Page 10 of Into the Grasslands

Thorin:Yes

Warren:Who do you want?

Thorin:All males who have not found their mates among our pack, or those who might want to see if there is a second-chance mate waiting for them.

I was ready to kick my own ass for never even thinking to look for my mate on Mirage Island. Then again, if she wasmoon-blessed to me, there had been no reason to think she might be there, where the rejected were left to the cruel fate of being outcasts. In truth, they were prisoners to the island unless someone came to rescue them. If the rumors were true, some of those ‘rescues’ were a worse fate than being left on the island itself, since rogues would often go to the island to grab unmated females to breed.

Now that Catalina had shed light on the situation, I wondered how much time I had truly wasted. Had my mate been out there all along, and I hadn’t searched hard enough for her? Would she ever forgive me for wanting to take another when I couldn’t find her? It was possible that she never had to know about that. It wasn’t like Cat and I ever completed the mating ceremony. Only time would tell how things played out, but time was something I wouldn’t waste any longer. My mate was out there on that forsaken island, and I wouldn’t hesitate to go retrieve her now that I knew she existed.

Chapter 5

Mirage Island

NIKA

“What dowe do with the latest shipment?”

“Put it with the rest of the stored goods,” I informed Janella. The poor thing had been abandoned to Mirage Island since she was just a pup. No one knew how she ended up here, or even when she came to the island originally. As Janella explained, anytime men came in search of their mates, she hid. The women, who were on the island when she had been dropped there as a small child, had either since been taken in by their own second chance mates or had passed into the realm of the souls on the other side of death.

It was hard to kill a wolf shifter who wanted to live, but those who had no reason to go on, especially after having suffered the loss of a mate or rejection, were easy enough to kill. Some of them over the years had chosen to take their own lives. There was a perpetual watery graveyard of lost souls that surrounded the island as a result. Most were female shifters who had been so distraught and heartbroken that they chose a different way out of this life instead of waiting to see if anyone would come and claim them. For that reason, I would not put a single toe in the waters surrounding Mirage Island.

There was a freshwater lake in the middle of the island that we used for purposes of drinking, and then we ran off irrigation channels to the land we started to farm, as well as to the area where we bathed, so as not to sully our only source of fresh drinking water. Sure, there was the lake, if we grew desperate, but it was exactly that, a last desperate resort.

“These are technically your supplies though,” Janella argued. My name was on the boxes that Aiden sent to me once per month. They never failed to come, so I knew he hadn’t forgotten that he had a mate on the island whom he had rejected. Instead, it just worked to make me angrier. If he hadn’t forgotten about me, it meant he was still doing his own thing, sleeping with however many females would have him, and all the while thinking that he could just come back and fetch me to be his mate when he was done. He might even wait until the signs of madness set in before he came to collect me. Then again, if he built a large enough harem, he could potentially hold the madness off for a good long while.

Pack Alphas channeled a lot of power. It was never a burden meant for one person to possess. That was the reason why our Sky Gods gave each Alpha a moon-blessed Luna to help balance the power allotted to rule the pack. They were supposed to share the burden. Some Alphas never learned the lessons of their predecessors, and they thought they were above the Sky Gods’ decrees for some reason.

Aiden had become one of them, and he would relearn that lesson the hard way. Unfortunately, his pack would also bear the burden of his choices. As much as I wished I could spare them that outcome, sometimes more than just the pack leaders needed to be reminded that there was a cost for angering the Sky Gods.

“Lissette says there is a large party of men coming from the west,” Janella informed me after I remained quiet for some time.

“They sent seeds this time. It’s as if someone might realize we don’t have food here if we don’t grow it ourselves.” I rolled my eyes as I took inventory of the last box that was dropped onto the island. Sometimes, the boxes drifted in the wind and landed in the waters of the lake. They were lost to us when that happened because there wasn’t a soul on the island who would brave the waters, and the dead they held, to rescue even much-needed resources.

“The boxes have had more in them lately,” Janella commented.

“They have. Almost like he’s telling me that my stay shall be indefinite.”

“Do you think he found another mate?”

“Not unless he’s settled down his ways. Females might tolerate that harem crap in the hopes of maybe becoming his favorite later on, but there’s no way one of them would share willingly if they were given mate status.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Besides, if he doesn’t take his moon-blessed, he will require a much larger harem to balance the power it would take to run his pack.”

“What if he chose to do that?”

I turned to Janella then and smiled sadly. The poor thing didn’t know a whole lot about how the Sky Gods ruled. No one bothered to educate her beyond the basic skills that meant she might survive alone on this island.

“He has a moon-blessed mate. He won’t settle for less than me when he’s ready. The pack won’t allow him to settle for less either, since they know of my existence. Besides, the men will revolt if he takes many more of their intended mates.”

“A moon-blessed mating is more powerful than the chosen kind, right?”

“Yes, in a way. A stronger bond is created of a moon-blessed pairing, since Selene herself has seen fit to make the match.”

“Selene is the Goddess of the Moon, right?”

“That’s right, she is one of the Sky Gods.” I smiled knowing Janella had been soaking up all the knowledge I had to share with her. “Alphas need their moon-blessed pairing to keep their packs healthy, since they channel so much power. If they choose a weaker mate, they risk dooming their relationship, because their bond will be too weak to withstand the demands of the pack, especially larger packs. The mate’s themselves can suffer, as the chosen Luna sometimes withers under the pressure of the power share. The Alpha can weaken too, as he will become sick and unstable mentally if the power keeps getting pushed back at him when he tries to share the load.

“Their whole pack then suffers, because the Alpha’s chosen mate can’t channel the level of energy that an Alpha throws off. The packs that aren’t very prosperous are the ones who have chosen mates as their Alpha pair rather than moon-blessed mates. They are also far smaller because they have worked out the limits of what their power balance will allow them to control. My original pack was rather large. There is no way Aiden can keep that pack together with a chosen mate unless he were to find another Luna who would forsake her moon-blessed pairing.”

“That’s harsh. What if you fall in love with someone else before you learn of your moon-blessed mate?”

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