Inevitably Yours

MICHAEL

My phone call with Alpha Wilkes made two things apparent: First, the courtesy he had shown in handling the Jaxx situation was a front. He wanted it to look like he did me a favor, but he really didn’t care about one pack member. Wilkes probably even told him to remain in the pack land. Second, they knew exactly where Courtney was. They were setting me up, testing me to see if I would actually protect her, if my pack would rally behind me.

Nic made sure Courtney’s tracks were covered, going as far into Wild Paws as she dared to kill her scent. After the phone call, Quinn and I arranged lodging for the girl so she would be taken care of. Quinn wanted to bring her to the packhouse, but we just didn’t have proper accommodations for her yet. Luckily, one of the warriors was able to convince his parents to help.

I waited up all night, counting down until the sun rose. I expected something to happen, some retaliation, but I was met with nothing. I was on edge the whole next day, waiting for Wilkes to come after the girl. Quinn tried to calm me, but even her soft touch didn’t break the anxiety. Finally, exhaustion won over the next morning when everything was still.

I walked into our bedroom quietly; I’d been sitting in the living room all night to keep from waking Quinn. She stirred immediately, opening her eyes and smiling when she saw me. She opened her arms and gestured me towards her. It was too early for Quinn to actually use words, but I knew what she wanted. Dropping my shirt on the floor, I walked over and put my head against her chest, and she snuggled as close to me as she could as she let her nails graze my scalp. As tired as I was already, her fingers running through my hair felt like heaven. Her scent enveloped me like no one else’s could, and I was gone in seconds. They would have to wake me if Wilkes came; I knew Quinn was safe with me at least.

–

Several days had gone by with no word from Wilkes or anything from Wild Paws. The more time went on with no reprisal, the more on edge I became. Every knock on the door, every noise in the woods, and anything else that sounded wrong set me off. It was getting tiring. I was ready to go to Wild Paws and take care of it first. Courtney was still shaken, but now that we’d accepted responsibility for her, she seemed to be getting better. She was apologetic for bringing this trouble to our doorstep, but we all tried to assure her that it wasn’t her fault. I knew what I was getting into when I decreed Stary a safe place for people like her, at least I thought I did. I could never have guessed the first woman to show up would be a Beta’s mate, from Wild Paws at that.

Still, I wouldn’t turn her away, and I was glad she felt like she could come to Stary. I needed to get the pack back on its feet from what Lawrence did to it, but my mind was buzzing with different ideas for what we could do to help others if they came. There was the potential to add a building to the packhouse grounds that could serve as a dorm-style living arrangement for those that needed our help. It could provide safety and independence. When I mentioned the idea to Nic and Quinn, Nic surprised me with ideas of her own. She had visions of community gardens where we could cultivate crops for the pack. She thought it could help us to feed extra mouths but also give the she-wolves an avenue to learn useful skills that they could take with them if they chose to move on. Stary having its own reliable food supply was also beneficial and a means of revenue. When I suggested livestock, Nic got even more excited to discuss aquaponics and maximizing available land space for a meat supply.

Quinn being the more reserved of us, reminded me that we needed to do things in smaller steps. I tended to hyper-focus on an idea and blow it up way beyond our current resources. Even if it was frustrating to have her poke a hole in my sail, I was lucky to have Quinn to keep me grounded and build the ideas from the ground up. Nic put herself in charge of master planning the packhouse property so we could look at it together later.

–

We’d settled into a new routine of me training with Nic in the early morning, training the warriors and the little ones among other Alpha duties during the day, and then training with Quinn at night. I was trying to keep it from Quinn, but most days, I was completely and utterly exhausted at the end of the day. I hated the time away from her; more than anything, I just wanted to escape back into our love bubble. I wanted to be Alpha, but I wanted to be Quinn’s mate more. I enjoyed leading the pack and all the progress we were making, but at some point, I was going to need a long nap.

The sun was setting as I watched Quinn flawlessly perform Taegeuk two, the next belt level’s Poomsae. She’d mastered the first one so quickly that I just decided to keep going. She was by far my best student, including the warriors during the day. I was sitting in the grass, giving her direction, and my eyelids started to feel heavy.

“WAKE UP!” Eros screamed. I opened my eyes, realizing I’d dozed off, and Quinn let me stay asleep. She was lying next to me, drawing little circles on my chest, snuggled into my arm.

“You let me sleep?” I asked, annoyed at myself. It was dark out now, and I had no idea what time it was.

“It’s late, and you’ve been going since before dawn. It’s okay to sleep, Michael,” she chastised me.

“Pay attention,” Eros growled, bringing me back to him. I took a deep breath in, and I smelled it. Smoke. Something was on fire, and I could smell something else carried on the wind along with the smoke.

“Rogues,” Eros hissed. f**k, I shouldn’t have fallen asleep. I sat up quickly, and Quinn looked alarmed.

“There are rogues somewhere on the packland. I need you to get to the packhouse and lock yourself inside somewhere,” I demanded.

“Michael, I can help!” Quinn insisted with the unfounded confidence of a talented but untested martial artist.

“Quinn, do you trust me?” I asked her seriously, grabbing both her hands in mine and looking directly into her eyes.

“Always,” she affirmed.

“You aren’t ready, baby,” I told her seriously. “When you are, I will gladly walk into battle with you. Not right now. Please get to safety, so I don’t have to worry about you and link me when you’re there.”

“Fine,” she agreed, even though she clearly didn’t want to. “You better come back to me.”

“Always,” I agreed and leaned down to k**s her fiercely.

“If you see Nic-” I started to tell her to send me my Beta, but I was interrupted by her appearance.

“Here!” she called from a distance. “I was almost back when I smelled the smoke. I came for you as quick as I could.”

Nic had been out when Quinn and I came to train earlier. Quinn took off back toward the packhouse as Nic got to me, handing over my swords; she must have thought to grab our weapons before coming to find me. I needed to figure out how to carry these inconspicuously, so they weren’t always strapped to my h**s.

With Quinn out of sight, Nic and I took off toward the scent of the fire. What worried me the most as we moved was the direction the smoke was coming from. There was a small house near the edge of the packland where a single mother and her pup lived. The she-wolf, Andrea, had brought her pup Adi to my little warriors class on the very first day, telling me that her daughter wanted to be a strong warrior like her father. I didn’t question where that father was.

My stomach fell as we neared the small house. The entire structure was ablaze. Desperation started to cloud my judgment as I searched for the scent of either of the girls. The overwhelming smell of rot and rogues permeated the air, overpowering any other scents.

“I’m locked in our closet. Is everything okay?” Quinn’s voice chimed into my head. At least I could relax that she was safe. If the rogues set fire to the house, they were far enough away from the packhouse.

“I don’t know, love. I’m just glad that you’re safe. I’ll let you know as soon as I do.”

“I love you,” she said softly.

“I love you too, Quinn,” I told her earnestly. “I’m going to leave the link open for emergencies, but I need silence now.” This was the first time we had ever dealt with something like this; we were both scared.

Quinn didn’t reply, so I knew she understood. Smoke was hanging in the air, clouding our view of the house and yard. I hoped Andrea and Adi had gotten away. I didn’t want them caught in the fire or grabbed by a rogue; the situations were equally bad. The stench of rogue wolf was strong, so I figured we were probably dealing with more than a few.

“Do you think he sent them?” Nic linked, looking all around us.

“I don’t know, but we’ll find out,” I promised her. If this was Wilkes, he and I were going to have a problem. Orchestrating a band of rogues to attack my pack was cowardly.

I snapped my swords out of their sheaths, Safir and Diagne fitting perfectly in my hand. Their soft blue glow shined through the smoke, making it easier to see. Nic drew her karambits, and the green glow did much of the same. Nic hadn’t wanted Quinn to mess with her blessing since it was so rare, and neither of us blamed her. We were both trying not to cough, crouching low to escape the worst of the smoke.

“Stay with me,” I told Nic as I ran toward the house. This was probably a trap set for me, but I wasn’t going to leave any chance that my pack members were in danger. I wanted to make sure that they weren’t home first; it was impossible to decipher scents with the smoke and rogues.

We moved in the opposite direction the wind carried the heavy grey smoke, breaking through it near the source. My b***d boiled as we took in the scene near the burning home. At least twelve rogues stood around, the stench nauseating. They all wore tattered clothing and had depraved smiles full of rotting teeth. They had been rogues for a long time and were clearly feral. The worst was the two standing right at their center, holding knives to Andrea and Adi’s throats.

“Do not respond to this link,” I told them silently them. “When I give you the signal, I want you to run towards me.“ They blankly stared back, but my little warrior winked at me, despite having a knife to her throat and the fact that she was nine. Adi already had plenty of spunk and enthusiasm in classes; that kid would be scary after she survived this.

“What do you want?” I asked the group of assembled rogues, looking to see if they had a leader. The one with the knife to Andrea’s throat smiled at me, his teeth yellow with some of them missing. They looked sharp like he was somewhere between his human form and wolf. I wondered if he even knew the difference anymore.

“To teach you a lesson, Alpha,” he yelled. “You shouldn’t touch things that aren’t yours, or someone will touch things that belong to you.”

“So, Wilkes sent you?” I asked. If he was supposed to hide who sent him, he hadn’t bothered; I would be just as blunt. None of these rogues would leave this property alive, anyway. Wilkes had no idea who he was f*****g with.

“Maybe that’s the point,” Eros posited. “He doesn’t know, so he sent a pretty large assemblage of rogues to test our response.”

“Think I should leave one alive to tell him they were all killed by two people?” I asked him, agreeing that he was probably right.

“We run the risk of that rogue doing something else before it leaves the packland, but we can always follow it,” he said thoughtfully. I could still feel his bloodlust. “I’d say that’s probably our best course of action.”

“Yea, he sent us. Told us we’d be part of the pack if we took care of an upstart new Alpha. You don’t look like much, and there’s more of us than you. Drop the swords and s**t, come with us quietly, and we’ll kill these two quick. It’s more than I can say we’ll do for you.” His eyebrow raised as he looked Nic up and down. “We’ll definitely be taking our time with that one.” The small crowd laughed and jeered derisively, making lewd gestures at Nic beside me.

A growl unintentionally escaped my lips. It shut them all up, a few turning white as the b***d left their faces. Good, let them be scared. I took a step forward, drawing their eyes to me.

“I said drop your weapons!” the leader yelled, his voice panicked. I took another step, but I stopped as I saw b***d starting to run down Andrea’s neck. He’d started to cut her. He screamed again, “STOP!”

I heard them before I saw them make an impact. The whistling of Nic’s kunai whizzing by my head was like music to my ears. As soon as they passed me, I dug into the ground and launched myself forward in one leap. It was fast enough that everyone was still looking at where I was originally standing by the time I landed in front of the two cowards holding the girls at knifepoint. The kunai found an eye in each of their faces right as I arrived, and I graciously removed the limbs that held knives to the girl’s throats for the rogues. They shrieked at both of their injuries, spraying the girls with b***d. Adi still looked unphased, and Andrea wore a look of determined anger on her face. The bloody trail leading from her front steps to the place they kneeled told me she hadn’t been removed from her home quietly.

“GO!” I told them, swiping my swords over their head to back the rogues up. They both sprinted toward Nic, but one managed to snatch Adi’s arm as she ran before I could cut him down.

“KIAA!” Adi yelled, stepping back into an excellent stance and kicking out to the side of the rogue’s knee, crumpling it inward with a scream. His grip loosened, so she grabbed her own wrist with her free hand and used it to rip herself out of his grasp just like I’d taught her. She was off like a flash and safely at Nic’s side promptly. Andrea looked like she’d had enough, stopping in her tracks and turning around after watching her daughter fight off her attacker.

“Fighting with me?” I asked. She simply nodded and shifted, her clothes exploding as she stood shoulder height next to me, her growl clear that the rogues had made a mistake trying to hurt her daughter. I looked back at Adi, and I couldn’t imagine how I’d feel if she was my own pup; I was angry enough that they tried to hurt one of my little warriors.

“Can you get the girl to safety?” I asked Nic.

“You sure I should leave you?” she asked in return, kneeling down to let Adi jump onto her back.

“I’ll be fine. Get her to the packhouse and check on Quinn, please?”

“Done,” she told me. I heard her disappear into the trees and turned my full attention back to the rogues.

“You f****d up coming here,” I told them, looking around. Some were shifting, most staying in their human forms.

“f**k you,” their now one-armed leader cried out, clutching his ruined eye. “Kill them!”

A short rush followed, and I was soon covered in the b***d of our enemies. Limbs blanketed the ground, and it wasn’t long until rogues were begging for their lives. I silenced each one, removing their heads to drive in my point. Andrea killed several of them herself. The only one left at the end of our fight was the rogue who held a knife to Adi. Their leader died quickly, and he wasn’t one I’d want to leave alive anyways. Andrea stood over our final rogue, her teeth about to close on his throat.

“Wait!” I called out, stopping her. “I need him alive.”

I could tell she wasn’t happy, but she wasn’t going to disobey her Alpha. She shifted back and walked away to fume behind me. I kneeled next to the terrified rogue, “Tell Wilkes that if he ever sends anyone to Stary again, I will burn Wild Paws down around him. Do you understand?”

He nodded profusely, scrambled to his feet as well as he could with one hand, and dashed into the forest toward the border of Wild Paws. I could hear warriors arriving around us, and several walked into the clearing. Nic must have activated them. To be honest, I hadn’t even thought of it. I wasn’t used to having other people fight with me except for her. One of them draped a blanket over Andrea, and I asked them to escort her to the packhouse and Adi. The rest I sent to follow the rogue out and make sure he didn’t make any trouble along the way. I heard a fire truck pulling up with sirens on as the warriors left, and I let them do their thing as I went in the direction of the pack house. As I took off into the forest, the stench of rogues hit me hard again, and my hands went to the hilts of my swords. Then, I realized it was coming from four dead bodies with their throats cut out. Nic must have encountered more in the woods on her way home. I linked additional directions to the warriors to sweep the rest of the pack for any rogues that strayed from the chaos. I needed my eyes on Quinn to believe she was completely okay, Nic and Adi too.

“Let Wilkes know you’re alive,” Eros insisted. “The rogue can tell him what happened. Tell him yourself that you’re the Alpha here, and he f****d up.”

Setting my clothes to the side, I let Eros take over. The moonlight reflected from our fur as he sat back on his haunches, our muzzle pointed to the embodiment of our Goddess, and he let out a deep, ominous howl with every bit of our Alpha authority laced into it. Everyone in Stary and Wild Paws could hear; this Alpha wasn’t to be f****d with.