Inevitably Yours

Goddess, make that baby stop crying. He hadn’t stopped since mom brought him back from the hospital, and it was making my ears hurt. He’d been here a year, and he was still so annoying. I just wanted to watch my dinosaur show and play with my toys. If I was lucky, Mom would get him back to sleep, and I could watch the new Super Rangers episode before dad noticed me. I grabbed my biggest T-rex and made him fight my Plesiosaur in a pretend ocean. My T-rex could breathe underwater, so the stupid fish dino didn’t have a chance.

“Hey Michael,” my dad said nicely, coming down the stairs. My heart was beating fast, and I hated when he was around. It was scarier when he wasn’t mean to me. I didn’t know what he wanted when that happened.

“Good morning!” I tried my best to smile and be happy, so he didn’t know I didn’t want him there with me.

“I missed you! What are you doing?”

“Just playing with my dinos?” I told him. This felt like a trick question.

Dad sat down on the floor with his back against the couch and watched me and the TV without saying anything else for a while. I just kept playing, but I wanted to leave.

“Come give me a hug, buddy. I haven’t seen you much over the last few days,” he said. His smile looked normal, and his arms were out waiting for me. Maybe he really just wanted a hug. I liked hugs from mom.

I walked over and put my arms around him, and he crushed me in a big hug that made me giggle when his stubble tickled my cheek. After a few seconds, I let go. That’s when I knew it was a trap.

“I’m the cuddle monster,” he growled, tickling my sides. Oh no, not this. Anything but this. I laughed until there was no breath in my lungs, and I couldn’t draw in anymore.

“Please… Stop… Dad,” I begged.

“I can’t stop! We’re wrestling now. How will you ever be a good Alpha if you can’t handle a little playing?”

“I… Don’t… Want… To… Be… Alpha… Then,” I cried; he was crushing me now, and I couldn’t get any air in except for little gasps. I pushed and pulled and tried to scream for my mom. There was no air to cry with.

“Spank me. Hit me,” I begged him, my face wet from crying. “Please… get off of me.”

“What fun would that be?” he asked as the pillow covered my face and my vision blackened. His laugh echoed in the darkness around me.

–

I exploded out of my bed like he was still on top of me, covers thrown to the floor and skin covered in a cold sweat. It was hard to breathe, the same as anytime I went into small spaces now. I hid it the best I could, but it made small cars, elevators, and other similar places hard to go into.

“It was a dream,” Eros told me soothingly. “He’s not here.”

“I know. They just feel so real,” I responded, trying to catch my breath. Luckily, I hadn’t woken up Tyler.

“Think of Quinn,” he tried.

Her face flashed across my mind, and instead of helping, it just hurt. Looking out the window, I could see the first rays of the rising sun starting to pierce through the darkness. It was still early, and no one else would be up.

“You want to go run?” I asked Eros, wanting to get this panic out of my system before I had to talk to anyone today.

“Let’s go,” he agreed.

–

The sun had long warmed my fur and brightened the day around me when I came back. I’d left my clothes in the treeline, and I was pulling my shirt on as I walked across the small backyard when I saw Melvin waiting for me.

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.

“It was fine,” I lied. “Just wanted to go for a run.”

“You don’t have to pretend, son. I heard you wake up this morning.”

Embarrassment burned in my face, but I left it alone. I didn’t want to talk about it, not with him and not right now.

“I think it’s time we finally talked, son,” he said quietly but holding my gaze. “Meet me at the truck in ten minutes, and we’ll go somewhere and talk, just the two of us.”

I wasn’t sure what he specifically wanted to talk about, but now maybe I would finally get some answers. I hopped into the shower to rinse off and threw on athletic shorts and a clean t-shirt before walking out of the front door to meet him in his truck. I opened the door and pulled myself in before he carefully backed out of the driveway. We drove in silence for quite a while before stopping at a grocery store. I gave him a questioning look, but he just got out of the car.

“I’ll be right back,” he told me before closing the door. He returned after what felt like forever with several grocery bags and set them down between us as get got back into the truck with me, “You hungry?”

“Yea, I guess?” I answered in confusion. What did he just get from a grocery store? The smell of chicken filled the cab as we drove a short distance to the local park, pulled into a spot, and parked. He opened one of the bags and handed me a container that I found was filled with fried chicken, as I thought, and it smelled delicious once I opened it. Odd place to grab lunch, but I guess it worked. We sat and ate in silence for a while, watching families start to get to the park and play as birds flew around overhead. Sitting there with the man who really gave me life as I watched the kids and their parents gave me a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I wasn’t hungry anymore.

“So, are we going to talk?” I asked, wondering what all the theatrics were about.

“I’m sorry, I come here sometimes when I want to think. It kind of helps to be around people but not have to talk to anyone, you know?”

I kind of understood what he meant. I didn’t know how he could sit here and watch dads play with their kids and still be at peace, though.

“I think I owe you an explanation for what happened,” he said, finally. He wouldn’t look at me, and although I knew this had to be hard for him, it was still the explanation of why I ended up in the mess I was in. He did owe me this.

I cleared my throat, trying to find the words to say but settled on, “Uh, yea. I want to know.”

“Before you were born, I was the Alpha of Stary Pack, and your mother was my fated mate. We were happy together. Every moment I could, I spent it with her. We dreamed about the day we would conceive and bring a new pup into the world that we could raise together. Lawrence was one of our warriors. I’d gone into battle with him more than once before I became Alpha, but he tended to fall to the rear and avoid fighting if he didn’t have to.”

That sounded like Lawrence. He was such a cowardly worm.

“Not long after we found out your mother was pregnant with you, I received a challenge. We hadn’t told anyone about you yet, so we kept it to ourselves until we resolved the nonsense challenge. Lawrence was convinced that he could lead Stary Pack into a more prosperous future, and he felt that I was wasting my time with my mate. I told him to take it back, that I didn’t want to kill someone who couldn’t even be bothered with honorably fighting in battle. I told him I’d seen the way he avoided it, and if anything, Stary needed a strong leader. Our lineage holds a long line of warriors, and it was something Lawrence could never compete with.”

“So, what happened then? Why-”

“Lawrence flew into a rage and did retract his challenge. I thought it was over, but he only walked it back to issue a new one. He challenged me for my position as Alpha as well as for my Luna. If I thought he was too weak to be a threat to me, he’d make sure I lost everything in the process. He kept going on and on about how I was a joke and the pack deserved better. He should rightfully be Alpha. I told him fine, I’ll accept your ridiculous challenge, but as the Challenged, I retained the right to choose when this would occur. I gave him one year and told him to come back and see me then. I probably shouldn’t have dug it in, but I told him that would give him enough time to say goodbye to his family. That was probably my Alpha ego speaking.”

“How’d he take that?” I asked, surprised how coldly Melvin had regarded Lawrence. It was hard to imagine a world where the man I’d once called my father didn’t rule the pack by fear. No one would talk to him like that now.

“About as well as you’d expect. He said waiting a year was an insult, and he’d find a way to force my hand. I couldn’t think of anything at the time that he could do, but I wanted to get you safely born and possibly away from the pack before I addressed him. So, I let him storm out, and I tried to console your mother, who had witnessed everything in my office with me. Obviously, she was distraught over the forced mate part, but I assured her that it could never happen. I was a warrior of Galbraith b***d, and Lawrence could do no harm to me on a field of battle.

So, a few days later, I received a manila envelope from him delivered to my office by one of Lawrence’s lackeys. I remember thinking that when this was over, I was making that traitor a rogue. He gave me a mocking bow and dropped the envelope on my desk before quickly running back through the door. When I opened it, I couldn’t believe Lawrence had found it. It was pictures of my first son, Bryant.”

“I have another brother?” I exclaimed, sitting forward out of the seat to look at my father. “How could you not tell me? How could mom not tell me?”

“Calm down, and let me explain. I’m trying to tell you now. We haven’t had much time for that yet,” he asked, putting his hand on my shoulder calmingly.

“Fine,” I grumbled.

“I had Bryant out of mate bond when I was very young, far before meeting your mother. It was a different time then. There were whispers when his mother started to show, and when I went to my parents for help, they made it go away. They gave her money and arranged for her to join a new pack. There, she would raise our son quietly and leave us alone. I always felt awful that he would grow up without a father, but he was supposed to be safe. I wanted to be Alpha, and I didn’t want one mistake to cost me everything, so I let it happen. It was stupid, and I should have stopped them, but I was sixteen. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.”

So, he’d let another one of us grow up without a father. He seemed to be good at that, at least.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“Along with the pictures was a message. It said he would tell the pack what I’d done, what the former Alpha had done if I didn’t accept his challenge the next day at sundown. I was furious. Not only was he trying to ruin me, but he was also trying to ruin my family’s reputation and bring my son into this petty dispute that I felt had no merit in the first place. I told your mom what was happening, and she tried to talk me out of it. She wanted me to tell the pack the truth and keep our original timeline. I wouldn’t listen. She insisted on coming with me, and I allowed her, thinking she would just be watching me slaughter this upstart coward.

I showed up on the training grounds at the pack’s edge as I’d agreed. Normally, I would have made him do this in the middle of the pack grounds for everyone to see, but I gave in to Lawrence’s demand for this fight to be private. In the end, I didn’t want to answer questions from anyone about it. He just stood there, smirking, when I got to the field. I could see he held a short sword, and I’d brought my claymore.”

“Wait, what?” I stopped him. “You brought swords? We’re wolves; why the hell would you bring swords to a challenge?”

Melvin looked at me like I’d slapped him, “I guess you don’t know then that our line comprises not only warriors but also weapon smiths and weapon specialists. It’s what we do.”

“No, of course, I don’t know that. I was raised by Lawrence, who outlawed the use of weapons because it was ‘human weakness’ to need them,” I spat. Apparently, it slipped his mind that he was not the one that raised me.

“I’m sorry, son. I wasn’t thinking-”

“It’s fine. Just finish the story,” I interjected, not wanting his hollow apology. I’d never understood why Lawrence was so weird about weapons if we don’t use them anyways. Now pieces of my life were starting to make sense.

“Anyways, he taunted me and made lewd comments about what he’d do to your mother once I stepped out to him. I punched him hard enough in the mouth that it dropped him to his knees, and he spat b***d. I told him to talk to me, not my wife. He swung at me from the ground with his blade, and I parried it with mine. I found it odd that he felt so weak. I couldn’t believe he thought he could challenge the Alpha like this. His attacks were basic, and he was no stronger than the most common of our race. It felt like a joke. We ended up in the center of the field, and that’s when I stepped into a trap. I heard the whistling of a crossbow bolt from behind me. I slapped it away with my sword just in time to feel Lawrence plunge his blade into the back of my knee. I turned to strike him down, but he’d danced away. Then, I heard the clicks from all around me. He had at least a dozen men armed with crossbows and shooting at me from everywhere. I was able to block enough of them to stay alive, but I was a pin cushion when they stopped. I wasn’t healing well, so I was covered in b***d. It was pouring down me, and my vision was starting to blur. I couldn’t figure out why until the witch came out of hiding. He was suppressing my healing somehow.”

“He cheated?” I wasn’t surprised, but now the challenge made more sense. Although, I’d never heard anyone characterize Lawrence as weak before.

“He did. I’d never seen or heard of anything like it. I played right into his hands. I was so furious that I didn’t even bring my Beta with me to witness. I couldn’t hold my sword anymore. Lawrence walked right over to me and returned my punch in the mouth, sending me to my back, where I struggled to stay awake. All I could think of was trying to protect your mom and you. I was so naive. He knelt down, put a knee in my chest, and started hammering me in the face with the pommel of his sword. I was a wreck, and I could hear the bones breaking. I could hear your mother screaming for Lawrence to stop, but he wasn’t listening. Finally, she told him that she’d willingly become his Luna and forget me if he spared me. She’d help him look legitimate within the pack and never speak of what happened during the challenge. That stopped him, but I couldn’t move. No matter how hard I willed my body, it wouldn’t do anything. I could barely draw breath anymore, and I was sure that I would die anyway. I’ll never forget what he said, though, ’So you’ll submit to me? You’ll tell everyone that you are now my Luna?’

‘Yes,’ she told him.

I tried to scream. I tried to move. None of it worked. I prayed to the Moon Goddess to intervene, to stop this perversion. It didn’t matter. No one came. The Goddess ignored my prayers.

‘Come here,’ he told her.

I heard fabric ripping, and then he yelled at someone to make sure I was watching. The same b***h that came to give me Lawrence’s message looked down at me with a huge grin, grabbed my face, and turned it towards Lawrence. He was standing there with your mother in front of him. Her shirt was torn, and he was grinning at me like a cat who’d caught the canary. Without another word, Lawrence bit down on her mark. I heard her scream for a moment before I blacked out. It was the absolute worst pain I have ever felt. It was like I was being torn apart from the inside, and I can’t describe it other than that. When I woke up, it was nighttime. I’d been dropped into a motel room many miles away from the pack in a human town. I’d finally started to heal, and my face wasn’t as broken as it had been. The bed was covered in b***d, but it looked like I had finally stopped bleeding. There was a note on the table, but I couldn’t get out of bed. I’d been woken up by a pain that came in waves over and over and was building as it went. That’s when I realized Lawrence was finishing claiming her, and I could still feel it because our bond wasn’t entirely severed. After being sick all night, I left. The note was from your mother, begging me to stay away and live. She said she’d raise you as his, and you’d have a good life. I don’t know why after all of that, I listened, but I just… I couldn’t come back after what I’d felt that night.”

I didn’t know what to say. I thought he was a coward for letting Lawrence do that to his mate. If someone tried to take Quinn they would regret the endeavor. I couldn’t imagine feeling that pain and not coming back to burn the entire pack down around Lawrence and making sure he paid for what he did.

“It’s time I trained you in our family arts, Michael.”

He pulled me out of my contemplation with that, “Why?”

“The only way to end this is to challenge Lawrence and take Stary back from him.”

“Then you do it! If he was so weak, make the pack watch so he can’t cheat and kill him!”

Melvin patted his knee and shook his head, “I’m not the warrior I once was. My knee never healed fully, and I just don’t have it in me anymore. I can’t, son. It has to be you.”

The thought of killing Lawrence myself wasn’t unappealing, although I couldn’t imagine telling Tyler what I had to do. Who’s side would he be on?

“How long?” I asked. “And where are we going?”

“We’re going south, about another thousand miles, and it will take years before you’re ready. I know you’ve stayed in shape, and you’ve wrestled, but teaching you everything I know will not be a short process. I have to teach you not only how to fight but how to be an Alpha. You’re strong and smart, but you aren’t ready.”

Over a thousand miles away from Quinn, and now he was telling me it would be years before I could return to Stary, to her. What was the point? I was going to lose her. She’ll always be in danger if she’s attached to me, and now, how can I ask her to wait?

Goddess, what did any of us do to deserve this?