Alpha Assignment (GL) Chapter 57 (Early Access) (Patreon)

It took six men and seven wolves to bring Quinn to the ground and keep her in place for manacling. Half were bleeding or suffering a broken something - the half whose role was prying an alpha’s mate from their arms long enough to secure the metallic restraints. Chains thicker than Remi’s limbs were knotted over Quinn’s frame with weighted intervals to slow her few possible movements.

But Remi was returned to her.

The bites she sustained while being pinned had already healed by the time the truck they were bundled into reached their prison. Her pyjamas were crusted with blood, she hated that her mate had endured the sight.

But Remi was still with her.

There were enough vehicles to separate the ‘pack,’ although once Remi was marked there was no chance they would put her in one by herself. She squeezed herself in amongst Quinn’s chains and sobbed softly for the whole journey.

With the lower half of her face muzzled, Quinn wasn’t able to apologise. All she wanted, above even her freedom, was to say those two words. It broke something deep inside of her to be kept from pleading for her mate’s forgiveness. She had marked her without consent, without even asking the question. A moment of panic and she had tossed aside any trust Remi could have built in her since arriving on her doorstep.

But at least they were together. Being separated scared her more than death. Maybe it was the fresh mark, the life-tie between them, altering her instinctual priorities, or maybe she couldn’t imagine returning back to what she had before. Whatever that life was, she didn’t want it anymore.

The double doors at the back of the truck opened into darkness, the same as the inside, but Quinn could see a new group of Assembly goons waiting for them. They weren’t stupid enough to attempt to pull Remi out from her self-imposed chain entanglement, although one cooed something at her about being careful not to get choked, sounding genuinely concerned. A pretty little omega had that affect on those with hearts.

With three uniformed guards on each side, they were marched into a cement-mould of a building. Remi rode Quinn’s chest chains like a swing, with thin arms secure around her neck. Quinn walked with an odd gait to account for all the extra weight, the least of it being Remi. They passed a desk of solemn werewolves in uniform, and took two clunky flights of stairs upwards, passing metal doors with barred holes at the top. They were numbered, and they had already passed the one hundred mark…

Despite the late hour, there were faces peeking through the gaps at them, desperate for any form of entertainment.

“If it isn’t my own little delinquent!” hawked a deep voice from a door numbered one-one-three.

The rise and bump of Remi’s chest into Quinn’s halted. She stared over Quinn’s shoulder at the corridor behind them, mouth slightly open, eyes unblinking. In the toss-up between fight or flight, Remi’s body had chosen to freeze.

Quinn’s body chose to fight on her behalf. The guards reacted at five second delay to Quinn slamming her fist into the bar that Remi’s uncle’s face was pressed up against. It snapped off, he flinched, and got off light with a hopefully-tetanus-contaminated scrape of the bar as it flew into his cell. Despite the ragged cut to his cheek, he howled with laughter, only growing louder and rowdier as the guards leapt into action and manhandled Quinn the rest of the way to their cell.

“She’s MINE,” Quinn bellowed under the muzzle. And Remi wasn’t a delinquent, but that part wasn’t as important. What Uncle Alpha Asshole needed to know was that Remi had a new alpha, a stronger one, one who loved her. Whether anyone could understand the garbled noise didn’t matter, she would make it regardless.

The snarls Quinn sent echoing back to him as she was dragged only served to delight the disgusting alpha more. Remi shivered under her chin, breathing again, but also whimpering and whining. Too much alpha anger was swirling around her sensitive omega body. Quinn forced thin breaths, begging her body to calm. She needed to be rational if she was going to find them a way out of this.

The moment their cell door was slammed and the lock clunked shut, Remi was wriggling around the chains, turning and twisting and fighting to free Quinn from the binds.

Quinn let her. At least for a bit, it was something to focus on while her mind reeled. The chances of an omega unclasping the solid metal manacles and freeing her was-

A line of chain fell to the ground like a dead snake.

“I watched the way they interlocked them,” Remi murmured. “Hold still.”

First her body was freed, then her mouth, and then her mouth was captured again under Remi’s. Surrounded by loops of chain, in near enough the middle of a damp, grey prison cell, her mate kissed her with a ferocity that almost set Quinn’s life back in order. Her marked mate, bound to her for life.

Before their mouths could fully peel apart, Quinn was apologising, and, for the first time in years, crying. She stumbled and sputtered and begged for Remi’s forgiveness on her knees with Remi between them.

“Quinn,” Remi breathed. She lifted a sad smile to Quinn’s sobs, and pecked the tears from her cheeks. “You have nothing to apologise for. You kept me. That’s all I care about.”

The words soothed her soul, but she could only cry harder, her precious mate clutched close. All she had was her mate, and the mark that kept them together. In the span of fifteen minutes, she had lost everything but her most important person.

And now that person was trapped in the same institution as her abusive alpha uncle. Who had recognised her. And who had spent her entire life attempting to paint her as a troublemaker who deserved every beating she got. And now that he had finally been locked up, possibly still pending his trial, they had handed him a perfect piece of evidence for his own defense. All those bullshit reports would fall perfectly in line with the omega put away for being part of a rogue gang. Quinn bit her lip and forced back a fresh wave of tears. The pain of not being able to protect her mate was staggering. It was a small consolation that she was already on the floor of their cell.

It was cold, and grim, and a cursory glance of the unlighted room told her it would not be a comfortable stay. There was bedding, but no bed, and a bucket. Nothing else.

Her mate was quickly shivering.

“I’m going to shift,” Quinn mumbled. “We need to get some sleep while it’s still night.” Her fur would keep them both warm till morning.

Remi climbed off and stepped back. She didn’t look away.

Quinn stripped and placed her folded pyjamas in the least soggy corner. It took a few breaths to fall back into the feeling of letting her fur free itself. It prickled under her skin sometimes, but she hadn’t allowed herself to shift since entering the human world.

All of that progress. All of her restraint. Pointless.

Stretching and extending, her body transformed to fill their cell. She dropped to four paws with a groan. Only in her mind would she admit that it felt good, an itch scratched after years of waiting. She walked a cramped circle, testing her limbs and shifting her weight. Then she took the corner of the bedding in her mouth and dragged it out to lay on. She curled up into a coil shape and nodded Remi over.

Remi hadn’t taken her eyes off Quinn throughout the process, wide with shock or fear wasn’t entirely clear.

“You’re…” She looked away finally, as though through the bars and back down the corridor. “I’ve never seen an alpha so big.”

Quinn huffed a laugh through her snout. Of all the things her mate could have said… it strangely did make her feel a little better. She may feel weak, but she was still stronger than most.

“I’ll shift, too,” Remi announced, pulling herself free of her top and shorts.

Quinn wanted to tell her it wasn’t necessary, but without a human mouth she had only the bond to communicate with, and her emotions were tempestuous waters. She would hate to overspill, send the stomach plummeting fear she felt into Remi. If anyone had to have some trust and belief that they would make it out, it was her.

A tiny naked Remi turned into an even tinier wolf. Quinn wasn’t sure how her mate would feel about her repeating her own sentiment back to her - but she had never seen an adult wolf so small. Her paws were so tiny she seemed to trot on them like a chihuahua or toy poodle, it was both adorable and a little funny to watch. She struggled to climb over Quinn’s limbs to get into the warmth, and had to be lifted by the scruff which earned Quinn an indignant yelp. She hoped the nuzzling she gave her was a suitable apology. Apparently it was, as Remi had no qualms with burying herself into Quinn’s stomach like a puppy, her tail wrapped up to her face. The squeaky yawn that came from behind it made Quinn want to cry again. Her mate was too sweet and too innocent to be in this nasty place.

Not that Eveline and Wes deserved to be, either.

She hated the gurgling suspicion in her stomach that she couldn’t force away. Of Eveline and her box of paperwork. Of the ‘evidence’ Graham had claimed they had. Of their lack of competent support going up against their charges.

Wes was too naive to have ratted them out. She hoped he wasn’t suffering in his cell.

The next time she would see them, she was sadly certain, was at trial.