The Shaman looked at Dawn with his icy grey eyes. "Do you have to say something about it?"

"What will she say?" said Daryn in order to defend his wife. "It wasn't in her hands."

​​

The Shaman put his hands up in the air to stop Daryn from speaking. "I am asking Dawn and not you." That statement made Daryn flinch a bit and he clenched his teeth. He looked at Caleb, who was sitting back and relaxing and couldn't help wondering what kind of a man he was. He had been a great brother to him all the while. He had been so good until Maya was his fiancé, and now—as soon as he married Dawn, as soon as Caleb came to know that Dawn is his mate, his disposition had changed completely. A family was supposed to be together in their happiness or pain, but his brother and his wife were only into inflicting emotional pain to Dawn.

Caleb stared right back at Daryn as his mouth curled into a smile seeing Daryn's incapability to speak further.

The Shaman turned to look at Dawn, whose hands had gripped the shawl tightly. "Do you have something to say in your defense?" he asked her again.

Dawn nodded. "I have a lot to say," she said. She knew that these people were already biased because she was a neotide. She knew that it would be almost impossible to convince them. "Like my husband said, this wasn't in my hands. When we got married, Sedora had warned Daryn that perhaps we would never have children, however, we went ahead to marry because there was no other option in our relationship. Our wolves had realized that we were mates. If we were a normal couple, this situation would have been unavoidable. By God's grace we have been blessed with a baby. It is nothing short of a miracle. So if you say that this pregnancy is abnormal, then I disagree with you. This pregnancy is a miracle in my opinion, and if any of you even realize what it is to become a mother or what it is to become parents, then you would not say anything against my unborn baby." Her gaze turned to Pia and suddenly she understood why Pia was so envious and why was she so acerbic. She wasn't a mother and hence she would never be able to understand the emotions that roiled her gut at the moment. "I will never go for abortion, and that's my final decision."

One of the members of the council became angry. His face flushed red. "Gayle, you should have prepared us for this kind of insult." Then he gazed in Dawn's direction ad added, "Well, what do you expect from a neotide? A woman like you, who hasn't been bred amongst purebloods, doesn't know how to talk to the council or respect their decisions? No wonder Pia called us."

"We are purebloods, Dawn, if you understand the meaning of that," said another council member. "We are the original werewolves. You are a bitten one, an infected werewolf. Had it not been for Daryn, and then you would have gone mad because the bitten take years and years to control their emotions! And you—with the way you are speaking, we already know that you are nothing but a scar on our lineage."

Dawn heard Pia titter very softly.

"Daryn is a pureblood, and we would in no way allow you to tarnish our lineage like this. You will have to abort your pregnancy," said the member in a steel voice.

Gayle was listening to the members with utmost attention. Upon hearing the member, he said, "I think all of you remember what happened at Ulfric. If you don't, let me refresh your memories. You all were present over there. If it hadn't been for Dawn, then we would have never come out from there. Brantley had made us all a prisoner of that place." He looked at Dawn. "It was Dawn who cut out the deal with him to allow every 'pureblood' to leave the place safely while she continued to stay there." Gayle emphasized on the word 'pureblood.' "She sacrificed her freedom only to get us purebloods out of Ulfric!"

"We were in that situation because of her!" Pia shot back at Gayle. "Brantley wanted her dragon and not us. He roped in all of us and it was her duty to bail us out of there. She didn't do any favor to us." Her voice was so sharp that for a moment Dawn jerked her head back.

"It wasn't her duty!" Daryn replied back in the same tone. "She could have left all of you in lurch. Just like your disposition at the moment, even Dawn didn't have to give favors to the family, let alone the clan." What he meant by saying that was that Pia was not even with the family, and here his wife actually saved the whole clan. "Not only that, along with her dragon, we all found the Stone of Solaris for the King of Aztec. We restored prosperity and earned our freedom back."

"So what?" Caleb interjected. "We could have come out without her help. We all know Brantley and he is not the type who would have made us his prisoner. Its just that Dawn talked to him before us and she talked in a way as if she was favoring the purebloods. Humph!"

Daryn couldn't believe his brother. The two were impossible. They were hell bent on putting Dawn down in front of the council. "Caleb!" he growled. "You are going down the dark alley, and I am not going to tolerate that."

Caleb ignored the growl, flinching a little on the inside and he looked at the Shaman. "You must take a decision that is best for all the clan and you can't favor only one person even if that happens to be Luna of the clan," he said in a jarring voice.

"Yes!" Pia agreed with him.

All of a sudden from the corner of his eyes, the Shaman saw a boy coming inside the living room. His emerald hair was shining in the light and his blue eyes were deeper than the color of sea. He swallowed his saliva. "Well, we have to go by what the majority says. Since the five of us are divided on it, we must have a vote," he declared. "The voting will be done right here in front of everyone."