Riven

by Dean Murray

  Ash was pacing now. "That will never work. My sister hates your family with a passion. She blames your ancestors for everything that happened to our family. She'd rather die than ask you for help."

  "If that's really the case then there isn't anything I can do."

  "Onyx is scared, Alec. After what you did to his delegation it's only a matter of time before he throws his lot in completely with the Coun'hij. Once Puppeteer and the rest are keeping an eye on the area we may not get another chance at this."

  "I'm not disagreeing with you, Ash, but I'm not the one you need to be trying to convince. Get your sister or someone else in the pack to ask for help and I'll send Grayson down there and we'll get as many of them out as want to go, but you're going to want to make darn sure that your sister is ready to come with us. We're only going to get one shot and if she doesn't come with us when she has the chance then things are going to get really, really bad for her once we are gone."

  Ash didn't like my position, but I gave him a look that said we were done talking about the New Orleans pack right now and he finally took the hint and shut up. I waited a second to make sure that he was really done and then turned to Louis and Rebekka.

  "I want to start cycling your people through Sanctuary. I know we've done a little bit of that, but I want to speed it up and get all of them here at some point or another during the next two weeks."

  Rebekka gave me a funny look. "How come?"

  "Your people need to swear fealty so that we know we can trust them. It doesn't have to be to me, I'm not trying to break your packs up necessarily, but they need to swear to you or to someone else in your pack who has sworn to you or to me."

  Louis winced slightly. I already knew that he was going to bleed to make that happen, but it was important. I'd been serious about what I'd told Raynor. I needed people I could trust just as badly as I needed capable fighters and brilliant minds.

  "I know it's not going to be easy, but there is precedent. Thanatas and Jaldul both enforced an oath of fealty among their supporters."

  Rebekka frowned like she was worried how I would respond, but after several seconds she threw her two cents in as well.

  "I don't think you realize just how hard it's going to be to get some of our people to swear fealty to anyone. A precedent that ancient isn't going to help very much."

  My beast was acting up more than normal lately, but I forced it down. I had to keep control of myself or my people would stop telling me what they really thought.

  "I'm not going to force anyone to swear fealty to me or you. I do need to know who we can depend on though. I think given enough time that people will start choosing to join us of their own free will, but before that can happen we're going to need some people already bound to us so that everyone else can see the benefits our people are reaping."

  Louis breathed a sigh of relief. "You were serious about what you told Raynor then?"

  "Couldn't you tell that I was telling the truth?"

  Rebekka answered this time. "I couldn't see any signs of a lie, but it seemed so impossible."

  "I meant every word of it. Those of your people who swear fealty will be brought into the inner circle. They won't necessarily sit in this meeting with us, but they will be shown a level of trust that the rest of your people won't be given."

  "What about your pack? Have they sworn fealty to you?"

  Louis flinched a little when he met my eyes but he didn't retract the question.

  "I'm going to have the same problems with some of them that you're going to have with some of your people, but that is the long-term goal."

  Donovan spoke up for the first time since we'd all arrived. "I'll take the oath right now if you wish, Master Alec."

  "Thank you, Donovan, but I'd like for it to be a public matter. You're welcome to swear to me at the next formal reception."

  Ash looked at me defiantly. "I'm not swearing to you."

  "I didn't expect that you would, not yet. You still owe an obligation to your sister. Once you've fulfilled that then maybe you'll be willing to take the next step."

  I could see a hot retort on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it and stood as if to go. I held up a hand. "I do trust you, Ash, and I want you in my councils. Maybe you can come up with a lesser oath that you'd be willing to swear in the meantime, but for today please stay."

  I watched as Ash returned to his seat and then opened my mouth to continue with the meeting, but a knock on the door interrupted me.

  Donovan opened the door and I waved Jaclyn inside the room. She looked each of the others over for several seconds and then turned back to me. She'd wrapped her pride around herself, but even if the others couldn't see it I could still see just how scared she was. I'd been there myself within the last couple of months.

  She'd spent her life protecting her pack and while she'd no doubt made mistakes in the past, they'd been her mistakes to deal with. Putting everything you valued into the hands of another was a terrifying prospect, but even before she opened her mouth I knew that she was going to submit to me.

  "I'm here to take your damn oath, Alec."

  "Believe it or not, I know what it cost you to come here and say that, Jaclyn. Please take a seat. The actual oath can wait for a couple of days until the next reception, but I know you'll go through with it so I'd like to bring you and everyone else here more fully into my plans."

  Each of the members of my inner circle leaned forward slightly. They all knew bits and pieces, but this was their first chance to hear the master plan straight from my lips.

  "I want Jaclyn and Louis to start preparing to move their people off of the border. The Las Cruces pack will come here to Sanctuary to live for the next few months while Jaclyn's pack will head to Tonopah. Don't rush your preparations, be smart about arranging for protection for your homes, but we need to make the move happen as soon as is sensible. That will put pressure on the rest of the border packs and the next tier of defenders."

  Jaclyn knew this was coming, but it was a complete surprise for Louis. "Some of my people will refuse to go. Just knowing that they are going to be thrown in with another pack will have some of them running scared."

  "I know it will, but you're going to need to do everything you can to convince them. I don't want to lose anyone if we can find a way to avoid it. Jaclyn will serve as my enforcer, at least initially, in Tonopah while I'll keep order here in Sanctuary. The goal will be to integrate the power structures of the pack with the minimal amount of disruption possible. People can still challenge each other, but it will happen at scheduled times and those challenges only change the dominance pyramid of the pack to the extent that those involved aren't under orders from me or someone in my power structure."

  Jaclyn was nodding now. "The dominants won't like that, but it's not that much more artificial than what I've enforced in Tucson. You'll create an incredible amount of goodwill with the submissives in all three packs. Some of them will swear to you just to get out from under the dominants who have been giving them grief."

  "I suspect you're right, but ultimately the goal is to get the dominants to swear an oath as well so that things don't become too unbalanced. Either way though we need to keep any excesses checked. We're going to start running excursions into vampire country and doing werewolf hunts to help keep everyone from losing their edge."

  Rebekka looked relieved. "That should prevent things from boiling over. Anytime there is an external threat it goes a long ways towards keeping the dominants from beating on the rest of the pack too much."

  "Agreed. Is that something that you can all live with?"

  I waited until everyone had nodded, and then handed them each a folder. "I wish that was the only set of marching orders that I had for today. That alone would be plenty to keep us all busy, but I also need you to start working on this."

  Jaclyn read the first paragraph and then snorted. "You can't be serious, Alec. Really, the ghost pack? It's just one of those urban legends."

&n
bsp; I held up a hand before anyone else could join in. "I know what you're thinking. Rumors of a super-pack have abounded for years but nobody has ever come back with anything concrete on them. Our recent arrivals have gotten me thinking though. Grayson has kept his head down for years despite the fact that he could have easily taken over nearly any pack in North America. That all by itself would have been an oddity, but now we find out that he's sworn to someone or something else. The ghost pack is rumored to be made up of some of the most unique hybrids ever born and they are said to be protected by an alpha who is nearly unbeatable in combat. What if Grayson is that alpha?"

  Donovan and Ash had been the two to pull together the briefing on everything we knew or suspected about the ghost pack, but I could see that even they hadn't made the possible connection.

  I continued on, building my case point by point. "Grayson has some kind of permanent circle on his chest and we've confirmed that Wyatt and Carson both have the same kind of distinguishing mark on them. They are obviously part of some kind of group and they are feeling us out right now, evaluating whether or not they want to come out of the shadows and offer us some kind of alliance."

  Louis chewed on his lip as he considered what I'd just said. "Why not just wait for them to finish their evaluation before we get too wrapped up in looking for them?"

  "Several reasons actually. Knowledge is power—the more I know about them the better off we'll be. They may not even be people that we want to align ourselves with when all is said and done, but it's much better for me to know that before we get into serious discussions with them. Also, there's no guarantee that Grayson is part of the ghost pack. If one group of powerful wolves has managed to stay hidden for centuries then there's no reason to believe that there couldn't be other groups that we don't know about."

  Ash flipped to the very last page and held it up. "Any set of wolves would represent an asset against the Coun'hij, but that's not why you're after them, is it? You want this one, don't you?"

  I nodded as everyone flipped back to the page Ash was referring to. "You're right. If there really is a hybrid out there who can find other wolves across long distances then he or she represents our best solution for finding the Coun'hij and wiping out their base."

  If they'd been shocked before, now they were dumbfounded. They'd been thinking solely in terms of defense because nobody knew where the Coun'hij were based. I'd spent plenty of time thinking about how I was going to defend my people and I'd come to the unfortunate realization that unless we were able to get much more concentrated than we were now, there was no way to guarantee that we wouldn't go down the first time that Puppeteer sent in a pack of werewolves.

  I couldn't afford the luxury of letting the Coun'hij call all of the shots. I needed to find a way to bring the fight to them and fast.

  Jaclyn was the first to recover and her smile didn't exactly light up the room, but it had a certain air of aggressive satisfaction to it that I liked. "You're right. If you can find them then they won't last half an hour against us. Not with you, Grayson and me. Unless Puppeteer has dozens of werewolves nearby for security we'd tear through them like paper."

  "Yes, as things stand right now that is true, but the situation isn't static. Grayson is only ours for a little while longer and the Coun'hij has got to be recruiting heavily from the dispossessed right now. I've got my feelers out there too, but so far everyone with any real power is holding out for more latitude than I'd be willing to give them. We need to move quickly or the situation could spiral completely out of control. There's never any telling who will manifest a power next and it could just as easily be one of their guys as one of ours."

  It was a sobering fact for all that this wasn't the first time that I'd mentioned the possibility. I let them consider what we were up against and then pointed at the files.

  "This is everything that Ash, Donovan and I have been able to scrape together about the ghost pack. I want each of you to read through this and then add in anything else you know, have heard or even suspect. I think we need a single point to feed all of this information to. I'd suggest one of you but you each have more on your plate than you're possibly going to be able to get to. Given that, I think we should use Tasha. Vivian would be perfect from the standpoint that she isn't going to be caught up in a big move, but until we've got all of the dominance issues sorted out in the Tonopah pack I think the secret is probably safest with Tasha for now."

  Louis was about to offer his opinion when someone started hammering on the door to Donovan's study. Dominic made a beeline to me as soon as the door was open. "Hurry, Alec! Isaac and Wyatt are fighting."

  Fighting wasn't quite the right word. I motioned for Jaclyn and the others to follow and then raced along behind Dominic. Less than a minute later Dominic led us around a bend in the garden path and I was finally able to see Isaac and Wyatt. They'd changed to their hybrid forms, but they were convulsing on the ground a dozen feet away from each other.

  James and Carson were both bloody and breathing heavily but they were calmly standing next to each other so the only logical explanation was that they'd taken their injuries keeping Isaac and Wyatt away from each other until Grayson arrived.

  I was glad that Grayson had made it there before I had. I'd been using my power too frequently as of late, and I continued to worry that one of these times I'd reach for it and it wouldn't respond to my need.

  I walked up next to Grayson and gave him a nod. "Can they hear me while you've got them neutralized like this?"

  I smiled at Grayson's nod and then stepped between Isaac and Wyatt. "I'm going to guess that this has something to do with Jess, but ultimately it doesn't matter. If you have something to settle then you do it at a time and place of my choosing so that I can make sure you don't kill each other."

  Isaac's beast looked up at me with angry eyes and I wished once again that I had a magic solution to the difficulties he and Jess were going through.

  "Go ahead and sort out your dominance issues now, but remember that whatever happens here today doesn't do anything to change who's in charge when you're on duty."

  I stepped back out of range and then nodded for Grayson to let them up.

  The sudden explosion of movement was even more violent than I'd been anticipating. Isaac connected with two long slashes across Wyatt's chest and right arm before dancing back out of range of Wyatt's counterattack.

  Isaac's defeat at Abaddon's hands had yielded impressive gains. Isaac had always been a good fighter but he'd gotten faster over the last couple of months. I'd known that Isaac hadn't liked not being able to protect Jess when Agony had visited during the fall, but I hadn't realized that he'd spent quite so much time practicing.

  Wyatt charged in with a clear attempt to clinch but Isaac savaged his right arm again and then reversed directions and hit Wyatt hard enough to bowl him over. The impact sent the two of them rolling but Isaac was the first one back up on his feet and he landed another blow to Wyatt's chest before the younger hybrid was able to jump away.

  I looked over at James and saw that he'd arrived at the same conclusion that I had. Isaac had been pretty consistently dominant to James for years now, but there was no question any longer. James was going to have to be more careful these days. Isaac was operating on too short of a fuse to put up with James' normal drama and James had very little chance of winning against him now.

  Wyatt changed directions with a speed that had been lacking from the first few exchanges and suddenly he had hold of Isaac's right arm with his jaws as his hands tore at Isaac's chest.

  The attack lasted only a split second before Isaac broke free, but they were now equally bloody and most of the onlookers seemed to have just realized that Wyatt still had a very real chance of winning.

  The next few exchanges were lightning fast. Isaac drove Wyatt before him, claws striking home again and again until suddenly Wyatt made his move, ducking under Isaac's left hand and then sinking his talons into Isaac's leg. I was under no illusions
about the completeness of my training, but I'd still never seen anything like this before.

  Wyatt grabbed Isaac's arm with his muzzle and straightened out so that Isaac's entire left side was taut as he threw his weight around and took Isaac to the ground. It happened too fast for me to see exactly how Wyatt managed to end up on top, but when the two of them stopped rolling he already had Isaac wrapped up. It wasn't exactly grappling, it wasn't so much joint locks as it was carefully placed claws and talons, but it was obvious that Wyatt had the leverage and he was riding out Isaac's increasingly erratic movements.

  It was as inexorable as time. Isaac would thrash about trying to break free while Wyatt waited until the opportune moment and then went for a new hold. Each new hold limited Isaac's options even further until Wyatt was perfectly positioned for a killing strike.

  I unleashed my power as soon as it was obvious that Isaac was beaten, dropping both of them into bloody heaps. I pulled Wyatt off of Isaac and towed him over to Carson before turning off my ability.

  Wyatt pulled himself back onto two feet and then looked from Isaac over to Jessica, who'd arrived midway through the fight, before letting his form shrink back down.

  "I'll see who I want to see and you won't try to tell me otherwise. Not now, not ever."

  Chapter 12

  Adriana Paige

  Graves Estate

  Sanctuary, Utah

  It felt like my head was going to just fall right off of my shoulders. I was always exhausted these days. It would have been nice if I'd been able to blame it on Alec's ability, but I knew that wasn't the cause.

  It was all this stupid wedding stuff. Kami was like a wedding planning superhero, but with Rachel gone there was more for me to do than ever and I absolutely hated all of it. I was picking out cummerbunds and bridesmaid gifts and all of the other things that I'd never expected to have to worry about for years, if ever.