16. An Unenthusiastic Welcome

Chapter 16

An Unenthusiastic Welcome

NIKA

The women of Mirage Island were escorted to our rooms and given a little time to get cleaned up before we were meant to join the Grasslands Pack for a brunch where we would all be introduced. My nerves were on edge, so I knew at least some of the other women probably felt the same way. In Janella's case, it was far worse.

"Are you afraid they'll kick you out?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm afraid I will find my mate out there and he won't want me."

"Did the pack lands look familiar?"

Jan shook her head again. "My mate dream is strange. It's like we were in a large gathering with lots of food, and since we have to attend a brunch, I worry this will be it."

"You never talk about your mate dream. Why not?"

"I don't think my mate likes me. In my dream, he doesn't appear happy when we meet. In other parts of the dream he is standing with another woman in a tiny house. I see him there, so I guess I'm there too. Something has always felt strange about the dreams. I have never heard of anyone else, other than you, having another person in the dream."

"Maybe you have two mates as well?"

"One is a woman, Nika."

"Okay, that could happen, I guess."

Janella rolled her eyes at me. "I am not attracted to women that way, so I don't think so. It felt more like she didn't belong there but was intruding on my dream." Janella shivered as she described it and as much as I wanted to help her figure things out, we would probably never know until her dream came to fruition.

"I don't even remember seeing Thorin at all in my dream. I know I did at one point, but I was so focused on Aiden that I guess I blocked it out. Plus, the image of Aiden certainly wasn't one of him sitting on a throne surrounded by his harem. Our meeting after the dream was nothing like the dream itself."

Janella blew out a relieved breath. "Now, I wish someone had told me it's not always like that." I hugged my friend and then escorted her to the door of our two-room suite. It was very thoughtful of Thorin to hook us up with this place. There was a small kitchenette and living room combo, a shared bathroom, and then we each had our own private bedroom. It reminded me of some of the nicer, two-person suites that were available in the university dorms. It wasn't a luxury I enjoyed while there because they were all taken when I received my room assignment. It was lovely that my soon-to-be mate thought about the fact that Janella had only ever experienced life on the island. Everything was new to her, as evidenced by the need for me to explain to her how everything in the bathroom worked, including the toilet.

"Come on, we better go meet up with the others and get this out of the way."

"Aren't you nervous?"

"I'll never tell." I smiled at Janella as the words left my mouth and she hip checked me as we made our way out the door.

Once we met up with the other women, we all made our way down the stairs and to the main hall of the giant pack house. It felt almost like a hotel with the wide-open space, but it was more homey and less commercial in aesthetic. I loved it. When we got there, Thorin was there to greet us along with his Beta.

"This is Warren, my beta. He will be headed to Mirage Island with the others in two weeks' time." When I cocked my head to the side as I listened, he seemed to realize I had a question for him. "Nika?"

"Why two weeks and not right away?"

"I have ordered the men who will go on the second excursion to take building supplies with them. They will make sure that the women of the island, and any sent in the future, have proper dwellings to utilize."

"That's dumb." Janella probably didn't mean to say it so loudly, and the red tips of her ears made me certain that my assessment was correct. "Sorry, it's just, the rogues - and sometimes the other packs who are angry with a woman - will burn our things down. You saw our dock. That was done in a rogue attack. We had huts before, but the rogues destroyed them. One other time, Tessa's pack tore down the place we used to store what little supplies we had because he was angry that Tessa wouldn't give in and agree to an arranged mating with the Alpha's son."

Thorin and his Beta both seemed very disturbed by that announcement, but it was something they needed to know. Finally, the Alpha nodded his head. "We will still build a few dwellings. They might do better placed on the opposite side of the island from where the docks are." He turned to his Beta then. "Some of the women have hiding spots that aren't big enough for a male shifter to get into. It might be wise to find a way to secure them and create dwellings within the earth rather than above ground."

I nodded in agreement before Thorin held his arm out. I walked over to him and stood by his side as he moved to escort us into the dining hall. "The pack awaits their guests. We should go and introduce all of you ladies and then we can discuss plans for Mirage Island later. Something needs to be done there until we can speak to the council about shutting it down for good."

Without even thinking about it, I settled against Thorin's side and soaked up the heat his body put off. It made me feel comforted and at home. "Gotta say, love you right there by my side," Thorin leaned down to whisper the words to me, and I managed to grin back up at him just before he pushed the two large doors open. The instant they opened, the cacophony of noise from the other side ceased. Everyone's eyes turned our way and Thorin and his Beta escorted all of us to the front of the room where everyone could see all of us lined up.

It was not a very comfortable feeling, despite the security I had felt moments ago while leaned up against the pack's Alpha. The pack did not seem as welcoming as I thought they would be. Judging by the way the men who had come to the island had behaved, I assumed the rest of the pack would feel the same about the women their pack rescued, and perhaps about the fact that their Alpha would have a mate.

"Since we already have your attention, I have a couple announcements to make. The first is that our recent trip to Mirage Island proved to be very educational. As a result of that trip, we brought nine female shifters back with us. Eight of them chose to follow their leader, Nika, to our pack. Some of those eight have already made potential connections with some of your pack mates. They have been given time to get to know their potential mates before any claims are made official. I want you to welcome all of the females from the Mirage Island Pack who came to join us."

"Mirage Island is all rejects, not a pack!" An older woman shouted back to her Alpha.

"Miriam, I will not tolerate poor treatment of any of the women from Mirage Island. You will not insinuate they are rejects - with the connotation that they have done something to merit such a title. Two of the women who came back with us are widowed she-wolves and deserving of respect. Two others were orphaned and sent to the island as children." Many gasps rang out amongst the pack as Thorin explained.

"It has come to my attention that the island is not being used for its original intended purpose. Instead, it is being used as a place to throw women who no one wants to look after, who won't agree to abusive pack demands, and…" Thorin glanced down at me as if to seek permission to tell them about my plight. I gave a quick nod. "It has been used to hide a Luna away while the Alpha who could have been her mate indulged in an Alpha's Harem instead of claiming his moon-blessed.

The outraged sounds of the pack could be heard all over the room. "Has she been there a year?" Someone asked. "Does this mean she can be claimed as your Luna now?" Another piped up.

Thorin pulled me closer to him and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "This is Nika Mayweather. Selene bestowed her with a special gift when she received her mate dreams. Nika was given a choice between two potential moon-blessed mates. One was the Alpha of her birth pack. I am the other."

"How is that possible?" Again, it was the Miriam woman who spoke up and she did not seem at all happy about the news that her Alpha would have a Luna. Something was not right here. Other packs would celebrate the fact that their Alpha gained what the other so easily threw away.

"We don't question the Goddess's actions."

"How do you know she isn't lying to you because she's ashamed of the real reason her moon-blessed mate threw her on that prison island." Miriam's snide tone threw me for a loop.

"Enough!" The base in Thorin's voice could be felt throughout the room as the sound reverberated off the walls. Miriam finally took her seat again and bowed her head over her plate.

"I think what my mate was trying to say is that we all know you never did find your fated mate, and this woman obviously found hers and something happened to keep them from creating the mating bond. How do you know that she is indeed your mate?" While the man had been a touch more diplomatic, I couldn't help but notice the malicious look he threw my way before he took a seat next to Miriam.

"When Nika explained her situation, she asked if I wanted to take the chance of snapping our initial bond into place. With all due respect to the woman who will hopefully become your future Luna, she offered me the chance to prove her words or walk away." Thorin's gaze slid over his pack, most of which were gathered in the dining hall. "I chose to take that chance. As many of you know, I searched all over for my fated mate, for years, without finding her. As it turned out, the woman who was meant for me was younger and the Goddess Selene must have hoped that I would be patient, so that I could be the second chance the lovely Nika would one day need."

"May I?" I asked and then turned back to look at the same pack members that Thorin addressed. He nodded his head.

I explained my story to the pack, how I was away at university and what I came back to. Then I also explained how Selene had given me a choice of mates, but I left out the part about how both choices would seem to be bad options at first. That was something that I didn't even want to share with the Alpha who wanted to claim me. I needed time to see how things would play out.

"Now that you know my story, because I have nothing to hide, I want to ask you for your patience. Thorin has agreed to my request to court in the ways of old. We will take a full lunar cycle to determine whether we want to officially become mates."

"Why wouldn't you want to become mates?" Someone yelled. "The Alpha needs his Luna to keep the pack healthy."

"This is true, but after what happened with my other potential moon-blessed mate, I felt it was pertinent to get to know Thorin Greywolf. I don't want to find myself in a similar situation a few months from now. I beg of everyone to understand that I wasn't just crushed by what my old Alpha was up to, but then I was sent to Mirage Island where no woman should ever be sent because of someone else's selfish desires. I encourage you all to get to know the brave, beautiful women who came back from Mirage Island with me.

"I implore you all to really understand what goes on there and why women are sent to the island. I hope everything works out with your Alpha and your pack because I see the stance your people have about that island. You don't send your women there and that effort should not only be applauded, but should be the standard that all the other packs follow. Be proud of your pack, your Alphas past and present, and yourselves for being one of the few packs who treat their members with empathy and heart instead of as garbage that is no longer useful when their original purpose ceases to exist."

A few people closer to us began to clap and smile at me. The sentiment traveled like a wave through the crowd after that. I noted the pack members who did not participate because they were the ones to keep an eye on. I wasn't sure if Thorin noticed them among the crowd, as he seemed to be swept up in the pride of his pack realizing they had been doing the right thing by their people all along. I glanced at the other women and noticed that Janella and Margaret both nodded toward the problem crowd before they returned my look.

Once we crossed into another pack's territory our mind link capabilities from Mirage Island ceased to work. I had hoped that they would remain until each of us was brought into the Grasslands Pack as a member. Still, it served us well when we needed it most. By no means did I think we were out of the woods yet, especially considering there seemed to be an odd dissension among the pack, but that was something we could puzzle out as we got to know everyone.