Marked Read online

  It was the kind of casual remark that I'd caught Alec making from time to time lately. I wasn't even sure he was aware of what he was doing, but it almost seemed like he was trying to give those around him a heads up without actually coming right out and saying point blank that there was a problem with something.

  It was the kind of thing that could be problematic in a leader if he wasn't doing it on purpose, but I hadn't been able to bring myself to point it out to him. Most everyone else didn't know him well enough for it to be a problem and I was reluctant to make him any more of a closed book than he already was.

  I opened my mouth and then decided once again against saying anything. Instead I turned in his arms so I was facing him. It was a calculated risk. There was always a chance that he'd take my moving as a reason to let go of me and sit up, but I kept his right arm trapped underneath my body and this time he didn't move.

  Looking into his eyes was like entering an entirely new universe, one where I was completely happy. Alec could fake a lot of emotions on those occasions where it became necessary, but he couldn't fake the level of love and commitment that I saw reflected back at me in the quiet moments when it was just the two of us.

  If his comment had been the slightest bit less concerning I would have just sat there gazing into his eyes for as long as he was willing to remain in one place, but I knew there was something important he wasn't telling me.

  "What's going on, Alec?"

  "This isn't general knowledge, so don't say anything to Donovan or the others, but it doesn't look like Dream Stealer has lost interest in Kristin. All the signs point to him having singled her out as the weak link in the pack."

  "What does that mean? I know a little bit about Dream Stealer, but obviously not enough."

  "It means he's torturing her every night in her sleep in an effort to break her. He doesn't do it often, but he's taken down entire packs this way. He picks out a target, either someone he thinks is weaker than the rest of the pack or someone who's got access to something particularly important, and then he makes every night hell until they finally snap. Once that happens they'll do anything to get him to stop hurting them.

  "For someone who's been through that, there's no secret they won't disclose, no ally they won't betray, no murder they won't commit. Sometimes he only has to break one person, sometimes he has to break half the pack, but in the end he's always managed to achieve his goal."

  "That's…well, it's beyond terrible. Are you sure he's targeted Kristin?"

  "Yeah. Ash says that she's thrashing around in her sleep every night and she's so tired that she drops off to sleep as soon as she stops moving. It was questionable before, but it's become pretty clear lately that she's his target."

  I closed my eyes to stop them from tearing up. Kristin wasn't my favorite person. She was a little too pushy for the two of us to ever be close friends, but she didn't deserve to be put through what Alec was describing.

  "She mentioned that she was having issues with him before the attack on the house, but she seemed pretty sure that he would leave her alone if she could just tough things out for a week or two."

  Alec gave me a sad smile that told me he knew exactly what I was feeling. "Yeah. So far that's all that anyone has been able to do where Dream Stealer is concerned. He's not omnipotent so if you can manage to fight him off for several nights running then there is a chance that he'll reassess the situation and come at the pack through someone else."

  "So if you win then it just means that he'll go after someone else close to you? That doesn't seem like much of a victory."

  "It's not. For the last few decades he hasn't even had to break people to accomplish his ends. Once it becomes apparent that he's decided to target a pack, it usually just disintegrates as everyone tries to get far enough away from each other that there's no reason for him to continue to target any of them."

  "He turns families against each other."

  "Yeah, I'm afraid so. There's a reason that nobody has come out in open rebellion against the Coun'hij since they killed my father. Between Agony, Dream Stealer and Puppeteer there's never been any doubt as to where the balance of power rests. Agony was their scalpel, Puppeteer has always been a blunt instrument, and Dream Stealer is like a virus, just looking for a weakened host he can use to create a pandemic. Even someone like Jaclyn Annikov has had to be very circumspect about disagreeing with the Coun'hij in public."

  "We can't let him do this to Kristin, Alec. There has to be a way to stop him. You've already killed Agony and you proved that Puppeteer isn't unbeatable. If we can find a way to neutralize Dream Stealer, then the Coun'hij will fall overnight."

  "I wish that was true, Adri. I killed Agony, but we beat Puppeteer as much by luck as anything else. It's going to be a long road to defeating the Coun'hij, but I promise I'm doing everything I can right now. There isn't anything I can do directly to protect Kristin, so Ash and Isaac are going to take her somewhere they can keep her isolated and make sure she can't hurt herself or the rebellion either one.

  "To be honest, I'd hoped initially that I'd be able to stop Dream Stealer from getting at any of my people. I seem to be able to nullify most other powers. I stopped Agony's cuts from scarring like they should have, I can stop Grayson from being able to send people into convulsions, it didn't seem that much of a stretch to think that I'd be able to nullify Dream Stealer's ability to dream walk, but that doesn't seem to be the case."

  "You didn't stop Dominic from being able to heal people and you didn't seem to do anything to nullify Shawn's gift either."

  "Yeah, unfortunately there's still far too much that I don't know about my ability. I need time to explore its limits, but time is the one thing that we don't have. Many of the shape shifters who gathered in Sanctuary before the attack did so because they thought that my gift would protect them from Dream Stealer and Puppeteer. Now that they know that's not the case we're going to have a much more difficult time adding to our numbers."

  "Are you second-guessing the decision to split everyone up?"

  "A little, but I still don't see another way forward. Dream Stealer always does more damage in bigger groups. It's harder for him to get his hooks into someone unnoticed in small groups, and by compartmentalizing our operations we can limit the amount of information he has access to at any one time. When you throw in the fact that Puppeteer can only be in one place at any given time, it just makes sense to try to make sure we don't offer them a big, stationary target to come after."

  "So we scatter and hide while Kristin suffers."

  "For now. It all comes back to us needing to find the Coun'hij's base. If we can do that then we have a chance of forcing the fight on terms that favor us. I can't fight Dream Stealer on his home turf, but if we can pin him down in the real world then Jaclyn, Grayson or I can easily make sure he never tortures anyone else again."

  Alec had been serious about compartmentalizing his plans, but so far I seemed to be one of the few exceptions. I appreciated that fact because it gave us one more reason to spend time together, one more thing to talk about, but it created a potential problem that we were going to have to talk about.

  I told myself that I wasn't bringing that issue up because there was something else more important that I needed to ask Alec, but even as I asked my other question I knew I was mostly just waiting because I was scared of what his reaction might be.

  "You don't seem as confident in our ability to defeat the Coun'hij as I expected you to be. I thought it has always just been an issue of us not knowing where they are located."

  "That's the main thing, the only thing that I can point to as being a concrete problem, but there are a lot of unknowns. For decades there have been rumors that there are other members of the Coun'hij who keep their identities hidden, hybrids every bit as powerful as Agony or Dream Stealer or Puppeteer."

  "Why would they do that? Wouldn't it make sense to present the scariest front possible in order to make sure that the packs are too intimidated
to rise up against the Coun'hij?"

  "Your guess is as good as mine. There is a lot to be said for making sure everyone knows exactly how big a stick you're wielding, but there is also something to the idea of keeping your enemies guessing. The less they know about your true capabilities the less they can do to neutralize your advantages through superior planning. You could argue that between Puppeteer, Agony and Dream Stealer the Coun'hij had a plenty big enough stick to threaten the packs with."

  "You're not convinced that's the reason though."

  "Not entirely. There are rumors that some of the Coun'hij hide their names and abilities because their gifts are so terrible that if the packs knew about them they'd rise up in a united group and try to overthrow the Coun'hij despite the blood bath that would almost certainly result."

  "And if those rumors are true, then the mere fact that you're being so successful puts us in more danger, because that's the kind of thing that would cause the really scary members of the Coun'hij to finally get involved."

  Alec nodded gravely. "Exactly. It's one of those things I can't plan around because I don't have enough information, but it's there in the back of my mind with every decision I make. It's like my own personal boogeyman."

  I'd already wrapped my arms around Alec after turning to face him, but now I squeezed him harder. "It's going to be okay, Alec. You're going to find a way through this. We don't know what's coming or who else we might be up against, but we do know that it's possible for us to win."

  "You're putting an awful lot of trust in Shawn's gift, and he never said we could win, just that it wasn't guaranteed that we were going to lose."

  "No, I'm putting an awful lot of trust in you. Shawn's gift was just a nice confirmation of what I already knew. If you really put your mind to it there isn't anything you can't do. Your gift has fully manifested and we have an impressive list of allies that include Jaclyn and Grayson. You can do this, Alec, and I love that you've chosen to stand up to the Coun'hij. You're not doing it because you want the power; you're doing it because it's the right thing to do, the thing that will give your people a chance to be free for the first time since the monarchy fell."

  He looked at me in amazement and this time the smile that was tugging at the corner of his mouth was a happy one. "You do realize that most people don't consider living under a monarchy to be a shining example of freedom, right?"

  "Most people don't have to deal with the complexity of shape shifter existence. You were right all of those months ago when you told me that shape shifters can't live by the same rules that humans live by. Even the weakest of you are still incredibly dangerous and when you throw in the fact that you're in the middle of three wars while trying to keep your existence a secret from the humans, it becomes painfully evident that your people need a stronger central authority than would be ideal for a bunch of suburban soccer moms. Besides, living under the rule of a Graves is the one sure way to guarantee that you'll be treated justly."

  That earned me an eye roll. "My ancestors weren't perfect and I'm even further away from perfection than they were."

  "I don't know, you look pretty perfect from right here."

  That broke through the last of Alec's defenses. He was always less guarded around me than he was around most of the rest of the pack, but my favorite times were when all of the walls came down and I saw him without any pretenses.

  There was an incredible gentleness to Alec Graves that he kept carefully hidden for fear that his enemies would use it against him. He wasn't wrong to do so. Someone like Puppeteer would do anything to exploit something he perceived as a weakness, but it wasn't a weakness, at least not in my book.

  Alec fought so hard precisely because he cared. He would attack despite all the odds because he couldn't bear to let someone he cared about die if he had a chance to save them. The Coun'hij wasn't capable of understanding that any more than Brandon had been.

  Every momentous change in our life could be traced back to that one thing and it had caught our enemies by surprise each time. Alec had fought Brandon to save me and triggered his power, and then he'd faced off against Agony in order to save Jasmin and Isaac and brought his power fully under control.

  Even his decision to try and reestablish the monarchy had resulted from the fact that he couldn't bear to see packs being torn apart by the likes of Dream Stealer. The smart thing would have been for Alec to take a less confrontational approach, pretend to ally himself with the Coun'hij and bide his time while he gathered allies. It would have been the smart thing to do, but it wouldn't have been the right thing to do and so he'd never even considered it.

  "Adriana Paige, I don't deserve you, but I'm very glad that you came into my life. I never would have made it this far without you."

  I opened my mouth to tell him he wasn't giving himself enough credit, but he didn't let me get the words out. He kissed me and there wasn't anything hesitant about this kiss. I had a split second to be glad I'd switched to that new, longer-lasting mouthwash and then I was swept away in the moment.

  Alec's arms around me tightened to the point where the pressure was just short of painful and I loved every second of it. It was like the ultimate expression of strength and manliness. He could have crushed me without even trying, but he wouldn't because even now Alec was in complete control of himself. That control was sexy in ways I couldn't even begin to explain.

  I reached up and cupped his face as I returned the kiss, shaking from the thrill of having him close to me, giddy from the buzz of his shape shifter energy coursing back and forth between his bare skin and my hands, face and arms.

  His lips were perfectly firm and insistent against mine, and I wanted to let myself go fully, but I knew I couldn't do that. I needed to tell him about my concern and if I didn't do it now then there was a chance that I wouldn't ever do it.

  It was one of the harder things I'd ever done up to that point, but I pulled back from Alec and rather than keeping me there like some guys would have, he immediately relaxed his arms. He didn't let go of me completely, but he gave me the option of breaking free if that was what I wanted.

  "As much as I would love to stay like that forever, there is something we need to talk about."

  The old Alec would have become at least a little guarded after a lead-in like that, but all he did now was raise one eyebrow in a questioning manner. I took a deep breath and then forced the words out.

  "What if I'm being attacked by Dream Stealer?"

  "No, that's not possible…"

  I cut him off before he could finish. "Alec, you have to be rational about this. I was thrashing around and screaming. I feel like I didn't get a wink of sleep, and I have no recollection of what I was dreaming about so I can't vouch for the fact that I wasn't being tortured."

  He looked like he wanted to interject something, but I gave him a stern look and just kept on speaking.

  "You said that Dream Stealer likes to target the weakest individuals in a given pack, especially if they have access to important stuff. In case you haven't been keeping score, that's basically a perfect description of me. You need to start cutting me out of some of the planning. I probably already know too much, but at least if you start keeping me in the dark now you'll be able to limit the amount of damage I do when he breaks me."

  Alec shook his head at me. "Are you done?"

  "Yeah, I guess so."

  "Thank goodness. I was half expecting you to say something about locking you in the bathroom until we could make arrangements to ship you off to some kind of makeshift prison four states over."

  I shrugged. "Now that you mention it, that's not a bad idea. I would have eventually suggested something like that—I just hadn't thought things out completely yet."

  "I guess I should just be grateful that distancing yourself from me wasn't the first thing that you thought of."

  His light, joking tone brought a smile to my face despite my best efforts, which just made me want to punch him in the arm.

  "This i
s serious, Alec."

  He sighed. "I agree, but I don't think there is a need to do anything drastic right now. Dream Stealer is something of an enigma, but while we don't know very much about him as an individual, the packs—even the sympathizer packs—have been keeping as close an eye on his activities as possible for the last couple hundred years. There's never been any kind of evidence of him working on two people at one time.

  "There have been about a dozen times where he took a pack apart by breaking two of its members and even a few instances where he turned three people in order to accomplish his goals, but he always attacked them one at a time, even when he appeared to be working under some kind of a time limit."

  "So as long as he's still trying to break Kristin that means I'm safe."

  "Yes, which means that your nightmare was just that—a normal, subconscious-acting-up nightmare. Ash will keep a very close eye on Kristin and as soon as there are any signs that Dream Stealer has either succeeded or given up trying to break her, we'll get a call letting us know that we need to start keeping a closer eye on everyone else."

  I closed my eyes for a second as I tried to think through all of the ramifications of what he'd just told me.

  "I suddenly feel like an even bigger jerk than I did a few seconds ago. Kristin is suffering unspeakable things just so I can be safe. It doesn't make any sense. Out of all of the possible options, why choose her? It makes more sense to go after me."

  "That's not true, Adri. It actually makes a lot of sense to get Kristin out of the picture. In a lot of ways her visions make her the ultimate wild card. As long as she's in play and on our side there's no way for the Coun'hij to guarantee that she won't ruin their plans by telling us something that we couldn't possibly know."

  "But her visions are so unpredictable…"

  "Yeah, but even so they could make all of the difference. If Dream Stealer hadn't locked her into some kind of feedback loop she would have been able to warn us of the attack against the estate. If we'd known that was coming even just ten minutes before the werewolves actually arrived, we could have changed the outcome there in a big way."