“You’ll have to come along tomorrow to find out.”
“Imri, I’m nervous.” Sully’s hand was clammy in mine as we made the walk up to the town hall. Finding somewhere to park had been a nightmare.
“Me too. It feels like there’s a lot riding on this.”
“Sully, Imri!” Trisha called from the front. “I saved you seats over here.”
We took our places and settled in for an eye opening event.
Trisha was running the show. Once the mayor called the town meeting to order, she handed the floor open to Trisha.
“Haenvale’s existence as a haven town is a lie,” she proclaimed.
Gasps followed her announcement. She used a crystal to shine the charter onto the walls of the vast building.
“This point here, a haven for all, has never truly been realized in our town. Until recently, even I believed the lie until I had my eyes opened. Haenvale was supposed to be a place where prey shifters could be free from the persecution they suffered at the hands of predators, but,” she paused dramatically, “that was never to be at the expense of the predator’s animal sides.”
“Nothin’ happens to them. Predators complain’ ’bout nothin’!” someone yelled from the back.
“Have you ever asked a predator, a wolf, a fox, or a lion what it feels like to wear their inhibitor? Do you know there are different kinds depending on what you are?” Murmuring rose in the crowd. “They prevent them from shifting. They can’t access their animals, at all!”
Trisha waited for the crowd to calm, to continue. “Haenvale has laws to prevent discrimination by species. There were funds and land set aside to create safe zones where all shifters could meet and mix to find their fated mates, to make friends outside of their type. They were designed to teach them how to cope with each other. It can be done. We see it in cities all the time. So why were they stolen from Haenvale’s residents? Greed is why. The money and land were robbed from the town.”
“Stolen?” Sully whispered, his head tucked close to mine. “Somehow I’m not surprised.”
“After all I’ve learned about this place, neither am I.”
The meeting took hours! We had to stop for refreshments halfway through because it had devolved into bickering with one side slinging insults at the other.
Finally, Trisha took a stand at the front. “We need to fix this for the future of Haenvale. I would like to raise a motion to purchase Cliff Park from the town administration for the people to create a place where shifters can mingle in safety.”
The town owned a strip of land which held no value for domestic or commercial properties.Apparently, the bylaws prevented anything from being built on it because the space was earmarked for a park. They hadn’t wanted to draw attention to what they’d been up to. Rather than trust the town to turn the land into the park it was supposed to be, Trisha had a plan.
“I have met with several business owners of Haenvale who have a stake in seeing the town reach its full potential. Together, we have created a trust called the Haenvale Alliance. We have raised funds to buy the land from the town in order to create a safe shifting space for both predator and prey shifters. A place where they can learn to coexist in harmony. Would the town vote on a motion to approve the sale of this land?”
While it was a close one, the vote passed. It was a step forward.
Twenty-one
Sully
Babysteps.Progresswasmade in baby steps.
None of us thought that our announcement would make a rapid change in Haenvale, so no one was disappointed when there was a lot of back and forth over who would control this land until it was clear the Haenvale Alliance had this all in hand. They wanted outright ownership now that faith in the town was lessened. Playing hardball was Trisha’s forte. Soon, the sale went through and the next set of hoops rose for the trust to jump through.
There were the licenses, the insurance, security. In short, the town didn’t make it easy for the Alliance to get shit done.
Orson was the one to step in. While his trip with Baxter wasn’t the smoothest, they learned a lot about each other and were determined to make their relationship work, especially since I was pregnant and mated to my alpha. I neverasked him if Baxter was his mate. That was his secret to tell when he was ready. Not that it mattered, they were committed to each other and very much in love.
Perhaps his parents saw it as a way to elevate their social standing, but they supported him in his crusade to get the park up and running. They also wanted him to claim the Pallas cat omega he was in love with as his mate. They put money and political clout behind the Alliance now Orson’s dad was running for mayor.
The park finally opened mid fall. Stone had returned to take charge of running the place. A perfect job for the gargoyle now he wasn’t working in policing the tear. I was glad he was back to meet my mate before we became parents again. He bonded with Imri and the kids easily, slotting into our lives like he’d always been there.
I’d finished working at Rosie’s at the end of the summer season. The pregnancy made it uncomfortable to be on my feet a lot, even with the adjustments they made for me, like a stool behind the counter to rest on between orders, meaning I had to quit with a couple of months until my due date.
Carrying twins would do that to you, though.
Yeah, two babies. Imri was over the moon about it, and honestly, so was I. We had a lot of work ahead of us, but with my family helping out and our kids at home lending a hand where they could, I knew everything would be fine.
