Inevitably Yours

MICHAEL

Quinn was at the doctor’s with Nic and Taylor, helping them with everything that needed to be done to make them a pup together. They were amazing mothers to Diane, but I could always tell they wanted just a little more. Nic finally decided she was ready, and they asked Q to go along to their appointment today.

While they took care of that, I had a video conference with Jacky, who had moved to the city alongside Enrique. They had taken over the day-to-day operations of the security and training long ago and were doing well considering all the setbacks we had faced in the past few years. My computer chirped, telling me the call was coming in.

“Hey, bossman,” Jacky said from the other side of the video. “How’s the pack?”

“Strong as ever. I just graduated six more pups to start weapons training. Our warriors look better every year,” I smiled. I was thrilled with the progression the pack had made over the years. I never worried when I needed to leave, knowing they could protect us.

“Well, I don’t have many updates on the company end. Everything is about how it was two weeks ago. We hired three new part-timers to begin on the seasonal contracts, and Enrique has scheduled training out for the next six months,” Jacky reported. I nodded, happy to hear everything wasn’t falling apart. “But we do need to talk about something else.”

“What’s that? Asking for a raise?” I joked.

“No, but I’m not against that,” she laughed. “No, Alpha, I’m talking about my position in the pack.”

My heart dropped. I knew this would come eventually. I had been worried about it for a while. “You want me to replace you,” I said. She nodded.

“I haven’t lived in pack territory for more than two years now. The pack would benefit from having a Delta that is present with them,” she pushed. I dropped my head; I didn’t trust anyone else the same way. There were exemplary warriors, sure. But not that I trusted like I did Jacky. “I actually have thought about this, and I think I might have a suggestion.”

“Who could possibly replace you?” I asked.

“Adi. She’s been your protege since day one. She should be done with college soon. Let her take over. Junior may even make her Beta when it’s his time, or she can transition into something else. But she would be great. You know she doesn’t like to lose,” Jacky explained.

I weighed the idea in my head. It wasn’t bad. Adi was clever and had a sharp but educated tongue when she was pushed. And Jacky was right; she hated to lose. She always gave anything she did everything she had. I sent her away to college to make sure being a warrior for the pack was what she really wanted because she definitely had options, options I would do whatever was necessary to make sure were open to her. She was a Galbraith in everything but name.

“Let me think about it more. Talk it over with Quinn, too. It’s only fair I include her in this,” I conceded. “I hate to see you go.”

“It’s only what’s best for the pack,” Jacky said. “I’m still a part of Stary, and I have no plans on leaving the company for a long time.”

“Alright,” I said. As much as I didn’t like it, change happened.

–

I knocked on my dad’s door. It had been two weeks since I had seen him, and he was getting more and more secretive. I worried about him so close to the pack border with no one else.

The door opened to a squat blonde woman holding a duster. “Oh, goodness. You must be Michael! You look just like Melvin!” she exclaimed.

“Um, I’m sorry, but who are you?” I asked.

“I am Margaret!” she introduced herself. “Come in!”

I followed her inside, looking for my dad. “Who is it?” my dad called out.

“It’s Michael, dear!” she answered him. Dear? Really?

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand,” I told her. My dad’s house was pretty small. It only had one bedroom and one bathroom. He insisted he didn’t need much when we came back to Stary, and it had always made it hard sending the kids here.

“I guess I never got to introduce you,” my dad said, coming out of his room. “This is Margaret, my chosen mate.”

“Chosen mate?” I asked, dumbfounded.

“Yes. Your father and I met a while ago and we just hit it off. I never found my mate, and well…” she trailed off for a second. “We got along so well; it was nice to connect with someone.”

I raised an eyebrow at my dad. “Were you going to tell me?” I asked him quietly.

“Eventually,” he said. “It’s only been a few weeks now.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you,” I told Margaret.

“Stay for lunch!” she insisted. “I’d be honored to have the Alpha at our table.”

“You know he is the former Alpha,” I pointed to my dad.

“Oh sure,” she smiled. “But he’s told me so much about you. I would also love to meet your mate. I’ve always thought she was so beautiful with that odd-colored hair. You two always look so in love.”

I looked at my dad, looking for his lead here. He shrugged. “Sure, I could eat,” I said. “Q, I’m going to be a little longer than I thought.” I linked her.

“Have fun!” she replied immediately.

–

“I’ll send someone to pick you up; see you soon,” I said, hanging up the phone. My mom looked at me strangely. She was in the kitchen preparing dough to chill. She wanted to make cookies with the kids later. Knowing she missed out a lot when they were younger, Quinn and I didn’t begrudge her any of these things. The older ones got whiny every once in a while, but all I had to do was remind them we spend time with the people we love, even if we don’t always love what they want to do. They loved their grandmother and eating cookies, so in the end, it was a win.

“Who was that?” she asked, clapping flour from her hands.

“Tyler,” I said disbelievingly. I hadn’t talked to him in too long, and I knew he hadn’t been talking to our mother either. He did what he said he would do and moved to another country. A year later, he found his mate, but I think my confrontation had put the final brick in the wall between us.

“Tyler called you?” she exclaimed. “What’s going on? Is he okay?”

“I don’t know. He’s about to get on a plane. He needed someone to pick him up and a place to stay. I am going to send someone to get him, and I told him we can talk about arrangements when he is here,” I explained.

“Is he bringing John?” she asked.

“Is that his mate?” I really hadn’t had much contact with my brother, and my mom didn’t talk about him much.

“Yes,” she said. “A really nice young man too. I was a little shocked but then not really. I was just happy your brother found him. Of course, it was a human, but then your brother was a terrible wolf. It was like pulling teeth to get him to ever shift and work his wolf.”

“He didn’t say. I guess we’ll find out when he gets here.”

–

I sat on the couch in the living room. My brother sat in the armchair with a drink in his hand while Quinn saw our mother out. Junior had rounded up his siblings a while ago to leave the adults alone. Somehow, he had grown into an incredible young man beyond my hopes and expectations.

“Alright, mom’s not here. Why are you home?” I asked.

He looked up and around the living room. “This place is like a whole different building than where we grew up,” he commented.

“I spent more than enough money renovating to tear it down and start from scratch. Tyler, why are you home?” I asked again as calmly as I could. The conversation so far this evening hadn’t explained much.

Tyler looked anywhere but in my direction. “He died,” he finally said. “Two weeks ago.” He took a long swig of his drink. We never drank, but Quinn shut me up when he showed up with a six-pack in his hand.

“Who?” I asked. I had a feeling I knew, but I needed to be sure.

“John. My mate. He died. He was killed in a mugging on the way home from work,” he whispered, looking down at his lap.

I took in a deep breath and stayed silent for a minute. “I’m sorry,” I finally said.

“You don’t have to pretend,” Tyler shot at me. I could hear the pain in his voice and tried to tell myself that was all it was.

“I’m not. I almost lost Quinn in a way a few years ago. It was the worst feeling in the world. I couldn’t imagine her dying,” I told him honestly.

“He was human. She wouldn’t die from a knife wound, at least probably,” he said.

“No, but she’s not normal, and you know that. It doesn’t matter. I’m still sorry for your loss. Is that why you came back?” I asked him.

Tyler nodded. “I couldn’t sleep in our flat another night. It was torture. It made the pain worse. His family wouldn’t let me near the funeral. They never approved of us. I took it so slow too. I didn’t tell him I was a werewolf and he was my mate until I knew he was committed. He told his mother to f**k off, and I knew he was choosing me. As soon as the hospital called them to inform them of his death, they acted like nothing had ever happened. They hadn’t talked to him in years.”

I let him talk; let him get it all off his chest. I felt terrible for my brother. Life dealt us both some shitty hands in the beginning, but he hadn’t been able to turn things around in the same ways I had. I had a Quinn, and he didn’t.

“That’s awful, and it shouldn’t have happened to you,” I told him. “I know you probably just ran here on instinct, but you can stay if you want. With mom or me, I’m sure. If it’s too hard to go back there, don’t. I’ll help make arrangements to get your stuff taken care of.”

“Why would you help me?” he asked, looking up at me for the first time.

“You’re my little brother, and I’ve always protected you, haven’t I?”

QUINN

My eyes bugged out of my head, looking at my screen. No way, no way, no way. This wasn’t possible. I refreshed the page, convinced it was a glitch.

“You okay?” M linked me.

“Come here. I need to tell you something,” I said.

–

“So you secretly took my advice, started writing a book, and now you are making enough to cover your salary?” Michael concluded, looking at me dumbfounded. I nodded.

“I didn’t expect this at all. The first check was like $50, and I put it on Adi’s card so she could go out for a night with her friends,” I told him.

“I don’t know what to say,” Michael said, sitting back.

“Are you mad?” I asked.

“I wish you would have told me. But I’m not too surprised. I told you, you’re really good, Blue,” he said.

A notification popped up on my computer. It was an email from the person designated as my editor with the book app. “Um,” I said, skimming the top. “It gets crazier.”

“What?” M asked, leaning forward.

“They just offered me a full-time contract,” I said.

–

Nic and Taylor sat across the table from us. “So we first have Taylor’s eggs retrieved, and Nic will take hormones to get ready for implantation. Then they will collect viable s***m from Michael and fertilize Taylor’s eggs. Once there is an embryo, it will be implanted into Nic, and poof, baby,” I explained since Michael hadn’t been at the doctor’s with us.

“And we can do this here?” Michael asked. I knew he was only worried about humans being let onto our existence.

“Yep,” Nic said. “Is this still okay with you?”

“Yea,” M said. “If it’s what you guys want.”

“We don’t want to just go with a random donor. They would be human, and we wouldn’t know what we’re getting,” Taylor said.

“You guys know we couldn’t ever tell anyone who the father is, right?” I clarified. “It would be really bad for Stary if Michael had a sudo-bastard child with the lesbian Beta and her mate.”

Nic laughed. “That’s fine. You guys can just be aunt and uncle like you are to Diane. Are you going to be okay with that, M?”

Michael nodded. “I love Diane like my own, whether she is my niece or not. This one will be no different,” he told them. We had discussed it, and my only hang-up about him helping them was if he would consider the pup his in some way. He assured me he would treat it just like he did Diane but never play the dad card. It wouldn’t be fair to our pups, either.

“So we’re all on the same page here?” Taylor asked anxiously. I looked up at Michael, who was smiling down at me. I nodded. I wanted our friends to have the pup they wanted, and I had the ability to help them.

“I think we should celebrate!” Nic said. “Everyone get naked!”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re too much.”

“I don’t think it’s a bad plan,” Michael laughed.

“No,” Taylor and I said in unison. We all broke out into laughter after that.

–

“You’re really okay with this?” I asked Michael as I handed sent the final documents to my replacement.

“Yea,” he smiled. “I think it’s time we go silent anyway. I’ll check in on things quarterly, but they got it from here.”

“But you’re okay with me taking the full-time contract? And actually being some kind of writer?” I clarified.

Michael stood behind me at my desk. He tilted my head up and smiled down at me. “Why wouldn’t I be? The world gets to see how amazing my favorite person is,” he pecked my lips. I smiled back.

I immediately got a ‘received’ email from the new girl hired to take care of scheduling and payroll. Michael and Jacky had already replaced my billing duties with someone else a few weeks ago, and one of the supervisors was taking over all my account management. This was an odd feeling.

“You, Mrs. Galbraith, are officially retired from security and asset management,” Michael smiled.

“I guess I am a writer now,” I laughed.

“I think we should recreate one of the scenes in your book,” he growled. A shiver ran through me. This was going to be a good change.