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  She looked up at me with such an expression of disappointment that I relented. "Go with Donovan and Rachel now, and if you're feeling better in an hour or two then we can still do dinner."

  I got a nod of acceptance and then watched as the three of them disappeared into the house. Our last three cars were still on their way and it was past time to put a little bit of thought into avoiding another confrontation like we'd just had with Ash's old pack.

  James was still standing next to the cages only now he was looking like he wasn't excited about the prospect of carrying them around to the back of the house with an extra few hundred pounds of shape shifter in each of them.

  "Where do you want these, Alec? In the garage until we can arrange for a truck?"

  "Actually I think maybe it would be best if we just leave them here until after we've greeted the last few visitors. Grab some tarps, please, so we can cover them up until we confirm that our visitors are more of the moonborn, but if they are indeed more of our kind then go ahead and drop the tarps so it's obvious that I'm serious when I give an order."

  I motioned for Isaac to help me move the cages around. We positioned them just in front of the arc of the pack and our guests such that it would be easy for the girls to pull the tarps off. My mind wasn't really on the work though. With the eight of us from the pack, assuming you counted Kristin, and the five guests who owed us help if the pack got jumped, we were in pretty good shape. Even if my power only served to keep a group of attackers down for a few seconds it would be enough to allow us to defeat several times our number.

  Given that we were relatively safe again, my thoughts instead turned to the dinner that Adri and I would be having either tonight or tomorrow night. I'd planned on making it a special occasion but in light of everything that had just happened I suddenly realized that a change of plans was in order.

  This was going to be the most important dinner of my life.

  Chapter 3

  Adriana Paige

  Graves Estate

  Sanctuary, Utah

  I felt incredibly stupid for having nearly fainted out on the front step while Alec had been dealing with Ash's old pack members. Rachel and Donovan did their best to reassure me that it hadn't been a big deal, but I knew they weren't being completely honest.

  Alec needed a pack that could stand at his back without flinching no matter what happened. I'd thought I was prepared for any kind of violence but in the end it had turned out that the heat was too much for me. It had just kind of snuck up on me. One minute I'd been fine and then suddenly I'd just more or less collapsed.

  I was resting in the sitting room closest to the kitchen with a protein shake in one hand and a pad and pencil in the other when Alec found me an hour later.

  "How are you feeling?"

  "I'm okay, sorry for making an idiot out of myself, but okay. I'd really like to have dinner with you still if possible."

  Alec put a hand on my forehead and then nodded. "Let's go."

  "Now? I need time to get ready."

  Given the number that the heat had just done on me, I'd stripped down to one of Jasmin's old tank tops and some capris. Somehow it didn't seem glamorous enough of an outfit to be wearing out on my first date with Alec since we'd broken up.

  Alec cocked his head to one side and looked me up and down. "I think you look perfect. Besides, if you put on more clothes than that you'll just overheat again."

  He had a point. Also, I didn't really have much else to wear. Rachel had promised, or maybe threatened was a better description, to take me shopping as soon as everything with my mom was squared away. I kept telling her that we should just get my mom to box up my old clothes but she'd refused to cancel the shopping trip because she figured that I might need my New York clothes the next time I happened to be in New York.

  Actually, I was rich now too, but I honestly didn't understand how Rachel thought sometimes. Maybe now that my mom had agreed to let me stay I'd be able to convince Alec to take his money back.

  Alec gently pulled me to my feet and then led me through the house and out back. He was holding my hand, which was nice, but I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Eventually he'd remember that there was a chance he'd addict me to his touch and start cutting down on the physical contact. For now I figured that I'd just soak in being with him and deal with the inevitable freakout when it actually happened.

  "Where are you taking me?"

  "Dinner, silly."

  My face heated up, but I gamely stuck my tongue out at him. "You know what I mean. I half expected that 'a nice dinner' meant that you were going to bundle me into one of the jets and fly to Salt Lake City."

  Alec smiled as he shook his head at me. "No, you've pretty much managed to convince me that expensive trips aren't your cup of tea. I thought that maybe a picnic would be more your speed."

  "Actually, a picnic sounds perfect."

  We walked for several more minutes in companionable silence before coming around a set of hedges and into view of a gorgeous gazebo. The structure was so light and airy that it would have been breathtaking under normal circumstances, but today it was hung with swaths of green silk.

  "It's amazing. Just like the Ashure Day Dance."

  Alec squeezed my hand and led me up into the gazebo and over to the picnic that he'd had laid out on a blanket. There were green cushions scattered everywhere so that it didn't feel like we were even sitting on the ground.

  Once he'd poured me a glass of grape juice and I'd dished up from the seven or eight different dishes that were waiting for us, Alec sighed in contentment.

  "It's so nice to be able to leave all of the politics and dominance stuff behind for a little while."

  "What happened after I left today?"

  Alec popped a grape into his mouth and chewed it to buy himself time, but I wasn't about to let him get away with keeping me in the dark anymore.

  "Hey, I'm as deep into this stuff as I'm going to get. The Coun'hij isn't going to let me sit on the sidelines at this point, so I'm better off knowing exactly what is going on."

  "You're right, you're right. I guess I'm just a little nervous that I'll say the wrong thing and you'll leave again."

  I shook my head. "I'm here for the duration. I know that there are some tough choices ahead, but I want to help you chart a course through them if I can."

  Alec nodded and then took a deep breath. "The other three cars were just more envoys from other packs. So now we've also got people here from Flagstaff, Carlsbad and Las Cruces. Pretty much all of the border packs that are within a day or so drive of here with the exception of a couple from California."

  "So what do they all want?"

  "You saw Raynor and Rebekka. Those two are feeling the situation out, trying to figure out whether or not they can improve their lot by entering into an alliance with us in some form or fashion. Two of the others were the same way, people who are trying to avoid getting crushed between us and the Coun'hij at best, pure opportunists at worst. The last one was different though. The Las Cruces group came to offer an oath of fealty."

  My jaw hit the floor. Russ hadn't been far off at all when he'd said Alec was some kind of royalty.

  "That's great. The more packs that you can bring to your side the better off we'll be in our efforts to bring down to the Coun'hij."

  Alec nodded, but I knew he wasn't convinced, or rather he was worried about something related to our discussion.

  "What's wrong?"

  He tried to get off with a shrug but I shot him a stern look, which earned me a smile and a real answer.

  "With humans it's a lot easier to tell when they are lying. With shape shifters you can still usually catch people in a lie, but not always. What if one of the people promising to help us is actually just a really good liar? That's a big part of how the monarchy was destroyed the first time around."

  I was suddenly incredibly glad that I'd been brainstorming during my hour of forced convalescence. The solution was so obvious
that eventually he would have stumbled onto it himself, but this way I got credit for it and he'd maybe start thinking of me as a resource rather than just another person who needed protecting.

  "That's easy, Alec. Get Shawn down here to witness their oaths. He'll be able to tell whether or not they intend to keep them and then you'll know exactly who you can and can't trust."

  I'd seen Alec less stunned after being hit in the head. It made me want to giggle, but I managed to keep my expression suitably serious.

  "You're brilliant, Adri. Shawn won't love the idea, but if we turn it into a big enough bunch of pomp and ceremony then he can just blend into the background and there's a good chance that nobody will know that he's there, let alone the reason he's there. You just solved one of my biggest problems!"

  I felt a little flush of pleasure at his tone. This was better by far than his touch. "Okay, hit me with the rest of your problems and let's see if I can solve the rest of them too."

  Alec leaned back and gave me a measuring glance. "How about if you tell me what you think my other problems are and what you think I should do about them. I'm interested to see how much you've picked up so far."

  Wow, I hadn't expected a test quite so soon. Nothing to do but give it my best shot and hope he was impressed by how much thought I'd put into it at least.

  "I think you need to start concentrating your forces. You're a pretty big deterrent all by yourself, but we're going to need more fighters if we're going to really start pushing the Coun'hij. I think you should put out an open invitation to the dispossessed to come in from the cold. Some of them won't be interested and some of them won't be the kind of people you want here, but there are probably at least a few who wouldn't mind being part of a pack again. Given that you're going to be dominant to any of them, you can probably slot them into the power structure inside our pack without anybody getting hurt too badly."

  Alec nodded and gave me a check mark in the air. "Very nice. Jasmin must have told you how impressed I was with the way that Jaclyn Annikov has been able to enforce an artificial dominance structure on her pack, but I expect that the idea with the dispossessed was pure Adri."

  I nodded and then threw out my only other decent idea. "I think you need to figure out how to unite some packs that are geographically close together. Ulrich agreeing to support you is nice, but he's so far away that we can't do much to help each other. Once you've got a chunk of territory sworn to you then you can shift some of the fighters out of the safer areas into the places where you're most worried about attack by the Coun'hij."

  "Well done, Adri. You're exactly right. Do you know what my last problem is?"

  I must have looked even more crestfallen than I realized. Alec reached over and lifted my chin up.

  "You didn't fail, Adri. I'm impressed. So far, you're ahead of anyone else in the pack other than maybe Ash and Donovan. It's all the more incredible because you didn't grow up thinking in terms like this."

  Alec pulled me to my feet and handed me a taper. "Let's get these candles lit. It's going to be dark soon."

  As soon as my taper was burning steadily I started moving from candle to candle. It seemed like there were hundreds of them, but it actually only took us about fifteen minutes to finish the process.

  The ritual of holding the fire to a wick until the candle started burning was surprisingly calming. I looked over at Alec several times as I was working my way round the edge of the gazebo, and each time he met my gaze I was struck by how content he looked. Alec might not have all of the answers when it came to dealing with the Coun'hij, but he was back to being the confident guy I'd fallen in love with months ago.

  Once every candle had a tiny flame slowly dancing above it, Alec and I stepped back to the center of the gazebo and just watched the lights move for several minutes. At some point Alec wrapped his arms around me and I leaned back against him, reveling in the solid feel of his chest behind me.

  "Thank you for tonight, Alec. It's perfect. I missed being with you every single day that I was in New York. Being back here is so amazing that sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure that it isn't all just a dream."

  "I missed you too. After you left, everything started falling apart. I tried to hold things together, but it was like I was missing my rudder. Every storm that came through just blew me completely off track. Knowing that you're here, that you still care about me, helps give me hope that we'll be able to weather everything that's coming towards us."

  There was something in Alec's voice that told me he was ready to talk about his last major problem. Some girls would have thought that he was ruining a perfectly good moment by taking the conversation back around to his work, but I wasn't one of them. That was just part of who Alec was. He was so incredible exactly because he was willing to take responsibility for so many people. It was one of the things that I loved the most about him.

  I turned around so I could look him in the eyes, but left his arms resting on the small of my back. "Out with it. What's the next storm racing towards the pack?"

  "Not towards the pack, towards you and me."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Of the six packs that sent representatives today, four of them are angling for an alliance by way of marriage. That's the only explanation for why they'd have brought so many girls our age with them."

  I felt almost like I'd been slapped, but I knew Alec wasn't trying to hurt me, not after preparing such an incredible date. He was trying to equip me with the knowledge I'd need to survive the craziness of watching dozens of incredibly hot shape shifter girls throwing themselves at him.

  "So it's Tasha and her mom all over again?"

  "Sort of. These girls have the same kind of goal as Tasha had, but I'm not willing to entertain their advances like I was with Tasha. My power finally awakening for real means that I've got options now that I didn't have back then, but more importantly, I know that you still love me. I'm not marrying any of them."

  I felt my heartbeat slow back down with the added proof that Alec hadn't brought me here to break up with me. It wouldn't have matched at all with what I knew of his character, but a part of me had still assumed the worst was about to happen.

  "Thank you for warning me. I'll try not to get jealous or anything."

  Alec's smile was odd, a curious mix of happy and sad. "A warning isn't very much to take into what's coming, Adri. In a shape shifter pack the jockeying for position carries through to more than just who's going to give everyone orders."

  The relief that had just washed through me evaporated. "What are you trying to tell me, Alec?"

  "When a dominant starts looking for a mate it isn't unusual for the eligible candidates to engage in some pretty spirited competition for the dominant's attention. As things stand right now you'll have half a dozen female shape shifters doing their best to make your life difficult. Even the less aggressive of them will have a hard time believing that I'd really choose a human, not given how much benefit there could be to binding another pack to me via marriage."

  My throat had gotten so dry that it was hard to talk. I looked around the gazebo, taking in the silks and the candles as a way of buying myself time. Alec was painting a pretty bleak picture. I'd never dealt very well with the popular girls on the few occasions when I'd roused their ire for some reason or another. What Alec was describing was a hundred times worse than that, but I knew what I had to do, what I wanted to do.

  "I'm not leaving, Alec. At least not as long as you still want me. My place is by your side."

  He nodded at me, took my hands in his, and then lowered himself down onto one knee. "I didn't want to do it like this. I've known since before Agony came the first time, but in a perfect world I would have given you more time than this."

  Alec reached into his pocket and pulled out a velvet box, tiny in his massive hands. "I don't want you to ever think that this was driven by anything other than a pure desire on my part to be with you. If there is any doubt in your mind then refuse me right
now and we'll weather the storm the best we can until you're sure."

  The box was open now, sparkling with reflected candlelight, but I refused to look directly at it, instead meeting Alec's gaze squarely. Alec took another breath and then smiled, but it wasn't like any of the smiles I'd seen out of him lately. This one was pure happiness and if I'd had any doubt about the sincerity of his proposal that smile would have burned those doubts away.

  "Adriana Paige, will you please consent to become my wife?"

  Chapter 4

  Adriana Paige

  Graves Estate

  Sanctuary, Utah

  The ring was gorgeous, but I didn't even notice until nearly an hour later. I said yes to Alec's proposal, although it might have been fairer to characterize my response as a joyful scream. Alec slid the ring on my finger and pulled me into a kiss while my head was still spinning in astonishment that it had happened.

  On the one hand it felt like we'd only known each other for a few days, but on the other hand it seemed like I'd been waiting for Alec to truly claim me for ages. This was an unmistakable sign that I belonged to him and he belonged to me.

  I was still giddy with excitement when Alec noticed that the cooling air had me shivering. I wanted to stay out in the gazebo all night but Alec sternly refused my plea.

  "You collapsed just a few hours ago. We need to get you inside and keep your body temperature regulated. The last thing that you need right now is to come down with something."

  Alec was apparently still just as immune to my pouts as ever. Less than fifteen minutes later all of the candles had been blown out and we were headed back to the house.

  Given how little sleep shape shifters needed, it wasn't late enough for everyone else to be in bed, but we didn't run into anyone on our way back which suited me just fine. There would be plenty of time to enjoy being 'officially' engaged. That part could go as long as I wanted it to, but this part would only last for a few more hours or at most a day or two. Right now it was just Alec and I who knew and that was somehow more perfect than anything else I could imagine.