Melanie tilted her head answering, “Uhhh no… my wolf is still white.” I confirmed, “She is. When she hit the water, her fur instantly turned back to its white color.” Dylan sighed, “Well, at least I live with the knowledge my Super Special Fun Sized Fairy Ninja Goddess was right, and it wasn’t LSGAP who suggested that MelAshley’s fur was magic. I SHALL hold onto that detail because it gives me warm fuzzies.”
Drake asked, “Ladybug, are you ok?” Melanie answered, “If you mean physically… I’m fine.” Tristan ground out, “He does not mean physically.” Melanie sighed, “I don’t know.” Jason asked, “Did you know you were the white wolf?”
Melanie frowned answering, “Well, after I shifted… yes. It wasn’t much longer after that… that everyone else found out.” Jason said, “I meant before then. Your wolf didn’t tell you?” Melanie shook her head, “No, she didn’t. I mean… I kept going to that place and seeing her wolf. I thought I’d just made it up. I played with your wolves there though.” They both nodded indicating they’d known that. Interesting.
I shot EJ a look. My big brother snorted, “Oh yeah, they know that. It was like a dream to them, but they don’t remember what was said.” Mom gently stated, “You shifted alone again.” Melanie flinched and hugged herself, which had me wrapping my arms around her.
I apologized, “We are all so damn sorry for that.” Chason said, “We wouldn’t have left, Muffin Luna. We would’ve stayedwith you if we knew.” Melanie said, “I didn’t get any warning… it’s just another way Selene sucks. It was really fast… anyway… it’s just yeah… umm… can we talk about something else?” It was physically paining her that she shifted alone again and I hated that for her.
Peter jumped in to give her what Melanie asked for. Peter offered, “So, you can heal wolves. Dylan said when trained you could heal more.” Dakota asked, “Why did you pick Eric and Alexander to heal?” Dylan snorted, “Good lord. Just stroke LSGAP’s ego some more.”
I linked EJ, “What’s the new letter? He was just SGAP.” EJ answered, “It’s legendary.” I laughed out loud. I teased my dad, “So, you’ve leveled up.” Dad replied, “So did you. Apparently, it’s my fault Melanie is the white wolf because your mother and I had you. So, we leveled up together.” Oh my god.
Melanie answered, “Well, Freya said we could heal Xander because he’s our mate, and Eric was the most logical choice… to heal… because umm he’s very well known for his fighting skills. Between the two of them… it stood at over a ninety-nine percent change… the fight would be under control quickly.”
I felt my dad’s amusement. Dylan snorted, “It’s ok, MelAshley. We blame Drake and Sam for having such a logical, genius level intelligence pup. It’s their fault really. Speaking of, let’s go back to this adopting Ashley Griffen discussion.”
Drake growled, “STOP trying to adopt my daughter.” Dylan snorted, “Uhh did you get hit on the head? I asked Ashley Griffen, and your daughter is Melanie McAlister. Get your ears cleaned out. It’s becoming a problem, and we’ve all mentioned it.” Oden chuckled.
Drake growled, “THEY ARE THE SAME PERSON!” Dylan smiled saying, “Yes, we know that but not in the eyes of the legal system. Which is where one can adopt an orphan named Ashley Griffen.” I rolled my eyes.
Sam walked over and pulled Melanie into a hug then kissed my mate on the forehead. Tristan asked, “Ladybug, how do you feel about this?” Melanie shrugged but didn’t answer him. Jason urged, “Mel?” I felt her reluctance to discuss this shooting up my foot.
I was about to step in when Melanie answered, “I’m happy I shifted, and I was able to be marked by my mate and mark him back. It’s cool what Freya and I can do… it’s also overwhelming… because no matter what we do people will eventually find out my identity.”
Drake said, “That is true, but we can keep it quiet for now. I would like to make something abundantly clear to you, Ladybug. Dylan said he has sources who said you called yourself a freak because drugs don’t work on you.” Melanie turned red.
Drake growled, “You are not a freak.” Melanie shrugged, “At the time… I had no idea why silver and wolfsbane didn’t work on me. They work on partial Werewolves… so my mind did not jump to… well it’s because I’m the white wolf… from the story Tristan told me at a bonfire once… yup that’s obviously what’s going on… that was not on my table of probabilities.”
Ben questioned, “So you went with being a freak?” Melanie raised an eyebrow replying, “I did not assign the word to myself… but … in their defense… which I don’t want to offer… What word would you have used?”
Ben answered, “Off the top of my head. Awesome, unique, or wonderful.” Melanie snorted, “Those are not exactly common words to describe me these last few years.” Ben growled, “So? Who the hell cares what other people say?”
Melanie stared at him for several moments. Mom said, “It’s not quite that cut and dry, Ben.” Melanie agreed, “It’s not. You try and live with a group of people who hate you… who take every chance to hurt you… to tear you down physically andmentally and tell me that some of the words they say to you don’t stick.”
I winced but I could feel my mom’s agreement with Melanie. Peter stated, “We need to protect Melanie.” Melanie snorted, “You are WAY too late on that decree, Alpha Peter.” Tristan argued, “Ladybug, that’s not fair.”
Melanie replied, “Why? It’s true, he is! He’s not my Alpha anymore and I don’t live in his territory. I needed that protection about six plus years ago. Now… what can he do? Black Mountain doesn’t need extra Warriors around here. Besides, in case you all haven’t noticed, I am PERFECTLY capable of protecting my damn self all on my own.”
Jason growled, “We are GOING to protect you. You need help.” Melanie snorted, “You have NO idea the….” Sierra interrupted, “Mel, stop.” Melanie ground her teeth together. Addison asked, “Mel, when was the last time you had some food? You shifted and got marked. You should eat.”
Ben told them, “Nice try, girls. We aren’t done talking.” Melanie snickered. Paige crossed her arms and snarked, “Did anyone say you had to stop talking, Ben McAlister? No. We are trying to take care of our friend.”
“You know, your granddaughter. You should want Mel to eat too. I know you remember how she gets when she’s busy, but when we were with her it was more than that. Melanie’s had a whole ass day. We all have, and she needs food.”
Ben pursed his lips but agreed, “Ladybug, you should eat. I do care about that.” Melanie replied, “I know that you do. Forrest asked Freya about food when we popped in…it’s logical that it means you care about me eating… or Forrest wouldn’t have asked.”
Zoe walked into the living room with several sandwiches and handed Melanie a plate. I raised an eyebrow. Zoe nodded at Dylan, “Dylan said we’d probably need food at some point.”Dylan clapped and pointed at my dad with his index finger yelling, “IN YOUR FACE!”
My dad snorted, “Right. You out thought me there, Dylan, because my pups or my wife couldn't snap everyone food.” Dylan put his fingers in his ears, “LA LA LA. I can’t hear you .and your logic, you bragging, overly large LSGAP you.”
Melanie sat down on the love seat with her sandwich, and I sat next to her. My mom asked, “Well, what’s the gossip? Someone here has to know and I’ll bet my mate does.” Dylan snorted, “Of course he does.”
My dad nodded to Caleb. Caleb answered, “Eric had me monitoring anything said with several others. Basically, the other side thinks the goddess came down to fight them. Some people believe them, but some people believe they are full of shit and are making it up to cover their losses.”
Caleb winced admitting, “Those that believe have started to travel this way to make a request that EJ, Alexander, Emmett, and Jayden let them hunt around for the white wolf. Which we will obviously not allow, and they are bat crap crazy for thinking we would.”
I linked Gage and Phil, “HUNT?!” Gage reasoned, “It’s not happening.” I snarled, “THEY WANT TO HUNT MY FUCKING MATE?!” Phil replied, “And it’s not going to get approved.” I was going to pulverize them into tiny little pieces. Oden growled, “Yes, we will.”
