Book Title Page - Held in Contempt

Of Magic and Contempt Book 2

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

ASIN: B088C4S67Y

Cover design by: Natasha Williams of DAZED Designs

https://www.dazed-designs.com/

Edited by: CB Editing Services

https://www.facebook.com/CBlackEdits/

Please note that due to its content this book is not meant for readers under the age of 18.

Readers may also find some scenes distressing.

Acknowledgements

I n the writing process there are always people who help you along. In the publishing process, there are even more! There are some people who I need to thank for helping me.

First and foremost, thank you to my husband for supporting me in my creative madness. For listening to me mutter into long cold cups of tea, for taking the kids to the park to allow me writing time, and for supporting me as I create.

To my girl gang - Lizzie, Sarah and Adriann - you ladies keep me sane, keep me on track, listen to me whinge and still want to talk to me! You are all amazing people, your writing awes and inspires me and I cannot wait to see what you come out with next.

To my editor, Charlotte Black - just wow. You embraced my insane and thrived on it. Your work is top calibre, speedy and you put up with my crazy. THANK YOU. Your encouragement uplifts me and keeps me focussed and your attention to detail is phenomenal. In you I have found not only an amazing editor but a friend for life.

To my street team, my ARC team and my Beta readers - these women help share the word, keep me going and allow me time to keep on writing so that I can share more of the strange worlds in my head. You watch over my shoulder as I write and your positivity helps keep my “darkness” at bay. Thank you for everything. A special thanks to Joy, Jennifer and Jacqueline for all of your hard work and support.

To Alicia who has kept me on the straight and narrow, kept track of things like eye colour and details that constantly escape me, lol. Thank you for being my memory.

To Tash Will - cover designer extraordinaire, you lady, took my request for a “non-traditional academy” cover and raised it to the next level. You are kind, talented and so giving. You are more than my designer, you’re an inspiration and a friend.

Finally, Sara Guthman PA - lady, I don’t even know where to start. Kind, thoughtful, inspired, insightful, organised, helpful, gracious, forgiving - and a whole other pile of positive adjectives - you are them all, my love. You have been invaluable. Your knowledge of marketing, branding and your (frankly terrifying) degree of organisation, has taken me from the hot mess that I was, to a fully functioning author. But it is your kindness and your generosity of spirit that I will forever be grateful for.

Happy reading

Jade

xoxo

1. Melody

M onday morning dawned brightly in a way that was incongruous with the feelings in her heart. The snow had started melting over the weekend, leaving great big muddy puddles behind. It wasn’t a great time to be in the cottage, where there were no firm pathways between it and the north-east corridor in the outer ring of buildings. For the next few weeks, they would squelch their way back and forth to class.

The front porch was a sorry looking sight with muddy shoes everywhere. Together, Melody, Nick and Justin had put enough wards on them that they wouldn’t get stolen, vandalised, frozen, or turned into temporary accommodation by any creature seeking shelter. With no mud-room, it was their only choice to enter and leave in thick socks, shivering in the cold as they put on their shoes. Still, there were worse problems to be had. Melody knew, she had them in spades.

In the winter, students could choose to wear cloaks or long robes over their uniforms. Melody had chosen a robe, with her warmest gear underneath, even though it wasn’t uniform. She figured nobody would check. Besides, the school uniform was sexist, she had to wear either a skirt or tunic, no pants for the girls. The next time she saw the provost, she would have something to say about it.

Melody snorted, as if the provost would be interested in her views on the school uniform, no, there were more serious matters afoot.

By the time they reached the dining hall, Melody’s stomach had twisted into such a tight knot, that she doubted she would be able to eat anything at all. Even the smell of bacon, usually enough to rouse her from a coma, couldn’t settle her. No. Today was the first day of term, and she had no doubt Asher would hold her to her promise of bonding him soon.

She would have to bond him, there was no other choice. The weals on her back weren’t healing as they should. Her aunt was putting on the pressure any way she could. The madwoman was desperate for these stronger shifters.

Her gaze swept lazily across the room, stopping unintentionally on Carla and Quinn, sitting on the far side. Quinn half raised a hand to wave at her, but Carla snapped something at him and he flinched, pulling it down. His witch wasn’t looking at him, but Quinn watched her with a fierce intensity. There was something off about it.

“Mel, sit down, I’ll get you something, okay?” said Dean, interrupting her thoughts..

She knew he sensed her anxiety through their bond. It was definitely strengthening, because she felt his concern for her.

Dean and Trent accompanied her to breakfast this morning, she missed the others but understood the dragons need to stretch their wings. She also needed the wolves to mind the cottage for them all. Melody hated that there was never any peace. They always had to have their guard up.

Trent pulled out a chair for her, but as she went to sit, a hand grabbed her by the shoulder and swung her around.

“I challenge you!” shouted Asher, pulling off his shirt and kicking off his shoes. His pants followed, and he stood proudly naked before he shifted. It wasn’t as instant as Dean’s was, almost like he was trying to encourage her to look at his body and admire it.

Dean’s growl could be heard clear across the room, and moments later he was by her side, his lion visibly near the surface. His hair had grown longer and two canine teeth overlapped his bottom lip.

That was when she reached her limit.

Melody was sick of this shit. Before Asher had even finished shifting, she slapped him down.

“Shift then!” she yelled back at him, throwing her magic at his beast and reversing the process before he had done much more than drop to all fours and grow a bit of fur. Instantly the shift was reversed and he sat there as a human in front of her, a feral grin in place.

Melody felt the bond sink into her, felt his smug satisfaction. The feeling must have been strong inside him for her to detect it at all in such a new bond. He was such an ass!

“That’s cheating! I told you she couldn’t bond a shifter without cheating. She didn’t even let him complete his shift,” screeched Shawna from the other side of the room.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” groaned Melody. “Right, shift again, and then I’ll show them I can defeat your beast, but don’t muck around this time.”

Seconds later, a large grey wolf sat in front of her. So he could do it faster! The egotistical ass had been drawing it out on purpose. Yeah, Melody had no problem bonding him, she wouldn’t want to burden anyone else with his kind of arrogance.

She held her hand, palm out, facing him. “Shift!” she commanded, sending her magic at him, and once again the change was instantaneous. This time when he was human again, his cock was hard and pointing at her.

Melody grabbed his sweats and threw them at him. “Cover that shit up, nobody wants to see it.”

Dean’s growls had not subsided, although he was now looking over her shoulder at something. Melody turned to see Shawna and her crew advancing on them.

“I don’t know what that was supposed to prove, except that you are even more of a cheater. Forcing his shift when he’s already part-way bonded to you is something a baby could do. I still say you cheated!”

“Then go running to the provost about it, because that worked for you so well the last time. From what I hear, you’ve been trying to convince Asher he belongs to you as well. Just how low will you go, Shawna?” Dean sneered.

Shawna scowled, but turned on her heel and left, her posse following behind her, giving Melody and the shifters dark looks.

Melody turned to Dean. “Can you call the others? If she convinces the provost this wasn’t a fair challenge, and she has to break the bond again, I’ll probably need all of you.”

Dean closed his eyes and then nodded at her. “They’re coming. The dragons are heading back to the cottage to dress first.” He frowned at Trent. “You didn’t see him coming?”

Trent hung his head, ashamed. “I did, but I didn’t realise he was going to challenge her like that. I thought he’d arrange a time or something. He would have challenged her even if I had intervened. He’s just that arrogant.”

“Dudes, I’m right here,” whined Asher.

“Don’t we fucking know it,” snarled Dean, before turning to her. “Come on Mel, if the provost has to break these bonds, you’ll need a full belly to get through it.’

“Actually, I’m worried I might throw up,” she confessed, and he put an arm around her and hugged her.

“At least have some juice?” Dean tugged her to a seat, pulled a glass of orange juice towards her, and sat sideways on his chair, facing her.

Melody wasn’t used to being looked after like this, and it always took her by surprise when they did these little things for her. On one hand, she didn’t want them to do—it, the shifters weren’t her slaves—she didn’t want to demean them like so many witches did. On the other hand, she enjoyed having someone caring about her wellbeing for once. She enjoyed the sense of family she got from them too, even the new asshole had a sense of “pack” around him.

The asshole in question sat on her other side, beating Trent to the chair and leaving the fox shifter growling under his breath. Melody held out her hand across the table and tapped it, indicating he should sit opposite her. He dashed around the end of the table and sat where she indicated, reaching for her hand. She let him have it, the motion meaning she gave Asher the cold shoulder and it twisted her a little toward Dean. It wasn’t an accidental movement.

“Hey, I’m your familiar, you can’t keep giving me shit,” protested Asher, putting a large hand on her back.

The idiot hit her wound, and Melody arched in pain. He felt it. She knew he did by the hiss of air he sucked between his teeth, but because the bond was so new, he didn’t get the full impact. Dean, however, did.

He leapt forward with a snarl, punching Asher in the jaw, and jostling Melody into the wolf, adding insult to injury. Dean looked at her in horror.

“Mel,” he husked, pulling her gently toward him. “I’m so sorry, baby!”

A shrill voice cut over their jostling before the fight between the shifters could escalate.

Dean was torn between comforting her and growling at Asher who was just as angry, and their bonds pulsed with their fury. Asher’s at being ignored and Dean’s at her pain.

“The provost wants to see the slut and the wolf,” she said. Melody looked up at the owner of the shrill voice, one of Shawna’s cronies.

“Well, I’m sure she’ll find a nice porn channel to watch it on,” Melody said, and remained seated.

“You have to go, now!” she reiterated.

Melody canted her head to the side. “Where?”

“To see the provost, she asked to see you and Asher.”

“Oh! As well as the porn movie? I hope not at the same time.” Melody ignored the spluttering witch and stood up before pinning her with a fierce look.

“Maybe if you’d made yourself clear instead of repeating things fresh from the mind of a twelve-year-old, there wouldn’t have been any confusion. I’ll let the provost know you need help with your linguistic skills. I’m sure there’s a tutor here who can help you.”

She downed her juice in one go, and turned to leave, the three shifters walking with her.

“She said you and Asher,” the witch called after her.

“Yes, I gathered that, although you really need to work on your delivery of messages,” Melody tossed back, exiting the hall.

2. Dean

I t was his bonding all over again, this time minus that screeching harpy, Shawna. The teachers lined the edges of the room as he, Melody and the rest of the Apex, along with Trent and the asshole walked in. He wouldn’t go as far to say that their reception was as chilly as it was last time, but it still wasn’t warm and welcoming. Well, except for the provost, he could see the twinkle of delight in her eyes. For some reason, she had taken a special interest in his witch, and as long as that was an advantage, Dean welcomed it.

“I’m sorry to have to do this to you again, Melody, but complaints have been made that your bonding to Asher was irregular,” she sighed. “Could you please tell us, in your own words, what happened?”

“Yes, Provost,” Melody responded, obediently. “Asher challenged me last term, and I told him that I would accept his challenge after the holidays. I wanted my mind to be clear for the advanced course with Professor Ludwig.”

Several of the teachers nodded in approval.

“This morning at breakfast, Asher challenged me again, and given that it was indeed after the holidays, I accepted.” Melody paused for a moment, clearly thinking of how to word what she said next. “Asher was drawing it out, showing off, taking his time to shift, so I didn’t wait for him to finish. He was on his hands and knees, and he was growing fur. I couldn’t see his face because his head was down, but I could sense his wolf was present. So, I ordered him to shift and pushed my magic at him. He immediately shifted back.”

There were murmurs from amongst the staff.

Dean growled, glaring at the asshole, the others looking at him in anger too. The air practically vibrated with the tension between them all. If Asher had thought he’d just be accepted amongst them, he’d thought wrong.

“Shawna protested immediately that it wasn’t a proper challenge because I hadn’t allowed him to complete his shift. So, I asked him to shift again, waited until he had completed it, and then I forced his shift upon him so that he was human again. Apparently that didn’t satisfy her either, since she reasoned he was already half bonded to me.”

“I see,” said the provost. “And you, Asher, do you agree with this account?”

Dean could smell the discomfort on his bond-mate, Asher was embarrassed.

“Yes, Provost. I was showing off for Melody, I wanted her to see how much control I had over my shift, that I could make it happen slowly. I didn’t think she’d be bothered by the wait, I can see now the error of my assumption that she would be pleased.”

Dean was surprised, he hadn’t expected the asshole to own it, but then again, he could now feel the pain that she was in, and Asher had to know that he was the cause of most of it.

“Very well. Melody, this is an unusual circumstance, I don’t think anyone has tested the efficacy of a half changed shifter. However, as we cannot have the matter in doubt, I am afraid that I will again have to sever the bond, and because he has already challenged you twice today, it would be imprudent to ask him to challenge you again. As you would know, a challenge takes a bit out of a shifter, and I wouldn’t want claims that you had bonded him while he was recovering.” The provost looked regretful. “I will sever the bond, and then in three days time, Asher will challenge you again if he should so wish.”

The provost reached into a desk drawer and produced three small bottles. “Gentlemen, I believe you know how to use these properly?”

“I do, Provost,” Nick said seriously, as disturbed by what was about to come as Dean was.

“Very well, Melody, do whatever it is that you must, to prepare yourself for the backlash. Asher, I suggest that you sit down, this will not be a gentle thing to endure. Ryan, Austin, if you could help your fellow wolf, I would appreciate it.”

The two wolf shifters nodded and moved to flank Asher, who stubbornly stayed on his feet. Nick picked up the bottles, while Dean and Justin flanked Melody. She knelt on the floor and placed her hands on the flagstones. There was no room for pride here — she knew she was going to pass out again, and she didn’t want to fall on what would soon be her seriously fucked up back. Three days of the geas? How in hell’s name was she going to survive that?

“You know it will be stronger this time,” Melody stated, warning them all.

“You don’t know that, love,” Dean soothed her, worried about what was coming.

“Yes, Dean. I do. It’s how she operates. You saw her letters. She wants me to have an attitude adjustment, so the punishments will keep getting more severe until I stop ...” Melody halted herself just in time, but already the deeper wound was burning with renewed heat. “Oh goddess, Provost, please do it now, I’ve already said too much, it’s starting!”

Dean’s lion roared in his head, his beast desperate to come out and remove whatever the threat was. At the moment, it was the provost and whatever spell she was about to cast. He desperately reigned his lion in, encouraging it to protect her by providing what she needed and not by attacking a necessary action.

Suddenly, Mrs Hardinger was in front of him. “Dean, how’s your lion coping?” she asked solicitously.

“He’s close to ripping out the provost’s throat,” he confessed, and there were gasps from around the room.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less of him, son. Are you talking to him?”

“Yes, Ma’am. He’s still listening, but I’m worried that he’ll lose it once it happens. I’d recommend you getting out of reach in case I shift.”

Mrs Hardinger nodded, taking several steps back. “Dean and his lion, Melody needs you to stay strong and focussed. She doesn’t need you shifting and getting out of control. That’s going to cost her more in the long term, punishment for you both because she couldn’t control you. You can’t draw on her for strength right now either, so you’re going to have to do this on your own. If anything, she’s going to need your strength over the next three days. Can you be that for her? Can you be her provider and carer when she’s at her weakest?”

The counsellor wasn’t saying anything that he didn’t know already, but his lion took notice. Hearing it from a second source seemed to prove the validity of Dean’s arguments, and the beast gradually calmed down. He nodded his thanks to her, and she nodded back before resuming her place at the edge of the room with the other teachers.

“Very well,” said the provost, looking at them all, “if everyone is ready?”

Dean nodded, noting the ozone scent of magic around him. It seemed that the teachers were holding their power ready in case either Dean or Asher attacked.

The provost stood and released the spell, and instantly Dean was flooded with agony as it ricocheted through Melody. “Oh fuuuuuuuuck!” He roared, but she was silent, already unconscious on the floor in front of him. He roared again as the geas hit, the wound like a sharp tipped set of claws running down his back, only it was her back he was feeling, and it was only an echo of what she was actually experiencing.

Nick and Justin had him in a firm grip, while on the other side of Melody, Oz and Ryan were supporting a sagging Asher. It gave him a grim sense of satisfaction to see the arrogant asshole pale and suffering at the loss of his bond. Dean knew how it felt, it wasn’t that long ago that it was him on his knees, roaring at his loss. Asher was silent, his wolf in shock.

Slowly, Dean adjusted to the pain. It tormented him to no end that even unconscious, her body was in agony. He forced himself to relax, but it wasn’t until his canines had retreated that the dragons let him go.

Nick dropped to his knees in front of her. She had collapsed in a parody of the foetal position so he carefully lifted her until she was sitting up, calling on Justin to support her so that she didn’t fall backwards. Dean shoved his way in and did it instead before the dragon shifter could. He carefully placed an arm across her shoulders, knowing exactly where she hurt and how much pressure he could apply.

Pulling the cork out with his teeth, Nick tipped the small bottle up against her lips, allowing it to drain into her mouth entirely, before he closed it and rubbed her throat while her head was tilted back. Melody swallowed, and then again and a third time before Nick judged it was safe to let her head down again. Gingerly, they returned her to the floor.

“Nick, under the powers that I hold over this academy, I grant you the authority to create a portal for a single use from here to her cottage,” the provost said in ringing tones, and the dragon looked up at her. “Nobody needs to see her like this, Nick. There’s nothing the healers can do, either. The only thing that might save her is in those two bottles. Georgia is too impatient to temper the punishment enough for it to not risk killing her. You know when to give them. I can have more made if you think it’s necessary.”

“Please, if you would, Provost, I would be forever in your debt. I’m worried two may not be enough. Not if what she thinks is true and this is worse,” said Nick.

“I can already tell you that it is,” said Dean. “It’s not one lash on her, but four or five. There’s so much pain, I can’t make it out clearly, but the wounds are deep. We may need a blood restorative as well as whatever that bottle held.”

“I will organise several of each to be delivered to you,” promised the provost. She turned to the staff surrounding the walls. “Ladies and gentlemen, the same rules apply as last time. You may only discuss this with me, and only within this room.” They all nodded.

The two dragons stood, conferring, and then Dean felt their magic emerging, and smelled the stinging scent of ozone which hit him even harder. The two men had joined hands, and in a ring between them grew a black nothingness. It expanded until it almost touched them, then they crouched down, brushing their hands on one side along the stone while raising the others in the air as high as they could.

They unclasped the lower hands, and the blackness seemed to stick to the stone floor. The dragons stood and raised their hands as high as they could, forming a slim archway. Then they let go of each other and stepped back, the blackness expanding with them until it was a wide door shape. They looked at each other and nodded, and suddenly the blackness was replaced with an image of the inside of Melody’s room.

Dean looked on in awe as Justin stepped through to the other side, disappearing out of view for several minutes before sticking his head back through.

“It’s all clear, there are no traps or hidden people,” he told them.

“Ryan, Oz, get the asshole back to his dorm room. He’s not to come near her until he’s ready to challenge. I won’t have anyone else making these fucking accusations against her,” Nick commanded, and the two wolves pulled Asher to his feet and dragged him from the room. “I mean it, Provost, with all due respect, if Shawna comes after us again, I’ll kill her myself and damn the consequences.”

The provost nodded her acceptance. Nobody pissed off a territorial dragon, and right now, that’s how they were all feeling about Melody. Bonded or not, she was theirs, and they were hers. Forever.

Dean gently picked her up so that she lay in his arms facedown. Nick grabbed her legs to keep them from dragging on the floor, and Dean rested her head in the crook of his arm, his palm supporting her torso. It was a damn awkward way to carry her, but it would hurt her the least, and thanks to the provost and the dragons, they didn’t have far to go.

As soon as they were through the portal, it snapped shut behind them. Dean didn’t give it a second thought though, he was too desperate to rip her shirt off and see the damage to her back. On one hand, he needed to see it, so that he could work out how to help her. On the other hand, he was frightened to. He knew that the image would haunt him for the rest of his life.

“Stay alert, Dean, I can’t afford for you to wig out on me now,” Nick warned him, and he nodded.

Together they gently set her on the bed, and then the two dragons turned to him.

“You can’t stay for this, Dean. Your lion is roaring at us even now. We’re going to treat her wounds, and then you can come back in and see her when she’s bandaged up, okay?” Justin took him by the shoulders and turned him around, pushing him through the door, before closing it firmly in his face.

“It’s warded, just so you know,” Justin called out.

Dean grunted. It was just as well because they were right, his lion was barely in control. Minutes later, he was joined by Oz and Ryan who were just as agitated as he was.

“Come on,” said Ryan, after Dean had paced the room a dozen times. “Let’s shift and go for a run. Our beasts are going nuts and we need to let them out. It’ll do us all good.”

“Since when are you the sensible one?” asked Oz.

“Since the pair of you are going to wear holes in the wood,” came the tart rejoinder.

Dean huffed. The wolf was right. He reached for the dragons in their magical link, but Nick was already there reassuring them that it was a good thing, and that they should do an entire lap of the academy. What they were doing was going to take a while.

That nearly caused Dean to lose his shit then and there, as it was, he barely got his clothes off before his lion burst out of his skin. Oz and Ryan were only seconds behind him, and it was then that they realised their mistake. Still connected by the magical link, the dragons sent out their magic and opened the door for them. In the back of the lion’s mind, Dean made a note to change the front door handle to a bar one, instead of the round knob that was impossible for shifter beasts to manipulate.

3. Dean

T he three of them jumped out of the cottage, the door closing behind them. From seemingly nowhere, a large fox joined them; Trent. Together the four of them set off at a good clip.

Dean had assumed he would have to slow down for the fox, but the smaller beast had more stamina than the lion, and it was Dean they slowed down for. Lions were not runners, not like wolves and foxes. They could have short bursts of speed, good for a quick hunt, but if they had long distances to travel, lions tended to trot or lope. This galloping speed had him huffing in minutes, and the three canids teased him for being out of shape.

I’m brute force, not speed, he told them, balefully.

Yeah, yeah, slacker. You keep telling yourself that, taunted Oz.

Dean ignored them. Instead, focussing on putting one foot in front of the other, until they ate up the distance around the edge of the academy.

He could feel it every time the dragons touched one of her wounds, his hide twitching in response and his lion whimpering.

She’s in pain? asked Ryan.

Yes, he said, not wishing to elaborate.

Ryan put on a burst of speed, galloping along to the next corridor and then doubling back to them. He did that continuously around the perimeter of the buildings until he must have traveled double the distance that they had. Until they had the all-clear from the dragons, none of them would return.

When they had done a full lap, or more in Ryan’s case, they moved outward until they were at the perimeter of the academy grounds, a circle with a much larger circumference. Then they began their trek again. This time, Ryan stayed with them. The four of them caught the scents of witches several times, unusual this far from the buildings and in the cold, but then again, sometimes one had to travel quite a distance to find privacy at the academy.

Frequently, there was the scent of sex amongst the bushes to accompany the witches’ scents, so they studiously ignored it.

They had almost made it full circle when Nick finally called them.

We’re done, you can come back now, the potions are here, and we’re about to give her the first blood restorative, he said.

Dean picked up his pace. Now that there was something to run for, a purpose, his lion got a second wind.

Together the four of them sped back to the cottage, barely pausing to shift as they reached the door. All of them trying to fit through at the same time might be a comical image in another lifetime, but for now, it was merely frustrating. Dean nearly shifted back to his lion just so he could claw his way through.

Somehow, though, it was Trent who got inside first. Dean wondered at that, until he noticed the fox’s tail that was still retracting. The sneaky bugger had shifted and slipped between their legs. For once, he was jealous of the smaller beast. His alpha tendencies would never have allowed him to take a non-combative route, but because foxes didn’t have alphas, Trent could do what he damn well liked.

It was certainly something to ponder at a later date. Right now, he had to see Melody, had to touch her, to know that she was alive and breathing, even though his bond told him that she was.

At the sight of all the blood on the dragons, though, he nearly shifted on the spot.

“Easy there, big cat,” Nick said, calmly. “We did everything that was possible, and we made a lot more progress than we thought we could. She’s not out of the woods, but now that we have an idea of what to expect, we can prepare for it. I’m going to ask the provost to get us a nasogastric feeding tube set up. If we can get food into her, and those potions, we’ll have a better chance of being able to nurse her through this than we did last time. We might have to swear a healer to secrecy, but it will be worth it if we don’t have to roll her over to give her the medicine.”

Dean nodded, his canines lengthening as his beast ached to go to her.

“No shifting, dude,” warned Justin. “Your lion is too fucking big to get on that bed with her in this condition. Human ass only.”

Dean pushed past him and through the door to the bedroom that belonged to Melody. A blanket had been artfully draped over her lower half, but everything from the waist up had been removed. There was nothing to see, although the scent of blood permeated everything. A large dressing covered her entire back, firmly held down with some sort of specialised clear adhesive. On a couple of spots, he could see blood starting to seep through to the outer layer, but it seemed that overall, she wasn’t as bad as he’d feared.

He almost moaned in relief, gingerly climbing onto the bed beside her, so that his forehead rested against her elbow where her arm was crooked above her head on the pillows. The pain that he had felt emanating from her earlier was now a dull throb, and he assumed that was because the potion had kicked in. She was hot to the touch, but they knew that would happen. It was now a matter of time. They had to care for her as best they could, and wait for her to heal and wake up.

Part of him almost hoped that she would be too weak to beat Asher in his challenge in a few days time, but Dean had an idea of Melody’s strength now. There was no way this would hold her back. She would conquer that fucking wolf, and then she would bring him to heel, and Dean? Well, he’d make sure that the asshole paid for this for the rest of Melody’s life.

4. Asher

A sher had heard the rumours. He’d seen that viper Shawna and her horrors talking about Melody and the Apex before he’d finally challenged her. The reality of what he was faced with, however, was on a different plane entirely.

As soon as their bond was broken, the others dashed back to their cottage through a portal, leaving him stunned in the provost’s office. Initially he thought he was alone with the head witch, but when his mind cleared a little, he became aware of Ryan and Oz flanking him.

“Come on, man. Let’s get you back to your quarters in the dorm. You can check on her later. Right now, you need to rest and shake this off,” Oz coaxed.

Stubbornly, Asher waved them off. “I’m fine, I can get there by myself. Go check on her, I know you’re dying to get there.”

Ryan dashed away, muttering about stubborn idiots.

“Look,” Oz said, lingering a bit longer. “We saw Dean go through this when he bonded her. He also had his broken. It knocks you about for a bit. You really should let me walk you back. It’s going to make you easy prey for any witch determined to trick you into challenging them. You’re weakened, so some of them who wouldn’t ordinarily have a chance, would.”

“Thanks, Oz. But I’m fine, really. I just want to sleep.” He’d had a taste of Melody’s power bonded to his own shifter magic. Despite the drama that had ensued, he was more determined than ever to have her. Nothing and nobody else would suffice.

It wasn’t long before he regretted his bravado, stumbling through the corridors as though drunk. The sudden wave of fatigue had taken him by surprise.

A soft-spoken voice had enquired after his wellbeing, and his foggy thoughts had cleared enough to find himself surrounded by a bevvy of witches, cooing and consoling. They were running their hands over him, stroking him, caring for him, helping him when his balance failed, until he found himself in an unfamiliar bedroom, half-naked, with Shawna slowly peeling her clothes off in front of him.

At that moment, his sanity returned. Asher stood to excuse himself, but the wily witch simply threw herself against him, landing them both on the bed as she giggled and straddled his waist.

The door to her room blew open with a bang, but it was no natural breeze that had done so, he’d could smell the ozone of magic. Nobody was there, but several passing students saw them in a compromising position, Shawna draped over him and moaned as she ground herself against him.

Asher had had enough. He sat up, causing her to slide off him and onto the floor where she landed with a curse and a scowl. The near call had caused adrenaline to rush through his veins. His heart was pumping, his chest heaving. He probably looked more aroused than angered, but Asher was going to take whatever help he could get.

How he had made it to the female witch dorms instead of the male shifter ones on the other side of the campus, he didn’t know, but he knew he had to get out of there fast.

He didn’t even bother putting on his shirt, holding it balled in his hand as he strode down the hall and out the door onto the path. People everywhere stopped to look at him, but he wasn’t in the mood to preen at the attention. Oz hadn’t been kidding when he’d warned Asher, and he felt a fool for not listening and accepting his help. He owed Oz a solid.

Every day he walked to Melody’s cottage, where he was told that there was no change. Melody was still unconscious, feverish and incredibly weak.

For a week, Shawna and her hellcats stalked him, finding him no matter where he hid, and draping themselves around him and all over him, giving him no chance to get away without using force. Shifters craved touch and the women knew it. It was obvious they were trying to lure his wolf to them by giving him what he wanted most.

Only, the thing he wanted most was her , Melody. After being connected to her even for the briefest of moments, Asher knew that nobody else would ever match up to her. These other witches were pathetic, thoughtless and weak. His wolf wanted to slash them and rip them with his claws. However, one thing that had been drilled into him since he was a pup was that witches were to be feared and treated with the utmost respect, so Asher hesitated to push them away.

It was a mistake. Shawna took it as encouragement, telling anyone who would listen that he was simply in shock from having his first bond severed, and that once he recovered, he was going to challenge her instead. He had found a better witch.

She was only partially right. He was in shock.

Losing his bond to Melody had been the worst pain Asher had ever felt, and it wasn’t just physical pain either. It was like someone had taken a knife to his soul. He felt detached, isolated, and afraid. It was akin to losing a parent, even though his bond was so newly forged. It was a deep connection already, speaking to experience on Melody’s part and the strength of her magic, of her suitability for him, and of his need for her.

By the end of the first week, Asher was at his wit’s end. Turning his anger on Ryan when he was turned away again, not even permitted to enter the cottage.

“If she doesn’t want to see me again, let her tell me to my face, but don’t let her hide behind you like the coward that she is!” he roared at the other wolf.

The next instant, Asher was nearly smothered in the ozone stench that announced magic, before he was hit with a force that pinned his arms to his sides, his legs together, and prized his jaws apart, stuffing a pocket of air in his mouth so he couldn’t talk.

Nick was standing just behind Ryan’s shoulder, dark circles under his eyes, and a frown on his face that would make a lesser shifter soil themselves. His eyes blazed golden with long vertical slits for pupils, telling Asher that this dragon was barely holding his shit together. Ryan stepped back out of the way to let Nick do what he wanted.

Rather than being flung across the green verge like Asher expected, he was dragged inside and held still at Melody’s bedside, where her pale and profusely sweating form lay far too still. Every now and then she took a shallow breath, but it seemed to take so much effort that Asher’s bones ached in sympathy. There was a tube leading away from her nose, and taped to her face. Oz sat there with a syringe full of a green mixture, and as Asher watched in growing horror, Oz pushed the plunger, the thick goop travelling up her nose and out of sight.

“It’s a feeding tube,” Nick whispered quietly. “It goes down into her stomach. It’s the only way we can keep her alive, the fever is not natural and is burning through her, although the wounds themselves are not infected.”

Nick pointed to the foot of the bed where a clear plastic bag hung full of yellow liquid. Some more trickled in from a hose that disappeared under the blankets and Asher realised that it was her urine. It was like a hospital room in there, except more homely.

The gag was removed from his mouth.

It was only then that Asher realised how dark it was, and how much his shifter sight was compensating. “Why is it so dark?” he asked, also whispering, seeing it seemed to be the thing to do.

In the deepest shadows of the room, something stirred, and Asher’s eyes strained to see who it was, until they sat forward. It was Dean, who looked so desolate that Asher wanted to weep. Dean’s normally slightly shaggy blonde hair was currently brushing his shoulders in a bushy halo around his head, and his canines protruded from behind his upper lip. Large black pupils rimmed with gold regarded him with a hatred that at once burned so hot and so cold, Asher actually feared for his life.

“Dean is like a heart monitor. He tells us when she’s in pain, and where. We know that when she wakes the light is too bright for her, but apparently the same is true even when she’s unconscious. Even now light and sound are painful for her, so we whisper and we dim the room as much as we can. When she’s better, I’ll put a spell around her head so it is only her vision that’s darkened, but right now, I need to conserve my magic in case she needs me, and I don’t want any more magic around her while the curse is winning.”

“It’s winning?” Asher asked, aghast.

“For now. It’s worse this time, but I have hopes that it will settle. She’s stopped vomiting, which is a plus. I’ve been able to remove her IV line.” He pointed to a silver stand in the corner that Asher had missed seeing.

The IV stand was next to Dean, who started growling. “It’s probably best that you go now, Asher. I don’t know how much longer I can keep his lion in check. He half shifted when he knew I was bringing you in and I had to slap a pause button on it or he would have ripped you to shreds even as you were bound in my spell.”

The spell around Asher dissipated, leaving him free to move. Slowly he backed towards the door. “Is she going to die?” he asked, reluctantly.

Nick looked at him, his face bleak. “Not if I have any say in the matter.”

Asher walked out and sat on the front porch. He wouldn’t leave until she was well. Keeping vigil was the least he could do. He stripped and shifted, curling up on the small porch.

Trent merely glanced at him when he left to go back to his quarters for the night, but the others growled whenever they passed him.

Get the fuck out of here, mutt, snarled Justin one afternoon, speaking in his head, startling him. Asher had known they were talking somehow, but he hadn’t thought it was like this. It must have been the dragons using their magic.

Mrs Hardinger brought him some broth and made him shift back and eat it. She’d only just left and Justin caught him in his human form. “I can’t, I can’t leave her. I’m hers, even if we’re not bonded.”

“Then give her some fucking space.”

Asher wondered if he should tell the dragon, let him know the ironic secret, the powerful word that his wolf chanted continuously in the back of his head.

Mate, mate, mate, mate.

It was like a drum, a heartbeat, a reason to keep living. If she died, his wolf would demand that they joined her.

No, he couldn’t tell him. Not yet.

Asher didn’t know what he wanted to do. He was afraid that if she survived, she wouldn’t want him. The idea was tearing him in two. If he couldn’t have her, there would be nobody else for him. Ever. She was his mate, his sun, his moon. No matter how hard he tried to resist her, that tantalising taste of her bond would haunt him forever.

He knew he faced one of three outcomes: one, she died and he did too. Two, she lived and refused to accept his challenge—his wolf would die of shame. Three, she lived and forgave him, allowing him to challenge her again.

One chance in three; they were not good odds.

After almost two weeks, a faint hint of her scent reached his nose, and inside him, his wolf howled. Justin, who was passing him again, cocked his head. His dragon must have sensed the grief in that noise.

“She’s my mate,” Asher said, quietly.

“Fucking hell, she’s going to just love that,” Justin growled, laughing bitterly. “Just how many fucking mates can one witch have, anyway?”

“What do you mean?”

“I haven’t asked him, but I’m pretty sure she’s Dean’s as well. His cat went apeshit the first time he scented her. He’s been fixated ever since. Trent is just as intense. He says his fox has chosen her. I don’t know what that means for foxes, I didn’t think they had fated mates. Either way, they’re hers. She’s got us all by the balls, man, and we’ll die to protect her. Make sure you’re willing to do that too, because she fucking needs us.”

With that cryptic comment Justin walked off towards the main buildings. An hour later, he returned with a basket full of delicious scents. The dragon paused long enough to reach in and grab a couple of drumsticks, tossing them to Asher who caught them. “If you want more, fucking get it yourself,” he growled, but it was the last time that he told Asher to leave the porch.

Asher had no idea what Justin meant and he didn’t know what they would face when she finally went home, he hoped that it wasn’t to Bestia. But he held no illusions about her chances of finding another one before the end of term, although Melody had been doing well. Asher didn’t like the vibe that Professor Ludwig had given off, and even if the witch could convince her coven mistress to send an invite to Melody, he didn’t want to head there either.

If the rest of their coven were anything like Professor Ludwig, any shifter bonded to Melody would be a curiosity. Something to experiment on, someone to kick out of the way like a lazy dog, not a conscious being with their own life, their own hopes and dreams. Asher wasn’t sure that it would be much better than Melody’s coven, although at least they wouldn’t try to kill him.

It was a quandary that would be out of his hands, either way. The choice would be Melody’s and they would simply have to follow her, but he hoped that she got some other offers, because he was nobody’s pet.

5. Melody

W aking up feverish and in pain seemed to be a thing that was going to happen to her more often. Well, at least for as long as Melody kept trying to defy her aunt.

She felt so weak, it was all she could do to lift her head and roll it from one side to the other. Her neck was stiff and she wondered how long she had lain in that position.

“Mel?” Dean’s voice was beside her.

“Mmm?”

“You with me, baby?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh thank fuck,” he cried hoarsely, kissing her forehead gently.

Warm, salty drops landed on her skin. Was he crying? She knew the bond was affecting him, but she hadn’t realised it was that bad. He shouldn’t be subjected to her pain like this. Damn her aunt for doing this to him, to them.

Melody opened her eyes, but couldn’t see anything.

“Nick’s got that spell on you again, you’re all blacked out, and the rest of them are back in the shifter dorm so that they’re not too noisy.” Gently, Dean swept her sweaty hair from her face.

“Hot,” she managed to say, and then she felt something weird on her cheek, so she tried to scratch it off.

“No, baby, leave that. It’s a feeding tube. You were out a bit longer this time, we had to use it to feed you. And you can’t sit up, either. There’s a catheter collecting urine,” he told her.

“How long?”

“Eight days,” he said. She could hear him swallow hard. “You were right, the fever was more fierce this time. Thankfully you had the feeding tube from the start, so we’ve kept you nourished and hydrated, and Nick even used it to give you the potions. I was able to monitor your pain levels, so I could tell him when it was getting too much again.”

He was silent for a moment. “Nick’s on his way over, he wants to check you out and give you another dose. You’re not out of the woods yet, but at least you're conscious again.”

“Tired,” she mumbled.

“I know baby, just try to hang on until Nick gets here, okay? He’s running, he’ll be here soon,” Dean coaxed her softly.

“‘Kay,” she murmured, and tried not to fall back asleep, but the darkness was so soothing, and her body ached so much that she never got to say hello to Nick. She was out when he got there.

The next time Melody woke, she was still hot, only now it was the good sort. She could feel the sweat drying on her skin, making her shiver a little. Her body ached, but not in the bone crushing, sucking-out-life way that it was before. There were still vibrant streaks of pain down her back, and she suspected that they would hurt more when she really moved, but at the moment they felt on a par with the worst beating that she’d had back at her coven.

Carefully, she rolled onto her side, the pain making the whole process agonisingly slow. Sitting up, however, was simply impossible. Her muscles refused to work, and there was an odd tugging sensation between her legs.

“Hang on Mel, don’t move. You’re wired up to a few things, let me call Nick, and we’ll get you sorted,” the voice behind her wasn’t Dean. Melody thought it might be Ryan, but she wasn’t sure.

He got up and sprinted out the door, returning moments later with a person she presumed was Nick. A firm cool hand was on her brow, and then the fingers moved to clasp her wrist for a few moments. “Okay, Mel, it looks like the fever has well and truly broken this time. You had a bit of a relapse the other day. How do you feel?” He lifted the spell from her eyes a little and she winced, but could see enough to tell that it was the dragon.

A relapse? The other day? Surely it was only last night that she had first woken up?

“Sore, my back is killing me, but my bones don’t ache anymore. My mouth is dry, but I’m tired of lying on my belly, I’m all stiff and my skin feels chafed.”

“Yeah, we were worried about pressure sores. We’ve been moving you as much as we dared, but each time we rolled you on your side, the wounds opened again and you ended up losing more blood.” He moved around behind her. “Yeah, it’s happened again, but it’s not as bad. If you feel up to it today, we really ought to get Asher in here and let you bond him, that might speed up the healing, it seemed to help a bit after you re-bonded Dean.”

“I doubt I could change a cricket, but I’m willing to try,” she said.

Nick came back in front of her again and smiled. “That’s my girl.” He stroked her head. “Now, I don’t know if you remember the other night, but Dean said he told you that you had a urinary catheter in. We’ll need to remove that before you sit up properly, are you okay with us doing that? I can try and get Mrs Hardinger in to help if that’s better?”

“No, it’s fine.” These men were doing so much for her, the least she could do was trust them. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d been tended to by male shifters. Some of the beatings her aunt had given her were worse than the ones the shifters got. “Nick, you keep saying the other night, wasn’t it last night that I woke?”

“No, love, that was three days ago. You’ve been out of action for almost two weeks. The asshole is going a little stir crazy, but we wouldn’t let him come in until he had your permission. He’s been sleeping on the front porch, he refuses to leave, even for meals. The only time he moves away is to go and do his business in the forest, so for the sake of all the trees there, you need to at least let him in to use the bathroom,” Nick teased.

“He’s been sleeping on the porch? But it’s still freezing outside! Nick, that’s so mean!”

“In his wolf form, Mel, he’s been out there in his wolf form. Trust me, the beast is well protected from the elements, we even put a few blankets out there for him, but he won’t use them. Probably because Dean’s lion rolled on them first, but still, if he got desperate, they were there,” Nick laughed.

Melody frowned but held her tongue.

He stroked her hair back from her forehead. “You’ve got to stop thinking of us as human, I know you’ve grown up with shifters, but I don’t think you got to truly experience our cultures. We’re a lot tougher than you think,” Nick explained.

He was right, of course. She did know that the shifters were tougher, she knew exactly how much shit they could cope with before they broke because she had seen hundreds of them broken. Asher was probably happier in his wolf form too, their beast sides didn’t worry as much as their human ones did. But he was relying on his beast side, something she didn’t want any shifter to have to do. Shifting should be because they wanted to, not because they were forced to, or needed to in order to survive.

Melody gave in. They were grown men, they could take care of themselves. “You’re right, I’m sorry, I’m not thinking straight. Let’s get this catheter out, and then I’ll see if I can bond him. Hopefully the sooner I do it, the sooner I’ll heal,” she sighed. “It’s the worst reason ever to bond a shifter, you know that, right?”

Nick snorted. “He brought this mess on himself, besides, with two shifters lending their strength to you, surely you’ll heal faster?”

“I honestly don’t know, but I can try. My aunt never let me have more than one shifter at a time, and even then, it wasn’t for very long,” she told him.

Nick opened his mouth to say something, then snapped it shut again, then repeated the sequence several more times.

She could only imagine what was going through his head, if she could reassure him, she would. “Nick, just spit it out.”

He turned crimson. “I was just wondering how many familiars you’ve had. I mean, it’s none of my business, but I can’t help but be curious about the woman that my dragon has his sights on.”

Melody thought about it for a moment, how could she answer this delicately? No matter how she put it, it was still going to shock and horrify him. There was no gentle way around it, no matter how much it was going to hurt her when he turned from her and never came back, he deserved to know the kind of monster he was considering bonding to.

“Hundreds,” she finally said quietly, and even though the lighting was dim, she could see that he blanched.

“They were old?” he asked, trying to understand.

“Some, not many, most of them were about my age now.”

“What happened?”

Melody felt shame wash over her. She was quite sure that telling him would result in punishment from her aunt, but part of her wanted to spill everything to him. Then he would run, they would all run, and finally they would be safe. Only Dean would die. The thought of that nearly split her heart in two. She’d become far too attached to him already. These men were just too dangerous for her heart.

“I couldn’t save them,” she finally said. It was the truth and not disloyal to her coven at the same time, but she hated that it left so much out. So much darkness and pain. What would these men think of her when they found out just what a monster she was?

It was only a matter of time before she drove them away forever.

6. Melody

M elody had to heal. She had to get to the top of her class, and then she had to get out of her coven. Then she could refuse the Apex, and they would be free. The others would be better off without her, and Dean and Asher at least would be safe, even if they were bonded to a monster. Goddess, they could even ask to break the bond, without her life on the line, she would gladly give their freedom such as it was, back to them.

Guilt slammed into her. Her life on the line. Her life?

If it wasn’t her life on the line, it was theirs. If she wanted to live, then they were going to die. If she wanted them to live, then she needed to step up and defy her aunt, bring on the geasen and sacrifice herself for their safety.

Only, Melody couldn’t bring herself to do it.

She really was a monster.

Nick sat there silently, waiting for more, but she could give him nothing. “Can we please just do this. I need to heal, and then I need to study. I’ve missed two weeks of classes, I’ll never get to the top at this rate.”

The guilt was eating away at her soul. Melody tried to kid herself that by surviving, she was saving Dean from her aunt. Except, she was about to bond Asher, wasn’t she? So, it wasn’t one shifter that she was condemning, it was two.

Nick caught her hands in his, holding them to his chest. “Mel, you’ve been hit by a heavy curse, you needed that time to recover. We’ll get you caught up, just give yourself time.”

His words were so sweet, but she couldn’t let herself be lulled by them. She had to stay strong. Melody had to keep her distance for now, she needed to push them away. It would hurt them in the interim, but it would save their lives. She couldn’t afford to bond any more of them, not until she’d worked out a solution to her aunt’s spells.

“My name is Melody,” she snapped, and he jerked backward as if she’d slapped him.

Feeling worse than ever, she sighed. She could keep her distance without being a bitch. She owed them that much and more. They had kept her alive for two weeks, studied with her all hours of the day and night, and helped her to finish her history class in half a year. She could hold them at arm’s length and do it with grace and kindness, it was the least she could do for them.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Please, I would like these tubes removed, and then I really ought to put Asher out of his misery.”

Nick looked at her, his eyes roving over her face, like her thoughts were written there for him to read. Finally, he nodded. He got her to lie back down on her side, made her raise her top leg and had her breathe deeply while he removed the tubing under the blanket without looking. It was an odd tugging sensation indeed, followed by a pop, and then Nick was pulling it out from under the blanket. Melody looked away, she didn’t want to see it or think about it.

Nick chuckled, then sobered, “Okay, this one is going to be quite unpleasant, it will likely trigger your gag reflex. I’ve got a bucket here in case, I just ask that you try to hold off until my hands are out of the way, yeah?”

He gently teased the pieces of tape holding the tubing to her face and chest, away from her skin. “How did you learn all of this?” she asked him, needing a distraction.

“I’ve been at the academy for a long time. I got bored, so I spent ten years or so volunteering in the clinic here. They know they can call on me if they get short handed, but most of the time, I just come in and observe the more unusual things.” He stroked a finger down her face. “Okay, I’m ready to pull. When I tell you to, I want you to take as deep a breath as you possibly can and hold it, then as soon as you feel me pulling, I want you to let it go as slowly as you can. I need you to keep breathing out the entire time, think you can do that?”

Melody nodded anxiously.

“Alright, breathe in then,” he told her, and she did, filling her lungs to capacity, even though it made the skin on her back stretch and ache. Then she felt him tugging the tubing out, and she allowed herself to slowly release it, feeling the relief as her taut skin began to relax. He was right, it did trigger her gag reflex, but because she was already breathing out, it wasn’t too hard to control. The worst bit was actually when it passed through her nose. It made her want to sneeze, shake her head and swat at flies, all at the same time.

She did sneeze, and cough, but that was the worst of it. Still, Nick held the bucket there for her for a moment or two, just in case. When she smiled at him through watery eyes, however, he put it down on the ground and dropped the tubing into it.

“Well, that’s that done, would you like to freshen up before you see him?” he asked.

“I probably should. Two weeks in bed, I must reek.”

Nick turned crimson. “Actually, I gave you several bed baths, you’re a little past fresh as a daisy, but there’s no way you have a two week funk lingering around you,” he said with a sheepish look.

“Oh, um. Thanks. I’ll probably just have a quick basin bath then, and put on some loose clothing, then I should be ready for him.”

“Okay, I’ll get rid of this and come back and check on you, alright? I’ll also make sure the wolf is fit to be seen. Two weeks of living as his wolf and he’s probably due for a bath or two himself.”

Melody laughed and he beamed at her, obviously pleased by her reaction. He helped her to her feet and dug out some sweats and underpants, but he didn’t pass her a bra. She realised that he was right not to, her back was too sore for her to wear one.

“I’ll grab one of Dean’s shirts for you, it’ll be nice and loose and will go a long way to calming his beast. As a bonus, it’ll piss off Asher too.”

Melody noticed that he called the shifter by name and not some epithet as the Apex were prone to do. Obviously, something had changed in their relationship while she had been unconscious.

In no time at all, she had freshened up and slipped into the soft clothing, Dean’s shirt had been left on her bed, and she slipped into it, grateful that she didn’t have to lift up her arms. The sleeves were so big, the holes practically dropped to her waist. She would have to be careful that she didn’t flash them all. Then again, she didn’t plan on raising her arms either, it would rip open the fragile wounds on her back.

Out in the living area, they all sat waiting for her. She was surprised to see the provost, Mrs Hardinger, Professor Whitlow—her history teacher—and Mr Phelps. She should have expected them. Of course this couldn’t be a private thing, not now that there had been a complaint.

Even when she wasn’t here, Shawna was interfering in their lives. Melody suspected that any future bonds she made would need to be well-witnessed, at least until she’d proven herself with a couple of standard challenges. Not that it would be anytime soon. Inwardly she rolled her eyes. No, once they all understood what kind of monster she was, she would never have a familiar again.

Melody sighed. “I guess he’d better come in,” she said dejectedly.

Mrs Hardinger stood up. “Melody, this doesn’t have to happen. If you don’t want to accept his challenge, then you don’t have to. We can help him through this until his wolf is ready to start looking for another witch. You’re not obligated to bond him.”

“Yeah, I kinda am. I wish I could explain it,” she paused and pointed over her shoulder to the gashes in her back. She hadn’t asked Nick how many there were, she didn’t really want to know.

“Does the shifter know that?” asked Professor Whitlow.

Melody looked at her, surprised. “I don’t know. I can’t tell him.”

“May I do so then?” the professor asked.

“No!” shouted Melody, nodding her head frantically.

“I’ll go and get him,” said the provost. “I’ll make sure that he’s fully prepared to challenge you.”

She went out the door and Melody could hear her talking to Asher. There was a rumble as he responded to her, and then the provost talked for a little longer. Eventually the two of them came in. Asher looked at her with worry on his face, but he stood proud.

“Melody, of Bestia Coven, I challenge you,” he said, firmly. Then he undressed and quickly shifted into his wolf.

Conscious of the wounds on her back, and the gaping holes at the sides of her shirt, Melody raised her hand as little as she could get away with. “Shift,” she commanded, pushing her magic at him. Instantly he fell to the floor on his hands and knees.

“It’s official then, Ms Bestia. It seems that the Goddess has blessed you with two familiars.” She looked around the room. “At least two.”

“We will continue with our sessions twice a week, Melody. Two cocks can be quite the handful,” chortled Mrs Hardinger.

Melody’s jaw dropped, and the provost rolled her eyes, but Professor Whitlow sniffed, offended. Mr Phelps, however, threw back his head and roared with laughter, startling them all.

“Has it helped, Melody?” asked the provost, and all eyes turned back to her.

Melody thought about it for a moment, trying to assess her back. “I don’t think so, it might not be burning as much?”

“May I?” asked Nick.

Well, this was awkward. Melody nodded and then clutched her arms to her chest. Nick lifted her shirt to rest on the back of her neck, and then gently teased back the edges of the dressing.

“Oh goddess help her!” exclaimed Mrs Hardinger, and everyone rushed to see.

Melody sighed, when she thought about it, she still had a lot more privacy than the men had when they shifted back to their human forms. She just wished that she could be as casual about it all.

“Sorry Mel, it looks like it hasn’t made any difference at all,” Nick told her.

“Well, it was two weeks since the bond was broken, plenty of time for the curse to get a hold and do some damage. Has there been any sign of healing before now, Nicholas?” asked the provost.

“No, Ma’am. Unless you count the reduction of bleeding as healing, but that has been because she has been kept still.” He carefully reapplied the dressing, smoothing it over the unmarked part of her shoulder.

“I could see bone,” whispered Mrs Hardinger, shocked.

“Yes, Mrs H, there are several places where Melody’s ribs have been exposed,” Nick told her.

Melody winced, okay, so maybe this one was a bit worse than the worst beating she had ever had. Nick came and stood beside her, pulling her to him gently.

“Very well, Nicholas, you will continue to tend to Melody, and report your findings to me daily. I need to know if she’s healing. If not, we may need to call in outside help to try and lift the curse from her,” said the provost.

Nick nodded.

“Again, ladies and gentlemen, this is confined to my office for discussion. We will depart now and leave you to it. Melody, Asher will stay here with you from now on, as one of your bonded shifters. I will leave it up to the three of you to sort out the sleeping arrangements.”

The provost and the other staff members swept out of the door, while every shifter there stared at her. She knew what they were thinking, would Melody allow one of the shifters to sleep with her, or would she force them to share a room. It was really an awkward situation.

Melody knew that trying to force the two men to share a room would be a disaster as long as they couldn’t stand each other. One of them would end up on the couch, and there would be constant fights over who got to use the space to change, and who got into the shower first. But inviting one of them into her bed sent a message that she didn’t want to send, no matter how practical it was.

She was half tempted to invite Asher to share her bed, because she couldn’t stand him and he’d learn quickly that he had absolutely no chance to take things further with her, no matter how hard his beast was pushing him. However, to do that would be a snub to Dean, who had stood by her through so much already.

Inviting Dean to her bed would likely encourage him to try to pursue a sexual relationship with her, something that she didn’t want fogging her brain when his life was still on the line. It was the lesser evil of all the choices she had, however, so she took the plunge.

Just as she opened her mouth, Dean took the initiative. “I’m moving in with Mel, he can have my room,” he announced, striding to the other door and entering.

Ryan and Oz were right behind him, and all three of them came out with armfuls of clothes, striding into her room where she could hear them moving things around and putting his clothes away.

“And you’re fine with that?” snarled Asher, walking up to her until they stood, chest to chest. Off to one side, one of the dragons growled.

“Actually, I am. I was just about to propose it, so it works for me. The two of you couldn’t possibly share a room without fighting, neither of you will fit on the couch, and choosing you over Dean would be rude to him. Besides, it’s just a place to rest, I’m not offering him anything else,” she told him firmly.

“You don’t have to offer it to him for him to take it,” Asher growled.

With a flick of her finger, Melody pushed him backward until he was pinned against the wall. “And I’m hardly defenseless.” The lesson was blunt, but much needed. If she let them, these two shifters would walk all over her, and the others wouldn’t be far behind.

“It’s the most reasonable solution to an awkward problem,” Trent said from one side, and Melody startled. He was always so still that she forgot he was there, despite his tall stature.

“Who the fuck asked you?” spat Asher from the opposite side of the room, and something in Melody snapped. She rounded on him, walking up to him and prodding his chest with her finger.

“You chose me, Asher, you had your opportunity to change your mind out there, you were warned, but you still chose me. So let me make something very clear, I won’t tolerate your arrogant bullshit, not one iota of it. You need to straighten your face and be civil to my friends, or I’ll make your life a living hell—and believe me, I know ways to do it that would make your wolf beg for mercy and leave not a single mark on your skin.”

She had to give him credit, he didn’t back down, but he paled. Good, let him be frightened of her, because she was a fucking monster, and was definitely worth his fear.

7. Nick

M el’s newest wounds weren’t closing as fast as he would have liked, but at least now they were showing some signs of healing. Her earlier wounds were now almost completely gone, they were certainly sealed and scabbed at the very least, but these five scores were like nothing he’d ever seen.

They weren’t infected, which was a blessing from the Goddess. Two weeks of open wounds should have seen her covered in weeping sores, but there wasn’t a sign of anything other than the injury itself. Nick suspected a protective spell. If he was reading her aunt right, she would want Melody cowed but not dead. Weakened and malleable, but still able to do what her aunt sought.

He had lived for hundreds of years, but never had he seen anything like the kind of abuse that Melody was being subjected to. Well, at least on family members. He had seen people treat their slaves and enemies like this.

It spoke a lot about how her aunt saw her.

All of the shifters had noticed the distinct lack of kinship in her letters to Melody. It was like a ruler deigning to write to a peasant. Melody’s home life could not have been pleasant. He wondered if he would ever get to find out all of the horrors locked away in her sad eyes. When she spoke of all the dead shifters she’d had as familiars, her pain was a palpable, living thing. He could see how much it distressed her.

And then she shut down. Her posture turned in on itself, the light went from her eyes, and the life went from her voice. It was like she was retreating from him, and he didn’t know what to do about it. It was driving his dragon nuts.

Nick? sent Justin.

Yeah?

Conference in the living room. Dean says she’s asleep. He’s coming out.

Nick stood from where he had been sitting on the front steps and came quietly back inside. The others were already gathered there, except for Dean who was just sneaking out of Mel’s room.

He couldn’t believe that Mel had only bonded the asshat, Asher, yesterday afternoon. Already he was acting like lord of the manor, the only one he even vaguely listened to was Dean, although of course he followed all of Mel’s directives to a tee. Not that she was the kind of witch to order shifters around. Nick liked that about her.

“How’s she healing?” asked Oz

Dean looked expectantly at him, startling him. He had thought that the lion would have answered, Dean and the asshat were the ones who could feel her pain.

“It’s happening, but not as fast as I would like. Is she drawing strength from either of you at all?” he asked them.

Dean shook his head but Asher shrugged. “We need to know, Asher. If she isn’t, then we need to encourage it. She could actually be healing faster if she drew strength from you both. With everything going on, I want her at her strongest by the time the school year ends, because who knows what the fuck she’s going home to.”

Asher glared at him. “I’m not the only one holding back. What the fuck is that shit on her back? Who did it?”

“You did, you cunt, and I’m going to make sure you pay for it for the rest of your fucking life!” growled Dean, and the two of them stood up, standing chest to chest as they growled at each other.

Nick pulled them apart. “Keep it down you two, she needs to rest.” He turned to the wolf. “Sit the fuck down, Asher, we’ll tell you what we know, but I doubt that it’s more than you know right now.”

He drew in a deep breath and thought about all the little snippets that he had caught, and all the conclusions he had drawn. Where to begin, though?

“There are some things that I can’t tell you, the things we promised that would not be spoken outside of the provost’s office.”

“I was there for that, dipshit,” snarked Asher.

“So fucking help me …” muttered Ryan.

“Not the first time,” Nick corrected him. “When Dean bonded her, that bitch Shawna, your best buddy, protested, said that Mel cheated. It was a bit like your bonding.” Nick cleared his throat, finding his collar suddenly constricting, and then he realised it was the promise that the provost had extracted from him. He was getting too close to the things he wasn’t allowed to talk about. Nick was strong enough to break the binding, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to betray the provost, who would certainly know that he had, and he didn’t want to break his word for an asshat like Asher.

“So where are they coming from?”

“They’re geas marks from her coven. There’s something bad going on there, and we’re trying to help her out of it. She’s trapped for now, and as long as she is, so are you.”

He tugged at his collar again. “Fuck this, we need to talk with the provost present, I’m already pushing the boundaries of what we’re allowed to say.”

Asher looked at them all. “Just what the fuck is going on here?”

“Dude, questions you should have asked before you walked up and challenged her. What kind of idiot does that without getting to know the witch first?” Ryan scowled at Asher.

There was a beat of silence, and then all of the Apex cracked up laughing, except for Asher, who turned crimson and frowned.

“Man, I can’t believe you just said that?” howled Oz.

Justin was laughing just as hard. “Projecting much, Ry?”

Even Trent had a smirk on his face. He’d been a witness to the antics of the Apex in the first months of the new year, where they went through and challenged every witch.

Nick chuckled ruefully. They had all been playing Russian Roulette with their lives, hadn’t they? He was the first to sober, and the others soon followed.

“Fuck, we could have …” said Oz quietly.

“Yeah,” said Nick. “But we didn’t. And now we have to help Mel, Dean, and Asher before it gets any more fucked up.”

“Yeah,” agreed Ryan.

“Come on then, let’s go and see the provost,” Nick suggested, and they all stood to go.

Asher looked at them incredulously. “You think she’s going to just drop everything and see you? It’ll take a week, a month before she has time for some shifters who have been here too long. Trust me, no witch takes us seriously.”

Nick put an arm across the wolf’s shoulders and dragged him along. “Well, now you know why we stay here and not one of the other academies. Provost Aer-Canticum takes us seriously. We’ve been here since before she was a student here. Justin even challenged her great-grandmother. Within reason, she always makes time for us, and we make sure that we don’t ask for it without good reason. Come on, you’ll see, it’s better here for shifters.”

“I’ll stay with Mel,” Dean offered, heading back into her room.

Together the six of them crossed the campus to the provost’s office, but she wasn’t there. Instead, the admin witch told them that she was in Provost House, the building next door. She phoned ahead to see if they could come over, and then smiled and told them to proceed.

Nick rapped on the door which was then opened with magic. With his augmented hearing, he could hear voices coming from deeper within the house.

“Come through, gentlemen,” a voice seemed to say in his ear, and he jumped. Oz laughed at him, and he bumped against the wolf as they walked through the door.

They followed the sound of voices through to the kitchen area at the back of the house. For all the years that she had been there, Nick had never been inside Provost House while it was inhabited by Provost Aer-Canticum. He took a moment to look around, noting all the changes that she had made. There weren’t many. The curtains had been replaced and the carpets had been stripped back, the timber floors polished until they gleamed. Overall, it was neat and tidy but not very personal at all. The thought made him sad for some reason.

In the kitchen they discovered the provost with the professor that Mel had studied with over the term break.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen, I trust that you remember Professor Ludwig?” she asked.

They all bowed slightly when greeting her, as was befitting a powerful witch like her. It rankled Nick, but as long as they were confined here, he needed to observe the etiquette.

“We were just talking about Melody. She has bonded another of you, yes?” asked Professor Ludwig.

Asher stepped forward before Nick could say anything. Impudent pup, he would learn that his place was far down the pecking order amongst the Apex.

“That would be me, Professor,” Asher said.

“Aah, and what kind of beast are you?”

Asher stiffened. There were polite ways of doing things, and that was not one of them. It could be due to her poor grasp of English, but Nick suspected that she was simply one of those witches who saw shifters as lesser beings. Even the provost had a sour look on her face.

“He’s an alpha wolf, Professor,” said the provost, intervening before Asher could return the insult.

“Two alphas? Then she is stronger than I had dared to hope. This is gut, yes?” She looked over the rest of them speculatively. “More of you will challenge her?”

“Possibly,” said Nick, before anyone else could intervene. “There are other factors involved.”

“She has refused you?” the professor’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline.

“No,” he started, looking helplessly at the provost. As far as he knew, the professor knew nothing of Melody’s home troubles.

“Professor, we don’t discuss these sort of things, that is between the witch and the shifter. It is up to them to decide together,” the provost said, giving him a slight shake of the head. So, the professor didn’t know then. Interesting.

The woman in question snorted. “Me, I am elemental. Beasts, I never understood. Is chalk and milk, yes?”

Mercifully, they all kept straight faces and nodded along at her mixed metaphors.

“She is strong witch, top of all her classes, and she works hard. I must tell my coven mistress. She would be gut for us. We must invite her.” The professor nodded at her own wisdom as she stood up from the kitchen table.

The provost stood with her, and the two left for the front door, conferring together for a few moments before the professor took her leave. The Provost came back into the kitchen after closing the front door firmly, and said nothing as she cleared away the teapot and cups and put the kettle on to boil again.

“Thank goddess you decided to visit. Professor Ludwig is a genius when it comes to curses, but she is not a good conversationalist, as you have witnessed.” She smiled at them and indicated that they should all take seats. Nick stood at the doorway, his arms folded across his chest, leaving the last chair for the provost who nodded her thanks. “Now, what exactly did bring you all here,” her eyes scanned them, “minus Dean?”

They all turned to Nick, but he kept his mouth shut and in turn looked at Asher. The wolf was taken back for a moment, before sitting straighter and clearing his throat.

“Ah yes, of course, Asher. I imagine that you would want answers. Well, that explains the tugging at the bonds earlier. You came very close to breaking your word, Nick,” she chided.

“My apologies, Provost, I was trying to ameliorate a difficult situation, in the end, we knew we had to bother you with this.”

She nodded and poured them all cups of dark liquid. Milk and sugar were placed on the table, along with two large packets of biscuits. Nick could smell tea in some cups, coffee in others. It seemed that the provost had excellent skills in making beverages, for all of them had been poured from the one pot.

“Well, Asher, much of what we know about Melody is conjecture based on the little that she has been able to tell us and what we have witnessed ourselves in our dealings with her. You were a little hasty in your challenge of her, I would have liked the opportunity to welcome you to the academy and speak privately with you before you accosted her, but what was done, is done.” She paused and took a sip of tea.

Asher’s face darkened at her use of language. Of course the asshat would take offence, but he had pushed his own agenda forward, so he only had himself to blame.

“Melody’s mother died when she was four. From what we surmise, her mother was murdered by her aunt who is the current coven mistress. This is, of course, conjecture only. Before she died, her mother passed on the coven’s matriarchal power to Melody, even though her own sister was alive and Melody was far too young to receive it.” the provost sipped again, watching Asher carefully.

Asher cursed under his breath as he absorbed some of the implications of what was being said.

“Melody is bound by many geasen. We have deduced three, loyalty to her coven, bonding the Apex shifters, and not revealing that she has geasen upon her. Her aunt was a horrible young woman when she attended here, and it seems that she has only become worse with age. The marks on Melody’s back are a result of the geasen being triggered. Breaking your bond triggered the one that is forcing Melody to bond as many strong shifters as she could.” She paused for Asher to ask questions, but he just waited.

“I suspect, although I cannot confirm this, that Melody actually has many geasen laid upon her. If they started when she was first granted the matriarchal power, then she would have been too young to resist them or to break them. We know that the more geasen that are laid upon a witch, the harder it is to break even the weakest one. So, I suspect the number constraining her to be in the hundreds.”

All of them gasped at that. Nick knew that there had to be many, but he hadn’t thought that it would be so bad.

“She has been conditioned from a young age to serve her coven in whatever capacity they deemed fit for her. Judging from the copious amounts of scarring on her body, it wasn’t just magic that was used to abuse her. There is a distinct belt buckle mark on her right hip, and a jagged cut that looks like it was made with a knife, on her left thigh.” She sighed again and drank some more tea, as though the heat of it gave her strength to continue.

“Georgia, her aunt, is a power hungry witch. The coven changed direction under her leadership, going from strength to strength, but gaining a bad reputation for poor shifter care as they did. They’ve had hundreds of shifters come to them to be bonded, as they are the strongest beast tamers in the country, but once bonded, the shifters are never heard from again.”

“Surprise inspections by the American Council and the World Council have revealed no infractions, but there were also a surprisingly small number of shifters living there, given the large amounts that passed through their doors. The coven claimed that the shifters were released to return to their packs, but the packs report they never arrived.”

Nick leant forward.

“Yes, Nick?”

“Provost, she told me just before she bonded Asher, that she’d had hundreds of shifters, and that she was unable to save them. When she talked about it, it was like she was dead, I could almost smell the pain rolling off her, and it wasn’t her injuries. Whatever happened there, she wasn’t a willing participant.”

“No,” said the provost, “I imagine she wasn’t. Melody is a kind and caring woman, she goes out of her way to help others, is accepting of everyone, and protects the weak. She also doesn’t suffer fools gladly. But for all her strength and bravado, I believe that she has been enslaved by her aunt, and that her aunt intends to take any and all of her bonded shifters from her. I suspect that is what has been happening at her coven. For her to confirm this, would be betraying her coven, and as we’ve seen, Georgia’s punishments are getting harsher and harsher.”

Asher paled. “What do you think happened to the shifters?” he asked quietly.

“I imagine they were tortured or murdered. I don’t know what purpose such a thing would serve, but there is no doubt in my mind that they are all dead. Given Melody’s quiet desperation not to bond anyone, I imagine that she has been sent here to harvest stronger shifters to survive whatever it is that they do to them. Asher, I am afraid that by challenging Melody, you have placed yourself and her in grave danger.”

“You have to break the bond. I’ll request it formally, but I can’t go back to her compound with her at the end of term,” Asher said, desperately.

“Asher, you’ve seen what happens. If we break the bond again, it will kill her. Georgia is too stupid to temper it enough to allow Melody to survive. These geasen are about keeping her weak enough to be compliant. Georgia knew that she would resist bonding you all, and she’s made it impossible for Melody to disobey.”

“Well, if it’s a case of her dying, or me, I choose her. I would be stupid not to. Then the threat to others is gone as well,” cried Asher.

Provost Aer-Canticum closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Asher, I seriously hope that it does not come to that, but if necessary, I will break the bonds between Melody and any shifter that she has before I allow her to leave these grounds with them. I have a duty of care to the shifters who come here. However, there is a workaround that we are trying. If Melody is offered a position with another coven, she is free to accept it, without it being disloyal to Bestia. It is our first rule, that a witch is free to serve whichever coven she wishes.”

“So why doesn’t she just ask one and how does that stop the geasen?”

“Because,” interrupted Nick, sick of the idiot in front of him, “that would be disloyal to her coven. If she attracts an invitation from another coven, she can accept, but she can’t seek one out, and she can’t ask for help seeking one out either. We’re reading between the lines here, but we all believe that she would accept if offered a place elsewhere, no matter where it is.”

“And,” added the provost, “the geasen would break when she joined the new coven.”

“So that’s why she’s trying to beat everyone in all of her classes. It’s not about proving herself better, it’s about escaping her coven and keeping us safe? That’s why she does nothing but study and sleep?” Asher asked, incredulously.

“That’s it in a nutshell, Asher,” replied the provost. “She’s slaving away so that she can have the opportunity to save you all, because once she’s free from her coven, the geasen will break, and she’ll be free to accept or reject whomever she wishes to. But given what I know of Melody, she would not leave you all languishing here a day longer than necessary. She is your ticket out of here, gentlemen, but only if we can help her escape her own living hell.”

Asher looked around them all, wide-eyed. “This is why you were trying to stop me from challenging her. It wasn’t about protocol, or getting in there first, or shutting out the new guy, you were protecting me, and her.”

Nick nodded. Finally, the asshole got it.

8. Melody

C onversation stopped when they entered the dining hall the next day. It was no more and no less than she’d expected. Two weeks' absence with the shifters all hanging around her cottage was bound to draw attention to her, and now the student body waited to see what the latest drama was.

The rumour mill had a dozen different versions of what had actually gone on with Asher behind closed doors, but the fact that he followed her obediently, alongside Dean, did not go unnoticed. Or uncommented on.

Shawna and her bitches were loud in their criticism of her supposed sexual habits, and Trent was called several times to leave her. He didn’t even look their way, sitting as close to Melody as he could and ignoring everyone, barring her and the rest of the Apex. Shawna had even tried to lure Asher back to her clique, but it seemed that he had finally severed whatever relationship he’d had with her.

It hurt to see Carla sitting with them, even if she didn’t participate in the harassment. Instead, her friend chanced angry glances at her, toying with a silver bracelet that Melody didn’t remember, and turning her back to Quinn who looked just as miserable. There was something going on there, but Melody had too many of her own problems to follow it up right then.

Throughout breakfast, Melody didn’t say a word. She had barely spoken since she’d emerged from her room that morning. Her answers were short and concise, and she refused to let Dean and Asher touch her. Dean continuously tried to hold her hand, whenever she wasn’t using it, and when she rested them on the table instead, he put his hand on her leg. It was a gesture that Shawna didn’t miss, and there was quite a bit of loud discussion on PDAs and the kind of sluts who didn’t know how far was too far.

Melody shrugged it all off, including Dean’s hand. Asher was more subtle. He had merely moved his chair so that his leg touched hers. She couldn’t avoid him without crawling into Dean’s lap on the other side, so she ended up gathering her breakfast into the soft roll on her plate, and walking away from them both.

Trent was instantly by her side, as he always was when the larger predators gave an inch of space around her. Together, they walked to class leaving the others grumbling behind them. The two dragons went back to the cottage, and the other wolves shifted and went for a run, so it was only Trent and her two bonded shifters that accompanied her to class.

When they got to the door, it was still locked, so they stood quietly together in the hallway. Trent leaned forward and looked at her closely. “You have a bit of egg near your mouth, may I?” he asked her, and she nodded. However, he was as sly as his beast. Rather than brushing it away with his thumb, or wiping it with a cloth, he leaned in and licked it from the corner of her mouth, before running his tongue lightly across her lips.

“Mm, delicious,” was all he had time to say before her bonded shifters lifted him bodily away, slamming him into the wall opposite her. His amber eyes never left hers as Dean and Asher told him off for taking liberties. The twinkle in his gaze told her that he didn’t regret it one bit, and that he would do the same again given the opportunity.

Melody couldn’t help it, she laughed at the cheeky fox, Dean and Asher whirling to look at her in consternation.

“Leave him alone. You’re only angry because you didn’t think of it first. He’s a fox, get used to him outwitting you,” she teased.

Trent smirked at her, obviously pleased with the compliment. Dean and Asher scowled, but did as she asked. For the rest of the day, however, there was always one of them between her and Trent, who constantly had a secretive smile on his face. Melody suspected she did too. It was the highlight of her day.

9. Melody

I f Melody thought that the first term workload was heavy, it was nothing compared to the second. She was finally caught up in the classes that she’d missed, and up to date in her second year history class, but studying plants was making her brain shut down. She just didn’t get it, couldn’t remember all the names of the different plants, their common and uncommon usages and even the anatomical names of their parts. Petal, sepal, stem, root, they were the simple terms, but stamen, filament, anther, pistil—gah, she just couldn’t nail it down, no matter what memory method she used.

“No!” Ryan stopped her again, and Melody nearly screamed in frustration.

“The pistil is in the female flower, you won’t find it with an anther, that goes with the filament,” he corrected. Again.

“Enough!” Melody bellowed, and books and paper went flying as her magic surged forth. It wasn’t like her, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. “I need a break, I cannot focus when I’m this frustrated, and repeating this over and over is the definition of insanity.” She stormed out the front door and onto the porch, hurtling down the front steps and walking around the cottage toward the forest at the border of the grounds.

Why wasn’t this coming to her as easily as history did? Okay, she had never been strong in potions, but the anatomy of a human or shifter had never frustrated her like the anatomy of plants was. It was like her brain was refusing to compute the information. No matter what mnemonics they used, what charts, diagrams, rhymes and riddles, nothing stayed in her head. It was like it had been coated with teflon or something. It almost resembled a block.

That thought stopped her in her tracks, and she stood leaning against the nearest tree. One of the others would be there in a moment in his beast form, so she might as well wait for him before she went and did something really stupid. Melody would need to get Nick or Justin to check on her when she got back. It was entirely possible that she had been hexed so that she couldn’t retain the information. She wouldn’t put it past Shawna and her gang. Hell, given how unpopular she was now, she wouldn’t put it past half of the witches in her year.

It was only because she was so still that she heard the noise. Twigs snapped nearby, indicating someone approaching, she thought it was one of her shifters, but then she heard voices. A male and a female were talking as they drew closer. It was somebody else.

“Justin, you know what my terms are, just give it to me, and I’ll give you everything you want,” purred a sultry voice, and Melody froze.

Justin? As in her Justin? No, it couldn’t be. Although she didn’t remember another Justin being at the school, it wasn’t impossible that there was one. It wasn’t like she actually had friends or anything, so half the witches and shifters there were just faces rather than names to her.

“Jaynie,” the male’s voice protested, and with a sickening feeling, she knew it was him. Justin. “I don’t think this is going to work.”

“Come here and kiss me, Justin. I promise, I’ll make all the pain go away, baby.”

Melody could just make them out through the trees, Justin stood in front of Jaynie, who took his hand and put it on her breast. As quickly as she did though, Justin pulled away.

“Jaynie, this isn’t what we agreed to,” he said, warningly.

Jaynie pouted at him and swayed slightly. Was she drunk? What on earth was Justin doing with a drunk Jaynie?

“Aw baby, I know you’re hurting. You’re so tense. I know what you want, what you need. But you gotta give a girl something back. I’ve gotta be in the mood to do this, and it’s up to you to convince me.”

She grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him in closer. Justin resisted, but not hard enough in Melody’s books.

Bile rose in the back of her throat and her heart broke a bit. Justin, her Justin, was in the clutches of Shawna’s right hand girl, Jaynie. A bitch just as calculating and grasping as Shawna was herself.

Goddess, she begged, please make them stop, not here. Not where she had to endure it. Her heart was breaking. It wasn’t like she had a claim on him, she was the one who had kissed Justin, but he’d wanted it just as much, or at least his dragon had.

What if he didn’t want her? What if he just wanted the bond? What if she’d completely misinterpreted things. The silence behind her made her want to look, yet not look at the same time.

She needed to get out of there. She didn’t care if he heard her.

“Melody?” called out a voice to her right, and she turned her head to see Justin standing there, Jaynie running her hands over him possessively and smirking at her.

“Get a good show?” Jaynie asked her. “You really are a slut aren’t you? Not only do you fuck them all, but you like to creep around and watch them.”

“I was here first,” Melody protested. “I think you two stalked me to try and get me to watch. It’s not like he didn’t know I was here with his shifter senses.”

Justin’s jaw dropped and he pushed Jaynie off him. She shrieked at him when she fell, but he paid no attention to her.

Whatever excuse he was going to give her, she didn’t want to hear it. Like the coward she was, Melody turned and fled, crashing through the forest.

“Melody, wait!” he called out behind her.

She ignored him, continuing to weave between the trees until she ran into something immovable.

“Mel, are you okay? You’re as white as a sheet,” Nick’s held her at arm’s length, before peering into the forest behind her. Seeing nothing, his hazel gaze returned to her own.

“I’m fine,” she lied. “I just needed to go for a run and work things out. Get it out of my system, and it worked. I think I know what’s happening,” she said, distracting him with a broad smile as she saw his nostrils dilate. She knew he would be smelling Justin and that bitch together, and he’d wonder if she’d seen them. It wasn’t something she wanted to discuss.

“What do you mean?” he asked, confused. “Are you talking about the mini-tornado in the cottage?”

“No, well, yes. Sort of,” she sighed. “I think I’ve been hexed. I’ve never had this much trouble studying anything, but what if someone put a memory hex on me? I’d never be able to retain the information as long as it was there. I was wondering if one of you could check and see. I came stomping out here in a tizzy, and then I decided to wait for whoever was going to come after me, because I know you all don’t trust me to look after myself,” she groused.

“I was thinking about how it was like I’d hit a brick wall, like my thoughts were being blocked. That’s when it came to me, it was exactly like that. It just made me feel sick inside. That they’re still doing all of this crap to try and bring me down. I’ve got enough to contend with already. Why can’t they leave me alone? I’ve got bigger issues to deal with.”

It worked. The suspicion left Nick’s face and it softened as he carefully gathered her in his arms. “It’s okay, Mel. I’ll check, and if there’s one there, I’ll break it. And if there isn’t, then we’ll work out a new way to help you.”

Melody nodded, her forehead resting against his chest. His arms barely touched her for all that they were wrapped around her, and she hated that there was still this distance between them. Not just because of her injuries, but because of the layers of deceit that her aunt had put upon her. Because for all that she was seeking his comfort right then, she knew that she had to guard her heart against them.

All she wanted to do was reach out to these shifters and share herself with them. Their beasts were constantly calling to her, piteous heartbreaking sounds, and the tension of it all was driving her mad.

“Come on, let’s get you back to the cottage and see if we can’t sort something out. I reckon the others will have picked up everything by the time you get back,” he teased.

Melody blushed. “I’m sorry about that. I don’t lose my temper very often, but when I do, it’s usually explosive.”

Nick chuckled. “Then you’re in for a treat when Justin loses his. He’s usually so calm and laid back, but it’s an act. The guy is the most uptight shifter I’ve ever met, and his dragon is even worse if you could believe. I swear, if we fed them coal, they’d shit diamonds.”

Melody giggled. “That sounds really messy, and kinda painful. And also, seriously gross. Would you wear a diamond that had been through someone else’s digestive tract? Or, worse still, was actually their poop?” She shuddered, and Nick laughed. “I like bling, but I have limits. There’s no way I’m wearing a poop shaped diamond, I don’t care how much it’s worth.”

Nick snickered, lightening her heart a little. This was what they needed, time together to get to know each other, to bond in non-magical ways. Only then she’d feel even more pressure to bond them magically, even if it was only in her own mind.

When they were back at the cottage, Melody opened the door to see the others sprawled over every available piece of furniture, except for Trent who sat on the floor with his back against the wall near the fire, reading a textbook. It was his favourite place to curl up. She often found him there in the morning, in his fox form, lying on the rug she’d put down for him.

“Okay, sit down here Mel, and close your eyes. I want you to calm your thoughts, think of something peaceful,” Nick instructed.

The others watched, curious.

Instead of calming, however, her brain did the opposite thing, and she was flooded with images of Justin making out with Jaynie.

“I said calm, Mel. I can’t do this if your brain is that chaotic.”

“What’s going on?” asked Oz, wandering over.

“Mel thinks she might have a memory hex on her, so I’m trying to look, but she’s agitated about something,” Nick explained.

“Ah, leave it to me then,” said Oz. “I’ll have her limp and purring in minutes.”

Melody shot to her feet. “I don’t think so, mister!” She whirled to face him, but he stood there patiently with his hands raised in surrender.

“Hey, I don’t know where your mind just went, but I was going to give you a shoulder massage. I’m pretty good at them, ask Nick.”

In her peripheral vision, she saw the dragon shifter nod.

“Relax, Mel. I won’t try anything. I just want to help you clear your mind for Nick to see this hex, so that we can get on with making you the brightest witch of your generation!” He grinned cheekily at her, his smile so much like Justin’s at that moment that it robbed her of breath.

Ruefully, she sat down, and Oz’s hands immediately landed on her shoulders, the unmarked places at least. Nick sat in front of her again, taking her hands in his. Surrounded by men who cared for her, she closed her eyes and gradually let herself relax. They would protect her, she was safe there.

As Oz’s fingers worked his magic, she felt her whole body start to melt. He was right, he really was good at this. Nick's fingertips ran lightly up her arms, across her shoulder and up her neck. They traced the join of her jaw before sliding up to rest at her temple. She could feel his magic caressing her mind, but she was so relaxed now that she couldn’t feel what he was doing. She really didn’t care. Oz’s hands were amazing!

There was a sudden popping sound in her head, and she felt Nick’s presence withdraw. At the same time, Oz’s hands stopped moving and she growled a little in protest. He chuckled before he resumed the massage.

“You were right, Mel. There was a memory hex there. It was blocking any information to do with botany. It was very specific, so someone must have cottoned on that it was the subject that you were tackling next.”

“Or we have a traitor in our midst,” said Trent from across the room, frowning.

Instantly, Melody was stressed again, images of Justin and Jaynie filling her mind, and the magic of Oz’s hands undone in one short sentence.

“Nice one, dude,” growled Oz. “Now she’s all tense again.”

He resumed massaging her, and Nick’s hands grasped her own again. She looked into his eyes, and knew that everything was going to be okay. There was just something about his presence that made her feel safe. He was becoming a touchstone, a bedrock of certainty. While it felt nice to have someone to rely on, it made Melody wonder what would happen to her if he was taken away.

Still, she needed to address Trent’s concern, before it ate away at all the trust they were building between them.

“No,” she said aloud. “I refuse to believe we have a traitor. I did borrow several botany textbooks at the library this week. It wouldn’t be hard to guess that I was going after an early completion of this course next.” It needed to happen sooner rather than later, otherwise the only thing she would succeed in was finishing a couple of weeks early. If Melody wanted to be allowed to start attending the second-year class, she needed time to catch up the first term’s work and actually do the second term’s work as well.

She was just going to have to work harder.

10. Melody

“W hy don’t we catch an early dinner, and then we can come back and try again, what do you say, Ryan? Do you forgive me for my tantrum?” she smiled sweetly at him, and saw the moment he melted for her, his deep brown eyes softening.

“Of course I forgive you, Mel. That must have been driving you nuts. No wonder it wasn’t working. For a moment, you had me doubting myself.” He put a hand dramatically on his chest. “Me! Doubting myself! The horror!”

He pretended to swoon, and Melody laughed at his clowning around.

“But I think we should get an hour of work in before dinner and then you can take a break and we can see how much you’ve retained,” he added.

They sat down together and started at the beginning, Melody finding that she was retaining information much more easily. After an hour they took a break to head over to the dining hall together for dinner.

“Nick? Where’s Justin?” she asked him.

Nick looked decidedly uncomfortable and shrugged. “I don’t know. He said he had to go meet someone about something important. That was a couple of hours ago.”

He was lying to her, she knew it. He knew where Justin was and what he was doing. Melody had a fair idea on the ‘who’ as well, just not the where.

It turned out, she wasn’t quite right.

Rather than making out with Jaynie, Justin was already there in the dining room talking to Quinn while they both sat with Shawna and her cronies. The two shifters frowned as they spoke together, Justin ignoring Jaynie who was practically draped across his shoulders, and he looked distinctly uncomfortable. Served him right. If he wanted to go to the dark side, then he needed to accept everything that came with it.

Justin wouldn’t meet her eyes, but Jaynie did with a defiant smirk. Shawna was beaming and she looked at Nick who walked beside Melody and mouthed mine, bitch .

“Not a fucking hope in hell,” murmered Nick beside her, leaning in and kissing her hair. Distracted by the tableau in front of her, she let him, her decision to keep them all at arms length forgotten for now.

“I would have said the same thing about Jaynie and Justin this morning,” Melody told him, moving to the serving line. Nick took her by the elbow and steered her towards the table where they usually sat. Ryan and Oz returned shortly with two loaded plates each, Asher scowling as he carried his one.

Normally, she wouldn’t allow anyone to wait on her hand and foot, but word had gotten out that she had an injury on her back, and jealous and bitter witches throughout the school had started making a habit of deliberately knocking into her to try and make her gasp in pain.

Queues were the perfect opportunity for them to strike, even surrounded by her men, so now she sat at the table and they brought food to her. It only added to the anger in the room, seeing the Apex serving her like slaves. She wasn’t the only witch there who didn’t think that shifters were second class citizens, and seeing them ‘debased’ only made her more unpopular.

Melody made a point of thanking Oz profusely for his kindness, which made his grey eyes sparkle before he lowered them behind long lashes. He blushed and smiled shyly. It also made his wolf croon to her, and too late she realised her mistake. All she was doing was binding him even closer. No matter what she did, she couldn’t win. She needed to focus on what was best for these shifters, and right now, that was her being neutral.

Melody knew that she couldn’t bring herself to drive them away, hurting them to save them just wasn’t in her, not until it was the only option left. There was still time to come up with a solution, and as long as they didn’t challenge her, then she could allow them to hang around. Right now, she had to work on saving Dean and Asher.

All day the whispers and digs had continued, small hexes meant to trip her or tear her notes up, even one that ripped a hole in her bag so that her notes went everywhere, came flying at her. Thankfully Nick repelled the majority of them, and the men managed to grab her notes before eager hands could steal them away. It really was ridiculous the lengths these supposedly grown women were going to, all to make her step back from the Apex. The irony was that it wasn’t her that had to step away, but them.

“What do you have for the first class tomorrow?” Ryan asked her.

“Shifter care,” she said with a smirk, looking at them all. Poor Nick and Justin couldn’t attend, because he couldn’t shift and fit into the classroom, but any of the others could and did attend with her. The witches without familiars worked with the first-year shifters, although there were always more witches than shifters and several times they had asked to work on the Apex who were with her. Not Dean and Asher, but the female witches were only too happy to try and get their hands on the unbonded shifters.

“I’m not doing that again!” protested Ryan. “The last witch that I agreed to let work on me, tried to give my wolf a hand job!”

Melody’s head whipped around. “She did what? That’s sexual abuse! I don’t remember that, what did your wolf do to her in return?”

Ryan turned crimson and Oz guffawed. “It wasn’t a her , it was a him ! And Ryan’s wolf let him, because he’s pissed that Ryan won’t challenge you.”

“Oh goddess, Ryan, are you okay? It’s not funny, Oz,” she chided. “How about I hold you down with my magic and let some random guy jack you off. Let’s see how hard you’re laughing then?”

Oz swallowed and paled. “Yeah, okay, in that light, dude, I’m sorry.”

They were so distracted by their bickering that they didn’t notice anyone approaching until it was too late. Shawna stood behind Nick, lacing her fingers through his hair, while the blonde frizzy-haired witch had her hands on Ryan’s shoulders. Jaynie had her arms wrapped firmly around Justin while she snuggled into his side, forcing his arm around her. At least Melody wanted to think that it was forced.

“What do you say, Nick baby, you wanna be my partner tomorrow morning, Melody already has both hands full of cock,” Shawna purred, and Nick scowled, ducking out of her grasp. Ryan stood and walked to stand behind Melody.

“I can’t shift in the room, which you would realise if you had half a brain,” he snapped.

“Oh baby, who said anything about going to class?” Shawna simpered, and her friends giggled like the sycophants they were.

“You’re fucking deluded if you think for a second that I’d be interested,” sneered Nick as he walked away from Shawna, also coming to stand behind Melody. Without saying a word, the others joined him.

“Where’s Trent?” asked the frizzy-haired witch.

“He’s in my cottage, trying to avoid a psycho bitch who won’t take no for an answer,” Melody snarked, but Shawna beamed.

“He can hide from you in my room any time,” she purred.

Melody rolled her eyes. There was no point in talking to these bitches, they were insane. “I’m going back to study with Trent, at least there’s intelligent conversation there,” she said, walking away.

“Hey, Slut?” called Shawna behind them. “If you’re so fucking amazing, and the Apex are all yours, why haven’t you bonded them? Why haven’t they challenged you?”

Shawna paused allowing the other students in the room to take notice of the drama unfolding, but Melody pushed on through the press of bodies that had gathered to watch the confrontation.

“Unless they’re not all yours after all. Justin seems to have found a better witch at least. I’m sure we can help the others to escape you as well. Who knows, even Dean and Asher might find a better offer heading their way.”

There were gasps from around the room.

You didn’t mess around with bonds and you didn’t steal a familiar from another witch, you didn’t even joke about it. Shawna’s taunt took it all a step too far, and she only seemed to realise it once the crowd had started to back away from her.

“I wouldn’t be the first witch to rescue a shifter from a bond that they didn’t want,” she declared, trying to regain her position.

“Woman, no shifter would be stupid enough to fall for your honey trap. You promise heaven, but you’re cruel and twisted and totally self absorbed. You see familiars as prizes, possessions, and you treat them accordingly. You were never interested in me, only in the status that my alpha lion brought to you. So give it up already,” Dean chuckled, a dark sound in the brightly lit hall.

“Although you’ve already given it up for me and a dozen or so other shifters here, none of us will challenge you. You can offer to spread your legs for Nick as many times as you want, he’s never going to take you up on it, none of us will. We’ve all got better taste than that, and we’d all rather spend another century in this prison than be bonded to the likes of you.” He turned his back on her and pushed to the forefront of their group, parting the crowd before him like a knife through butter, clearing the way for Melody and the others to follow in his wake.

Melody wanted to cheer, but decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Still, the whole thing had lifted her spirits a little. That was until she realised that Justin wasn’t coming back with them. He was still held in Jaynie’s clutches, now back at their table where the women talked and looked pointedly at Melody and the others as they walked to the exit. When they left the hall and Justin didn’t join them, a piece of her heart broke off and stayed with him.

11. Melody

T he next meeting with the provost had come around, and at the end of the day, Melody nervously headed towards Mrs Hardinger’s counselling room. It caused less fuss for her to turn up there than at the provost’s office or house. People would just assume that she was meeting with Mrs Hardinger, and if the provost was seen in the vicinity, it was well known that the two women were close friends and had been for decades.

It spoke not only of the pressure on the provost to remain neutral, but the eyes on Melody that they needed such cloak and dagger tactics to meet in peace. She would do what she could, however, to reduce the attention on her, and to protect the woman who she suspected cared for her more than anyone had in a long time.

When Melody walked in with Dean and Asher in tow, she was unsurprised to find the two powerful women already sitting with tea in their hands and chatting animatedly—the last two times the provost had arrived in the middle of her session with Mrs Hardinger. The conversation stopped abruptly when she entered, hinting that it was likely about her situation.

Three chairs were waiting for them and Melody took the one closest to the provost, leaving the men to sort themselves out.

“How are your wounds healing, Melody?” the provost asked her.

“Slowly, but surely,” she replied, looking to her shifters to ensure they agreed. “Now that I’ve bonded Asher, they’re definitely healing, it’s just a lot slower than last time. I thought it may be because of my own weakened state, but Nick thinks it’s ….”

A warning heat on her back, and the gasps of her two shifters who felt it, let her know she was getting too close to maligning her coven. Goddess, Melody trusted these two women so much now, she’d forgotten the most basic of restrictions on her.

“Yes,” Mrs Hardinger broke in smoothly. “I am sure there are other important factors involved. We can talk with him later to see what can be done to ameliorate it.”

Melody nodded, there was little else she could say.

“And are these two louts behaving themselves? I can’t imagine it’s peaceful in your little cottage right now,” Mrs Hardinger asked with her customary directness.

Dean stilled beside her, but Asher gave off a low growl.

She sighed. Well, there went any opportunity of saying that all was going well.

“I’m not going to lie,” she said, finally. “The tension is thick enough to cut with a knife. The two of them dislike each other so much, that it’s almost a health hazard to move around them. I’ve told them that if they need to fight it out, to take it outside. I’m not wasting my magic repairing things they break because they can’t keep their tempers under control.”

Mrs Hardinger blinked at her, then looked at the two men.

“She really said that? She’s not just putting on a show for the provost and me?”

Dean’s bond vibrated. He wasn’t happy that Melody told them that, but honestly, what did he expect? Over half the fights between the two of them were instigated by Dean’s dominance plays and all but marking his territory around Melody. She was over it.

“She really fucking said it,” growled Asher, equally unhappy.

Mrs Hardinger barked a laugh. “Well, good for you. I didn’t think you had it in you, but I should have known that you were your mother’s daughter. You need to be firm with them from the start, if you’re ever to have peace. Especially when there’s antagonism between the two of them. Give them a century or two together and they’ll mellow out, I should think, but for now they’ll be all about measuring their dicks and wrestling for the rank of top dog. Or top beast, rather.”

Melody nodded, she’d expected as much. Something similar had happened back at the compound when Malcolm had arrived. It had caused quite the furor and the fights had been plentiful until the pecking order had sorted itself out. Then everyone had settled back down. Well, mostly. Still, something else Mrs Hardinger said pulled at her attention.

“You knew my mother?” Melody asked.

The two women looked at each other, an entire conversation held in a glance.

“Yes, we did,” Mrs Hardinger said after a moment. “I was in Georgia’s year, but Augusta was in Adelaide’s.”

“You both attended here? I didn’t know that,” Dean said, surprise colouring his tone.

“We did,” Mrs Hardinger said, her eyes twinkling merrily. “It was eighty years before I came back to teach here, but yes, I once ran through these halls chomping at the bit to get my hands on a hot shifter.”.

The provost sighed, shaking her head and smiling. “Now Melody,” she began, trying to change the subject, but she was interrupted by Mrs Hardinger.

“Oh please, Augusta. Like you were any better. In fact, I remember that one particularly hot summer with you and the Carson twins and a large tub of cold water. It didn’t seem to shrink anything, come to think of it…”

“Janet!” screeched the provost, and the other woman subsided with an evil grin.

Melody gaped. This was the last thing she’d expected when they came here this afternoon.

“That’s better,” Mrs Hardinger said, looking at her. “Child, you looked like the sky was going to fall down and you were the only one who could hold it up. You’re much more relaxed now.”

The provost made a strangled noise, fidgeting in her chair.

“Oh, sit on it, Augusta. The last thing Melody needs is two more women with power over her, telling her what to do. She needs friends, she needs people she can trust, and she needs us to treat her like a real person instead of a problem.”

The two older women turned to look at her.

“Is that how you see yourself, Melody?” the provost asked her. “Do you see yourself as the problem? And what of your roommate, Carla? I thought you had made friends.”

Well, that was a whole other kettle of fish. After the brief moment of shocking levity, Melody felt her spirits sink again.

“She’s tied up with her new familiar. This is all new to her, so it’s taking her some time to adjust to the bond,” she lied.

She could feel the tension in her familiars, but hoped they wouldn’t give her away.

“Really?” Mrs Hardinger asked with a sly look. “As a newly bonded pair, they’ve been visiting me three times a week. I have to say, I’ve rarely met a pair so well suited. I think they’re going to be just fine once they’ve fully adjusted.”

“It doesn’t mean that her bond isn’t overwhelming and all-consuming,” Melody continued. She wasn’t exactly lying, Carla was probably enjoying it all and was completely distracted. It didn’t change the fact that they were no longer best friends, but she knew it was part of it. For some reason, Carla wouldn’t forgive her poor wording, and whatever had been between them was fading further by the day. Melody just didn’t have the energy to put into rescuing it. Not when she had bigger things to worry about.

The silence in the room made her skin prickle, but she wasn’t going to get Carla in trouble now, and she certainly wasn’t going to make the two women worry about her any more than they already were.

“You didn’t answer my first question, Melody. Do you really see yourself as a burden to us all?”

There was nothing she could say, and for once, it wasn’t the geasen stilling her tongue. Of course she was a burden. Melody could see clearly how they were worried about her, dancing around her, caring for her. That was the very definition of burden—taking action to care for another that wouldn’t normally be required.

The provost stood, walked over to her and then knelt down at Melody’s feet.

“Your mother was my best friend,” she began. “Adelaide was the brightest witch of our generation, loved by students and shifters alike and she shone like a beacon while she was here at Adolphus. We lost touch when we left to return to our covens. Her mother died shortly afterward and my own upbringing was, well, unusual.”

Mrs Hardinger murmured her agreement.

“Georgia was always jealous. Everything always seemed to come so smoothly, so perfectly to her older sister, that Georgia failed to notice just how hard your mother worked at it. Melody, your mother didn’t just take her gift for granted, she worked tirelessly to be the best beast tamer that this school has ever seen,” the provost watched her carefully. “Well, the best until the arrival of her daughter.”

Melody shook her head. No, no, she wasn’t as amazing as her mother. She couldn’t be better than her. Her mother was the best thing in the world, the best witch, the most amazing mother, the perfect woman. There was no way that Melody could outshine that. She didn’t want to. She was perfectly happy to bask in the light cast by her mother’s memory.

“It’s the matriarchal power,” Melody huffed out. “I’m stronger because of it. I’m not special, not like my mother was. She was ….” Words failed her as her throat tightened.

Dean scooted his chair closer to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her gently into his side.

“Don’t cry, Mel, please? We can’t stand to see you cry any more. Please, baby. No more tears,” he begged.

Asher was silent, but she could feel his support through the bond. She knew this was hard on him, hard on all of them, but he’d made this choice. They had tried to give him an out, but he had stubbornly chosen her, and now this was what he had to deal with. It was miraculous he tolerated her at all.

It was amazing how complex their bonds were becoming. She couldn’t hear their thoughts, only the strongest of bonds allowed for that, but she could feel their hearts, their desires. Despite her wish to hold them at arm’s length, these two shifters were rapidly worming their way into her heart. Even Asher. No wonder so many witches ended up secretly sleeping with their familiars. The bond urged them to come together.

Never before had Melody held onto a bond for this long. She’d had no idea of the depth that it could contain, the strength it had, and the purity they shared. What they felt for her was genuine and honest, and she could do little but return the sentiment. For the first time, she understood.

“You understand what?” Mrs Hardinger asked her.

Melody blinked, wondering what she had missed while she was distracted by the bond.

“Melody, you said for the first time you understand. What is it that you understand, child?”

Oh, goddess! She’d spoken that aloud. She couldn’t admit it to them, even if they could feel it from her. She couldn’t sit there and blandly tell them that the bond was winning, that she couldn’t hold her heart back from them for much longer. Even Asher was growing on her. The fact that the provost and Mrs Hardinger were there only made it worse. The first would smile happily at her, the latter would give her a knowing look and a wink. No, she couldn’t address this right now.

However.

She could address the other side of the coin.

From knowing how the beginning of the bond felt, she could only imagine how bad it would feel when an established one ended. No wonder so many shifters died. It wasn’t the magic, it was the shock. The heartbreaking horror of it.

“I know why so many came to us,” she finally answered. “Even after there were … irregularities, still many shifters came to us to be bonded. Some of them were much older than you would expect. Now that I’m experiencing a bond longer than half an hour, I know why they came. The older ones.”

Everyone looked at each other, confused.

“The shifters who came to us, they’d all been bonded before. All of them. They all came with broken bonds. I always thought it was because their witch had died, but it couldn’t have been. Not so many. They came, because their bonds were broken. Because the bond pulled on the witches to love their familiars, and those who succumbed were forced to break. Or maybe the coven didn’t approve of the familiar beast. It’s just…”

She looked at them all, lost for words. Yes, for her the bond was wondrous, because she had the freedom to explore it. Although the idea of her aunt jumping for joy at the thought of Melody pregnant to a strong shifter was enough to put her off the idea for life.

“I didn’t understand why they didn’t go back to the pack lands, and let the alpha and the witches there help them with their shifts. But it wouldn’t have been enough, would it? They would have pined for a new bond for the rest of their lives.”

Mrs Hardinger sighed and nodded. “Yes, you’re right. I don’t know why nobody thought of that before. Probably because we didn’t really look exactly at who was joining their ranks, but it does make more sense.”

“I don’t understand,” Dean said, looking at her with sadness.

She knew he could feel her heart breaking. Craig had to be the latest. She bet if she looked him up, found out his life story leading up to his arrival at Bestia, he would be a perfect example of what she now feared.

“Not long before I came here, Craig arrived at the coven. There aren’t as many who come to us as there used to be, but some still come. He was older, but still in his prime, his panther was magnificent.”

Twin growls sounded from beside her.

“Enough of that, let her talk,” Mrs Hardinger snapped.

“I was brought out to break him in. It’s my role at Bestia, for the good of the coven ,” she said with a sour taste in her mouth. “They’re ordered to challenge me. I don’t look threatening, I’m young, obviously young enough to bear children. Most of them don’t hesitate. They challenge me, I make them shift and the bond forms. It’s for the good of the coven.”

Maybe, just maybe if she could keep saying that, it would stop the geasen from silencing her this time. Maybe she could make them understand what a monster she was. It was too late for Dean and Asher, but they’d be able to warn the others away. Even if they couldn’t, the provost and Mrs Hardinger would protect them. The two older witches were clever and powerful, they’d find a way to protect the others.

“But it doesn’t make sense to have the youngest witch with the strongest shifters. So, my aunt would break the bond, and make the shifter challenge me again.” This was where things would get dicey. “Of course, it’s unpleasant to have it broken, and they’d be angry, and almost all of them would refuse. So, my aunt would discipline me for the good of the coven . The shifters would see how well cared for they would be, with routine and structure and discipline, and they would leap at the chance to try to join us again.”

Melody closed her eyes, hoping that they could read between her words and understand the horror that she was describing.

“ For the wellbeing of the coven , Craig was worn down until he could barely shift. Then he was given the option to challenge Claudia. Not only was she older and more experienced, but she was a better match for him. She would take good care of him, and if she had trouble controlling his bond, then I was there as a backup to support her — for the good of the coven .”

She wanted to choke on the lie. The truth was that Claudia would use him as a sex slave until she conceived, and then she’d discard him to the basement with the others, forced to endure whatever it was that their coven did to them.

Of course, if the child was male, or if Claudia lost it or wished for another one, he would be trotted out again and again for his stud services. It would either make him understand his position, or it would break him.

She’d seen too many of the latter for her to hold out hope.

An act of kindness, a warm bed, some food, the ability to bathe in warm water. These were the luxuries that were used, along with beguiling words and the scent of a witch primed for pregnancy. The males would be lulled, thinking that their mistress had relented, had repented, had returned. But of course the reality would be much worse. When they were sent to the basement the second time, many of them broke. Craig was just the latest toy in a long line of shifters. She could only hope that without her there, he would fare better than she expected. Sometimes, it was only her presence that could calm the shifters once they realised they’d been betrayed again.

Only this time, she wasn’t there.

No, she wouldn’t think of that, she couldn’t think of that. It would break her, and for all the shifters back at the compound, and for the two beside her, she had to stay strong. They needed her to find a way out of this, and that meant that she couldn’t stop to care for those falling by the wayside. Not now, not this time, no matter how much it killed her to leave them behind.

12. Dean

H oly fuck. What the hell had Melody been through? Dean’s mind reeled with the possibilities.

He could feel it in the bond, every time she lied, every dip of her heart, every crack in her soul. All the pain that she was hiding behind that monotone that she spoke in. Fuck, did she even realise she was doing it?

Dean cast a look at Asher, seeing the confusion and pain there in his bond-mate. The stupid bastard was only just beginning to realise how bad this shit was. How much danger they were in. At least Dean had had a bit longer to get his head around it before he was hit with the details.

“That’s a very organised way of doing things,” the provost said, choosing her words carefully. “Did it happen often?”

Melody flinched.

Inside, his beast roared. Already they knew the answer. Yes; yes, it had happened more times than anyone could ever imagine and she blamed herself. He could see it. She was helpless, as much a victim of the abuse as the shifters were, but she saw herself as the cause.

She wasn’t, Melody was merely the tool, but he knew that the differentiation would offer her no comfort.

His witch was suffering, soul-crushing wounds, and there was nothing he could do to ease pain. How could he, when she was inflicting most of it herself?

“It is the way all of our shifters are bonded. It’s the best possible thing for the coven,” Melody said, a tear trickling down her cheek. “It means that witches who are more suitable, but not as strong, are able to bond with and watch over shifters who need it most.”

She looked at them all, helplessly, and a tear fell down her cheek. “I didn’t know they were suffering. I didn’t know how to help them. I’d always thought that they were strong, that they’d survived the death of their witch. But there were too many of them for that to be true.”

Another fat tear joined the first.

“No, how were you to know? I bet you rarely left your compound before you came here,” Mrs Hardinger said, looking sadly at her.

Dean startled. She hardly …?

“Before I came here,” Melody almost whispered. “I’d never left the compound.”

Shock ricocheted through him. The Apex had chafed at being locked in the academy until they found their witch, but at least they’d had their childhoods with their packs, or with witching families. But Melody had never known anything other than the hell she’d lived in. How on earth was she even sane?

“You can’t mean never,” Asher scoffed. “I mean, you’ve probably seen a human doctor at least once in your life. Or, you’ve gone shopping, or hunting, or something.”

Melody pulled up the sleeve of her shirt, something she rarely did. Dean wasn’t surprised, he’d seen all her scars when they were caring for her. But Asher hadn’t, and neither had the two women, who hissed at seeing her story carved into her skin again. He knew they’d seen some, but not everything. In her skin were divots, where entire chunks of her flesh had been removed. Scores, burns, slashes. Her arm was a tapestry of terror. He could only imagine how she had suffered in her life.

Dean wasn’t sure whether he wanted her to tell him, to trust him with her pain to help her find closure. Part of him wanted to be there for her. The rest of him cowered at the thought of knowing. Of being haunted by her past.

His lion surged forward. He wanted to tear out the throat of whoever had marked her. The only marks she should bear were the ones left by his teeth when he claimed her as his mate.

Dean froze, only half listening as Melody assured them that she’d never been allowed out of the compound, for the good of the fucking coven. He was starting to hate those words.

It was what his lion was chanting, however, that held his attention in a way that nothing else could.

Mate. Mate. Mate. Mate.

The beast was relentless and resolute. Melody was his, and Dean needed to claim her.

Dean sat there, shocked, thrilled, horrified. She was his mate. He’d found her. All this time, and he’d finally found her. And she was his witch! His witch. The woman who had conquered his beast, and then stolen their hearts. But she was in so much pain, so much fear, so much danger. He needed to protect her. He needed to pull her into his arms and hold her there, never letting her go.

“Finally twigged, have you,” Mrs Hardinger said, looking at him.

Dean’s gaze snapped to hers, his beast growling. She was challenging him.

“Mine,” he growled, more lion than man in that moment.

“Yes, I know. I’ve known for a while. What took you so long to get there? Hmm? She needs you to man up, Dean. Stop thinking with your cock, both of you, and get with the program. She doesn’t need to be mated, what she needs is to be protected. Until her current situation is resolved, you shouldn’t be thinking of anything else.”

The witch’s tart words sent a jolt through him, making his lion back down, grumbling but compliant. With a start, Dean realised how close he’d been to losing control of his beast. That had never happened to him before. The two of them had worked in harmony from the beginning. His father said he’d never seen anything like it. His mother had warned him not to be complacent. That one day Dean’s lion would challenge him, and he’d need to be prepared for it, or lose his mind to the beast.

He’d certainly done everything he could to prepare, but Dean was starting to wonder if it was enough.

“Thanks, Mrs H,” he said, lowering his head to her. Even his lion understood that she’d helped him, not protesting the movement that placed him as under her. Less. Lower.

“You’re a good beast, Dean,” she said abruptly. “I’d hate to see you go feral. I’m always here to give you a tap on the nose.”

His lips twitched. Dean could just picture it, the portly witch bopping him on the nose with a finger when his lion roared at her, threatening to eat her alive. She’d take it in her stride, tell him not to be stupid, and then ignore his stupid ass until he calmed down. It wasn’t funny, but it kind of was. Dean couldn’t help himself, the burble of laughter that escaped his mouth was as embarrassing as it was inevitable. He snickered.

Mrs Hardinger grinned at him.

“Welcome back, Dean,” she told him with a wink.

Somehow, he knew it was all deliberate. That the humour was the last thing he’d needed to make him fully cognizant of where he was and who he was with.

Melody was watching him with wide eyes.

“Don’t fret, Melody. It happens to a lot of shifters when they first bond. I guess you’ve never had one long enough, but most of them go through an adjustment of their inner bond between man and beast. You haven’t failed him, so don’t go there. Dean’s lion is one of the most arrogant, stubborn yet placid beasts I’ve ever met. Dean’s never had to wrestle him into compliance, so it’s a bit harder for him right now than usual. But you’ll both get there. Just keep him in the here and now. Let him know what you need, and the two of them will work out their differences in a flash to make sure you get there.”

“We’re not a concierge service,” Asher snapped.

Mrs Hardinger tutted at him. “Of course you’re fucking not. You’re hers. End of story. Just as she is yours. So don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

“Provost,” asked Melody quietly, instantly catching his full attention. Asher stilled too. “Have you heard anything? Anything at all?”

“I’ve not heard of any accolades for you yet, Melody,” the provost said carefully. “I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as that changes. I’ve got high hopes for you. Speaking of which, how are your advanced studies?”

“I’m making progress in botany, Provost,” she said. “I had a moment when nothing was sticking, but then it all started to click, and I’m doing well. Well, at least I think I am.”

The provost nodded. “I’ll check in with your professors again soon. For the good of your coven , I hope that you reach the rank of top of all of your classes. It would bring you all great honour. I could only imagine the opportunities that would arise then.”

Dean shook his head. The woman wasn’t saying anything against Bestia, yet they all understood the subtext. Melody was likely to get more offers if she could improve her marks. She needed to advance, to learn and to achieve.

It was just like Mrs Hardinger had said. Whatever Melody needed, he would provide it, or die trying. His witch needed him, and he would answer her call.

13. Melody

T he waiting was going to kill her, she was sure of it, and if it didn’t kill her, it would certainly end up killing both of her familiars. Every day Melody attended classes, studied until her mind was numb and slept for fitful hours between, and still there was no word from the provost or Professor Ludwig.

Things weren’t looking up with Carla either. Now she not only sneered openly at Melody, but sometimes she joined in when they harangued her. Quinn looked more miserable than ever, but he refused to talk to her when Melody caught him alone for a moment.

The Apex had picked up on her agitation as well, all of them becoming irritable. Arguments broke out over the smallest things and the atmosphere in the cottage became thick with tension. It got to the point that Melody sent them all back to the shifter dorm after dinner, except those who were due to tutor her for that evening, because she couldn’t cope with any more negativity.

In desperation, she turned to Mrs Hardinger, but without being able to tell her what had her so agitated, the older witch was unable to help. They both knew what the situation was, and nothing had changed. They would have heard of it straight away. Still, the sense of impending doom was beginning to crush her spirit.

Mrs Hardinger recommended that she get more sleep, and applauded her for sending the argumentative shifters home for the night.

“Part of the issue for them, is that they’re desperate to challenge you,” she held up her hand as Melody opened her mouth in protest. “It just means that they’re more irritable than usual. Add to that the fact that they’ll be sharing their witch with a bunch of other shifters, something that none of the dunderheads probably ever considered, and that there’s a threat hanging over you, and oh yes, the fact that you’re agitated about something too.”

She let out a belly laugh. “Honey, just be glad they haven’t put holes in the walls yet. Because when shifters need to blow off steam, there’s always a fight. And with a bunch of alpha males, you’re just adding fuel to the fire.”

Melody hung her head. It was all just an explosion waiting to happen. The tension was eating her alive, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it, other than work at being the most attractive option at the academy for other covens.

“There is one other thing, and I feel stupid, it’s for the best, but it’s killing me …” Melody halted.

The scene she’d inadvertently witnessed played in her mind on a continuous loop.

“Justin and Jaynie,” said Mrs Hardinger, surprising her.

Seeing the look on Melody’s face, the counsellor wagged a finger at her. “Honey, I may be as old as the hills, but I have eyes, and I certainly have ears. The rumour mill has been running wild, and Jaynie has certainly said a fair bit about it. That little glitch is setting many hearts fluttering. All these witches are coming to me for advice on how to snag your other unbonded shifters.”

Melody wrung her hands together. “It’s for the best. I mean, he’s not safe around me, he has a chance at a normal life with her. It’s not fair for me to have so many.” She cut herself off before she could get any closer to betraying her coven.

“Now Melody, you listen to me. I know Justin, he was here when I first arrived, and already a legend even then. I’ve never seen these boys in such a flap about anyone or anything as they are about you. When you were sick this last time … Honey, I had to start bringing food to them and forcing them to eat, because none of them were even trying. Toby said he could hear their beasts howling. Even the dragons were putting up such a yammering, that we had to ward your cottage so everyone else would be spared the noise.”

She smiled at Melody and took her hands. “If that’s not enough to convince you, then know this. He came to me for advice about it. Whatever you think you saw in those woods, it’s not what happened. I won’t say any more on it, the two of you are adults, well able to sort this out between you, if only you would communicate.”

Melody looked down at their joined hands. Part of her wanted to believe it was innocent. But she’d seen it first hand. She wasn’t so sure if she would believe him, even if he did tell her what was going on. He might not have made out with her, but he also wasn’t sitting with them any more. She already had enough on her plate to deal with.

Mrs Hardinger frowned as if Melody had spoken aloud. "Has all that pranking nonsense stopped?”

Melody thought about it for a moment, but shook her head. “No, if anything, it’s even worse. With only Nick to help me deflect the attacks, more of them are getting through to us. They’re not even hiding what they’re doing now, most of the teachers just ignore it. They only say something when it disrupts the whole class.”

Melody sighed and rubbed her hands over her face. “Like, the other day, in herbology, someone slipped something into my cauldron that made it boil over and spew out purple smoke. We had to evacuate the greenhouse. Mrs Jenson was really annoyed about it. She chewed me out, and then when I said I hadn’t been near the wolfsbane, which was apparently the thing that did it, she chewed the whole class out and put us all on clean up duty during our lunch break.”

That had been a truly shitty day. Nobody would talk to her for the final class of the day, and somehow, all the notes she had taken in the class had gone missing in the drama. Nobody would lend her theirs either, so she had to rewrite as much as she could from memory during her dinner and then the men helped her fill in the gaps after. It was a waste of a couple of hours trying to cover everything that had been missed.

“I hadn’t realised that the staff weren’t actively policing it, I’ll have a word to Augusta. We can’t be seen to be favouring you, but at the same time, bullying will not be tolerated.”

“It’s just so petty. If it were major things, well I’d be justified in telling you, but they aren’t. They’re all stupid little pranks, well, except for the memory charm, that was a bit darker, but the rest of it is nothing. If I complain about it, well, it just makes me look stupid and weak. But I’m so sick of walking around on high alert.”

“Sounds like you need to blow off some steam, I’ll get to that in a minute, but tell me more about the memory charm.”

“Well, you know I’m aiming to graduate early, right?” asked Melody, and Mrs Hardinger nodded.

“I’ve already finished first-year history and I’m now taking the second-year class. So we’re working towards doing the same for herbology, and hopefully one more subject this term. Earlier this week I borrowed several texts that the guys said I would need to read, and Ryan and I settled in to start cramming. Only nothing was sticking. I couldn’t remember the difference between a petal and a pistil. I was going insane and poor Ryan was frustrated because he wasn’t getting through to me.”

“So, what happened?”

“Well, I lost my temper, my magic surged and everything blew across the room, and it was just the final straw. I stormed out for a walk to try and cool off. And the whole time I’m stomping around, I’m thinking about it, getting angrier and angrier. My thoughts were twisting around and around until I made the comparison to being blocked. It made me stop, because it was just like a block. So, I grabbed Nick and asked him to check, and sure enough, he found a memory hex that was specific for herbology. He broke the spell and I’ve loved it ever since.”

“You’re right, that is a little more serious than tripping you over. That’s active sabotage. I really will have to report that to Augusta. Now, tell me something, are you fucking either of your shifters yet?”

Melody nearly fell off her chair in shock. Mrs Hardinger was such a motherly type at times, that she forgot how down to earth the counsellor could be. Especially when it came to dealing with shifters. “Uh, I um. No. There isn’t time. I’m studying before class, during meals and for four hours every night. Then when the final revision part is done, I collapse into bed, only to start it all the next day.”

“But Dean shares your bed?” the counsellor pressed.

“Well, technically yes. He has to be careful though, he’s huge and my wounds are still pretty liable to break open and start bleeding again. He elbowed me in the shoulder the other night and I thought I was going to pass out from the pain. I had to get him to call Nick to come and change the dressing it bled so much.”

“Ah, yes, I forgot about that. Well, that would make sex a bit more difficult no matter what the position. Except for cowgirl I guess. You could ride him, I bet he’d let you too, anything for the chance to fuck you well and good.”

Melody’s mouth opened and shut several times, but she couldn’t think of what to say.

“Melody, have you fucked a shifter before?” Mrs Hardinger asked.

“No, I’m a um … I’m completely inexperienced. Aside from a few kisses goodnight from the guys, I’ve never even kissed a man.”

“Oh my!” Mrs Hardinger was taken aback. “And you’ve got seven of them panting after you. Well, my dear, you’re certainly in for a treat. I can’t speak for Asher or Trent, but I can tell you that the original Apex boys have fucked their way around this academy once or twice. They’re going to make you see stars!” She threw back her head and laughed.

“I don’t even know what to say to that!” she exclaimed, at once thrilled and terrified at the thought. At the compound, sex was a weapon weilded by the witches with frightening precision. It wasn’t something to look forward to. Not like Mrs Hardinger was suggesting, anyway.

“Oh, Melody! Oh my dear. Well. Yes, you are in quite a pickle, aren’t you. I was going to suggest that you fuck some of that tension away, goodness knows you’ve got enough choice there, but it isn’t something that you should rush into just for the relief. So, we’ll have to look at other ways for you to relax. Oh my!” Mrs Hardinger started chuckling again

Melody wanted to throttle her, but she waited patiently until the older woman had gathered herself a little. It wasn’t that funny.

“Now, have you checked for a disharmony hex?” Mrs Hardinger finally asked her.

“No, I haven’t even heard of that. Where would we look, is it laid upon one person, or all of us?”

“There are many ways to cast it, but I think the most effective way to target you all would be to cast it on the cottage itself. That way it would continue to seep into you, especially when you were asleep. How about we walk back to your place now, and I’ll have a poke around and see what I can find. These small hexes are hard to ward against. Most wards deal with the big stuff, but the little stuff can be quite powerful if it gets a hold.”

The counsellor and her shifter walked with her back to her cottage and took some time to go around the wards laid upon it. She did indeed find a disharmony hex, which had grown quite powerful, as well as another one to disrupt sleep and a third one to disrupt hormones.

“This is really quite advanced work. This isn’t your typical first-year prank. I can’t prove it, but I wouldn’t put it past that girl and her stupid infatuation with your lion. As if she ever stood a chance with a shifter in this school. Why the rune ceremony picked her as a beast witch I’ll never know, and I suspect that she lied about it anyway.”

Mrs Hardinger froze for a second, looking at Melody in horror. “You will not repeat that to anyone. Now I’m going to go looking for a hex that makes you blurt out your thoughts, because I would never have said something like that aloud!”

Sure enough, after examining the cottage and its surroundings again, she found a hex that disrupted inhibitions. This sent her into a bit of a tirade, so then she looked for and found another one that encouraged anger.

“For goddess’ sake! This is getting ridiculous. Go inside, Melody and get some rest. I’m going to go and get Mr Phelps and we’ll see what else we can root out for you. I’ll bring Professor Simmonds too. If anyone knows how to protect you against these shitting things, it’s those two.”

The plump woman turned and trudged off, Toby, her familiar, stepping out from the shadows where he had waited for her. He stalked behind her, his head constantly swiveling to look for danger to his mistress. The epitome of a guardian shifter.

14. Melody

W hen she walked back inside the cottage, Melody could already feel the difference in the atmosphere. The others looked up at her, but nobody said anything, either returning to their books, or curling up and pretending to sleep. Trent did a mixture of both, curling up on his spot next to the fireplace with a book in his lap and his head and shoulders resting on the brickwork. His eyes were heavy, but he wasn’t quite asleep yet.

The others were just as lethargic, Nick was understandable, he’d been constantly using his magic to protect her, as well as doing his part in tutoring her and he’d spent a considerable amount of time and energy nursing her when she was sick. If he wasn’t careful, he would get sick himself.

The others, though, hadn’t really done as much, aside from the tutoring. Melody wondered if they were sleeping badly because they were away from her at night, but then she thought that maybe some of these hexes had been directed to their quarters in the shifter dorms too. She would have to ask the teachers when they came to look for other curses and hexes.

Even as she thought it, she could hear Mrs Hardinger’s strident voice telling the other two teachers the spells that she had already found and eliminated. Rather than settling in for the night, Melody went out to greet them.

“Melody, I thought I told you to get some rest?” the older woman chided.

“Yes Ma’am, but I had a couple of ideas that I thought were important enough to share.” She turned to look at the two teachers. “The men in there are barely conscious, could you look for something to do with lethargy as well please? And could you also check their quarters in the dorms. If they are attacking us here with this kind of rubbish, and I’m sending most of them back to the dorms to sleep, then it wouldn’t surprise me to find that their rooms there are hexed as well.”

“Oh yes, that’s a good point, Melody. Now why didn’t I think of that? It should have been my first thought. Can we look for an obfuscating hex as well please, gentlemen? I suspect that one might be cast directly on Melody if it was affecting me during our interview earlier.”

“I’m so sorry to be all this bother,” Melody apologised.

“Not at all, young lady,” said Professor Simmonds. “As your teachers, we’re here to aid and guide you, and if that means protecting you from a little high spirited magic, then it is our honour to do so. I will have a look through my books later and see what I can find on blocking small spells.”

“We’re going to have to step up our training, Melody, if this is the level of attacks that you are facing,” said Mr Phelps. “You need to get a basic shield up and around you and hold it there. Some of these hexes should not have been able to attach to you in the first place.”

“Now Ted,” chided Mrs Hardinger. “We’ve talked about that. You know what my thoughts are on it.”

“Yes, but it doesn’t change the fact that she needs to learn this. I know it’s not her fault, but she still has to keep trying.”

Melody yawned, come to think of it, she was feeling pretty tired herself.

“Ah yes, there it is, hold still Melody, it’s attaching to you right now,” said the professor.

Melody froze, wondering what was going on. She felt a tugging in the back of her head, and then there was a small pop.

“Got it, it’s always easier to catch the little blighters when they’re in the process of ensnaring a new victim,” he explained. “That was indeed a lethargy hex attaching itself to you. Given that it wasn’t there when you left, it must be quite recent indeed. Mrs Hardinger, would you be so kind as to ask Toby to have a little scout around and see if he can pick up any scents? They’ll probably be masked again, but it doesn’t hurt to try.”

“Yes, of course, John, that’s an excellent suggestion.” Mrs Hardinger turned and walked several paces away, her familiar stepping up to her to confer with her. Then he stripped before Melody could turn away, shifting into a black panther and blending with the shadows once more.

“Even with that hex gone, I’m still done in. I just wanted to say thank you to you both for continuing to support and protect us. Not all of the staff do, so we really appreciate it. I’m going to say goodnight now, I really need some rest.” Melody yawned again.

“Good night Ms Bestia,” said the professor.

“G’night Melody, we’ll work on your shields some more this week,” Mr Phelps told her.

She nearly moaned on the spot, but waved her thanks to them all and headed inside.

“Right you lot, wakey, wakey. The teachers are outside lifting a stack of hexes from the cottage and then at some point they’re going to come and check your quarters in the shifter dorm. There was some sort of lethargy hex cast on us while I was at counselling, so we’re all exhausted. I suggest that we call it quits for tonight. I know that I can’t take any more of this, so I’m heading to bed. Good night everyone, tonight, I don’t care if you sleep here or there, just no fighting,” she told them, before heading into her room.

A few minutes later, she was in her pyjamas and crawling into bed. The door to her room opened and Dean came in. He waited until she was settled and then turned out the light, the same as he’d done just about every night since he’d moved in with her. He got dressed in the dark, and once again Melody found herself wishing that she had their enhanced senses so that she could see him, but the room was completely black.

“I can do this with the light on if you’d rather?” Dean purred, and Melody jumped, caught.

Just because she couldn’t see him, didn’t mean that he couldn’t see her straining for a look! She hid her face in her hands, and he chuckled.

“Tomorrow night then,” he teased, as he got into bed beside her. “How’s your back?”

“It’s a little better. Nick thinks that unless I’m stupidly active, the wounds should stay closed now.”

“Yeah? That’s great. How would you feel about a little hug then? I missed you this evening, even if I was too zoned out to do anything about it.”

Melody laughed. “What on earth could you have done about it? If you’d tried to interrupt my time with Mrs Hardinger, Toby would have had you for dinner!”

Dean was silent beside her, and she wondered if she had offended him. Just as she opened her mouth to apologise, however, he spoke.

“Well, if it’s driving me crazy, then I shift and go and sit outside the room. Toby’s there, he lets me, says I’m not the only one. The room’s warded, don’t worry, so I can’t hear what you’re saying. But I can hear your voice, and I can smell your scent, and that's enough.”

She didn’t know what to say. That was so sweet, and sad and just … She could feel tears burning in her eyes, so she rolled over and gently moved forward until her head was on his chest. He took a deep breath in, and then his arm gently came around her shoulders. It stung a little, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep her awake. She snuggled into him a bit more, and he buried his face in her hair, inhaling deeply. Moments later, there was a rumbling sound that came from his chest.

“Are you purring?” she asked, incredulous.

“No, but my lion is,” he told her, chuckling.

“Big cats can’t purr,” Melody commented. “They’ve got cartilage that allows them to roar instead.”

Dean huffed a laugh. “Don’t tell me,” he chuckled. “Tell the big bozo. He shouldn’t be able to do it, it shouldn’t be possible, but my whole body starts vibrating once he gets going.”

She laughed. “So, does he do it in your shifted form too? Or only while you’re human?”

Dean was silent for a beat, then he started swearing. “The bastard. It’s only while we’re human. Which makes a kind of demented sense. He literally can’t do it himself, so he makes me do it instead.”

Melody smiled in the darkness. She bet he could feel it against his skin. He wasn’t wearing a shirt — again.

Lying there together, talking and laughing — it was nice. It was gentle, considerate, and very comforting. She knew that here in Dean’s arms, she was safe.

Melody also knew that she always would be.

15. Melody

T he news, when it finally came the following morning, was surprising.

Melody had been summoned to attend Mrs Hardinger after breakfast. When she arrived at the counsellor’s office, the provost was there with a frown on her face, although she smiled in welcome.

“Melody, I needed to meet with you urgently, and this seemed to be the best way to go about it, I’m sorry for the drama. Now, you have two letters here, I think we need to read them both first before we commence any discussions,” the provost explained, handing the letters over to Melody.

She looked at them both. One was in a fancy looking envelope, the paper soft and rough. It looked like it had a high rag content. The address was done in perfect copperplate calligraphy with gold ink. The other was a plain business sized envelope with her name and address hastily scrawled on the front in her aunt’s handwriting.

It was best to pull off the bandaid, so she opened her aunt’s letter first.

Melody,

I hear that you have gained another alpha shifter, but that you botched the first attempt. I hope that you are now well aware of how embarrassing that was for us and that you are more considerate of our reputation when you act.

I have some business out west this month, so I shall endeavour to visit you at the college to meet your shifters. They can give their oaths of fealty to me then, seeing you did not bring them here during your holidays. These things must not be allowed to lapse. Expect me on the fifteenth.

Georgia Bestia

Coven Mistress

Melody looked up at Mrs Hardinger. “What’s the date, please?” she asked.

“It’s the thirteenth,” answered the counsellor.

Melody felt the blood drain from her face. She hoped that the second letter bore good news, because she needed a way out of this. Her aunt would be here in forty-eight hours, and while Dean was safe from pledging his fealty, because he had given it to her without her asking, Asher was not protected. If her aunt had him swear fealty to the coven, or worse, to her person, then it was likely that she would insist on him travelling back with her to the compound.

They effectively had two days to save Asher’s life!

Melody passed the letter to the provost, while she tried to open the second one with shaking hands.

“Here, child, before you rip the thing in two,” snapped Mrs Hardinger, passing her a letter opener. It seemed that Melody was not the only one who was tense right then.

Dear Melody,

Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Andrea Krause, Mistress of Coven Fulgur. Recently, one of our members, Professor Ludwig, had the pleasure of teaching at your college. She came home telling us of a wonderful young witch who showed great potential in curse breaking. She enjoined me to consider offering you a place in our coven.

I understand that you are from Bestia, and that you are indeed an exceptional beast tamer having earned an alpha familiar in your first term. Congratulations on such a marvellous achievement!

Our coven specialises in elemental magic, and lightening is our strongest and most common element. We have no beast tamers at present, and we wish to expand our portfolio of skills. To that end, we wish to extend to you an invitation to join Coven Fulgur. We have many young male witches around your age, all of whom would be made available to you for your consideration as a mate. We do not force our young into arranged relationships, but it is hoped that you would find a suitable mate amongst us.

Professor Ludwig was most effusive in her praise of you, and we would be pleased if several representatives of our coven could come and meet with you on the eighteenth of this month. I apologise for the short notice, but I believe these things should not be left to chance.

I look forward to hearing from you soon,

Andrea Krause,

Mistress of Coven Fulgur

Melody stared at the letter in her hands for several minutes, reading it again and again. If her hand had not been forced by her aunt, she would have appealed to the provost to help her find another coven. While she appreciated the offer, to be the only beast tamer there would be an isolating experience, and the undertone was that she was there to breed the skill into their coven. She would be just as much breeding stock for them, as she would for her aunt, only without the torture. At least, Melody assumed there would be no torture.

But, it could all be moot. If she stuck to the timetable given in her letter, Mistress Krause would arrive several days after her aunt. It wouldn’t matter if she changed covens, if her aunt forced Asher to swear fealty to her personally. Aunt Georgia would already have him in her custody back at the compound. They had to act fast.

“Provost, forgive me for sounding ungrateful, but were there no other letters for me?” she asked, after she’d passed the second letter to Mrs Hardinger.

“No, Melody, aside from my own coven, there were no others that responded favourably amongst those that I dared to approach on the matter. I would arrange a place for you with us if it didn’t reek of nepotism. It would do more damage to my coven if we offered you a place, than any benefit we might gain. I tried to convince my mistress, but she was adamant. She was interested in you, but my position here meant that the offer would be compromised.” The provost sighed. “It’s the first time I have ever regretted this job.”

Melody looked at her in surprise, seeing the tears in the other woman’s eyes.

“I hope that you understand what you have come to mean to me, Melody. You are Adelaide’s child. My best friend’s offspring. I think of you like a daughter, even if I am not permitted to treat you like one,” she smiled sadly, and Melody felt her heart break a little.

A mother, a real mother, something that she’d wished for, so many times. Now here there was a woman right in front of her, and they'd probably never have a chance to explore that relationship.

“I would be honoured to be your daughter,” she told her. “If I cannot have my own mother back, then I would wish for someone just like you. You’re already everything I could have ever hoped for.”

Melody stood up from her seat and so did the provost, the two of them hugging as Mrs Hardinger sat behind her desk and blew her nose with a resounding trumpet-like noise that made them all giggle a little at the absurdity of it.

“Now,” the provost said, still holding onto her. “If we’re to protect you, we need to contact Coven Fulgur and arrange for this to happen prior to your aunt’s arrival. Sybil, I need you to talk to Asher about swearing fealty to the right witch.”

The provost looked at Mrs Hardinger and tapped her nose, looking at Melody, who was trying not to notice.

“Consider it done,” Mrs Hardinger said in a resounding voice.

Melody nearly laughed, it was just as well that the room was warded for her counselling sessions.

“As for contacting the coven, leave it with me, Melody, I know that you couldn’t do it given the restrictions placed upon you.”

“Thank you, Provost,” she said, gratefully.

The chime for students to go to their first class of the day sounded, and Melody automatically turned to go.

“Melody? Wait for me, I’ll walk with you to class. It will lend legitimacy to my needing to see you if we are seen walking and talking together. The provost will leave once class has commenced and Jonas deems it safe. You’ve got me first up anyway. Which one of your shifters are you going to work with today?”

“Dean,” she said quietly and blushing, as they left the office and walked along the corridor to the central courtyard.

Shifter care was held in one of the indoor sports buildings, to allow the beasts room to move. Sometimes the classes involved grooming, other times it was first aid, or exercise, and then sometimes they also looked at anatomical differences between the more common species of familiars.

“Ah, so there has been progress?” Mrs Hardinger enquired. “Since last night no less, well done!”

“I can be hugged now, gently, and he makes an excellent pillow,” Melody said tartly, and the counsellor threw back her head and laughed, drawing looks from students everywhere. “That is much, much better, Melody. Well done!” She said loudly, for the benefit of those straining their ears to hear what was going on. “I’m glad to hear that clearing the hexes made a difference,” she said more quietly.

Melody nodded and walked silently beside her for the next few moments. “I’m frightened,” she said, candidly.

“Don’t be, Melody. We’ll sort out this puzzle, and then the sky will be your limit, and I think in your case, not even the sky will hold you back. Especially not with two bloody great, big dragons at your beck and call!” she chortled as she held the door open for Melody.

Dean practically pounced on her the moment she stepped inside, gathering her in his arms and giving her such a gentle hug that she wanted to cry. “There’s a chance,” she whispered in his ear. “Very slim, I’m praying to the Goddess. Hopefully she’ll get so sick of me she’ll say yes!”

Dean kissed her ear. “More likely she’ll be impressed by the strong witch that you are, despite all that you’ve faced, and she’ll bless you with what you need.”

“Righto, break it up, you two had all night to get that out of your system, it’s time to pay attention to me!” called Mrs Hardinger, and several of the witches laughed.

Melody blushed and turned to the front of the class where the lesson was indeed beginning. Near the door stood Asher, intent, alert and worried. She held her hand out flat and tilted it from side to side, shrugging helplessly.

Later , she mouthed at him, and he nodded. Then his head tilted to the side and he looked at Dean. When she turned to him, his eyes were a little glazed, then he nodded and his gaze focussed on her. She realised that Nick must have opened the link again. So, Asher would know the little that she had been able to tell Dean. She was nervous about telling them the rest, but it had to be done.

16. Melody

“S o there’s a chance, if the provost can convince her to come earlier, then things can be done and an oath of fealty taken,” Melody carefully explained to them all as they hurried to the next class, avoiding any terms that might trigger the geasen.

Nick had joined them, casting a ward around them, guaranteeing their privacy.

“I still don’t get why we’re doing this. I mean, if all I have to do is swear fealty to Melody, then what’s the issue?” protested Asher.

“I’ve sworn fealty to my coven, Asher. What do you think will happen during the next holidays? Or when I graduate?” she asked him.

“But, you just say no, right? If you don’t want them to do stuff, you just say no.”

Melody stopped in the middle of the corridor and threw her hands in the air. “I can’t be part of this discussion. Nick, take him back to the provost, please. Make him understand.”

It wasn’t until he gently prised her hands off him, kissing her knuckles, that she realised she was gripping the front of his shirt.

“Ugh, we should probably look at a histrionics hex too,” she sighed.

”Is there such a thing?” asked Nick.

“Do I normally grab your shirt?” she responded. “I’ve never heard of one, but that doesn’t mean that someone hasn’t found a way to do it.”

Nick chuckled. “Yeah, okay, we’ll look at the mood affecting hexes again,” he reassured her, putting a careful arm around her shoulders.

Melody didn’t know if Dean had told them about her sleeping in his arms, or whether they had simply smelled him on her, but all of them had become more demonstrative since this morning. It was kind of nice, but at the same time, it stressed her out. This was not conducive to her holding them all at arm’s length.

For the rest of the day, the men took turns guarding her, switching out between classes. Melody assumed they were arranging it via the magical link that Nick used for them, but it still was a feat of organisation. It meant she got time with all of them, and that nobody managed to be around long enough to start any arguments with anyone else. While they were sure they were reasonably safe in the cottage, out and about they had to be vigilant for almost any threat.

The worst part was that Justin still took part, which meant that Jaynie hung around them too. She commented on everything, from Melody’s hair, to her clothes, and even her accent. She even tried to instruct Melody on how to handle a shifter, all the while failing to notice how the shifters around her were reacting. Far from helping them avoid conflict, Jaynie’s presence seemed only to ratchet up the tension.

Eventually, Melody had to say something to Nick when Justin wasn’t there.

“If he’s helping, it’s without her , otherwise he can just hang around his new friends. We don’t need Jaynie’s kind of help.”

Melody knew that she’d played right into the witch’s hands. It was likely to be exactly what the catty woman had been aiming for, a division between Justin and herself, but Melody couldn’t help it. She had bigger shit to deal with. Tomorrow, her aunt would be here, and Melody would need to be ready.

To her surprise, though, Justin sat with them at lunchtime, ignoring Jaynie completely. Even when she came over to sit with them, he simply told her to fuck off, and then turned his back on her. Melody saw the venomous look that Jaynie gave him, and she knew it would brew trouble from the whole bunch of them.

With Justin back on board, fewer hexes were getting through, although the three of them were kept busy defending against the spells coming their way. It was an exhausting day, and there was still no news from the provost. Melody racked her brains for spells to use, for ways around the geasen, but it was no use. She’d been trying to find a way out for years and hadn’t found anything. The only thing she could do was run, and she said as much to the men that evening after dinner.

“There is danger here for me tomorrow, for the good of my coven I could run from here, but I’m not leaving without you all. I can take Dean and Asher with me, but we’d be outcasts then.”

Dean looked at her, snarling in his frustration. “There’d be a bounty placed on finding us, and if we were caught, our bonds would be broken. Asher and I would be given to your aunt as property of the coven, while you’d be stripped of your powers.”

Melody nodded. “It would still mean that my aunt wouldn’t get the matriarchal magic, that would be destroyed, but it would net her two alpha shifters, and I know she’d love that, if only to ...” The heat on her back prevented her from saying more. Already she was skirting too far over the line. Melody had no idea what had prevented the geasen from triggering. Possibly only the fact that she hadn’t said she would do it, only that it could be attempted.

“You’re not running, Mel, we’ll protect you, all of you. Dean and Asher won’t leave here without you, not without a fight, and I’m a fucking dragon, I’d like to see them take me on,” growled Nick.

There was a knock at the door, and they all tensed, but then Justin groaned. “I told her never to come here, I told her our deal was off. Now I’m going to tell her what I truly think for once and for all.”

“Jaynie’s here? And what deal are you talking about?”

Justin looked at her apologetically. “She said if I dated her and made it convincing, she’d tell her coven mistress about you. She’s from Pecus Coven. They might only work with ungulates and not shifters, but at least they’re beast tamers.”

Melody’s jaw dropped. “And you couldn’t tell me this, because ...?”

The knock sounded more impatient this time, but Melody was ready to go out there and snatch the woman bald.

“Because it had to be convincing. If I was supposed to be with Jaynie, and none of you were bothered about it, then nobody would believe it. Nick was the only one who knew.”

Melody rounded on the other dragon, who winced at being thrown under the bus.

This time, the door thudded with a fist pounding at it. “Let me fucking at her,” growled Melody, and instantly Asher and Dean were there, holding her back.

Justin strode to the door and threw it open. “Listen here, bitch …” His voice trailed off at the sight of her face. It was bruised and bleeding and overflowing with tears.

‘You have to run,” sobbed Jaynie. “I wrote a letter to tell Bestia that she was looking for a new coven. If they came and withdrew her, then she would be out of the way. One of them invited me out for dinner tonight to hear more about it, but it was a trap. They tied me up and whipped me with a fucking stick until I told them everything I knew. I managed to escape and came straight here.” Jaynie hiccuped and grabbed him. “Justin, you have to run, they’re insane. She used a scrying mirror to talk to the slut’s aunt. They’re going to be here at sunrise! They’re coming for all of you!”

“What have you fucking done?” roared Justin, and she flinched, sobbing again. “Get out of my sight. You’re fucking sick, you know that? I never want to see you again.”

Melody couldn’t believe the gall of him. No matter what reason he’d done it, what excuse he used to try to justify it for himself, Justin had used her just as much as she’d used him. He had no call to treat her like that.

Then her brain caught up to what had happened.

“You double crossed him?” Melody asked, shocked.

Jaynie opened her mouth to protest, but Justin slammed the door in her face. He took one look at Melody and his shoulders slumped.

“I’m sorry, I was trying to help, I thought if you had two offers, you could choose the best one, and maybe knowing that there were two offers, others might come forward as well. It never occured to me that Jaynie would stoop that low to get me.” He looked up at her, his expression hopeless. “I’ve made things a thousand times worse, and now I don’t know how to fix it.”

Melody didn’t know what to say. Things made more sense, and yet, the truth was kind of worse than she’d imagined. He really hadn’t been making out with Jaynie, just trying to make it look like he was. He was using her. Worst of all, he’d needed them all to be upset about it? She didn’t think the ends justified the means at all, but right then, it wasn’t a priority.

Nick stepped forward, grabbing the other dragon and pulling him into a tight hug. “It’s okay Justin, it was a great idea. Just the wrong person to do it with.”

“I’ll go to the provost and tell her what happened,” Nick said, taking charge. “Oz, Ryan, go to the kitchens and get as much food as they’ll let you take with them. Dean, pack a bag for her. Trent and Asher, you’re with Justin, you’re going to find as much rope as you can and bring it to him. We’re going to have to rig up a flying harness for Justin and I so that we can carry you all. Odds are, they will be throwing spells at us as we break through the wards. We’ll need to fly defensively, which means lots of twists and turns, you guys are going to need shit to hold on to.”

“What about me?” asked Melody, fearfully. She was near the kitchen, on the other side of the room to him. Nick looked at her, then walked over and drew her into a hug that was tighter than any other she had received since the bonding.

“I want you to pack bandages, dressings and whatever herbs we have on hand. I have a safe place for us to go to, but I’d say that there will be consequences for you if we run.” He looked at her worriedly. “I can only do so much for you while we’re in the air, you have to promise that this time you’ll draw on your familiars for strength.”

Melody shuddered, and he shook her a little, her teeth rattling against each other.

“Promise me, Mel,” he ordered.

“I promise,” she said, fearfully. Nick kissed her on the forehead.

“Good, now go help Dean before his lion goes feral on us, then you two can get packing.” He winked at her and left with the others hot on his heels.

17. Nick

N ick stopped by the provost’s office first in case she was still there, but the doors were locked and the lights were off. Provost Aer-Canticum was the hardest working provost he’d ever encountered, and it showed in the wellbeing and efficiency of Adolphus, the academy was flourishing under her care.

It wasn’t unusual to find her alone in her office at this time of the evening, she put far more into the academy than she got from it. The job of Provost of an academy of this standing was a position fraught with political intrigue and pressure.

There was a time when Nick had hoped she would turn out to be his witch. He even got along well with Jonas who had expressed a similar sentiment, but now that he’d met Melody, he knew exactly what had been missing from his relationship with Augusta.

The door to Provost House was opened by Jonas before he’d even reached the stoop.

"Nick!" the lynx shifter greeted him. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"There's been a development. We need to up the time scale to before dawn."

"Well, you may just be in luck. Mistress Fulgur arrived an hour ago."

Nick felt his shoulders slump in relief. This was the first break they’d gotten since Dean had challenged her. "Thank fuck for that! Is it possible to see them?"

Jonas flinched, as though surprised to discover they were still in the doorway, then he stepped aside and ushered Nick in.

"They're in the dining room," Jonas told him, and Nick turned in that direction.

Nick knocked on the door before the older shifter could. Although Nick was centuries older than Jonas, he looked young enough to be Jonas's son. The magic binding the shifters to the academy also stopped their aging, allowing them to remain as long as it took for them to find a witch strong enough to help them control their shifts. Once bonded, the familiars took on attributes consistent with their witches age. The provost was no longer a young woman.

“Come,” called a voice from within.

The two women looked at him with wide eyes.

"Nicholas, what a pleasant surprise! Mistress Fulgur, this is one of our dragon shifters. Nicholas, Mistress Fulgur has arrived to take Melody's oath tomorrow."

Nick could feel himself flushing as the other witch looked him over, but it wasn't in self consciousness at her obvious ogling. It was the calculating gleam in her eyes. He felt like a prize bull measured and weighed. Melody had been right in her fears, this wasn’t a coven that respected shifters either, but at least they wouldn’t kill them.

“Nicholas, I hear that you are fond of Melody. I do hope that you will consider challenging her in the near future. We would love to have you in our home.”

Yeah, you and every other coven, thought Nick, snidely.

“Thank you Ma’am. I cannot answer for Melody, but I think there is a chance that I will challenge her soon.” Nick turned his attention to the provost. “We’ve had word that Melody’s aunt will be arriving at dawn. She’s heard that Melody is considering leaving her coven, and apparently is coming to bring Melody and her familiars home. She will also seek to persuade the rest of us.” He wasn’t sure how much to say in front of Mistress Fulgur.

“Well, that is awkward, but it changes nothing,” the woman in question said. “Melody has the right to choose her coven, and I will not be rushed into accepting a witch who I haven’t even met. I have offered her a position, yes, but I hold the right to withdraw the offer at any given moment. Now, it was a pleasure to meet you, and I do wish you would consider joining Melody if she comes to us, but I have several important matters to discuss with Augusta.”

Nick fumed, then looked at the provost helplessly. Surely she would see the need to say something now. Provost Aer-Canticum, however, looked thoughtful and then determination fixed her features into a strong mask.

“Well, Nick. You can tell Melody that I’ve changed my stance. I’ve spoken to my coven mistress and she is in agreement, if Fulgur Coven withdraw their offer, or if Melody refuses, then there will be a place for her and for all of you with us. She may come and make her oath tonight if she wishes.”

Nick’s jaw dropped. There would be significant political repercussions for the provost’s coven if she did this. Even the faintest hint of corruption could see her stripped of her position.

“You can’t do that! I’m poised to accept her into my coven,” blustered Mistress Fulgur.

“Andrea,” the provost’s voice was now ice cold. “I made it very clear to you that not only was Melody open to offers, but that she needed to escape her coven. Not leave, escape . You remember Adelaide, and you know Georgia. I can only imagine the hell that poor child has been through, and now that bitch is aware of what is happening, she’s coming here!”

Mistress Fulgur opened her mouth to protest, but again the provost spoke over the top of her.

“Nick was far too subtle. She’s not coming here to persuade those men, she’s coming here to take them, and she wouldn’t make that sort of idle comment unless she had the means to back it up!”

The provost sighed and stood. “I’m sorry, Andrea, but I need to go to the arena and start setting up for the ceremony. If I’m lucky we’ll be ready just in time for dawn. Now, either you are going to be standing in the rune ring with her, or I will by proxy for my coven mistress. The choice is yours.”

She turned to Nick. “You are my witness that I did all in my power to find another safe solution for Melody. This is not a case of corruption or nepotism, but a genuine act of mercy.”

Nick bowed to her, signalling his agreement. Mistress Fulgur, however, drew herself up to her full height.

“I will not be dictated to about who to accept into my coven. If you seek to force my hand on this, then I withdraw my offer. It seems like this child is far too much trouble. She only guarantees me two shifters, a wolf and a lion are not worth the enmity of Bestia.” The furious coven leader gathered her belongings together. “I will remember this, Augusta.”

The provost scowled at her. “So will I, Andrea. I will remember that when you had the chance to help someone in trouble, you pulled up the drawbridge. I will remember that you risked nothing, sacrificed nothing, and expected everything to be handed to you on a platter. May the Goddess witness this, for you have let your coven down today, Andrea. I hope that she takes pity on you. Now, please leave, I have a witch to rescue, and my reputation to destroy.”

The door opened and Jonas stood there, waiting to escort the coven mistress out. She stormed to the door, pausing to turn back to them, but then changed her mind and flounced out.

“Well, I guess that sorts that out,” said Nick.

He looked at the provost. Under the high colour on her cheeks, her face was actually quite pale. She met his gaze for a moment and then nodded decisively.

“Right, go get her ready, and then if you could return and help me set up, I would appreciate it. I need to get the runes on the ground as soon as I can so I can start blessing the arena.”

Jus, you there? he sent across their link.

Yeah, what’s up? asked Justin.

Get Mel ready, the ceremony is in the arena, I’m helping the provost set up. Send the mutts over, we’re doing it now, and it’s the provost’s coven, Fulgur has fucked off.

Is that a good thing? Justin asked.

Yeah, I think Mel was right. I don’t know that this coven will be any better, but at least we know that the provost is the real deal, it could cost her the academy though.

Fuuuuck!

Yeah, but we need this, so get her moving, Nick told him.

She’s already getting changed. Oz, Ry and the dickwad are on their way. Want Trent too? Wasn’t sure if you classed him as a mutt.

Nick snorted, mentally as well as aloud, and the provost fixed him with a glare. “What are you waiting for?” she snapped.

“Something to carry, Justin is getting her moving,” Nick replied.

Nah, man, he sent to Justin. Trent is all class. The three of them should be enough. I forgot about the dickwad for a moment .

The provost looked at him, startled. “You have a pack link?”

“Just with Justin, but I can use my magic to include others,” he told her.

“Good to know.” She looked around her.

“Alright, Jonas, take Nick and load him up with a bag of salt, I’ll get my athame and my altar bowl.” She muttered to herself and then said, “and the sage.”

There was the thudding of heavy feet on the front stoop and they all stopped for a second, but seeing Jonas relax, Nick turned back to the provost. Ryan, Oz and Asher walked in and looked around.

“What do you need us to do, Provost?” asked Asher.

“Jonas, load them up too, between the five of you we should have more than enough,” she commanded.

Jonas jerked his head at the others, directing them to a door under the stairs. Nick ducked under the lintel and followed the shifter down a narrow flight of stairs into a rather well made basement. There was no smell of damp or mould, just a faint aroma of dust, probably from the very top of the multiple rows of shelves.

Jonas headed for a crate in the corner and opened it with a crowbar stashed nearby. He grabbed a sack, swung around and practically threw it to Nick, who caught it deftly then moved aside for the wolves to each get their load. They all followed the lynx shifter back up the stairs.

“Where are we going?” asked Oz.

“Down to the arena. It’s going to take some time to set up the rune ring, so we need to start now. I imagine Mel can help once she’s here.”

“Jonas?” the provost called back to them, “we’ll need some torches, the ones out here are wet.”

Her voice echoed along the south-east corridor between the classrooms and the library. It wasn’t a loud shout, but with their shifter hearing, it didn’t need to be.

“Where are the others?” Jonas asked him.

“At the cottage, how many to carry the torches?”

“Two, but I’d need to show them where they are, get one to come here and pick this up, and the other to meet me back at Provost House.”

Jus? Send Dean to me, and Trent to Provost House. I’m walking past the library, headed for the glasshouses.

On it. There was a pause. Dean isn’t happy.

Tell him Asher is out here doing his bit. His witch needs him, and I need a line of communication to her. Fuck it, tell him to shut the fuck up and get his ass in gear, we don’t have time to fuck around, snarled Nick.

Nick stood there, juggling his bag of salt which shifted inside the plastic sack. Every time he thought he had it balanced, another small cascade would slide this way or that, making him adjust. It wasn’t long before he could hear Dean’s footfalls jogging toward him. As soon as he saw the lion coming down the lane between the teachers' cottages and the back of the classrooms, he stepped forward.

“There’s a bag of salt back there in the corridor, grab it and come with me,” he snapped, not waiting for Dean to complain about being separated from Melody.

Dean must have felt his ire, because he said nothing, simply hefting the sack onto his shoulder and jogging over to where Nick stood waiting. Huh. It hadn’t occurred to him to stick it on his shoulder like that, and now he felt kind of stupid. Lifting his own bag up in a mirror image, they set off towards the arena.

18. Melody

T he arena was a large flat area just behind the dormitory for the male shifters. The whole academy gently sloped from the gates at the north-west to the south-east corner, but the arena had been specifically levelled off. It was an alternative site for defensive magic training, but it was mostly used as an exercise area for shifters and witches alike.

In the center of it, the provost walked slowly in a circle, marking out the outer ring with a knife which she used to cut a groove in the ground. Asher walked behind her filling the circle in with salt that he poured from a large plastic sack in his arms. His pace was measured to ensure there were no gaps.

Just ahead of her and Justin, Trent and Jonas walked carrying a load of what looked like several staffs, although she could see a bobbly end on them when she looked closer. Jonas lifted his face into the air and sniffed, and then walked to a point just in front of her and stuck one of the sticks into the ground. It was then that Melody realised what they were — Tiki-torches.

She could hear his bass rumble as he instructed Trent, who walked across to the opposite side. Gradually, the two shifters worked around the outside of the circle, Trent digging in a torch opposite to wherever Jonas stuck one in.

Asher’s bag of salt had run out, and now Dean took over ensuring that his beginning overlapped where the wolf’s had ended. The provost, in the meantime, had gone on to draw a second inner circle, about a foot inside the first one. Nick was following her around with his salt while Dean finished off the outer ring.

“Melody, take the sage and purify the torches please, in spell order.”

“Yes, Provost,” Melody called, then paused. “Is this for the good of my coven?”

The provost spun to look at her, horror on her face. Then she calmed. “Melody, as your teacher, I need you to practice your purification spells. Please demonstrate the technique for torches.”

Melody nodded and began. When no burning pain began on her back, she knew they were onto the right track. They just had to be careful. She was exhilarated. Not only was she about to join a new coven, but it would be the provost’s. Melody would stand witness that this was a last ditch resort, in case there were calls of nepotism, although she wasn’t sure how much her testimony would be worth if there was any trouble.

Carefully, she made her way around the circle with the burning sage, cleansing the torches before lighting the four cardinal points in the anti-clockwise direction. Then she turned and lit the four torches between them in the clockwise direction. By the time she was done, there was a reasonable amount of heat emanating from them, warming the space between them. She felt a faint shimmer of magic and saw it leaving Justin, arcing elegantly over the space and forming a dome. Melody smiled gratefully at him. This ceremony would be performed “clad in the light”, and it was seriously cold.

“Here,” the provost shoved a book at her, and Melody caught it just in time. “I know this by heart, but you might need to refer to it. Start at the north point and work clockwise towards me, I’ll start from the other side of it and work in the other direction. This will be a good practical learning experience for you.”

“Does it matter for the runes?” asked Melody.

“No, not at all, only the candles, or torches as it may be in this case.” She turned away from Melody. “Justin, seeing as you were so kind as to provide the dome, could you start working spells of protection into it please? Better to be safe than sorry,” the provost asked him.

“Yes, Provost. Nick, come give me a hand, will ya?”

The two dragons stood conferring off to one side, and Melody tried to ignore them as she worked the runes into the ground, travelling first east then south around the circle. Oz walked with her, filling the cuts with salt as soon as she stepped over to the next location. Soon, his bag was empty and Ryan took over. Dean and Trent had a bag each and were following the provost around, while Jonas talked quietly with the dragons.

They worked for some time, putting the multitude of runes in between the two rings, and then after the provost drew a second inner ring, they put even more runes between the second and third circles. By the time they were finished, Melody was exhausted. Her back ached from bending over, and her eyes were gritty with fatigue.

Every now and then, she would feel a jolt of magic as either Dean or Justin would add another spell to the dome protecting the site. When she looked up, there was a beautiful mosaic of spells above her, and Melody found herself entranced for a few moments, watching as the magic eddied and swirled through the patterns.

Finally, after adding a spell or two of her own to the dome, the provost turned to Melody and held out her hands. “It is time, child,” she said, quietly.

Melody nodded and shed her clothing, Dean taking it from her and folding it neatly before passing it to Asher who sucked in a breath at her scarred body, but turned and placed it on the pile of empty plastic sacks that had held the salt saying nothing. This way, not only would they stay clean, but they would also be dry. She walked to the north point and then entered the circle, walking to the provost and joining hands with her. It was only Melody who needed to be naked, she was the supplicant, the recipient of the blessing of a new coven.

There was the sound of many feet, and Melody spun, fearfully, only to see Jonas returning with Mrs Hardinger, Professor Simmonds, Mr Cartwright and Mr Phelps. Apparently they would be witnesses to the ceremony. She felt a little self conscious, standing there naked in front of all these men, but one look at the heat in Dean’s eyes made her forget everyone else. Asher’s jaw was slack and his hands trembled, a sign that his wolf was pushing to shift.

The four witnesses took their places at the cardinal points of the circle, and stood there quietly, waiting for the provost to begin.

“Are you sure, Provost?” she asked the older woman. Melody knew that there would be political fallout for her friend.

The provost snorted. “Child, I was just about to ask you the same thing. Don’t worry about me, we’ll sort everything out when the dust settles, and if my time here is done, then I will move on to one of a dozen other places where they are begging me to go. It is you who I am most concerned for.”

“I’m naked, and I’m cold, even with the dome,” Melody said, smiling. “And I think that it’s more important to start this ceremony sooner, rather than later.”

The provost chuckled. “Yes, it will be dawn soon. Let us begin, I don’t want any interruptions.”

The provost’s voice rose and fell as she chanted ancient songs asking for the blessing of the Goddess. The moon had set earlier, but not before they had finished the runes, so it technically had the blessing of the light of the Goddess. As an added bonus, none of the torches had blown out in the light breeze. That would have been a bad omen indeed, a sign of the Goddess’ displeasure.

Melody found herself swaying, the drone of the provost’s voice, the swirl of magic around her, and her own fatigue combining to lower her mental alertness. A stinging pain hit her left butt cheek, and she jolted upright. There were snickers from outside the circle, so she knew that one of them had done something stupid, like throwing a stone or a spell. She hoped it was a missile, because throwing spells at a time like this was seriously stupid.

Across from her, the provost’s eyes twinkled, but she didn’t pause in her singing. Finally, when Melody thought she could stand no longer, the provost spoke in English.

“Melody, you are called forth in the light to come and serve Coven Canticum. Search in your heart. Do you agree to bind yourself to us?” she asked.

“In the light of the Goddess, so do I swear. I promise to be loyal, faithful and to work to further the aims and goals of Coven Canticum. May I find acceptance in their eyes,” Melody replied, the words of the ritual ingrained in her mind.

“Indeed you have found favour with our members and we accept you as part of our family,” the provost intoned. Then she let go of Melody’s hands and picked up her altar bowl and athame, slicing across her hand and allowing the blood to drip into the bowl.

Melody held out her right hand, allowing the provost to cut it, and then directed her blood into the bowl as well.

“Let your blood mix with ours, your magic blend with our own, and our hearts love each other with abandon. Let the goddess bless this union of you and us and bring forth a new strength in our journey together. So mote it be.” The provost poured the blood onto the ground and turned to smile at Melody.

“So mote it be,” repeated Melody.

“Let me be the first to welcome you to our coven, sister.” She held out her arms to Melody, but Melody stumbled forward into them, unable to hold herself upright as the geasen on her began to break.

Melody had never felt pain like it. She screamed as the three major geasen recently laid upon her by her aunt, ripped themselves from her body. Outside the dome, a lion roared and a wolf howled, but nobody entered the circle, they couldn’t until the women had stepped out.

Hundreds more geasen followed the first, and pain lashed her nerve endings. To start with it was one at a time, but then it increasing tempo until it was a veritable torrent of torture. Melody’sbody bucked and shuddered as each one pulled itself free, like fishing hooks ripping out of her skin, although she knew it was a sensation rather than a reality, it didn’t make enduring it any easier.

In the near distance, there was a matching scream, and Melody knew that it was her aunt crying not in pain, but in frustration that her spells were being broken.

“They’re here,” she managed to say to the provost. Looking east, she could see where the sky grew brighter over the forest.

“Prepare yourselves for attack,” shouted the provost, still holding Melody up. “Can you stand, child? We need to leave the circle, I need to defend the academy.”

Melody tried to straighten herself, but her trembling limbs would not support her. She looked helplessly at her friend, just as a horrible screech sounded behind her.

“You fucking ungrateful bitch, you steal my birthright from me and now give it to another coven? I don’t fucking think so, I will have what is mine, even if I have to carve it from your skin, you little whore.” Aunt Georgia looked at the provost. “And you, you conniving hag, stealing her from us — from me! You, I will kill, slowly, and Melody, you will watch!”

She raised her hands and chanted something, bolts of electricity leaping from her fingers towards them both, but they bounced off the dome. Her aunt screamed in fury, saliva frothing at the corners of her mouth while she continued to shout insults at them both.

The four teachers who were witnesses were busy fighting battles with members of Bestia, while the shifters were locked in combat with the shifters her aunt had bought with her. Melody cried out when Craig, the puma shifter, fell lifeless to the ground at the feet of Dean’s lion, who had just broken the smaller cat’s neck.

“Don’t kill them,” she screamed. “They’re under compulsion, they’ve been ordered to fight, try to knock them out!”

Whether they heard her or not, she couldn’t tell. There was so much going on, shouts from the humans, screams from the animals, and her aunt’s voice yelling frantically above it all.

“Kill them all, fucking kill them all. If we can’t have these shifters, then nobody will!”

“Melody, I have to leave you here, you’re in no condition to fight, but I cannot stay safe here while people are dying for my college.”

Upslope, lights were turning on in the shifter’s dorms and voices called out the windows asking what was going on.

The provost pointed a finger at her neck, and then shouted, her voice amplified above the cacophony. “The academy is under attack. Send someone to rouse the staff, ring the bell in the central courtyard. Those shifters with combat training are called to come to the arena and defend the academy.” Then she lowered her hand, before lowering Melody to the ground.

“I am proud of you, sister. Stay here and rest, and we will sort this mess out for you, and then we will see where the dust settles.” She kissed the top of Melody’s head and then walked toward the southern point of the circle, opposite to where they had entered. Her aunt, seeing her foe about to leave the safety of the dome, ran around the edge of it to meet her.

Melody tried to protest, to call out a warning, but the pain still pummeled her to the ground, and her voice was lost in the noise around her. She needn’t have worried, however, as the provost raised a personal shield before stepping outside of the dome, turning to face the rabid witch who was racing toward her.

Just as the provost raised her arm to cast the first spell, Melody saw it, a wolf shifter approaching her at speed from behind. While he wasn’t able to penetrate her shield, it was connected to her, and his slamming against it propelled her forward, causing her spell to hit the ground at her aunt’s feet. Her aunt had no such problem with balance, she had no shield around her to jostle, and her spell launched forward at full blast when the provost’s shield flickered as she fell.

The curse hit the provost in the center of her chest, and Melody screamed as her torso simply exploded outward. The provost landed on her side, facing Melody, her eyes opened wide in surprise as they glazed over.

There was a scream, a sound of pain so primal that it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. It was two-toned, a deep bass note accompanied by a high soprano one. It took Melody a moment to realise that the high voice was hers, and when she turned, she saw that the bass note was Jonas.

Instantly he shifted to his lynx form and turned to rip at the body nearest to him. It wasn’t a wolf that Melody recognised, which meant it was more likely to be a student. The fact that the wolf didn’t turn to bite him back only confirmed it. Instead, the beast swung it’s rump around, lynx and all, and slammed it into the panther attacking him. The lynx simply turned and attacked the large cat, and between it and the wolf they took it down. Before the lynx could turn back to the wolf, another one barrelled into it from the side, and it fell, rolling with the canid and clinging to the wolf’s belly with his front paws, while digging away at the soft flesh with his back ones.

There was a stampede of beasts down the slope, and suddenly the attacking shifters were outnumbered three to one. Several of the students turned on the witches around them, until at last they broke and her aunt and the Bestia Coven members turned and fled through a portal, leaving their beasts behind. Within moments, the invading shifters were ripped to shreds, and Melody sobbed for them, for their slavery, for their bravery and for their loss.

She ached all over, and still the pain washed through her nerve endings as the last of the geasen were broken. No more compulsion to wash behind her ears, or to clean her belly button. No more urgency to dry between her toes, or finish a shower in less than three minutes. No more demands to cook and clean for her aunt before all others. No more, no more, no more. Every single, stupid, order; each command, each betrayal of her integrity, broke down to nothingness. It felt like every one took a piece of her soul with it.

Melody lay there on the damp ground, crushed, defeated and alone. She didn’t have the strength to crawl to the edge, and the others couldn’t get in to help her until she left the dome. They stood there, calling to her, signalling her to do something, but the ringing in her ears prevented her from hearing anything. All she could hear was the echo in her head of a two-toned scream of loss.

Something nudged Melody in the chest, and she looked down, expecting to see some creature come to feed on her. But there was nothing there. It struck again, and this time she felt it within her. It was magic. Looking up at her shifters, she saw Dean on his knees, a hand stretched toward her. Behind him stood the two dragons, each with a hand on his shoulder, right at the juncture of his neck, so their skin touched his. They were doing magic of some sort, she thought. Then it happened again.

A pulse came from Dean, straight toward her, pushing at her heart. Melody finally realised what was happening. They were forcing strength from Dean into her using magic, because she wasn’t drawing on him or Asher. She had forgotten that she could do that now.

Looking inward to where the magic was landing, and she could see two golden strands attached to her heart. Dean and Asher. Mentally, Melody took the magic lengths in her hands and pulled, drawing down on their energy. Outside the dome, Dean sagged and smiled in relief, while Asher came to sit beside him, a goofy smile on his face.

Melody drew from them again and again, using them to replenish her strength enough so she could finally crawl to the side. She extended a hand across the salt markings, and as soon as it breached the outer ring, it was grabbed by the dragons and she was hauled into their combined waiting arms.

The seven of them surrounded her, all of them touching her, holding her, stroking her as Melody sobbed her heart out. She had lost the closest thing to a mother that she’d had since she was a little girl, and all those dead shifters were like her family, aunts, uncles and cousins. They were all dead because of her.

“Sssh, Melody, no. It isn’t your fault, it’s your aunt, not you. She’s the twisted bitch who did this,” soothed Nick.

“I should have died,” she sobbed. “When I refused Dean, I should have gone through with it and died. I should have denounced her. The three big geasen together would have killed me.”

“No!” growled Dean. “You’re mine. You will not die. This is not your fault, nothing you did caused this. Stop, Melody. Let it go. Let all the pain out, and let us in.”

She could feel them, Dean and Asher by her side, still feeding energy to her, her body claiming it even if her mind no longer wanted to. Their hearts beat in time with hers, and their hands caressed her, soothing her in a way that nothing else would. Not even the other shifters.

“I don’t deserve any of you,” she sobbed.

“Gentlemen, let me through please,” said a stern voice, and a moment later, Mrs Hardinger came into view, a blanket in her hand. “Here, help me wrap her up, you lot can only give her so much warmth.”

She passed the blanket to the men, who carefully wrapped her in it, Dean pulling her onto his lap, and Asher cradling her legs.

“There, my lovely girl, I think you’ve dealt with quite enough tonight, close your eyes now and get some rest.” There was a snort from behind the witch, but Melody couldn’t see who it was, she couldn’t see anything because her body had listened and her eyes had closed. Even as she fought it, as she struggled with her overwhelming grief, she felt her mind drift away. It was magic, it had to be. They were sending her to sleep.

Guilty but grateful, she sank into darkness.