8. I’m Coming For You, My Mate.
1625 Words
Quinn
Slowly, after a few more hours, the pile had diminished. The phone rang, and it was Conor, Lan’s beta. He was in charge while Lan was in Seattle. I was just overseeing from afar.
“Alpha Quinn, are you well?”
Conor was twenty-three and always so formal. It was a good thing he hadn’t come around, as I’d have she-wolves swooning all over the pack house. He was waiting for his mate, like my gamma, Duncan.
“Call me Quinn, Conor. No need to be so formal.”
He chuckled. He was laid back despite his formalities. It was unusual as his father had been a strict beta. The rogues killed his dad in the same attack that took their luna and her offspring. He died loyally defending them. Conor embraced Lan as his new alpha, seeing him as a liberator rather than an outsider.
“Lan linked me last night to say it will be a week or two till he returns. It’s a bit of a mess.”
“Yes, he told me. Border patrol was piss poor.”
Conor laughed. “I doubt it is now; Lan will kick their asses back into shape.”
I laughed as well. “True.”
My brother had always preferred to settle a debate with his fists rather than his words, hence where we differed.
“Speaking of kicking asses, I’ve had to stick Carson in the cells again.” He sighed. “He’s constantly drunk, and the incidents he’s been causing have gotten out of hand.”
Carson was the old gamma, who, by all previous accounts, had been a functioning alcoholic before the old alpha’s demise. No mean feat for a were - it was challenging for us to get drunk unless you laced the alcohol with wolfsbane to prevent your wolf from burning it off quickly. The functioning part had fallen away more recently; now, he was just a drunk. Drunk werewolves were almost as dangerous as rogues. The only reason Lan hadn’t killed him was Tristan, the current gamma who had vowed to get his dad clean and straightened out.
“Even Tristan agreed he needs to spend some time in the cells for his own good.”
It mustn’t be good if Tristan’s patience was running thin.
“We’ve had Doc Jones give him some vitamins and meds to stop him seizing, and we’re going to let him go cold turkey.”
Doctor Jones was the primary pack doctor at the hospital we shared between our packs. They had a small clinic in their pack, but the main hospital was here.
“Good. I suggest you keep him there till Lan returns.”
“I agree, and so does Tristan, even if it is killing him slowly. He’s tired of picking his old man up from the gutter.” Conor’s voice was laced with sadness. He had lost his father, but to see his friend slowly losing his own to self-destruction must have been hard. Carson had been friends with his dad.
“That’s settled then. Is there anything else you need me for?”
“I just need you to look over the upgraded perimeter defense plan. We’ve incorporated the tech you sent over, and I wanted you to check that it was all placed correctly.”
“Email me the schematic, and I’ll look. I’ll send one of the guys over if anything’s amiss.”
“Thanks, Alpha.”
There he went with my title again. I said goodbye and hung up without correcting him.
Once again, I was alone with my paperwork. Alone seemed to be my recurrent theme. That’s what was missing: companionship. Someone to come home to after a long day, to bring me a drink or rub my shoulders occasionally. Someone I could repay the favor to, devote my attention to, and create a family of my own with. The responsibility, hell, even the paperwork I could deal with, but the loneliness I felt bone-deep. I was blessed with a great family and a healthy pack, but something was still missing. She was missing. I dealt with it the way I always did by working harder and longer.
The next item was a request for more dressings and general supplies for the hospital. I wasn’t sure why this was gracing my desk. Kara, a junior nurse who worked with Dr. Jones, had compiled the report. She was the daughter of Brian, our head warrior. It seemed they needed my authorization because the order amounts were up by a significant amount. She cited a three hundred percent increase in admissions over the last two years. Dr. Evans, our old pack doctor, had retired, and Dr. Jones had taken over.
Were our warriors getting clumsier?
“Kara, it's Alpha Quinn.” I mind-linked the nurse.
“Hello, Alpha. How may I help?”
“I have a request for hospital supplies, which is fine, whatever you need, but can you explain the increased admissions?”
“Er.” She sounded hesitant.
“Is something wrong with the warriors?”
“Well, it’s not my place to comment.”
“Who else is better placed?”
“Well, er… if I could take a guess, er...” There was a long pause. “The warriors are quite fond of Dr. Jones,” she said in a rush.
“Fond of Avery?”
“Yes.”
I blew out a breath. “Are you sure?”
“Well, the figures speak for themselves. Dr. Jones is hard-working and an excellent doctor, but she seems to attract men even if she doesn’t want them,” Kara babbled.
“Thank you for telling me, Kara. I will speak to your dad about this.”
“Am I in trouble?”
I guessed with some alphas she would be, but I sought to lead with an honest, open approach and not by fear. It had served me well so far.
“No, thank you for being honest.” I closed the link.
“Grady, we need to talk to Brian and the warriors tomorrow. It seems they are slacking off to ogle the doctor.” I linked my beta, Grady.
“Oh, hell no! That shits not going to fly,” Grady said.
“Well, you don’t set the best example ogling female pack members,” I said, irritated.
“Get some food. Your ass is grumpy!”
He’s lucky I needed him, as anyone else would be in danger of having their heads torn off speaking to me that way. Grady was a bit of a womanizer and probably not the best example to younger pack members, but he was solid and loyal. He kept the warriors in line and looked after the pack when I was away at the company.
The chair groaned as I sat back into it and massaged my temples. So, the paperwork pile was lower, but now I had a detoxing ex-gamma in my brother’s pack dungeons and a bunch of potentially horny warriors. Goddess, help me!
One of the house staff appeared at my half-open door. They set down a platter of food and a soda. I thanked them and picked up the note.
Dear Grumpy Alpha, Eat this. Love your Number One Beta.
Number one beta! I snorted. I only had one beta full stop. Grady was a d**k. However, I descend on the food like a starving wolf.
After my desk feast was cleared away, it was time I checked what was going on in the human world, which was always less messy than the pack, even as CEO of my company. I flicked on my MacBook. Luckily, I had a CFO who ran my company day to day. As the boss of Ryan Industries, there was still plenty I had to oversee and sign off on. We had some big military contracts that needed careful handling. Many members of the pack worked for me, as it was important to me to have employees I could trust working alongside the humans.
An hour later, a sudden pang flitted across my chest.
“Mate!” my wolf said, standing up in my mind. He sniffed the air like a pointer dog.
“What? Where? Here?” I scrambled upright.
“I sense her,” said my wolf as he ran about in circles in my mind.
“What do you mean, you sense her?”
I was confused. Has she come of age? Why would that happen in the middle of the afternoon?
“No,” said my wolf; he stopped his chasing. “The bond wasn’t there before, but now it is. It’s far away, though,” he whined with a pitiful noise.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.” He sat down and lowered his head.
“Can you tell where she is? Can we search?” Excitement surged through me.
My mate!
“No, I don’t know where yet. We must wait.” At that, he laid down and fell to sleep as if exhausted.
I couldn’t feel him anymore. What the f**k?
I rubbed my chest where the burning pain had been. Where was she? Who was she? Why did I only sense her now? How could I find her? My wolf had told me, no, but damn! I wanted to rush out and jump on a plane to find her, although far away wasn’t much to go on destination-wise.
She was alive, though. I trusted my wolf above all others. I sat back in my chair, closed my eyes, and savored the realization she was out there.
I’m coming for you, my mate.
- Writer
