Melody

12

Once Melody had gotten herself safely up the stairs, pulled them up behind her, drawn in the cord and turned the lock, she threw herself on her bed. Everything had been so perfect while she was out with Alexander.

But as usual, as soon as she was back with her family, everything turned to shit. She wanted to call Alexander and tell him everything right away, but she knew he probably wasn't back at his uncle's place yet since it was on the opposite side of town. She didn't want him driving while talking to her, that would be dangerous, so she sent a text asking him to call her when he got home.

As her phone sent the message, the annoying interference sound buzzed louder then vanished again. A couple minutes later her phone rang, when she answered Alexander sounded almost frantic when he asked if she was ok.

"No. Yes. Ugh Yes, I am ok, Beverly and Frank were waiting up for me when I got home. I should have crawled up to my window, but I thought things were better so I used the front door tonight."

"How bad was it?" Alexander hated this, hated that she had to think about whether her front door was safe to use or if she had to scale the house like a burglar just to get to her room. She deserved to at least feel safe where she lived. He worried that they had hit her again.

"Not as bad as other times. No one hit me. They threatened to send me away to a school for troubled girls" Melody heard a loud bang on the line, "what was that?"

Alexander was shaking his hand out, the hand that he had just used to punch the tall oak tree he was standing next to in his uncle's yard, "nothing, a book hit the floor." He lied, easily. "They can't send you away."

"'I'm only 17 Alexander. Until I'm 18 she calls the shots. Don't worry, I negotiated with her, I'm not going anywhere." she sounded upbeat, but he could hear how hollow her voice was. She was trying to be brave, to make things seem better than they were.

"Melody what did you have to give up?" He tried not to sound desperate, but he was worried now.

"Nothing, I just need to step up my Cinderella game, I'm now expected to make dinner and clean up every weeknight, so I am going to be later than I thought, getting to the party tomorrow night, I'm sorry. I know you are really excited for us to go together tomorrow."

"Jesus Melody, don't apologise, you have no reason to apologize. I'll come pick you up tomorrow, help you clean up. It's just a party, we'll arrive when we arrive. You sure you're ok? Nothing else happened?" he worried about her in that house, it didn't make sense that he couldn't just rescue her from it like a hero in a story.

"Not really, Royal stopped me at the stairs and told me to be careful around Randy, but I already was avoiding him as much as possible. I'm not worried about Randy." Alexander smiled when he heard her yawn loudly into the phone. "Everything is ok Alexander. I'll see you tomorrow at school ok?"

"Ok baby, sleep well. The trap door locked?" concern radiating from his voice.

"It's locked. I had a really nice time with you tonight Alexander. Goodnight" her voice was low and drawling with sleep. He liked it, he wanted to know how she sounded as she fell asleep. How her body felt as it relaxed and slipped into dreams.

"Night." Alexander hung up the phone, his wolf wanted to howl at the moon at the unfairness of everything. He hated feeling so useless, not being able to help Melody with her shitty home life. Alexander was so focused on his inner turmoil that he didn't notice his uncle join him outside.

"What did the oak tree do to you to make you hit it like that?" The older man asked, his tone jovial and light.

"The tree didn't do anything. I'm just..." he searched for how to explain everything to his uncle.

"Mate problems?"

"How did you know?" Alexander had been doing his best to handle his personal life on his own. He had told his mom he had found his mate but no one else yet.

His uncle shrugged, "There's a look people get when they are having problems with their mate. The more you see it, the easier it is to recognise. How about we talk this through and see what we can do. Together. Wolves do better with a pack, the lone wolf dies in winter while the pack survives."

After holding all his thoughts inside, Alexander opened the floodgates and dumped everything out to his Uncle. Who his mate was, that she was still only 17, how her father walked out on her, her abusive mother, the shitty step brothers, the problems at school. Everything, all the things he had been unable to fix. "If she was 18, I would just tell her everything, ask her to move back home with me, get her out of that fucking house and keep her safe."

"But, since she is a human minor, her mom could have you arrested for kidnapping if you tried that. Federal crime if you took her home and across state lines."

"I tried to stay away from her, to not get this close. To wait until she was 18 so things would be simpler." defeat evident in his voice.

"Found out it was impossible to stay away from her?" his uncle smiled a knowing smile.

"She needed a friend, the kids at school were all freezing her out. We're friends." he lied. They were never friends.

"Just friends?" His uncle gave a knowing look.

"Ok. More than friends already, we only kissed the first time tonight." Alexander turned away, uncharacteristically bashful.

A comforting hand was on Alexander's shoulder, "I'm going to talk to some of our legal experts, maybe they can find a way to use the human laws to get Melody out of that house. She would need to cooperate with us though." His uncle quickly turned the conversation in a new direction.

"I don't know that she would,"The beaming smile he had on his face fading away again as he tried to picture what Melody would do, "She doesn't get along with her mom, but it's the only family she has." His shoulders slumped.

"Then maybe she needs to know she's part of a bigger better family already, even if she doesn't know it yet" Alexander was really glad he had met his mate while he was with this particular uncle, he had the perfect calm and steady heart to help Alexander help Melody.

"I'll try and talk to her, see what she wants. She's coming to the Halloween party tomorrow."

"Then we will have to make sure it's the best Halloween party we've ever had and show her how a family should be." His uncle smiled, before bidding him a goodnight and heading back inside the house.