Chapter Avoidance
Avoidance
Melanie couldn’t help but smile as the music started playing. Buttercup was doing everyone’s makeup. I asked, “So… what are we doing? I didn’t bring any clothes with me… coming here was an impromptu decision.” Freya chuckled, “Mate will take care of that.”
Paige admitted, “I don’t know what’s going on either. I just got told we were doing something. Apparently, you and I do have clothes though. Our mates and friends planned this shindig for us.” I snorted, “Your clothes are here anyway, Paige….because you live here.”
Paige shrugged, “I still have some special outfit for the evening.” I laughed, “That’s Fairies for you.
What can you do? Except… enjoy. This is fun…
.so is knowing things…but this is fun.” Adeline agreed, “Yes, it is! Gosh, I missed you getting ready for things with you as we’d planned, Mel. It felt so wrong without you.”
That made me feel bad because we had a lot of plans for those types of things. Literally…I made a notebook for us and we’d plotted them all out. Our biggest ideas were ones we thought of for prom. We wanted to go all out. I hugged her and she squeezed me tightly.
Cassie popped in, smiled, and snapped everyone’s hair done.
Avery whispered to me, “That’s just so handy.
” It really was. I asked, “How are you and Dakota?” Avery answered, “Really good.” I asked Addison, “Is my brother being nice, or do I need to kick his butt?” Freya snorted, “Ajax is smitten with his mate.” Of course he was.
Addison dreamily said, “Jase treats me better than I ever thought anyone would.” I smiled, “Good.” Abigial hummed, “It is, but it’s so weird.
Gage treats me better than my wildest dreams. I’ve now realized I had the bar set for my mate in hell.
It felt like I was swinging for the fences with them though. ”
Avery snorted, “No joke.” Abigial nodded, “I’ve been doing therapy in our pack and it’s illuminating how I was praying for the bare minimum.” I replied, “You mean being expected to be treated like a human being?” All of them nodded.
Adeline said, “I’m on the other side because my man felt how you guys did. I took out the trash once in our place because it needed to be done. I’m a go getter. I see something I want done and I do it. Honestly, you’d have thought the sun shined out of my ass that day.”
I said, “Yeah, gender stereotypes are enforced pretty heavily in forgotten packs. Taking out the trash is a man’s job.” Adeline shrugged, “I mean, he does it most the time. You know in my house it was more of a ‘see a job that needs to be done and get it done’ vibe.”
I agreed, “I know that.” Avery snorted, “Just like you knew she’d match with August.” Addison huffed, “You could’ve told Caine that. He was hot under the collar you switched August to go to Red Run.”
I muttered, “He was wrong… and he wouldn’t have agreed to anything nice for anyone there… especially someone I said was my friend. Plus…I did tell him August needed to go to Red Run… and Caine said no….so…I did tell him…just not why.”
Addison acknowledged, “That’s true.” Adeline nudged me, “Thanks for getting him to me. Going against an Alpha like that must have been tough.” Avery laughed, “Not for Mel. She did that a lot.” Several heads whipped to me except my friends.
Everly looked really worried and so did Elise. I linked my wolf, “See? I hid some things…from people. I have skills…..sort of. The point remains my friends actually think it was easy… and not soul crushingly difficult to go against an Alpha.”
Freya hummed, “Yes, well that’s not a good thing to have kept secret.” It was a good thing because my friends weren’t sad or worried about it. Caine might be now…he had a mentor…and they probably told him that. Yeah…I was so getting a lecture at some point.
Adeline squeezed my hand, and I felt Ziggy’s intense gaze on me. Abigial was looking back and forth between us with Sierra. Paige smiled but looked sad. I knew that wasn’t about the going against Alpha’s comment though so I sat next to her.
I asked, “What’s up?” Paige sighed, “I think I messed up.” I frowned asking, “How?” My friend shrugged and looked away. I surmised the problem, “Paige Kathleen, whatever you think is going on… Dalton is head over heels for you.”
Elise chimed in, “He is.” Paige frowned, “I told him I wanted time, and he’s giving it to me. Now, I don’t want time, but he’s respecting that I asked for it. I’ve dropped hints, but...” I cut her off, “I’ve told you before…. men don’t do hints.”
Paige admitted, “I want to start planning our wedding, but now he’s not going to ask me.
” I told her, “One, you can plan before he asks… it’s not like you’re a human who doesn’t know he wants to marry you and getting ahead of yourself…
Dalton is going to ask… and two… I wouldn’t count on the fact that he won’t ask… one could say he might do so soon.”
Paige shrugged, “He’s been distracted lately.
I’ve been busy with Luna duties and going to Coven meetings.
You know how I get when I get into spells.
I just hope I’m not ignoring him.” I told her, “You guys will find your balance, that comes with time. You’re both used to being single. Just talk to Dalton about it.”
Paige smiled, “You’re so smart sometimes.
” I laughed, “Technically, I’m smart all the time.
It’s also easier to give advice when it’s not your own relationship.
That’s even a study I’ve read about.” Paige nudged me and said, “Isn’t that the truth?
That study is correct.” I knew that because there was a lot of data provided to support their claims.
Elise came over to say, “Paige, my brother is gone over on you. Dalton’s also a workaholic and this situation with Melanie and you guys has him in knots. He’s double checking everything and keeping track and tabs on everyone who is from our pack but hasn’t been home.”
Paige said, “I know. My man is implementing a mandatory event where people have to come home after two months even if it’s for an hour and be seen.” I gasped, “He did…? I mean they… because Dakota… Dane … Cooper and….”
Paige interrupted, “I know all the Alpha’s in charge here. I’ve met them and they all emphatically agreed with the plan. They hate what happened to you, and that it was under their watch.” Well, clearly all the Kyle’s just wanted me to cry. Freya disagreed, “No, they don’t.”
Buttercup came over and asked me, “Can I do your makeup next, Melanie?” I nodded, “Of course.” She finished faster than I could imagine, but it looked amazing. My sister in law did Paige’s next. Elise sat next to me and giggled, “We are going to have fun together with our mates.”
I laughed, “So we are.” Elise smiled, “Just like it always should’ve been.
” I nodded, “Yup.” Avery teased, “It’s you and your Xander just as you always dreamed, Mel.
” I blushed. Addison said, “No kidding. It was always ‘Xander this’ and ‘Xander that.’ Then you’d say how he’d do things differently than the packs we saw.
I wish I would’ve just got in my car and gone to talk to him years ago. ”
I shrugged and offered, “We are all here now.” I grabbed her hand and Paige’s. Addison grabbed Avery’s, who grabbed Valentina’s hand, who grabbed Abigail’s. We all shared a smile.
Adeline snorted, “You guys think you heard about her Xander, but I was on the ground floor.” Elise agreed, “For sure. It was always all about him. I still remember when she got her Xander wolf.” Rober threw him in the mud and almost ruined him. Freya growled.
Jared had actually come over later to tell me if my wolf got messed up again, he’d use a charm.
I missed Jared and the easy conversations we had.
Adeline cackled drawing me back to the conversation, “You should’ve seen some of the men around here’s faces when they found out that wolf was a him.
” I stuck my tongue out at her but enjoyed the ease with which she fit into my friend group.
Avery said, “Oh, we can. They probably nicer about it than our pack. My dad ranted about that dang wolf. Buck actually told him to shut up because it was just a stuffed animal once. It did stun my dad into silence.” That must have been in their house.
Addison giggled, “I can’t believe we are doing this.” I knew why she changed the subject. My Xander wolf was a hot topic for her dad and she didn’t like him. Freya growled, “Justifiably.” I agreed, “For sure.”
Paige said, “Right? Me either. What are we doing?” Avery laughed, “We won’t be duped so easily. Just enjoy yourselves.” I snorted. Paige linked me, “What do you think is going on?” I replied, “It’s obviously some sort of big group date. I feel like that’s a given.”
“With partial Fairies being involved… it could really be anything… seriously… we could go to a different realm… or we could be going anywhere in the world… there’s too many probabilities to narrow down.”
Paige smiled warning, “Don’t hurt your brain thinking of the possibilities. It’s ok. We will find out soon enough.” I nodded because That was true. Adeline warned, “Stop trying to figure it out, brainiac.” Sierra snorted, “That does not work.”
Ziggy disagreed, “It did sometimes. Especially if T told Ladybug to enjoy herself.” Adeline agreed, “For sure. If Melanie needed anything she went to T. Remember when she hid in that box for three hours to surprise him since she was supposed to be gone. It was her first test run with her concealing scent spray.”
Adeline winked at me, “Maybe some of us were certain you were helping the Resistance because of the lack of scent, but a cookie made us feel crazy about it. Stupid peanut butter cookies.” Sierra snorted, “I’m sorry, did you just say Melanie hid in a box? For three hours?” I winced.