Shadow of the Fae: A Fated Mates Fae Romance (Shadow Court Book 1)

by KJ Baker

  Who was he, this Fae warrior who had turned my life upside down?

  Tentatively, I reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from his face. His eyes snapped open instantly, pinning me with that purple stare. He said nothing, just gazed at me, and I found my breath quickening. His face was only inches from mine, his body so close I felt the heat coming off it.

  “Good morning,” he said softly.

  “Good morning,” I whispered. “Thank you, by the way.”

  “For what?”

  “Staying with me.”

  Something flickered in his eyes. “You’re welcome.”

  Silence descended. He stared at me and I stared right back, feeling that heat begin to coil right through my body.

  “Asha,” he said, his voice low in warning. “Maybe we should—”

  I leaned down and kissed him. I suddenly didn’t care about Raven’s warnings. I didn’t care that this was reckless or what it might lead to. I needed to forget, just for an instant, everything that had happened yesterday. I needed him to make me forget.

  He responded instantly. His lips were suddenly moving against mine and he reached around and yanked me hard against him. It felt good. Oh boy, it felt good. An ache lit between my legs. I tangled my hands into his hair as our kiss deepened and a low growl escaped his throat, a sound that sent a thrill right through me.

  This is what I wanted. This is what I needed.

  His lips traveled down my neck to the space where my neck met my shoulder, sending goose bumps across my skin. With one hand he grabbed my t-shirt and yanked it over my head. I plucked at his shirt, fiddling with the buttons until he pulled it over his head with one swift motion, tossing it away. He rose onto his knees, gazing down at me.

  My eyes roved over his naked torso. He had bulging biceps and a six-pack, the body of a man used to physical exertion. But his body wasn’t the smooth, oiled one of a body-builder. It was the body of a warrior. White scars criss-crossed his chest and stomach, some long and thin, obviously made by a blade, others small and puckered like bullet wounds.

  I reached out, gently ran the tips of my fingers along those scars, feeling the tiny ridges of raised skin. Raven shivered under my touch, his eyes going dark with lust.

  “Now you see me as I am,” he said, his voice low and husky. “Scarred and ugly.”

  Ugly? How could he say such a thing? To me, he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. To my eyes, he shone.

  “How did you get these?”

  He shrugged. “One battle or another. I’ve been fighting my whole life.”

  Earlier, I wondered who he was and now perhaps I began to truly understand. He was a soldier. A warrior. A king. A man who bore the scars of fighting tirelessly for his people.

  But he was also more than that. He was the man who made me feel things I’d never felt before. He was the man who set me ablaze.

  I rose onto my knees so we were kneeling in front of each other. Then I dipped my head and slowly begin laying kisses on his scars. He gasped, his eyes sliding closed, and the low moan that escaped him sent my pulse racing. That heat between my legs increased, burning its way up into my core.

  I kissed every single one of his scars. His golden skin shivered under my touch and he shuddered every time my lips brushed his skin. Only when I had kissed all of his scars did I lift my head to look at him.

  The expression on his face nearly floored me. His eyes, usually lilac, had gone so dark that they were almost black. His cock bulged against his pants, demonstrating how much he wanted me. With a growl, he pushed me onto my back and followed me down onto the bed, covering me with his big, muscular body.

  He tore off my bra and as my breasts spilled free, took a nipple in his mouth and began to suck.

  Now it was my turn to gasp. I arched my back, grabbed fistfuls of his hair as his tongue licked and teased.

  His hand slid across the skin of my belly and under the waistband of my panties. With expert ease his fingers found that sweet spot between my legs and went to work. If I’d thought him kissing me was too much, this was ten times worse. Or better, depending on how you looked at it. How did he know how to apply just the right amount of pressure, in just the right place to send tingles of pure ecstasy shivering through me?

  Dimly, I could hear my own gasps and moans but this was a distant recognition. All of my attention was taken by this man—this Fae—and what he was doing to me. The pad of his thumb circled my nub, and I found myself pressing against him, unable to stop myself wanting more, more. As if sensing my need, his touch shifted and suddenly his fingers were inside me.

  It was too much. I couldn’t stand it. I was going to come apart. The shivers became stronger and stronger, rippling across my skin like an electric current. Raven raised his head and his eyes met mine, dark and unreadable.

  “Come for me,” he whispered.

  How could I resist when his fingers were doing what they were doing? The tingles exploded through my body and I came apart, flinging my head back against the pillow as pulse after pulse of pure bliss pumped along my nerves.

  I screwed my eyes tight shut and panted, allowing the sensation to ebb. When it did, it left in its place a deep, dark hunger. I wasn’t satisfied. I needed more. More of him. I opened my eyes to find Raven watching me with a hunger in his eyes that matched my own.

  He leaned down and kissed me, hard and passionate. “I’m going to take you now,” he said, his voice rough. “You’re mine.”

  It was exactly what I needed to hear. He turned me on in ways I’d never dreamed, but it wasn’t just the hazy fog of sexual need. There was more. I couldn’t put it into words but something was building between us, something I couldn’t explain. That awareness I had of him had reached fever pitch. I smelled the scent of his arousal. I felt the beating of his heart and heard every hiss of the breath in his lungs. I wanted to know him. All of him. And I wanted him to know me in return.

  He grabbed my panties and tore them off. There was a feral look in his eyes and a slight tremor in his hands, as though he was struggling to maintain control. The bulge of his cock stretched his pants and so I reached out, undid his belt and then unbuttoned his jeans. His cock sprang free, huge and swollen.

  I licked my lips, a surge of hot desire sweeping through me as I reached out and gently ran my hands along its swollen length. Raven groaned, his eyes closing, before he kicked off his jeans and tossed them away.

  He reared above me, naked now, and I couldn’t help but stare at him. He was masculine perfection. Scarred, bruised. Perfect.

  Then he suddenly hesitated. He blinked and looked away before heaving in a shuddering breath, his shoulders rising and falling, mastering himself with a visible effort.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “This isn’t right. I cannot do it.”

  RAVEN

  I had done many difficult things in my life. I had walked for three days with a shattered knee after the Battle of Silamnia. I had carried my brother on my back through the pass of Toroth with a pack of Unseelie on our tail. I had faced the wrath of the Spire and lived to tell the tale. But nothing, nothing, was as hard as speaking those words to Asha.

  I wanted her. Fates, how I wanted her. The call of the bond surged through my blood like a drug, demanding I take her, demanding I make her mine. It was primal, a deep, instinctive need written in my very blood. She belonged to me. Nobody else. All I had to do was make love to her until she screamed out my name and she would be mine forever. Our joining would bring her an ecstasy unlike anything she had ever dreamt of.

  But it would also destroy her.

  That was something I could never do. So, despite the raging in my blood, despite the way my muscles trembled with the effort of restraining myself, despite the fact that she was lying beneath me, ready and willing, I closed my eyes and drew in a deep, ragged breath.

  “Raven?” she said, sounding puzzled. “What’s wrong?”

  Everything, I thought. Fates take me, do you know w
hat you are doing to me? Do you know how much I need to fuck you right now? Do you know how much I can’t?

  I climbed off the bed, padded over to my clothes and hurriedly began to dress.

  “Raven?”

  Asha clutched the sheets around her, suddenly embarrassed by her nakedness, suddenly confused by my behavior.

  “We can’t do this,” I said, glancing at her. “It’s not right.”

  Hurt flared in her eyes. “You thought it was pretty damned right five minutes ago!”

  “I know. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry. I lost control.”

  “Lost control? Is that what you call it? Is that what I am to you? A loss of control?”

  Her words sliced me like knives. No, I wanted to say. You are everything. You are all that matters.

  But I couldn’t say any of that. I couldn’t tell her the truth. If I did, if she understood what was happening between us, I knew she would say that she didn’t care. I recognized that look in her eyes. Fates, I saw the same look in my own eyes whenever I looked in a mirror. The bond was tightening. If she knew the truth, if she knew what the bond would do to her, I knew that she would say it didn’t matter, that she wanted me, that nothing else mattered.

  And, Fates take me, I didn’t know if I could resist her if she said that.

  I pulled on my jeans then turned to look at her. Her beautiful face was full of hurt and confusion. It tore at my soul and I knew that the words I spoke next would either pull her closer to me or push her away forever. I opted for the latter. Better that she hate me.

  I raised my chin and fixed her with a stare, a king’s stare, hard as stone. In a cold voice I said, “You are mortal. I am Fae. This cannot happen.”

  She stared at me in silence for a moment. “So? Since when have you cared about that?”

  “I cannot give you what you want. Coupling between a Fae and a mortal is not...appropriate.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Not appropriate? What’s that supposed to mean? That I’m not good enough?”

  I twitched, longing to go to her, aching to wrap my arms around her and wipe the hurt from her eyes. But I could not.

  I shrugged nonchalantly. “If you want to put it that way. I will be returning to the Summerlands soon and you will return to your old life. This was only ever...temporary.”

  She flushed, her nostrils flaring. “Damn you, Raven,” she breathed. “Damn you.”

  I turned away from her, unable to meet her eyes. “Get dressed,” I commanded.

  I heard her get off the bed. She stalked into the bathroom and slammed the door.

  Raged welled up inside me. It was not fair! I had served my people, my realm, all my life. Was this the reward I got? To find her only to lose her? The woman I’d waited for my whole life?

  My hands curled into fists and a snarl pulled my lips back from my teeth. I rammed my fist into the wall, barely feeling the hot stab of pain that shot down my knuckles. Over and over again I punched the wall until the plaster began to shatter and there was a hole the size of my head.

  Only then, when there was blood dripping down my knuckles and my shoulder ached, did I stop. I heard the bathroom door open and Asha emerged. She’d gotten dressed and tied back her hair. She glanced at the hole I’d made in the wall but didn’t comment. Her gaze flickered across me, cold and distant. Her face was expressionless, as if she’d pulled on a mask. She crossed to the desk under the window and seated herself in a chair.

  “Right. We better make a plan. The solstice is tomorrow, or tonight really seeing as it all kicks off at midnight. We’ll only have one chance to stop Dark Hair.”

  “What?” I said, surprised. “You’re still coming with me?”

  She gave a shrill laugh. “Did you think I’d wilt and run away just because you don’t want to sleep with me? Give me some credit, Raven. I vowed to stop Dark Hair and after what that bastard did to Gracie, I mean to keep that vow.”

  I said nothing. My chest swelled with pride. There was such strength in her. Such determination.

  I let none of this show on my face. I merely nodded and then took the second chair at the desk. Asha pulled her own chair further away from me then reached into her pocket and took out a second set of photographs of the Atlas of Thoth. She’d made several copies, a foresight of which I was grateful. She spread them on the desk.

  “We know the coordinates,” she tapped one of the photos with her finger. “And if we cross reference these with a normal survey map like this,” —she pulled out her cell phone, and opened the internet— “this is the point where the portal will open tonight. We need to get there before Dark Hair and take the Orb of Tir from him before he has a chance to use the portal.”

  “Let me see that.”

  She hesitated before dropping the cell phone into my hand. “I’ll go start gathering my stuff.” She pushed back from the desk and returned to the bathroom.

  I stared at the map on the screen, allowing the location to burn itself into my memory before putting the cell down on the table. I glanced at the bathroom door. From inside came the sound of running water.

  I pulled a wad of money from my wallet and dropped it on the desk. Hastily, I scrawled a note, knowing that it would never be enough, knowing it was all I could do.

  Then, before I changed my mind, I summoned my power, spoke a word, and teleported out of the room, leaving Asha behind forever.

  ASHA

  I stared at myself in disgust in the bathroom mirror. My eyes were puffy and red from crying and I hated myself a little for being so pathetic.

  Get a grip, I thought. Are you really going to let a man get to you like this?

  But Raven wasn’t just any man. He was...he was... Hell, I didn’t even have a word for what he was. All I knew was that I’d never felt like this about anyone, and that his rejection cut through me like a jagged piece of glass.

  I drew in a deep breath, dabbed at my eyes, and did my best to straighten my hair.

  Right. I’ve got this, I told myself. I’ve got it.

  I opened the bathroom door and stepped into the bedroom. There was no sign of Raven. I hugged my arms around myself, feeling suddenly uneasy. I noticed something sitting on the desk. It was a huge wad of cash—more money than I’d seen in a long, long time and a quickly scrawled message on a napkin.

  I’m sorry. Use the money to get home, fix your shop.

  And then I knew. Raven was gone.

  For an unknowable amount of time I stood there, stunned. I stared at the note, unable to quite comprehend the words. The energy that filled me whenever Raven was near, that sense of being wholly, truly alive, wasn’t there. I felt empty. Cold.

  And then angry.

  It began to simmer in my belly like a hot coal. So this was how he wanted to play it? He thought he could just run out on me, throw some cash in my direction and I would go back to my old life like a good little girl?

  No way. No. Freaking. Way.

  I’d made a promise, both to myself and to Gracie. The fact that Raven thought he had the right to take that away from me made my blood boil.

  Think it through, I told myself. Work out where he’s gone.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. I could still feel him, I realized. That strange connection we shared was still there and I could sense him a little. He seemed very far away. But where?

  My eyes settled on my cell phone sitting on the desk. The map I’d gotten up still showed on the screen.

  Of course. Where else would he go?

  Biting my lip, I thought furiously. Although the location was a long, long way from here, I still had time to get there if I acted quickly. But I would need transport. Fast transport. My eyes slid to the window and Raven’s Jaguar parked in the parking lot. A grim smile crept over my face.

  I grabbed the keys and bolted out the door.

  Chapter 13

  RAVEN

  I emerged from the teleportation with a blade held in each hand, expecting an ambush. But nothi
ng attacked me. There was only the sudden scent of pine trees and a stiff, cold breeze that stirred my hair as I stepped out into a broad glade halfway up a pine-clad mountain.

  I spun, searching for any sign of my enemy. There was none. Good. I had made it here before him.

  Sheathing my blades, I peered around. The glade was wide and perfectly circular. Pine trees clad the slopes of the mountain, their trunks so thickly clustered that the light didn’t penetrate to the forest floor. But within the glade itself, the trees came no closer than a meter back from the edge, as though some unseen force stopped them encroaching any further.

  Around the perimeter of the circle sat five charred tree stumps. They must once have been mighty trees but now they reached little higher than my waist. They weren’t pines like the rest of the forest but were instead the remains of tall oak trees. They reeked of age. Whatever fire had destroyed them had been a long, long time ago.

  I reached out and placed my hand flat against the closest trunk. Power tingled across my palm and on the edges of my perception I sensed the Summerlands. Yes, the two worlds were close here, almost touching. When the moon rose at midnight, they would brush against each other for a brief time.

  That would be my only chance.

  There were still many hours to go before the portal opened so I loped into the tree cover outside the circle and hunkered down behind the smooth trunk of a pine tree. My thoughts turned to Asha. What was she doing right now? I felt her absence like an ache in my soul. I’d always worked alone and it had always seemed right. Now it seemed wrong, like a part of me was missing. I could still sense her, the bond was like a ball of emotion in the back of my head, but it was distant, fuzzy. I could not make out what she was feeling. Did she hate me? Was she cursing my name? I hoped so. It was better that she hate me. That way, maybe she’d forget about me. Maybe that way I could keep her safe.

  Pushing thoughts of Asha from my mind, I settled down to wait.

  Hours later, the sun began to sink behind the mountains. I watched from my hiding place as it put on quite the display. Golden sunlight bathed the flanks of the mountain, making it glow brightly, like a spear point of light. It was beautiful.