Chapter 257 - His Mate or His Girlfriend

“I don’t want to go home,” Melanie admitted in a small voice, her finger lightly grazing her son’s small stomach through the hole in the plastic incubator. “I want to stay here with him.”

Brad had been in and out all day, attending to pack matters and helping to form plans. But finally, he’d arrived to convince Melanie to go home. She was exhausted. Maria’s spells weren’t working and Melanie needed to be at full strength if they intended to dive into another fight tomorrow.

“You need to rest,” Brad reasoned. “They said he’ll be here for at least a month. You can’t live in the NICU.”

Melanie winced. She wanted to take him home with her. But her shoulders slumped in defeat as she realized Brad was right. She allowed him to lead her away after she pressed a kiss to the incubator and maybe it was just her imagination but she felt as if Jason was telling her not to go. To stay…

Melanie sniffled. The doctor had told her that her hormones might be all over the place. Giving birth and then adding the stress of everything going on around her made her high risk for PPD. But she had to be strong for her son, for her people. It felt right, going to Brad’s cabin instead of her coven headquarters. Brad fussed over her, bringing her water and her vitamins before tucking her into bed.

“Will you lay with me?” Melanie asked in a small voice.

She was so frazzled and exhausting, his presence wasn't calming her the way it usually did. And he still smelled like Maria which irked Melanie. When Melanie had confronted Maria earlier, she'd simply smirked and said Brad was cute.

Brad stiffened momentarily, almost hesitant to join her but then kicked off his shoes and wrapped his arms around her. The bedcovers separated them and though Melanie was tired, she sensed that he wasn’t relaxing against her like he usually did.

“I’ve got to go check out the summoning site in an hour or so,” Brad whispered, smoothing back Melanie’s hair. “But I’ll be back before you wake up,” he vowed solemnly.

“I wish none of this was happening. I wish we’d been able to bring Jason home and a demon wasn’t about to wreak havoc on this world,” Melanie murmured before sinking into a deep sleep she sorely needed.

She felt safe here in her mate’s house. As if nothing could harm her.

“Me too,” Brad responded to a sleeping Melanie.

When he was sure she was fast asleep, he extricated himself from her and got up. An uncharacteristic look of concentration passed his features as he stepped out of the room and opened up a portal to step through. He arrived at the site of the crater where the real Brad was standing grimly with crossed arms.

“She didn’t suspect it was you?” the real Brad asked solemnly.

Maria’s skin bubbled, her features moved around and her hair grew in length to reveal her true form.

“That’s a pretty crummy thing to do to your mate,” Maria finally said. “You should have been the one to take her home.You used me to trick her. I simply touched you earlier as an excuse to be able to use your form, but definitely not for tricking Melanie. This is all on you when she finds out what you did."

Brad passed a weary hand over his face, looking down at the creater.

“He’s about to arrive any minute and I didn’t want to risk Melanie throwing herself into the line of fire. She just gave birth yesterday! You think she can take on a demon?”

“But she wouldn’t be alone,” Lana argued, stepping forward from next to Tony. “We’re all here and we’re stronger together.”

“Enough,” Tony said sharply, placing a hand on Lana’s shoulder. “It’s his mate and his choice. The coven also agreed that this was the best course of action to preserve their leader. Her firsborn is a son but the Earth Witch gene is passed on from mother to daughter. If she has a daughter, there is a high probability she will have that gene. To preserve their leadership, her coven agreed to this. It’s not only Brad’s decision. And we have to respect the decision of our allies.”

Lana shot Tony a dirty look. They’d had a big argument already where Tony had wanted her to take their newborn son and toddler and hide. But Lana was a fighter. She’d fight till the death and she trusted Rose, the pack’s luna to care of her children if anything happened to her. Lana had her responsibilities to fill as a pack warrior and she’d known what she’d signed up for when she became one.

Tony’s hand went down to grasp Lana’s in his.

“I love you,” Tony whispered tenderly. “We’ll take him down together Lana. And then we’ll go home to out kids.”

Lana’s gaze softened. The earth shook.

Brad tensed.

“He’s coming,” Brad growled.

A spiral of fire shot out of the crater and slowly formed into the shape of a man before their very eyes. Out of the flames stepped a red-skinned man with a pointed face. His eyes were black and his teeth pointed like a vampires.

“I see you’ve been waiting for me,” he said in a deep baritone voice, his chin legnth black hair fell in his face.

If he hadn’t been evil, he might have been cute, Aria couldn’t help but think to herself. But there was no time for such fanciful notions. Immediately, Aria threw up her hands, throwing a handful of explosives in his direction.

Maria shot streams of electricity towards from the palm of her hands. The wolves shifted, each running towards him, ready to strike once his attention was fixated on fending off the witches and their attacks. But the prince of hell chuckled, disappearing in a puff of smoke only to appear behind Aria, knocking her unconscious.

Back in her cabin, Melanie slept on peacefully, turning on her side. Unable to realize that she’d been slipped a sedative to make sure she slept on.

“Wake up Melanie…wake up.”

A voice called out to her. Melanie was surrounded again by complete darkness. It was similar to the dream she’d had earlier where she could hear voices but everything was dark. Except this voice was familiar.

“M…Mom?” Melanie whispered out.

"I love you Melanie. You need to wake up. They don’t know how to defeat Asmodeus. But you do."

"What?” Melanie murmured in confusion.

“You have been gifted with the power of the oracle Melanie,” Carey’s voice said lovingly. “It is your gift as an Earth Witch. But you need to learn to use that power. Maria will help you. I don’t have much time. You need to wake up and help your people…your mate…”

“How…how are you here? I miss you so much!” Melanie exclaimed. “I need you,” Melanie’s voice cracked on the admission.

“I’m so proud of you and of the woman you’re becoming. I know whatever you decide to do in life, it will be on the side of right. That’s all I ever wanted. I wish I could be there to guide you into motherhood, to help you with your son,” Carey’s voice became misty. “But Melanie, I’m always here for you. I never left you. Draw your power from that knowledge.Draw your strength from my love.”

“I love you too Mom!” Melanie cried out into the dark.

“I need to go but please…use your power to stop him. Only you know how to stop Asmodeus..” Carey’s voice faded away into an echo.

Melanie’s eyes opened as a crack resounded around her. But she wasn’t in the cabin anymore. She was somewhere else…in an unknown room. The door slid open and a female warrior entered.

“We were instructed to move you into the safehouse,” the female warrior said entering Melanie’s room. “My name is Olivia, I’m a warrior of the Crimson Pheonix Pack.”

Melanie looked around frantically as she tried to digest exactly what had happened.

“And I’m Luna Rose,” said a gentle voice, coming in behind Olivia. “I’ve heard so much about you Melanie and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Melanie looked at Luna Rose who was wearing hospital scrubs. She looked to be around 23 and was pretty with deep auburn hair falling in curls around her. Melanie knew Rose had a daughter, Elena and a son, Xander. As if on cue, a 6 month old boy peeked out from behind Rose’s legs. He was the spitting image of Alpha Xavier. Melanie's heart twanged as she yearned for her own son.

“Luna Rose…where’s my son?” Melanie rasped out.

“Please call me Rose. We’re practically family. And Jason is here. We managed to set up a hospital as part of the safe house. We’re looking after him. He’s still on the ventilator. I’m also training to be our pack doctor so I'm looking after him personally.” Rose added. "Don’t worry, Brad told me to make sure I take care of his son and even if he hadn’t, I would have made sure he was given the best care available.”

Melanie stilled, realizing that this had been Brad’s plan. Thinking back to her interaction with Brad earlier it became all too clear that things had been off. She’d been too frazzled and exhausted to realize it before but she hadn’t felt their mate bond. He’d smelled off but she’d thought that was just because of Maria.

Melanie’s eyes hardened as the truth sunk in that Brad still didn’t think she was capable of fighting by his side. She was getting tired of this trying to protect each other crap. They were equals and if she had to be honest, she was stronger than him. To try and fight without her was a fatal mistake.

“You just gave birth, please be careful,” Olivia said quickly, as Melanie shot out of bed.

“I need to get out of here,” Melanie pleaded, looking straight at Rose. “They’re going to die if I can’t figure out how to help them!”

Rose looked at Melanie, biting her bottom lip uncertainly. She was the luna and had complete autonomy when it came to the well-being of the people in the safehouse.

“I need to figure out what an oracle is!” Melanie explained frantically. “I seriously don't have time to waste here. Somehow I have to use the power of the oracle to save them. You need to help me if you want your alpha and pack warriors to live.”

Rose’s eyes widened in surprise as she realized what she had to do next.