Inevitably Yours

QUINN

I sat on my office floor, playing with Junior. When we returned from the Haven situation, Melvin couldn’t hand him over fast enough. He seemed more interested in giving his grandpup back than the problem we were just brought into. He was starting to be awake a little more throughout the day but still had a grumpy attitude most of the time. His innocent little face was a complete distraction before his crying started.

Nic didn’t talk to us when we first got back. She silently went about taking care of the small girl Haven had been trying to rescue. The girl told us a similar story to Rhea about being born into slavery essentially. Nic and Andrea found a family to take her in the next day, but Nic had been solemn since.

I wiggled Junior’s legs and made silly faces at him. “You know Dad has so much to do today. We have to be good so we don’t bug him,” I said to my pup. He just smiled as I stuck my tongue out at him. Michael was cold when we first got back. Haven’s death was hard on him, but he was slowly coming back. He was a little over a week out from leaving for a class for the first time since Junior was born, so he had a lot to do.

“Um, Q?” Nic’s voice said. I looked up from the floor to see her standing in the doorway. I tried to give her space since we got back. Judy mentioned she wasn’t eating much, so I made sure there were wrapped meals in the packhouse kitchen and took small snacks to her bedroom to leave on her nightstand.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Can I talk to you?” she whispered. I furrowed my brows but nodded and waved her in. She looked down at Junior, but he didn’t bring an automatic smile to her face like usual. I tempted him with one of his ring rattles and got him to start chewing on it.

Nic shut the door behind her as I stood. “What’s going on?” I asked her.

“Do you have any of those tests left?” she said, her eyes darting back down to Junior, still on his little blanket.

“Wait…” I said, looking down at my pup and then back to her. “Why do you think you’re pregnant?”

“Shhh!” she said, waving her hands at me. “I don’t know! I just….” She exhaled and dropped her face into her hands. I came over to her and pulled her hands away.

“Start from the beginning. Tell me what’s going on,” I said.

“Well, Stephen wanted a pup, but I was still on the fence. Little Michael is a doll,” she said. I had to roll my eyes at that. He was a doll in a few select hours of the day and usually for his Aunty Nic. “I love my little nephew so much. Thankfully, Stephen and I didn’t mate. I stayed on my anti-heat pills all the time. But yesterday and today, I woke up sick.”

“Did you miss a few days of the pills or something? I think that can throw it off,” I asked.

She pulled the packet out of her pocket and handed it to me. I looked down at them, confused. Every anti-heat pill I had ever seen was a tiny, pink, circular pill. These were little white ovals. “Um, Nic, these look different….”

“Yea, Stephen ran into the pharmacy for me one day he was here. He said they were a new brand or something,” she shrugged. I went to my desk and booted up my computer. I had seen something like this before. After a few minutes of searching, I found what I needed.

“These aren’t anti-heat pills….” I told her delicately. “These are allergy pills for humans. They stop them from sneezing when they spend too much time in nature or something like that.”

“No, that can’t be right,” she said, coming around the desk. I pointed to the screen where there was a photo of the same pills. “No…”

“How long have you been taking these different ones?” I asked her.

“Too long… “ she said. Her face just looked horrified. “But, it doesn’t make sense. We aren’t mates, and he isn’t an Alpha. It’s so hard to get someone who isn’t your mate pregnant.”

“But not impossible,” I reminded her. She fell back into my chair.

“Q, I think I’m pregnant with Stephen’s pup….”

–

“He will be fine. You practically tossed him at my dad and ran out of the house to help Haven. We can take an hour to go to the blessing grounds,” Michael said, tugging my hand. We fed Junior and got him settled in his little rocking chair. Once he was asleep and under the dutiful eyes of Judy, Michael rushed me out to try blessing the training weapons again. He was adamant it was time to kick training up among our warriors. Melvin agreed that Stary should get back to the traditions it had strayed from.

“I just worry. What if he starts crying and doesn’t want Judy?” I reasoned. After Melvin’s attitude when we returned, I was hesitant to leave Junior with anyone.

“It’s fine. She will link us. Remember what she said. Pup fine, Alpha Daddy and Luna Mommy go,” Michael said.

We got everything set up at the blessing ground, but M seemed stiff when we stood in place to start the blessing. “Everything okay?” I asked as he looked around.

“Yea,” he said distractedly. “Let’s do this.”

“By the grace of the moon and her strength, let these blades cut through those that seek to bring harm. By the grace of the skies and her wisdom, let this binding protect those that seek justice. By the grace of the earth and his mercy, let this blessing hold true and straight until the b***d of the Luna returns to him.”

Before Michael’s teeth sunk into me, something felt different. A whisper of something prickled across my skin like someone invisible was trying to reach me. As we finished the blessing, it felt like something was igniting in me, a ripple effect from deep inside.

The swords on the altar drew in the b***d as we expected. But then, they began to rock erratically like the ground was shaking. That feeling coming out of me grew even as Michael withdrew his teeth. A blue glow emitted from the swords; everything slowed down. Michael’s arms wrapped around my center, and I was yanked back, toppling over onto my mate. He covered my head as he rolled to put me between him and the altar. I heard loud splintering, then a beat of silence before the sound of Michael’s breathing filled the space.

“What happened?” I tried to ask with my face pressed into the ground.

“You didn’t move. I shouted right in your ear,” Michael said, pushing up enough to allow me to move.

“You didn’t say anything,” I told him, confused. Michael sat back, and I pushed up into a sitting position. He just watched me with a strange expression. “What?”

He stood and went to the altar. He picked up one of the swords, well, half of it. “What the hell happened to that?” I asked, scrambling to my feet. All the swords were more or less the same.

“Your blessing, it like blew them up,” Michael said, observing the swords. “I pulled you back before they splintered right into us.”

“I did that?” I asked, dumbfounded. Michael nodded. “How?”

“Your magic seems to be off the charts. Did it feel different?” he asked.

“Well, sort of,” I admitted. I tried to explain my weird feelings as I performed the blessing even before he bit me. He listened intently, but his concern only increased as I went.

“Whatever happened, you broke the swords,” Michael concluded.

“So, do you think having Junior somehow unlocked more magic in me?” I asked him. I never really felt all this magic stuff; it just happened. Most of my cooking seemed to completely rejuvenate the consumer. It seemed to have been a little sporadic while I was pregnant but now that Junior was here, all seemed back to normal.

“I don’t know, but this could be a problem,” Michael frowned. “I think I should probably do this myself for now. They’ll still be strong.”

–

I left Michael to bless the weapons, but I had an odd feeling all the way back to the packhouse. I went upstairs to our floor, where Junior was still sleeping peacefully in his swing, and Judy was doing the dishes. “You really don’t have to do those,” I linked her, wanting to keep quiet. I wanted to pick Junior up and hold him close, but it was better to let him sleep.

Judy waved me off and kept going. “Luna Mommy so busy. I wash dishes.”

“You’re too good to us,” I smiled at her. I gave her a hug from the side and then went to sit at the table where I left my laptop. While I had a minute of relative peace, I decided to do a little research.

Humans, of course, had all sorts of legends and myths about all sorts of magical creatures. They believed werewolves to transform into gnarly wolf beasts with the moon cycle. Our kind even exaggerated some of the stories passed around to keep them off our tails. But behind all the folklore was some crumb of truth if you could find it.

I started looking up information on Fae to see what information was even available on them. If I was supposed to be of strong Fae b***d while also being a wolf, there had to be something that could help explain how my magic supposedly worked somewhere.

“This won’t get us anywhere,” Sapphire said, being pessimistic.

“You don’t know that. There could be something in all of this,” I said as I clicked through website after website. There were so many search results for ‘fae literature.’

“We need another hybrid. They would be more reliable,” she decided.

“Well, I’m sorry, but there aren’t many of those running around. Even if there were, I imagine that wolves aren’t too kind to them. Michael didn’t want me to shift in front of all those other packs for a reason,” I reminded her.

Sapphire huffed and ignored me. Before I knew it, hours had passed, and Michael was coming up the stairs for dinner. Junior had miraculously stayed asleep the entire time. “Weird to see you not cooking,” Michael said, coming over to the table.

“Oh, no, what time is it? I’ll put something together,” I said, shooting up from my seat. Michael yanked my arm and smiled, planting me back in my chair.

“Judy mentioned you were working hard. She offered to make us dinner, but I sent her home and ordered a pizza,” he said. I smiled back at my thoughtful mate. He looked tired and stressed but also relieved to be in our space again.

“Want to cuddle on the couch until it arrives?” I asked, looking at Junior. Michael followed my gaze.

“How long has he been out?”

“The whole time,” I sighed. “Looks like I’ll be on night duty tonight.”

Michael stood, and I followed, gravitating to his arms. He kissed the top of my head, and I basked in his warmth. The weird feeling I had after my failed blessing hadn’t entirely gone away until he touched me. “Well, if this turns into more than one night, I’ll tap in tomorrow. Now, what were you researching so intently up here?”

–

I told Michael about some of the stuff I found while researching about Fae. We had a good long laugh about some of the fantasy books I had discovered that were rated for adult content. When he came upstairs, I was slightly absorbed in the second chapter of one.

I stayed in the living room with a fussy Junior while Michael went to bed that night. We did everything I could think of to keep him calm and lure him back to sleep, but none of it worked. At one point, I slid him into the baby carrier and walked around the living room, gently bouncing him while I read from one of my school books.

Early in the morning, I finally got him to sleep and was ready to climb into bed with my mate for a short nap. I checked my phone to see a text message from my mother. Since Junior was born, she had been talking to me more frequently. She would ask how we are doing, how the pup is, how training is going, etc. Everything was kept very casual.

MOM

| Quinny, your father and I want to be a part of your life. We want to meet your pup. Please think about coming to dinner with us one night.

I sighed. I wanted it to be that easy; everything that happened just pushed into the past. I wanted my mom around. Every time I had a question about pup-related things, I asked Andrea because she was the closest person to me raising one. I could probably let things go if they genuinely tried to be better, but I wasn’t sure Michael would.

I snuck into our room. M was sprawled on his back across the whole bed. I climbed up next to him and laid my head on his chest, getting comfortable. “Mmm, what’s wrong?” he mumbled sleepily.

“Nothing, just getting to bed finally,” I told him. “Go to sleep with me for a bit.”

He rolled over and pulled me into him. “Something’s bothering you,” he said, eyes still closed.

“We’ll talk about it later,” I promised, my eyes drooping. I just wanted a few peaceful hours with the warmth of my Michael surrounding me.