Inevitably Yours

QUINN

Something shifted between Michael and I. His reaction was not what I was expecting, and I hated that word. He insisted that nothing would change, and he wouldn’t pick anyone but me. But, suddenly, something felt strained between us.

Finals were rough, but I made it to summer. Now, I just had senior year and work to worry about. AP test results wouldn’t come in for at least a month, so it was on the bottom of my worry list.

With the stress of school temporarily over, I slept a little more. Quite a few nights, I came home after work and fell asleep before I could even call Michael. When we were chatting, he seemed a little withdrawn and stoic. I never wanted him to change; I wanted him to be my Michael. Telling him began to feel like a mistake.

One day, I got home from work to find my mom stuffing pasta for dinner. “Mmmm smells great in here,” I said, hanging up my keys.

“You are covered in ice cream,” she pointed out. I looked down at my uniform.

“There is peanut butter and fudge on here, too,” I joked.

“So there is a pile of mail on the table for you,” she said.

“Is that…” I trailed off.

“Open them, and let’s see,” she said with a tight smile. I rounded the kitchen table to find a stack of letters. My breath caught when I saw the address on the first one.

I started tearing into them. One after the other, they all said the same thing. “I got in early admission to all of them,” I said in disbelief. My mom beamed at me with pride.

“Oh, hunny, congratulations! We knew you could do it!” she yelled, clapping her meat and cheese-covered hands together. My dad came in through the garage door as she said it.

“Do what?” he asked, looking between us.

“I got in, Dad. To all of them. All five colleges accepted me early,” I told him, not believing it entirely.

“All of them?” he clarified, coming over next to me. “Wow, Quinny. This was more than I was expecting.”

“Well, she’s smarter than both of us combined. I’m not sure you could find a more well-adjusted teenager in this pack,” she gloated.

“Well, we can’t get ahead of ourselves,” my dad said, a little more quietly. He and Mom connected gazes, and she frowned.

“I don’t like that look,” I said. Kent chose that moment to emerge from his room and join society.

“What’s for dinner?” he asked, strolling in.

“Mom. Dad. What aren’t you telling me?” I asked again. My mom sighed, and my dad shook his head.

“What are we going to do? Lie to her? Break pack law?” she said out loud.

“Why would we break the law?” my brother asked.

“Explanation, please!” I exclaimed.

“Fine,” my dad said, turning to me. “There were some new laws put into place last month that make living away from the pack for periods of time difficult.”

“So, like college? Like these laws make it hard to go to college?” I clarified.

“Yes,” my dad answered.

“There is now a list of colleges approved for pack members to attend…” my mom said.

“How can that even happen?” I yelled.

“Quinn,” my dad warned. “We’re on your side; do not raise your voice to us.”

“Dad, I don’t even understand right now. Our Alpha can tell us that even though I got into five outstanding programs, I just can’t go?” I said.

“Unfortunately, as part of a pack, we must obey his orders,” my mom said.

“Then why are we a part of this pack? Where am I allowed to go to college?” I questioned.

“It isn’t so simple,” my mom said.

“The colleges approved currently would allow the attendants to still live at home,” my dad said.

“The only colleges close enough are the two-year ones!” I realized. Mom nodded her head.

“We know,” she said softly.

“Wait, so Quinn isn’t going to college? All that work for nothing. Why are you mad about my grades then?” my brother butted in.

“Kent, for once, this isn’t about your stupid grades. Shut up!” I shouted.

“Quinn!” my dad chided. “I understand you’re upset, but you aren’t taking it out on your brother.”

“Taking it out? Are you kidding me? I have killed myself all year and gotten in early admission to five schools. Five! I doubt there are many others in the pack that can say that. I’m tied for valedictorian with two other people, and I’m the only one of us that ended up with an A in Calculus. I work my butt off to pay for everything I want, and now I may have to go to a two-year community college because of some dictatorial asshat! But excuse me for interrupting his selfish line of questioning,” I fumed.

I stormed past everyone and grabbed my keys. I slammed the garage door as I stomped out. I couldn’t believe any of it. I didn’t necessarily care about those particular five schools; I was just looking forward to getting out of here. They didn’t know I secretly applied to something closer to Michael. That admission would come via email, so they wouldn’t know.

I needed air, needed to think. I couldn’t believe this. Interviews with the Alpha to get a job and now this. It was like the pack was a prison slowly building up its walls. I didn’t want to leave forever; my family was here. But I wanted to get out and breathe. I needed to go somewhere there weren’t all the expectations on me.

Sapphire whined inside of me. She wanted comfort from M but I just wanted to get out of my head for a while. I drove through the pack, not really sure where I was headed. I found myself at one of the many parks in Stary that led right into a wooded area. I was pulling off my clothes in the car with no regard for the lingering park patrons. I stepped out of the car, forcing myself to shift. Sapphire bolted into the trees.

–

“I was a little worried when you didn’t text back,” M said. I sat in my car hours later, my hair full of leaves and dirt now. Saph had gotten a little too rough in the woods.

“I was just out running. It’s been a while,” I told him.

“Are you sure everything is alright? You know you can tell me anything,” he reminded me.

“Yea. Just a little bummed, I guess. Not much I can really do,” I told him.

“Blue, what happened?” he sounded sad again, and I hated being the reason for it.

“It’s okay. It just sort of is what it is right now,” I said, trying to go past it.

“No. Tell me,” he said. I sighed; M didn’t drop things.

“I got into five colleges early acceptance,” I admitted.

“Wow, baby, that’s incredible!” he said, sounding shocked. “What’s the problem?”

“I can’t go,” I told him.

“Blue, if it’s money or something else, I’ll help you figure it out. There isn’t-”

“No,” I interrupted him. “It isn’t money. Well, I’m sure it is a little money, but more Alpha has put new restrictions on living away from the pack. He’s basically made it impossible for us to go away to college.”

I could hear growling from the other end of the phone. “I’m sorry,” he finally said.

“It’s not your fault. Look, I ran out on my parents, and they are going to be mad. I need to get back; I’ve been ignoring their linking for a couple of hours now. I’ll message you later, okay?” I told him.

“Of course,” he said.

“Night, M,” I said.

MICHAEL

I was sitting on the porch steps, leaning forward with my head in my hands. I needed to go back and fix everything, but I couldn’t yet. Lawrence had to be doing this to f**k with Quinn, there was no other reason he would restrict college access. Now, I was failing Quinn yet again. I’d been fighting with myself not to call anyone in Stary after what she told me. As much as I’d failed Quinn, her parents weren’t without blame. I wanted to tell them to pay attention to her, just act like they had a daughter they cared about instead of whatever nepotic obsession they had with her brother. She deserved so much more in her life, and as soon as I could get to her, I would make sure I spent the rest of our lives together honoring how incredibly special she was. I wanted to tell Christy so she’d know what she started, what she’d helped continue in her selfish desire to have her happily ever after at the expense of Quinn’s.

As much as I wanted to tell them, I couldn’t. Quinn didn’t deserve for me to betray her trust. It took her years to tell me, and she hadn’t told them for a reason. I hadn’t even told Nic. She knew something was deeply wrong, but I wouldn’t tell her until I could process it and Quinn was okay with it.

“What’s wrong, Michael?” Nic asked. I hadn’t even heard her walk up; I’d been so lost in thought about what I could have done and what I should do to fix it. “What did you do to your hands?”

I pulled my hands back into my lap; they were raw from losing a fight with my house after I got off the phone with Quinn. I’d cracked large sections of the brick and concrete wall, but I doubted my dad would care if he even noticed.

“Lawrence is going to destroy Stary with the restrictions he’s putting on the pack, and now I think he’s adding them just to f**k with Quinn specifically, even though it will hurt all of the other kids in high school trying to go to college too.”

Nic sighed, walking past me into the house. She came back with a cool, wet cloth and sat down next to me, pulling my hands into her lap to wipe the b***d from them, “I want to help you fix it.”

She’d said it so quickly that my brain had to catch up, “What do you mean you want to help me?”

“You don’t have anyone you trust other than me, Quinn, and your family. You aren’t going to put her in danger, your dad can’t come back with you, and your mom has to stay away. That leaves me.”

“You think I want to put you in danger?” I asked, looking at her like she was crazy. Where the hell was this coming from?

She looked at me, her jaw set and determination in her voice, “I want you to train me. I’m not letting you go back to Stary alone. Your dad lost on his own, but you don’t have to make the same mistake. I’m not saying you can’t handle Lawrence, but I am saying he will try something underhanded. I want to be there to help you, Michael. I want to be a part of Stary again, with you as Alpha.”

If Lawrence got his hands on Nic, I couldn’t imagine what he would do to her to torture me. He’d already threatened to take Quinn as a toy; how could I put Nic in danger like that? I pulled my hand from hers and ran my fingers through my hair, trying to figure out a way to tell her there was no way in hell I could let this happen.

“I don’t care why you don’t want me to go, Michael. Stop thinking of why I shouldn’t and think about why I should,” she demanded. Oh no, this was something she wouldn’t let go of. When Nic decided on something, that was it. “I think she’s your mate too, which means she’s going to end up being my new best friend. I won’t let him hurt her either.”

“And if I refuse?” I asked, a small laugh escaping at the futility of this argument. A string of muttered Spanish obscenities followed.

“I’ll go anyways, and you’ll have to live with me getting hurt because you didn’t train me,” she said obstinately. “What kind of best friend would I be if I let you get hurt or die when I could have helped stop it?”

“A safe one who could live her life knowing I cared enough about you to keep you away from Lawrence,” I sighed.

“He doesn’t want me, Michael,” the fire in her eyes was a little terrifying even though I knew she was on my side. “I’ll burn his f*****g pack house down around him. I won’t be the one getting tortured.”

Seeing no other choice, I stood up against my better judgment and walked toward the training area behind the house, “Let’s go then. We don’t have much time, all things considered.”

“Really?” she exclaimed, her voice pitching upwards in excitement. “I thought I’d have to fight so you much harder than that!”

“What’s the point?” I asked. “You’re going to win the argument anyway. Besides, if someone came here looking for me, it couldn’t hurt for you to be able to defend yourself.

“Thank you!” she squealed.

“Don’t thank me yet,” I warned her. “This is going to hurt.”