously… your calls were intercepted… to my phone….and mine to yours….so you probably didn’t leave me on read… and not reply.” Tiffany growled, “I did not. I have missed you so much.” I admitted, “I missed you too.”
Tiffany sniffled, “I can’t believe I was running around with the phony you. She had that dang necklace charmed so I saw the real her while everyone else saw you. I ate freaking cookies that didn’t even taste good. I don’t know if you know but your dad sent a Vampire to un-compel me. Because I should’ve thought it was psychotic the fake you used your name as a stage name.”
I replied, “I mean… you didn’t think she was me though… so you have that going for you. I think my family is pretty mad about that… since… she’s nothing like me.” Tiffany agreed, “She’s not. I was compelled to be her dang friend. My family didn’t like her at all.”
I hummed, “Well, she kind of sounds….horrible so I’m not shocked they didn’t. Anyone who agrees to what she did and knew what happened to me…is awful.” Tiffany agreed, “For sure. So, in other news I’m married.”
I chuckled, “I know. I mean congratulations… on… being mated… to your long time crush.” My old friend laughed, “Oh my god. It’s so good to talk to hear you being you. Dancing wasn’tthe same without you. So many of us lost our drive for it once you weren’t competing.” More like they were burned out.
Tiffany agreed, “That too.” I groaned, “Dang talking out loud when meaning to have internal thoughts.” She chuckled, “I literally adore that you didn’t grow out of that.” We talked for a bit more before I said, “If you want… you don’t have to… but I’ll make sure you get an invitation to my mating ceremony… but you don’t…”
Tiffany cut me off, “Excuse me? I really deserve this invite over literally most people. I heard about your Xander for years. I’ll even promise not to bring up the invitations he didn’t reply to.” I said, “Yeah… I mean... let’s not.” Tiffany snorted, “Only for you. I can’t wait to see you, Mel. When is it?”
I winced admitting, “I don’t know… there’s a whole thing… since my wolf was suppressed…. They are trying to look into making sure I shift before I’m marked.” My old friend blew out a breath saying, “Well, that makes sense, but it sucks ass.” I agreed, “Yeah, it does.”
Tiffany told me, “I can hear that it hurts you in your tone.” I admitted, “It does… a lot… and it’s annoying because it doesn’t make sense.” Tiffany realized, “And you still don’t like it when your feelings and logic battle each other. My god, I missed the hell out of you Melanie McAlister.” I’d missed her a lot too.
We talked a little longer before we hung up. I called Tristan. My big brother answered, “Ladybug.” I whispered, “You gave Tiffany my number.” He groaned, “I should’ve asked you first. I’m sorry.” I replied, “No… it’s fine… I missed her… and I probably wouldn’t have reached out… since statistically she totally moved on from a childhood friendship… and I thought she left me on read… which she didn’t.”
Tristan agreed, “She didn’t. I wouldn’t have given her your number if she had.” I replied, “Well… thanks. I… umm… it felt normal talking to her and I never feel normal anymore.” Mybrother said, “You are exceptional, and you always have been.” Freya offered, “He’s right.” We talked some more before we hung up.
I called my dad next. He answered immediately, “Melanie Jane?” I asked, “Did T text my number to everyone? That’s silly… of course he did.” Dad answered, “He did and I hope you don’t mind.” I admitted, “I don’t... it’s less awkward… since… I thought you they knew my number… which obviously I didn’t think you did… so…”
I groaned, “Sorry this is weird… I’m not used to you actually being able to answer when I talk to you.” Dad asked, “When did you talk to me?” I admitted, “Umm… I kind of bought a plot of land and put gravestones on them for you, T, and Mom…. and… those… yeah… that’s not the point. I just want to say thank you for … umm having a Vampire help Tiffany… it was nice… ok… um thanks… bye.” I hung up.
Those gravestones were still there, and they were lies. Dad linked me, “Melanie Jane, I can help you with whatever you want to do right now.” I knew my dad would figure out what I was doing… eventually.
I was walking to find Xander when I saw Cassie. I grabbed her insisting, “I need you to pop me here.” I showed her a picture of the plotted area. My mate’s sister agreed, “Ok.” Cassie popped and in a matter of seconds I was right where I wanted to be. I stared at the gravestones I’d put up.
I asked, “Can I get a sledgehammer please?” One appeared in my hands. Cassie offered, “I can hit it with my sunlight.” I muttered, “You could… except… I’m stupid… and I had Paige put all kind of spells on them so powers couldn’t bring them down…with Nate using Fairy charms…. because… well… I thought Trevor would do something dumb at some point and try to take them down…. so… it’s for laser’s… we could blow it up… that’s a thing we could do.”
Cassie calmly said, “We can do that. My mom can anyway, easily. You do what you need to do though. My Hackura side fully understands you need to hit these gravestones. I can do that too.” I agreed, “Definitely conjure a sledgehammer and hit them if you’re mad about something.”
Cassie snorted, “I’m incredibly mad about what the Ring and Black Path did to you, you’re my sister in law. These gravestones are meant to be something beautiful you did for your family. They are dripped in pain because you weren’t allowed at their funerals. Even though you know now it was a lie, that had to tear at your soul.”
I admitted, “It did… I thought I was doing right by them having these commemorative beautiful stones here… but it’s not… it’s just a symbol of how I bought the lie… how I believed Jason abandoned me… that my Alpha and pack did… that my mom, dad, and Tristan were gone AND THEY AREN’T!”
