The Raven Queen

by Emma Jayne Mills

  Caspian murmured in his sleep, something vague about watching over her and not letting her go. She ran her hand across his chest to calm him back to sleep and his arms tightened around her. Her mind wandered away from the prophecy and onto their relationship as she listened to his heartbeat through his chest. He was handsome and mostly sweet and she did love him, in her own way. But… and there was always going to be that but when it came to him, she couldn’t forget the fact he wasn’t her true mate.

  Not every shifter found their true mate. It was perfectly acceptable for a shifter couple to fall in love and spend their lives together, as mates, without that bond. It was actually quite uncommon, with the number of shifters spread across the globe, to find your true mate. Yet Caspian was adamant he felt the bond between them, he had claimed it for years. After Jax left, Aurora was broken. Caspian was the one who held her up, gave her the strength to get through it. Without the mental or emotional energy to argue, she went along with his claim on her and had fallen for him the human way. Her love for Caspian would never be as powerful as the love she felt for his brother and the thought often filled her with guilt.

  Shifters don’t usually feel a mate bond until after their first shift. Back then, Caspian and Jax had both shifted, Aurora had not. Yet, she knew there was something between Jax and her, even then. He had known too. Perhaps, if she’d never felt the bond with Jax, things with Caspian would feel more natural to her. As it was, she constantly felt as though she was cheating on her mate. She wasn’t. She knew she wasn’t. Jax and her weren’t together, they never had been in that way, but that feeling was impossible to shake.

  It had been a year since Aurora’s first shift and she still couldn’t seem to get Jax out of her head. She’d been doing a really good job of not thinking about him before it, but his presence in her soul returned with a vengeance the second her body morphed into the raven for the first time. For the last year, he’d been on her mind almost constantly and she wondered if it was due to the mate bond. It should have broken by now, with him being so far away and them having no contact. At least, that was how it was supposed to work. They’d had couples in the pack that rejected their mate bond. One of them would leave, go far away, and have no contact with the other. Eventually, the bond would fade and break, leaving them free to be with whomever they chose. It was rare, but it happened.

  Aurora felt no such bond with Caspian; he wasn’t her true mate. Which begged the question, why had he lied all this time? He knew she would find out eventually. Why not just say he was in love with her and leave it at that? Questions about their relationship and his motives were never far from her mind, but she shoved them aside each time they bubbled to the surface. She wasn’t strong enough to face the possibility that the one person who was always there for her, may not be as genuine as she wanted, needed, to believe. The man she thought had been that person once had torn her apart with his dishonesty, she couldn’t bring herself to think his brother would do the same.

  Her eyelids began to drift shut and she knew she ought to leave and go home, she didn’t move. Instead, she snuggled closer to her fake mate and stayed exactly where she was. Her mother wouldn’t be happy with her for spending the night with Caspian again. Aurora regularly reminded her she was twenty-one years old and perfectly capable of choosing where she slept. Her protests fell on deaf ears. According to her mother, the future alpha should set an example, particularly to the younger females in the pack. She should not spend the night with a man she wasn’t officially mated to, bond or not.

  Sleep evaded her most nights and she frequently wandered out onto the grass outside the house in the early hours. Something about the feeling of the cool earth on her bare feet settled her. Eventually, Caspian would shuffle sleepily out to join her and they would shift. His wolf liked to run while her raven flew above him. When her thoughts did finally pause their assault on her, in Caspian’s arms was where she slept best.

  He would have had their mating ceremony long before now if it had been up to him, Aurora was the one holding off. They compromised by her (almost) moving in with him. She had pretty much set up home with him in the log cabin he’d built, on the edge of Shadow Fen. She just hadn’t officially said the words to her parents, or anyone else. She did call it home despite the fact it didn’t really feel that way. Nowhere felt like home to her. It kept him happy though. Somewhere in her subconscious she knew why she was stalling. She just wasn’t prepared to say it, or even think it. Jax O’Conner would always own her heart, but for now she was content to let his brother borrow it.

  Chapter Three

  One who was trusted will betray,

  One who was lost will return.

  The Laignach Faelad headquarters were situated no more than a stone’s throw from the landlocked county of Tipperary. With its mountainous backdrop and wealth of rivers, lakes, and farmland, it provided the perfect hiding place for a secret paranormal organisation. Being less than two hours away from Carlow, the setting also put Jax and Marco in comfortingly close proximity to Aurora and Shadow Fen. The organisation had been based there for centuries, staying true to its long history.

  Humans believed the wolf warriors of Ireland to be a myth. Men, dressed in the skin of wolves, who would fight for any king who paid their price. They were brutal in battle and feared nothing, but their price had been a heavy one- the flesh of new-born babies.

  Of course, the myth had been embellished, as these things usually were. The actual organisation was made up of shifters whose families could be traced back as far as paranormal history books went. Once only wolves, now recruiting all breeds, they worked secretly, keeping order within the paranormal races, and ensuring the volatile peace remained intact.

  Jax had only hope to go on when he and Marco had sought the warriors out, believing they existed but having no proof. The prophecy told him he needed a team of warriors he could count on, warriors who felt a calling to the raven queen. The Laignach Faelad seemed the obvious place to start. They had been surprisingly welcoming and quickly brought the two young wolves into the fold, agreeing to train them in all forms of combat and intelligence gathering.

  Pounding the punch bag into oblivion for the last thirty minutes without a break wasn’t helping. Jax hadn’t even broken a sweat. She had hung up on him! His mate refused to speak to him. He knew he had no right to be angry with her, this was all on him, yet he’d felt a fury like no other when the line had gone dead without her saying a word. He’d known she wasn’t going to accept an ordinary conversation after all this time, but she could have at least yelled at him. He needed an outlet and hate sex wasn’t an option. The fellas all joked that women were lining up to sleep with him, but the only female his dick had any interest in wanted sod all to do with him. The armoury was closed, so making things go bang wasn’t an option either. The bar had been a temptation, but he liked his mind to have clarity, particularly now that Aurora had revealed her secret to her parents. The gym had been his last resort.

  “Fuck off, Marco!” Jax snarled, without turning to look at his friend.

  With a forceful punch, the bag’s material split and sand decanted on to the floor. Jax kept punching until the bag withered. Marco locked his arms around Jax’s torso, pinned his arms to his body and wrestled him to the ground. Jax didn’t fight him; if he had, Marco wouldn’t have stood a chance against the strength he possessed as an alpha wolf. The two friends half-heartedly rolled around the gym’s floor and growled at each other a few times, before Marco let go and stood. Jax slapped away the hand Marco offered and stood on his own, turning away from him to move onto the next bag.

  “Enough!” Zane, their commander, and a hulk of a man, stalked through the gym towards them along with Cole, the team medic. “You need to rein in that temper of yours, O’Conner. I can’t have you losing your shit like this in front of recruits. I know why you feel the way you do and we all sympathise, but you need to control yourself.”

  “Sorry, boss.” Jax let out a rugged brea
th. His wolf was unhappy at their submission to the other alpha in the room and wanted to stand their ground, but Jax had no interest in that particular fight. Turning to join the group, he rubbed at the ink on his shoulder that inevitably drew his attention when he thought of her. The gym was full of recruits training at this time of day and he was aware he hadn’t been setting the best example. He’d been unable to stop himself though. “It’s driving me crazy; she’s going through all this alone. I should be with her, not my fucking idiot brother! If she’d just talk to me...”

  “Gran said it’s better that you don’t speak to her. It has to look as though you two have severed all contact, broken the bond. You know this,” Marco reminded him, taking a long drink from a bottle of water that Cole had given him.

  “Doesn’t mean I have to be fucking happy about it,” Jax responded through gritted teeth.

  Jax didn’t understand how the bond hadn’t broken between Aurora and him. However, he wasn’t about to tempt fate and look too deeply into it. Breaking the bond when he left had been his biggest fear. He was damn glad it was still there and growing stronger by the day, even if the ache of being apart from her was almost too much to bear. He suspected the fact that he hadn’t gone that far from her was a major factor in the bond’s strength.

  “Look, I know you’d rather be there yourself, I would too. We have to have faith that Caspian is strong enough to protect her. She has my Dad, Brone, and the rest of the pack too. She’s going to be okay until we see her again.” Marco tried to ease his mind and although Jax nodded, he didn’t feel any better about the situation.

  “I can’t wait to meet this mate of yours, O’Conner. She must be one hell of a woman to get you all wound up like this.” Cole laughed and shook his head at his teammate. Although a force to be reckoned with, Jax was ordinarily the laid-back member of the team, this was a side of him the others rarely saw.

  “You want to be on this team, Cole? Because I can make it so you aren’t,” Jax growled defensively, despite knowing Cole was only winding him up. Cole simply held his hands up in mock surrender and laughed again.

  When Jax had gone to Zane with his story, he’d been hesitant, but his history of being the best had spurred the young alpha on. Zane had a reputation as a hard ass. He was cold and distant, not in any way approachable, but he got the job done faster and cleaner than anyone else. Thankfully, he’d wasted no time in helping Jax put together a specialised team of shifter elites, to help him fight for Aurora when the time came.

  Zane’s bear shifter bloodline went back thousands of years and he’d taken little convincing, having discovered his own family were mentioned in the prophecies, as warriors. He was older than Jax and had more experience. The younger man had automatically deferred alpha status to him. Still, he had made Jax his second in command and was more than happy to accept him as an alpha too, rarely pulling rank. They shared a mutual respect that followed throughout the other team members. Not only that, Zane’s influence over the chief council of the organisation had secured their backing as a whole. Aurora had her very own army awaiting her command. Jax had done the job he had left her to do and now he was ready to be back by her side.

  “I hope she’s worth all this chaos,” Zane said, before he turned and walked away from them.

  “She’s worth every damn second of chaos she brings to the table!” Jax growled at his commander’s departing back and he was sure he heard the fucker chuckle. He’d know soon enough. Aurora would charm the cold-hearted bastard like she did everyone.

  “And she’ll bring it,” Marco grumbled under his breath.

  “Well, as entertaining as this was, I could use a drink. Hunter is meeting us in the bar in ten minutes.” Cole turned with a grin and followed Zane out of the gym.

  “You good, mate?” Marco looked at Jax with concern.

  “No! Shit! I don’t know how much longer I can stay away from her. The pain is beyond anything I’ve felt in my life. I need to be near her. It’s meant to grow less and break the bond when you’re not together, but it’s getting stronger.” Jax spilled his guts like a big girl. He didn’t care, he needed to get it out and the punch bag hadn’t worked.

  “Gran told us your bond would be different than a normal mate bond. You’ve read the prophecy about yourself, what you and my sister share is unbreakable,” Marco reminded him.

  “Yeah, I know. I just... Fuck this, maybe alcohol is the answer this time, a few hours of numbness could be exactly what I need.” Jax leaned down to pick up his shirt from the floor, hanging an arm around his friend’s shoulders when he stood. “Sorry I was a dick.”

  “It wasn’t the first time. It won’t be the last.” Marco shrugged. “Pretty sure it will only get worse once you and Aurora are together again. She’s not going to make it easy on you, y’know?”

  “She’s going to kick seven colours of shite outta me!” Jax shook his head with a smile. He would happily take every last one of those kicks and ask for more.

  “She’s going to do worse than that, fella. You’re a dead man walking!” They left the gym laughing and headed towards the showers.

  “I can’t fucking wait!”

  Aurora huffed impatiently and eyed the other occupants of the over-crowded room. Her Grandmother had not only called together the twelve members of the shifter elder council, to tell them her little secret, but also a representative from every wolf pack in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Which meant a whole lot of dominant shifters in one room. The other shifter species had been informed, but it was deemed safer to not mix them during these meetings, so they began with the wolves.

  The shifters in the room weren’t all alphas. Many had sent their beta or another high-ranking pack member. Still, it was a testosterone overload, because only three of them had sent women. None of them were exactly happy at having to leave their packs and travel hundreds of miles, to attend a meeting about a prophecy that they didn’t believe in. Frankly, Aurora couldn’t blame them.

  The atmosphere in the room was stifling and fringed with danger. This many wolves from different packs in one room was asking for trouble and the air stank of rivalry. There were rules in place for such meetings. Any existing pack conflicts were left at the door, everybody was heard respectfully. No snarling, biting and hair pulling. Ok, so maybe the last three were made up, but you get the idea. Overall, the shifters were fairly good at respecting said rules, but it still wasn’t a particularly pleasant place to be.

  “Without looking over the scrolls, we cannot say whether or not these claims are to be believed.” The elder shook his head when Elouise finished talking.

  “It is written, Anson,” a female elder, Zarina, said to him. “We all knew this day would come.”

  “Show us,” a male voice called from the crowd behind Aurora and a rumble of agreement went through the others in the room. “If she really is a raven, let her prove it.”

  “You want me to shift? In here?” Aurora turned towards the voice and a tall, blonde Viking wannabe, with muscles layered upon muscles, stepped forward.

  “If you are who you claim to be...” He smirked at her, a challenge in his eyes.

  “I don’t claim to be anyone or anything,” she interrupted him. “Trust me, ballsack, I want to be here even less than every single one of you. I’ve got nothing to prove.”

  “She’s a firecracker, I’ll take her,” another man shouted, causing a ripple of male laughter to cross the room.

  “Not before I do,” a voice proclaimed from within the crowd.

  “Two alphas leading a pack, that’s power. We should all get a shot at her! Tell Connell he needs to hold a mating tournament.” Aurora blinked and looked around the room for the source of the last comment. Get a shot at her? A mating tournament? What the...

  “My granddaughter is not here to find a mate, gentlemen. Please control yourselves.” Elouise stood from her place at the elder’s table. “Our race is facing very difficult times and...”

  “And all any of you ca
n think about is getting your dicks wet!” Aurora stood and moved towards an open window, sizing it up as she went.

  “Aurora...” Elouise warned, knowing instantly what her wayward granddaughter had planned.

  “Sorry Gran, this is your jam. I’m out of here. Nice to meet you, gentlemen.” With her back to the room she stepped out of her boots, shed her t-shirt and jeans, grabbed the window frame with one hand and hopped up onto the ledge. With a final wink over her shoulder at the men who watched with ravenous eyes, she spread her arms wide and flung herself out of the fifth storey window.

  She heard the dull thumping of heavy feet on the room’s carpeted floor, as they all clambered to the window to get a glimpse of the freak who wasn’t a wolf. Despite her anger, she didn’t react. Allowing her body to shift into the bird, she took to the skies instead. She’d said she didn’t have anything to prove in shifting, but it was the fastest way out of there. Admittedly, there was some satisfaction to be found in the gasps that followed her out of that window.

  Aurora smiled inwardly to herself as she soared high above her territory. Due to its wild countryside, Ireland had a long history with wolves. It had once been known as Wolfland, until the animals had all been hunted and culled by humans. Set deep in the Irish countryside, close to the County of Carlow, where the last wild wolf of Ireland was hunted and killed centuries ago, Shadow Fen was home to wolf shifters alone. It was completely hidden from the human eye. Aside from a select handful of trusted humans, they were oblivious to the existence of the fen and its occupants. The witches had cloaked all the shifter territories in Ireland and many more across the world. Nobody knew why, nor had they bothered to look too deeply into it, but luckily for the shifters, the witch’s magic hadn’t died with them.