AMelodyinParadise Page 8

  The two men just looked at each other and laughed. “I told you she’d take offense at that, Mitch.”

  Sarah twitched her skirt and turned. “I’ll just go get you all some spaghetti.” She spun back around and pinned Mitch with a glare. “You’ll be lucky if I get you a glass of water, mister.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Are we going to stay at a hotel?” Melody asked as they all piled back into the car after dinner.

  “No,” Wyatt said with a shake of his head. “We’ll be going to see the alpha, then we’ll go to our parent’s house. They have a bolt hole and an alarm system.”

  “I thought you guys hadn’t come back here for years.” Melody frowned. “Won’t the electricity be off?”

  “Nope. The council always makes sure that homes are left in at least fair repair with the power and water on in case someone decides to return. Besides, we were back here last year. We didn’t tell Carmen that because we knew she had a crush on two of the guys here.” He sighed. “It seems as though absence does make the heart grow fonder because she’s just as enamored with them.” He shook his head. “I can only hope they are her mates or they let her down easy. Either way, she’ll be changed when she gets here.”

  “Oh.” Melody bit her lip and looked away.

  Wyatt’s cock jerked behind his zipper. She never failed to stir his desire. Whenever she looked at him, licked her lips or even smiled, she stirred his hunger in ways no other woman had ever done.

  She looked down into his lap and blushed. “Is tonight the night?”

  “Do you want it to be?”

  Mitch’s question startled him. Wyatt would have said yes, instead of giving her the choice. The last few days had been hell. The heat churned in his insides, no longer appeased by the quick sex they managed to have every night before falling into bed exhausted. His beast needed to mate, to truly mate or the heat would drive him mad.

  He wasn’t sure, but Wyatt thought both he and Mitch held their breath as they awaited her answer.

  She pursed her lips. “I think I do.” She looked at them and laughed when they both let their breath out on a rush, obviously relieved. “I thought that was the answer you wanted to hear.” She rubbed her stomach. “Besides, I don’t know what it is, but I keep getting these strange burning bellyaches when we aren’t…” She paused, blushing. “Well, you know.” She waved her arm. “I can’t help but think it’s because we aren’t mated.”

  “That’s exactly why.” Mitch said as he turned into the driveway of a huge Victorian four story home.

  “Tell me this isn’t your house.” Melody looked up at it with wide eyes.

  “This isn’t our house. This home belongs to the alpha. We have stopped here to tell him of our arrival and there is something we must do before we can mate you here. It’s…complicated.” Mitch put the car in park and opened his door. “Besides, it’s best that you witness this yourself.”

  “Okaaaay.” Melody slid out of the car and waited for them to flank her. “I feel a bit like Dorothy.” She shivered.

  “Well, Melody, he isn’t an all-powerful wizard and the two of us are flesh and blood and neither of us has a cowardly streak. Exactly what part of this makes you feel that way?”

  She pointed to the yellow brick walkway to the front porch steps and giggled. “Those.”

  Both Mitch and Wyatt laughed.

  “Believe it or not, that yellow brick has been there since the late eighteen-hundreds. The owners of this house never copied anyone.” Wyatt took her hand in his and squeezed. “This is just a formality, but it must be done for us to truly be welcome here.”

  They walked up the front steps and knocked on the door.

  “Alpha,” they both said as Adam Greer opened the door. He was muscular in an athletic sort of way, but nothing like Nick Hill who stood next to him. Wyatt felt Melody sidle closer and wrapped his arm around her shoulders to make her feel more comfortable.

  “Can I help you?” Adam stood tall, his dark hair tousled as though they’d just gotten him out of bed.

  “I’m sorry if we’ve interrupted anything, Alpha, but since it was before ten and your lights were on, we thought it best to come to you before going home.” Mitch turned slightly toward Melody. “We have brought our mate home and wish to mate her with your consent.”

  Adam’s eyes narrowed. “And you wish my consent on a whim? I don’t know you two anymore and I have never known this woman.” He looked down at Melody, his gaze softening a bit. “Why would I give my blessing to two men who have no sworn allegiances in Paradise?”

  Wyatt and Mitch both knelt in front of the man and bowed their heads, Mitch going first as was proper since he was the oldest. “I pledge my allegiance to you, our alpha, to your enforcer, Nick Hill and to your mate, Amenina. Your lives shall be put above all others save our mate’s.”

  When the alpha looked at Wyatt, he repeated his brother’s words verbatim, then looked up to see their alpha frowning down at them. “Why do you come here?” He took a deep breath. “I can smell the stench of fear on your mate. Have you brought trouble with you?”

  Wyatt sighed. “Yes, alpha. Someone seeks to harm our mate. We brought her here because we want to make Paradise our home again and we hoped that you would help us.”

  “You mean you hoped I would take care of your problem for you, don’t you?” Adam turned to look into the house behind him for a moment, then sighed and looked at Nick. “She never lets us have any fun anymore.” With a shake of his head, Adam opened the door wider. “Come on in and meet your alpha female.” He grinned. “She’s always stopping us from interrogating returning clan members.”

  “Get out of the way, you goon.” A very pregnant woman with red hair elbowed her way past the two men and smiled down at them, her hazel eyes dancing with mirth. “Don’t pay any attention to these two. They’d have you on your knees begging for sanctuary for days if they thought they could get away with it.”

  Amenina McWerty-Greer glanced back at the two men who stood behind her, their arms crossed, each of them watching with a raised brow. “It’s just that we get so few new people around here that they take their fun where they can get it. Unfortunately, it’s usually at someone else’s expense.”

  She waved them up off their knees. Come on into the house where it’s warm. It’s cold as heck out here with all of this weird weather we’ve been having.” She pulled her coat tighter around her, hiding the fact that her shirt was buttoned unevenly.

  “What kind of trouble has followed you here to Paradise?” she asked as she led them into a huge living room. “Nick, would you mind making some coffee?” She gave the other man a kiss and whispered something in his ear that made his eyes gleam before he left.

  “Adam and Amenina Greer, I would like you to meet our triad mate, Melody Madison. We have come here to keep Melody safe.”

  “Melody Madison?” The alpha frowned. “Why is that name familiar?” he asked as he and his mate sat down on two of the three chairs that faced the sofa.

  “You know.” Nina elbowed him in the side. “We read about her in the Mason paper. She’s the—”

  “The violinist that just had an attempt on her life,” Adam finished for her. He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I remember now. The paper also said that you left the Philharmonic on sabbatical.” He waved his arm. “Sit down before you three fall down. You look exhausted.”

  They took their seats on the sofa and faced their alphas. Wyatt hoped they would agree to the proposal that got Melody here in the first place. If not, they may have trouble getting her to stay.

  “She’s come here to accept our proposal and become our mate. She’s also agreed to teach music in the schools if you’ll have her.”

  Nina bounced in her seat and clapped her hands. “That’s wonderful! I’ve been trying to find someone to teach music here, but no one wants to live so far out in the sticks. The thought that we’ll have a famous concert violinist here may just make our town look little mor
e palatable.”

  Wyatt smiled. One down, one to go.

  Two to go if the alpha shares his power with the enforcer, Mitch whispered in his mind.

  Yeah, two to go, dammit. Whatever happens, at least we have come home and I would look at our parent’s house again before we go. Wyatt took a deep breath, prepared for the alpha to tell them to go pack sand. Why should he allow them to stay when they had only shown their faces in Paradise a handful of times over the last fifteen years?

  Adam Greer looked between the three of them for some time before he sighed. “As my mate said, we get so little fun here that it has become a rather perverse pleasure to tease those whom we will end up helping in the end.” He leaned forward. “Let me be the first to welcome our three new clan mates to Paradise, now tell me how I can help you.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Melody sat in the house alone. She didn’t want her men outside putting their lives on the line for her, but she knew they would never allow her out there with them. Besides, she was the bait.

  As far as her stalker was concerned, she was home alone, watching TV and the guys had driven in to Mason to get her a wedding ring. She wore the wedding dress that the alpha female found in the attic of her home. It fit her as though made for her. She pulled at the itchy lace sleeve and drummed her fingers on the arm of the chair. Why she had to dress up in this dress and wait, she had no idea.

  As far as she knew, the guys were only pretending to go in to Mason. They couldn’t possibly drive there and back in the amount of time they assumed her stalker would make his move.

  Storm clouds moved over the sun as she sat waiting for her men to return. A shutter banged on the window in the next room, making her jump. It figured that they would leave her all alone in this creaky old house while she sat here, pretending to be scared. No. Wait a minute. Who’s pretending? I am scared. This was the first time Wyatt and Mitch left her alone since they met her. It was rather disconcerting.

  Bored, she thought about what she would do when she met the children tomorrow. What kind of lessons could she teach them and what kinds of instruments would they want to play? She could read both treble and bass clef music, but that didn’t mean she knew everything there was to know about teaching kids how to play band instruments.

  Melody bit her lip when another shutter banged against a window upstairs. This house was beautiful, but it was downright creepy during a storm. The cloudy sky made everything seem so dark even though it was barely past four in the afternoon.

  She looked at the clock and wondered how long they would leave her sit here alone. Twenty minutes had gone by already and she was almost ready to scream. Another loud bang came from somewhere near the kitchen. She tried to ignore it, but that didn’t sound like a shutter. That sounded more like a door being shoved against a wall.

  Nervous, she ran to the sofa against the wall and sat down, facing the TV as though nothing was wrong. It wasn’t long before she could see someone standing in the archway with her peripheral vision.

  Turning to face the man whom she now knew had been her stalker, Melody gasped. “Michael! What are you doing here?” She couldn’t believe it was Michael. He was arrogant and fat headed, but she didn’t think he was the violent type.

  “You have to get out of here, Melody. You’re in danger.”

  Yeah, from you. “Why would you say that?” she asked, eyes wide, hand to her throat. Looking up at Michael, he looked frantic as though he expected someone to jump out of the woodwork and attack him. Who knew? Maybe he did. He was a crazed stalker after all.

  He rushed to her side and Melody fought the urge to scream. Maybe she could talk him out of hurting her. She stared up into his eyes, searching for a glimpse of reason. There had to be a little sanity in there.

  He grabbed her arm and pulled her up. “I’m serious. He’s come to kill you and God knows if he finds us together, he’ll kill us both.” He ran his free hand through his hair. “I should have seen it. His boy next door good looks, always stealing the girls from me, never making a move on my chair because he knew he would be the first suspect.” He let her go and began to pace. “But if he fixated on you, then turned to me, he would be a serial killer and we’re both first chair. The police wouldn’t have looked twice at him. Why would he want you dead if he was after my chair?”

  Melody’s stomach flip-flopped when she realized what Michael was saying. “Andrew?”

  “Yes, Andrew.” The mocking voice came from the archway. Andrew stood there, a gun in his hand and waved it toward them. “How convenient for me.” He laughed. “The two of you are together and I can kill you both and go home. Then I’ll be first chair and the girls and the money will all flock to me.”

  He was insane. She could see it in his eyes. Where Michael’s eyes had been full of fear and anxiety, the look on Andrew’s face was something she never hoped to see again. He looked…maniacal.

  “Come on, move closer together so I can frame your boyfriend for murder, Melly. After all, he’s caught you with his best friend. I’m sure the police would believe it drove him completely over the edge to see you with the famous cellist, Michael Harmon. How could he compete with such musical perfection?” He gagged. “Like anything Michael plays sounds like music. It sounds like the baying of hounds to me.”

  “You don’t want to do this, Andrew.”

  “Of course I do.” He screamed the words, spittle flying from his mouth as he waved the gun in a wild arc. “What do I have to lose? I have him sitting beside me, always blocking my every move. Now the public wants you. I’ll never amount to anything in the music world as long as you two are around.”

  “I’ve retired, Andrew. Haven’t you heard?” Melody held her hands out palms up. “I’m going to be teaching music here in Paradise.”

  “You are?” Michael turned a shocked look toward her.

  “Yes, I am. They don’t even have a music program in their schools. I’ve wanted to teach for some time now, but I also had to realize my dream…my grandfather’s dream of becoming a concert musician. Now that I’ve done that. I can retire here and be happy.”

  She turned to Andrew. “So you see? There’s no reason to kill me.”

  “He’s my reason,” Andrew said as he leveled the gun at her heart. “I’ll never be anything as long as he’s alive.”

  “No!” Three people screamed that word just before three large cats attacked Andrew. The gun went off, the bullet striking the huge lion that had lunged at Andrew’s throat. The lion went down as the two tigers, one orange, one white, finished the job of disarming Andrew amidst his screams of terror.

  He fought, grabbing at the gun before pulling another and pointing it at Wyatt, the white tiger with the beautiful blue eyes. That was when Mitch ended it all. He bit down on Andrew’s neck, snapping his spine. His wild expression went blank and the light left his eyes.

  Melody, still a bit in shock from seeing the man shift shape into a lion moved next to the large beast that lay dying on the floor. She rested her hand on the thick mane, tears in her eyes as she stared down at the man she had loved to hate for the past year.

  “Oh, Michael.” She sobbed into her hand as a group of men entered and her mates herded her from the room. How could she live here knowing that Michael had given his life for her? How would she ever be able to repay such a debt?

  “He’s going to die because of me.”

  “Shh, angel. He’s not going to die. The doctor is in there right now.” Mitch cradled her face to his chest, his hand smoothing her hair.

  “But there was so much blood.” She couldn’t get the sight of it out of her mind. She looked down at the borrowed dress, expecting to see it covered in blood, but there was none.

  “Don’t worry, angel. We heal quickly. Tomorrow he’ll be up and about yelling for someone to find him an instrument to torture us with.”

  Melody gasped. “He’s one of the most gifted cellists in the world!”

  “And most likely the oldest,” Wyatt ad
ded dryly. “Believe me when I say that he’s probably had years and years of practice to get that good. He may look thirty, but he could be eighty-seven for all we know.”

  Mitch shook his head. “A lion shifter. I never would have guessed. I thought they were all but extinct.”

  “People thought we were the same. I guess there are more shifters out there than we realized. Do you think he’ll want to stay?”

  Mitch shrugged. “Who knows? He may want to go back to his career. He may want to stay. One thing is certain. He now knows he’s not alone.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Mitch watched as Michael Harmon walked Melody down the aisle in small chapel in the center of town. This was a true marriage ceremony. While polygamy was illegal in the United States, they technically weren’t in any state when in Paradise. Hell, technically they weren’t even in the same dimension.

  Melody was beautiful in the long, lacy gown that she had borrowed from the alpha female. Nina insisted she wear it for real, now that they were actually going through the ceremony.

  His mate looked up at him and smiled, her eyes brimming with happy tears. At least he hoped they were happy tears and the shot that the doc gave her hadn’t worn off already. They were surprised and pleased to find out that the doctor had developed a new serum to help with el calor. He, too, had witnessed the drug wearing off too quickly for some, and created a new, stronger serum that seemed to do the trick.

  Apparently, Michael Harmon wasn’t the asshole that he showed the world. He, like many shifters, decided to hide out in the open. When someone has something to hide and draws attention to themselves, the world sees only what that person wants them to see. The media rarely dug far past the surface, especially if a person shows them what they want to see.

  Michael walked Melody down the aisle with the ease of an old friend, which was strange considering she couldn’t stand him until he came clean about who and what he was. Mitch knew she wasn’t fickle. He also knew that Michael could have let Andrew come after her instead of trying to protect her. He and Wyatt would owe the lion shifter for that for the rest of their lives.