Melody

18

Plates fully loaded with each of their favorites from the amazingly impressive breakfast buffet, Alexander and Melody sat down at a recently vacated table, perched opposite each other so they could look each other in the eyes as they spoke.

"Vampires?" she asked, eyes alight with was that hope? That was creepy, especially as she focused on gathering as much raspberry sauce with her pancakes on her fork. The deep red berries looking like blood.

Alexander shuddered, "Very real."

"No way!"

"Common enough to be almost boring, especially since witches worked on ways to ensure they could go out in the sun."

"Witches too!"

"Very real" he looked down as he chased a bite of sausage on his plate with his fork.

"You said shifters? So more than wolves?"

"So much more than wolves"

"Lions?"

"Yes"

"Tigers?"

"Yes"

A smile bloomed on her face, "And bears?" He didn't get the joke, but she seemed to think something was funny.

"Oh my!" She said with a clap of her hands, which brought everyone's attention back to her again in strength.

"Let's save some time, almost every predator has a shifter form. Some non-predator animals also exist, and there's also mimics that can change their form at will. That I'm giving away for free, remember my kindness."

Her body was frozen, mouth slightly open, her eyes making small movements while she thought on his words. "Amazing." She finally breathed the word out before diving in to take a large bite of french toast. How come I never knew about any of this before? It seems like a lot to hide from the world."

"Concerted effort. Humans fear and go to war when they don't understand something. All the paranormal community works together to keep things buried. "

"And now I am in on the biggest secret ever?"

For the first time since they started eating, one of her hands was free, he took the chance to take her hand in his, "You now know the biggest secret there is in the world. Are you ok with all this? I know it's a lot."

"I know it's probably weird, but totally fine. I am fine. I mean it. I am all in with you. My old life is gone, and the sooner we can go and get the stuff that means anything to me, the happier I will be." she paused, looking away for a moment, "I really want my grandmother's sewing machine, I want to make sure I have that as soon as possible so my mom can't do anything to it. There's other little things, but I learned to sew on that machine, with gramie showing me, teaching me about making patterns. I..."

As she started to tremble, Alexander took her hand, offering her his strength. "As soon as we finish eating we will go find Alec and get the legal team together to go over to your house and get anything you want from there. Will my jeep be enough? Or do we need more cargo room?"

"Jeep should cover it, I don't have that much, since Beverly made me cut down everything before we moved, and I haven't really gotten anything new since. Most of my old life is still in boxes in my closet. Should be really easy to move everything." she shrugged, he could feel her heavy heart thought.

He had seen her room, he knew she was telling the truth. He had seen for himself the three small boxes in her closet that held everything from her life before her move. Aside from that she had her sewing kit, clothes, and toiletries. It made Alexander angry to think of her neglected, he wanted her to have the best of everything, to never have to make any part of her life small to accommodate someone else. "I'll let Alec know we will be by his office soon, I assume you are nearly full since you ate enough to feed three wolves" he flashed a grin her way.

"I didn't eat that much!" but judging by the way she surveyed her plate and the now missing stack of pancakes, french toast with whipped cream, berries, sausages, bacon and hashbrowns. She blushed beautifully. "Ok maybe I did, but it was really good!"

"No judgment here baby, I was only teasing you. Eat as much as you want, Alec is ready for us whenever you are done." he announced.

"How do you know that? I didn't see you use your phone?" her head tilted to the side as she looked at him, perplexed.

"Werewolves can mind link with each other and relay messages or information. Or have secret conversations" his grin was pure evil in that moment.

"Well that's not fair" she pouted, and her already full bottom lip looked positively biteable. He wanted to nibble on it gently before sucking her full lip into his mouth and then ravishing her mouth with his. The pull to be with her, to mark her, was growing so strong it was almost all consuming.

"Since you're human you won't be able to link with a pack, but once I've marked you, you and I will be able to share thoughts when we want."

Her face was a riot of emotions this morning, moving from emotion to emotion like a river raging through a narrow gorge "Really!? Do I get any other super powers?"

"Umm kind of I guess actually. We will be linked, you will know my heart just as I will know yours. We'll be able to follow our bond and find each other no matter what. We'll be able to share thoughts, and eventually you'll be stronger, have more endurance and be able to heal more quickly than a human. You'll still pale in comparison to a werewolf, but you will be a little more than human." He wasn't hiding anything from her anymore. If she asked a question he was going to answer it.

"Dragons?" Her face wide with a smile, her eyes a light with joy.

"What?" He felt like he had missed something.

"Are dragons real?"

"Oh, our game. Yes."

"No way! Like real dragon dragons? Like Game of Thrones Dragons!?"

"Um not like that, they are shifters. Like me. They are very rare though, but even if you were near one you would just see a human. A human who made your skin crawl and made you feel like prey, but still appears human."

"And I had the bad luck to be paired with only a wolf" Her mouth pouted, but her eyes sparkled, he could tell she was teasing him.

"Oh I think you will find that this wolf is more than enough to satisfy you." his voice was deeper, the wolf inside the man did not like her joke very much.

"I'm only teasing. I can't picture myself ever being with anyone but you ever" The wolf inside preened, anger over her joke forgotten. "I think back to my ex, and it's like, I can't imagine what I ever saw in him? How I could think he was right for me when It's now so clear that there's only you. Is that weird? Am I turning into a weird stalker chick? I'm trying not to be. I'm trying to be normal" she had started to ramble, his wolf peeking out had left her a little anxious.

"Normal for you has changed. What you feel, it's the pull to me, because the goddess destined us to be together. It's proof that we are supposed to be together, Melody. It's normal and I am so glad you feel it too."

"So I'm not a creepy stalker girlfriend, because I am already planning our lives together and we've been together less than a month?" she smiled at him, her eyes sparkling.

"Baby for wolves, we're moving slow."