Riven

by Dean Murray

  I dutifully followed as she took me on a guided tour of what she would do with the bowl if 'money was no object.' At first it was really hard to see the transformation she was talking about, but as time went on I started to be able to see it.

  The bowl would be deepened slightly to create a natural amphitheater and then graded and covered in sod. We'd transplant hedges up onto the rim of the bowl to create a windbreak and shield the park we were creating from outside view. There'd be a fountain on one end, just behind where we'd stand for the ceremony, with flowerbeds interspersed throughout the park full of whatever flowers I chose.

  Kami and Rachel were a matched pair. Ideas flowed out of them in a torrent that got more overwhelming the longer I listened to it.

  "I generally try to make sure that any proposed locations can handle inclement weather. Luckily that wouldn't be too difficult here. I think the best bet would be some decorative arches or something else similar that could be used to support some kind of canopy if the weather turned bad."

  Rachel was literally bouncing up and down. Sometime over the last couple of days she'd become even more energetic. It was like she was in danger of starting on fire if she didn't stay in motion at all times. "That's a great idea, but would you do one big canopy or lots of small ones?"

  Kami looked at me but I just shrugged. I was still a little shocked that I was actually considering buying off on the idea in the first place. Alec was going to be paying a small fortune to the local landscapers to have any chance of pulling this off in two months.

  "A single big canopy would be the simplest, but it would require a very tall pole in the center to work. My suggestion would be to set up a series of smaller zones that are designed to be covered with smaller canopies. The real difficulty is in making sure that the guests can move back and forth between zones without getting drenched. Decorative arches where the canopies meet would solve that problem nicely."

  Rachel nodded in double-time. "Then you just need to deal with the water running off of the canopies. Maybe a system of tiny streams that mostly match up with the zones?"

  Kami nodded. "Yes, I think that would be best. Possibly linked to the fountain in some form or fashion. The streams wouldn't have to exactly match up with the edges of the canopy, you just need the areas that the canopy is covering to be elevated enough that the water will run off into the channels rather than back at your guests."

  I felt like my mind was betraying me, but I could see it now. A series of tiny streams crisscrossing the amphitheater with functional bridges spanning them. The canopy idea wasn't bad either. I could even see sections where a covered walkway would bridge the distance between canopies.

  "Remind me again, dear, how many people are you planning on having attend?"

  I looked at Rachel because I had no idea. I already knew that there were going to be more people than I would have invited, but I didn't know exactly how big that number was likely to be.

  "Mom and Dad sent out six hundred invitations. Given Alec's recent rise in...prominence...I expect you guys will be inviting somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand guests."

  I suddenly felt like I needed to sit down. The thought of a thousand people watching me stumble my way up to the altar was enough to make me sick. Rachel saw my expression and gave me a reassuring smile as she distracted Kami with questions about how we'd get a thousand guests out to this part of the estate.

  As the two of them walked away, still talking, I picked out a large rock and sat down. Wyatt watched them go and then shook his head. "Seems like an awful lot of fuss for no reason."

  Jess rolled her eyes at him. "It's a girl thing, you've probably never even thought about what your wedding would be like."

  "Sure I have. It's going to be a theme wedding. The ushers will be dressed like vampires, we'll have werewolves on the cake and her family will all have to come wearing cat costumes."

  Jess looked at Wyatt like he'd grown a second head for a second and then burst out laughing. It was nice to see her so relaxed, but the two of them were starting to give me a headache. Carson gave me a considering look and then pointed at Rachel. "It's kind of hard for the two of you to protect Rachel from all of the way over here."

  Wyatt sighed and then turned and started trudging off in Rachel's direction with Jess only a couple of steps behind.

  Jasmin rubbed her temples. "Bloody brilliant. I thought they'd never shut up. Now if you can just figure out a way to keep two football fields between us and Rachel at all times we'll all have a chance of hearing ourselves think."

  Jasmin was more than capable of being prickly, but this felt like more than just her normal frustration at having to change her plans at the last minute.

  "Are you okay, Jas?"

  I caught a quick look at Carson before Jasmin nodded and then turned away as if the discussion was over. Fortunately, Carson caught the look.

  "I think I see something over on that ridge that needs checked out. Jasmin, if you can stay next to Adri then I'll just go over and have a look."

  Jasmin nodded and then we waited until Carson was out of earshot before she sighed. "Sorry, I shouldn't be so snippy, I'm just having a hard time dealing right now."

  "With the Ben thing?"

  Even as I said it I felt a surge of guilt. I'd only visited Ben a couple of times since we'd flown back from Chicago. Jasmin had knocked him unconscious when she'd been extricating him from the vampire-run auto body shop where he'd been working. Alec had flown in several specialists and everyone was in agreement that the damage from the head blow had long since healed, but Ben still hadn't regained consciousness.

  "Yeah. Ben's part of it, but in some ways, that's actually the easiest part. As long as Ben is still asleep then I don't have to worry about where we stand. We don't exactly have a very smooth history together, so it's possible that him still being unconscious is the only thing saving me from another round of disappointment."

  I hadn't quite thought of things in that light. I was pretty sure that Ben had been ready to finally give Jasmin the chance she deserved, but given some of the water under the bridge I could understand her reluctance to believe that he wasn't going to just run away again.

  "So Ben's only part of it then. What's the rest?"

  "It's this crap with Alec still. You remember our talk in New York? The thing I'd lost because of Alec?"

  She was referring to the speed and strength advantage that all of the descendants of the royal line got. Apparently it was a closely guarded secret, enough so that she wasn't willing to explicitly mention it, even with Carson being so far away.

  Jasmin checked my expression to make sure that I knew what she was talking about and then shrugged. "I thought that maybe I'd get it back. You know, now that Alec isn't subconsciously draining us all of the time. I'm not tired all of the time anymore, none of us are, but that thing that I lost is still gone."

  All of a sudden some of Jasmin's irritability was making a lot more sense than it had previously. I was still feeling my way through so much of what it meant to be part of the pack, but I knew that this was a big deal.

  I didn't necessarily like the fact that the strongest members of the pack got to order the weaker members of the pack around, but it was a fact of life at this point. Alec never let the dominants get away with some of the excesses that I heard about in other packs, but it still meant that the hybrids were king and the wolves who couldn't manifest a third shape were peasants. I knew that Alec was working to change that, but even if he succeeded it wouldn't alter the fact that Jasmin was a shadow of what she'd been previously.

  Even if nobody was ordering her around she was still less capable of defending herself than she'd been before Alec's power had stripped away her 'royal wolf' abilities. Given that we were on the brink of a war with the Coun'hij, it was more than likely that Jasmin would find herself on the frontlines at some point.

  "I'm sorry, Jasmin. I didn't know. I never even considered the fact that you might have lost...that thing
...permanently."

  Jasmin shrugged, but I knew her well enough now to know that the movement was part of the perfect mask that she presented to the world. Jasmin's incredible beauty was just another part of her arsenal. Her gorgeous dark hair and perfectly symmetrical features were as much a weapon as the fangs of her wolf form. She used all of it to keep the world at arm's length.

  "There isn't anything to be done about it now. I need to just accept that this is how things are going to be from now on and move on with my life."

  Maybe, but to me that sounded more like a recipe for her becoming more and more bitter as time went on.

  "Have you talked to Alec about everything?"

  "No. There's nothing he can do about it at this point and he's got a lot of other things on his mind now."

  I found myself sighing. I was really, really bad at girl talk. "Maybe you're right that this is just how things are going to be in the future, but I think that you're doing him a real disservice by not telling him. He would want to know what you've sacrificed to keep the pack safe."

  Jasmin shrugged again, but I was pretty sure that I'd finally gotten through to her. She waved at Carson and then we spent the couple of minutes required for him to return in silence.

  As Carson walked back towards us I noticed a difference in his manner. I wanted to say that he was more relaxed, but that wasn't the right word. He was more...centered. He took a deep breath as he reached us and then smiled at me.

  "I know it's not my place to interfere with your wedding plans, but I have some experience with gardens. I expect that Alec will keep me too busy to actually help with the planting of everything, but if you'd like to share your colors with me I'd be happy to plan the arrangement of the gardens here."

  It was an odd offer, but I didn't want to offend him with an ill-thought-out response. I considered my words for several seconds and then gave him a smile.

  "I appreciate the offer, Carson. You're welcome to help if you'd like, but I'm sure that Kami has people who can do all of that if your time would be better spent doing something else."

  Carson nodded. "I'm sure that she has people who are very good at planning a visual display of flowers, but I'm equally positive that none of them are my match when it comes to scents. If you're going to truly impress your moonborn guests then you'll need both. This place already has a healthy smell to it. It shouldn't be too hard to turn it into something worthy of your special day."

  Jasmin looked as shocked as I was, but I didn't have to think twice. "More than just accepting your offer, I am profoundly grateful for it. I would be honored to have you plan that part of the occasion and, unless I'm very mistaken, I think I have a secret weapon for you that you're going to appreciate more than almost anyone else could." I could see that I'd intrigued Carson, but he merely bowed his head slightly in agreement before turning to watch Rachel and Kami's progress back towards us. Jess and Wyatt walked a couple of steps behind Rachel, but even I could see that they were talking too much to be paying any attention to their charge.

  The quartet was less than a dozen feet away from us when Jess shot her foot between Wyatt's legs, tripping him in spectacular fashion. Wyatt was fast though and managed to get a hand on Jess and take her with him.

  As the two of them hit the ground and rolled, I momentarily thought that they were about to break out into a dominance fight. It wasn't until they came to a stop with Jess on top that I realized they were both laughing.

  Carson's expression was grim, but I suspected that mine was just as unhappy. Carson was probably frustrated by the fact that Wyatt wasn't holding up his end of things as a bodyguard. I was worried about something even more important than that. Jess was flirting with Wyatt, and while I was glad that she was starting to regain her mental and emotional footing, this was really going to piss Isaac off.

  Chapter 9

  Alec Graves

  Graves Estate

  Sanctuary, Utah

  Jasmin was in one of her moods again. I could feel her staring daggers into my back as she followed me down the hall. I'd tried to tease whatever it was out of her several times over the last couple of weeks, but so far she'd refused to open up.

  This was a terrible time to try and resolve whatever the issue was. I was supposed to be at another reception in five minutes so that I could take oaths from all of the new arrivals, but I was starting to realize that there would never be a good time to take care of it. Jasmin was either a priority or she wasn't. If she was, then I needed to treat her like one.

  I double-checked our location in the house and tried to remember if we'd put any of the new arrivals in this wing or not. I didn't think so, but honestly it was nearly a full-time job to keep track of all of the visitors. I finally just shrugged, took Jasmin by the arm and led her into one of the bedrooms. If it turned out to be occupied then whoever was there would just have to forgive the intrusion. It was my house after all.

  I flipped on the white noise generator and then faced Jasmin again. "Okay, Jas, spill it. What's wrong?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about, Alec. We need to get moving or you're going to be late for your precious meeting."

  "Come on, this is me. I'd know you were lying even if your pulse hadn't just shot up. What has you so pissed off?"

  "Okay, Alec. You want to know? I'll tell you what has me so pissed off. It's you. Ever since you manifested your power you don't think about how any of this will impact our pack. You're so busy taking care of Rebekka, Louis and the rest that you don't have any time for me and the others."

  I opened my mouth to tell her that she was wrong, but she talked over the top of me. "Ben is getting weaker, but you've got me serving as some kind of bullcrap honor guard instead of spending my time with him like I want to."

  That shut me up, at least for a moment. I waited to see what else Jasmin would say, but she seemed to have said everything she was going to say.

  "I'm sorry, Jasmin. I didn't know Ben's condition was deteriorating. Why didn't you say something sooner?"

  "You get copied on all of the reports I see. You ought to at least, since you're the one that's footing the bill."

  "I get sent more than eight hundred pages of reports each day. I have to pick and choose what I read. I figured that you'd come find me if there was something I needed to be aware of in his workups."

  Jasmin still looked like she mostly wanted to take a swing at me but she'd relaxed slightly. "Well, I didn't think I should have to."

  I realized I was rubbing the side of my head and made myself stop. The stress headaches were getting worse, but that didn't mean that I could go around showing everyone that I was only days away from falling apart.

  "I asked you to stand behind me today because I was trying to elevate your importance. The more people see you as having my ear the less crap they should give you because they'll be worried about how I'll respond."

  "I guess I just wanted to actually have your ear rather than just the appearance of you trusting me."

  My beast seemed harder than ever to control these days, but I tightened up its leash and kept my tone as reasonable as I could.

  "If you want to be one of my advisors I'm fine with that. I've been trying to give you time and space because I knew you wanted to be with Ben. You've got the same problem I have right now, Jas. You can't have it both ways, you have to choose between priorities."

  It was like I'd hit her. She didn't move for several seconds and then finally looked up at me and nodded. "You're right. I can't have it both ways. The truth is that isn't the only thing that's bothering me."

  "Out with it, Jas."

  "I lost my royal wolf attributes, Alec. I'm no different than Jess."

  It was my turn to reel away from the impact of what she'd just said. "Are you sure?"

  "Yeah. I only jump about two-thirds as far as I used to."

  There was only one logical cause and my throat closed up as I realized that it had been me who had robbed Jasmin of part of her heritage. />
  "I'm sorry, Jas. I didn't know what I was doing back then."

  "I know. I've been telling myself that for weeks now, but it's still hard to deal with. I kept hoping that it was just the aftereffects of the exhaustion from when you were unconsciously draining us, but it looks like it's permanent."

  I cast about for a solution, but there wasn't one. I could put her under the same kind of protection as Rachel and Adri, but she was too proud to ever agree to that. Jasmin read my thoughts from the expression on my face and mustered a smile as she patted my arm.

  "It's okay, Alec. I was willing to follow you back when I thought it was going to result in my death. This is hardly a fate worse than death. It's going to take some time, but I'll work through my crap eventually. In the grand scheme of things, my sacrifice is a pretty small one to help ensure that the pack survived."

  "That doesn't make it any easier."

  "No, you're right, it doesn't. I think you were right though when you said earlier that I need to prioritize. I've been spending too much time moping at Ben's bedside. Give me a job, something that will keep me busy for three or four hours a day and take my mind off of everything that's gone wrong in the last six months."

  "It's a deal. Give me a couple of days to decide where you'll do the most good, but I promise I'll make it a priority. I always need an intelligent mind that I can trust to help filter out the stuff that is important from the stuff that isn't."

  Ten minutes later we were inside the reception hall. Jasmin took a place at my back with Ash standing next to her. Louis had been forced to fly back to New Mexico for a few days, but Rebekka was there standing proudly in a place of honor on the other side of Ash.

  Grayson was manning the main entrance with one of Ulrich's hybrids, a stocky specimen who went by the handle of Ace, backing him up. Ulrich hadn't technically sworn fealty to me, but he was in this up to his neck, so he'd agreed to keep a few people here under my command as extra guards.