Riven (8 page)

Rebekka nodded as
she took her place just behind Alec, and then the next few
delegations were introduced. The alphas who followed Rebekka weren't
any more willing to be pinned down than the first few had been, but
there was a subtle change to the mood of those who were watching and
that made each new arrival more cautious than the one before. The
girls they'd brought to try and catch Alec's eye were less and less
forward as time went on.

If we'd struck pay
dirt with Rebekka, we doubled down with the Las Cruces pack. Their
leader swore fealty to Alec with even less hesitation than Rebekka
had. Shawn confirmed that the oath had been binding on both sides as
the Las Cruces alpha took up a position behind Alec.

The last few
arrivals all seemed to be from the dispossessed, which surprised me,
but which Shawn didn't seem to think was out of the ordinary. What
did surprise me was that the first two, scared-looking wolves who
obviously weren't the least bit dominant, lied when they swore fealty
to Alec.

I watched as they
both took position behind Alec and felt my stomach clench at the
thought of them being within striking distance of him.

"What is he
going to do with them once he knows that they can't be trusted?"

Shawn shrugged.
"I'm not sure. His best bet would be to keep them busy with some
task that's important but which they can't use to cause problems.
Maybe hunting down werewolves. He might try using them to hold the
border or to go after groups of vampires, but there's more risk there
because they might tip off their prey and get other wolves killed."

Shawn's lack of
concern settled me down a little, but I was starting to realize just
how deep the waters Alec was swimming in really were. Two more
dispossessed came through one at a time to swear fealty and Shawn
confirmed that they both meant it, although one of them was going to
struggle to deliver on his promise.

"He's got too
much of a temper, that or just has too hard of a time controlling his
beast. Either way he's going to be trouble at some point. Alec's best
bet would be to get his beast to swear fealty too in a binding ritual
of power."

"Can Alec do
that?

"Alec can do
it if anyone can. If this guy's original alpha could have gotten his
beast to swear allegiance then he probably would have been a valuable
member of the pack, but as it was he caused more problems than he was
worth."

"Is that why
most wolves end up dispossessed?"

Shawn tapped the
desk in front of us for a couple of seconds before shaking his head.
"There isn't really a 'normal' reason why someone ends up out on
their own. Sometimes they are a submissive who just takes too much
crap from their original pack so they figure out how to get away and
just disappear. Sometimes they grow up never knowing their shape
shifter parent so they don't start out in a pack. Sometimes they are
too much trouble for their alpha to put up with. Sometimes they have
the stuff to take over the pack but know that doing so would make the
pack worse off so they leave."

I let his
explanation sink in for a minute and then cleared my throat. "But
it's not something a wolf would choose lightly, right?"

"Not
generally, no. You come across the occasional antisocial moonborn,
but for the most part we prefer the company of a pack to being alone.
Just as important though is the fact that we all know just how
dangerous it is out there. A pack provides a measure of protection
from the vampires, werewolves, and other assorted creepy-crawlies."

Whatever else Shawn was
planning on saying next went by the wayside as the next set of
visitors entered the room. Shawn sat up in his chair and zoomed in on
the three newcomers. The printer started humming as he absently sent
the screenshot to it, but it was obvious that he was focused on the
leader.

"Shawn, who
is that?"

"His name is
Grayson. He keeps a pretty low profile, but he's one of the
dispossessed, at least I thought he was."

"What do you
mean you
thought
he was?"

"He's got a
rather unique power. Dad made him an offer to try and bring him into
our pack as an asset, but Grayson said no. He turned down an
absolutely obscene amount of money without batting an eye. Dad was
pissed, but there wasn't anything he could do about it."

I started to ask
another question, but Shawn was fiddling with the volume on the audio
feed so I shut up and just listened instead as Ash announced the
newest arrivals.

"Grayson,
Wyatt, and Carson."

Just from the
expression on Shawn's face I could tell that it wasn't normal for
three of the dispossessed to show up at one time like this. Alec and
Ash's expressions didn't give that kind of information away, but a
wave of trepidation washed through me as I realized that Shawn hadn't
actually told me what Grayson's power was.

"Greetings.
May I ask why the three of you are here in my territory unannounced?"

Grayson's face
didn't give any more away than Alec's, but one of the two guys behind
Grayson didn't look happy to be there.

"My brothers
and I are here to offer our service to your house."

Alec nodded. "I've
accepted oaths of fealty from a number of individuals today, I would
welcome yours as well."

Grayson shook his
head and I suddenly realized just how big he was. He towered over Ash
and the other people behind Alec. "You misunderstand me. Our oaths are
not ours to give, but we would serve with your people for a time
before returning to other responsibilities."

Outwardly Alec
gave no sign of it, but I knew he was running different mental
scenarios as he tried to come up with the best possible response to
this development.

"Your offer
poses some difficulties for me. I'll not expose my people to more
danger by welcoming you into our territory and making you privy to my
plans and then have you depart abruptly, possibly taking everything
you've learned to my enemies."

Grayson nodded his
head fractionally. "I believe a compromise can be reached. We
could promise to obey all of your commands for a set period of time
and agree that we wouldn't reveal anything that could harm your
operations, both during the period of service and after."

Alec cocked his
head slightly to the side. "Why would you possibly be interested
in that kind of oath?"

"Our reasons
are our own, it only remains to be seen whether or not you'll accept
our oath."

Alec considered
Grayson and the others for several seconds before nodding. "Very
well, I'll accept your oaths for a minimum of two months and in
return promise not to expose you to any risk that I wouldn't accept
myself or set you to any task which
I
wouldn't be willing to
do."

Grayson bowed his
head. "That would be acceptable, but there is one last thing
before I can agree." Between one second and the next, Grayson's
hybrid form ripped through his clothes and sprang towards Alec.

I opened my mouth
to scream and then felt it snap back shut as a wave of convulsions
tore through my body. As my head flopped to one side I saw that
Shawn's muscles had locked up too.

My head whipped
back around in an involuntary motion just in time for me to see
Grayson crash into Alec, but Alec didn't even bother changing forms.
Out of everyone in the room, he was the only one who wasn't fighting
off convulsions.

I was sure that it
was Grayson who had caused everyone's bodies to stop working, but it
seemed to be causing him problems as well. His twitches weren't as
severe as everyone else's but he was still struggling as he tried to
bring his claws around to slash at Alec.

Alec calmly
stepped back away from Grayson and then suddenly the convulsions left
me. As I scanned the monitor I realized that everyone behind Alec was
now back to normal, but Grayson and everyone else in the room were
still flailing about. Grayson gathered himself for another attack,
but Alec gestured and Grayson went down like his strings had been
cut. As soon as Grayson hit the floor everyone else's convulsions
disappeared.

"I could kill
you right now. Are you satisfied with my prowess?"

Grayson managed a
tiny nod despite the draining effect of Alec's ability, and then Alec
turned it off. I looked away, my face heating up, as Grayson changed
back to human shape, but Shawn's gasp brought me back around. He'd
frozen the largest monitor and zoomed in on Grayson's chest.

The bulging
muscles looked exactly like I expected them to with one exception.
There was a ridge of raised skin in a perfect circle over his heart,
forming a white 'O' across otherwise unmarred flesh.

I would have asked
Shawn what it meant, but Kristin chose that instant to hurry into the
reception hall. The meaning of Grayson's scar was going to have to
wait. I didn't know Kristin very well still, but she was a tough
cookie. There was only one thing that would make her interrupt Alec
like that. She'd just had a dream and it wasn't good news.

Alec Graves
Graves Estate
Sanctuary, Utah

Kristin rubbed her
temples and sighed. "I don't know, Alec. I just can't explain
it."

I held a hand up,
trying to calm her down. "It's okay, Kristin, nobody is angry at
you, I'm just trying to understand what's going on."

Ash looked like he
wanted to intervene but I stopped him with a look. I'd kept this
discussion just between him, Kristin, Donovan, Louis, Rebekka, and me
but it hadn't been easy. Kristin had been understandably rattled by
her dream, but rushing into the reception and all but announcing that
the Coun'hij was about to attack us hadn't been very prudent.

Donovan cleared
his throat, obviously uneasy in the presence of the alphas from
Tonopah and Las Cruces. "Maybe if you were to just run through
what you remember again, someone will think of something."

Kristin took a
deep breath and nodded. "I fell asleep while I was studying for
my GED and I started dreaming about Sanctuary. It was like I was
floating a hundred feet above the ground and then suddenly dozens of
werewolves were running towards the estate."

Louis' voice came
out as a deep rumble. "Which direction were they attacking
from?"

"The south."

"You're
sure?"

The follow-up
question didn't seem to bother Kristin. "Yes. I remember
thinking that I needed to orient myself. I looked for the biggest set
of mountains and the werewolves were definitely coming at us from the
south. Once I found the mountain range I even found that old highway that
runs up from Arizona."

Ash and I both
leaned forward slightly. This was new. Kristin hadn't ever been wrong
before, at least not when it came to the big picture, so when she'd
told us that she'd seen an attack coming we'd just started working
through contingency plans and put our visitors on high alert.

Those who had just
been here as guests rather than allies had mostly departed and then
we'd all spent a tense three days expecting an attack at any point.
The attack still hadn't materialized, which had some of my allies
more jittery about my actions over the last few hours than they
otherwise would have been.

Ash looked at me
as if to let me ask the question, but I nodded for him to go ahead.
Kristin always responded better to Ash than to anyone else.

"Were there
vehicles on the road?"

Kristin nodded,
but now something new was bothering her. "There were a few cars,
a SUV and some kind of cargo truck, but nobody freaked out so they
must not have seen the werewolves."

There was a pause
and then Kristin shrugged, almost like she was putting whatever had
been bothering her out of her mind, and then she continued. "Once
the attackers arrived at the estate I only caught flashes of things.
I saw Alec pulled down by a pair of them out in the garden and then
everyone scattered. You put a bunch of rounds into one from the roof,
Ash, but then it jumped up there with you and practically tore you in
half."

Reliving the
memory was obviously hard on Kristin, but she managed to continue
with only a slight catch to her voice. "James and Isaac tried to
double-team one of the werewolves out by the garage, like they were
trying to buy time for some kind of getaway, but they didn't last
long either."

It was my turn to
ask the questions. "Did you see any of them inside the house,
Kristin?"

"No, I was
still just kind of floating above everything while the fight was
going on."

"Did you see
anyone else? Louis, Rebekka, Jasmin, Dominic?"

"No, just
you, Ash, James and Isaac."

Donovan seemed to
have figured out where I was headed. He was fumbling through a stack
of papers on his desk.

"Here it is.
Demolition on the Adams Bridge was started the day
before
Kristin had her dream."

I nodded. "That's
what I thought I remembered from our discussion two weeks ago. You'll
need to confirm when they had it torn down enough that it wasn't
drivable, but I'd be very surprised if it was still navigable by the
time Kristin fell asleep."

Kristin was a
quick study, but there was just too much she hadn't had a chance to
learn yet. "What are you saying, Alec? That my gift isn't
working anymore?"

"No, I'm
saying that I don't think this was a precognitive dream, I think it
was implanted inside your mind by an outside force."

Rebekka and Louis
were both nodding now, but it was Ash who gave Kristin the last
piece. "Dream Stealer. It all makes sense when you factor him
into the picture. Your point of view wasn't from the ground, which is
what you're most familiar with, it was from above which he could
experience for himself with a simple flyover."