Francis whistled, “That lady even gave her own brother food poisoning. She was a stone cold bitch, man. Cassie Conners has been wanted since before I was born. They take all chances to get her. From what I understand, the Fairy Princess is the same.”
I told him, “I see. For the record, my mom is a Fairy/Hackura Princess. I’m sure my cousins and uncle will have fun chatting with you.” I stabbed Trevor in his broken leg. I told him, “When I find out the things you did to my mate, I’ll be back here to do them to you tenfold. Do you understand me?” Trevor gulped, “Please, don’t.”
I punched him in the face. I asked, “How many times did Melanie beg you not to do something to her? How about when you threw her into the pantry?” Francis snorted, “Which time?” I gaped at him and asked, “It happened more than once?”
Francis nodded, “For random made up crap too. They literally made up rules for reasons to throw her in there. Melanie does NOT do small spaces, just saying. Unless you’re an asshole and want her to have a panic attack, I would avoid letting her be in one.”
I pushed at him and saw a flash of Melanie as they beat her, asking where her stuffed toy wolf was. My mate refused to tell them. I snarled at him, “You beat her because of her stuffed wolf?” Francis sighed, “No one liked that wolf, man. It was the wrong color to everyone. Even the Alpha, and it had black in its fur.”
I snarled, “BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE ME, YOU HALF WIT, BACKWARDS, NO NOTHING WOLF!” Francis titled his head, “You know, now that you say it, you’re right. Damn. I should’ve guessed that. It makes so much sense. Of course, it looked like you. Melanie’s always loved you.”
Trevor whimpered and I snarled at him. My dad said, “You cannot possibly be upset about that. You never treated Melanie with any kindness. You could not believe she could ever love you.” Trevor sniffled, “My mom loves my dad.”
My dad tilted his head questioning, “Is she his true mate?” Trevor nodded, “Yes, and she always told me to treat my mate better than he treats her.” EJ snorted, “And yet the girl you were determined to take as a chosen mate, you treated I’ll just guess far worse than your dad treats your mom?”
Trevor shrugged explaining, “He only cheats sometimes. It’s better than the Alpha and Beta. Dad only ever cheated when he’s drunk. He rarely hits mom, and he always apologizes when he does.” Hastein snorted, “There’s a goal to live up to. A real man would NEVER raise a hand to his mate. A real man would NEVER cheat on his mate.”
Trevor snorted, “Are you really saying that to me? You? A Hackura? You have off periods.” Gabe spoke, “You dumbass. Those are mutually decided off periods, and when we are with others it does not cause our mates physical pain like it does all of you. You all are a bunch of masochists.”
Francis said, “It doesn’t hurt the males. They had a spell to fix that. It’s basically a way for them to punish their mates. Or ya know, because of a hot chick.” I shouted, “Punishing them?!” Francis nodded, “Yeah, because men don’t feel the pain, but their mates do. Well, not so much anymore. Melanie of course interfered.”
Trevor frowned asking, “What are you talking about?” Francis snorted, “Have you not noticed your mother adores Melanie, yet always told her to stay away from you? Your mom told Melanie to find her true mate because your father poisoned you, so you’d never treat her right.” Trevor gasped.
Francis gloated, “See? It pays to eavesdrop, man. Your mom and grandma always told Melanie to never, under anycircumstances, be with you. Once Melanie met Paige, she and that Witch found a way to ease their pain with magic and some sort of science shit.”
“So, the she wolves just acted like it caused them pain for a few days. It hurt them, but not like the males wanted it to. Eventually, I’m pretty sure that method was perfected and the women were just high.” Oden purred, “Mate is a genius.”
Dalton sighed, “Some science shit?! Seriously, no wonder Melanie didn’t like you people. My mate and yours are crazy smart together, Alexander. Did you know they have a spray to see holoports? We found three in our territory that are now marked and guarded.”
I sighed, “EJ, we need to do that too. We already know where one is.” Francis snorted, “Then you know them all to my knowledge. They’d be on your borders. No one is suicidal enough to get caught creating a holoport in your territory. It’s no secret how the Fairy Princess feels about Covens.”
Uncle Bjourn groaned, “We will never hear the end of this. Haley begged us all to declare war on the bad Witches and Warlocks.” Hastein laughed, “Hey, I’m team do whatever Aunt Haley wants. She brought all these wonderful holidays into our lives, and she asks for so little in return. The world could do without the bad covens.”
My uncle snorted, “And how do you round up the good without the bad?” Hastein snapped his fingers and replied, “That’s easy. Aunt Haley and Cassie question them all since no one can lie to them. What other problems do you need me to solve for you, old man?”
My Uncle Bjourn rolled his eyes and lightly punched Hastein in the shoulder. I snapped myself clean. I announced, “Well, I can’t continue talking to these assholes without killing them and that goes against my giving them hell before Iblis does.”
Francis shrieked, “Iblis?” I snorted, “Didn’t you know the man is a friend of my family?” Trevor admitted, “Melanie said that, but I figured she was blowing smoke up our ass.” Tristan snarled, “How do you not know my sister is a terrible liar?” Francis replied, “We do know that.”
How did Melanie know that Iblis was a family friend though? I could tell no one I shared a bond with knew that answer. Which told me I wasn’t going to figure that out today. Someone touched my arm as we popped back to our house. I knew who it was based on the bond.
I greeted, “Dad.” My dad asked, “Are you ok?” I shrugged, “Beating the crap out of Trevor makes me feel marginally better. Not a lot but certainly a little.” My dad nodded, “It seems your mate has been very busy.”
I admitted, “I’m wondering if she ever got in trouble with her boss. Melanie is smart enough to set up her own monitoring system to see who was coming after us.” My dad agreed, “Your mate is a genius. So, that definitely sounds like something she could pull off. It’s clear she got to the guy that was going to come for Cayden, and she absolutely got to the ones coming for you.” I nodded my agreement.
Dad paused then added, “Your mom says they are done for the day. Let’s go see our mates. It will settle you to see Melanie here after that.” Oden agreed, “It will.” We both headed into the living room. EJ was already there with Elise.
Melanie came running over to me with a smile on her face. I asked, “Did you get everything all planned?” My mate nodded. EJ linked me, “The Luna Ceremony is Thursday, and mom says I can’t make a face about it. I was gunning for Monday.” I shrugged at him.
Melanie said, “The Luna Ceremony is Thursday and then Saturday is our mating ceremony. We could do Friday still but….I just thought a day between…. that could be good and…” I leaned down and kissed her.
I pulled back assuring her, “Whatever you want is fine by me.” Melanie grinned and told me, “That’s what your mom said you’d say.” I laughed, “My mom is a smart woman. In fact, she’ sone of the smartest ones I know.” The rest of the day flew by.
Mason and Hendrick King stopped by for their housing assignment. They’d finally made it up to our territory. They ended up staying in Black Path longer than planned to help out Caine, Dax, and Buck. They felt the pack was in a good enough place now for them to move on.
EJ hadn’t recalled our Warriors that we’d left behind. He wanted the pack to be in a more stable place before we did. Plus, I think he wanted ears on the ground for any pack that needed new leadership if they were running things the way Black Path formerly did.
When the time for Dakota and Avery’s ceremony came around, I insisted on popping Melanie to Red Run personally because of what happened at Jason and Addison’s. We popped in and she stood there for a second then grinned.
