Inevitably Yours

MICHAEL

The light blue haze of the first rays of the sun starting to light up the sky through the blinds on our window lit up Quinn’s face like she was a painting that should be hanging in a famous gallery somewhere. She lay sleeping on my chest, and I watched the soft glow illuminate her face, her hair spilling onto me all around it and framing her freckled cheeks and my favorite face to look at. I knew I told her we were training at dawn, but I was having trouble waking her up; I just couldn’t stop watching her sleep peacefully on me. I wished I could tell her she was safe now, that I’d ended the source of her pain. It would just have to be enough to know for her. She was too kind-hearted to wish that on someone else, no matter what they did to her. I wouldn’t let someone else’s Quinn go through what mine did, though, so it was finished. Now, it was time to make sure Quinn would always be able to defend herself, even if I wasn’t there. That thought broke through the love bubble, and with a g***n to myself, I ran my fingers through her hair and whispered, “Quinn.”

After a few repeated attempts, her eyes fluttered open, and I could see her gorgeous green orbs staring back at me, reflecting the light from our window so I could see the depth of color her irises held. It was so incredibly hard to concentrate when she was involved. Every little thing caught my eye, and I just wanted to pull her in bed and look at her or touch her while the world went on around us. The pack could survive with me, right?

“No, dumbass. It can’t. What happened when Lawrence was running it?” Eros asked, clearly still upset with me. I’d completely blocked him out the other night, and he still wasn’t over it. I didn’t know what to tell him. It was a me thing, not an us thing.

“Fair enough,” I sighed. I still selfishly wanted alone time with my mate, and as much as I loved being Alpha, I’d just as happily live in the woods with Quinn and not feel like I was missing anything.

“Then take our mate out and go train her, alone. This is alone time,” Eros grumbled.

I kissed her nose, “Time to train, baby.”

“This time of day does not exist,” she growled cutely at me. I knew she wasn’t a morning person, and I loved how pouty Quinn was when she woke up before she wanted to.

“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but it does, in fact, exist, my love,” I laughed, this time finding my favorite spot at the corner of her eye with my lips. She squirmed on top of me, a small m**n escaping her lips. She loved when I did that.

“What if we stayed in bed and did something more fun and then went back to sleep?” she asked, her hand moving towards my morning wood.

“No ma’am, you little brat,” I laughed. I couldn’t believe she was trying to use s*x to get out of training. “You promised. Just try today. I’ll leave you alone tomorrow if you hate it.”

“Fine,” she muttered, sitting up. I could see her n*****s straining against her shirt; she rarely slept with a bra on.

“Mmm,” I rumbled, leaning over and taking one in my mouth through the thin fabric. I loved looking up and watching her face when I did that because her eyes rolled back, and she made the most delectable faces. I pulled her shirt over her head as I removed my mouth, just admiring the beauty that was mine forever.

“You know,” she said, looking upwards a little and blushing. “I don’t think Nic would actually try anything without your permission, but I’m pretty sure she was trying to see these the other night when you left, at least jokingly.”

I felt a wave of possessiveness wash over me, making me growl a little. Quinn’s face went white, and I reassured her right away that I wasn’t mad. In fact, my morning companion was twitching at the thought. I tried to explain, “I can’t explain the mixed emotions on that one. The bond is making it weird.”

“She’s bi, right?” she asked, her face reddening.

“Yea, I told you before when she was teasing us about wanting to see your pictures,” I reminded her. The crimson flush deepened.

“I know wolves aren’t normally ones to share, but I know that you’re only partially joking when you bring threesomes up,” she started.

“Well, I-”

“It’s okay,” she interrupted me. “We’ve talked. I know how you are about s*x, at least before the mate bond. I know you have fantasies, and I’m your mate. I’m not saying I personally need it, but if it were something you wanted, I would think about exploring that with you.”

“Really?” I asked nothing but confusion in my brain.

“I’m supposed to make your fantasies come true,” she said, her face still a little flushed but now leaning toward me. “And, it’s Nic. If there were anyone I’d be comfortable adding, it would be her. Just give us a bit; I just got you to myself, and it hasn’t been that long.”

“Noted and appreciated that you’d think about it for me,” I told her. I just wanted to drop the subject because it felt like a trap, and I wasn’t expecting it at all. I kissed her forehead and stood up to get dressed for work. Eros was doing some sort of wolfy somersault in the recesses of my mind howling his assent to debauchery.

“It looks like you’re thinking about it,” she giggled, pointing at my crotch now that I was standing. I was straining against my boxers pretty heavily, allowing me to swing around as I moved, which was very apparent.

“A little,” I agreed. “Although, still mostly morning wood.”

“I can take care of that?” she said, her voice silky now that she was awake and talking to me.

“You’re welcome to after training if you have the energy, baby,” I said, denying her the distraction she was looking for.

–

Training her was going to be an incredible test of my self-control. I had never seen anything more attractive in my life. We started with running in our human forms. I needed to test her level of fitness before we started, and we always ran together as wolves. Her endurance was fine, but I’d never thought that she’d be so slow after being in cross country. Then I realized that I was over a foot taller than her with a much longer stride and felt dumb.

Her running endurance was excellent, although that differed from the anaerobic endurance needed for most martial arts training. The rest of her physical conditioning was lacking, and she hated things like pushups. I disliked making her do things she wasn’t a fan of, but it was necessary to build her into a warrior.

“Have you ever been punched in the face?” I asked. With our generation, it was becoming less frequent that wolves got into fights growing up. I knew about what happened with Andi, but she just scratched Quinn.

“Not that I can think of, other than play fighting with my brother or cousins,” she answered, trying to think.

I threw her headgear and told her to put it on. I had an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach. I had to treat her like any other student, but… this was Quinn.

“We’re going to start with the confidence of knowing that you aren’t fragile. You aren’t going to break, and you can get hit and keep fighting back. Do you understand?” I asked. She swallowed nervously but nodded. “You’ll never believe you can be a warrior until you know you can handle this. I know you can. Now you need to know.”

“Put your hands up,” I instructed. I moved her feet and hands until she was in a good fighting stance. We worked for the next thirty minutes on how to move in that stance and slip punches.

“Are you ready?” I asked, pulling out my round-timer. She nodded again. “For this five-minute round, I want you to focus on moving around me. You are going to get hit, but you are going to survive and keep moving.” I tried to keep emphasizing that she would get hit and still be okay; if she broke down during our first training session, this would also be our last.

She screwed her face up into one of determination to complete the task I’d given her, and my heart almost gave out. The timer went off, and I brought my hands up, feinting attacks toward her and moving around to get her to move with me. She was doing well with that part; now it was time for the real thing. Desperately hoping all of my own training to control my strength since I’d become mated and an Alpha had paid off, I lashed out and planted a right hook on her jaw. Her head rocked back, and she dropped her hands. For a moment, I thought I’d hit her harder than I meant to. When she turned back, she looked more determined than ever and brought her hands up to cover her face again.

“That’s my girl,” I thought triumphantly. She didn’t even cry or stop the round. It still felt very wrong to hit her, but I had to get over that for training. I caught her with another hook, really pulling that one back. It broke through her hands and rocked her head back again. She took a breath and kept moving. This continued until the end of the round, when I caught her with a jab to the mouth, my glove glancing off and cutting her l*p as the bell sounded.

“Are you okay?” I asked, stepping over to her quickly as I dropped my gloves to the ground.

She looked up at me and smiled widely, happy as could be, her teeth red with b***d, “Did I do good?”

There were many conflicting emotions in my body fighting for dominance, so I just handed her a water bottle, smiled softly, and nodded, “Swish and spit to get the b***d out of your mouth.” She did as I asked and then easily drank the rest of the water bottle. By the time she was done, the cut on her l*p was pink and closed. Eros was bristling inside me, not happy that I’d hurt her.

“It was an accident,” I told him, trying to calm him down.

“Have less of them. Be competent,” he demanded.

“Let me know when you can throw a punch,” I grumbled. “Until then, shut the f**k up and be a wolf.”

–

After the bloody end to our last round, I decided to move to a non-contact approach. I brought Quinn over to a secluded grassy area and handed her a gift I’d been saving for the occasion if it ever arose.

“Is this for me?” she asked, the excitement in her voice infectious. I could feel my heart beating faster and warmth tingling down my spine as I watched her open her new dobak and white belt. I thought formally training her in Taekwondo would fit her nicely alongside the other training we were doing.

“I’ve had it for you for a while, hoping you might want to train with me someday,” I admitted, smiling as she pulled it on over her shirt and shorts. I showed her how to tie the belt properly. Then, I pulled my uniform out of my bag, stripped down to my boxers, and pulled it on.

Now that she was properly attired, I walked her through some basic terminology and then moved to basic punches, kicks, and stances. We ended with her learning her first Poomsae, a predetermined set of techniques that, when learned, reinforced understanding of sparring and self defense. Each of them exemplified a fight you were walking through, and it was up to the instructor to help you understand what you were doing instead of just mindlessly punching and kicking because you were told to.

We drilled her first Poomsae for over an hour. She was doing well, although she kept losing footing during some of the kicks, and it was frustrating her. Finally, she threw herself on the ground in a huff.

“You okay, baby?” I asked in confusion.

“I’m tired,” she ripped off one of her shoes and threw it. “Of these f*****g shoes.” The other shoe soon followed its counterpart to disappear into the grass somewhere. She flexed her toes that were painted to match her hair and then stood up, now barefoot in the grass. I’d had her leave her shoes on for a reason, mainly to concentrate. She was already filling out the top of her uniform incredibly well; I didn’t need this too.

“Goddess, damned, f**k,” I muttered to myself.

“What was that?” she giggled.

“Nothing,” I sighed in return. “Again.”

For the first time, I watched my love flawlessly move through the Poomsae as if she’d written it herself. Not only was she not as uncoordinated as she usually was with other sports, but she was also especially talented at this. Taekwondo looked like it was a perfect fit for her. I intended to try Jiu Jitsu next, but I thought it was time to call it a day. When I told her we were done, it was like she’d been holding on for that moment. She collapsed on the ground and just laid there, a look of exhausted bliss on her face.

“Do I need to carry you to the shower?” I asked, unable to keep the grin from my face as I was already more than ready for what she’d wanted earlier. The talk we’d had, along with watching her train, ripping her shoes off, etc., had me threatening to rip through my pants.

“Five minutes,” she panted. “Then you can take me to shower and do whatever you want, but you’re doing the work.”

“I will work diligently,” I promised, dropping down to snuggle her on the ground where my mouth found her ear lobe. I loved the way she shivered when I did that.

I caught her scent from where we were lying on the ground, and when I looked over, I found Nic sneaking back into the house where she’d clearly been watching us train.

“Nic,” I growled. As arousing as my conversation with Quinn had been earlier, I didn’t forget what she’d told me.

“Yes?” she answered carefully.

“Should we talk about you trying to get my mate to watch movies topless with you?” I asked, my displeasure evident at her trying something without talking to me or at all. I couldn’t tell which right now.

“To be fair,” she said. “You said I couldn’t see her boobs without her permission. I was asking her permission.”

“You know damn well I was talking about the pictures she sent, not in person,” I scolded her, although I couldn’t be too mad. She was technically right.

“She wasn’t wearing a bra, and it was killing me. I wouldn’t have touched her without your permission. I just wanted to look; they’re so nice…” she whined.

“No more,” I told her. “You can be flirty, but no asking to see anything unless we give you permission first, deal?”

“Fine,” she grumbled.

I laid back in the grass and pulled Quinn over to let her lay on my chest, enjoying the peace of our relative solitude. I’d called off all warrior training to give her a proper first day. I waited to take Quinn back to our room, but then I heard her little snores on my chest and realized she’d fallen asleep.

“These women are going to be the death of me,” I thought to myself, closing my eyes to join my mate in an afternoon nap.