Alpha Assignment (GL) Chapter 35 (Early Access) (Patreon)

They had spent all afternoon post-file cuddling and kissing on the sofa. Remi was a genius for suggesting the day’s line-up, because that might just have been all that Quinn could face after going through her story. They ordered in again for dinner, and only got up to use the bathroom or make fresh drinks.

On Friday morning, Quinn woke up on the sofa with Remi sleeping sweatily on her chest. After a night under far too many blankets, and rolling in lunch and dinner crumbs, showers were a desperate need.

“Remi,” Quinn croaked. “I need to get up for work.”

“Nooooo,” Remi groaned into her chest, eyes closed.

The laugh Quinn let out shook Remi awake, half-moon curls bouncing around her face. She smiled sleepily and rolled over into the crease of the sofa, freeing Quinn to start her day. She ran through her morning routine at double speed, pausing to peck a kiss to Remi’s forehead every time she passed the sofa. Stood at the door, dressed, shoes tied, and with her backpack slung over one shoulder, she felt a sense of loss at not being able to spend another day curled up with Remi in their home-made den.

Remi called a half-asleep goodbye to her from the sofa, and Quinn smiled to herself as she left. She could survive the day knowing Remi was waiting for her…

There were two hours of calm in the office in the time between Quinn’s start and Jordan’s. She made her arrival known the moment she spotted Quinn from the lifts.

“Quinn!” she barked from across the office. “Do you have any idea how much you worried me?”

Quinn waited for her to reach their desks before she responded, hoping to divert her friend’s anger. “Morning, Jordan. What’s with the big bag?”

“Don’t change the subject!”

“Can you lower your voice a little?”

Jordan drew her face over the crack in their desks to hiss, “I thought the cult had got you!”

A laugh slipped out from under Quinn’s hand despite her best efforts. “Why would you think that?”

“All that vigilante shit you were talking about the other day! I thought you’d got yourself into trouble with the cult.”

If ‘the cult’ was the Assembly, as opposed to werewolves as a whole, then she wasn’t looking at much trouble for vigilantism. The people who would take real issue would be the new alphas of anyone on her list. While they might be new to the pack, it was the alphas job, and their pride, to defend their own. However, all of this was far too difficult to explain to a human.

“I didn’t do anything,” she assured her. “You were right, I should think of Remi’s feelings before I act on her behalf.”

Jordan straightened and her eyebrow lifted. “Huh.” She wasn’t convinced. “So you were really sick?”

“Yeah, I just took a sudden turn at lunch. Remi took care of me, but she’s not familiar with real jobs so she didn’t know to contact anyone.”

“And you’re okay now?”

“All good. I’m sorry I scared you.”

“It’s okay.” She shrugged off her coat. “Next time, just tell Remi to send me a text or something.”

“Sure.”

“I take it you forgot your pumpkin, then?”

Quinn froze, hands hovering over keyboard and eyes unfocused. The pumpkin carving competition, one of HR’s team-bonding ideas.

Jordan chuckled. “Don’t worry, they bought a bunch for people to buy on the day if you don’t bring your own.” She lifted a plastic bag, which had a slight orange tinge coming from inside. Her arms shook a little under the weight. “I picked this bad boy out myself.”

Quinn nodded, showing her awe in her mouth.

“And, you know, you can team up with someone…" Jordan put the pumpkin away, avoiding Quinn's eyes for a few seconds. "If you want.”

“Would you be generous enough to let me work with you?”

“I don’t know if we’d be compatible,” Jordan replied with a mock sigh. “I think we need at least a year’s office experience together before we know if we can work well as a team.” And they only had eleven months of being desk-to-desk.

“Understandable, thank you for considering my application anyway.”

Jordan grinned. "So, are we going classic face or a full scene?"

"Whatever you prefer, I've never done this before."

A few confused blinks and Jordan had composed her shock. "It's really fun, and messy." Quinn grimaced. "I'm gonna start looking up templates."

"Okay, I'm gonna start doing my job."

"If only I had the time for that," Jordan sighed.

All departments were gathered after lunch for the competition. The rules were read out, the prizes declared (more pumpkin-themed goods), and then a thanks to the HR ladies for organising everything. In the few minutes of murmured conversation before they were to begin, a woman sidled up beside them. Or, more accurately, Jordan. Quinn peered across at her, but there was nothing to signal the woman had even noticed her. She leant down to speak right into Jordan's ear, and whatever she said turned the smaller pink. A flattered smile pointed at the floor.

"Um, I've already teamed up with Quinn," she answered. She hugged her pumpkin to her stomach like a baby bump and rocked back and forth on her feet.

The other woman finally gave Quinn a look, and Quinn did the same, both appraising the other for a beat. The woman was tall, obviously not as tall as Quinn, and fit, obviously not as fit as Quinn, with short blonde hair that wasn't as short or as blonde as Quinn's. Although she wasn't familiar, she had wandered over from the accounts team, so an educated guess would say she’d journeyed from the closed-off office by the printers.

Quinn gave her a nod in greeting and turned to Jordan. "But there's spare pumpkins, I don't mind if you two want to...?"

She watched Jordan's expression carefully, she didn't want to leave her with a partner she was uncomfortable with, but equally didn't want to get in the way of a potential partner. The woman was obviously coming on to Jordan, with so little subtlety even Quinn could feel it.

The returned smile was grateful, she'd made the right call. "If you really don't mind..."

"Of course not!" Quinn smiled and hoped Jordan could feel how much she meant it. "I'm an amateur at this, I wouldn't want to slow down a pro like you anyway."

A loud voice started counting down and everyone hurried to paper-towel covered tables. Quinn snatched the nearest pumpkin off the spare table, promising over her shoulder she'd give some cash afterwards, and found a spot far from Jordan and the woman trying to seduce her over a gourd.

"Your hour begins.... now!"

As she dug out the enormous pumpkin, spooning slimy seeds onto a pile of paper towel beside her in the same manner as everyone else in the room, her mind wandered back to the day before. Specifically, to the envelope from Isaac. She had taken a read of it while Remi was in the bathroom, and it contained a letter filled with… advice. It had been worded carefully, as though censoring certain language, leading it to feel like it was truly meant as a warning. Isaac informed Quinn that an alpha alone was just that, an alpha with another is a mated alpha, but an alpha with two or more is a pack, and packs must be formally registered with the Assembly. What Quinn took this hint to be: as long as it’s just you and Remi, you’re fine. Any additions, and Quinn had some paperwork to fill out or they could get themselves into a heap of trouble with the Assembly. That was fine for her, she had zero intentions of forming a pack. A mated alpha was all she wanted to be.

And... things were going well in that department. She was an alpha who had mated with an omega, and now they just needed to become mates officially. A bit backwards, as traditionalists would see it, but she was happy. Quinn paused, her jagged knife halfway through a smiley mouth... she was really happy.

Jordan and mystery woman claimed 2nd place. Quinn didn't rank. 1st place was a 3D carving of a castle with storm clouds and thin slices of lightning. Humans are very artistic.

Quinn managed to gift her wonky winking pumpkin to one of the mothers who was willing to take extras to decorate her house with. Since Quinn wouldn't be inviting 'trick or treaters' to her house, there was no point in her keeping it. She did take home one of the leftover whole pumpkins, though, which HR sent an email around encouraging people to use for seasonal cooking.

At home, Remi reacted as though she were being presented with a diamond ring when Quinn placed the pumpkin on the kitchen island.

"I love pumpkin!" She ran her tiny hands over the orange shell. "What will we make with it?"

"Whatever you like, it was leftover from the carving competition."

"Carving? Like cutting it up into pieces?"

Quinn tried not to laugh, she hadn't known the difference herself until only a couple of years prior. "No, like this." She pulled her phone out and scrolled through the photos of all the pumpkins lined up for judging.

Remi looked between Quinn and the phone every time a new photo slid across the screen. "Why are there faces cut into them? That’s a little creepy"

"I think that’s the point." She put the phone away. "It’s for Halloween!"

"Oh." Not an ounce of recognition on her round face.

"Have you ever seen Halloween movies? We had one in my pack but my dad didn’t like us watching it."

Until she left, she didn’t realise Halloween was a real thing, it seemed as fantastical as everything else in their human-made media. And their one piece of Halloween media didn't involve children in cute costumes trailing streets for sweets, it was a shrill-scream-filled horror tale.

Remi rested her elbows on the counter and dropped her chin to her palms like a cherub. “I think in a cartoon? Maybe?”

“Well, it’s coming up soon so we should probably go over how that works.”

"Okay."

"Halloween is like Christmas but it’s supposed to be scary."

"I’ve seen Christmas movies!" Remi grinned proudly. It earned her a pinched peachy cheek.

"It happens on the last day of October every year, and people decorate their houses to be creepy-looking with cobwebs and skeletons."

"Skeletons?" Remi repeated on a breath.

"Plastic ones."

Remi let out a relieved sigh.

"And the people who celebrate dress up in costumes and have parties. The children knock on doors and ask for sweets, but if you don’t put the decorations up they will leave you alone. We won’t be decorating or taking part, but don’t be scared if you see weird things out the window. The humans find it fun to be scared and they think that on Halloween day monsters and ghosts are real and will try to catch them."

"Wow." Remi looked like she was trying to picture it and her brain couldn't provide the imagery. It was surreal to see it in real life, impossible to make it up.

Quinn leant across the cool surface, bringing their noses close to reveal her favourite part of the strange holiday. "Some of the children dress up in wolf masks and call themselves werewolves."

Remi cracked a smile. It infected Quinn. Then they were both cackling across the quartz island top.

“Wait.” Remi’s laughter sobered up suddenly. “Halloween is scary Christmas… but werewolves aren’t scary.”

Quinn gave her an all-over look. “Well, you’re not.”

They fell into easy laughter again.