The Raven Queen

by Emma Jayne Mills

  “Ah, Commander Guerrero, what a pleasure it is to see you again.” Lykos turned his smile on Zane.

  “You know this sack of shit?” Jax demanded.

  “We’ve had dealings in the past,” Zane admitted and gave Jax a look that clearly told him to save it for later. His history with Lykos Stratitori was closely connected to the organisation and one he would rather not discuss in front of outsiders.

  “Right,” Jax nodded.

  “No sign in the woods. Darius picked up her scent but it faded at the road. They must have had a vehicle waiting,” Connell called as he, Jax’s own father- Sean, and Darius, in wolf form, appeared at the edge of the clearing, with Caspian held by the scruff of his neck. He spared a fleeting glance at Lykos. “Darius, shift. You and Finn take Lykos to the holding cells, we’ll question him soon enough. I want to deal with this one first.”

  Jax wanted to argue, he wanted to get information from this piece of shit before he had chance to concoct a story, but he had to bow to the resident alpha. Connell wouldn’t give him the same leeway that Zane did, this was his territory, his pack. Connell was in charge, without exception. Reluctantly, Jax turned his attention to Caspian and allowed Lykos to be led away by Darius and Finn.

  “You,” Jax snarled and Marco moved in beside him, paying close attention to Caspian’s reactions.

  “Fuck you!” Caspian spat. Connell threw him to the floor at his older brother’s feet, his nod telling Jax he could begin the questioning.

  “Stand up, look me in the eye,” Jax ordered. Caspian didn’t move. “Now!”

  Reluctantly, Caspian stood, pushing back his shoulders, and facing Jax head on. His wolf may have accepted his brother’s authority, but his human still fought the urge to submit fully.

  “Where is my mate?” Jax spoke low, leaning down to snarl in his brother’s face.

  “She’s not your mate,” Caspian argued.

  “You’d do well not to piss him off, fella!” Hunter stepped forward and slapped Caspian around the back of the head. “He’s very touchy and ever so slightly psychotic when it comes to her and we have to work with him when he’s like this. Takes all the fun out of the job.”

  “And I can only control him so much.” The veiled threat was clear in Zane’s words, he spoke directly into Caspian’s ear, his height dwarfing the other man’s 6ft frame.

  “I can make you submit, Cas. Neither of us want that, do we?” Jax reminded him and Caspian flinched. “Tell me where my mate is.”

  “I don’t know!” Caspian snapped, eyes nervously flicking at each of the men surrounding him. “The beta grabbed her. I don’t know where he took her.”

  “Where is his territory?” Jax demanded, not that it mattered whether he told them or not, it wouldn’t be difficult to find out.

  “I don’t know that either. We never met in person until tonight, it was all done on the phone.”

  “Are you saying, you were prepared to hand over the woman you claim to love to someone you had never even met? Allowing him to take her who knows where and do who knows what to her?” Sean O’Conner questioned his youngest son. “All because he made you promises you should have known he couldn’t keep. Did you even look into the reputation of this man?”

  “I knew he was powerful. His reputation is well known,” Caspian supplied, with a nonchalant shrug.

  “And that was enough for you, wasn’t it? The promise of a little bit of power for yourself was all it took. Did you ever love her, Cas?” Jax wanted to know.

  “Bit late for that, don’t you think? You walked away. You left her! She was mine, Jax. Mine! You said it yourself,” Caspian shouted, angrily.

  “And you fucked up! I gave her to you because I thought you loved her. You know what she is to me! You gave me your word that you would protect her. Instead you did this.”

  “I did love her. I do love her.” Caspian’s argument did little to convince the other men in the clearing and Marco huffed a sarcastic laugh.

  “No, if you felt anything for her, you’d never have considered this. You put her in danger. As soon as the opportunity came along, you put her life on the line for your own gain.” Jax was seething and his wolf was itching to get out. He turned away from his brother and began to pace.

  “There’s more to this than you know. I’ll make it right. I’ll get her back,” Caspian whined, desperately.

  “You’ll stay the fuck away from her! I warned you, Cas. I told you I wouldn’t walk away from her a second time. You’re done. I’m back, she’s mine and you are done!” Jax turned to look at Zane, letting him know he needed to let off steam.

  “Go.” Zane gave the instruction and that was all it took. Jax shifted rapidly, his clothes shredding around his body as it blurred into the sleek, black wolf. Without a second glance at the men in the clearing, he sped towards the woods, picking up his mate’s trail in seconds. He heard Zane’s voice behind him as he moved.

  “Marco, trail him! He’s on her scent, make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. We’ll continue questioning here.”

  Chapter Six

  Find strength in new alliances,

  though they may come from unexpected sources.

  “Wakey, wakey!” A fist of bony knuckles nudged her shoulder and Aurora groaned at the intrusion, her head throbbed and her vision took a few seconds to clear.

  “Come on, Aurora, I have to get you ready. Lykos will be on his way back soon. He’s not going to be in the best mood after being questioned and the only thing that will make him happy is seeing his new mate.” The female voice pleaded with her, but it wasn’t a weak plea, it was strong, a voice that had been hardened over time. Aurora squinted through her still unfocused eyes at her new companion.

  “Who are you?” She demanded of the dark haired, tattoo covered, woman who leaned over her.

  A sea of bright white surrounded them, walls, ceiling, bedding. Wait, bedding? Looking down, she discovered she was in a double bed, in a room furnished with nothing but the bed and a table beside it. A door stood next to the bed and another was situated opposite it, both were closed. Having deducted that the door next to the bed was likely to be a bathroom, Aurora was already judging the distance and working out how long it would take to reach both doors from her position.

  “My name is Melaina, my friends call me Mel. You’re not one of those yet, alpha’s mate or not, so Melaina will do. Get up.” The woman shoved at her again and Aurora smirked, admiring her fiery personality.

  Figuring she may as well go along with things for the time being, Aurora sat, fisting the sheets to lift them, and realised she was naked. “What the...?”

  “Don’t worry, I undressed you and although you have a banging body, getting it on with the alpha’s mate is forbidden, so I didn’t feel you up in your sleep or anything remotely creepy. Nice ink, by the way. That’s the bathroom,” Melaina grinned at Aurora and motioned to a door that led to a bathroom, as she had suspected.

  Swearing, Aurora got out of the bed and stood, glaring at the woman. They were more or less the same height, both sported long black hair, Aurora’s being slightly darker. The two could easily have been mistaken for sisters. Something was off about Melaina though, Aurora couldn’t quite get a feel of it, but something wasn’t right.

  “Look,” Melaina sighed. “I’m not in agreement with keeping you here against your will, ok? Trust me, I know how that feels. But Lykos is my alpha and for what it’s worth, he’s not a bad bloke. However, his beta is the one in charge right now and he is an asshole. As the asshole’s mate, I’m the one who gets it in the neck if you don’t go along with this. So, please can you make life easy for both of us and just take a shower, and get dressed?”

  Aurora didn’t answer, instead she side-stepped Melaina and entered the bathroom. A light flickered to life automatically when the door clicked shut and revealed a room without windows, or any means of escape, other than the door she had entered through.

  “Just perfect,” Aurora muttered. Pulling op
en the door to the shower cubicle, she stepped in. The hot water would help bring clarity to her mind and then she had a few questions for this Melaina chick.

  “He’s still not talking, other than to repeat that he had every right to claim his bonded mate and we have no reason to hold him. I can charge him for the damage to our territory. He already said he’ll pay it without question,” Connell explained, when Marco and Jax joined everyone in the pack house at Shadow Fen.

  Jax had followed Aurora’s scent as far as the road Darius reached the previous day. He’d been able to stay on it when she was put into the vehicle and continued to follow, until his wolf was exhausted. Even then, Marco had to force him to turn back. The team had spent the night further questioning Lykos and utilising the Shadow Pack’s information resources, after Connell and his men had retired for the evening. Zane had reached out to the Laignach Faelad’s headquarters, who had responded quickly with intel regarding their ex-warrior’s activities since leaving the organisation.

  According to their records, Lykos had spent several years building a pack of his own before settling them in Ireland. The members came from all over the world, mostly strays and rogues from other packs. While his business seemed mostly to be in the dealing of antiques, the organisation wasn’t convinced that selling old furniture was lucrative enough to sustain a pack of at least fifty.

  Jax argued the toss to go after Aurora straight away, pointing out that Lykos’s pack were vulnerable without their alpha, no matter how good his beta was. He knew he was in no fit state to carry out such a mission without rest and relented when Zane overruled him. He reluctantly followed Zane’s orders to eat and re-energise after pushing his wolf so hard.

  “We’re only further endangering her by holding him, son. If Lykos’s pack think their alpha is being hurt in any way they’ll do the same to Aurora. We need to let him go,” Sean told him, gently.

  “And how does that keep her safe exactly?” Jax snapped. “He is the biggest danger to her.”

  “His territory is about a hundred miles south of here. He rebuilt a ruined castle on the coast when he moved his pack here. Huge place, centuries old, but he’s claiming she wasn’t taken there,” Brone supplied, un-wittingly giving them information they had already ascertained for themselves.

  “She’s there,” Jax stated.

  “We followed her scent south for about forty miles. It was pointless going on without back up, so we turned back. There was no doubt they were headed for the coast. Aerial photographs show there are no other buildings in that area, it’s surrounded by open countryside. You can’t approach without being seen. There’s nowhere else he would have taken her,” Marco deducted.

  “All right, let’s get on this, fellas.” Zane took charge. “I want everything there is to know about this castle. Any tunnels underground? Secret entrances? If that place is as old as Brone says, there must be something we can use. I want a way in and a way out. I want all the details on Lykos and his pack. Who is his beta? Who are his closest men, his guards? I want their history, strengths, weaknesses, their fucking dick sizes. Anything and everything that might be relevant. We move in forty-eight hours.”

  “My men are at your disposal, use them however you see fit. Anything you need to bring my daughter home, you will have it,” Connell told Zane, who silently nodded his thanks.

  “She’s not coming back here, Dad,” Marco said, without emotion. “It’s not safe. We’re in charge of her protection now and we’ll be taking her away from here.”

  “Absolutely not. Out of the question. This is her pack, she belongs here,” Connell argued, and Marco picked up a hint of anxiety in his father’s scent. Aurora had always been closest to him and Marco sympathised, but Aurora’s safety was his priority and his father’s actions had already raised worrying questions. As his Gran warned him regularly, he couldn’t afford to trust anyone other than the men on the team.

  “Dad, I know you want her safe, we all do, but if Aurora stays here, they’ll keep coming and trying to claim her. We know you’ve already been approached by several packs about a tournament. They want her power and they’re prepared to resort to barbaric practices that were banned hundreds of years ago to get it. Aurora’s presence here puts not only her, but the entire pack, in danger. You can’t take them all on and win. We need to take her out of the equation for a while, so we can look over the prophecies and figure out our next move. This whole thing is so much bigger than you realise.” Marco spoke with more patience than he felt.

  “My mate will be coming with me,” Jax declared, leaving no room for the argument on Connell’s lips.

  “Jax, will you visit with your mother while you’re here? You’ve been here since yesterday and she wonders why she hasn’t seen you.” Sean, sensing things were ending, made his discontent with his oldest son obvious.

  Jax’s mind really wasn’t in the right place for family reunions, particularly since he wanted to kill his own brother, but he couldn’t be in Shadow Fen and not see his mother. He nodded once in affirmation, appeasing his father.

  “Marco, Jax, make the most of the time with your families. The rest of you, take some down time. We’ll meet back here in two hours,” Zane commanded, putting a stop to any further procrastination or argument. He wanted his men at their strongest for the rescue mission and wasn’t prepared to let anything get in the way of that.

  Aurora eyed Melaina suspiciously as she emerged from the bathroom. She was still struggling to get a read on her animal. It was blurring in and out, giving no signs of either dominance or submission. The woman sat on the bed; a pile of clothes next to her, which she patted when Aurora entered.

  “Yours,” Melaina told Aurora. “He bought them especially for you. Studied you for ages, like a creep, made sure he got your style and size perfect.”

  “You’re kidding?” Aurora frowned at her, holding up a long black dress with a split in the side. Lykos evidently hadn’t studied her style very well.

  “Nope. I told him you’d find it weird but he insisted you have everything you need. He means well.” She shrugged one shoulder.

  “You actually like him?”

  “He’s a little arrogant sometimes, but he keeps my mate from killing me. I owe him.”

  “What?” Aurora reluctantly opted for the black dress since it actually exposed less skin than the other offerings.

  “Axel, his beta, he’s my true mate. I want to break the bond, he refuses. So, here I am. I’m not exactly a willing participant in our relationship, that pisses him off and he can be a bit... unpredictable. Lykos has ordered Axel not to hurt me, told him he can’t mate me unless I ask for it.” Melaina turned to look at her and Aurora finally caught a flash of her animal under the surface. Despite the Melaina’s strong persona, her animal was weak, not submissive, just not strong. It flickered a few times and disappeared.

  “Why are you telling me this? We barely know each other and you’re going straight in with the girly bonding shit.”

  “I haven’t exactly revealed my life story. I just think you should know that he’s really not that bad. Lykos will treat you well, he’ll be a good mate.”

  “He’s not my mate.” Aurora smoothed the fabric of the dress over her hips and looked down at it. It wasn’t exactly a fighting outfit, but she could make it work.

  “How do you know? You’ve never been around him.”

  “Because my mate is someone I’ve known all my life.”

  “Caspian wasn’t your true mate though. I mean, that’s something you can’t easily deny, believe me, I’m trying.”

  “My true mate’s name is Jax. He’s Caspian’s older brother.” Aurora couldn’t contain her laugh at how ridiculous it sounded.

  “Really?” Aurora nodded and Melaina made a perfect O shape with her mouth. Then she fell backwards on the bed, laughing and Aurora decided she liked her. “Well, honey, you have more personal drama than I do, we’re going to get along famously.”

  “You want out of here, Melain
a?” Aurora asked her.

  “I’d be gone in a flash, if I could,” she replied. “Got nowhere to run to though and no amount of shit is worth going rogue. Without a pack, I’m screwed.”

  “Well, I don’t plan on sticking around. No matter how hard you go on the sell, I will never play little red for that big bad wolf. There’s room for a panther in my pack if you want it.”

  “What... how...” she gasped at Aurora’s knowledge of her animal.

  “Just one of my many talents,” Aurora bragged. “Is your mate a wolf?”

  “He is. I know, I don’t get it either, it’s unheard of for different shifter species to have a true mate bond. All I’ve come up with is maybe one of my parents was a wolf.” She shrugged and stood, walking to the window. Aurora didn’t push for more information. Melaina was obviously done talking.

  Aurora’s skin prickled with the same sensation she had felt in Shadow Fen when she’d come face to face with Lykos. He had approached on lithe feet, but as soon as he saw her, his scent, full of lust, gave him away. She turned her face to the side, refusing to face him, yet silently acknowledging his presence.

  “Well, I’m glad to see you two are making friends. I thought you’d enjoy Mel’s company, Koraki. Thank you, Mel. You may leave us.” Lykos stood in the doorway, his eyes only on Aurora. He was glad she’d chosen the dress; it was perfect attire for the evening he had planned and she looked good enough to eat in it.

  Melaina hesitated, looking between the two, warily.

  “Mel, you know I would never hurt her.” Lykos’s voice took on a gentle tone and he reached out to squeeze the woman’s shoulder.

  “Yeah, it’s not her I’m worried about.” Relaxing, she grinned at Aurora. “Don’t push your luck, boss. She won’t take your shit.”

  “As it should be. Leave us Melaina,” he answered, the gentle, friendly tone still apparent but becoming firmer. There was no mistaking his words were an order. Melaina turned to look at Aurora, a question in her eyes.