“Woman, no shifter would be stupid enough to fall for your honey trap. You promise heaven, but you’re cruel and twisted and totally self absorbed. You see familiars as prizes, possessions, and you treat them accordingly. You were never interested in me, only in the status that my alpha lion brought to you. So give it up already,” Dean chuckled, a dark sound in the brightly lit hall.
“Although you’ve already given it up for me and a dozen or so other shifters here, none of us will challenge you. You can offer to spread your legs for Nick as many times as you want, he’s never going to take you up on it, none of us will. We’ve all got better taste than that, and we’d all rather spend another century in this prison than be bonded to the likes of you.” He turned his back on her and pushed to the forefront of their group, parting the crowd before him like a knife through butter, clearing the way for Melody and the others to follow in his wake.
Melody wanted to cheer, but decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Still, the whole thing had lifted her spirits a little. That was until she realised that Justin wasn’t coming back with them. He was still held in Jaynie’s clutches, now back at their table where the women talked and looked pointedly at Melody and the others as they walked to the exit. When they left the hall and Justin didn’t join them, a piece of her heart broke off and stayed with him.
11. Melody
The next meeting with the provost had come around, and at the end of the day, Melody nervously headed towards Mrs Hardinger’s counselling room. It caused less fuss for her to turn up there than at the provost’s office or house. People would just assume that she was meeting with Mrs Hardinger, and if the provost was seen in the vicinity, it was well known that the two women were close friends and had been for decades.
It spoke not only of the pressure on the provost to remain neutral, but the eyes on Melody that they needed such cloak and dagger tactics to meet in peace. She would do what she could, however, to reduce the attention on her, and to protect the woman who she suspected cared for her more than anyone had in a long time.
When Melody walked in with Dean and Asher in tow, she was unsurprised to find the two powerful women already sitting with tea in their hands and chatting animatedly—the last two times the provost had arrived in the middle of her session with Mrs Hardinger. The conversation stopped abruptly when she entered, hinting that it was likely about her situation.
Three chairs were waiting for them and Melody took the one closest to the provost, leaving the men to sort themselves out.
“How are your wounds healing, Melody?” the provost asked her.
“Slowly, but surely,” she replied, looking to her shifters to ensure they agreed. “Now that I’ve bonded Asher, they’re definitely healing, it’s just a lot slower than last time. I thought it may be because of my own weakened state, but Nick thinks it’s ….”
A warning heat on her back, and the gasps of her two shifters who felt it, let her know she was getting too close to maligning her coven. Goddess, Melody trusted these two women so much now, she’d forgotten the most basic of restrictions on her.
“Yes,” Mrs Hardinger broke in smoothly. “I am sure there are other important factors involved. We can talk with him later to see what can be done to ameliorate it.”
Melody nodded, there was little else she could say.
“And are these two louts behaving themselves? I can’t imagine it’s peaceful in your little cottage right now,” Mrs Hardinger asked with her customary directness.
Dean stilled beside her, but Asher gave off a low growl.
She sighed. Well, there went any opportunity of saying that all was going well.
“I’m not going to lie,” she said, finally. “The tension is thick enough to cut with a knife. The two of them dislike each other so much, that it’s almost a health hazard to move around them. I’ve told them that if they need to fight it out, to take it outside. I’m not wasting my magic repairing things they break because they can’t keep their tempers under control.”
Mrs Hardinger blinked at her, then looked at the two men.
“She really said that? She’s not just putting on a show for the provost and me?”
Dean’s bond vibrated. He wasn’t happy that Melody told them that, but honestly, what did he expect? Over half the fights between the two of them were instigated by Dean’s dominance plays and all but marking his territory around Melody. She was over it.
“She really fucking said it,” growled Asher, equally unhappy.
Mrs Hardinger barked a laugh. “Well, good for you. I didn’t think you had it in you, but I should have known that you were your mother’s daughter. You need to be firm with them from the start, if you’re ever to have peace. Especially when there’s antagonism between the two of them. Give them a century or two together and they’ll mellow out, I should think, but for now they’ll be all about measuring their dicks and wrestling for the rank of top dog. Or top beast, rather.”
Melody nodded, she’d expected as much. Something similar had happened back at the compound when Malcolm had arrived. It had caused quite the furor and the fights had been plentiful until the pecking order had sorted itself out. Then everyone had settled back down. Well, mostly. Still, something else Mrs Hardinger said pulled at her attention.
“You knew my mother?” Melody asked.
The two women looked at each other, an entire conversation held in a glance.
“Yes, we did,” Mrs Hardinger said after a moment. “I was in Georgia’s year,
