The whole group headed to a pub for lunch and beers as the townspeople embraced our heritage. Finally, we loaded back onto the bus and headed into the mountains. The bus let us off at a trailhead. “Don’t bring anything along except water,” Henrietta told us. Once out of sight of the road, we stripped and shifted. Henrietta led us up into the mountains for an hour, finally stopping at a clearing. We all shifted back. “It took a week, but we finally located this place. We believe it is the location of the Corcoran Pack Den.”
We wandered around the site, seeing the loose rock foundations. What the English troops hadn’t burned and destroyed, the centuries had finished. It was a sad group that filed back into the bus just before dark.
We arrived at the Dublin Pack lands after dark, and hundreds were waiting for us. There was no scratch and sniff; most of the people here were single and ready to mingle. Some of my Pack members didn’t make it five paces off the bus before their mate swept them up.
I waited with Nicholas until they were all off, smiles on our faces over the pairings made. It looked like every unmated wolf we brought here would be mated by sunrise. “Luna has done a great thing here,” I told Nicholas as we walked hand-in-hand to the Pack House.
“Luna set these pairs up a long time ago,” Nicholas said. “YOU did this, Vicki. You formed our Pack. You taught us what mates were. And you convinced the Packs of the world to participate. You’re amazing, my love.”
“Come on, we have to check-in,” I told my mate. I was thrilled; bringing new blood into the Pack, already familiar with how a Pack operated, would help our Pack more than any visits and stories I could provide.
Two days later, the Werewolf world was a different place. Three dozen wolves didn’t find their mates out of all that attended, and almost all were female. For the younger ones, it was likely their mate was not of age yet. It was a numbers game; there were more female adult werewolves than male.
The other sticking point was who went where. My Pack was all Beta blood, and Luna addressed the imbalance by matching almost all our Betas up with Warriors and Omegas. Since our wolves were higher ranked, the mates all agreed to come to the Southern Cross Pack. One of our Beta females mated the fourth son of an Alpha, but they chose to join our Pack instead of his. My Pack swelled us to over a hundred wolves in a day.
Four older females were in limbo. Each recognized their mate from the scent of the clothing I’d brought in ziplock bags; their fate mates were in Australia but didn’t want to put aside their wives. They gave me their contact information and pictures to take back home.
I brought my headache to the Alphas and Council in a private meeting. I told everyone what had happened with my Pack and the different paths taken regarding human females as mates. “I can’t force them to put aside their wives, the women have done nothing to betray our kind, yet four female werewolves are in limbo because the males won’t choose,” I complained. “They won’t join our Pack or travel because they don’t want to meet their mates.”
“You could send their mates to them,” someone suggested.
“That doesn’t always go well,” I said. I described how Fiona reacted to finding her male married to a human.
“Let’s say send the females to Australia, and the males reject them in person. The four females get second chance mates, but what happens to the males? If they don’t turn and choice-mate their wives, Luna could give them another female. You’ll move the problem around, and you haven’t solved anything,” another Alpha said.
“Would Luna do that to the male who rejects his fate mate?”
“There are cases when the male had no choice but to do the rejection,” the Alpha answered. “Would Luna treat this the same way? These men have families, and they’ve sworn fidelity to their wives.”
Chairman Lars spoke next. “The ones who have taken the change, how did that go?”
“Twenty-five females agreed, and all of them made it through the change.” Jaws dropped at this news; they would have considered it Luna’s favor if fifteen had made it.
“That is your answer,” Lars said. “Luna accepts the wives, so they must change and find their mates. If they do not, we know their fated mates will track them down and force the issue. None of us can stop that.”
“I know,” I said. It was going to take time.
******
Vicki Corcoran’s POV
Los Angeles, California
Sunday, September 24th, 2034
It had been a good day, and it could get a lot better tonight. “I can’t believe it,” I said as I looked at the Emmy statue on the bedside table of our hotel room.
“You guys deserve it, and I feel great about tonight. Shark Tails is a hit because of you.” Nicholas zipped up my tiger-shark-inspired dress from my signature Bodyglove line. I checked my makeup one last time. “I’m ready.”
Today was a reunion for me, as our groups from our reality series and my Cape Cod documentary gathered. Earlier today had been the ceremony for the minor awards.
The Emmy Awards recognized excellence in television programming, but there was no way the primetime shows could cover all one hundred and twenty-five categories. At nineteen years of age, I’d won the Emmy for “Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program.” It was sitting on the bedside table, ready to go back with us to the theater.
It would join a few other statues on our table. Linda had taken two awards so far for Shark Tails. She won individually for “Outstanding Picture Editing for an Unstructured Reality Program,” and together with Fiona Corcoran and Carly Kanoheh for “Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Series.” Erik Johnson, the Producer/Director that hired me for the ‘Sharks of Cape Cod’ documentary, won for “Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program.”
Our security team knocked, and it was time to go. I grabbed my award, and we walked out of our room, joining the rest of my team in the hallway. The Navy made special arrangements for our SEALs to attend the awards. The publicity of the SEAL trainees appearing on our reality show had been a boon to recruitment, and it was easy to see why. Ensign Kai Steele was in his formal Mess Dress uniform; black pants, gold cummerbund, ribbed white dress shirt with a black bowtie, and a white jacket with his shoulder boards and medals. Amy was on his arm, wearing one of the new Bodyglove Maternity dresses in ocean blue. Petty Officers Ricardo and Manuel Jimenez looked great in their dress white crackerjack uniforms with the beautiful Makani and Noelani holding their arms, each in coral-colored mermaid-cut gowns. Linda rounded out our group with her husband Matt in his Australian Navy dress uniform. Our group went down the elevators to the waiting limousines, bodyguards surrounding us the whole way.
It was a dream come true to walk the Red Carpet of a major awards show. We’d dealt with cameras and paparazzi before, but this was a step beyond. I talked to several reporters on the way inside, smiling and posing for photos. The producers scheduled us to arrive before the television stars and bigwigs. We found our table near the back and set our hardware down as they brought us champagne and sparkling cider. We had ninety minutes to kill before the program started, so Nicholas and I got to talk to the Hollywood elite before returning to our seats.
I wasn’t seated for long. “In the category of Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, the winner is; Sharks of Cape Cod, Producer and Director Erik Johnson, Host Vicki Corcoran, Expedition Leader, Dr. John Holliday, and Captain Stueben Merrill.” Discovery Channel had the table next to us, and we erupted in cheers. I joined Erik and his team on the way to the stage. He gave a short speech, and I accepted my second Emmy of the night.
“Congratulations, love,” Nicholas said as I returned to the table. I’d barely sat down when our final category of the night came up.
The host read the nominees for the Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, and the cameras showed our table as they called out Shark Tails. “And the winner is? Shark Tails, Producer Vicki Corcoran and Director Linda Cartwright.”
I let out a scream, and everyone at our table jumped up. Linda and I walked onto the stage where I accepted another trophy, but I had a speech to give this time. “Thank you so much. I’d like to thank Linda Cartwright and her team for bringing our adventures to the screen. Working with Amy, Makani, Noelani, Linda, and a thousand some sharks has been a dream. I’d also like to thank everyone at Discovery for giving our team a chance, and especially my support back home. Mom and Dad, Ivan and Karen, Unky Leo and Aunt Adrienne, I love you all, and I love my husband Nicholas so much. Thank you.”
Linda thanked her husband and a few others, then we exited the stage to the left. After photographs, we headed back to our table to watch the rest of the evening’s awards. I was floating on clouds, looking down occasionally to see the three statues lined up in front of me on the table. “I can’t believe we won,” I told Nicholas.
“You guys worked hard for this show, and it shows,” he responded as he squeezed my hand. “Do you know what is going to be fun?”
“What?”
“Negotiations for Season Three. With Season One an award-winning hit and Season Two filming wrapped up? You’ve got them over a barrel.”