Page 264 of The Alpha and His Song: Volume One

I muttered to my wolf, “I’m really having to thank someone for not wanting to kill me and be nice?!” Tatum snorted, “No, you don’t have to do that at all.” Sassy and I both liked it better here than the Merrick’s though. Melanie said the other relative clan was the Wedell’s.

Lily nodded, “You know I agree. None of us want the girl to die. Girls in the Sargasso line are rare. It would anger both our god and goddess to destroy that. Yes, Prince Delmar is a good choice.” I was not even going to remotely feel grateful the woman who wouldn’t use my name didn’t want me dead. Lily left court.

Prince Delmar laughed, “I like that Lily thinks it was her idea.” Another man laughed, “Of course. We never planned for Princess Odette to marry me. It was always you, brother. We may be dark, but I’ll not marry my cousin.” Come on! Stop making me agree with you guys!

Tatum snorted, “I agree with none of that.” I reasoned, “I’m just saying it’s a better plan than forcing me to be with my cousin, carrying a child, then kill me.” Tatum replied, “With a bar that low, it’s not surprising one can leap over it.” Fair point.

The guy obviously related to me continued, “That’s revolting. I can’t believe Lily thought I’d agree to do that. Odette is beautiful, but she’s still my cousin. I can’t believe Luke stooped so low and used his snare to sleep with her.”

Prince Delmar laughed, “Really, brother? I can believe it. Luke can’t get a woman without his snare. He’s revolting.” Afreakingmen, Delmar. Tatum snorted a laugh. My cousin laughed “You got me there, brother.”

Ok, adopted brother not related to me was way better. My wolf was right, my bar was in hell, but Sassy felt like she agreed. These guys weren’t making her sad, which I liked. My cousin continued, “Luke has always been an errant child, but who could’ve guessed he was so desperate, and hard up, he’d still choose to fuck and marry his cousin over his Song. That’s just truly awful.”

Ok, fine. I might have a low bar for cousins, but I did like these guys better than the Merrick’s. We needed to work on family matters though because my wolf was right, they weren’t great. There was potential here though, and I could work with potential.

Prince Delmar smirked. I could admit my not cousin was handsome. Not Keaton handsome, but Delmar wasn’t hard to look at. He was definitely worlds above Luke. My heart filled with sorrow wondering if the Wedell’s plan would’ve worked better. Would I have missed out on everything if I’d met Delmar instead of Luke?

King Wymore said, “The Merrick’s are idiots. To kill a woman in the Sargasso line, or any that has not betrayed you, is crazy. What were they thinking? The Sargasso’s women are always powerful. Besides, if Odette likes it here and is happy King Caspian would be happy. We could even let them see her. We will not starve Odette for attention either. That plan ends the second she’s here.”

Prince Delmar smirked again, “I agree. I have no intention of starving Odette for attention.” Delmar paused then added, “We can move things at her pace, but I plan to pay plenty of attention to her. I’ll teach Odette about Sirens and together we can figure out her powers.” They all laughed.

Would I have been drawn in? Tears filled my eyes as I wondered if I was really this susceptible. Now, I could see their potential, but before would’ve I have seen saviors? I was pulled back. I woke up with a gasp.

Melanie whispered, “Are you ok?” I turned asking, “How long have you been here?” Melanie answered, “I just got here… and was checking to see if you were awake. I found some things… ok I found a lot of things. I kind of spiraled. Gosh…. I thought I had all Cassandra’s secret lock boxes.”

“Honestly, I just figured she had… the one. The secret phone was bad, so... naturally… I had to steal it because… no one needs to see those texts or hear those voicemails. That’s like an implosion waiting to happen.”

“The evil woman…. kept diaries though. So…. on the plus side…. I know what happened with the Harpy Seer and everything. Cassandra… well she made bad choices… but it’s not like anyone would’ve been mad at her. She was a new Luna. Cassandra should’ve told Nathan…. I mean your dad… you know him. Yeah, that’s a thing.”

I laughed, “I missed you.” Melanie smiled, “I missed you too.” She handed me a small device. I asked, “What’s this?” Melanie explained, “The money you invested… with me. Congratulations… you're a millionaire.”

I faltered, “Excuse me?! I only gave you like two hundred dollars!” Melanie nodded, “Well, yes. I put some in a stocks…. that I knew were… going to rise. I bought in at three dollars a share. It jumped up …. quite a bit. Then I exchanged those… and kept doing that. So…yeah… it’s a whole system I have.”

I hugged her, “I can’t believe you did that. For the first time in my life not only do I have money, but serious money.” Tears filled my eyes. I asked, “Will the Daniels hate me when they find out about Emma? Will Key?”

Melanie snorted, “No. I think Frank…. will be relieved, honestly. He thought Emma’s death…. was random… but it was an attack. They were waiting for him to leave…. with Chase and Cameron. They didn’t want Frank… present. I found Emma’s texts, she was lured…. out there. Not unlike you were lured… to Yellow Hills… thinking Keaton was home.”

Only Melanie could get texts from that long ago. I snarled, “Lisa.” Melanie made a face, “Yeah, she’s… hiding… but I’ll find her. No on hides from me… for long. In other news… I have folders for everyone about everything I found. I have all of us set to have a meeting because you know… I didn’t figure you’d want to break the news. I’m terrible at breaking news… so we have our think tank gathered.”

I agreed, “Yeah, I don’t want to tell them.” Before Melanie could say anything else, Keaton woke up. Melanie rambled until her Xander popped in. I asked Tatum, “Did Keaton link him?” Tatum replied, “Channing did. They have a system. Oden kisses her to stop the rambling.”

I snorted, “I might have driven to get him a few times. One time Mel ranted for three hours, and we couldn’t get her to stop.” Tatum laughed in my head, “Based on your memories, you would’ve crashed.” I gasped, “I have a license now!” Tatum laughed, “You shouldn’t.” I still passed the driver’s test. My wolf teased, “Barely.” Passing is passing. Tatum was cackling.

Melanie explained about the meeting. It was so cute her Xander didn’t know she’d hacked him. Heck, I knew when I met Melanie, she’d hacked him a long time ago. Melanie could change his schedule around as much as she wanted. I’d have to tell him.

Tatum told me, “Oden says they know all that. He finds it deeply endearing and adorable.” Well, that was good since they were married and Melanie couldn’t help herself. It was practically a habit. Keaton thought his family was mad.

I asked Tatum, “Why would they be mad? Is it because he wants to be with me after the Luke ordeal?” Tatum answered, “Channing said no and his family likes you. It’s about something he did.” Hopefully, they did. I probably needed to improve the Daniels impression of me. So far it was not great. Tatum assured me, “It’s fine.”

I mean not really. I was convinced that the Robin Hood lady was his mom. Lexi probably thinks I’m crazy. The Hood guy had to be his uncle. He totally seemed related to the Robin Hood lady. I did try to help though so that probably worked in my favor.

Maybe if Keaton’s mom liked me, they would all forget about Luke. His dad liked me before that I was pretty sure. Emmett had seemed curious at first, but at my party they liked me. Keith could help me since I knew he liked me.

I’d just prove I was a good person. That was a thing I could do. Tatum snorted, “The Daniels like you.” I was drawn back to the conversation happening when Alexander called Melanie Lovebug. That was still the sweetest.

The guys were surprised Melanie owned a software company. I raised an eyebrow because I knew my friend owned ten. Tatum cackled, “You know of ten?!” I answered, “Exactly I knew of those, and they were surprised by one. There could be more I don’t know about.” Tatum was laughing again.

Before Melanie could ramble about the number of companies she had Alexander popped us to the gym, then to a treehouse. This was not a normal treehouse. It was a literal house in a tree. I linked Alexander, “Who built this?” He smirked, “I did.”