Alpha Assignment (GL) Chapter 34 (Early Access) (Patreon)

That awful photo was the first thing that drew Quinn's eyes. A familiar, slightly younger, face bruised all over. Remi plucked it out from under its paper clip and slid it to the back. They didn't say another word about it. Another item sat before the main docket: a white envelope. It was addressed to Quinn and the handwriting matched Isaac’s on the post-it note, she put both to one side. Now wasn’t the time.

It began with the factual. Form-like papers with boxes checked or filled with single words like locations. A lot of it was repeated with mandatory medical check-ups through childhood, but the parts Quinn held to were that Remi was an only child, she had a few family members alive but that didn't include parents, she didn't have any known allergies… One sentiment that came up too many times for Quinn's liking was that Remi was 'accident-prone.' The Remi she knew was not clumsy.

They read mostly in silence, with Remi peppering in anecdotes or extra information. On the first page to come after all the repeating forms, there was a family lineage diagram with the majority of the names marked as deceased. The names of the living had been mentioned in the medical forms, except... one was different.

Remi went to turn the page-

"Wait." Quinn halted Remi's hand with her own. "This name here, your uncle, he's an alpha?" His name hadn't included the alpha symbol in front of it in the previous pages.

Remi nodded.

"Did he already have an omega?" Why couldn’t he take you in? Why couldn’t he protect you?

Remi's head tilted.

"No, I was the omega of his pack."

"The whole time?"

"All my life."

Quinn's eyes dropped from Remi's face to her torso. "Your uncle... did that?"

Remi scrunched up a little under her blankets. "I'm not allowed to call him my uncle..." She dropped her chin to her knees and looked away, past the file and to the blank TV on the opposite side of the room. Quinn waited, but Remi didn't have anything else she wanted to say, so she left it and turned the next page.

Next came long, mostly hand-written, reports.

If you believed half of what was in them, Remi was a delinquent omega determined to drive her alpha to an early grave with stress. Included amongst the many grievances was Remi's escape attempt. She had been starved out and then dragged home.

Every report ended with the phrase 'Behaviour corrected at Alpha's discretion and under Alpha supervision.' It boiled Quinn's blood, not only because she didn't believe a word that had been put to this paper, but because it was so unnecessary. Alphas did not report to the Assembly on the behaviour of any member of their pack. Frankly, most alphas rebuked the level of involvement that the Assembly already attempted to have in their affairs. Alphas stood above all, their pack was their responsibility and in some ways, their property. The Assembly only had the right to intervene in their dictatorship if there was severe, life-threatening abuse taking place, or the alpha was no longer medically fit to rule. For Remi's uncle to be sending off report after scribbled report, he obviously had a motive. There was no way he was doing this for every wolf in his pack, there wasn't the time in the day.

Quinn's father had been borderline secretive when the Assembly enquired after anything to do with the inner-workings of his pack. It was none of their business unless something was wrong, and it wasn't, he would adamantly announce.

It was strange, almost human-like, in how the Assembly to werewolves played the role of the government - the law-makers and enforcers - while the alphas were the kings and queens, ruling from above with almost complete control. Until they crossed the Assembly's law-lines.

"This is all bullshit," Quinn muttered. Remi hummed with humour beside her.

Their cups were empty, as was the plate.

They took a break and Quinn ordered lunch to be delivered while brewing fresh warm drinks. As she whisked Remi's hot chocolate into sweet froth, she thought of her earlier words. She had liked it, the sex, and she thought Quinn had been perfect. Was it selfish to believe her when she had no one to compare to? Maybe... but at least she would get another chance to do better.

They ate in their blanket fort, sprinkling crumbs everywhere and licking thumbs of sauce off skin. They didn't discuss the file, they needed a true break of it, just for a bit.

Fed and re-wrapped-up, they continued.

The next section was transcripts and testimonies. Half was Remi's own words that had been taken down via interview, the other half came from Assembly agents. It had been a long investigation. It had to be if they were usurping an alpha, to have the Assembly involve themselves to that degree, they had to prove they were doing it for a genuine reason and that they had their facts in order. The Assembly made the rules, but the alphas would win a mutiny, they had the manpower. It was a very delicate balance, and yet it still frustrated Quinn reading all the dates on these papers. While these agents were taking their sweet time, Remi was still in this pack. She was still suffering while they got to sit at desks and type up the results of an hour long visit that resulted in no evidence.

"Why did it take them so long?" Quinn grunted.

Remi made a soothing noise and cuddled into Quinn's side, sensing the rising anguish. "Once Mister Isaac took the case, everything moved much quicker."

Quinn groaned through tight lips. It didn't make her feel better. Almost worse, that there's only one decent case worker in the entire organisation.

"He works very hard for a lot of people," Remi added quietly.

"I can tell." She held back from pointing out he looked like he'd never had a minute of sleep in his life.

The punishments and pain described once Isaac starting signing off the statements turned Quinn's stomach. Beatings, starvation, isolation... in the human world this would be attempted murder, surely. To wolves, this was an alpha going too far. And Remi hadn't only survived being torn apart by her alpha, but she had been shunned by the rest of her pack. Those in the alphas favour pushed her around, but her uncle got priority in putting his hands on her.

With a lump she couldn't swallow past, Quinn tried to be grateful that they were related. It didn't look like there were many abuse boundaries this man wouldn't cross.

He was currently being held in Assembly holding cell one-one-three pending his trial. Remi would not testify in person, opting for her written testimonies to be used instead. Putting the pain behind her for a new life with a new pack and a new alpha.

When they reached the final brightly-coloured divider, she was shaking. Remi had climbed into her lap for emotional support, and gave her quick kisses to her cheek when her jaw locked tight.

"This part is evidence. Pictures and things. It might not be helpful to look," she warned.

Quinn looked anyway, she needed to finish and know she had seen everything. If she looked away now, she might as well be one of those useless wolves in Remi’s pack that had looked away her entire life.

Afterwards, she held Remi tight to her chest for a long, long time.