Inevitably Yours

FELIX

That insolent witch. I moved around our cottage, shoving things into a bag. Haven just couldn’t listen, always sneaking off to get into something she didn’t need to be involved in.

I had been gone an hour to meet with my Alpha. Ironically, he threatened to kick us off the packland if Haven didn’t stop creating trouble. Every time she ran off before, she got in touch. She was never gone for more than two days. She had been out of touch for longer than that now. When I caught the rogue sniffing around, I knew it had to do with my mate.

The only person I could think to call was Michael. Haven’s sister was off somewhere playing with potions in the mountains, and there wasn’t anyone left for me. Michael owed Haven, and he was going to help me get her back; he had enough integrity to repay his debts. How he knew where to go, I would question later.

I slammed the door and tossed my bag in the air. I jumped, catching my bag in my maw. My paws hit the ground and sprung forward immediately. I would get her back, then chain her down to keep her from meddling if that is what it took.

MICHAEL

The drive was tense, and even with Quinn’s hand resting on my leg, I couldn’t shake the deep fear in the pit of my stomach that we were walking into something bad. I owed Haven, and even if I didn’t, I would have agreed to help her because of what she was doing.

Nic was a ball of emotion in the backseat, and I couldn’t tell which was winning out between the anger and sadness. The only thing she’d said since we got in the car was that he’d asked to mark her the last time they saw each other. The way she said it, though, I wasn’t sure if she was talking to herself or us.

My mind was racing with all of the possible situations we could face. This alliance spanned packs across multiple states south of us, so jumping into violence could decimate Stary, no matter how good our warriors were. We were still a medium-sized pack. I was confident we could win going to war with a pack or two, but not more than that. Still, hurting Haven couldn’t go unpunished. But then Quinn interjected herself into the situation, and I needed her to get home safely.

“There are no good options here,” Eros muttered, pacing in my head as the knot in my stomach grew tighter.

“She should have come to us directly,” I lamented. “We could have figured this out.”

“It sounds like she wanted to keep everyone else out of danger,” Eros replied wistfully. I could feel that he wanted me to get out of the car and run, but he didn’t press me. There was too much ground to cover, too many highways and cities between us. Traveling that far by wolf would also leave me fatigued when I got there.

Everyone in the car jumped at the unexpected sound of Nic’s phone ringing in the backseat. Her eyes darkened for a moment, but then she washed it away and put on a happy face to play her part, “Hey baby.”

I heard him ask how close we were.

“We’re about three hours out,” she said, looking over my shoulder at the GPS. “We’ve only had to stop for gas once, but we’ll probably have to again before we get there. We’re going as fast as we can without getting pulled over, though.”

His voice dripping with attitude, he chastised her for taking so long. I gripped the steering wheel harder to keep from snapping at him.

Nic’s carefully crafted expression cracked fractionally as her l*p curled and her nose flared, “We wouldn’t be taking so long if you had told me from the beginning you needed our help instead of going after the witch and then calling us. My Alpha can also hear you, so I expect you to show a modicum of respect. Your lack of preparation does not equal a failure on our part.”

Silence on the other end was all she received in response to snapping at the Beta, who clearly did not understand what he’d gotten himself into with Nic as a potential mate.

“I’ll let you go,” she said pointedly. “I don’t want my phone to die before we get there. Text me if you need anything else.” A string of mumbled Spanish profanities followed after she hung up, and she turned herself to look out the dark window.

“At least she isn’t letting him get away with it,” Quinn linked, squeezing my hand.

“I know. I just wish they’d never met in the first place,” I replied.

–

We were a few miles from the GPS coordinates we’d been given, so I pulled the car into the woods to allow us all to get out. Coming in by car wouldn’t allow us to get a sense of the situation before we arrived; we would be flying completely blind. I planned to have Quinn ride on my back to keep from giving away Sapphire’s unique coloring since these wolves were so distrustful of magic users.

Quinn made sure everything that we needed was strapped down, and she was on my back as soon as Nic finished shoving her clothes in our bag. I let Nic shift before looking over at her.

“You ready?” I asked, wanting to check in and make sure she would be able to handle what was to come.

“I’ll do what needs to be done,” she replied shortly.

“You always have,” I agreed, nodding my head to her. She stepped back and motioned for me to lead, so I took point and let Eros take control for the time being. We could smell wolves on the wind, but more troubling than smelling the familiar scent of Hunter, Stephen, and some of the other wolves I trained from their pack, we could smell the distinct stench of rogues. The feeling of something awful happening grew deeper within me, and I let caution go as I leaped forward and started sprinting toward the rogue stench. I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence it was in the direction we were going. Quinn lowered herself tighter to me, and Nic managed to keep up.

As we neared our destination, we were blowing past wolves, both shifted and not from the various packs, until I finally reached Hunter, who was watching something in the distance with a pair of binoculars. I shifted back as Quinn handed clothes to me and then Nic.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked as I ripped my shirt on and reached for my swords to buckle them onto me. “Why do I smell rogues?”

Hunter smiled wickedly at me as he handed me the binoculars, “It’s like you said in training; make sure you have an overwhelming advantage in any way you can when you go into battle.”

I grabbed the binoculars from his hand and looked in the direction he had been. What I saw made me sick to my stomach. Haven was standing in the middle of the smoldering remains of a small structure. She was bleeding from all over her body, and she was on her knees trying to shield something as she reached out with her remaining hand letting blasts of magic off into a crowd of rogues surrounding the building. I could see the pain etched into her face, and she didn’t look like she’d last much longer.

I didn’t have any time to waste talking to Hunter anymore; I had to save Haven.

“On me,” I yelled to the girls as I sprinted towards my fallen friend. I had to get there in time. I heard the assembled wolves cheer as we ran towards the woman they called their enemy. As I reached the rear of the rogues and began to cut through them, leaving a sea of b***d in my wake, they quieted. Their cheers for a comrade quickly turned to angry cries against an enemy.

“Haven!” I called out over the crowd. There were so many; I’d never even heard of this many rogues banding together before. Hunter must have promised them something.

“Michael?” Haven’s tired voice answered over the sound of melee around us. The next sound I heard would be engrained in my nightmares for the rest of my life. The woman who risked her life to help my mom and then helped me save Quinn screamed in agony, ending in a gurgle of what could only be her own b***d.

“Haven!” I screamed as I tore through the wolves keeping me from her. There was no more magic. No more explosions. No response. Haven wasn’t answering me.

As I broke through to the destroyed dwelling she was still within, I saw her clutching her throat. A quick glance backward told me that Quinn and Nic were okay. I ran to Haven, skidding on my knees to her and catching her as she lost her fight with gravity and collapsed. As she fell into my arms, I could see she was trying to shield a young girl, no older than nine or ten. The girl looked terrified, but I would have to worry about her later.

Haven’s throat was ripped to shreds, and she was choking and gurgling with each breath. “Please tell me you can heal yourself,” I asked panickedly. “There has to be something. Anything. You can’t….”

She touched her hand to my temple, and I could hear her as if she were linking me, “There’s nothing left I can do. I just need you to tell Felix I had to do this. I loved him still, and I will love him into the next life. Give him this.”

She ripped a pendant off her neck and closed it into my hand as I begged her to tell me what to do to save her. The light faded from her eyes as tears began to spill from mine. She wasn’t struggling to breathe anymore; Haven’s chest wasn’t moving at all. I reached up and closed her eyes before laying her gently on the ground. She was gone.

“Haven?” I heard a gruff voice call out from in front of me. I looked up to see Felix trying to say something, but no words would come out.

“Alpha Michael, what is going on here?” Hunter called out as the party of Alphas and their pack members poured into the area around us, the rogues now nothing more than piles of bloody meat at the feet of Quinn and Nic, who were breathing heavily but still ready for more. They stepped back until they were within the destroyed building with me, their weapons still bared.

“This woman was my FRIEND,” I roared. I wanted to kill him. I needed it. He had to pay. Hunter’s face blanched, and the wolves around him remained silent. Felix was already gone. He’d gone after Hunter, but before Felix could reach him, he was intercepted by several other wolves.

B***d splashed Felix’s face as he let his claws out and used them to cut one of their throats before plunging his fist into the chest of the next. Another wolf caught him with a hard punch to his jaw while Felix tried to pull his arm free, dropping him to one knee. Growling came from all around him, and wolves started to surge toward Felix to put him down. I rushed forward, using the flats of my blades to sweep the legs from under the wolves around Felix and then shifting to using the pommels to strike out and drop those who persisted. This ended with me standing between a panting and injured Felix; Quinn flanked us, and Nic was holding onto the girl Haven had been protecting.

“I’m not going to tolerate an attempt on my Alpha’s life,” Stephen growled.

“I’ll send you back to your Alpha in pieces if you take another step toward me, you geriatric f**k,” I returned, pointing Safir toward him.

“Felix, I want to kill them all as much as you do, but I can’t start a war for Stary,” I called over my shoulder. This would get him killed if he persisted.

“f**k your pack!” he spat. “You owe her. You have to help me!”

“She said she loved you, Felix,” I said quietly. “That she had to do this, but it doesn’t mean she loved you any less. She wouldn’t want you throwing it away dying here.”

“I DON’T CARE ABOUT DYING IF I TAKE THEM WITH ME,” Felix roared, trying to step to his feet.

“Put him down,” I directed Quinn, needing to stay between the other wolves and Felix without turning around.

“I’m sorry,” Quinn whispered before using her sai to crash into both of his temples, dropping him into unconsciousness.

“We’re leaving,” I told Hunter as calmly as I could muster. “And I’m taking him with me.”

“We can talk this out,” Hunter tried to reason.

“I know what she was really helping with. We have nothing to talk about. You murdered an honest woman because you wanted to preserve your ability to mistreat your pack members.”

“How dare you….” he hissed at me.

“I’ve talked to the servant Haven helped escape Timbering Towers. Don’t even try to lie about it,” I told him, narrowing my eyes. “If it weren’t for Haven’s mate here and the little one, I’d kill all of you myself; our packs be damned. Instead, I’m leaving and sparing your lives in return for theirs.”

Hunter seemed to be struggling to make a decision as one of the other Alphas stepped forward, “He doesn’t speak for all of us. That b***h got what was coming to-”

A kunai whistled by me, burying itself into the Alpha’s face right between his eyes. He looked confused for a moment, cross-eyed and trying to see what was in his face before he dropped.

“We weren’t asking,” Nic said gravely from behind me.

A wolf rushed towards us; I assumed his Beta. He shifted as he jumped over the crowd toward me. His head flew in the direction of his Alpha as the large furred body hit the ground at my feet, adding to the c*****e from the rogue battle before.

“Anyone else?” I asked, looking around at those assembled with jaws dropped at the display of force they weren’t expecting even after the rogue decimation. Rogues were one thing; easily killing an Alpha and his Beta was another.

“Go,” Hunter choked out. “We won’t interfere.”

I slid my swords into their sheaths and slung Felix’s massive form over my shoulder. Quinn walked over to Haven, and, as gently as she could, lifted the witch into her arms. She carried Haven carefully in front of her as Nic grabbed the young girl’s hand and led her after us. As we reached the woods again and had enough separation from our new enemies, we shifted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

At the car, we pulled clothes on and dressed Felix’s wounds until he woke up and stopped us. He had a serious gash over his eye that wouldn’t stop bleeding. Taking a look at his mate lying lifeless on the ground, he shifted and picked her up in his mouth before disappearing into the trees opposite the direction we had just come. I pulled the pendant from my pocket, unsure what to do now that Felix had run off with Haven’s body. I just felt… numb.

“Nicole!” a voice called out from the darkness. I growled and stepped toward it, but Nic held up a hand to stop me as Stephen came into view. “You’re leaving? After all of that?” he asked, a mixture of humiliation and pain fighting within his face. “You can’t just go!”

“I don’t belong to you, Stephen,” she said firmly, looking him in the eye. “I should have listened when the Goddess didn’t choose you for me.” She opened the car door and helped the little girl before climbing in beside her. Before she closed the door, Nic looked at Stephen one last time, “Don’t call me again.” The door snapped closed, and Stephen stared at Nic behind it.

“Stay out of Stary,” I demanded. It was over, and I didn’t have to pretend to be okay with him being around anymore.

“She’ll come to her senses, and I’ll be back for her,” he insisted.

“Step foot in our pack again, and you will leave in pieces,” Quinn said in a calm but clearly serious tone.

“f**k all of you. You can have her!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air in exasperation as he left us.

I leaned against the car, needing a moment to rest and calm the adrenaline spiral still coursing through my body. Haven was gone, Felix was missing and angry, and we’d certainly made enemies today. Where did we go from here?

Quinn pulled the keys from my pocket and looked up at me before standing on her tiptoes to k**s me, “We’ll figure it all out, but why don’t you let me drive home?”

“What would I do without you?” I asked her, dropping heavily into the passenger seat as the weight of all that happened hit me in the chest like a hammer.

“Let’s go home,” Quinn said softly. I looked back to see the little girl fast asleep in Nic’s lap. We’d have to figure out a home for her when we got back.

“Please do,” I agreed, closing my eyes and letting Quinn drive us away.