The Raven Queen

by Emma Jayne Mills

  She was taller now, than when he’d left her. She wasn’t as tall as his 6ft5, but he no longer dwarfed her when he stood over her. Now, if she were to put her head on his chest, he could rest his chin on the top of it without it resulting in neck ache. The thought made him smile, she was the perfect height for him.

  Her body was still athletic but it had curves now, curves that her skinny seventeen-year-old self hadn’t grown into then. Jax’s hands twitched with the need to touch those curves, run his hands over her toned muscle, feel the shiver he knew his hands would provoke. Her hair hung straight, to her shoulders and what had once been dark brown, was now jet black with natural tints of blue when the light hit it. Just like a raven’s feathers. Her bright green eyes used to peer out from under a thick fringe, now her vision was unhindered because she clipped her hair out of the way. He now knew those eyes became black before her shift. The adolescent girl he had left behind was gone, in her place stood a beautiful young woman. He’d always thought she was gorgeous. Even when he was a toddler and she was a babe in arms, she was the most captivating creature he had ever seen, but now? She took his breath away.

  “How much have you seen, Aurora?” Zane asked her.

  “I didn’t take it too seriously. Flipped through a page here and there to get the gist, I never looked in depth. I left it at home... in Caspian’s cabin.” She corrected herself quickly, but not quick enough that Jax didn’t snap out of his thoughts and react to her words.

  Shit! Even though he had known she was living with his brother, having that knowledge confirmed by her ripped through him like a freight train. He couldn’t hold back the growl that came to his lips. She stepped forward to rest a hand on his chest, the action calming him instantly. She might hate him, but she could feel what he felt. She knew that, as his mate, there were things he needed from her. His mind eased somewhat, with the realisation that she was prepared to give him those things, within reason. She would calm his temper when he needed her to. She would allow him to touch her when the bond became too much to resist. She wasn’t immune to him or completely against their mating. There was hope for him yet.

  “Let’s gather the others and talk inside,” Zane suggested, realising she had no idea what had happened.

  “About damn time.” Jax’s mate agreed and he reached for her hand, still laid flat on his chest, as he lowered his axe. She looked up at him as he wove his fingers through hers.

  “Don’t push it wolf!” She laughed and ran for the house.

  The group gathered around the roaring fire in the living area of the house. They might have been in Spain, a country famed for its year-round sunshine, but as soon as the sun had gone down. the temperature had dropped. Although the outside air still held some heat, the house, designed to stay cool through the hot summer months, had become cold. Hunter and Cole had collected the firewood and stacked it beside the hearth. With a roaring log fire and its dark wood furnishings, the room had a cosiness that brought its inhabitants together in the manner of a family gathering for an evening of fun.

  Aurora sat next to Jax, on a large green sofa, not bothering to complain when he hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap. She understood his need to be close to her and although her gut reaction was to deny it, she felt the same need. She could go back to hating him later. She ignored Melaina, who curled her legs beneath her on the other end of the sofa and raised her eyebrows at Aurora’s closeness to Jax. She and Aurora had managed to talk briefly earlier. Aurora had ascertained she was dealing with her severed mate bond well. It hurt, but she was also relieved that he was gone, the pain was something she could deal with. Marco sat to one side of them, Zane stood at the fireplace, leaning an elbow on the mantel. Hunter and Cole both took chairs next to the fire.

  “Let’s start with what we know.” Zane led the conversation.

  “We know that I’m the first raven born to wolves in three thousand years and that I’m destined to save our race and bring peace to the supernatural realms, blah, blah, blah...” Aurora quoted her Grandmother, barely suppressing the sarcastic eye roll that threatened. “The book says there are two more, probably a vampire and Fae and that we are descended from the Morrigan, Celtic Goddess of war. All I know for sure is, the world has spun out of control since I told my parents I’m a raven. I’ve been dragged from pointless meeting to pointless meeting, where the elders have spent hours debating whether or not the prophecy even exists. The wolves have begun fighting among themselves, buried rivalries have been dug up in an excuse to start pack wars. Alpha’s are being challenged on a daily basis, turning packs into little more than fight clubs. And to top it all, some deranged maniac has a prophecy of his own and thinks I’m his mate!”

  Jax growled low in his chest at the mention of Lykos and she nudged him with her shoulder to tell him to stop. He tightened his hold around her waist in response.

  -Cool it, beast man!

  -I’ll show you a beast!

  -Don’t make promises you can’t keep.

  “I need a drink,” Marco announced, standing up and stretching. “Anyone else?”

  “Ok, so here’s what we have managed to find out. Your true mate, who we know to be Jax, also plays a large part in the prophecy. As do the mates of your Morrigan sisters,” Zane continued, while they all murmured out various responses to Marco’s drink offer.

  “You took the page from the book.” Aurora turned to look at Jax and he nodded, confirming what she already knew.

  -Listen to what I have to say Rory, please.

  His voice echoed around her head and she nodded to let him know she would.

  “Your Gran came to me and told me there was something in the library vault that I needed to see. She explained that she had always known you and I were true mates, basically confirming what I already thought I knew. She showed me the Morrigan Prophecies book. I knew it was about you, don’t ask me how because I can’t explain it. It was a feeling, I just knew. She showed me a page in the book that was about the Raven Queen’s mate. It stated that I had to train, to become strong enough to protect my mate. To be powerful enough to stand beside her, as her equal, when the time came. The time for what, we don’t know. I was to find five others who were to be your personal warriors, alongside me. Men who would willingly put their lives before yours and protect you no matter the cost. So far, I have four and myself.” He paused and his eyes lowered.

  -I never would have left you otherwise, Rory.

  -I know.

  “That’s not all it says,” Marco commented and aimed a look at Jax.

  “That’s not important now,” Jax glared at him.

  “Now is not the time to be keeping secrets from me, Jax. Hasn’t there been enough of that already?” Aurora turned on his lap to face him.

  “I intend to tell you, it’s just not relevant now.” He reached up to remove the clip from her hair, watching it fall around her face. “It’s about me, my personal history. Not connected to the prophecy. We’ll talk about it privately.”

  “I still think we’re missing something there,” Cole observed and Aurora raised an eyebrow at Jax.

  -They all know?

  -I wanted to tell you alone, just us. It’s not easy for me to talk about, Rory. Please.

  -Fine.

  “So, you are all my personal warriors?” Aurora accepted Jax’s explanation and looked around the room at the men. “You are all prepared to die for me?”

  “We are,” Zane confirmed.

  “No!” She stood up, untangling herself from Jax’s hold. “Absolutely no way! Nobody dies for me. Nobody!”

  “We don’t plan on it coming to that, Aurora.” Marco handed her a bottle of beer and she took a long drink while he continued to speak. “We’ve been training hard to get to the point where we hope we can survive whatever comes our way and protect you in the process.”

  “For the record, I fucking hate this,” she told them and Hunter laughed. “I fight my own battles.”

  “We know
you’re strong, Aurora, but we’re all part of this, whether you like it or not. There is a reason Jax picked us. All our families are mentioned in the Morrigan prophecies. We’re spoken of as a team, with you at the heart of it. You’re stuck with us, sweetheart.” Cole smiled at her and took the beer Marco offered him.

  “So, what next?” she wanted to know.

  “There’s a lot of unrest among the paranormal races. Rogues are leaving packs on a daily basis. Attacks on humans by both shifters and vampires are increasing. Several of the wolf packs are already claiming that wolves should rule over all shifters. They believe that because you were born of wolves, that gives them the right of power. War has broken out in the Fae realm. There’s nothing to indicate it’s connected to the prophecies and with no way of contacting anyone there, we have no choice but to assume they don’t want our help.” As Jax spoke, he reached out a hand to pull her back to him and into his lap once more. She had felt his temper spike, at Cole’s term of endearment and, much as it annoyed her, his instincts were telling him to show ownership of his mate. Begrudgingly, she allowed it

  “If the trouble in the Fae realm isn’t connected then what about the magic queen mentioned in the prophecy?” she wondered.

  “There’s no specific mention of a Fae queen, it’s only speculation based on events three thousand years ago. We do know the original Raven Queen was a witch and her sisters were vampire and Fae, there was no shifter.” Zane informed her.

  “The witches are gone.”

  “Not all,” Zane stated.

  “Some are likely to be alive and in hiding, as well as the ones the vampire king took prisoner,” Marco added.

  “And what about the vampire?” she asked.

  “We’ve heard nothing of her yet. While there are some vampires who would support the prophecies, our main concern is that the same king who killed and enslaved the witches is still ruling the vampires. He’s not what you’d call co-operative,” Hunter said, with a wry smile.

  “Who is the sixth?” She asked, frowning at Jax, flipping the conversation back to his earlier revelation, that there were to be six warriors.

  “I thought it might be my brother,” he replied.

  “Yeah, not happening!” Marco butted in. Jax nodded his agreement.

  “Each of us is mentioned, one way or another, in the prophecies,” Zane said. “My family, Cole’s, Hunter’s all date back as far as the Raven Queen’s first manifestation. Our ancestors are listed as warriors belonging to her. Jax, as your mate and Marco as your brother are obvious choices, aside from their families being mentioned. We assumed Caspian was the sixth because there is no sixth name, possibly meaning two warriors from the same family, Jax being the only one of us with a brother.”

  “As soon as we heard Jax’s story, there was no doubt in our minds that we were meant to be part of this team,” Cole explained. “We felt connected to each other somehow. It wasn’t until we looked more deeply in to the first six warriors that we found mention of our families. I don’t know if you’ve felt it, but that connection, since we met, has now spread to you.”

  “I feel it,” she confirmed.

  “As though your presence finally brought us all together,” Zane agreed.

  “One man down,” Hunter mused, rubbing his red beard.

  “Who says it has to be a man?” Melaina spoke for the first time.

  “You?” Jax asked.

  “Is it really so unbelievable?” she challenged.

  “Not at all. I had already considered it, but I didn’t know if you were planning on sticking around.”

  “Well, here I am,” she decided, looking to Aurora. “That’s if you’ll have me?”

  “Are you kidding me? You’re my only chance of staying sane, Melaina. You’re in whether you want it or not.” Aurora grinned at her and she smiled back.

  “Then, I think it’s time you called me Mel,” she winked.

  “Is there any mention of Mel’s bloodline in the prophecy?” Aurora asked Jax.

  “Nothing at all about the sixth warrior, other than they exist. I’ll show you.” He got up to go and retrieve the page from the book. When he returned, both Melaina and Aurora looked at it.

  “This was all there was?” Melaina asked and Jax nodded.

  “It’s like it’s incomplete,” she observed.

  “Exactly,” Jax agreed. “But that was the only page, there was no continuation, I would have taken it all.”

  “The top of the page is missing,” Melaina pointed out.

  “It’s only the title, that’s still in the book.” Aurora told her. “Caspian went crazy trying to find the rest of it, assuming it was about him.”

  “Of course he did,” Jax said through gritted teeth, she absently put a hand on his leg to calm him.

  “It doesn’t matter, I wouldn’t know my bloodline if I saw it. I have no family, other than Lykos and his pack,” Melaina explained.

  “Perhaps there’s something about the sixth warrior further on in the book. If you are all mentioned then Mel must be too. Maybe if it talks about a female warrior we can find out about your bloodline?” Aurora looked to her and she nodded slowly. “There’s a lot about the war and more in it that I didn’t get around to reading. Gran and Dad had me running around to meetings and extra training, I didn’t get chance to go through it properly. We need to get that book from Caspian.”

  “We don’t think Caspian has the book,” Marco said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Remember the poker game?”

  “Yeah,”

  “Your father was using it as a way of sharing information about you and the prophecies with his allies. Several of the alphas present at the game expressed an interest in creating a bond with you,” Zane explained.

  “I know, he wanted me to be there to meet them but I refused.”

  “The rogue was paid, by who we don’t yet know, to go in and steal the money and the book,” Marco said. “We believe he was allowed to keep the money as payment for the book.”

  “Where’s the book now?” Aurora immediately wanted to know.

  “It disappeared. Your dad and Caspian both say it was stolen, but they slipped up a couple of times while we were at the fen and we’re not really certain what happened. There’s a chance they still have it. There’s a chance it was actually stolen,” Jax told her. “Could Lykos have had a hand in taking it?”

  “No, he would have told me if he had it,” Aurora answered.

  “Why would he do that? If you didn’t know he had it he was a step ahead of you. He could use it against you,” Zane argued.

  “No. It wasn’t like that. He wanted it to appear that I was his equal on every level, he told me everything. He showed me the scroll with his part of the proph...” she trailed off as the meaning of Lykos’s prophecy hit her.

  “What?” Marco demanded.

  “His prophecy. The bond it speaks of, the one he claims is a mate bond. I denied it to him, but I do feel connected to him. It’s the same connection I feel with all of you. Jax is the only one that it feels different with,” she told them, referring to the invisible connection she felt between herself and the men in the room. “Lykos is the sixth.”

  “No fucking way!” Jax exploded.

  “Not a chance!” Marco added.

  “Nope!” Cole joined them.

  “Over my dead body!” Hunter growled.

  “Are you sure, Aurora?” Zane asked.

  “As sure as I can be. It was translated from Greek, so there could have been mistakes, I suppose. Lykos gave me his word the translation was good. It was just the interpretation he got wrong.”

  “It may make sense that the sixth is Lykos,” Zane suggested, looking at Aurora. “Years ago, Lykos spent some time working for the Laignach Faelad. Before this team was put together, Lykos and I served together on another one. He wasn’t what you’d call a team player and ended up being dishonourably discharged. A man was killed because of his actions.”

&nb
sp; “You think the Laignach Faelad is the connection to the warriors?” Aurora jumped ahead. Lykos hadn’t mentioned this to her, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. Lykos, she was certain, had kept many things from her while at the same time seeming completely open and honest.

  “It seems plausible, especially since the history of the organisation relates to shifter, particularly wolf, warriors.” Zane went through his thoughts and she nodded her agreement.

  “Well, we already have our sixth, we’ll just re-write the prophecy,” Jax declared, anger tainting his tone.

  “It’s not me,” Melaina said. “The connection you all have doesn’t stretch between Aurora and me, I don’t feel it. I want to fight for her, but there’s no connection in the way there is for the rest of you. I witnessed the bond between her and Lykos myself, it’s definitely there. Not like the one she has with you, Jax, before you get all growly again. Your bond is... intense, but there is a bond between Aurora and Lykos.”

  “You’re still in,” Aurora winked and Melaina nudged her shoulder in response. “I need to talk to Dad about the book. There has to be a reason he withheld that information from me.”

  “No!” The word came simultaneously from all five men and she raised her eyebrows at them.

  “Their phones are bound to be tapped and if you were seen there it would put you in even more danger. There’s no way of telling if anyone is watching the pack or who we can trust on the inside. Right now, they all think you’re dead and we need it to stay that way until we know more.” Jax ran his fingers through her hair, attempting to soften the blow with his touch.

  “So, we send in a scout. Or call Finn or Darius, they can tell us if it’s still there,” she pushed.