Riven (14 page)

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."

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."

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.

The only saving
grace to anything about the planning process was the fact that it was
Alec that I was going to be marrying. Actually it wasn't entirely
fair to blame my current condition completely on the wedding
planning, at least not directly. I was also plenty worried about the
fact that my mom had flown into town and was currently less than five
minutes away from the estate.

I checked my watch
again and then realized that the ETA had been wrong as three vehicles
pulled into the massive circular driveway in front of Alec and
Rachel's house. I didn't know how they'd managed it around everything
else, but James and Ash had been working with some of the world's
best bodyguards over the last few weeks and everything they'd been
learning had resulted in security arrangements that were even more
paranoid than what they'd been able to think of on their own.

Today the
'principal' was in the second vehicle in the convoy but I already
knew that Mom was probably going to be in the middle car. They
sometimes put us in the first car, but they seemed to prefer the
middle SUV and they never put us in the back vehicle.

James escorted my
mom into the house while Grayson and the others kept watch. I met Mom
at the door and gave her a hug. "Hi, Mom. I hope your flight was
okay."

"It was
absolutely lovely, dear. I have to say I could really get used to the
idea of never flying commercial again. Just bypassing airport
security would be more than enough to hook me. When you throw in the
gourmet meals it pretty much outclasses everything else."

I found myself
smiling. Mom didn't seem to be holding a grudge over the way that
Alec and I had pressured her into letting me stay here. I honestly
hadn't been sure either way, but this would make the conversation we
were about to have much easier than it otherwise would have been.

"I'm glad
that Alec was able to spare one of the jets for you. Do you want to
swing by your room to freshen up?"

We were passing
one of the sitting rooms. I couldn't remember the proper name for it,
so I always thought of it as the white leather room. Mom looked over
as if she were about to respond and then missed a step.

"Adriana
Paige. I raised you from a baby. What secret are you getting ready to
ambush me with? You're not pregnant, are you?"

I felt myself
blush and looked back at James and Carson who were walking several
paces back to give us the faintest illusion of privacy. I knew they'd
still be able to hear everything we said, but I couldn't tell my mom
that, not without tipping her off to the fact that our bodyguards
were more than just human.

"I'm not
pregnant, Mom. That would be...well, it would be impossible."

She gave me a look
that said she wasn't so sure, but I knew I wasn't pregnant. Alec was
holding resolutely to his decision to wait until after we got
married. He was right and I agreed with him, but that didn't mean
that there weren't occasional times when the temptation made me want
to scream.

"Okay, out
with it then."

"Can I take
you someplace first?"