Inevitably Yours

The next day, Mr. Ganbar ambushed me when I got to his class early. He was excitedly trying to convince me to agree to be one of the stat people he was talking about, and I finally caved so he would leave me alone.

Christy was still devastated over her and Stuart’s breakup. When I told her I couldn’t sit with her at lunch, she almost started crying again. Luckily, a few of the other flag girls swooped in and took her with them for lunch.

The meeting was odd. When we walked in, wrestling matches were being played on a projector. Three other girls in my grade were present, and two sophomores. When Mr. Ganbar turned off the video and welcomed everyone, he explained that a few others wouldn’t be joining us until we started going to wrestling matches because they already knew what to do. The whole thing seemed right up my alley, and we were told that we would have plenty of downtime to do homework or whatever else while we were working with the team. We were given permission slips and schedules to take home and talk to our parents about.

Christy was glued to me every minute that I was not in class. She wasn’t doing a very good job of trying to move past Stuart. The only good thing I could say about the situation was he hadn’t found his mate yet, so he was at least not flaunting another girl in her face.

Christy was also texting me near constantly when we were not at school. There was a brief period Thursday night where she paused her incessant messaging, but it was only for a couple of hours. Friday morning, she was waiting at my locker for me but looking happy for the first time since Monday.

“Good morning,” I said warily as she stepped aside, letting me get to my locker.

“I have the best news!” she said squealed.

“Okay, tell me,” I said. Her sudden change in mood was making me nervous.

“So, I have these friends in another pack, right? I know them through my parents. Well, my parents dragged us all out to some work party last night, and one of them was there. We hid from everyone else together and talked like the whole time!”

“That’s great!” I told her. “I’m sure it was nice to forget about we know who for a while.”

“It was awesome. Aubree is so great. He even asked if I wanted to do something this weekend!” she gushed. I could almost make out the stars in her eyes.

“Are you going to go?” I asked. I closed my locker door and slung my backpack back over my shoulders. Christy took the hint and started walking with me to my first period.

“I don’t know,” she said, biting her l*p. “At first, I thought he was asking me out on a date. I thought it would just be the two of us. Then he asked if I had any friends to bring along because he and his best friend were going out. Now I think it’s more of like a group thing.”

“So just go?” I suggested. “It can still be a group thing.”

“Do you think maybe you would come with me?” she begged. “Please? It would cheer me up so much, and you can’t run right now anyway. Best friends hanging out on the weekend. Pretty please, Q?”

I sighed. “This isn’t a setup, right?”

“No!” she said. “I would love to find you a good boyfriend, but this is not a setup!”

I sighed as we reached Mr. Ganbar’s classroom. “This will make you happy?”

“Yes! I really need this, and I don’t want to go alone!” she smiled brightly. I liked seeing my friend happy and wanted her to get past Stuart. The faster that happened, the better for both of us because her unending sadness was beginning to wear on me.

“Let me think about it,” I told her.

“I will take that as a maybe!” she squealed. She grabbed me, hugging me tightly.

“Ow,” I g*****d

“Oops,” she said as she pulled away. The classroom door opened, and that same guy walked out.

“Oh, you again,” he said.

“This is my class,” I pointed out.

“Heard you are joining the stat girls. Guess we’ll be seeing plenty of each other,” he smiled. “Oh, it’s you. You’re the girl who was dumped in the middle of lunch this week, right?”

Christy’s eyes immediately misted over, but she scowled angrily. “Shut up, Ricky,” she snapped at him. She looked at me, ignoring him. “I’ll see you at lunch. Please think about going!” She gave Ricky one last mean look before heading back down the hallway.

Ricky laughed. “She doesn’t like me a whole lot,” he said. “I didn’t know you were friends.”

“You don’t know me,” I said. “We go to the same school and have run into each other a few times.”

He shrugged. “I have heard plenty, though. Like you are the one who finally shut up Andi. Many of us owe you thanks for that.”

“I didn’t do anything to her,” I defended.

“Everyone else seems to think otherwise. So does your joining the stat girls have anything to do with our mutual friend?” he asked.

“What friend?” I was trying to think who I knew that would be this guy’s friend.

“Michael, duh,” he said. “Is he coming back then?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Excuse me; I’d like to get to class.” I forgot Michael said he was a wrestler when I agreed to join. He hadn’t said anything about when he was coming back to the pack. We were barely talking, and he seemed a little sad every time we did.

“I was just curious. I haven’t talked to him, so I hoped you might have since you were close and all,” Ricky said, putting his hands up.

“How did you know we were close at all?” I asked him.

The bell rang, and the light traffic in the hall immediately started to get heavier. “That is my cue. Bye, Quinn!” Ricky said, hurrying away. I rolled my eyes, noting to ask Michael about this Ricky guy later.

–

After school, I snuck into the library instead of going to my locker. I still hadn’t committed to going out with Christy, but I knew she would be pestering me for an answer all night. I wanted to call Michael and talk to him without interruption before all the usual craziness of Friday evenings started.

The library stayed open for an hour every day after school so students could use it for homework purposes. I wandered to the back of the shelves to the sections least used by everyone. There was a tiny work table all the way back here that I found, which was perfect for me.

I set my bag down and settled into the singular chair at the table; it was dim in the part of the library. I pulled out my phone and called Michael. The phone rang and rang until it went to voicemail. I didn’t leave a message, deciding to hang up for the moment.

I contemplated trying him again after I got home from the game, but my phone rang as I was getting to my feet. I answered happily, “Hello?”

“Hey, Blue,” his deep voice answered.

“Hey. I had some time and thought I would call you,” I said, sinking back into the chair.

“So you were thinking about me?” he asked cheekily.

“Maybe,” I smiled back. “What are you up to?”

“Nothing interesting,” he said. “Are you getting ready for the game then?”

“Yea,” I said. “Well, I will be here in a bit.”

“How are things at school?” he asked.

“Fine, I guess. Stuart dumped Christy, so she has been kind of a mess,” I told him.

“Oh really?”

“Yea, his birthday was on Tuesday, and they aren’t mates. He was cruel and did it in front of everyone at lunch, though,” I explained.

“He’s a snob,” Michael said. “Always been super full of himself.”

“I’m not his biggest fan,” I agreed. “He still goes out of his way to ignore my existence, luckily.”

“Someone else has a birthday coming up,” he said. I blushed; I didn’t like making a big deal about my birthday since I was little.

“Well, I already got the only present I want,” I said, reaching inside my shirt to grab my necklace. I wore it every day.

Michael sighed. “You’re the only present I want.”

“You’re birthday is coming up soon, too, right?” I asked.

“Mmhmm,” he answered. I felt like he intentionally left out the day. “So, you have a race tomorrow?”

“No, I don’t think I will be finishing the season,” I told him.

“Why?” he said, sounding alert.

“I kinda got hurt. By the time I’m allowed to run again, it will be the end, and I’m booted from varsity anyway,” I told him.

“How did that happen?” he asked. I never told him what happened at the game or race last week.

“I fell during my first varsity race and broke my ankle. It will be okay in a couple of weeks, and I am off crutches after today. But I cost the team a ton of points, and the coach said if I make it back before the end of the season, I won’t run varsity again. He was furious about it,” I explained.

“He was mad that you got hurt?” he clarified.

“Yea, but it’s fine. None of the other girls were mad about it, just the coach.”

“What an a*s,” Michael said, irritated. “Are you okay? Did you say crutches?”

“I’m fine,” I assured him. “I have this brace thing to wear after this week, but it doesn’t hurt too bad anymore. I don’t have anything to do on Saturdays unless I go somewhere with Christy or my other friends.”

“She got dumped on Tuesday and wants you to go out with her already?” Michael asked.

“I guess. She said something about this guy and his friend,” I started.

“Is she trying to f*****g set you up?” he snapped. I paused, never hearing him so mad.

“No,” I said quietly. “I told her I didn’t want that.”

Michael made a clicking sound but didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure what I said to make him angry.

“I’m sorry. I should probably go,” I said, feeling like escape was the only option.

“Sure,” he said.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“I will talk to you later, maybe?” I said.

“Yea, sure,” he said. “Bye.”

I sat still, staring at my phone for a few minutes. It hurt that he had gotten so angry and felt a little unjustified. We weren’t dating or mates. I really cared about Michael, but he left. I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend but did he think it was fair to act like that? I wasn’t sure my heart was recovered from his departure yet and had no intention of giving it out again.

“Maybe he isn’t over having to leave either,” Sapphire reasoned.

“I’m not saying it’s his fault, but it certainly isn’t mine. It’s not fair to get mad at me,” I told her.

“The best thing you can give him is patience,” she said.

“I’m always the patient one,” I grumbled.

MICHAEL

What a fantastic birthday present. Quinn calls, and I find out not only is she hurt, but Christy is trying to set her up. I knew I should have never agreed to sleep with her; I told her it wouldn’t end well for either of us, but she was insistent. She knew about Quinn and me, and this is exactly something she would do to get back at me. It would never have happened if she hadn’t sat in my damn lap during last period and talked me into the back of Ricky’s car. I lost a friend, and now it was worse than that.

I knew I shouldn’t have snapped at her, but I was out of patience with everything. I got away from Lawrence only to put my whole life in an entirely different sort of hell. Every step I took was taking me farther from Quinn and the life I wanted.

I thought I was training my whole life to be the strongest person in the pack, to be the one everyone could look up to. But there was so much more to being Alpha than I was ever led to believe, and that was done by design. Now, I had to make up for an entire childhood of missed opportunities, of things I should have already learned to be the wolf I was meant to be.

If we managed to stay away from him, it would take me years to learn enough to return to Stary Pack and challenge Lawrence for my birthright. That would be years of looking over my shoulder while pushing myself to physically become something more. It would be years of Tyler being a whiny brat about who our fathers were and years of my mom trying to overcome everything that monster did.

Worst of all, it would be years without Quinn. Years of only talking to her on the phone or over text message. Years of listening to her enjoying her life. Years of holding her back because she was waiting for me to come back.

“It may be selfish, but it is not unfair that you do not want her to be with anyone else,” Eros tried to calm me.

“It’s very selfish. It’s controlling and almost manipulative, and I don’t want any part of that,” I said. My fists were balled, my nails slicing into my palms. I had to get this anger out of me.

“Then tell her it’s okay for her to see people,” Eros said.

“I don’t want that,” I countered.

“You have a choice to make then,” Eros said. “Neither one will be pleasant, but you need to decide what kind of man you want to be. If Quinn is that important, she will not stray too far from you.”

“I can’t be the only one here who knows she’s my mate. You have to feel it too,” I said.

“She is special. I like her very much,” he agreed.

“I know I have to do it, but I have no clue how to handle anyone thinking they have a claim on her. She’s mine; she should only be mine.”