Inevitably Yours

MICHAEL

I pulled up to the side door of the ice cream parlor a few minutes before Quinn was supposed to get off. I was extraordinarily excited that she wouldn’t be working there anymore. It was a Saturday shift, and once she got off, that was it; there would be no more having to leave to work at her high school job. It wasn’t that I was unappreciative that she continued working to help support us while I worked on getting the pack back in order, but I hated that she was gone. She deserved so much more than being covered in ice cream and dealing with rude customers all day. She was the Luna of our pack, but more importantly, she was the love of my life. I wanted to give her the world. It was just going to take way longer than I wanted it to.

The door opened, and she stepped out into the sunlight, her blue hair shining as she pulled off her hat for the last time. Her eyes snapped to mine, and I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear as she smiled at me. I got out of the car and pounced on her, picking her up into my arms and spinning us around as my mouth found hers. She tasted of her favorite ice cream, and thoughts of taking turns eating it off her body and feeding it to her came to mind.

“Hey, we’re in public!” she squealed into my ear. I’m sure she could feel my shift in desire.

“What if that’s exactly where I want you?” I teased, growling into her ear and grazing her lobe with my teeth. The way she shuddered had me ready to make good on what I was teasing, but I set her down before things became too heated to walk back. People were starting to stare.

“Quinn!” one of the newer employees called out from the serving window. “Don’t forget this!” She held up a white paper bag with the store’s logo.

“Oh, thank you!” Quinn replied, running over to take it from her.

“I was going to run back in for it, but you distracted me,” she told me, her face reddening as she returned to my side. I wondered if she’d thought of dirty things with ice cream too, or something more vanilla. “I got you your favorite as a parting gift on my last day.”

She held up the bag for me to take, beaming at me as I opened an enormous dish of chocolate peanut butter brownie ice cream swimming in peanut butter sauce. It smelled like heaven. Under it was her favorite, with a few bites already taken out of it. I handed it to her and leaned over to give her a soft k**s, rubbing my nose on hers. “Thank you, baby. I’ll gladly pay for these now if it means I don’t have to give you up to this place anymore, though.”

I opened the car door for her and let her get in before heading to the driver’s seat and joining her. We happily ate our ice cream together while talking about her day. She’d been getting recognized more often as Luna, making it awkward to be serving ice cream. Sometimes the reaction was pleasant; today, it was less than. An older pack member wanted to know why she was working at an ice cream shop instead of helping the pack recover. In her own Luna fashion, she let him know that she kept working there to keep the store from losing an employee they couldn’t replace yet. He tipped her on the way out and apologized. The older generation sure had a lot to say when they did nothing to help my father or to improve the pack while Lawrence was there. It made me think of the other night with Quinn’s parents. They only lived two or so miles from where we were sitting. It made me want to go and let them know exactly what their Alpha thought of them.

“You okay?” Quinn asked quietly. I loved that I could feel her emotions, but sometimes it was off-putting that she could feel mine in return.

“Yea, of course. I’m with you,” I winked at her. “I just don’t like my Luna being accosted by crotchety old-timers.”

“He was fine,” she waived me off. “His wife was adorable, and I think he’s just worried about the pack like everyone else is.”

As annoyed as I was, I couldn’t blame them. The pack was moving in a much better direction, but we had so much work in front of us. Losing the Alpha, Beta, and most of the senior warriors in the Alpha challenge didn’t help our situation. I was disappointed but unsurprised when we identified the bodies of the wolves Nic took care of in the woods. No prior leadership was left, not that I would have trusted them to help me. With only the Alpha, Luna, and Beta to run a whole pack, it was more than I expected. I would have to appoint more wolves to leadership positions, but that had to wait until we were in a more stable place, and I knew who I could trust. Every time I put out one fire, another popped up. I wasn’t sure it was ever going to end.

–

We sat outside of a thrift store, and I felt awful. I wanted her to have the fairy tale wedding she deserved, and there we were about to look at second-hand dresses, if they even had any. It was the third thrift store we’d stopped at, and we hadn’t been having much luck elsewhere. We’d gone into the human town closest to Stary to try one last place before we gave up for the day.

“Michael Galbraith,” Quinn said sternly from beside me, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“Uh, yea?” I asked, confused at her tone and the adorably authoritative look on her face.

“You asked me to marry you, and all you have done since I left work is pout. I don’t need all the pomp and circumstance to tell the world who I love. You’re my fairy tale, damn it. Not any of that superfluous bullshit. Okay?”

I was taken aback, but I felt stupid immediately. Of course, it didn’t matter; after all these years, we were together and getting married. The Goddess gave her to me, and I was pouting about things that didn’t matter and were out of our control. I could give her a big wedding later if she wanted.

“You’re right. I’m sorry, love,” I apologized. I got out of the car, walked around, and opened her door to pull her out of the car and into my arms. “All we need is each other.”

“So, you’re okay with the tiny wedding then?” she asked, her face now serene with no sign of my demanding Luna from earlier.

“Of course,” I sighed. Not only would her family not be attending, my mom still refused to come back to Stary. She sent well wishes and congratulations, but she would not be present. I thought about asking her if she knew where Mema’s ring was, but if she didn’t volunteer that information, she probably wouldn’t have given it to me anyways. “I was thinking we could do it at the blessing grounds?” I proposed. We hadn’t settled on a place yet. “I thought we probably couldn’t find a better place than where the Goddess regularly grants us blessings. We can ask her to bless our marriage the same.”

“I love that,” she told me, her eyes filled with excitement. “Let’s go find a dress! I have a good feeling about this one.”

She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the small thrift shop. I couldn’t help but smile because I loved when she did that. The way her small hand fit in mine made me buzz with a content warmth. Even though I was supposed to be the one that protected her, she made me feel safe. No matter where we were, she was my home.

The bell over the door rang as I opened it for Quinn, and she led the way through it. I watched her eyes look around until she found whatever she was looking for; it just looked like endless racks of clothes to me, with junk lining the walls around them.

She pulled me to the back of the store, where she started sorting through the rack in front of us. I saw a flash of white as she rummaged, and her eyes widened as she squealed in delight.

“Did you find something?” I asked, trying to look around her, but she was holding whatever it was protectively to her chest.

“One minute!” she answered, dashing away to the tiny changing room and leaving me scratching my head in confusion.

I could feel pleasure pulsing through our bond, and it made me happy that after the run-in with her parents, it wasn’t totally ruining this for us. “It fits, and I love it!” she called out happily.

“Can I see it?” I asked, walking towards the curtain.

“No!” she said, her tone serious. “I forgot you’re not supposed to see me in my dress until the wedding day!”

“But… I thought I was going to get you to try on the dresses in person,” I grumbled through our link, mostly teasing her. This was adorable. I couldn’t be mad.

“You can have as much of me as you want when we leave, but with everything else going on, I’m not tempting fate,” she answered. I could hear rustling in the changing room now, probably her putting her clothes back on. I was only slightly disappointed because I’d intended to get on my knees for her again while she tried on dresses, only this time to eat her in the changing room as she tried to keep quiet.

She reappeared, her happiness infectious. She was covering the dress with the hoody she’d been wearing and asked me to wait in the car.

“Fate is what put us together,” I reminded her teasingly. “You know, fated mates and all?”

“I don’t care,” she pouted. “Just give me this.”

“I will give you anything, my Luna,” I cooed, planting a soft k**s on the top of her head before letting her go to the front and pay for the dress without me. I went out to the car to grab a surprise that I’d almost forgotten amidst the excitement of her last day at work and wedding shopping. I’d picked something up before her.

When she came out to the car, I opened her door and helped her in while she kept her bag covered with her hoodie. I knew she’d be cold, so I slipped mine off and draped it over her to keep her warm. She snuggled into it and took a deep breath, enjoying my scent still clinging to it. “Thank you.”

I kissed her nose, and with a wink, I joined her on the other side, “Guess what?”

“Yes?” she asked, her green eyes looking at me expectantly.

I pulled out a manilla envelope and handed it to her to open. It was our marriage license. I’d paid for it earlier in the week, but we had to wait 72 hours to pick it up. Seeing our names together and knowing hers would be Galbraith soon excited me more than I could put into words. When she saw what it was, it looked like she felt the same as I did.

“So, who is going to marry us?” she asked. We’d been going back and forth. I didn’t want my dad to do it, and other than Nic, he was the only one we planned on being there.

“I asked for a representative from the Church of the Moon Goddess, and they said they’d be happy to send over someone. Would that be okay?” I asked.

“As long as I get to marry you, I don’t care who does it,” she agreed.

“So, now that all of that is settled,” I started, leaning over into her ear. “I believe you owe me ‘as much of you as I want’ now that we’ve left. Is that not how you worded it?” I immensely enjoyed the scent of Quinn’s arousal and how her heart was thudding in her chest as her skin flushed under my breath.

“Take me wherever you want, Alpha. I make good on my promises,” she answered with no hesitation. Goddess, she’d come so far in such a short time. She was ready as often as I was. Nipping her ear with my teeth again, I got a nervous giggle out of her before pulling out of the parking lot and toward our lake spot. It was on the way home. The date was approaching, and we had almost everything set. Soon, I would tie her to me the last way I could, leaving no doubt to her parents, the world, or even the Goddess. Quinn was mine, and I was hers.