Inevitably Yours

MICHAEL

We didn’t get to finish the tattoos that night, and Nic slept in pretty late the next day. Taylor appeared in the kitchen around lunchtime to grab food and head back to her and Nic’s room.

Quinn was pretty drained the next day. It took a while, but I finally convinced her to take a nap, and I took the kids out for some fun. When we got back, she was still asleep.

After a full day of Alpha and Dad duty, I went outside to practice drawing my swords from my new tattoos. Nic joined me after a while, wearing a loose tank top as she practiced pulling her karambits out. It didn’t take long to get used to reaching for the exact spot on my back, either. I knew immediately if I touched it. When my hand passed over the tattoo, it no longer felt like skin. It was like touching a non-newtonian fluid. With gentle movement, my fingers slipped into the space, and my swords were right there. When I used too much force to reach through, it was like a barrier. Retrieving the weapons had to be intentional and not reactive.

Obviously, this wasn’t something Quinn could do all the time; it had taken a far greater toll on her than we initially realized. This was also something I didn’t think we needed to share with everyone. It seemed a bit dangerous to make this widely known.

Taylor joined Nic and me on the training ground, just content to observe. We all discussed keeping this between the four of us as much as possible. Nic pointed out that someone would see us draw these weapons at some point, but I also reminded her we owed them no explanation.

Taylor then brought up a great point: can anyone pull the weapons from our marks? We all wanted to know the answer to this. First, I had Taylor try to retrieve the swords from my back. She wasn’t able to. Then the question was could Nic do it as she also had a magical tattoo? I let her try next, and she wasn’t able to. Taylor and I also could remove Nic’s karambits. The last question Taylor posed was would Quinn be able to since she was the one with magic among us and had given us the tattoos? I promised to test it with her when she woke up.

After drawing my swords from their new magical sheaths hundred of times, I felt more comfortable doing so and decided to call it a night. I left Taylor and Nic to go back to the packhouse. After a quick shower, I quietly crawled into bed with Quinn, shooing her cat off of her. She was wrapped in three blankets and looked a little pale in the soft glow of the hallway light streaming through our doorway.

I pulled the top two blankets off her and then untucked her enough so I could spoon her. She was burning up, to my surprise. She squirmed a little against me. I brushed her hair back from her face, noticing some of it sticking to the dampness covering her. “Quinny, baby, hey,” I said, trying to wake her up. I wanted to check on her more than anything. “Baby, can you hear me?”

Quinn let out a feeble whimper. I sat up and pulled the blanket off her. Her clothes were damp. “Hey, baby, wake up for me,” I tried again, cupping her face. This time she g*****d, reaching for the blanket. She found me instead and tried to pull me down onto her.

From beneath me, she curled herself into me, shivering slightly. I was getting more worried. She had been exhausted after everything last night. She didn’t outright use her magic intentionally much anymore. She rarely blessed anything, too scared to overdo it now. She didn’t have time to cook for all of us every night either. We also didn’t train together as much as we used to. I wondered if not using her magic had made giving us the tattoos more detrimental.

“Quinn, I think you should drink some water. Maybe we should clean you up,” I tried to say softly in her ear. More than anything, I wanted to get her conscious, so I knew if she was okay. I was trying to remember if she had even eaten anything before I convinced her to nap. She g*****d beneath me, trying to tunnel further into our bed.

I pushed myself up; Quinn reactively reached for me again. When I wouldn’t yield to her, she sought out a blanket. When she couldn’t find one, she wrapped her arms around herself. “Quinn, I really need you to open your eyes for me. Just for a minute,” I said more sternly now. I grabbed her face, trying to elicit a response.

Finally, her eyes cracked open the slightest bit, and she g*****d. “Baby, you’re burning up,” I told her.

“It hurts…” she objected.

“Tell me what hurts,” I said.

“Everything,” she breathed. Her eyes slowly opened, just enough for me to see they were bloodshot. I realized her breathing was a little labored as well. Whatever pain she was feeling, I couldn’t feel it.

“I’m going to get you something to drink. I’ll help you sit up, okay?” I said. She just g*****d again and closed her eyes.

I carefully climbed out of bed and rushed to our kitchen. I got her a bottle of water from the fridge, then doubled back for some apple juice as well. I knew just enough about human anatomy to help with emergency care. Some of it didn’t apply to wolves, but Quinn was different from humans and wolves, so it was all a guessing game.

When I got back into the room, I had to cajole her into letting me get her sitting. I helped her take a few sips of water and then a few sips of juice. “Is that any better?” I asked as she sat back against the headboard. She just hummed softly and closed her eyes. “Do you think you can stand? You might feel better if we get you cleaned up,” I suggested. I thought putting her in the shower might help cool her down.

Quinn shook her head. Now that she was sort of awake, her breathing was calmed, and it looked like she had at least stopped sweating. “What can I do?” I asked her. She held up her arms like she wanted to hug me. I leaned in, and she wrapped her arms around me, laying her head on my shoulder. She let out a long breath, relaxing against me.

I held her close with one arm and switched our positions so I could sit against the headboard and hold her. Her weight sank into me as she fell back asleep. I held her to me, kissing the top of her head and running my hands over the back of her neck.

We had to be more careful. I was so excited by the tattoo thing and distracted by everything else I didn’t think about the toll it might take on Quinn. I hoped this was just a reaction to over-exertion and not something else.

After a while, her body temperature came down. I pulled a blanket over her but still didn’t think I would be able to relax. Something unnerving prickled down my spine as my mind returned to the day we had Michael Jr. blessed. That Fae warned me that they would leave Quinn alone longer if she were not to use magic. We thought we took a calculated risk with these tattoos, but maybe we underestimated it.

Quinn’s stupid cat returned to our room. It hopped up on the bed and lazily stalked over to us. My legs were spread open, with Quinn lying against me between them. The fleabag curled up next to Quinn’s legs and was quickly asleep.

Nic was hoping Quinn would put a few more tattoos on her for kunai, and I was hoping to convince her to do it to herself for her sai. Now I wondered if that was the best idea. My gut was telling me we needed to be prepared. If something happened, Quinn had a better fighting chance with her sai than empty handed.

The sun was barely starting to crest the horizon when I heard the telltale creaking of Junior sneaking downstairs. He thought we didn’t know, but each morning he got up and snuck out to the training grounds to work out. Quinn was hoping he wouldn’t be interested in his future responsibilities for a few more years, but that just wasn’t the case.

I knew it would only be an hour or so until the rest of the kids got up. Rowan would probably be looking for Quinn after not seeing her much the previous day. With exhausted resolve, I shifted Quinn onto my pillows and got out of bed to make the pups some breakfast and wait for my mate to get the rest she needed.

–

Quinn slept all through the day. I fell into bed that night and held her close. Thankfully, I woke up to my favorite green eyes very much awake. She felt much better and barely remembered having a fever.

I asked her to wait a few more days before trying any more tattoos, and she agreed after I told her exactly how long she had slept. Nic was less eager to get more tattoos after she realized how sick Quinn had been. We agreed it was safest if she did them one at a time. She would sleep especially hard after each one she did but not for days.

While Quinn slowly added tattoos to Nic and me, I started to prepare a backup plan. Nic, Quinn, and I already had an agreement. If something were to happen with one of us, especially Quinn, the others were to get the kids and go into hiding. I had set aside some money but hoped it would never be necessary. Now, it was time to gather some other things.

Through our clientele in training and security, I came across a few resources that did not always operate legally. I always kept our business dealings above par, but I had also earned a favor or two in my working time. I used one of those to get all of us fake identities. Once I had all that sorted, I made copies of some important paperwork and wrote the kids letters. Something in my gut told me if it came to this, Nic would be taking the kids into hiding, not Quinn and I.

“What’s that?” Quinn surprised me one afternoon, coming into my office without knocking.

“Just some emergency plan stuff,” I told her, pushing it into a drawer. She had been in a good mood for a few days now, and I hadn’t wanted to bring that down with the sobering reality of our contingency plans just yet. “What’re you up to?”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“I guess I have a surprise for you. I just got off the phone with your mom,” she smiled.

“I feel like I’m missing a dot here. Mind connecting them?”

“Your mom is ready to move back to Stary,” she beamed.

–

“Nic, I can’t believe you didn’t call me!” my mom gushed. She was finally meeting Taylor. “I’m so happy you found your mate!”

“I’m sorry, Claire. It’s been kinda crazy around here,” Nic apologized. We were all standing outside my mom’s apartment, ready to help move her things. I brought a moving truck, so we could do it in one trip. Nic wanted to come and introduce Taylor to my mom. Taylor gracefully agreed to help.

“Gran Gran, where is Uncle Tyler?” Junior asked. We allowed Junior, Belle, and Diane to come help while the younger ones spent the day with my dad.

My mom gave me a worried look. “You three go start counting boxes in Gran Gran’s apartment, so we know how much we have to move,” I told the kids. Junior narrowed his eyes at me, but the girls pushed him toward the stairs.

“Spill, Mom. What’s going on with Tyler?” I asked.

“Well, he is being difficult about moving,” she said, pulling her cigarettes out of her pocket. Taylor went to comment, and Nic shook her head. We all knew it was a horrible habit, but we let her have her vice.

“Does he not want to come back to Stary?” Quinn asked.

My mom shook her head. “He threw a fit when I called you last week,” she sighed. “I can’t believe this. How awful of an impression am I making right now.”

“It’s fine, Claire,” Nic smiled at her. “Tyler being a little s**t isn’t your fault.”

“I haven’t seen him in two days. I came home from my last day at work, and half his stuff was gone,” my mom continued, taking a long drag from her cigarette. I tried to wait patiently for her to smoke; I knew her nerves were frayed thanks to this.

“Mom, when he threw this fit, what did he say?” I asked her.

“That he was going to move overseas. Supposedly he can get some job over there, and he was going on and on about it. He was just blaming me for leaving him,” she finished.

“Claire, oh my goodness. You are not leaving him!” Quinn said frustratedly. “I’m going to wring his ungrateful neck.”

“Easily killer,” I said, patting Quinn’s head. “Let’s start getting Mom’s stuff in the truck, and I’ll find my brother.”