7. A Leader is Made

Chapter 7

A Leader is Made

NIKA

"They are not from the west," I warned Janella. One look at the men who closed in on the island was all I needed to know they were probably not even from a recognized pack. "They're rogues."

"Come, I know where we can hide," She insisted and pulled at my arm to get me to move quicker.

"What about the others?"

"We can't save the others, but we can save ourselves and try to get them help one day," Janella warned. "They should know better. The wolves on this island who lack self-preservation do so because they lost hope, Nika. You can't stick your neck out for them, and they wouldn't want you to anyway."

She spoke the truth and we both knew it. I also knew that I'd be considered a prime target, since I was an Alpha's castoff.

Janella guided me to the heart of the island where someone built a den inside a rocky crevice. We barely managed to squeeze through a couple of the places, which left me praying to Selene that we would not be trapped inside the ground when all was said and done. There was honestly a concern that Selene's domain did not reach this place, since the moon's glow could not penetrate it.

"Are you sure we'll both fit?" I asked as my eyes tracked the area in front of me.

"Yes, but I'm even more certain that most males will not." She had a similar stature to my own. We were both trim and athletic, but much smaller than the average adult male wolf shifter. I wasn't sure about Janella's wolf's size, but mine was only slightly smaller than most Alpha males and comparable to a normal shifter male when wearing his paws. That should have probably been my first clue that I was destined to be a Luna.

"Okay," I sighed as we slid past one last tight squeeze that opened up into a fairly large room where there were some supplies stacked in the far corner. It wasn't roomy enough that we had space to stand and move about, but we could easily both fit while sitting or lying down.

"When was the last time supplies were restocked in here?" I asked, since some of the items in the corner were things that had been in the containers sent to me from my old pack. Janella's ears flamed red.

"I'm sorry. It was stealing, but there were times in the past when I had to wait in here for days before the men left. I'd get so hungry that it would almost drive me out. I think that is why some of them stay so long. They can sense those of us who hide, but know they can't fit into the crevices to come and drag us out."

"Don't apologize. It was good planning. We should start stocking this place regularly and any other hidey-holes that are around the island."

We heard, rather than saw, the moment when the rogues stormed the island. They were loud, obnoxious in the things they yelled, and for men who just crossed a lake to get to us, they stunk to high heaven. Their overly musty scent gave away that they had grown used to living wild more than they did civilized.

"I smell sweet pussy," one of them called as they moved closer to our hideout. He sniffed dramatically and then his malicious chuckle sent icy shivers down my spine. "I smell Luna pussy. Wonder which Alpha lost his mate?" He sniffed again and then leaned in close to the crevice Jan and I had slipped through earlier. "Come out, come out!" He called as he stretched his arm through the opening to try to grab one of us. "I already have your scent little Luna. Even if we don't take you today, I'll be back. We'll catch you unawares." His sinister laugh rang out even louder than before. "Maybe, I'll just burn the whole fucking island to the ground and smoke you out of your hole. How will you feel about that?"

I stepped closer, ready to give myself up so that none of the others suffered because I had a target on my back, but Janella pulled me back again. She grabbed what looked like a homemade spear from the farthest wall and held it in front of her like a weapon. When the male attempted to squeeze his body even further into the crevice, she waited until he managed to get his whole shoulder and arm through and when he made eye contact with me. I could feel the evil vibe coming from the man as he attempted to wiggle further into the crevice.

"Mmm, pretty Luna pussy. Thought maybe your mate turned you out because you were ugly. Not sure why you're here, but I'm claiming you now, bitch." He was deep enough into the crevice that he could see us. My heart slammed into my chest at a dangerous clip as I yelled back at him.

"The fuck you are!" I spat the words at him as Janella rammed the spear into his face. He jumped back, which didn't do much since he was wedged into the space so tightly. His scream echoed around the island, though. We were both sure that it would draw the others to him. Instead, it seemed to do the opposite.

"Let's get the fuck out of here!" We heard one of them yell.

"Wait!" The asshole who tried to get to me called out to them. From the sounds of things, they didn't listen. Our tormentor managed to free himself as he held onto the eye that Janella damaged. "I'll be back for you, bitch. An eye for an eye. If you're not here when I return, I won't stop hunting until I find you. I'll take my revenge and then enjoy making you scream as I fuck you to death."

Janella and I huddled together in the cave and listened to the men depart. We heard feminine shrieks and wondered who they had taken, but there was nothing we could do. We had a single spear and our wolves against an entire pack of rogues and there was no telling how many they had with them.

"There has to be a better way than this," I mumbled.

"I wish there was, Luna. Please, don't blame yourself for whatever happened. Even if you had gone out there, they would have taken others. They might have taken more, if the women saw you go willingly."

"How can the packs allow this? They have to know that this happens."

"They don't care. As far as they're concerned, the women who are sent to the island are rejects and unfit for their packs. If their fated mate would toss them aside, then why would anyone think they were worthy as pack members or mates?"

Sarcasm dripped from Janella's words. "Is that how you think the packs see you?"

"It's what I know. They have conversations when they come here. Either they tell the women they drop off how unworthy they are, or they sometimes taunt the rest of us." Janella shrugged her shoulders at that, as if it didn't bother her one way or another. She spoke of facts because to her those were the only opinions of the island's residents she had ever been privy to.

"I swear, one day, I am going to change things."

The men were gone in less than a day, but we remained hidden well after the noise died down on the island. Once we left our hiding place, we moved to our gathering spot to see what kind of damage had been done and how many of the other women were missing.

"Sarah, Johanna, and Lupita were all taken." It was one of the only elder women on the island who spoke up. Carlotta hadn't been rejected. She requested that her pack send her to Mirage Island to help care for the other women who had been sent there. She did so after surviving her mate's death. Carlotta felt that being there for the women was her new life's purpose after she survived the death of her mate. I wondered how she felt about her decision after she got here and saw the state of things. It wasn't something I felt comfortable asking her though. There was no point in churning up her possible regrets.

"Did they leave of their own free will?" I asked.

Carlotta's grim countenance spoke volumes. "Two of them did. Lupita did not want to go, and I fear she will be harmed among that crowd because of her heritage."

Lupita was an elemental wolf, it set her apart from most of the rejected women on Mirage Island. The packs closest to us were almost exclusively from moon-blessed packs who predominantly worshipped Selene.

"We need to make a plan for any future arrivals to our island. The women who don't want to go, shouldn't be forced to." I growled the words out with a hint of power that mimicked an Alpha's decree without the wallop they put behind a command. "It's bad enough that almost every woman here was brought to the island against her will because of her mate's selfishness."

"There are safe spaces here where most of those women hide," Carlotta informed me as she stared pointedly at Janella.

"As there should be. Those men who were here aren't from any recognized packs. I could scent that much from them. They were rogues here to steal women."

Several of the females in the group shivered. We all knew about the uncertain futures the three women who were taken would face. Rogues were notorious for abusing women and passing them around to their makeshift pack mates. I took the initiative to keep the women too busy to think about what might happen to the others, since that wasn't something we could control.

"If any of you have a hideout, please be sure that it is stocked with enough supplies to meet your needs for a week of hiding per person sharing that space. If the spot can fit more than one person, plan to share, since hiding spots that will keep the men out are few and far between on the island. Do not take unnecessary supplies that will just go to waste in these hiding spots. We all still need to be able to feed ourselves from day-to-day."

There were a few groans and grumbles, but for the most part the women all agreed. "We also received seeds in the latest shipment, but farming and gardening were never skills I excelled at. Does anyone else know how to maintain the gardens? Lupita was the one who tried to teach me, but we didn't get much time to work on it before…" I sighed. "We need to plan for a day when these shipments stop coming."

It was a concern I had the longer I was left on the island. Eventually, the madness would take Aiden and I would be forgotten. His pack would weaken, and even if they remembered I was here, I would no longer be a priority as they all scrambled to deal with a leader who could no longer lead and keep them safe.

Most other packs only sent the tiniest of packages after banishing a wolf to the island. They were supposed to be responsible for the wolves they sent, until they were chosen as a second-chance mate by someone else. Then they became the burden of another pack and supplies from the originating pack could cease. However, some packs, stopped sending supplies long before the women they sent to Mirage Island were claimed or died.

If I ever had the opportunity to leave this forsaken place, I would see to it that the poor treatment of the rejected wolves came to an end. There was no reason why the rejected couldn't remain with the packs, even if they had to become a part of a pack trade, so that the heartache of seeing their intended mate with someone else wasn't too much to bear. Better yet, the disloyal mate should be the one to be banished along with their partner in crime. All shifters knew there was a fated out there for them. To be the one who stepped in and caused another to lose their fated should have been criminal, but since our male-dominated packs felt that a man's choice in mates superseded the God's decisions, this was the mess they left us with.

"Some of the supplies are gone," Janella informed after she checked our stores. I hung my head because those supplies were desperately needed to keep all the women on the island fed and clothed properly.

"We'll think of something," I suggested. Not only had the rogues stolen some of our supplies, but they took the one woman who knew how to grow just about anything with them. The rest of us would have to figure things out.

"Ladies!" I called out to get everyone's attention. They all gathered round in a semi-circle facing me. Their faces all mirrored a different emotion back to me, some were desperate, others sad, some were angry, but all of us were exhausted. Those emotions took a lot of energy, especially when they never had a hope of being remedied. One thing that I hadn't seen the women of the island do since I was brought here was have a pack run. That needed to change. We needed the shift, the togetherness, and the run to sate some of the inner turmoil. Our shifts had the ability to accelerate physical healing, but I had always had a theory that they also helped to aid in our mental health and stability too.

"We're going to do a pack run."

"The island is too small for that," one of the women called out.

I shook my head. "This island is larger than some of the parks the city-dwelling packs have to work with. We are going to shift together, have a run - even if it is in circles around the island - and then we're going to take a moment to bask in the glory of our four paws. Roll in the damn dirt." The last bit was an order. "Go jump in the bathing pond and swim. Let your wolves chase the small critters that inhabit the island with us. Play tag."

"You want us to run around, frolic, and play as our wolves?" Janella asked.

"I sure do. Every moment, since I set foot on this island, has been about survival. What we all need is a little balance. We can't be strong enough to fight off invading rogues if we don't know how to act as a pack. I'll be damned if we lose another woman to those bastards. What's to stop them from doing more damage next time?"

When no one answered, I made sure to make eye contact with each of the women before saying anything else. "We need to behave as a pack. If we can build a bond, a link between us, we might stand a chance. You know what the packs have that the rogues don't?"

"Freedom to come and go everywhere," one of the women answered sarcastically.

"They have the ability to speak to one another while in their shift. Maybe, if we behave as a true pack, we can get there too. Being able to communicate silently would be a gift."

"Do you really think we can do that?"

"I do, but we need to be a true pack for that to happen, so let's do this. It's time to run as a pack."

I waited to shift until all the other women had done so, then once I fell to all four paws in front of them, I howled out my plea to the sky gods. It was my way of begging them for the one thing that would help to keep us all alive. We needed our pack to be recognized. I continued to howl until every single female wolf on the island joined in the chorus. When the last of us lent her voice to the mix, something incredible happened and a bond snapped into place. I stopped howling and projected a singular thought.

Nika: ‘Did it work?'

Janella: ‘I can hear you!' My friend's distinct voice sounded in my mind.

Carlotta: ‘Me too.' The widowed wolf added and after her, each woman added to the beautiful sound in turn. We had officially become a pack, and it was glorious.