Page 35 of Beyond the Grasslands

“So, you’re telling us that your success is due in large part to your pack’s stance against betraying your moon-blessed mate?”

“There are always exceptions, but when other packs make it a rule rather than an exception, then it becomes the norm. Eventually, you have children born of weak bonds, you have relationships that aren’t as healthy as they could be. You also lose some of your best pack members to a prison island so that rogues can snatch them up and procreate with them.”

“I see,” Albert suggested. “And what of the shifters who have to seek a second chance mate? There is no other market available for them to seek out those potential mates.”

“Then make one. A healthier one. Do you know that the packs who send their females to Mirage Island rarely follow through with delivering supplies to those women? The first month, the women might see supplies, but then they have to fight the others on the island to keep them.”

“If everyone is getting supplies, that shouldn’t happen unless women are being greedy.”

“Women aren’t being greedy, they’re trying to survive,” I yelled at Albert who was bound and determined to see Mirage Island as a necessary space. “Within three months, half the packs stop sending supplies to the women they’ve dumped on the island. Within six months that number climbs to a staggering 80-90 percent. Within a year, no supplies are coming for any of the women of the packs. The common practice is that if they didn’t get chosen to be a second chance mate by then, then they were on their own and could leave the island of their own accord.”

“Yes, that is how it was meant to be,” Albert stated with a bit of a frustrated sigh added in the mix.

“The problem is that the women can’t leave the island without someone coming to get them and escort them across the waters. There is magic imbued on that island that keeps those women there.”

“Nonsense.” Again, it was Albert who responded.

“Have you ever been there?” I asked.

“Why would I?”

“Why indeed?” I asked. “Maybe because it is your job as a council member to ensure the safety of all your subjects, including the women who are left on that island at the whim of selfish choices others have made. They are literal prisoners there and their only crime is that their mate chose someone else.”

“I assume that your sudden championing of Mirage Island females is to do with your own moon-blessed mate?” Adrian cut off whatever Albert had been about to say.

“It does. She is the reason I was able to see what a travesty it was that women were left there. She is the reason I know that not only are rejected females brought there, but small female children are dropped off on the island as well. Then they are forced to fight for the limited supplies available to them, ward off rogues who take them against their will, and other packs who are just as bad as the rogues themselves.

“Where is your mate, when she should be here to champion these women?” Albert asked snidely.

“She is at home with our two newborn pups. We have been blessed with both a son and a daughter.”

“Twins?” Adrian asked needlessly.

“Yes, twins.” Twins were seen as a blessing among our kind. A male and female set were extremely rare and thought to be a blessing directly from the gods. “She couldn’t be here because she only just gave birth a few days ago.”

“Very well. We will form a committee to look into Mirage Island and how to end the practice of sending unwanted femalesthere.” It was Adrian who made that decision, despite the sputtering disapproval of his cohort, Albert. Fortunately for the women of the shifter community, they had more support in favor of ending the practice than those against it.

“One more bit of business before you are dismissed,” Adrian called out to me. “We wanted to let you know that we did manage to find a way to imprison the lesser goddess who caused so much damage to your pack. She is being held until such time as the other gods determine the appropriate punishment for her crimes. Either way, once she is turned over to them, we have received a guarantee that she will no longer be allowed in the mortal realm.

I offered a nod of my head and then left the council’s chambers. If it hadn’t been for the summons, I wouldn’t have left at all. It was all worth it the minute he entered his home later that day.

“Did you have a good day?” Nika asked as she smiled up at him from her perch on the overstuffed chair that had quickly become her favorite spot.

“I saved the best part of the day for last, so that means I had a wonderful day.”

“Oh yeah? What was the best part?”

I had already started to take off the suit I was forced to wear for the council. When I was finally down to just my boxer shorts, I moved to kneel in front of my mate as she nursed our son and used her foot to rock the cradle our daughter napped in. “This. Coming home to my beautiful mate and our pups. This makes every day the best there ever was.”

“As soon as your son is done filling his belly, I’m going to make you even happier,” Nika promised with a beautiful, playful glint in her eyes.

“Is that so?”

“It’s a promise. I love you Thorin. Thank you for taking the time to go to bat for shifter women. I know not everyone on the council agrees with shutting Mirage Island down, but it needs to happen.”

“You’re right and if they don’t get to it soon, we will take another trip to pick up any women who want to leave. I made you a promise and I don’t intend to back out of it. I will keep fighting, whether you’re standing by my side or at home with our children, because I promised you a better world for them.”

I tipped my head to indicate our daughter. Our son as well, but she would be the one to face the same consequences her mother did if things stayed the same and something happened with her future mate. The chances that he is in our pack are slim, so it would be another pack’s rules that regulate what happens to her if she were to be rejected and that isn’t a fate I can live with.

---