8. Messages

Chapter 8

Messages

THORIN

"Are we ready to go?"

" You're ready to go," Warren indicated, though he wouldn't look me in the eye as he spoke. My beta wasn't one to defer to my authority in that way unless we were in a formal setting. When his hazel eyes came up to meet my own, he manufactured a grin as well.

"What's going on?"

"I'm staying behind with the others."

"You're unmated." I wasn't one to state the obvious, but we needed to get on the road before my wolf decided to run ahead without the rest of the men who were going to Mirage Island with us.

"Yes," My beta agreed. "So are many of the others who must stay behind this time. I think it's best if I show them that no favoritism has gone into choosing who goes and who stays."

"What if the best option is to make sure that the pack's Alpha and Beta both find their mates? It will only strengthen the pack as a whole for that to happen."

"It will, but we already know you have a potential mate waiting for you. It's not guaranteed for me. My time will come. The pack needs someone who can lead them in your absence. Bring your mate back, then we'll worry about finding mine."

"You're a good man, Warren."

"You're our only Alpha, so go do what you must. I'll hold the fort down while you're away."

I nodded to my second in command as I turned to the rest of the men who were ready to set off for Mirage Island, or what most of the packs referred to as Reject Island when they wanted to paint it in a bad light. They only did that when they no longer wanted to help maintain the place. I couldn't remember a time when my pack had sent someone there. It was all but forbidden under my father's rule. On the rare occasion that one of our pack had rejected their mate, it was brought before my father first. The punishment for not doing so, because my father required good reasons to reject a moon-blessed pairing, was banishment from the pack.

If, for instance, the pack member being rejected had already started a family with someone else, then the rejection would be granted and both parties would be asked if they wanted to leave the pack or stick it out, knowing that they would be faced with seeing their intended mate move on. Of the rare few times it happened, at least one of them left. In one instance, they both went their separate ways for their own reasons.

No one was sent to Mirage Island from my pack, though. That might have been why I never thought to organize trips there to see if any of our pack members found their mates among the women who were left there.

I stood in front of the bus that would take us as far as Mirage Lake's western shores. There were eighteen of us who needed to be transported on the near day's drive to get there. Since we would have to run through human territory and risk hunters spotting us if we all took off on paws, it was the only way to transport all of us there safely. With so many of us, we organized the use of a tour bus to take us there. Not only would we have transportation with enough space to bring back a female for each of us, if we were so lucky, but we had a place to store the rafts and other supplies as well.

I didn't think that every man on the trip would find a mate, but stranger things had happened. In fact, I held out hope that only a few lucky pack mates would find the person they were looking for. Some because they were second chance mates, and therefore free to choose whomever they wanted if someone took their fancy.

"Are you ready for this?" Warren asked in a low enough tone that most of the men gathered wouldn't bother to pay attention.

"I'm very curious as to what's out there waiting," I stated as everyone loaded onto the bus.

"Do you think that your wolf taking off in that direction had to do with what he knew was out there waiting for you?"

"Seems like it, doesn't it? It feels like maybe all the times I thought the…" I cut myself off because that was something that could not be voiced aloud where the pack's sensitive hearing could pick it up. "Well, now I wonder if my wolf didn't know better than my human side."

Warren nodded sagely. "That was what I was thinking too. There are no signs otherwise." He meant there were no other signs of the madness setting in. Despite not seeing any yet, there was still a real cause for concern. The pack had been in my rule for far too long, considering its size, to not have a Luna share the burden. Slowly, I had started to let go of the idea that finding a Luna would be a betrayal of Catalina. Her dream visit to me made that a bit easier, but I still had a small voice in the back of my mind that told me it was wrong to replace her.

That wasn't something I could voice to anyone else in my pack though. Not even Warren, as they would all lecture me about how Cat hadn't been my fated anyway. Had she been my fated and I lost her, the leadership of the pack would have never passed to me.

"Everyone is here and accounted for. Time to set out on your grand adventure and bring our Luna home," Warren announced loud enough so that everyone heard him. Some of the men on the bus started to cheer or catcall until I boarded and then they all quieted down.

"If you do not find your mate, or someone you think can be your second-chance mate, then I don't want you to worry. It was remiss of me not to think to add Mirage Island to our singles tour previously." We often did singles tours with the males and females of the packs where we would take a handful, who haven't found their mates within our pack, and go visit other packs who were close and hospitable enough to allow potential trades of pack members.

"What made you think of it this time?"

"I had a dream that pointed me toward the island to find my mate."

"Your moon-blessed?" One of the men asked, clearly shocked by this news. When I nodded my head they all looked at one another. "I thought only the females received the mate dreams from the Goddess?"

"I don't know why this happened, but I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Hopefully, my dream proves to be fruitful for myself and for some of you as well." I glanced around at the male members of my pack who were on the bus and realized there was one notable absence just as our driver closed the doors and started the bus.

"Wait!" I called out. "Where is Viktor?" I glanced around again and even gave a sniff to the air, but didn't sense him aboard. "He was supposed to be among the men going this time."

"Alpha," one of the younger men called out to me as he stood. "Vik volunteered to stay behind this time. He opted to go on the next run instead."

"Why?" I growled.

"I'm not sure." Alex, the younger wolf stated quickly before he took his seat again. I mind linked with Warren immediately.

Thorin: Find out why my cousin decided to ignore my direct order for him to go along on this trip with me. He better have a damn good excuse for ignoring an Alpha Order.

Warren: Sorry, I thought he was with the rest. I will check in and give him the warning that you are displeased.

It was my own fault because I never thought I'd need to give the actual Alpha Command to my cousin. He had gone without a true mate almost as long as I had. There was no doubt in my mind that he had given up hope, but I wanted him along in case someone there struck his fancy, or if for some reason his mate was on the island. He had pulled away from the pack recently, and went missing for days on end sometimes. Either he was becoming unstable and nearing a choice to go rogue or something else had taken his focus. Either way, it was dangerous to have a wolf in the pack, especially one as powerful as Viktor, who was more lone wolf than pack mate.

I turned back to the driver and gave a nod of my head as I took my seat behind him. We were already twenty minutes past when we should have headed out, and I didn't want to wait any longer to get to the island. A nervous energy built in my stomach that there might not be time to waste. What if I wasn't the only Alpha out there without a mate who got wind of the fact that there was a rejected Luna on Mirage Island? She would have had to have been there for at least a year, if the legends were true. She could not take another mate unless it had been a year to the day that her mate rejected her. The Gods themselves put that caveat into existence to give young and dumb alphas a chance to course correct if they made a mistake. Cat had alluded to a loophole, the potential Luna having a choice, but that was unheard of.

I wondered, once again, why anyone would willingly give up a moon-blessed mate, let alone condemn her to time served on Mirage Island. There was something not quite right about the circumstances involved with my potential Luna. It made me wary, but that wouldn't stop me from seeking her out.

It took the bus a little over a day and a half to travel the majority of the way to Mirage Lake. After seeing the route that we took to get there, it became very obvious that the lake was where my wolf had been headed. If he had another half day to travel before I wrestled control back from him, we might have met our Luna, or at least been that much closer to her. It was a shame that my wolf could only run about half as fast as the bus took to get to our destination, otherwise he might have made it the whole way.

I glanced out the window and took in the glass-like surface of the lake. The calm appearance on the surface is exactly how Mirage Island earned its name. It may have been calm above, but below there were all sorts of hazards that made the island a perfect prison for anyone who was left there. It was why the rejected mates were sent there to begin with. Whoever their mate was could leave them there, live their life happily, and come visit their mate if they needed an heir.

The problem with that was that it quickly got out, after the island was established, that there were unmated females on the island and rogue wolves, wolves whose mates had passed on, and those who never found a moon-blessed mate of their own after searching for years would come to the island and take a female that another wolf had discarded.

It was sick to think that so many male shifters had left their other halves to this fate. Part of the lore of the island was that the females who attempted to escape through the lake's waters, by swimming to one shore or the other, never made it all the way across. The lake appeared serene but took many lives in those attempts. The phenomena led some to believe that the waters were haunted. Others thought that perhaps the broken-hearted females had used the lake to take their own lives and end their suffering. There were a few whispered theories about magic being used to keep the women there. Either way, it was a sad place to be relegated to based on another person's selfishness.

"Why in the hell do I feel nervous?" Alex asked as all the men stood up.

"Let's get off the bus and get the rafts set up. We need to get to that island before anyone bothers to get the jitters," I teased. "It's a long three-day run or more back to the pack if you get cold feet and decide to hoof it back instead of hopping into a raft to see if one of those lovely females on the island could potentially be your mate."

A whole lot of backslapping went on before everyone started to settle down. Once everyone was off the bus, I stood there and watched as the rafts were pulled from the storage areas under the bus and then inflated.

"Gather round because everyone needs to hear this first." I waited until all eighteen men formed a semi-circle around where I stood just outside the bus's door. "These women have been through enough. For whatever reason, they were brought to this island - almost all of them against their will - and you will show them respect. As you can see, there are precious few resources, no way off the island, and those women are hearty enough to survive all the conditions thrown at them. Look hard, men. Do you see any houses?" Many of them shook their heads and took a closer look across the waters.

I could tell it was the first time most of them had thought about what type of conditions the women of the island were forced to live in. "These are hearty women who have fought for survival. We will respect that. If they do not want to come with you, then you will leave them to their choice. It is one of the few precious things they have, and from what I've heard of rogues who pilfer women from the island, it is only sometimes a choice. We are better than that. If I find out that any of you have violated a female's choice, in any way, there will be hell to pay."

A round of agreements went up and I dismissed the men. There was a weather-worn dock a few feet from where we parked the bus, and the men carried the rafts down to it. Once we got down there, it was evident that the docks saw a lot of use. Litter was strewn around the area, and whatever had fallen or been windswept into the water remained stagnant around the dock, as if the water itself did not wish for the men's trash to taint the waters around the island.

I glanced across as each of my pack's men embarked upon a raft. Six of us were meant for each. We had a fourth, but it was our spare, in case one of the others was damaged. I got into the last one and stared down into the water as I pulled my oar up and got ready to paddle across.

The dock that was available on Mirage Island was charred, evidence that someone had set fire to it previously. There were marks along the shore that proved others before us had pulled straight to the shore and avoided the dock altogether. That seemed like a wise call as we paddled closer and noticed the sharp boards sticking up from the lake. Fire was the least of the damage that had been done to the docks on the women's side.

As we pulled up to the island, it was eerily quiet.

"Are you sure there are females here?" Alex whispered, as if he didn't want to spook anything that might be out there. I honestly couldn't blame him. Something felt off about the island being shrouded in silence. It was an odd silence too, almost deafening in its completeness. Since there were no utilities on the island, the hum of electrical wires, and all the things that run off of electricity was absent. The sound of animals on the island was also nonexistent.

I started to worry until the crash of a branch made us all look up and there, in the branches of a tree was a woman on a platform. The minute we spotted her, she shifted into her wolf and growled at us.

"That's not ominous at all," Alex stated as his eyes scanned the rest of the tree line. There didn't seem to be any other lookout stations, but then again, we hadn't noticed the first one until the woman made some noise.

We moored our rafts by pulling them out of the water and tying them to the nearest trees. I glanced up at the wolf who stood sentinel watching our every move. If I didn't know any better, I would think that she reported back to the rest of the women via mind link, but that wasn't possible, since the rejected females were not of a singular pack.

"I am Thorin Greywolf, Alpha of the Grasslands Pack. We are here only to see if any of the females are mates for my pack members. We will not take anyone from the island who does not wish to leave."

"Do you think she can understand you?" Alex asked. I noticed the youngest male among those who had come along stuck close to my side.

"The only reason she wouldn't is if she was not one with her wolf. Judging by her shift, that is not the case." My explanation seemed to calm him a bit. Still, as we waited, my men grew restless again. The female never shifted back to her human side, nor did she appear willing to communicate.

"Spread out, see if there are any other females on the island who are willing to speak with us." I took a deep inhale and scented the area. I could smell the Luna. It was faint, which meant she wasn't close, but had been near the area recently. That was all I needed to know. From there, I followed my nose into the middle of the island, and hopefully, toward my mate.