Melanie squeaked, “Still? I thought… you… but… don’t… we… need to go home?” I told her, “All our problems will be there in five days. If anyone needs us, they will call us. We need some us time to spend together. We need to have our honeymoon, and I will never let you down on things like this again.”
Elise coughed, “Told you so, Ladybug.” Melanie stuck her tongue out at Elise. I laughed, “My siblings and I always have a drink together before we leave.” My wife hummed, “Right… like I don’t know that… because that would be weird… for me to know… so… I totally don’t.”
Wesley busted up laughing, “Melanie it’s ok, we accept that you know all the things about us.” Melanie admitted, “Ok… well I did know that…about the drink.” I teased, “Trust me, we all knew you did.” Melanie flushed red. Oden purred, “Mate is adorable.” She was.
I walked over to where the rest of my siblings had gathered. Angela held out her hands. We all grabbed each other, and she popped us outside. I smiled greeting, “Mav.” He and Olivia were waiting. Olivia ran over and hugged Melanie.
EJ snapped us all drinks toasting, “To our growing family and the joy the new and old members bring to our lives. To the war we WILL win. I will not lose a single one of you. We will come out of this stronger as a family than we ever have been.”
“The Ring may know our powers, but we are still more powerful than they are. Plus, we’ve acquired several new secret weapons.” He smiled at Melanie, Olivia, and Valentina. Melanie flushed. “We will prove to everyone that we are a force to be reckoned.”
“We finally stand with the Resistance and the intel they have in an official capacity, and the Ring won’t know what awaits them.” EJ was right that had been the piece we’d been missing. We raised our glasses and drank.
EJ cleared his throat, “Now the newlyweds need to get out of here for their honeymoon. I promise if we need you, we will pull you to join us. That is if Ladybug doesn’t know before us.” Olivia and Valentina laughed.
I smiled at my big brother. Melanie said, “I mean… I probably will. Or you could ask Angela… that seems like an option.” Angela grumbled, “Unless something is blurry.” Melanie reasoned, “That’s a reason to be on alert… so… you could have a code for that. I’ve thought about that a lot…lately.” It was a good idea.
EJ said, “We will get on that immediately.” I walked over and gave him a hug. I whispered, “I love you, EJ.” EJ said, “Yeah, yeah, I love you too, Alexander.” I hugged my brothers one by one. Angela was looking at Melanie so intently I could tell they were linking.
I teased my little sister, “What are you so serious about?” Angela snorted, “I want my book. Also, the code for when things get blurry is a good idea.” She popped away. I laughed then grabbed Melanie by the waist.
I asked, “Why does Angela seem to think you’ll be bringing her a book?” Melanie frowned saying, “I’m not entirely certain. She’s positive I’ll find it though. Your sister isn’t sure she’ll be able to see it at first… which makes no sense.”
I popped us to Uncle’s home in the Fire territory. Melanie gasped, “Wow… this place is… amazing.” I kissed her then pulled back. Oden purred, “Now, let’s have our vacation and start it off right.” I planned to. I linked Gage, “Get home. My honeymoon officially starts, and you and Phil need to spend that time with your mates.” Gage replied, “On it, boss man.”
I told Melanie, “It is. Now, run.” My mate whirled around asking, “What?” I smirked, “I have had plans about how to start our honeymoon. I decided to go with something that will makesure you ALWAYS remind me if we have vacation plans. Run, Lovebug.”
Melanie startled but then took off. I laughed and counted to thirty in my head before I yelled, “Ready or not, my wife, here comes the big bad Hackura, Fairy, Wolf.” I heard her giggle. Little did she know the plans I had. So many plans. Melanie would never hide a trip from me again. I was certain of it.
Keeping the Advantage
Melanie was full of anticipation when Xander popped them out of the party. I was fairly certain this was his room here…. based on the schematics I knew. Freya chuckled, “Of course mate loves our dress.” Yeah, well I was a fan myself. My mother in law certainly knew fashion. No one could deny that.
My husband’s need was rough and demanding and I loved every second of it. Freya linked me, “You have a voice because I keep healing it, so shout away.” I snorted, “Frisky Wolf.” Freya retorted, “I match my human.”
Ok… so my wolf had a point… but I mean, could anyone blame us? LOOK at our mate. He’s just picture perfect. Freya purred, “Yes, he is.” She would know. Heck, Freya probably picked me because I was his mate.
Freya snorted, “No, I picked you for other reasons. Mate’s looks did not hurt, but you were always going to be his.” My heart warmed. I’d wondered if I was his because of Freya, but she was saying all along he would’ve been mine. Even if I wasn’t the white wolf.
Xander teased me about going back downstairs. Well, that was just crazy… it wasn’t my fault there were Goblins. I linked Freya, “Xander assumes the Ring Fairies let the Goblins in? There is quite literally …no way.”
Freya groaned, “I can tell that from your memories and thoughts.” Yeah well, to go after the New Year’s Eve party in Faerie was too big for them not to send word about the attack. Which I would’ve known about in advance and stopped. This was something else entirely.
Xander was immediately worried and understood my logic. We were downstairs before I could blink. Going through it logically, the Ring might not be directly involved but adjacent. They could sell information about how to interfere with Angela’s visions.
The Ring as a whole liked feeling powerful and having the knowledge of how to mess with Angela’s visions would be, and had been, something they flaunted. They also needed money. They could easily get some by selling secrets about how to hurt the Conners family to those that didn’t like them.
Evidence wise we knew they’d done it with Claire, and she was in an allied pack. I should’ve thought of that. I needed to run searches with new parameters. Dang it! Freya linked, “You can’t know everything.” I could give it a fair try…. and did… one could say often.
Xander started issuing commands to his family to protect his Fairy family. They were immediately concerned. Elise linked me, “What the heck is going on?” I answered, “I would’ve known if the Ring got the Goblins in Faerie.” Elise groaned.
Xander popped us to Aiden and Aiylee. I linked Freya, “Exsis and Lucinda are missing. Crap! Trying to take out Aiden is suicide… but Lucinda and Exsis? Hurting, and striking at, the royal family was WAY more the style of these types of people.”
“They are too cowardly to go for Aiden himself. Going for Exsis wasn’t a well thought out plan either, though. I mean really… the future King? Like they could beat him. He’s the future King for a reason… and he’s an incredibly skilled fighter.” Freya said, “I agree with your assessment about it all.”
Xander popped us to Exsis, who was already fighting with his powers and had a sword drawn. I heard the shots being fired and tackled them both. I had a rule about guns. I was not watching people I loved get shot. I was not going to see Xander get shot. Ever.
Freya agreed, “No, we are not. Not our mate.” Exsis was pissed, which I understood that completely. He wanted them to come out and fight him. Ok, the people fighting him were never going to do that. They were going to fight from the shadows, because head to head…. they knew they couldn’t defeat Exsis.
