Wings stretched wide, she caught a thermal wind and used it to glide across the sky. Despite her initial distaste at being a raven, the gift of flight never failed to take her breath away. The wolves in her pack found peace when running in animal form, flying was when she felt that same freedom and harmony. Flying was her escape from the shit storm that had become her life since she told her family what she was. Part of her, a big part actually, wished she’d never revealed it to anyone.
She had become the focus of everyone’s attention, none of them pausing to consider that she may have her own thoughts on what was going to happen with her life. Caspian rarely left her side. She spotted him below her as her wings skimmed the tops of Shadow Fen’s canopy of trees. He stood on the deck at the front of his cabin, eyes skyward, watching her while he spoke on the phone. Her parents cornered her every chance they got. Her Dad took every opportunity he could to cram volume after volume of shifter history into her head, yet continually dodged her questions. Her mother had taken to smothering her with love and affection, as though she thought she was on borrowed time. Her mother’s behaviour had struck Aurora as odd, they’d never been particularly close, Aislinn openly favouring Marco. Aurora hadn’t thought to care much about it growing up, she’d been a Daddy’s girl.
Connell had instructed his beta, Brone and his sons, to train her hard. She already had a lot of training behind her, Jax and she had been trained together from an incredibly young age. All the kids in the pack had similar workouts, but Jax and Aurora were both alphas, so had been driven harder than the others. Brone’s son, Finn, along with Marco and Caspian, as betas, had been worked hard too.
In her regular sessions they covered hand to hand combat and Brone, joking that she had a sadistic nature and a worrying amount of violent tendencies, had recently moved her onto weapons training. She was already well versed in fighting with knives and daggers, so he introduced her to firearms. She was thoroughly enjoying the new challenge and found she was not only a quick learner, but also an extremely accurate shot.
As for her Gran, well she had dragged her from mind numbing meeting to mind numbing meeting with elders and pack leaders for weeks. She paraded her around the local packs, so they could “get to know your face and become used to your presence.” Aurora still had no idea what exactly she was being prepared for, she’d barely had time to breathe, let alone read the book of prophecies in any detail. The people she trusted most were cagey and changed the subject when she brought the war issue up, but it was clear something was on the horizon.
Several local alphas had expressed the desire to “court” her when they heard about the whole female alpha/raven queen bollocks. After today’s fiasco, it seemed more of them had decided they wanted an invitation to that party. It wasn’t one she would be attending, that was for sure. Not that she believed her father would entertain the idea of a mating tournament. It was an old and barbaric event where the males fought to the death for the hand of a sought-after female. The practice, used to unite and ascertain a hierarchy among packs, had been phased out many years ago. She knew the history of it but it hadn’t been an active part of their communities in her lifetime.
It was becoming clear that her new-found queen status came with a promise of power that every pack wanted a share in. It didn’t seem to matter to them that she already had a mate, technically she had two. They were prepared to take on whoever was in their way to gain the power that went with being the raven queen’s mate.
Her mind wandered as she circled, to her Gran’s words about her being able to partially change. To fly in human form, with wings, that did sound pretty cool. Maintaining the use of her hands and all her other human qualities whilst being air born could be a handy trick to have up her sleeve, particularly in her job as the Shadow Pack’s tracker. Imagine being able to shoot a gun or throw her daggers while in the air and in pursuit of a rogue.
Aurora knew wolves could partially shift, in that they could pop out their claws and fangs at will, but she didn’t know how they did it. She was still mulling it over when she landed at Caspian’s feet and shifted back into human form. She looked at him thoughtfully, while his eyes greedily roamed her naked body. He could teach her, she decided, as he reached out a hand to her.
“Much as I like looking at you, gorgeous, I don’t want anyone else seeing you like this. Come inside,” he said. She took his hand and allowed him to lead her into the cabin. Her mind remained distracted when he closed the door and backed her up against it, growling and nipping at her neck, playfully, while his hands moved to the backs of her thighs, kneading and pulling her closer. “Your Gran called, she picked up your clothes for you.”
“Could you bite me? In human form?” she wondered out loud. Caspian’s movements stilled. With his face buried in the crook of her neck, he didn’t respond for several seconds.
“What?” His voice was nothing more than a whisper. He slowly lifted his head to look at her, his fingers moving back up her body and flexing on her hips. “You want me to bite you? Aurora...”
“I didn’t say I wanted you to. I just asked if you could.” She pushed him away and snatched a blanket from the sofa to wrap around her body.
“You know I could, that’s how we seal the mating bond.” He rubbed a hand over his hair, bringing it to rest on the back of his neck and began to pace. “I thought you didn’t want that yet?”
Tracking had drilled into her the fact she probably should have paid more attention to his sudden agitation, asked him what the problem was, but she shook it off. Her refusal to seal the fake mate bond was a subject of contention between them and she didn’t want to linger on it.
“No, not that. Obviously, I know about that. I meant is it restricted to the mate bond bite? Say, if you were in a fight in human form, could you use your fangs and claws, without fully shifting?” She sat down on the sofa and he followed.
“Yes. What’s this about, Aurora?” Caspian’s demand was a little too harsh.
“I’ve been wondering about what Gran said, about me being able to partially shift. I think it might come in handy, if I still had the use of my hands and the ability of speech sometimes.” Aurora shrugged and he visibly relaxed. “How do you do it?”
“Well, we just halt the process mid-shift. Our fangs and claws are the first things to appear when we shift, so we learn to stop it once they’re out. It’s easy when you get used to it, just takes some concentration. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work the same way for you.” Caspian reached out and pushed the blanket down from one of her shoulders, he caressed the skin there with the tips of his fingers.
“Hmm...” she pondered and he took it as a moan of pleasure, bending to kiss her shoulder.
“You got me excited there, gorgeous. I thought you were finally ready to complete our bond,” he murmured against her skin.
When true mates decided to spend their lives together, the bite was what began the cementation of the bond. Those who weren’t true mates could still form a bond through the bite, but it wasn’t as strong as that between true mated pairs. They couldn’t share the ability to heal each other in the way true mates could, although they did become more in tune with each other’s feelings.
“For fuck’s sake, Cas. There is no bond to complete! We’re not true mates. Stop acting like we are. The bite will bond us, but it won’t be a true mate bond and you know it.” Aurora lost all patience with him, she hadn’t meant to and wasn’t entirely sure where her reaction had come from, but she didn’t regret her words.
He stilled again and she turned to look at him. His brown eyes met hers and suddenly the warmth that always greeted her in them was there no longer. No love or affection remained, only a vast sea of ice.
“How long have you known?” he asked, coldly.
“I’ve always known, Cas. You must realise that, I’m not stupid. Even if I hadn’t known before, I would have known after my first shift.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Whether the tremble in his
voice was from anger or sadness, she couldn’t decipher, he was masking his scent.
“You’re fucking kidding me? You were lying and I should have been the one to say it?” She shook her head, incredulously.
“I thought you wouldn’t want me if there was no true bond,” he admitted, the scent of shame and sadness filtered through his fading mask.
“Cas, I chose you. Bond or not, you are the one I choose to be with. If you can’t see that then I really don’t know what else there is to say.”
“Only because he left.”
And there it was. The absolute truth of it. They both knew if Jax had stayed and acknowledged their bond, he and Aurora would have been mated as soon as she turned eighteen. While she wanted to believe she would break the bond as soon as look at him now, she couldn’t bring herself to say those words out loud.
“Cas...” she began.
“Don’t, Aurora. I know you only ended up with me because my brother left. I loved you from afar for years, but you and he were inseparable. When he shifted and didn’t acknowledge the bond between you, I saw my chance. I thought if I could make you believe in us, get you to fall for me before you shifted, it wouldn’t matter that there was no true bond. My parents don’t have a true bond, but I’ve never seen two people more in love. I thought we could have what they have”
“We don’t need to be anyone else, Cas. We’re us and I’m happy with that.”
“How can you be? What we have is fake, built on lies. The only truth is that I love you. If Jax came home tomorrow it would be you and him, don’t try to tell me otherwise. You’d be angry and make him suffer, but you’d never deny the bond. I’m second best, the one you settled for and I carry that knowledge with me every day. I don’t know why your bond with him hasn’t broken but I can tell it’s still there. I see the hurt in your eyes at not being near him. I know where you go in your head when I catch you gazing off into space, or when I find you sitting alone by the waterfall.” The sadness in his voice was clear and she moved towards him, clasping his face between her palms. As much as he angered her, she couldn’t see him in pain because of her.
“Caspian, the bond is still there and it hurts. Sometimes it hurts so much I think my heart might burst. I can’t stop that. I can’t make it go away. It pisses me off to high heaven that I can’t make it stop! I just have to deal with it the best way I can. None of that matters though, because Jax left. He left me. He left you. He left our pack. You are the mate I chose and I need my mate to be strong and honest with me. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, this prophecy stuff scares the shit out of me. I don’t know what or who to believe. My Dad is keeping things from me, Gran clearly has her own agenda and my Mam is fucking clueless. I need you to be the constant. I need you to stand strong by my side and be completely honest with me, because I don’t know who else can do that for me.”
“Aurora,” Caspian rasped. Banishing all control and getting lost in her confession, he leaned over her and dominated her lips in a searing kiss.
The blanket fell away and Caspian pushed her onto her back. She pulled at his black t-shirt, until the material ripped away from his body, exposing his toned torso and she lifted her head to trail a line of kisses across his skin, nipping and sucking as she went. Their love making was desperate and feverish. They clawed at each other’s skin, marking what they felt was theirs, as though they both had something to prove. To themselves and to one another. She couldn’t let her feelings for Jax go because they were part of her make up, it was physically impossible for her to not feel them. While it wasn’t the love of a true mate, she did love Caspian and wanted desperately to believe in him as her mate.
“Never forget, I love you, gorgeous,” he said, while she lay in his arms afterwards, their naked limbs entangled beneath the blanket.
“I love you too, handsome.” She lifted her head, so she could meet his eyes. “Now, teach me how to partially shift.”
“Before you can halt the shift, you’ve got to learn every single change your body goes through. Pay attention to what happens as you transform, note each little difference, remember what happens first, how long it takes, how it feels, what comes next…” Caspian’s voice was smooth and soothing at her ear. He gave his instructions with hands resting on her shoulders from behind, rubbing firmly to relax her.
Caspian stepped back and Aurora let her body relax and go limp, moving into the shift. The tell-tale tingling along her shoulder blades alerted her to the fact that her wings were the first change her body underwent. She tuned her senses into them, waiting for the appendages to finish taking shape. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, memorising the feeling of the wingspan elongating from her back. Every single feather formed individually, attaching itself to the bone of the wing. When she knew the wings were complete, she tried to stop the transformation. Which, it turns out, is easier said than done. She willed her body to stop, halt its metamorphosis, it refused to listen. She felt her bones begin to crack, shrink, and reform as the raven came through and she let out a fearsome screech of annoyance. After two hours and countless attempts, all she had achieved was two ruined pairs of jeans and a serious bad mood.
“Don’t stress, Aurora. Nobody gets it first time. It took me months to manage a partial shift.” Caspian’s attempts to pacify her were ignored, she wasn’t in the mood to be molly coddled.
“Bullshit, Cas! I know you did this first time. What happened to being honest with me? Because if you’re going to fall at the first hurdle you may as well just fuck off now!”
“It’s a good thing I know you well enough to realise you only said that out of frustration.” Caspian bent to pick up Aurora’s latest shredded jeans from the ground and threw them at her back, she fumed a few steps away from him. “Luckily for you, I’m not going anywhere. And it did take me months, it was my brother who did it first time.”
“Well, of course it was,” Aurora mumbled under her breath, ignoring the ruined clothing that hit her. “Fucking perfect Jax and his fucking perfect body!”
“What?”
“Nothing!” She breathed deeply and prepared to try again.
By the end of the morning she’d mastered halting the shift, but only managed to develop raven sized wings. They weren’t much use in lifting a human sized body and they looked ridiculous. Caspian had done a great job in hiding his amusement, limiting himself to only one joke about how she looked like a butterfly trying to fly away with a dog. She hadn’t laughed and he’d quickly regained his composure after that. How was she going to produce human sized wings?
“Ok, so it’s not as straight forward for you as it is for a wolf. You don’t have to just halt the shift, you have to somehow get your wings to grow as well. Maybe there’s something in the book?” Caspian suggested, watching her while she picked up the remnants of her clothing and stomped back into the cabin.
“Shut up and get the fuck in here, Cas,” she yelled back.
Some people managed stress with yoga, herbal tea, and long walks on the beach. Aurora managed it by throwing punches, excessive swearing, and a whole lot of sex. Caspian was about to get all kinds of lucky!
Chapter Four
The bond will remain intact, no matter the distance.
Growing only stronger, weakness is not in its nature.
Finally, Jax thought to himself, running in the drizzling rain, alongside his team across the concrete helipad and towards the waiting chopper. A mission was a sure-fire way to take his mind off Aurora for a while. The knowledge that the shifter world was discovering the prophecy and latching onto the power that went with it, wasn’t proving easy for him to deal with. He’d been prowling like a caged animal for days.
The Laignach Faelad’s covert intelligence officers had been watching and reporting back on events at Shadow Fen and Jax’s anger had increased the more he heard. Wolves attempting to claim her, mating tournament rumours, and the fact that she was spending a lot of time without any real protection, made him despe
rate with the need to go to her. Granted, the intelligence officers had orders to step in, should anything happen, but that did little to ease his mind. Not two days earlier, Aurora had spotted one of their men spying on her. She chased him halfway back to their headquarters before announcing she was bored with him and going home. The poor sap had returned to HQ battered, bloody, exhausted, and full of awe at how strong she was.
He knew Aurora could take care of herself, he also knew that while they may not be him, she had people around her. Elouise had assured him that Aurora’s safety was her priority and insisted that they must stay separated for as long as possible, but the more he heard, the more he was ready to take matters into his own hands. A mission was exactly what he needed to let off steam and distract his mind for a few hours. He ducked his head under the whirring blades as they climbed on board and waited for Zane to give them the details.
“A poker game was hit late last night,” Zane began.
“That’s a tracker’s job, why are we going in?” Marco interrupted, immediately picking up on an underlying detail.
There was usually a meeting in an office before they were sent out on a mission, something about this one was different. Another commander might have had less patience with his constant need to question, but Zane had come to rely on Marco to pick out the things others might miss.
“This was no ordinary hit. The money was taken but that’s not what we’re looking for,” Zane explained. “A lot of important pack alphas were at the game, they use these things to share information, arrange pack member swaps, inter-relations, that kind of thing. I’m sure you’re all aware of them.”
“Where?” Marco asked, securing his safety harness, and snatching an elastic band from his wrist to pull his unruly locks into a short ponytail.
“The game took place at Shadow Fen. Your father was hosting. He was using the game as an introduction…” Zane’s eyes flicked to Jax.
The Raven Queen Page 5
