Eventually, I felt extreme surprise and happiness from Melanie. I announced, “I’m guessing Melanie found her dress. I’m not sure why she feels so surprised.” Caleb explained, “Drake told me that Melanie described the dress she wanted for her mating ceremony to Sam at a dance competition when she was twelve.” Ok?
Oden agreed with my thoughts, “I do think there’s more to the explanation.” EJ asked, “And?” Caleb continued, “Sam had been searching for the dress Melanie described ever since. She never found it though. When Melanie turned seventeen, Sam described the dress to Sharon who sketched it. Then Sam had the designers at the store make the dress from the sketch. Drake of course told them to spare no expense.”
I smiled saying, “Well, I’m very happy for my mate because she’s really excited about it. So, she must still want that dress.” Ihoped that would be a nice moment for Sam and Melanie. They really deserved that. Oden said, “Freya said it is a completely perfect moment for them.” Good.
EJ said, “We’ve finalized the celebration for the anniversary of our alliance with Blue Moon and Red Run.” I commented, “Melanie finally gets to come.” EJ smiled saying, “I’m sure your mate will have fun. I doubt she’s been to Blue Moon.”
I shook my head saying, “She hasn’t, or Dylan would’ve tried to keep her. Which had to be odd since her grandparents live there.” EJ winced. I asked, “Why haven’t I seen the Haskins?” Dad replied, “Because they want to get pranked by your mom when she finds out they’ve been M.I.A.”
Gage said, “No, they don’t want to be pranked by Haley.” Dad questioned, “Then where are they?” Caleb said, “You know that answer.” Phil threw out, “So, they are embarrassed.” I asked, “Is that the end of that sentence? Their granddaughter is home, and they haven’t come to see her. So, embarrassed doesn’t cut it for me as her mate.”
Gage offered, “They feel like they should’ve done more.” I asked, “And they intend to make it worse? If they think they will ambush her at our Mating Ceremony they’ve got another thing coming. So, you go tell them to come talk tomymate before then or they can sit in the background and not upset her that day.” Phil agreed, “We will do that.” Good.
Caleb changed the subject, “So, the party.” I replied, “Is already taken care of. Well, I guess no has to go talk to the Haskins since they will be there. It’s their pack.” Dad snorted. I asked, “What?” EJ answered, “They went out of town to a little bed and breakfast.” Oden growled.
I asked, “Are they avoiding my mate?” Dad commented, “They appear to be.” Assholes! Caleb threw out, “Dale and Lucas tried to talk to them, but they are hurt that Melanie thoughtthey didn’t want her.” I stared at him trying to think of a nice response to that. Oden snorted, “Say the mean thing.” I might.
Phil said, “Gage sent his mate to talk to them because mine wanted to kick their ass.” I scoffed, “Let her.” Gage laughed, “I told you he’d say that, Phil.” Phil said, “Well, we were going with repairing bridges, but I don’t know how long my mate will agree to that.” Sierra could go crazy on them for all I cared.
Caleb repeated, “So, let’s talk about the party.” I asked, “Why? It’s already done.” Gage offered, “Yes, well we don’t want you to pop away and kill Melanie’s grandparents.” I asked, “What difference would it make to her life, ultimately if I did? They are avoiding her! Melanie did NOTHING wrong. She was a pup!”
Caleb reasoned, “We know that, and we have people trying to convince them to come back to talk to her at the party.” Good. The alliance between Blue Moon and Red Run had been made by my Grandpa Nathan. It was the start of the bigger alliance we had now, and we always celebrated it.
The group clearly didn’t want me to think about Sam’s parents, so I sent an email to Uncle Gunner to ask about his progress on the buildings I’d asked him to look into. He replied that he had a company name, but he was hitting walls on the name behind it.
Uncle Gunner suspected Melanie had helped the Resistance hide it. He was trying to nail down her signature, but it wasn’t a high priority. Which meant my uncle had it running in the background. He was right, it wasn’t a big deal. I’d go see him next week to go over what he had so far if I could swing it.
I got back into paperwork. EJ suddenly laughed and stood. My big brother announced, “I’m off to chat with Melanie.” I asked, “Why?” EJ winked, “She found the lab. The lead scientist said your mate studied the board with Laxenread on it and looked like she was trying to decide something before she left. Now she’s sitting outside with a notebook. That intrigues him.”
I snorted, “I’ll finish this up, and pop to you and my mate.” My dad chimed in, “At least Melanie has seen the building now. I’m sure she’s got lots of ideas.” Uncle Jackson laughed, “She could fix Laxenread too. I bet the lead scientist figured that out based on her expression. Considering Alexander’s mate’s thoughts are written on her face. Thank god.”
Caleb offered, “He’s got Beta blood in him, not much but a little, so I’m sure he did figure it out. Geter’s a very smart man.” I smiled and kept working until Melanie started to feel frazzled and nervous. EJ linked me, “I’ve made Ladybug ramble and it’s telling.”
I replied, “Making her ramble isn’t hard at all.” Oden chuckled. EJ added, “Also she was writing ideas, and says she can figure them all out with enough time. I’ll be damn impressed if Mel can complete one of said ideas. They are revolutionary thoughts that are really good. Also, she has watches for us in Nashville.”
I snorted, popped to him, and kissed my mate. I pulled back and teased my brother. I linked EJ, “I nearly fell over when you suggested a double date Melanie was so happy about that suggestion. So, we do need to do that.” EJ replied, “Yeah, so Ladybug has no poker face. I say that to point out I knew exactly how she felt about it.” I did love that.
The rest of the week was crazy. I let Melanie know we’d be heavily in the gym the following week. EJ and I spoke a few times about my mate. We believed the watches for our family were in a Resistance building in Nashville. They clearly had a few locations.
I figured one had to be close to where Melanie’s place was. I added that task to Uncle Gunner’s plate to see if he could find any more buildings owned by that company in Nashville. He’d laughed and said that he already was looking for them across the country. He’d come up with quite a few apparently.
The celebration with our allies snuck up on me. EJ urged, “Let’s get going. The women are already there.” I smiled and popped with him. I frowned looking around because my mate was missing. I asked Elise, “Where’s Melanie?”
Elise answered, “I’m sure she’s dancing. You did mention the party to her, right? Ladybug’s never been before so it’s not second nature to her. She was competing a lot during these events. I did leave an outfit out for her on your bed since we were leaving, and she was nowhere to be found.”
My eyes widened in horror because I did not mention it. EJ laughed, “Ohhh, now you’re in trouble, little brother. You forgot to tell your mate about the party.” Oden offered, “Mate won’t care.” I hoped not. I closed my eyes saying, “I just didn’t think about it. I should’ve told her.”
I linked Melanie and took a drink of the water I’d brought with me from our office. When Melanie misunderstood my link, I spit out my drink and choked. Oden purred, “I do love our mate so much.” EJ laughed, “Is Melanie really that upset, little brother? I wouldn’t haven’t thought she would be.”
I waved my hand saying, “No, she just misunderstood what I was saying. You know what? Never mind.” EJ smirked. I eventually got Melanie on track which now I was off of because I was thinking about her mouth on my dick. My mate was excited to come to the party.
A waiter walked by and handed our group drinks. Elise laughed, “Fancy. Normally we have to go over to the cooler.” The waiter smiled saying, “No cooler this year, Luna Elise.” The waiter walked away as I took a drink.
I told them, “It’s pretty good.” Both tried theirs. My mom started to feel off in the bond. I linked her, “What’s up, mom?” Mom answered, “I briefly had a bad feeling but now I don’t know.” I frowned wondering what happened.
I linked Chason, “Is Melanie ok?” He didn’t answer. I waited several minutes then tried to ask Fowler, “Hey, is Chason ok? Is Melanie ok?” He didn’t answer either. I linked KJ, “Where are you? Where is my mate?” He didn’t answer either. I started to panic.
I linked, “Mel?” Nothing. Panic was starting to claw at me. I linked, “Lovebug, I need you to answer me.” EJ walked back over to me and put his hand on my shoulder asking, “Little brother?” Tristan walked up asking, “Hey, where’s Ladybug?”
