Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

are quiet. That's when you get hit with three urgent cases or a performance review or you get sick or - "
    Lily held up a hand, laughing. "All right, already. I take it back. Things are hectic and my plate is full, and yes, the party was lots of trouble. And worth every bit of it."
    "Oh, now you've done it. I tear up over commercials these days." Cynna sniffed, grinned, and added, "I guess all this organizing is good practice for your wedding. Have you set the date yet?"
    "Not yet." She tipped her can and drank.
    "You're avoiding the subject."
    "No, I'm thirsty." Lily glanced around. "I need to find Cullen. I haven't given him my present yet."
    "Now you're changing the subject." Cynna was downright gleeful. "You're scared."
    "I'm not scared." She loved Rule. She not only wanted to spend the rest of her life with him; she had to. The mate bond gave them no options there, but she'd stopped resenting that, so getting married would just put a legal gloss over what was already true. There was no reason to be scared; the annoying lump in her throat wasn't fear. It was... aggravation.
    "I'm not scared," she repeated. "But I'm contemplating Las Vegas. My mother is insane."
    "What flavor of insane are we talking?"
    Lily gestured with her Diet Coke. "Every flavor a wedding can come in. The dress. The date. Flowers. Attendants. Doves."
    "Doves? Doves as in big gray birds?"
    "White ones, actually. She wants to release dozens of white doves when Rule and I say our vows. Not exactly the right aesthetic message when the groom turns wolf on occasion, is it?"
    Cynna snickered. "Oh, yeah, some of your guests might miss out on the aesthetic message. They might think the doves were a party game. Flying appetizers."
    Lily pictured a bunch of well-dressed men taking one look at the doves, Changing, and racing off yipping after them. A smile tugged at her mouth. "Maybe I should let her have her way. It might be worth it to see her face if... But no." Reluctantly she abandoned the fantasy. "They wouldn't really do that. Besides, I don't know if we'll have any lupus guests."
    Cynna squeezed her arm. "You'll have Cullen. And I bet there'll be more, once they get used to the idea."
    "Maybe." She didn't like thinking about what marriage might do to Rule's standing with his people and veered back to the part she had some control over. "I do not want birds crapping on me at my wedding."
    "That's a strong argument against. I guess you've pointed out the crap problem?"
    "Yeah, and admittedly she let that notion go, but she'll just come up with something else." Something grand and showy and expensive. To think that only a couple weeks ago, Lily had worried that her mother wouldn't accept the marriage. She shook her head. "Never mind about my mother. Today is all about you."
    "All about the little rider, really. But since he can't appreciate his presents yet, I get to help."
    "Still haven't settled on a name?"
    "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a name neither of you has any strong associations for? Cullen likes the old-fashioned names. And magically, the older names are stronger, so - "
    "Does that count?' Lily asked, startled. "I thought the idea that names have power over you was an old wives' tale."
    "Oh, that part's bullshit - for us, anyway. It's true for anyone who has what Micah calls a true name, but humans mostly don't, or we don't know it. No, for us names don't so much have power as affect power. We don't understand how, but... well, look at your people." She waved a hand, accidentally slapping the bare back of a fair-haired man who was talking to two equally bare-chested men. "Whoops. Sorry," she said with a grin when he turned around, one sandy eyebrow raised.
    Lily knew there were a lot of superstitions about names in Chinese culture. She hadn't really paid attention - it had seemed like one of those relics of the past the older people cling to. "Hi, Jason," she said to the fair-haired lupus, who was eyeing Cynna appreciatively; and, "Flirt later," she told Cynna, taking her elbow and getting her moving. "We really should get you back to Cullen. It must be nearly time for the dancing."
    At a lupus party, you always eat first. Best if none of the wolves is hungry.
    Her mind slid back to what Cynna had said. "You mean all that stuff about, ah... " Numbers. There was something about the way a name added up, wasn't there? Oh, yeah. "You mean that business about the number of strokes in the name matters?"
    "Uh... you might say