The Lost Siren: Rise of the Drakens Book 1

by Raven Storm

  Kieran licked his lips, but nodded, putting an arm across Ronan’s chest.

  “We lost twenty-six in the fight, my queen,” Kieran replied, his voice rough with need and desire. Queen? I descended the dais, strutting amongst the other males, my wings spread, and my head held high. The mountain was no longer safe, and it was up to me to get everyone moving if Benedict continued to wallow in self-pity.

  “Drakens, the demon hordes have found us, and it is only a matter of time before they return. We cannot fight as we were meant to in this mountain, encumbered by rock and unable to fly. We must return to Lyoness and reclaim the land.”

  Stunned silence greeted my announcement, followed by an explosion of sound so loud I flinched. Their cheers were deafening, my blood singing as I felt every male draken pledge their loyalty to me. My head was fuzzy with fear and uncertainty, but I reached inward and found strength. If I could love Benedict in the face of his disdain, this would be a piece of cake. I had been through fire, forged by the flames of hatred and pain. I was a queen with steel in my blood and determination in my eyes.

  “How will we ensure Lyoness is safe?”

  Wyrren stepped forward from the crowd, bowing lightly.

  “Blood wards, using black and white magick. Shouldn’t be hard to snare a few vampyres for the task.”

  I swallowed heavily but didn’t disagree.

  “No lykos. We will reach out to them and try to secretly rebuild our alliance.”

  They all bowed their heads.

  “The best course of action is a willing sacrifice, similar to Sabien’s, but more powerful.” Gelf’s eyes were far away, fixed on some point I couldn’t see.

  “What could be more powerful?”

  Wyrren looked away, but Gelf stood straighter; taller.

  “Sabien was a willing sacrifice, but scared and young. We need an older draken with nerves of steel, committed completely to giving his life to protect the rest of the colony.”

  Dead silence blanketed the hall.

  “I volunteer.”

  Gelf’s eyes were steady, his chin held high. Pirth pushed through the crowd and stood next to him.

  “I also volunteer.”

  An awed hush fell over us, and I didn’t know what to say. Gelf smiled.

  “I hung on long enough in the hopes I would one day see the lost siren. You have brought me more joy than I thought possible. It would be my honor to lay down my life for the future of the draken race.”

  My eyes felt hot, so I shifted them to Pirth.

  “What he said.” His yellow scales glittered, the color of the sun.

  I found Domik in the crowd, his eyes fearful. I swallowed back everything I was feeling, stuffing it down for later, when I could break down in private and grieve for these brave, brave men.

  “When should we leave?” I asked him bluntly.

  “Sabien’s sacrifice should hold for a few hours."

  I nodded, then addressed the rest of the drakens.

  “We leave in one hour. Be ready to fly.”

  The hall descended into loud cheers and organized chaos. I turned towards Kieran and Ronan, who looked like they were barely holding onto their sanity.

  “Just hold on. I’m needed.” A bit of the heat cleared from Kieran’s eyes, and he took my hand in his, turning it over to admire the pattern of my scales.

  “I have waited for the day I would lay eyes on the lost siren for most of my life. I can wait a little longer for the honor of being one of her mates.”

  He kissed my knuckles, emotion swimming his eyes. He dragged Ronan off with him, who was still mooning after me like he was lost. My lips twitched, then hardened into a flat line. There was work to do, and I had an entire species to save.

  Thoughts of Benedict invaded my head, but I pushed them away.

  He stabbed himself to force you to change.

  “Is everyone prepared?”

  Gelf nodded, his eyes following the mildly organized chaos around us.

  “I don’t know if you knew, Queen Wren, but preparations were already underway to leave the mountain.” I turned towards him, nodding. Sabien had told me as much.

  “Benedict confided that our home here was no longer safe, and to prepare. He surveyed Lyoness a few days ago, and found it a barren wasteland, but free of any demon allies.”

  “Is that so?” I asked. I couldn’t believe it; Benedict really had believed me after all, and then tried to do something about it.

  “Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you sooner.”

  Benedict’s form materialized beside me, standing tall as he resolutely surveyed the drakens scurrying around him. I wanted to punch him in the face almost as badly as I wanted to kiss him. The ground under my feet shook, a deep rumbling that sent alarm signals racing throughout my body. An hour had been right about on the mark.

  “EVERYONE OUT!” Benedict bellowed, as the drakens lined up in ordered formations, with the Elders out front leading after I had refused. I wanted to make sure everyone else got out first.

  “Stay in the middle of the pack, they don’t know about you yet, and it’s vital we keep you a secret as long as we can.”

  His hand lingered on my lower back, just below my wing joints. It was tempting to make a smart comment, but the look in his eyes was so genuine, so pleading.

  “Please, Wren, get to Lyoness and don’t die.”

  It was all I could do to nod dumbly. “And where will you be?”

  His wings twitched. “The rear.”

  The mountain groaned in protest as rocks and dirt fell around our heads. I placed myself in the middle of a group of drakens, and then looked around wildly.

  “Where is Georg?”

  No one answered me as three drakens weaved spells on the elevator shaft, intending on blowing it open so we could make a quick escape through the sky. They made shallow cuts to their palms and cheeks, blood dripping down their noses. They would be carried by other drakens if their magick left them too weak to fly.

  Part of the mountain exploded, as the magick blew the entire shaft into pieces, opening our eyes to the sky above. The drakens screamed in delight as their wings tasted the air, but all I felt was fear. Where was Georg?

  I screeched in distress and fought my way to the back of the pack.

  “What are you doing?” Benedict roared but withdrew when he saw the panic in my eyes. “Georg! Where is Georg?” His eyes narrowed in determination, and I think I fell in love with him all over again. He nudged me towards the fleeing drakens, and I leapt into the air. Just as the last of us cleared the mountain, it exploded in a shower of fire and shrapnel.

  I screamed as Benedict disappeared underneath the mountain.

  Books By This Author

  The Lost Alliance: Rise of the Drakens Book 2

  War is coming—no, it has already come. As the demon hordes amass before us, our alliances are thin and brittle, balanced upon the edge of a knife. My mates and I have no choice but to leave the safety of our reclaimed homeland to seek further aid.

  The crown weighs heavily upon my first mate, who refuses to share his burdens. He carries the weight of the world, forgetting that it is I who carry the weight of an entire species—the last female draken.

  If he had his way I wouldn’t fight. His instincts scream at him to hide me, to protect me, but it’s too late. I’ve already tasted pain—tasted death. That is not something that can be wiped away. When he made me his queen, he had no idea the power he was about to unleash. Neither did I.

  And if the other creatures of this land won’t fight to save humanity—they will be next.

  ⚠This is a full length reverse harem/poly fantasy novel. Warning: there are dark themes and possible triggers.⚠

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  Military Engagement

  Ellie is recently divorced and forced to start anew in the only place she can find a job--a one-light, rural town in Maryland. Sparks fly when she meets Lt. Clay Williams, making her reconsider her vow to swear off
men for the foreseeable future.

  Clay is a traumatized soldier, battling inner demons while hiding a dark secret from his time served overseas. Lauded as a local hero, each honor and accolade is a knife to his heart, his guilt steadily eating him from the inside out. When he meets Ellie he sees a second chance--someone who knows him as Clay, rather than the hometown hero.

  After a heated encounter, Clay decides he has to have Ellie, despite the ongoing battles with his inner demons. The only problem? She wakes up the next morning with no recollection of the time they shared together.

  ★Passions abound in this steamy, small-town romance with a HEA. Military Engagement is a stand alone novel.★

  ⚠This book contains adult language and situations, including depictions of PTSD.⚠

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to my close friends who put up with reading all the early drafts and sticking with me to see the full story come to fruition. Thanks to Jen and your keen eye, and my ARC team.

  Thank you to my husband for putting up with my long hours of intense focus and making sure our children aren’t running around feral in the process. Thank you for believing in me and supporting my dreams to write.

  Thank you to all the readers who support me. YOU are who I write for.

  -Raven Storm-

  THANKS

  Thank you so much for reading The Lost Siren. If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review on GoodReads and Amazon.

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  Scroll for a sneak preview of the sequel to The Lost Siren.

  SNEAK PREVIEW

  The Lost Alliance: Rise of the Drakens, Book 2

  AVAILABLE NOW FOR PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON

  ONE

  Iscreamed when the mountain exploded, shrapnel and debris thick in the air like a downpour. The force of the blast propelled me forward and away from the mountain, when all I wanted to do was turn around and go back, to find Benedict and Georg and make sure they weren’t dead because of me. I felt Kieran and Ronan’s answering screams and heard the roars of the other drakens around me. Terror was tangible in the air as we strained our wings and fled towards the island of Lyoness, due east.

  The demons fell around us, claws scrabbling uselessly at the air when the blast threw them high. All around us they plummeted to their deaths, shrieking and wailing the entire way down. For a moment, the hordes backed off, confused and alarmed as the drakens took to the skies, leaving behind the mountain they’d been trapped under for centuries. An arrow whizzed by my ear and I turned, spotting a vampyre standing on the high cliffs with a bow, glaring at me.

  Rage burned from red eyes, his veins protruding through his translucent skin. His hair was as white as his skin, and a large scar ran from his left eye to the right corner of his mouth. He raised his fingers to his lips, letting out a high-pitched whistle that cut through the chaos.

  Horrific screeching followed his signal, and I had to pause in midair to clap my hands over my ears. Creatures with hulking, muscles bodies and wings descended among us, much large and even Brogen had been. They swooped down from the sky, snarling as they collided with drakens. Their faces were ugly—twisted with bulbous features that were as out of place as the large tails they swung like battering rams. I watched one knock a draken out cold, flinging him against the rocks as his brother swooped in to catch him, flying away as fast as he could. Another creature wrapped his arms around a blue-scaled draken, crushing his wings as easily as if they were paper. Gelf slashed the creature across the face and he dropped the draken, as Pirth was waiting underneath to catch him. Gelf and Pirth each grabbed an arm on the wounded draken as they hauled ass away from the mountain. What were these creatures?

  “DON’T FIGHT THEM! FLEE!” I screamed, praying they would all hear me, that they would ignore their instinct to fight. We couldn’t afford any more drakens dead. I felt Kieran and Ronan through the chaos, trying to get to me, trying to reach me, but there were too many bodies. Too much death. We quickly lost sight of each other.

  I flew after my people, my wings already tired and strained with effort. The other drakens had centuries of strength and endurance built up, whereas I’d only been in this draken for a few hours with only adrenaline and fear to spur me forward. I felt my strength waning but refused to quit. I ignored the pain in my chest as I gasped for air and my muscles burned. I kept flying east—east and tried to ignore the empty place in my heart that reached out for Benedict and Georg, who were likely dead and trapped beneath the rubble of the explosion. I sobbed as I flew, unable to do anything as my altitude drifted lower, and lower. My body screamed in agony, and I quickly lost sight of the drakens ahead of me.

  A searing pain shot through my left wing, and I veered crazily. I knew without looking that the vampyre with the scar and the arrows hadn’t missed this time. The treetops rushed up to greet me as I desperately tried to stay in the air, but I wasn’t strong enough or acclimated enough in this new body to know what to do. My muscles spasmed and I dropped like a stone. Branches beat at my body as I fell, whipping my face, my arms, my back and my legs. I couldn’t do anything to stop my descent, the space to narrow for me to risk flaring my remaining wing, lest I injure that too. The ground finally caught up to me and I met it hard, knocked unconscious before I could even think to release a distress call.

  Someone was with me.

  I fought the instinct to open my eyes or call for help. I focused inwards, intent on observing whoever stood over me, one finger gently stroking the skin on my arm. Whoever it was, they seemed more curious than harmful. I gave a small prayer of thanks I had shifted into my human form while unconscious—it was a small mercy.

  “Shiny skin! Pretty like the snow.”

  A child’s voice—a female. I listened closely as she stepped around me with a smoothness that didn’t fit her bubbly voice.

  “Grandmother would want to see the sparkly girl.”

  Panic seized me, and I shot straight up, ignoring the pain in my body.

  “Don’t tell anyone I’m here!”

  The little girl jumped, then clapped her hands as though I had just played a rather clever joke on her. She looked younger than Georg, but I wasn’t exactly an expert as I had only ever seen human children as babies. Her hair was a ring of fire, tied up high and secured with precious jewels and ornaments. It nearly reached the ground as she looked at me with startled eyes so black and dark that it was unnerving. She wore a simple, shapeless white gown with no shoes. I took a deep breath and tried to remain calm.

  “There are bad people looking for me, who want to kill me. I fell here when they hurt my—I mean, they chased me here.”

  I was acutely aware that my continued survival depended on no one discovering what I was. The girl frowned, and I pushed ahead, my tone falsely bright.

  “Is there somewhere I can hide? You live here—I bet you know all the good places!”

  Her face lit up.

  “I know the best places!” She grabbed my hand and pulled, and I tried to stand. My muscles screamed in protest, but I managed to stumble after her. She led me through the thick undergrowth as I hobbled and limped along, trying not to gape at the lush forest around us. We stopped along a small, bubbling stream and a massive willow tree that stood over it like a regal guardian. The woods here were surreal—quiet and soothing. The sun peeked out between the thick leaves that stretched overhead, and I breathed in the scent of the trees and flowers. It was so good to be outside again and hear the birds.

  “Follow me.”

  The girl jumped and flung her body at the tree, claws extending from her fingers and toes as she stuck into the bark a good six feet above the ground. I jerked, realizing there was no way she was human. I shifted enough to unsheathe
my claws and climbed after her, slithering up the tree easily as if I’d been doing it my whole life. She tilted her head to the side, confused.

  “You aren’t a witch, but we match!”

  She held out her black claws, which were long and elegant, tapering off into a razor-sharp edge. My own were sturdier; thicker and more rounded. Did she say witch? As with anything outside of the breeding manor, my knowledge of witches was non-existent. Were they allied with the Overlord, or one of the neutral species Domik had mentioned in his history lessons?

  We reached the split in the center of the trunk and she leaned down, carefully cutting into the bark with one claw. I watched in interest as she pried open a hidden door and pointed down in the darkness. A bird nearby let out a loud squawk, and I jumped. The girl giggled at me and pointed down again.

  “You first.”

  I was skeptical but didn’t have much of a choice. I jumped down and landed in a crouch, soft moss and rotted wood meeting my hands and feet. Dark, cloying air greeted me, and my draken instincts immediately panicked. Trapped! Closed walls! Can’t fly! Get away! I clamped down hard on my fear as the little girl landed next to me, pulling on a string to close the door above us. It was tight. The bottom of the trunk was completely hollowed out, barely large enough if I wanted to curl into a ball and lay down. With both of us there, it was hard to keep my draken’s claustrophobia in check. The girl was almost flush against me, her dark eyes appearing as vacant holes in her head. She smelled of chaos and ashes. I breathed out, dismissing such foolish thoughts, and felt around the trunk. A few indentations were cut into the bark, allowing for a few candles. The little girl lit them easily with a wave of her hand. I tried to control my surprised reaction and failed. The girl didn’t seem to mind.