Inevitably Yours

QUINN

CRASH!

“You have got to be kidding me!” I screamed from upstairs. Something was probably broken if I could hear Michael and the kids downstairs. Rowan fussed in my arms.

“Nothing’s really broken,” Michael linked me.

“Broken or really broken?” I demanded.

“It’s all fine down here!” he returned. I headed toward the stairs.

“Who is bleeding?” I linked Nic. Michael had Junior, Diane, Belle, and Daniel all playing in the living room when I left him.

“No one from the sound of it. I’m in the kitchen. I think Daniel is crying, though, but like the I want attention cry, not I’m actually hurt cry,” she answered.

“I asked Daddy to take them for twenty minutes, and he is breaking the packhouse,” I sighed at Rowan. “What are we going to do with all of them?” He just smiled at me. He grabbed my face in his hands and planted a wet, sloppy k**s on me as I stormed down the stairs. “This is why you are Mommy’s sunshine,” I smiled as we rounded the corner to the living room.

“Sumsine!” he cooed. He still hadn’t lost that puppy speech. I stopped to look at what was happening. There were no cushions on the couch. Junior, Belle, and Diane were on Michael’s back as he held himself over Daniel, who still had tears in his eyes. There were toys strewn everywhere, and a shelf was knocked over. Michael looked up at me like he was caught.

“It’s fine!” he said quickly. Nic came up behind me.

“You five are putting it all back. We just had everything put away nicely this morning,” Nic growled.

“Yes, Auntie Nic!” Junior and Belle called while Diane hollered, “Sure, Mom!”

Michael smiled devilishly and winked at me. I looked at Junior, who also winked. Junior was a replica of Michael; it was hard to believe he was only a few months away from turning ten. Belle was eight, Daniel five, and Rowan not far from three. I certainly never expected a small team of Galbraiths.

Rowan wiggled to get down and play with everyone else. I obliged, letting him join the rest of his family. He was the tiniest of all my pups, so even at two and a half, he wasn’t much effort to pick up. Nic and I watched the doorway as it became Michael, Daniel, and Rowan against the others. They romped and wrestled around, creating more chaos in the living room.

“Now we just need Adi, and it’s a perfect storm,” Nic commented.

I shook my head. “That kid has far too much energy. Poor Andrea.” Nic laughed, nodding her head. My phone rang in my pocket. I pulled it out to see it was Enrique. “Hey, Enrique. How’s it going?”

“Good evening, Luna. Is Alpha going to be ready to leave in the morning?” he asked. Michael was still gone one to two weeks a month, training people or working assignments.

“He should be. I already packed his stuff,” I told him. “He’s playing with the pups right now. Did you need anything else?”

“Nope. I just dropped off some checks to Jacqueline for you from clients. I heard the new sales manager already roped in a few hot leads. He’s been knocking down doors for like two weeks; that’s impressive,” Enrique said. While Michael still did plenty of training, Enrique was the training manager now over both outside and inside training.

“Yea, I think he will do well. I am going to need some fresh accounts after all the lawsuits Wesley got us wrapped up in,” I told him. “I’m really glad we let him go.”

“Me too. He was driving away my clients, too,” Enrique complained. We had already been through this a thousand times. It took way too long to replace him, unfortunately.

“I know. And I apologize again for all that. We shouldn’t have let it go on so long,” I promised. “We’re headed in the right direction now.”

“I know. I have confidence in you both,” Enrique said.

“Alright. I have mini-Alphas wrecking the packhouse. I’ll talk with you later,” I said.

“Good luck!” Enrique said in goodbye. I hung up and turned back to the living room; I couldn’t help the smile tugging at my lips. I already knew they were all going to convince me to let them stay up late tonight since Michael left in the morning, even though it was a school night. Accepting my fate, I went to the kitchen to make movie snacks; at least movies were a calm, non-destructive activity.

–

“Goddess, I cannot wait to get home and tackle you,” M said over the phone.

“I know,” I smiled. “This Luna needs some Alpha attention after I shut down this ambulance chaser.”

Michael growled softly. “I love it when you’re all woman-in-charge,” he purred. I giggled. “When you get home, I’ll be happy to remind you who’s really in charge, though.”

“But seriously,” I said, bringing him back to reality. I tried to ignore the warmth spreading from my core after his delicious promise. “I should be done before lunch with this. I have all the body cam footage and reports to show we didn’t drag this lady across any asphalt. As soon as I am done, I need to drop into the office, and I will head right back home. By dinner, we’ll all be at the same table again.”

“I can’t wait,” M said. “I love this job, but I hate being away from you, the kids, and the pack.”

“I know,” I sighed. “But we’ve got that building going into construction next month. The packhouse is fine to house people temporarily, but this building will be so much better and offer way more independence.”

“Get to court. I want to get my hands on you as soon as possible,” M demanded.

“Drive safe, okay?” I requested.

“You too. I love you, Quinn.”

“I love you too, Michael.” We hung up the phone, and I turned the music in the car back up. The drive out to the city and the office was long but bearable with music. I sipped my coffee as I sang along to my playlist.

Finally, I was pulling into the parking lot of the courthouse. Usually, I had Andrea or someone else with me since Michael was so nervous about me being on my own, but that couldn’t be arranged today. This particular case had already been continued twice and needed to be resolved.

I grabbed the small suitcase Michael had gotten me for Christmas the previous year; it was big enough for any files I needed to bring along with me places. It was perfect for the few instances we ended up in court over client or insurance disputes. Despite any effort on our part, we found that Wesley was promising clients services we could not legally provide and failing to monitor employee performance and behavior. Additionally, many of the clients he signed were weeks or months behind on their bills, leaving us in a precarious position.

I headed inside the courthouse building, working through the security line. When I was cleared, I detoured to the bathroom before going to wait for the doors to open. I had plenty of time to use the restroom before the start of the docket for the day.

I set my bag down on the counter and used the restroom. I heard the door open again, and someone shuffled into a stall near me. Luckily for me, this case was being adjudicated in the more affluent area of the city, so the building was not only well kept and nicely furnished, you generally didn’t need to worry about setting your bag down on the counters or chairs provided in the restrooms.

I finished and moved to wash my hands. I went over everything in my head once again to make sure I was prepared when it was time to defend against the allegations.

“Danger,” Sapphire hissed. I looked up in the mirror as I was finishing to someone standing directly behind me.

I didn’t have time to react as they reached around to cover my mouth with one hand and grabbed me around my arms and chest with the other. I tried to bite their hand and kick as I was ripped backward.

“Shift!” Sapphire urged.

“No! I’m in a human courthouse!” I denied her.

MICHAEL

I got home in just enough time to get to the school and pick up my pups. With Rowan on my shoulders, I waited outside the front doors. Nic called the school for me, so the kids would be told not to get on the bus today.

Rowan smacked the top of my head, singing some song from his favorite TV show about crime-fighting puppy dogs. “Daddy, can we get ice cweam?” he asked.

“Let’s wait for Mommy to get back from working. Then we can all go after dinner,” I promised. I loved being able to take my pups to do the things they wanted. We kept it reasonable, not giving in to every whim, but it was nice to worry about those things less. Quinn was great in our penny stretching days, but I felt accomplished that we could be frivolous on occasion now.

“Park? I want you to push me on da swings!” he asked.

“Sure, let’s get your siblings and Diane and go to the park,” I agreed. I had plenty to catch up on, but I would much rather spend a few hours at the park with the pups than sitting in my office. Work was for later Michael to worry about.

The school bell rang, and a few minutes later, kids were rushing out the door with teachers following. I waved to a few parents as their kids excitedly pointed and waved. Belle was the first one out the door. Her eyes lit up when she saw me, and she bolted before her teacher could say anything. She jumped into my arms, and I caught her while also holding Rowan steady.

“Daddy!” Belle gleefully shouted. “I missed you!” She hit me like a bullet when she jumped onto me, and I looked up and waved at her teacher apologetically. She gave me a friendly wave back, but I knew she didn’t like Belle just darting away like that.

“Belly, you can’t just run from your teacher like that even if I come to pick you up,” I scolded her. She looked up at me and frowned. Her l*p jutted out just like every other time she got in trouble. It was hard to stay firm with her when she did that, and she knew it.

“I’m sorry. I was so excited. I thought Mommy or Auntie Nic was picking us up today,” she said.

Junior came running up to us next, interrupting Belle. “Dad! You’re home!” I held up my hand and gave him a high five.

“How does going to the park sound?” I asked them.

“The park!” Rowan cheered.

“Okay,” Belle agreed. “If you push me on the swing.”

“I think I’m too old for the park,” Junior said, rolling his eyes.

“Too old for the park? That’s impossible,” I told him.

“Why? I’m almost ten. I’m more than halfway to Alpha, and Alphas don’t play at the park. I know because we learned about halves in math class,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Well, I’m Alpha, and I play at the park with you guys,” I pointed out. I scanned the groups of children, finally seeing Daniel’s teacher. Junior just blinked, trying to process what I had just told him. “Let’s get Daniel, and we can talk about it in the car.”

I shifted so I could pull Rowan down. With his feet on the ground, Belle took his hand, and he began to tell her about his day with Miss Judy excitedly. She patiently listened as we walked over to Daniel’s teacher.

“Sorry, Alpha, but Daniel had a bit of a rough day. I was going to send Luna an email tonight, but when I got the message he was getting picked up, I thought I would talk to one of you in person,” his teacher apologized.

“No, it’s alright,” I said. Daniel was looking down at his shoes. His cheeks were a bit red and puffy.

“It has been a pattern lately. He just breaks down in tears over everything, good and bad. It’s been really disruptive, actually,” she explained.

“Alright, thanks for letting me know,” I said with a strained smile. I held my hand out to Daniel, and he took it nervously. I noticed the same thing before I left, but I didn’t realize it had bled over into school. I wouldn’t embarrass him now; I would talk to him one on one later.

“Alright, let’s go to the park. Mommy should be home by dinner time,” I told them all, enjoying the excited noises all of my pups were making. Goddess, I missed them when I was gone. I didn’t want kids when I was younger, but I couldn’t imagine not being their dad now.

–

Quinn’s phone went straight to voicemail again. “Nic, I don’t like this….” I told my Beta.

“I don’t either. She should have been home by now,” Nic said. We were standing in the kitchen getting ready for dinner, but we still hadn’t heard from Quinn. I was so wrapped up in the pups I hadn’t had a moment to try and contact her since they got out of school. When I got us all home, I realized she never called to tell me how court went, and I tried to call her to no avail.

“I’m not happy that you all let her leave alone,” I reminded her. When Andrea walked into the packhouse earlier, I was more than a little mad.

“Maybe you should head that way. We can get in touch with the supervisors and see if anyone has talked to her,” Nic suggested.

“Don’t let the kids know she’s missing. I don’t need them upset on top of all of this,” I told her.

“I won’t. You head that way. I will call in an extra patrol and have them sweep all of Stary. I’ll bring Andrea here to help me with the pups and wait for news from the warriors,” she said, going into work mode.

I nodded, immediately heading for the kitchen door. “Jacky,” I linked. “I need all the supervisors at the city office to meet me there. Quinn can’t be reached, and no one has talked to her since this morning.”

“She’s missing? Who was with her?” she replied.

“No one. She had court; then she was going to the office to meet with a few people,” I explained. “I’m leaving now, but I want her found.”

“Understood,” she replied.

My heart hammered in my chest as my mind spiraled through all the things that could have happened, none of them good.