The bedroom door opened and Tristan came inside, closing the door and leaning his back against it. His face shadowed darkly.
“Well?” Micah asked. Tristan had gone to talk to James and appeal to him to let them tend to the female.
Tristan shook his head. “He believes that we’re too young to understand the difference between our general caring natures and truly caring for a female.”
“What?”
“He means that he thinks we only want to take care of her because we’re lions and she’s one of us. He didn’t believe me when I said there was more to it than that.”
Micah swallowed hard. “Is there?”
Tristan’s blue eyes narrowed. “Tell me that you can leave her in that empty room all night. Let James and John and Aaron take her to jail and interrogate her like she’s a criminal.”
Micah blanched. Tristan closed the distance to him and put his hands on Micah’s shoulders. They were nearly identical in height at slightly more than six feet. Tristan was older than Micah’s twenty-six by only thirteen months, but sometimes he seemed much, much older. This was one of those times.
“Tell me exactly what you’re thinking right now, Micah.”
Micah wanted to turn away under Tristan’s intense scrutiny, but he didn’t. He forced himself to stare into his brother’s eyes and say what was in his heart. “She’s our mate.”
The words had come so easily that Micah could scarcely believe that he’d even uttered them. But it was the most truthful thing he’d ever said in his life. Although mountain lions had long believed that males would never truly mate with female lions, there was something different about the female who had come tonight. She’d helped save Lachlyn’s life. That alone made her different than the other females who had never cared an iota for anyone else but themselves. And more than that was the simple truth that he felt connected to her in a primal way. Even now, his cat was clambering in his skull to go to her. He’d watched enough males in this house find their mates to know when it was really happening.
Tristan released his grip on Micah’s shoulders and said, “I believe so, too.”
Micah laughed and hugged his brother. Tristan grinned briefly, but sobered quickly. “We need to get her out of here.”
Micah nodded. “Tell me your plan.”
Tristan outlined his idea to set the female free, and Micah listened intently and then the two went to work quietly. Several hours later, when the house was quiet, he and Tristan walked silently downstairs and made their way down the hall to the storage room.
Chase sat on a chair in front of the door, his legs kicked out in front of him, his arms folded as he leaned back against the wall. His eyes had been closed, but they popped open and he looked at them silently. Micah didn’t know what to say and apparently Tristan didn’t either because the three men just stared at each other.
After a long moment, Chase cleared his throat and stood, stretching. “I’m gonna take a piss. Keep an eye on the door for me, will ya? I’ll be about ten minutes.” He dropped a key on the chair and walked away.
Micah let out a relieved breath. Tristan unlocked the door, and they walked into the room, shutting it quietly behind them. A young blonde woman stood looking out the only window in the room, a bath towel wrapped around her. She turned to face them, pressing her back against the wall and gripping the towel to her body.
Micah snarled softly when he saw that the rope was still knotted around her neck, the end tied to an old radiator near the window. He knew James and John had been in the room at least twice to check on her. The fact that they hadn’t given her clothes or taken the rope off chilled him to the core.
“Did you come to yell at me, too?” Her voice was raw and her eyes were bloodshot from crying.
Tristan started to growl but cut it off quickly, shaking his head. “We came to get you out of here.”
“Why?” Her brows furrowed and she frowned.
“Because you don’t belong here,” Tristan answered.
Her mouth fell open and tears filled her eyes. She looked…utterly heartbroken. “If I don’t belong with my own people, then where do I fit in? My-my dad said that —” Her voice broke and she started to cry.
Micah couldn’t stand it. He moved to her slowly and touched her shoulder. He wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, until she turned into him and cried harder. Closing his arms around her, he held her tightly and breathed in the darkly sweet scent of her.
“We’ll fix it. I swear.”
* * * * *
Tristan hadn’t cried since he was a kid and he smashed his finger in the door of his dad’s car. But watching the female fall apart in Micah’s arms made him want to cry like a baby.
Restraining himself from joining them and hugging her, too, he cleared his throat. “We need to get out of here before Chase comes back.”
Micah nodded, his whiskey-colored eyes shining with unshed tears. “Tell us your name, sweetheart.”
“Melody Marx.” She shivered in Micah’s arms, and Tristan pulled the pack off his back and opened it, removing a shirt and pants.
“I’m Tristan Harrison, and this is my brother, Micah. Put these on and we’ll get out of here and figure things out as we go.”
Micah undid the rope and dropped it with a barely contained growl. She smiled gratefully and rubbed at her neck. Micah seemed spellbound, so Tristan grabbed him by the shirt and turned him around.
He heard the towel slide to the floor, and it took every ounce of willpower not to turn around and see what she looked like naked. He thought her lion form was beautiful, but her human form was breathtaking. Golden blonde hair fell past her shoulders in a thick curtain. Bright blue eyes like a summer sky. Lush mouth made for kissing. She was shorter than them, perhaps around five-foot-seven, and judging from the way the towel hugged her body, she was curved in all the right places.
“I’m done,” she said.
Tristan turned around and thought he’d never seen a more appealing woman in all his life. She was wearing his shirt and Micah’s pants, which were both far too big for her. But she was wearing their clothes, and that’s what he liked most.
Tristan gave her a pair of Sam’s sandals that he’d found in the hall closet, mentally promising to send money to Sam for the pilfered shoes. “I had a bag,” Melody said as they walked to the door. “Do you know if someone picked it up?
He shook his head. “I didn’t see anyone with a bag.”
She said she dropped it at the side of the house, and she needed it back because it had her identification and other important items.
Micah said, “We’ll look for it outside. If it’s not out there, then I’ll come back in and figure out where it is. We won’t leave without it.”
The hallway was empty, and Tristan focused his hearing to see if anyone else was around and heard nothing. He locked the door and left the key on the chair. They went out a side door, avoiding the backdoor through the kitchen and the front door by the stairs. He led Melody to where he kept his pickup parked and opened the passenger door for her. She slid into the middle and buckled her seatbelt. He was humbled by her trust in them. She was definitely not like a normal female. The females he had grown up with would have bolted at the first chance of freedom.
By the time he tucked his bag behind the seat and sat behind the wheel, Micah was walking quickly towards them, carrying a pack. He sat down in the seat next to Melody and asked, “Is this yours, sweetheart?”
Her smile was as much an answer as her words. “Yes, thank you so much for looking for it.”
“I’m glad I found it.” Micah smiled at her and then looked at Tristan. “We should get going.”
Tristan started his truck and pulled away from the boarding house, keeping the headlights off until they reached the street. He and Micah had called Ashland their home and the pride their extended family for the last few months. But now he had mixed feelings. He never thought that the pride would treat a female so badly. Even when things
had been so awful in King, the females were still treated with respect. And there was definitely something different about Melody. She’d cried, and those tears were as real as any he’d ever seen shed.
“Do you have a home that we can take you to, Melody?” Micah asked.
“Not anymore. I was going to go up to King, Pennsylvania, to see my dad’s brothers.” She shivered, rubbing her arms. “After the way I was treated by the other males, though, maybe that’s a bad idea.”
“It’s not a bad idea. Things have been bad here because of the females meddling,” Tristan said.
“I wasn’t part of whatever bad stuff they’ve been doing.” Her voice was earnest.
Micah took her hand and squeezed it. Tristan took her other one. His heart stuttered in his chest at how right it felt, as if the simple act of all three of them touching at the same time connected them on a supernatural level. His cat rumbled in his mind in agreement.
“I believe you,” Tristan said.
“Thanks.”
Micah said, “We’ll go to King and find your uncles. We haven’t been back since we left, so we were due a visit to our dad and uncle, too.”
They left Ashland and headed towards King. He didn’t know what type of reception waited for them there, but he had no doubt that his and Micah’s dad and uncle would welcome Melody into their home. She was their mate, after all, and that made her family.
And family stuck together, no matter what.
Chapter 20
Jericho woke and found only Lachlyn in bed. She was still sound asleep, and he expected her to sleep for several more hours. Donning a pair of jeans, he left the bedroom silently and went down into the kitchen.
Alek was sitting with his dad and uncles at the kitchen table. They all looked unhappy. Jericho filled a coffee cup and sat down.
“Is Lachlyn still sleeping?” Alek asked.
“Yep. What’s with all the scowling?” Jericho asked.
James said, “The female escaped last night.
Jericho’s brows lifted. “Really? How?”
“We don’t know. Chase watched her for a few hours last night and then Ray relieved him. When we went in this morning to take her to use the bathroom, the room was empty,” John said.
“I smelled Micah and Tristan in the room. We’re certain that they jimmied the door and took her out. Tristan’s truck is gone,” James said.
“Why was she locked up in the first place?” Jericho asked before he took a sip of coffee.
Alek made a sound of disbelief. “She’s a female. She must have had something to do with the bears showing up when they did.”
“Wait,” Jericho shook his head, “she saved Lachlyn’s life.”
Alek’s mouth fell open. “What?”
Jericho looked around at the surprised looks on the males’ faces. “Whoever she was, she came around the house in her shifted form and knocked the guy away from Lachlyn. Then she was thrown and knocked out.” He paused and then said, “I thought you guys said that the females only cared about themselves? She sure didn’t act like she was all that into self-preservation. Her actions freed Lachlyn when I couldn’t help her. She’s golden in my book.”
The color drained from James’ and John’s faces. They swallowed hard and looked at each other. “Is it possible?” James’ voice was barely above a whisper.
“What?” Grant asked.
“When she woke up and shifted into her human form, she said that she had been raised by her father away from the pride her entire life. He died a year ago. She was on her way to King when she met some females who told her the pride had moved to Canada. She went with them and realized quickly that they had lied. She said she was held hostage for many months and had nothing to do with the attempted kidnapping of the cubs a few months ago. She said that she knew the females were planning something bad with the bears and took the opportunity to escape and come down here to warn us.” James’ voice broke off and he put his head in his hands. “We didn’t believe her. I didn’t believe her. Even when she cried and told us she was telling the truth, we called her a liar and locked her in that room.”
John put his hand on James’ shoulder. “We all believed she had something to do with the bears coming here. You couldn’t have known if she was telling the truth or not. The females have spent their whole lives being deceitful.”
Alek said, “I think it explains Micah’s and Tristan’s behavior though.”
“How so?” Aaron asked.
“You guys thought they were trying to keep the female from going into the house when you were going to tie her up. Maybe they were trying to keep you from touching her. Remember how protective Ethan and Eryx were of Callie when she was in danger? That’s how Micah and Tristan acted.”
Understanding dawned on the males’ faces. James looked even paler, if that were possible, and Jericho wondered if James might pass out. “I wasn’t listening. Tristan begged us to let them take care of her, and we forced them to sneak her out of the house like she was a criminal. Because we treated her like one.”
James pulled his cell from his pocket and found Tristan’s number and dialed it, pressing the speaker button. It went straight to voice mail.
Tristan’s outgoing message said, “If this is the pride calling, we’ve taken Melody because she’s innocent and she’s ours. If that means that you never want us to come back to the boarding house, then we’ll abide by your wishes. Micah and I are disappointed that it had to come to this. We thought we were members of the pride and equal to the other adults, but we were reduced to behaving like thieves in order to free a female who did nothing to deserve your contempt.”
James cleared his throat after the beep. “Tristan, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. Please tell Melody that we realize now that she was telling the truth and that we’re not going to have her arrested. Please call and let us know that you’re okay. Of course you’re our equals in the pride, and the doors of the boarding house are always open, for pride members and their mates.”
He ended the call, and all the males looked at the phone. Grant said, “You just basically invited a female to come live here.”
John shook his head. “Now, that I think back on it, I can see that she was different. She said she was raised away from the females her whole life. We’ve never known what the females say or do to the young ones to turn them away from us, but if what Melody said was true, then she hadn’t met a female until she was an adult. And she really acted as if she hated them.”
“If she spoke the truth,” Aaron said.
“Until we have proof otherwise,” James pocketed his cell, “then we will treat her as a member of the pride, if she wants to be part of it.” He looked around the table and each male nodded their agreement. Jericho was amazed at how forgiving the males could be. They didn’t know this Melody person from Adam, but just knowing that she had saved Lachlyn’s life changed their attitude immediately. He didn’t personally care if Melody was a lion or if she turned pink and grew two heads when she shifted. She’d saved Lachlyn. As far as he was concerned, Melody could move into the boarding house and he’d throw her a party.
By the time Lachlyn woke, dinner was over and he and Alek had spent the entire day hanging around in the bedroom waiting for her pretty eyes to open. They’d played poker more times than he could count, had organized the closet, and even cleaned the bathroom.
“Hey, Sunshine,” he said and smiled in relief when she finally opened her eyes.
Her voice was thick. “Hey.”
Alek said, “I thought you were never going to wake up, sweetheart.”
“How long was I out for?” She sat up slowly and rubbed at her temples.
“About fourteen hours. How do you feel?”
“Like I went ten rounds with a bear.”
Jericho chuckled. “That’s about right.”
“Is everyone okay? Was anyone hurt badly? What happened to your dad?”
He frowned, remembering what happened in the woods a
s he and his father fought for dominance. “My father is gone from this world, Lachlyn. I saw to it personally. And the pride is fine. The bears were taken by your uncle, and they are going to be punished according to den law.”
She looked at him, her head cocked to the side in curiosity. And then understanding filled her eyes. Nodding, she said, “They deserve no less.”
Jericho had shared some of what had passed in the woods with Alek and found the male to be very understanding and compassionate. But he’d already known that he would be. Alek balanced out the rougher parts of Jericho’s nature, so that between the two of them, Lachlyn had the perfect mate.
After cleaning up, they went downstairs to the kitchen. To his surprise, Henry came up to him.
“Henry?” he asked, after the boy said nothing, but simply stood in front of him with his head down.
Henry lifted his head and his eyes were filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Jericho. I tried to keep her in the house. I’m sorry.”
He opened his mouth to tell the boy that he didn’t hold him responsible for what happened, but Sam moved from the island and hugged Henry.
“It was my fault, Henry, not yours. I saw that Lachlyn needed to go outside, but you wouldn’t let go of her. You were so determined to keep her safe because of what Jericho said.”
Henry shook his head. “I should have been strong enough to hold on no matter what.”
Sam revealed that she had caused Henry to fall, and in his surprise, he had let Lachlyn go, allowing her to leave the safety of the house. Jericho put his hand on Henry’s shoulder. The young male was so tied up in knots that he trembled.
“It’s okay, Henry. I know from personal experience that when Lachlyn wants to do something, she will do it no matter what. If she’d shifted inside the house, she could have really hurt you, so it’s good that she went outside.”
Henry sniffled and wiped at his eyes. “Really?”
He nodded. “Really. Thank you for your help, though. You’re a fine male, and I’m proud to be your friend.”
Loving Lachlyn (Ashland Pride Two) Page 14