Trent pulled out a chair for her, but as she went to sit, a hand grabbed her by the shoulder and swung her around.
“I challenge you!” shouted Asher, pulling off his shirt and kicking off his shoes. His pants followed, and he stood proudly naked before he shifted. It wasn’t as instant as Dean’s was, almost like he was trying to encourage her to look at his body and admire it.
Dean’s growl could be heard clear across the room, and moments later he was by her side, his lion visibly near the surface. His hair had grown longer and two canine teeth overlapped his bottom lip.
That was when she reached her limit.
Melody was sick of this shit. Before Asher had even finished shifting, she slapped him down.
“Shift then!” she yelled back at him, throwing her magic at his beast and reversing the process before he had done much more than drop to all fours and grow a bit of fur. Instantly the shift was reversed and he sat there as a human in front of her, a feral grin in place.
Melody felt the bond sink into her, felt his smug satisfaction. The feeling must have been strong inside him for her to detect it at all in such a new bond. He was such an ass!
“That’s cheating! I told you she couldn’t bond a shifter without cheating. She didn’t even let him complete his shift,” screeched Shawna from the other side of the room.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” groaned Melody. “Right, shift again, and then I’ll show them I can defeat your beast, but don’t muck around this time.”
Seconds later, a large grey wolf sat in front of her. So he could do it faster! The egotistical ass had been drawing it out on purpose. Yeah, Melody had no problem bonding him, she wouldn’t want to burden anyone else with his kind of arrogance.
She held her hand, palm out, facing him. “Shift!” she commanded, sending her magic at him, and once again the change was instantaneous. This time when he was human again, his cock was hard and pointing at her.
Melody grabbed his sweats and threw them at him. “Cover that shit up, nobody wants to see it.”
Dean’s growls had not subsided, although he was now looking over her shoulder at something. Melody turned to see Shawna and her crew advancing on them.
“I don’t know what that was supposed to prove, except that you are even more of a cheater. Forcing his shift when he’s already part-way bonded to you is something a baby could do. I still say you cheated!”
“Then go running to the provost about it, because that worked for you so well the last time. From what I hear, you’ve been trying to convince Asher he belongs to you as well. Just how low will you go, Shawna?” Dean sneered.
Shawna scowled, but turned on her heel and left, her posse following behind her, giving Melody and the shifters dark looks.
Melody turned to Dean. “Can you call the others? If she convinces the provost this wasn’t a fair challenge, and she has to break the bond again, I’ll probably need all of you.”
Dean closed his eyes and then nodded at her. “They’re coming. The dragons are heading back to the cottage to dress first.” He frowned at Trent. “You didn’t see him coming?”
Trent hung his head, ashamed. “I did, but I didn’t realise he was going to challenge her like that. I thought he’d arrange a time or something. He would have challenged her even if I had intervened. He’s just that arrogant.”
“Dudes, I’m right here,” whined Asher.
“Don’t we fucking know it,” snarled Dean, before turning to her. “Come on Mel, if the provost has to break these bonds, you’ll need a full belly to get through it.’
“Actually, I’m worried I might throw up,” she confessed, and he put an arm around her and hugged her.
“At least have some juice?” Dean tugged her to a seat, pulled a glass of orange juice towards her, and sat sideways on his chair, facing her.
Melody wasn’t used to being looked after like this, and it always took her by surprise when they did these little things for her. On one hand, she didn’t want them to do—it, the shifters weren’t her slaves—she didn’t want to demean them like so many witches did. On the other hand, she enjoyed having someone caring about her wellbeing for once. She enjoyed the sense of family she got from them too, even the new asshole had a sense of “pack” around him.
The asshole in question sat on her other side, beating Trent to the chair and leaving the fox shifter growling under his breath. Melody held out her hand across the table and tapped it, indicating he should sit opposite her. He dashed around the end of the table and sat where she indicated, reaching for her hand. She let him have it, the motion meaning she gave Asher the cold shoulder and it twisted her a little toward Dean. It wasn’t an accidental movement.
“Hey, I’m your familiar, you can’t keep giving me shit,” protested Asher, putting a large hand on her back.
The idiot hit her wound, and Melody arched in pain. He felt it. She knew he did by the hiss of air he sucked between his teeth, but because the bond was so new, he didn’t get the full impact. Dean, however, did.
He leapt forward with a snarl, punching Asher in the jaw, and jostling Melody into the wolf, adding insult to injury. Dean looked at her in horror.
“Mel,” he husked, pulling her gently toward him. “I’m so sorry, baby!”
A shrill voice cut over their jostling before the fight between the shifters could escalate.
Dean was torn between comforting her and growling at Asher
