Melody

2:20

"I wasn't expecting you home yet." Melody said with a smile on her face as she stretched the sleep from her body, toes pointing to the footboard, while her arms stretched over her head while her spine and shoulders cracked in a way that always made Alexander worried she was breaking apart on him.

"I couldn't stay away from you." Alexander told her, completely honest.

He moved to lay against the headboard, Melody cuddled up into his side, his arm around her shoulder. "I missed you," she said. Tracing a finger over his chest.

They didn't have time for anything else. James woke up and kicked their door open without warning, as Ansley started to cry out as her sleep ended from the loud thuds caused by her brother. Melody got up, snatching the robe from what was referred to as her "dressing chair" where clothes languished when she wasn't sure what to wear. Before throwing a pair of shorts at Alexander as she delayed James by telling the sweet intelligent two year old that he should go potty after waking up.

James smiles and toddled to the main bathroom, everyone absolutely joyful that his bed was dry this morning. Ansley was nearly swimming in her diaper. Melody couldn't believe her sweet, easy going girl was going to be a year old next month. It didn't seem possible that so much time had passed.

After a few extra moments cuddling as a family in the big bed, Melody rushed everyone through the rest of their morning routines. Well the last of ones that would be like this anyways. It was the last day of class. Melody only had exams left after today. Alexander was relieved it had gone as well as it all had.

Melody's friend's were almost certainly mostly human according to Guillermo. He suspected at least one witch, but couldn't completely prove it. Not yet. But even if Delia was a witch she was on the right side of things at least. Melody had excelled at returning to in class learning after testing out of high school early. Alexander was so proud of her. She had a couple jobs lined up, one that was also interested in hiring all of her friends, Delia, Minnie, and Ruby all had paid internships at the new company with an option to continue in a full time role after the credit was earned. Even Rena apparently had accepted a job as a front desk clerk while she continued to work on her possible dance career.

Melody was in such a good mood that it was infectious and Alexander forgot that he had felt Melody's fear last night, forgot that he wanted to ask what had scared her. He didn't remember until she was already gone and he was on his way to his counselling appointment. But he still put it out of his mind, Melody and the kids and the entire pack had been perfectly safe the entire time he was gone. There wasn't even a dust bunny out of place in their apartment. It was almost certainly just a bad dream he had felt from Melody. It was over so quickly. It could be nothing else.

Melody was in such a good mood after Alexander's surprise, that she had completely forgotten about the strange realistic dream she had had. It was so strange. It had felt so real at the time. She heard Ansley stir in the night, and was going to offer her a bottle, trying to wean her away from breastfeeding, but when she got to the room still bleary eyed with sleep she had been certain she had seen a tiny wolf puppy, with dark fur and adorable white booties just like Alexander's wolf. But as Melody had scrubbed her eyes and looked again, there was Ansley, but she had taken off all her clothes. Melody had quickly tidied everything back up, put Ansley in a new sleeper, rocked her back to sleep and tucked her back in and returned to bed. Falling asleep quickly, ignoring the weird and focusing on the normal.

It had been such a strange dream, wolves didn't shift until they were teenagers, the elders said it was a gift that James seemed to already be able to communicate with his wolf in his mind. So, because she was in such a good mood after Alexander's pleasurable wakeup, she never noticed that the sleeper Ansley woke up in, wasn't the one she went to bed with. Or that the diaper she had put in the diaper genie while half asleep had been shredded apart, not taken off by a precocious child with busy fingers. Forgetting the strange midnight memory entirely.