Their Angel (Book 3 of Wolfsong)

My Hero

Zane

Smirking, I turned the black cat decoration toward the shed Zuriel fixed at some point, snickering because Skarr blushed about his loss of temper. The relationship between angel and hellhound confused me, but I hesitated to learn enough to understand it. I knew Zuriel was a prisoner of Skarr's, for who knows how long, but the hellhound tormented the angel without physically harming him. Melody, my beloved mate, knew more since she rescued Zuriel. Something Skarr, her elder brother, encouraged her to do. He loves her, both because they are of Lucifer, and she is his master. Hellhounds cannot love until a heavenly blooded child names them, thus binding them together and keeping the hound out of trouble.

Because of their love's strength and depth, hellhounds cannot risk their behavior breaking their gentle masters' hearts. Melody and Skarr are the first hellhound and divine blooded pairing since the angels conspire to keep them from meeting. Ironically, the siblings are pawns in the manipulative game brewing between Lucifer and Gabriel. According to what Gabriel told Skarr, he is the reason Lucifer fell, with the elder angel oblivious to his devious younger brother's antics. With Melody's level of intelligence, I highly doubt that. Don't kid a kidder, right? That's what the humans say? Personally, I believe Lucifer knew all along and played on a nastier level than Gabriel. But to what end? I don't understand the end goal of either archangel.

Refocusing on my task, I smiled when this area of the yard looked spooky and ready for Halloween as Dad, our alpha, desired. While technically my stepfather, David was the only man who ever treated me like a beloved son. To repay his kindness and love, my twin and I tortured his daughter, who was a year younger than us, for a decade. Our mother is her father's mate. Mom is a werewolf, and Dad is the adopted son of Aurik, the bodulf, or alpha of the alphas. Our biological father kept them apart, which allowed David to fall in love with Melody's mother. She was a coldhearted bitch who mentally and emotionally abused her daughter until cancer took her life. Once Melody's mother passed, Mom couldn't take it anymore and killed the bastard who called himself my father so she could finally be with her mate.

Unaware of this, my brother and I hated David and Melody. Not only because we thought our father was Mom's mate due to the lies he fed us, but because the two of them were human. According to our father and uncle, that's the biggest sin any living soul can ever commit. I now realize that's utter trash, but Melody suffered because of my blind belief in the words they fed me as a pup. Our enjoyment of each heinous act only worsened the things we did. Now, all I feel is shame, despair, and disgust. Never again will I blindly believe the words of another. Hence why I refused to swallow the words Gabriel fed Skarr. I'm sure Gabriel thinks he's telling the truth, but I doubt he's right.

The night we planned something beyond unforgivable, my brave little mate looked into my eyes, and I discovered the gift the fates gave my brother and me. Our alpha once encouraged Asher and me to do something so horrible Melody would be terrified of us and wouldn't meet our eyes ever again. So, Asher broke every bone in her dominant hand, and I burned her precious sketches in front of her one by one. Looking back, it's painfully clear he knew we were mates and didn't want us to ruin his game of revenge on Mom for killing his little brother. What she wanted more than anything was a little girl with her mate, something she gained once she married and mated David. What better way to get revenge than to make the little girl she desperately wanted suffer and shrink from her in terror? My brother and I, not wanting to share her love with a pathetic human, made sure Melody was terrified of her from day one.

Six-year-old Melody was terrified of monsters, so my brother and I showed her our fangs and that our eyes turn red when we are angry. Once she screamed in terror, we told her our mother was only playing nice, so she would drop her guard, thus enabling Mom to eat her. It wasn't until ten years later that we learned how much having a daughter meant to Mom, nor how desperate Melody was for a mother who loved her. Her birth mother destroyed her self-esteem with glee. She even told lies to make Melody shy away from her father until he created a phrase to inform Melody he was innocent. That phrase allowed her to let him back in her heart after their decade of separation. We always had a lie ready when he called or stopped in between traveling for his job and kept them apart. Poor Melody was drugged so many times I'm amazed we never killed her with them. Otherwise, we shoved her in her closet, keeping her locked up until he left while telling him she was out with friends. We wrote him letters from Melody, so Dad never pushed to talk to her on the phone or see her. Our uncle was devious and cruel, and he used us to torment the most crucial person in our life.