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I'd just taken my second mate, endured some kind of psychic attack and survived, and then passed out from having a super O, so the last place I expected to wake up was strapped to a chair, my wrists cuffed, and surrounded by women.

"She wakes."

I blinked, bleary-eyed, the room slowly coming into focus.

It was circular with platform-like rings spreading out from the centre, each one slightly higher than the others.

Women on chairs looked down at me, some with expressions of concern, irritation, boredom, and even disgust. I frowned, my eyes jerking down as I noticed the cuffs and the corresponding ache in my shoulders caused by them.

"What... what's going on?"

"It's OK, Julie," Kelly said, coming closer. "We've had to restrain you for the moment, just until we get to the bottom of what's been happening."

Her voice was soothing, all 'stop Julie from jumping off the ledge', but I didn't want to be soothed. "And that required handcuffs? What are you worried I'm going to do? Where's Slade and Finn?"

"We don't think you should see?—"

"Making a bloody nuisance of themselves outside. You're going to have to do something soon, alpha. You've got a newly bonded male out there with considerable power over the other men. Unless you want him rallying the troops and storming the castle to save the fair maiden, you’ll need him in here."

Ophelia strode in, the doors slamming shut behind her. Her eyes raked over the seated women as gasps went around the room.

"We do not let men into the Women's Council."

I turned to see that the speaker was Asher, one of the matriarchs from Slade’s and my party. We all looked back when there was a huge thud on the door, then another.

"Then we will need to send his mate out to him. Finn is incredibly powerful. Kelly has kept him on a short leash for some time, but that may now change." Her eyes landed on me, and she smiled, something I wasn't sure was at or with me.

"I always said that one should go through the gate to the other side," another matriarch I didn't recognise muttered.

"A pure white?" Nancy, Slade's grandmother said. "No, he has to be kept as breeding stock at the very least, though the nature of his children now he's taken a mate..." She exhaled a long plume of grey smoke, looking for all the world like a dragon, not wolf shifter. "It looks strong, their bond."

Kelly nodded. "He loves the girl, quite desperately."

"Well, then, we better find out what is happening with her then hadn't we?" Ophelia said.

Kelly turned to the assembled women and projected her voice louder so those in the back could hear.

"Today, an incident took place outside the Stores building.

As the men were unloading the truck, Julie arrived, wanting to speak to Brandon.

" She paused for a moment as the murmuring started.

She held out a placating hand, waiting for everyone to settle.

"Reports from the men vary. Some say that Julie smelled much the same as any of us do when in heat: extremely sexually receptive.

Others assert that there was something else afoot, that both Julie and others found themselves responding in what felt like an artificially induced state, as if some form of psychic attack had taken place. "

"You better believe it!" one woman said, shooting to her feet. "My James was there, and he would never respond to some other woman like that."

"Is that why he kissed Nerida at the winter solstice?" another drawled.

"James loves me. Our bond is strong."

"OK, OK, I don't want this to devolve into wild speculation," Kelly said. "At the moment, I'm sharing the eye witness reports."

"She's right," I said. I felt every eye swivel around to focus on me. "I'm sorry, I don't know your name, James' partner?"

"Molly," the woman said stiffly.

"Hey, Molly. Is James an older guy, supervises the Stores team? Would have had a clipboard?" She nodded. "Look, you're right. He was absolutely horrified to be affected. I don't remember him getting involved in the debacle that took place. He was on his phone, probably calling you."

She nodded, her eyes shining before taking her seat again and glaring over at the woman who'd made a comment.

"Thank you, Julie. So as I was saying?—"

"It's the black wolf," I said. I wasn't going to play whatever game they had going here. Chaining me up, talking about stopping Finn from coming in, and sending him through the gate—that wasn't how this shit was going to go down. "I heard him in my mind throughout the incident."

I saw then why Kelly was trying to take another tack. My information was the fox and the Women's Council were the chickens, all squawking and twittering. She looked at me steadily for a moment, and said, "If you'd let me deal with this."

I nodded slowly and then flexed my wrists within the cuffs, meaningfully.

"You may as well uncuff her. From all accounts, she didn't touch anyone before setting off the men, so keeping her bound is just adding insult to injury," Ophelia said.

Kelly and the other matriarchs all looked at one another for the moment, making me wonder if there wasn't some sort of psychic component to being Tirian.

"Are you afraid all of you are unable to overcome one woman?

Because that's what you're saying to the rest of the council. "

Kelly sighed and produced keys from her pockets. Asher went to say something, and Kelly froze, then looked back at the woman. She fell silent at the glance from her alpha.

"Stay in your seat," Kelly said, and then removed the cuffs.

I rubbed at my wrists as she recounted what had happened.

In some ways, it was an interesting process to watch, as the different stories were added to and discussed by the women until most people were satisfied they had the truth of it.

It was hard for me to judge, being kinda out of it for most of the event.

But not others, evidently. Some women looked down at me with narrowed eyes at tales of the infectious sexual rampage I'd apparently gone on.

"Is this part of the human taint?" one woman stood and asked. "We know the weaker hybrids seem to have no discrete times for the heat, choosing to mate on impulse."

"I have the 'taint'," Carissa said, standing next.

"This has not happened to me, nor any of the other members of the diaspora who made it back to Sanctuary.

Julie mentioned the black wolf. What has been done with him?

The fact he got past our defences for one has never been sufficiently addressed, nor what will be done with him other than leave him in his jail cell.

Has there been an attempt to interrogate him? "

Kelly wanted the attention of the group, well now she had it.

"Attempts have been made, but with little success."

“Why should we bother with this? Execute the black wolf and exile the girl. If her mates decide to go with her, then more fool them,” another woman said.

“Because we need women,” Nancy said. “We excluded many just as you say, creating the diaspora, and now our problems have come home to roost. Your sons, my sons, all of our sons do not have enough mates to choose from, some even deciding to embrace their female-less existence.” It felt like every woman’s eyes slid towards Kelly.

“We need women, no matter what form they take, along with whatever problems they bring, or we lose our strength, our children.”

A silence settled over the room, the last few women taking their seats.

"Let me," I said. Kelly's eyes snapped down to meet mine.

I saw the fire raging within them, but I needed to get to the bottom of this.

"He spoke to me when I went to his cell.

Has he spoken to any others?" The matriarchs were curiously quiet.

"He hasn't, has he? Look, I'm sorry for what happened.

That has to have been your sons, your husbands, your grandsons, cousins, brothers that were involved in the incident at Stores.

I was horrified by the whole thing. Imagine if there'd been kids around.

.." I looked down for a moment at the red marks on my wrists.

"I felt completely out of control of my body.

I didn't want to do what I did, but it was as if someone else was calling the shots.

Not hormonal crazy like the heat, like an alien consciousness was inside my head, pushing me to one side.

No one wants to get to the bottom of this more than me, no one.

He spoke to me throughout it, said I needed to lure men to my side.

" Murmuring started at that but quickly died away.

"And when I asked him what he wanted, he said, me.

" I scanned the women around the room. "Cuff me, bind me, do it in the company of whoever you want, but let me get the answers we need from him, so we can ensure this doesn't happen again. "

"Sounds like a motion is being put to the floor," Ophelia said. "Alpha?"

Kelly nodded. "We'll have a fifteen-minute discussion of the motion and then put it to the vote."