“Never. Not that I think we can.” She gave a quiet laugh.
“Then why not seal it?” Cole asked gently, his hands were still rubbing her back soothingly.
“Because I need to trust him first. I don’t know if his feelings are real, or if he’s resigned himself to it, just because he’s realised he can’t break the bond,” she told them honestly.
“I can assure you, his feelings are very real,” Zane stated. “His love for you is what brought us all together, we stand here now because of it. You’re his world, Aurora. Bond or no bond.”
“Yeah...” she whispered. “Shall we just get this done, before he comes back?”
“That’s probably a good idea. Mel, I’m going to need details on the witch as soon as we’re done here.” Zane handed a phone to Melaina. She nodded at Zane and punched in a number then passed it to Aurora.
“Stratitori pack,” was the greeting when the call connected.
“Caspian, you worthless shit.” Aurora put the phone on speaker and laid it on the table. The group gathered around to listen
“Aurora! You’re alive! Where are you? Are you okay? Are you with Jax?” he questioned urgently, a definite show of concern in his voice.
“Where’s Lykos?” she demanded, but before Caspian could answer the phone was taken from him.
“Koraki?” Lykos’s voice cracked as he spoke and Aurora was visibly shocked at the vulnerability in it. She ignored her brother’s narrowed eyes and accusing looks.
“It’s me,” she said. “Back from the dead.”
“You are well?” Lykos asked, tentatively.
“I’m fine. Axel did some damage but I’m fine now.” She didn’t give up any details but it seemed she didn’t need to, Lykos wasn’t stupid.
“Your mate healed you. You have sealed your bond,” he assumed, with a tinge of sadness.
“He healed me,” she agreed, sharing no more than necessary. “Listen, there’s something I hoped you could help me with.”
“Anything. You know this, Koraki.” Cue more narrowed eyes from the men in the room.
“There’s a dagger, thought to be mythical but actually not. You know the drill. It can be used to kill the vampire king after it has been spelled by a witch.” She summarised the situation quickly, not wanting to drag the call out any longer than necessary and risk giving Lykos the wrong impression.
“I have heard of it,” Lykos confirmed.
“I need that dagger, Lykos.”
“Then you shall have it.” His answer was immediate and confident.
“Thank you...” she paused.
“There is something else?” She heard the smile in his voice.
“Is this call private, Lykos?”
“It is on my end,” he said knowingly, she smiled and bowed her head. “Talk to me, Aurora.”
“The bond...”
“The one you deny?”
“Yeah, that one. Don’t get cocky, old man.” Her insult was rewarded with the loud, obnoxious laugh that she realised she’d missed in the few days she’d been away from him.
“And there she is, my feisty queen.” Yet more looks were thrown at her from the men in the room. She raised her middle finger at Marco.
“All right, look, I felt it, it’s real, I admit that, but it’s not a mate bond.” She uttered her response quickly, wanting to get the facts out before he took her words and ran with them.
“Then, what is it?” He was smiling again; she could hear it.
“I don’t have a name for it. I only know that I share the same bond with the men who rescued me. They’re mentioned in the prophecy as the Raven Queen’s warriors. There should be six of them, at the moment there are only five.”
“You believe I am your sixth warrior?” He caught on quickly.
“These warriors are supposed to fight beside me and...” She didn’t want to finish.
“Be prepared to defend you with their lives?” Lykos finished for her.
“Yes,” she responded, simply, quietly. The thought of these men, who she was becoming more attached to by the day, dying for her, was not one she wished to dwell on.
“Then I am your sixth, Aurora. Of that you may be certain.” Although she had expected it, she was blown away by his declaration. Lykos, the man who abducted her and insisted she was his mate, was prepared to die for her. “A little overwhelmed by my admission, agapi?”
“You can’t call me that, Lykos.”
“I don’t hear snarling, is he not with you?”
“If you are to become part of this team, you will show respect for my mate.” She showed him her anger at his mocking.
“Spoken like a true queen,” Lykos said, proudly. “I will, of course, respect your mate bond, Aurora. I will not like it and I will never stop hoping that one day you will be mine, but I will respect it.”
“And you won’t deliberately goad Jax into attacking you,” she added. Not that it would take much more than Lykos being in the same room as Jax.
“Of course,” he agreed.
“Shit!” Marco whispered, realising that it was going to happen. Lykos was going to be joining them.
“Welcome aboard, Lykos.” Zane didn’t relish the thought of working with Lykos again, so resolved to let him know who was in charge early on.
“Zane, it will be an honour and a pleasure to work under your command again.” Lykos acknowledged Zane’s authority without question.
“My second in command is Jax, he’s busy right now,” Zane continued. “The others here are Marco Byrne.”
“Yeah,” Marco grumbled at Zane’s nod for him to speak.
“Aurora’s brother,” Lykos acknowledged.
Zane introduced the others using their full names of Cole Stallone and Hunter Ryan before continuing his conversation with Lykos. “I’ll be straight with you Lykos, I know you of old and I didn’t trust you then. Now, after you kidnapped Aurora and held her prisoner, none of us trust you. However, there are two women here who we do trust and both believe we can count on you.”
“Two women...” Lykos wasn’t asking a question.
“Hello, Lykos,” Melaina said.
“I should have known. Well played, Aurora. I trust you are well, Melaina?”
“I am.”
“No offence, commander but the only opinion about which I care, is Aurora’s. I am not worried about being liked or trusted by anyone but my queen. As long as I serve her, you can be sure I will not cause any problems for you and your team.” Lykos addressed Zane, but it was meant for all the men’s ears.
“You’re part of that team, Lykos. Don’t make it difficult,” Aurora told him.
“If it brings me closer to you, in order to protect you, then I will accept that.”
“Lykos, the witch who took me in may have a part to play in this. The dagger needs to be spelled by a witch,” Melaina interjected.
“Worry not, Mel, she will be protected. Have you and Zane discussed this matter yet?”
“No,” Melaina answered and Zane leaned forward, listening closely.
“The witch who cared for Mel as a child is Veronica Harrington. As you are aware, you and I are both familiar with her,” Lykos explained.
“I suspected as much,” Zane smiled.
“I shall allow you to fill the rest of your team in on the details they need,” Lykos said.
“Thanks,” Zane’s response was sarcastic and it amused Aurora to hear it from him. She looked over at him and he winked, shaking his head.
“You think you can get your hands on this dagger, Lykos?” Marco questioned.
“Absolutely. It will take no more than a week. Just tell me where to bring it,” Lykos confirmed.
“There may be a need for us to move around, I will let you know accordingly. You can reach us on this number when you have news,” Zane informed him.
“I will be in touch then, Commander,” Lykos dismissed Zane. “Koraki, a word privately, if we may?”
Aurora sighed and picked up the
phone, ignoring the looks again. “You’re off speaker.”
“Metaniono, I am sorry, Aurora. I failed you. I am not worthy of a place by your side, despite my willingness to love and protect you at all costs. I allowed you to be hurt under my care.” Lykos’s voice was full of regret and sadness.
“You’re talking shit again, Lykos,” she laughed. “Do you need the breath mint or the toilet paper?”
“You could have been killed,” he continued, full of self-loathing. She wasn’t a fan of this version of Lykos. “I should have locked him up instead of giving him the benefit of the doubt.”
“There you go again, showing that human side,” she chuckled and this time he laughed with her.
“Only for you, Aurora. Only for you,” he said, before pulling himself together. “I will be in touch within a week, my queen.
“Make sure you are, warrior,” she joked, and relaxed when he laughed again. “Be safe, Lykos.”
“I thought you didn’t care,” he remarked.
“I didn’t,” she told him and hung up.
“Well, wasn’t that cosy and familiar?” Marco accused. Despite Lykos asking for the call to be private, Aurora had remained in the same room as the others, knowing their shifter hearing was powerful enough to hear his end of the conversation, if they chose to. She had nothing to hide. “Maybe you didn’t need rescuing after all?”
“Fuck you, Marco. I was doing whatever I had to in order to get the fuck out of there. I didn’t know you were coming!” She stuck him with a cold stare across the dining table.
“Did you have to make friends with the man? I mean what good could that possibly do?” He persisted.
“Seriously, Marco? What part of doing whatever I had to did you not understand?” She threw her hands in the air, defeatedly. “You know what, I’m not doing this. I have neither the time nor the crayons to explain it to you.”
Aurora stalked from the room ready to do a little running, or rather flying, of her own. She didn’t get far before Cole grabbed her arm and stopped her. She faced him, hands on hips, ready for another altercation. If these men wanted to work with her, they were going to have to stop trying to control her.
“Let me go with you,” Cole said. “You shouldn’t be alone. Especially now there are people out there who know you’re alive.”
“Lykos isn’t going to come looking for me and try to kill me,” she argued.
“Not him. I don’t exactly trust him, but it’s plain he would do anything for you. I’m talking about Caspian and that vampire, Eldon. Something about him sets me on edge,” Cole explained.
“I was planning on flying,” she told him.
“I have a better idea. Come on,” he winked and loosened his grip on her arm to lead her outside. He handed her the backpack he’d been carrying and then smiled. “Stand back.”
Cole’s stallion was stunning. Black from head to toe but for a patch of white over one eye, in the shape of a bird in flight. His coat was smooth and silky and shone under the light of the moon. Aurora ran her hands over his body and the horse’s muscles rippled at her touch. “You’re beautiful, Cole. Seriously beautiful.”
The horse lowered the front half of his body, inviting Aurora to mount him. Without hesitation, she secured the backpack on her shoulders and climbed onto his back, entwining her fingers in his mane. The horse whinnied and took off through the open gates, disappearing into the surrounding woodland.
Cole made no exceptions for her presence, moving at a speed that reminded her of flying. The wind in her hair was a welcome relief from the sticky heat that still hung in the air. Cantering at full pelt on horseback was as close as you could come to gliding through the clouds without wings, that was for sure.
Reaching the lake, she climbed down off Cole’s back and dropped the backpack to the ground. She took the few steps to the water’s edge and sat down on the patch of sand there, watching the ripples of the water reflect the moon. An owl hooted somewhere nearby and a chorus of toads and crickets sang their unique song. Cole shifted and dressed in clothes from the backpack, joining her a few minutes later, sitting beside her next to the water.
“How are you holding up?” He handed her a bottle of water from the backpack.
“Ah y’know, just hanging here on the corner of awesome and boom diggity.” She opened the bottle, taking a large gulp.
He laughed with her, but quickly became serious again. “It’s a lot to take in and it’s only been a few weeks since you discovered the prophecy. I know my head is spinning, so I can only imagine the way you’re feeling.”
“I don’t really do heart to hearts, Cole,” she told him, with a kind smile.
“Yeah, you’re not like other women, that’s for sure,” he grinned. “In a good way though. I know you’re not going to cry or get emotional on me and honestly, I’m more than okay with that, but I want you to know you can come to me. If you want to go for a ride, sit in silence, beat the hell out of something, whatever you need. I’m your man.”
“I appreciate that,” she paused. “You know what you could do?”
“What?”
“Well, there’s this group of men that have forced their way into my life and I feel incredibly close to them, yet I know virtually nothing about them. I don’t even think I know my brother that well anymore. I feel like we should know each other better than we do.” She put the cap back on the bottle of water and set it down in the sand.
“Well, that’s fair, I suppose. Especially considering we’ve had four years’ worth of inside info on you from Jax and Marco.” He smirked at her horrified look.
“I don’t even want to think about what they might have told you.” She covered her face with her hands.
“Nothing that hasn’t turned out to be true. Marco talked about you as any brother talks about a sister. He admires you, looks up to you and is fiercely protective of you, but you were a pain in his ass as a kid. Jax mainly just spent the last four years brooding about how he wasn’t with you and avoiding all other females like the plague.” Cole paused when Aurora dropped her hands and looked up, disbelief covering her features. “I kid you not. You really shouldn’t doubt how crazy that wolf is about you. He never even looked at another woman, unless it was in a professional capacity, and believe me the opportunity has been there if he wanted it. He’s got tunnel vision for you, Aurora.”
Well, that was a shock. She had to admit she hadn’t thought much about the women Jax may or may not have been with after he left. She just assumed there would have been... some. To hear that there had been none that were important to him was selfishly comforting.
“You’re surprised,” Cole observed.
“Well, yeah. I mean, you’ve seen him.”
“Lack of attention has never been an issue, he’s just not interested in maintaining a relationship with anyone that isn’t you.”
“Wow!” Guilt over her relationship with Caspian came creeping in once again. She had always felt as though she were cheating on Jax with his brother. Their bond made it impossible to ever completely shut out her love for him. He was a permanent presence in her soul. Having no idea of his reasons for leaving, or that he intended to return to her, she had simply believed Jax didn’t want her and had done what she could to move on from him.
“Has your relationship always been like this?”
“Love hate?” she asked, with an eyebrow quirked.
“Yes, exactly.”
“No. We were inseparable, always getting into crazy shit. We never stopped laughing. The only time we ever fought was the day he left.” Her admission was filled with melancholy and yearning for something she felt she couldn’t ever have again.
“You miss your best friend.”
“I do,” she confessed with slumped shoulders.
“Maybe you should try and get back your friendship first, before sealing the bond.”
“Maybe,” she sighed. “If there’s anything there to get back. I’m different now, he’s different now.”
“You’re still the same people you were then, Aurora, you’ve just grown up,” Cole advised. “You’re a woman now, and Jax? Well, then he was just a boy who liked you. Now, he’s a man who craves your soul. Neither of you really understood the mate bond then, you merely knew you liked each other more than you liked anyone else. It’s no less love that he feels for you now, if anything it’s stronger. It’s a love that grew with him, as yours did with you. You would do anything for each other, without question and anyone who comes between you will pay the price.”
“Are we really that transparent?”
“Your feelings glow like a beacon. It’s difficult to miss the way you instinctively gravitate towards one another. No matter where one of you is, the other is constantly aware of them. Think of earlier; Jax wanted to be alone and you knew that, but you still knew where he was and how he felt. You know exactly where he is now, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“And he knows where you are too.”
“He does.” She stretched out her legs on the sand and leaned back on her hands. “You’re walking a very thin line here, Cole, getting me to do the feelings talk.”
“I’m succeeding though. You intend to seal the bond eventually, don’t you?”
“I don’t see us not sealing the bond,” she conceded.
“Have you told him that?”
She thought for a few seconds before she answered. “He knows.”
“You’re sure?”
“I told him I can’t imagine ever wanting to be with anyone else.”
“But have you actually said you want to seal the bond?”
“Maybe not those words.”
“Then you should. Perhaps if you tell him you still want that, but you need time for the trust to come back, he will be easier to live with.” The corner of Cole’s mouth tipped in a half smile; he chose his words carefully. “It could be he just needs that confirmation. Particularly since Lykos is going to be around.”
“Lykos isn’t a threat to him.” She shook her head. “Nobody is a threat to him.”
“Tell him that, Aurora.”
“You’re right.” She looked at Cole, the sneaky little worm. “You made me do the heart to heart, Cole. You were supposed to tell me about you.”
The Raven Queen Page 26
