Page 258 of The Alpha and His Song: Volume One

Caspian turned the conversation back to my mate’s ex. “Luke is a prick. I’m sure while he angrily talked about your response, he’s not actually going to do anything. He’s also not smart enough, nor does he have the initiative to cause your accident. It was more likely Darwin with the help Melanie mentioned.”

I remembered Melanie said Darwin was Luke’s dad. Melanie whispered, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t consider that… Odette knew the Merrick’s. Her mom kept her so sheltered… and Odette didn’t say her ex’s name… I wouldn’t have…”

Emmett interrupted, “I’ll speak for everyone here and say it wasn’t your fault. The rest of us are interested in what else you know about Sirens.” Aiden chimed in, “Especially me. You seem to have read more books than I have. Does Jared remember all the books he brought you?”

Melanie flushed, “As I said… sometimes I gave him a duffle bag…. Or two… ok sometimes three…. no four… ok it was a lot.” Aiden tilted his head, “You never had books longer than a week. You were reading a duffle bags full of books every week?” Melanie nodded sheepishly.

Emmett linked, “We just need to have her over and ask random questions. The techy Luna will just start talking and now she’ll come over to see your mate. We should just have the Miller’s pepper her with questions.” That had merit.

Emmett asked, “Since the room needs to calm down, I have a question for you techy Luna.” Someone cleared their throat, “She’s the Muffin Luna.” I snorted. Emmett said, “Sure, the scary techy Muffin Luna.” Melanie smirked, “What’s the question, Alpha Emmett?”

Emmett asked, “Why did you kill Rascor Meglin?” Oh shit. Channing agreed, “Yup. Our crows have finally come to roost.” Melanie began to play with her sleeve. Emmett continued, “We were watching him closely, which you obviously knew. I just don’t know what he was doing that caused the Resistance to kill him.”

Melanie admitted, “The Resistance didn’t…. exactly…. kill him… but kind of.” Several people raised an eyebrow. Channing laughed, “That definitely means Freya’s human considers us to be in the Resistance in some type of capacity.” Yes, it did.

Malachi said, “We studied the case because we were watching him, knowing he was coming after Alexandria. He was found stabbed through the back of the throat with a Resistance circle behind him. The Resistance isn’t exactly an organization that just lets people dump on their body count.”

Melanie said, “Well, not all people. Just… one… or a few people… it could be a few. That’s a thing… it could be.” Channing laughed, “She meant it when she said they’d be watching over us.” I knew that. Emmett growled, “Who killed him if you didn’t?”

Melanie picked at her sleeve but briefly shot a look in my direction. I wish I’d have been present when she left the note because I’d have gotten her home. Emmett and dad whirled to me. Keith linked me, “Are you kidding me right now?!”

Emmett growled at me, “You killed him?!” Melanie squeaked, “I didn’t say that. You said that. Definitely you… I did not say… that Keaton had anything to do with it… nope… not me.” I told her, “It’s fine, scary techy Muffin Luna.”

Keith asked, “How did you know it was him, Melanie?” I nearly groaned. Melanie answered, “Well, I had to know who was killing people… that we weren’t… with our symbol… that’s a thing… I had to find out.” Channing snorted, “I’m getting lectures.”

Dad yelled, “PEOPLE?! As in plural?!” Matt said, “Damn. He didn’t even need me to point that out. Which I would have, later. So much later.” I didn’t even know when he got here. Melanie looked down and fiddled with her sleeve.

Emmett said, “Oh, no little techy scary Muffin Luna, I need answers. How many people did my little brother kill and put a Resistance circle on?” I was curious if she knew the answer. Channing snorted, “She clearly does.” Yeah, but she could’ve assigned someone else to monitor me and not been updated.

Channing retorted, “Sure, if she was an ALPHA wolf. That is a BETA wolf, Keaton.” Despite how she acted sometimes, that was true. Melanie picked at her sleeve and her voice went to a high octave, “I was kind of busy. There were…. lots of things I had going on. People trying to kill…. Xander and his family. Even your family. So very much… was going on in the Resistance. That’s just keeping allies safe. I had my own people…. to look out for.”

Melanie’s eyes darted around as she said, “I didn’t… keep count?” Despite it all, I laughed because she said it like a question AND looked around the room. Her heartrate was through the roof, not to mention her voice squeaked.

Several people looked at me. I asked, “What? That was sad. Lux is right. Melanie is getting worse at lying.” Melanie crossed her arms whispering, “I could be…. getting better.” Alexander tilted her chin up, kissed her, then tapped her nose, “Never change, Lovebug.”

Emmett turned to me, “How many?” I evaded answering by asking Melanie, “How many do you know about?” She answered, “All of them.” Channing chimed in, “Duh.” I snorted, “Humor me.” Melanie answered, “Fifty-Seven… and we should for one more… because that’s a strange number to stop on.” She was right.

Channing hummed, “Least surprising fact we’ve learned since mate was taken. A Beta wolf doing Beta things. This is me being utterly flummoxed. Do note my sarcasm.” I did Emmett growled, “FIFTY-SEVEN?!” I nodded, “Yes.”

Dad said, “I’m sorry, we’re saying that you killed fifty-seven people and pinned it on a group we didn’t know?! For all you knew, they could come after you after you once they figured out WHO IT WAS!” Just the first one, but that probably wouldn’t help for him to know. Channing said, “It does actually make it a little better.”

Melanie said, “I knew who did it…. after the first one. Then I left Keaton a note saying that it was fine. He was basically…. an honorary member. Which was… a fun new facet of my whole… operation… and… stuff. Oh shoot… that was a secret.” She clapped a hand over her mouth.

I snorted, “I did get a note.” Alexander growled, “I never got a note.” Great, now he was jealous his mate left me a note. Melanie hummed, “I mean… I wrote it… I didn’t leave it.” Oh, thank god. Dad was pissed right along with Emmett.

Keith linked me, “A little heads up would’ve been nice.” I replied, “I didn’t know it was Melanie at the time. Plus, she did tell me it was fine to use the Resistance symbol. Melanie knew I wasn’t going to kill anyone who wasn’t bad. She did say she was busy, and she’s right.” Keith shot me a look.

Uncle Eric said, “I’m going to put a pin in this delightful conversation because my mate says Odette needs Keaton.” The Sargasso’s were looking at me with a mixture of pride and relief. I guess hearing I could kill stealthily eased their fears, if they had any. I let Channing come forward and ran for Odette.

Emmett linked me, “This conversation is beyond not over.” I replied, “Of course it’s not.” My brother growled at me. I sighed, “I was protecting you how I thought I could. I have all his files and everything on Alexandria.” Emmett growled again, this time at the threat to his mate.

I climbed into bed with Odette, holding and assuring her that she’d done nothing wrong. Odette cuddled into me and cried. I wanted to murder everything I got my hands on. Alexander linked me, “Your family is pretty ticked and that’s putting it mildly. Which my mate does NOT understand.”

That actually made it so much better. Channing offered, “Freya does confirm her human says there is no problem because she had your back. It might have been pointed out, she’s quite good at it.” I asked, “Did she point out she did better than them?” Channing confirmed, “Yes, but she doesn’t seem to realize that’s a dig.” It wasn’t to someone like her.

Melanie’s intelligence was so high above those around her and she had hacking skills. Her system probably had alerts to tag people if she was unavailable on threats. Oh my god, it probably notified the allies. That was definitely something to look into when I got a spare minute.

I replied to Alexander, “You weren’t surprised, you’ve long suspected me. Why?” Alexander replied, “I make tactical decisions. I studied the Resistance a lot. I had those fifty-seven, and my god Keaton, cases earmarked. They were people the Resistance would’ve gone after eventually but weren’t a big enough problem for them to kill yet. They had bigger fish to fry, you didn’t.” He was right.