The woman groaned, “Oh god. Headrush. What was that for? I could’ve gotten in here two different ways. There was no need to pop me around for the first time.” I said, “My brother and I have met Angels and Demons. You feel like a mix of them. I’m guessing you’re not popular with either group.”
The woman sighed, “Some of my half-brothers are nice and help out sometimes, if it suits them. I also have a cousin who helps me when he can because he’s a good guy. Plus, his mate isn’t an Angel yet, so their kids are partials. He doesn’t agree that I should be treated this way. My parents are mates after all.”
I raised an eyebrow. Oden said, “Her family sucks. I would help Snow and Rain no matter what. I’d also kill all threats to them.” I knew that because I felt the same way. EJ asked, “Did you say your parents are mates? As in they are living?”
The woman nodded. EJ questioned, “Then why aren’t your parents helping you?” She sighed, “They have to savethemselves.” I didn’t even need my mom to tell me that was a lie and they’d conditioned this woman to believe that.
I asked, “Do you have any full blooded siblings?” She shook her head, “No. My mom has other kids and so does my dad, but not with each other. I’m their only child. If we are together, we are too easy to track. Or so they say. Melanie thinks that’s crap. Well, she says crap, I say bullshit.” Good, it was.
I asked, “How old are you?” The woman teased, “Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to ask a lady her age? Honestly, I surprised myself by letting Melanie help me. I’m used to being alone, but I let her hook me up with a roommate. Your mate is a good kid though. Wicked smart.”
EJ hummed, “You call her kid. That implies that you’re older than Melanie.” The woman retorted, “I’m older than you, too. So, respect your elders there, boy.” I snorted, “We are Alpha’s.” The woman gently clapped her hand on my cheek.
Oden huffed, “For some reason that does not upset me.” Nor did it upset me, which meant this woman was likely mated into my family. Melanie’s friend said, “Bless your heart. I know you are an Alpha. Everyone knows that.”
“Actually, ANYONE who has met Melanie knows who you are. She talks so much about you that I found myself curious knowing she was here. Plus, most people know the famous Conners family. When will Melanie be back?”
I admitted, “I don’t know. I, personally, don’t like how long she’s been gone.” EJ asked, “What’s your name?” The woman went rigid and that had Oden going on alert. EJ linked me, “I’m not getting good vibes.” My mom popped to us with our dad.
I sighed and asked them, “Angela?” Mom nodded. My mom looked at the woman with us, “Yes and I got a bad feeling.” She threw the woman aside with her wind as a dagger appeared in the air. A Bounty Hunter appeared in my office.
When did this office become fight central?! I growled but before I could do anything, a hand reached around his neck and slit his throat. When he dropped, I stared at my mate who was covered in blood and wearing a Resistance mask. With Julian’s mate beside her, also in a Resistance mask. They’d shimmered in, clearly.
Mealnie took it off asking, “Did I miss dinner? I’m really hungry.” EJ gasped then yelled, “THAT is what you have to say, Ladybug?” Melanie said, “Uhh I was going to say hi to Angelique too.” My mate turned to Angelique, the woman who we’d been talking to.
Melanie huffed, “I’ve been looking for you. You weren’t where I left you which was good… there were quite a few Bounty Hunters there. Several bodies outside too… so I was guessing you took off. I went to all our prearranged spots with Valentina… but I couldn’t find you.”
“I’m SERIOUSLY annoyed at myself that it didn’t dawn on me you’d come here. It’s so obvious. Everyone knows where to find me…. and you’d be curious and want to meet Xander… you said that so many times… and I really….”
Melanie was cut off by a voice from behind us yelling, “MINE!” I heard a gasp and turned to face the doorway, astonished because I knew whose voice it was. This was going to get interesting. My mate really did know a lot of people. Interesting and unique people.
Avoidance
Melanie couldn’t help but smile as the music started playing. Buttercup was doing everyone’s makeup. I asked, “So… what are we doing? I didn’t bring any clothes with me… coming here was an impromptu decision.” Freya chuckled, “Mate will take care of that.”
Paige admitted, “I don’t know what’s going on either. I just got told we were doing something. Apparently, you and I do have clothes though. Our mates and friends planned this shindig for us.” I snorted, “Your clothes are here anyway, Paige….because you live here.”
Paige shrugged, “I still have some special outfit for the evening.” I laughed, “That’s Fairies for you. What can you do? Except… enjoy. This is fun….so is knowing things…but this is fun.” Adeline agreed, “Yes, it is! Gosh, I missed you getting ready for things with you as we’d planned, Mel. It felt so wrong without you.”
That made me feel bad because we had a lot of plans for those types of things. Literally…I made a notebook for us and we’d plotted them all out. Our biggest ideas were ones we thought of for prom. We wanted to go all out. I hugged her and she squeezed me tightly.
Cassie popped in, smiled, and snapped everyone’s hair done. Avery whispered to me, “That’s just so handy.” It really was. I asked, “How are you and Dakota?” Avery answered, “Really good.” I asked Addison, “Is my brother being nice, or do I need to kick his butt?” Freya snorted, “Ajax is smitten with his mate.” Of course he was.
Addison dreamily said, “Jase treats me better than I ever thought anyone would.” I smiled, “Good.” Abigial hummed, “It is, but it’s so weird. Gage treats me better than my wildestdreams. I’ve now realized I had the bar set for my mate in hell. It felt like I was swinging for the fences with them though.”
Avery snorted, “No joke.” Abigial nodded, “I’ve been doing therapy in our pack and it’s illuminating how I was praying for the bare minimum.” I replied, “You mean being expected to be treated like a human being?” All of them nodded.
Adeline said, “I’m on the other side because my man felt how you guys did. I took out the trash once in our place because it needed to be done. I’m a go getter. I see something I want done and I do it. Honestly, you’d have thought the sun shined out of my ass that day.”
I said, “Yeah, gender stereotypes are enforced pretty heavily in forgotten packs. Taking out the trash is a man’s job.” Adeline shrugged, “I mean, he does it most the time. You know in my house it was more of a ‘see a job that needs to be done and get it done’ vibe.”
I agreed, “I know that.” Avery snorted, “Just like you knew she’d match with August.” Addison huffed, “You could’ve told Caine that. He was hot under the collar you switched August to go to Red Run.”
I muttered, “He was wrong… and he wouldn’t have agreed to anything nice for anyone there… especially someone I said was my friend. Plus…I did tell him August needed to go to Red Run… and Caine said no….so…I did tell him…just not why.”
Addison acknowledged, “That’s true.” Adeline nudged me, “Thanks for getting him to me. Going against an Alpha like that must have been tough.” Avery laughed, “Not for Mel. She did that a lot.” Several heads whipped to me except my friends.
Everly looked really worried and so did Elise. I linked my wolf, “See? I hid some things…from people. I have skills…..sort of. The point remains my friends actually think it was easy… and not soul crushingly difficult to go against an Alpha.”
