Maximus

“I know you said there were a lot of them, but still,” Andrew Raskell said from where he stood next to him. “I never thought there were this many.”

The pair of them stood at the top of the hill at the Institute’s main facility. All around them, stony-faced bear shifters stood guard, all wearing the same white T-shirt, black pants, and brown shoes uniform. There were dozens of them just in his field of view. But though there were more of them than he knew what to do with, they were still outnumbered by the other figures moving about.

Women. Hundreds of women, all of them dressed in white.

“I still can’t believe you got your way with this,” Andrew said, shaking his head. “I should be annoyed at you for dumping so much extra work in my lap, but honestly, I’m just more impressed you were able to get Daxxton and the ruling council to agree to this.

“Me too,” he said. “I’m still in disbelief if I’m to tell the truth. It was almost like they wanted to do this.”

“Maybe they did,” Andrew said thoughtfully.

Maximus looked over at the gryphon shifter, but he declined to respond to the comment. The scene before them was overwhelming to them both. After Reashallow had disappeared, news had reached them that the Institute was falling apart rapidly. Maximus had lobbied for Cadia to go to the aid of the women who had been tricked by the Institute. He’d talked to Daxxton Ryker, the King of Cadia and his ruling council, composed of a number of important shifters of different races. He’d expected to have to argue long and hard to get them to do what they’d done. Instead, they had deliberated for several minutes, and then approved the operation.

Three entire companies of Green Bearets, the highly trained bear shifter soldiers of Cadia, had been dispatched. Over one hundred of them had descended on the remaining guards, quickly overwhelming the defenses that still remained in place. Then they had set about freeing the women, and explaining to them how they’d been tricked, about how they were no more than breeding animals in the Institute’s eyes. Most of the women had been distraught, and several of the pregnant ones had collapsed into hysterics, unable to comprehend what had happened.

Maximus didn’t blame them; it was a lot to take in, and it was tough for them to accept that they’d been nothing but players in a bigger game.

“How many of them will accept our offer do you think?” Andrew asked.

“I hope that most of them will.” He grinned, patting the gryphon on the shoulder. “Sorry.”

Andrew just laughed. “Oh, it will be a challenge, that’s for sure. Settling that many new people into a town the size of Cloud Lake will take a lot of effort. And money.”

“Money isn’t an issue,” Maximus said, waving that off. “The Council has decided that everyone will contribute funds. And several of the dragons have already donated sizeable sums. You won’t be short for money.”

As the Cadian envoy to Cloud Lake, Andrew was responsible for all the shifters that were present in the town at any given time. Considering that was generally no more than two dozen, he was decidedly not busy most of the time. Which is exactly why Maximus had zero pity for him when the Council had decided to put him in charge of overseeing all the women that were even now boarding trucks to take them to Cloud City and their new homes.

Cadia would be looking after them, and ensuring that they, and their children, would all be well taken care of.

“So Maximus, I had an idea about what to do with all these single, unattached women,” Andrew was saying. “But I would appreciate your input.”

“I’m listening,” he replied, curious as to where the gryphon was going with it.

The tall man with lean, powerful muscles smiled. “I was thinking…the war is over now. All those Green Bearets, they must be getting pretty pent up. In need of something to occupy their time.”

“Perhaps. What do you think would suffice?”

The smile became a full-fledged grin. “I was contemplating the idea…of a ball.”

“A ball you say?” Maximus repeated, catching on. “Why, you can’t have a ball with only men. And there are a lot of Green Bearets just hanging around, getting into trouble these days. You would need a lot of women to have a proper ball.”

“Indeed,” Andrew agreed. “As it happens, I know where there are a large number of unattached women.”

“And if at this ball, some of them were to meet their mates, well, that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, now would it?” Maximus asked, smiling.

“No, no it wouldn’t,” Andrew said.

The two of them fell silent as they watched the proceedings in front of them, as row after row of women were escorted onto buses and specially-designed trucks that would take them to Cloud Lake and their futures.

He could only hope that they might be as blessed as he, in discovering the power of love that came with finding their mates.