There was a moment of silence before the room exploded in applause, whistles, and cheers. The atmosphere transformed from one of a formal meeting, to one of celebration as it had on the night Aurora had been introduced to them. This pack was wild, many of them rogues, it was a credit to Lykos that he could control them. Within a few seconds drinks were flowing and music was blaring.
“I think we can safely assume you have been accepted, Caspian. Stay, get to know your pack. Aurora and I have had little time alone today and I crave the company of my mate.” He raised his voice and addressed the pack once more. “My Queen and I bid you goodnight, please show Caspian how we welcome new members. Enjoy your evening.”
Aurora spoke to several familiar faces on their way out into the castle gardens, until eventually she found herself alone with Lykos. Realising they were on grass; she kicked off her shoes and dug her toes into the cool, green lawn. The cold lawn brought a sense of calm and tranquillity, quieting her racing mind and drawing the stress she felt from her and burying it deep in the earth.
“You like the feel of the earth under your feet?”
“It relaxes me,” she smiled, looking down at her feet.
“I thought we could walk a while. There is a spot, just a little further, where you can see the sun setting behind the castle beautifully. We just about have time to get there before the sun is too low.” He held his hand out to her expectantly.
Rather than accept the intimacy of a romantic walk, she playfully yanked on his hand, pulling him along as she began to run. He didn’t take much convincing. They ran together through the gardens, racing along the winding paths, laughing like children as they went. When they reached the spot Lykos had talked about, he pulled her to a standstill, turning them so that his arms were around her from behind. She rested her head back against him and steadied her breathing in time with the beats of his heart in his chest.
“How old are you, Lykos?”
“The fact that I’m older bothers you.”
“The fact that you want people to believe you’re older than you are intrigues me.” She turned in his arms and took a step back.
“Appearances, Koraki. They can make or break a person. Some of my pack members are older than me. I carry myself as an older, widely experienced, and capable wolf. This, for whatever reason, makes it easier for them to submit to me. If they believed me to be a young wolf, just beginning my adult life, it would be more difficult for them to find that respect.” He stepped towards her.
“So, you lie to them?” She stepped back.
“I omit certain details, allow them to assume. I don’t lie.” He closed the gap, enjoying the game.
“How do you sleep at night?” She edged backwards, out of his reach.
“Comfortably, thank you. Also, naked. In case you were wondering.” He stalked her, closing the distance.
“I wasn’t. If they asked, would you tell them?” She took another step, dodging his grasp when he reached for her.
“I would.” He took once more step and reached for her again, finally snagging her and pulling her back against him, chest to chest.
“So, how old are you?” She turned her back to him and leaned back against his body once more.
“I am thirty-five years old, Aurora, not too many years ahead of you. I could hardly be classed as your sugar daddy,” he joked half-heartedly, wishing she would stop the evasive techniques and pointed at the sky, to where the sun was beginning to set.
“That’s disgusting, Lykos,” she chastised, but couldn’t contain the snort of laughter that bubbled in her throat.
He rested his chin on the top of her head and tightened his arms around her, a feeling of contentment returning when she allowed his closeness. They watched silently as the sky put on its show, throwing out shades of red and pink and finally glowing bright orange in the final moments of sunlight.
As darkness fell, a scuffling of feet in the shrubs nearby, alerted them to another presence. Aurora tensed, scenting the air, daring to hope. It wasn’t Jax or Marco. She couldn’t pick up any of the other team members either. It was familiar to her, but she couldn’t place it. Lykos, however, wore a thunderous look on his face.
“Go back inside, Aurora, stay with the pack, send Caspian to me.” Lykos released his hold on her and moved towards the shrubbery.
He removed his shirt and trousers and had shifted within seconds, he was fast. His wolf turned to look at her, he barked once, as if to tell her to go. Torn between her natural instinct to stay and help and allowing Lykos his alpha dominance, she hesitated. The wolf whined, its eyes pleading with her and she huffed.
“Fine, I’m going.” She turned back in the direction of the castle and began to walk.
Not stopping to pick up her boots, she was halfway back when the scent hit her again. She breathed in deeply, trying to catch who it belonged to. Lykos’s scent lingered distantly, his wolf was in hunting mode, so he wouldn’t be back for a while. Her senses were on full alert. Her eyesight, as a raven, was considerably better than many other shifters and did not falter in the dark. She relied on it now to scan the area around her.
A loud scuffle in the trees had her turning swiftly towards it. Ready to fight, her hands flew to the silver necklace on her neck and she pulled at it, wanting to make flight an option. She snapped the leather covered chain easily, but before she could begin to shift an arm clamped around her neck from behind and something else was clipped around her throat. She tried to shift, nothing happened. Shit!
Aurora lifted a foot stamped down hard on the foot of whoever was holding her. Her bare feet had less of an impact than she would have with her boots on, but her captor still loosened his grip and cried out, allowing her to turn. Axel stood before her, a look of rage and pure hatred on his face. She reached up to feel around her neck and her stomach dropped. The original collar was back in place around her neck. She couldn’t shift.
“You can’t escape, little bird,” Axel snarled, she glanced towards the open doors of the common room. The lights were on and everyone was still inside. She debated calling for help but she doubted they would hear her over the music and their own voices. Caspian, however, was at the door, watching her. That little fucker had done it again. She looked around in the other direction, still no Lykos. She was on her own, but she worked best alone. Big as Axel was, she’d fought bigger. Darius, Finn and Brone were giants compared to him and she’d done damage to all of them in training without resorting to her full strength. She could fight her way out of this, or at least hold her own until Lykos came back. “Lykos is indisposed. He won’t be back.”
“Just you and me then, a little one on one, exactly how I like it.” Aurora side-stepped Axel’s hand when it snapped out to grab her again and began to slowly back away.
“You, me and this...” Axel produced a knife from a belt strapped to his thigh. “Are you ready to bleed for me, little bird?”
“Not today, fuck nugget.” She ran at him, leaping into the air and sending a flying kick into his gut. He doubled over with a grunt. She landed on her feet nearby, but he was up again just as fast. She dodged his swipe of the knife and spun, dropping, and taking his legs out from under him. She aimed a kick at his head, but luck gave him a split-second difference and he caught her foot, pulling it out from under her. She landed on her back and before she could get up, Axel had straddled her, her arms under his legs. He held aloft the knife.
“No!” Caspian yelled, Aurora glanced his way and saw him running towards her.
Axel brought the knife down, aiming for her gut. She managed to get her arms free before he struck her. She shoved his arms to the side, knocking his aim off, instead sending the knife deep into her thigh. Burning pain sliced through her and she cried out, bucking underneath the weight of the man on top of her. He twisted the blade and yanked it back out. A second wave of pain passed over her with the movement. She continued to struggle under his weight as he brought it down again, this time gouging a deep gash across her
stomach, before Caspian’s flying body knocked Axel sideways onto the ground.
Aurora rolled and stood, groaning at the pain in her thigh and stomach. A quick glance down, to see her clothes soaked in blood, told her the wounds were deep. There was no time to dwell or react because Caspian and Axel were fighting. Caspian had something to do with the attack, yet he had stopped Axel from killing her. Her conscience and her inbred need to protect wouldn’t allow her to walk away from him.
She limped forwards and aimed a punch to Axel’s kidney, causing him to wince and turn towards her. Again, the knife flew out and sliced a cut across her abdomen. More blood gushed from her. Without shifting she couldn’t stop it and she couldn’t shift with the collar on. As the knife made its way back towards her, slicing her arm, she reached out and grabbed it, blade end, and attempted to wrestle it from Axel’s hold. Caspian rained punches and kicks down on Axel. He fought back, but two against one was too much for him and eventually, due to Aurora twisting his arm, he let go of the knife and fell to his knees. A single solid kick to the head from Caspian rendered him unconscious, the knife falling with him to the ground.
The world spun, Aurora reached out to steady herself on the closest thing, which happened to be Caspian. She watched, mesmerised and in shock, as the blood from her hands soaked his white t-shirt, where she held onto him.
“Shit, Aurora. Fuck! I never meant to hurt you. I swear, I never thought you’d get hurt.” He frantically dug around in his pocket for his phone.
“Lykos is in wolf form, he won’t answer,” she told him weakly. The pain became too much and she doubled over, arms wrapped around her stomach.
“I’m calling Jax, he can heal you. I need to get you out of here, we’re going early.” He spoke with urgency, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her upright. “We have to get to the roof. Come on.”
Caspian barked desperately into the phone while he helped her to move through the castle grounds. They stumbled towards the stone steps that led to the roof. “You need to get here, NOW! She’s hurt, losing blood, she can’t shift because of a silver collar. I can’t get it off. I don’t know how long she’s got. We’ll be on the roof.”
Caspian stopped at the bottom of the steps to the tower. “I’m going to carry you. I’ll try to be gentle, but at this point I really need to get you out of here, so this is going to hurt. Okay, gorgeous?”
“Got it. Just do it, Cas.”
“I’m so sorry, Aurora.” He lifted her as tenderly as he could and carried her weight easily up the steps. “He said he just wanted to fight you, I thought you’d be up for it. I didn’t know he had the collar or the knife.”
“Where… is Lykos?” She managed to scratch out the words between shuddering breaths. The blood wasn’t stopping and the pain was becoming more intense by the second, making her weak and dizzy.
“Axel had one of the guards lead him on a wild goose chase because he would never have allowed the fight. I swear I didn’t know. I would never have let him hurt you, Aurora, please believe me.”
She nodded, unable to put her thoughts into words. She did believe him, what she couldn’t believe was that he was that stupid. She’d always known Caspian to be a bit unhinged and obviously power crazy, but stupid wasn’t something she associated with him. He was cunning and sly, always planning a way to get the best outcome of every situation for himself. There must have been something in it for him, but it was the least of her worries in that moment.
Growling and footsteps followed them up the steps. Caspian shot a quick glance over his shoulder and turned back, breaking into a run to clear the rest of the steps. She recognised Axel’s scent this time, but there was another one mingling with it. Lykos’s wolf wasn’t far behind him.
Reaching the roof, Caspian propped her up, with her back against one of the outer walls of the tower, before turning to face Axel. “No more, Axel, the deal is off.”
“We had no deal, stupid pup,” Axel snarled and moved to the side so he could see Aurora. “I think I got you good enough, little bird, but I intend to finish the job.”
The sound of gunfire in the woodland surrounding the castle, a sudden commotion in the gardens below, and the distant thump of a helicopter’s propeller, alerted them to the fact that Jax and his team were close. Her mind mustered enough strength to put together that they must have been coming early to have got there so quickly.
“Now you’re fucked,” Caspian told Axel, who launched himself towards Aurora.
Landing facedown across her legs, Axel managed to dig the knife into her once more. Gouging a hole in her chest, he dragged the knife jaggedly downwards. Aurora screamed, the blood curdling sound bounced off the stone surrounding them and echoed into the night. Drowsiness attacked and she blinked, trying to clear her vision, but all she saw was the blurred walls passing her by, over and over again. Her head spun with them, like she was trapped in a whirling fairground ride and she slumped to the side.
Caspian roared and shifted, ripping his clothing in his haste. His wolf ran at Axel, huge paws landing on the man’s chest and taking him down. Another wolf howled from close by. Her vision cleared for a few seconds, long enough to see Caspian’s wolf joined by a white one. Lykos. Both wolves launched a savage attack on Axel. She blacked out to the sound of snarls and ripping flesh.
Whining snapped her back into consciousness and she opened her eyes briefly to see Caspian’s wolf at her side, licking her face and nudging her with his nose to pull her back awake. Gnashing teeth and snarling still sounded from behind him. Lykos continued his attack on Axel, she couldn’t have been out more than a couple of minutes.
“Get out of the fucking way!” Her brother’s face appeared before her, he shoved Caspian’s wolf aside and crouched beside her on the ground. “Cole, get over here now. She’s bleeding out!”
Another face appeared, a man, with dark hair and dark eyes that she recognised from days before. He spoke to her brother, their words became tinny, her vision blurred once more and she no longer knew who was saying what.
“I need that collar off her.”
“Get her on the chopper.”
“Where the hell is Jax? We need to get her out of here.”
“Tell Zane to get the bird in the air.”
“We have to move fast. She’s losing too much blood.”
“My equipment is on the bird. I have to move her now!”
“Where the fuck have you been?”
“Give her to me.”
The chopper moved higher and higher, Caspian watched helplessly and the white wolf’s howl filled the air with pain and sorrow. Jax, kneeling beside her, stroked the hair away from her blood covered face and silently vowed never to let his mate out of his sight again.
“Shit! Hunter, get that fucking collar off so she can shift.” Cole’s voice was desperate. “Push down on that harder, Marco.”
“I’m trying!” Hunter’s impatient reply came through gritted teeth. He had tried everything he could think of to remove the collar to no avail. His own silver allergy hindered his efforts, causing harsh scorch marks on his hands. He ignored the pain and kept working.
Marco tightened his grip on the bandage that was wadded at his sister’s abdomen and leaned down on the wound with all the strength he dared. Cole lassoed a strap around her thigh and pulled it as tight as he could, to stop the bleeding there.
“Sit rep, Cole,” Zane barked, from the pilot’s seat after a few minutes of silence while Cole worked to save her life.
“I think I’ve stemmed all the bleeding. I still have to close the wounds. She’s lost a lot of blood but she’s breathing and stable for the moment. I can’t guarantee she’ll stay that way without shifting and I need to get some blood into her. The silver is a problem,” Cole told him, with obvious concern.
“You can save her, Jax,” Zane reminded them.
“How?” Jax asked, desperately.
“You’re her mate. Complete the bond and you can heal her.”
“She’s unconscious! I can’t complete the bond when she’s unconscious!” Was he really suggesting Jax make love to her while she was out of it?
“The bite will connect your souls, that should be enough to bring on your power to heal her. The rest you can take care of later... in private.” Zane smirked at his reaction. If Jax had stopped and thought for a second, he would have realised what Zane meant, but his head was all over place. Still, to bite her and start the bond completion, without her consent? She’d kill him!
“I can’t,” he shook his head. “Not without her consent. She’ll hate me, if she lets me live. It’s not right. Cole said she’s stable, we can get her to the safe house and he can work on her there.”
“Would you rather her dead? Because I fucking wouldn’t!” Marco snarled at his friend.
“Jax, it’s the only way I can guarantee she’ll live. There could be internal injuries, I have no way of seeing those right now. Only her shifting or a mate’s healing can fix that.” Cole told Jax, quietly.
“Don’t let my sister die, Jax!” Marco begged, tears in his eyes, as he held tightly to her cold hand.
“Never,” Jax promised and looked down at his mate. She was his life. Everything he had done; he’d done for her. He couldn’t lose her and hell, she already hated him, what difference would a bite make? “Give me some privacy, okay?”
Melaina, Cole, Hunter and Marco turned away, giving them as much privacy as they could inside the cramped aircraft. Jax cradled Aurora’s head gently in both hands and leaned over, to whisper in her ear.
“Rory…” Jax choked on her name, took a breath, and started again. “Shit, Rory, this isn’t exactly happening the way I imagined, you know? There were going to be candles, and dinner, and all kinds of other romantic shit. You’d have hated it all and took the piss out of me, but I was going to do this right. I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry it has to be this way, but I can’t lose you, baby. Please know, that if there were any other way, I would not do it like this. I love you, Rory, so fucking much, bond or not. Shit, okay… I will share my past, present and future with you, I will love and trust you purely and protect you in every way I can. I will be true to you and only you, that’s the easy part. I’ll take all the shit you want to fling at me, and all the punches you want to throw at me, and I’ll love every fucking second of it.”
The Raven Queen Page 18
