Magnus #2
“Our Ordnung says we can employ a driver to go great distances if a possible engagement is involved,” Danso pointed out from beside me.
“And we could commission a private plane. It would transport the girls to the airport closest to Faoiltiarn,” Tara explained.
“My mate’s younger brother is very wealthy, and he is committed to solving his kingdom town’s devastating infertility problem.
I’m sure he’d fund the entire program if asked … ”
My mate. She’d finally referred to me as her mate …
It suddenly didn’t matter that I didn’t quite understand who these people were or that I still felt like I’d walked into the middle of a TV program halfway through the episode. I strode around the crowd and came to stand beside Tara.
“I will personally vouch for my mate’s promise,” I assured the gathered crowd.
“Whoever wishes to travel to my village in Scotland will receive a private plane ride over and will remain under my crown’s protection during the duration of her time in Scotland.
And if she cannae find a mate she fancies, then I will fly her back to your land at my own expense.
This I promise you, on my crown, as king of the Scottish wolves … ”
Tara turned to look up at me with soft eyes. “Thank you, Magnus,” she said inside my head.
“You are my mate,” I answered inside hers. “I support you—I will always support you in whatever you do.”
Not to mention, Lachlan was right. This was a bloody good idea. The males of my village were considered too auld-timey for most modern women. While the women of Tara’s pack wished to marry only those who’d eschewed modern amenities as they did. It was a perfect solution.
However, most of the males in the room did not seem to share my conclusion.
After I spoke, several more of them continued to call out their grievances with Tara’s plan.
Getting louder and louder until the pack alpha stepped forward.
He came to stand on the other side of Tara and silenced the group with a raised hand.
“Okay, my fellow wolves, I understand your reservations,” the pack’s alpha said, stepping in front of Tara and me.
“Few of us care for Tara’s proposal, and I, for one, did not expect this would be her big idea when she told me she had a solution for our ongoing problem of carrying too many unheated girls.
However, we are a democratic pack, and it is in the Ordnung that if we agree to hear a proposal, it must be voted on.
So, unless any of you have a question that has not been addressed or asked before, then we should end this discussion and put the matter to a vote. ”
“Excuse me, I have a question …” a soft voice said.
The room turned toward a bonneted lass timidly raising her hand. She had bright eyes the color of Scottish bluebells, and a sweet face with a farm-fresh complexion.
“Yes, Lissa?” the pack alpha answered, his tone gentle despite this latest vote-delaying question.
To my surprise, the sweet-faced lass turned her gaze to me and shyly asked, “Are all the wolves in your village …”
She cast her eyes to the side, seeming to struggle for the right word. Then she said, “… like you and your father?”
“Aye, we’re all Scottish,” I answered, not certain I understood the question.
Then my mother called out, “Si, si, most of the Faoiltiarn males are very good-looking.”
“However, as a pack, we put no weight in looks,” the young pack alpha declared, his tone derisive. “That would be prideful and vain and against our Ordnung.”
Perhaps that was the case, but nearly every young woman in the room had turned to look at Valentina, their faces filled with avid curiosity.
And much as I myself would have done, Valentina continued on as if the pack alpha had not even spoken.
“When I first met my Lachlan, I thought, ‘Why, that is the most attractive wolf I have ever seen!’ Molto bello … and so very tall and strong. Just bellisssssssimo!” Valentina exclaimed, swirling her head and throwing both hands up at the same time.
“I could not believe it—no, I COULD NOT—when he shyly asked me for a date. Imagine my surprise when I arrived in his village after our heating and realized there were many more of these wolves just as handsome as him! If not for the rustic way they insist upon living, I am sure she-wolves would be chasing them down all the streets of Scotland.”
Every unheated woman in the room and a few mothers were now staring at Valentina with open mouths and eyes wide as saucers.
“Ahem …” The young pack alpha cleared his throat again and said, “Thank you for your comments but as I said, we’ve no care for appearances here in St. Ailbe. We are a humble pack and I’m sure our unheated daughters will not give your words further attention.”
To that, another young woman raised her hand. This time it was the daughter of the man who had shouted at Tara in German.
“Do you mean to say all the Faoiltiarn males are um … strong enough to farm … and … ah … tall enough to reach things on high shelves that we cannot?” she asked Valentina.
Valentina’s whole body twisted as if she were winding herself up to give another overenthusiastic answer.
But before she could respond to the girl’s question, the pack alpha called out, “Silence! Silence! The time for queries has concluded and now we will vote.”
As it turned out, the young women of the pack did not have nearly as much trouble with the idea of an exchange trip to a town in Scotland filled with brawny Highlanders as their fathers did.
To both Tara and the pack males’ surprise, the vote she never expected to win but felt compelled to fight for ended in a landslide. All because I showed up during the meeting.
Funny, I thought to myself as Daniel sullenly declared the vote results (after recounting, like, five times). She had been convinced there was no way she could complete this mission with me. But in the end, she would never have won this vote without me standing by her side.