“I was looking forward to playing with him.” Marco hung his head, sorrowfully.
“I will never be able to show my face here again. The hotel is going to blacklist me.” Lykos mentally added sofa to the growing list of destroyed items in the suite.
“I told you not to put him near the windows,” Aurora told Jax.
“Which one of you dicks opened the fucking curtains!” Jax shook his head in disbelief.
“I’m going to shower.” Aurora stood up, grabbed another pastry from the tray and extracted herself from Jax’s embrace.
“Want help?” Jax watched her walk away.
“You may use my bathroom, Koraki.” Lykos was unable to resist the jibe at Jax.
“No, thanks,” Aurora called over her shoulder and left the suite to use one of the other rooms on the floor.
“She was talking to you,” Lykos aimed at Jax.
“No, she was talking to you, dick splash,” Jax shot back. He begrudgingly shoved one of the pastries into his mouth and swallowed his moan of delight at the melt in the mouth sweetness. He grabbed a plate and filled it with four more of the little parcels.
“I very much doubt that,” Lykos continued, taking a seat next to Jax.
“Oh, for crying out loud, she was talking to both of you!” Melaina cut in, as she entered the suite, having seen Aurora in the hallway. “She said to get ready, she wants to do animal intros before the humans start to wake up. Ooh, diples!” Melaina reached for the tray in the middle of the table and took a bite of the honey dipped pastry. “So good, missed your cooking, boss.”
“It seems you aren’t the only one,” Lykos grinned triumphantly, watching Aurora jog back into the room, lean over Jax, grab a pastry from his plate and drop a kiss on Lykos’s cheek.
“Did you just kiss him?” Jax demanded.
“I didn’t slip him the tongue, don’t worry.” Aurora winked and walked away.
“If you cooked for her, maybe she’d kiss you too,” Lykos smarmed.
“I’ve got something for you to kiss, old man!” Jax stood, lifting his middle finger at Lykos, before tracking Aurora from the room.
“I used to date a human girl who had a white German Shepherd,” Hunter quipped when Lykos shifted into his white wolf. The wolf bared its teeth in response and Hunter laughed, unperturbed.
“Shut up and shift, Hunter,” Zane commanded.
“You’re the boss. Just know that if my beast decides to eat that ball of fluff, I’m not stopping it.” Hunter ceremoniously dropped the only clothing he was wearing, while swivelling his hips, and humming stripper music. He stepped out of the black jeans that pooled at his ankles. He stretched his arms above his head then curled them and flexed his biceps. Looking over his shoulder at Aurora and Melaina he winked. “Stand by for the king of the mother fucking jungle, ladies.”
The lion yawned, and stretched its limbs, preening in the same way Hunter had before the shift. It scented the air and looked around, inspecting the group of people surrounding it without urgency. Spotting Aurora, he loped the few steps it took to cover the distance between them and rubbed his cheek against her hip. She buried her fingers in his mane and scratched his head. The lion made a low rumbling sound in its chest, about as close to purring as the big cat was going to get.
The scent of Lykos’s wolf drifted towards the lion on the early morning breeze and a growl ended the peaceful moment with his queen. The lion turned, positioning itself between the wolf and the queen, protecting her. The alpha wolf didn’t take kindly to this move, seeing it as an act of dominance and aggression. The lion was a threat to the woman he saw as not only his queen, but his intended mate.
“Lykos, Hunter is not a threat,” Aurora called out to the wolf, who was now snarling, hackles raised. “He is your packmate, you will accept him.”
The wolf’s demeanour changed with Aurora’s command and his snarls subsided somewhat. He moved towards the lion, who prowled forward and met him halfway. The two animals scented one another, warily moving in a circle for several breath stealing minutes, before eventually accepting the other’s existence.
Marco and Cole’s animals met with Lykos in much the same way. Cole’s stallion, much to Jax and Hunter’s amusement, reared up and almost kicked the wolf. His hooves narrowly missed the wolf’s nose. Although their animals already knew each other, Zane shifted and reintroduced his bear to Lykos’s wolf. Things were a little dicey for a few minutes; the wolf not wanting to accept the bear as the commanding alpha, but with assistance from Aurora, they pulled it off.
“This should be interesting,” Marco muttered, when it came to Jax’s turn.
“Everyone on your guard, both of their wolves see Aurora as their mate, this could get physical,” Zane instructed the men.
“I can control my wolf, Zane,” Jax snapped.
Jax tugged his t-shirt over his head and shoved his sweatpants down his legs. He left his clothes in a pile on the ground and walked over to Aurora. Wrapping his arms around her from behind, he leaned down to rub his cheek on hers and mark her with his scent.
“Get on with it, Jax. We don’t have time for a performance,” Aurora chastised him, but tilted her head and allowed him to caress her neck with his lips, nonetheless.
“Mine!” Jax lifted his eyes to look directly at the white wolf, who watched closely from a few metres away. Seconds later, a black wolf faced the white one. Although in complete contrast to each other, they were equally matched in size and stunning in their animal forms.
“That is one hell of a sight,” Melaina whispered, nudging Aurora.
“Yeah,” Aurora agreed.
She watched the two wolves closely, anxiously anticipating their every move. She had always found Jax’s wolf beautiful, a completely black wolf being rare in its existence, but Lykos’s pure white animal equalled that beauty. They took her breath away.
The wolves were at a stand-off; watching, snarling, on their guard, both wanting to be next to Aurora and seeing the other as a threat. The white wolf was unhappy that this new one held Aurora’s scent, he wanted it gone. Aurora stepped between the two, extending a hand in either direction to each wolf.
“All right, boys, let’s do this the easy way, huh?” She spoke calmly, her voice soft and soothing. She patted her thigh. “Jax, c’mere.”
Jax padded over to her side without hesitation. He leaned against her hip and she buried her hand in his fur. After a few moments, Aurora looked at Lykos.
“Your turn, old man,” she called to the white wolf and snapped her fingers. Lykos moved to her other side, she put a hand on his neck and crouched between the two wolves.
“Aurora,” there was a clear warning in Zane’s voice.
“I know you don’t like each other,” Aurora acknowledged Zane with a quick nod, and whispered to the wolves. “But you have to find a way to work together. You’re pack.” The wolves continued to snarl, their aggression building despite Aurora’s direction. After a few minutes of attempting to unite them, she saw no other way than to leave them to it. She shrugged her shoulders and sighed, stepping away from them. “All right, you two, have at it.”
The wolves launched themselves at each other as soon as Aurora was out of their space. Connecting in mid-air, their teeth clashed as their bodies met and fell, tangled, to the ground. The snarls grew louder, almost deafening to a human ear, as they thrashed on the roof of the hotel, rolling closer and closer to the edge.
“They’re equally matched,” Cole observed.
“No, they’re not,” Aurora answered, drawing his gaze back to the fighting wolves.
Aurora was fully aware that Jax had been duping Lykos, allowing him to think they were matched in strength or even that he was weaker. It was the way he’d always fought; briefly allowing his opponent to gain a false sense of security, then catching them off guard and going in with all his power. A fight with Jax was rarely a drawn-out affair. He liked to get the job done and move on, not toy with his opponents in the way Lykos did.<
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Jax’s wolf snared the white wolf’s neck in its teeth and pinned it to the ground, its head hanging over the edge of the roof. The white wolf fought, kicking, and twisting its body, refusing to be seen as the weaker animal. Aurora was tempted to step in, force them to shift and declare them equal simply to put an end to their ridiculous rivalry, but something stopped her. This was about more than introducing their wolves, so much more. This was a fight, between the two wolves who would claim her as their mate, for dominance within the pack. It needed to happen. Jax had to gain dominance over Lykos or their rivalry would never cease. If Lykos came out on top, his wolf would deem himself worthy of challenging Jax as her mate. After putting up a fight to be proud of, Lykos went still in Jax’s grip. The white wolf reluctantly submitted to the black wolf, accepting his own role as the lower ranking alpha and Jax’s position as Aurora’s mate.
The animals separated. Jax’s wolf stood in front of Aurora and waited for Lykos to turn away from the fight first, retreating to shift, before he did the same. Lykos shifted and Hunter threw his clothes at him. He dressed and moved to stand on Aurora’s right. In a pack, her beta would stand on her left, unless she had an alpha mate, in which case the beta would move to the right, giving her mate priority. Lykos was acknowledging Aurora as his alpha and making his position known to the rest of the pack. Not an easy thing for an alpha wolf to do and she appreciated his willingness to do so.
The black wolf moved a few steps away and shifted. Jax walked towards them, catching the clothing that was thrown at him and pulling it on as he moved. He stopped in front of Aurora, crowding her space, and grinning cockily. Wrapping a hand around her neck, he stooped slightly and slanted his mouth over hers. His hand moved into her hair and wrapping it around his fist, he pulled back and smiled down at her.
-Mine.
-Yeah, yeah. Don’t milk it, arse wipe.
They shared another intimate kiss as the group dispersed, leaving only Jax, Aurora and Lykos on the roof.
“Are you two going to play nice?” Aurora looked from one man to the other when she pulled away from Jax.
“No promises,” Jax laughed, shoving his feet back into his boots.
“I can’t guarantee that, Koraki,” Lykos added, with a quirk of his lips.
“Just have each other’s backs, ok? If nothing else, at least that,” Aurora looked for a compromise.
“As long as he fights for you, I’ll back him.” Jax draped a possessive arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side as they began to follow the rest of the team inside.
“Of course, if we are to be convincing in our plan this evening, I will have to mark her with my scent…” his words trailed off as Lykos dodged Jax’s punch. “Relax, little king, I will only mark her a little.”
Aurora rolled her eyes and left them to it. Some things, she realised, were not going to change.
Chapter Fourteen
The bond may be stretched,
but it shall never fray.
“I’m not doing it!” Aurora paced the floor of the room she and Jax had taken in the hotel.
“Not doing what?” Jax wore only a towel, using another to dry his hair as he walked through the door from the bathroom to the bedroom.
“The marking, it’s not necessary,” she told him, failing miserably at keeping her eyes off his perfectly formed abs.
“Yes, it is.” Jax frowned at her, wondering if she was thinking straight, but one look at her face told him she was serious. “Rory, you can’t walk in there unclaimed. They know who you are, it’ll be carnage.”
“I can take care of myself, weren’t you paying attention last night?” She moved closer to him, hooking her fingers over the edge of the towel that was gathered at his waist. His stomach clenched and something lower jumped to attention, as she fluttered a path across his stomach with her fingers.
“We weren’t outnumbered last night. In there, you will be. Plus, the likelihood of there being more than shifters at this thing is high. You need to be safe.” Jax struggled to focus, her touch drove him insane at the best of times, but their active evening and the fight with Lykos had left him hyped and in need of the kind of release only she could give him.
“We’ll be outnumbered whether I’m marked or not, it makes no difference.” She looked up at him, deliberately flexing her fingers on his waist.
“That’s a low move.” Jax reached down, securing her hands tightly and fixed her eyes with his. “Distracting me with sex is not the way to get what you want. I’m a patient wolf. I’ve waited this long to have you. Being close to you is driving me insane, but I can go longer. Remember, I’m an alpha too, Rory. Don’t test me.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she feigned innocence.
“Sure,” he grinned at her, lowering his head, and touching his lips to hers.
“Lykos scenting me isn’t a good idea, Jax, don’t you see that? I won’t do it to you, I won’t do it to us.” She moved back from him slightly, refusing his next attempt to kiss her.
“I can handle it, if it means you’re safe,” he assured her, pulling her back to him, forcefully. “You’re doing this, we’re doing this and you and I will be just fine come the end of it.”
She accepted his kiss then, blocking him from her mind, but not before he caught the tail end of the thoughts running through it. Lykos, as much as Jax hated to admit it, was the only one on the team, aside from Zane, who could protect her the same way he could. He was going to have to force the issue.
The flight to Crete from the mainland was a short one. Hunter and Cole had done the admin required to secure a place to store the plane and organise vehicles for their onward journey.
“Everybody clear on their part?” Zane asked, as they gathered beside the two black SUV’s. The team had gone over the plan many times, but Zane never left anything to chance. He was nothing if not thorough.
“Let’s go.” Aurora moved towards the front vehicle. She was dressed in a figure hugging, floor length, red gown. The straps tied in a halter around her neck and left her back bare from the waist up. The dress was designed to skim every curve and attract attention, but also to be practical, in that the bare back could give way for her wings, should she need them.
“Wait,” Jax halted her, aching to pull her to him and touch her. Her body in that dress had been driving him out of his mind since she’d put it on. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“We agreed, Jax.” She fixed her glare on him, dropping her block on their connection and picking up his intention.
“I don’t recall agreeing to anything. Lykos, mark her,” Jax ordered.
“I had thought to do that in private,” Lykos remarked, a hint of respect for Jax’s authority creeping in. “You do not need to watch it happen.”
“Do it now,” Jax’s eyes hadn’t left Aurora’s. While he didn’t want to watch the other man mark his mate, he didn’t want it happening without his eyes on her either. He also knew that, given the opportunity, Aurora wouldn’t allow Lykos to go through with it.
“Jax,” she seethed, her eyes turning black.
“What’s the matter, Rory? Afraid you’ll like it?” He baited, deliberately pushing her to the point of anger.
“What?” She hammered silently on his mental block, demanding he let her in. He refused to back down.
“Well, let’s not forget you stayed in that castle by choice, after all. You allowed him to mark you as his and parade you around in front of his pack like a mate. I’m curious, was it really all an act? We both know you could have got out of there at any point.”
“Are you seriously going there again?” She remembered the way he’d goaded her before, to force her into harnessing her own powers and remove the silver collar. Then, it had simply been a way to get her to believe in her own power. Now, it seemed he was serious.
“Nothing was resolved last time, go on,” he looked to Lykos. “Mark her, make her yours, that’s what you want. Maybe it’s what she wants. I mean
, the only reason we’re together is because our bond is unbreakable. We’re tied together because of a prophecy she doesn’t even believe in. The feelings aren’t real, are they, Rory?”
-Are you saying you don’t trust me?
-It’s not a good feeling, it is, baby?
-Fine. Always remember, Jax, you asked for this.
-You left me no choice.
“Do it,” Aurora told Lykos, through gritted teeth. “Erase every trace of him.”
Lykos moved in behind Aurora, snaking one hand around her waist and threading the fingers of the other one through her hair. He wound her long tendrils around his fist and yanked her head back forcefully. If Jax wanted a show, Lykos intended to enjoy every second of giving him one. He drew his nose along the curve of Aurora’s neck, pausing to kiss her jawbone. The quickening of heartbeat echoed in his ears and her skin flushed, a reaction he’d dreamed of gaining from her. Her response fuelled his desire, filling him with emotion. Struggling to numb his wolf’s innate need to bite and begin a mate bond, he moved to her other side. Lifting her hair, he covered the nape of her neck in slow, sensuous, kisses.
Jax warred with the hard breaths and muted snarls of his wolf, pacing in the cage of his human skin. He scented not only Lykos’s desire, but his love and adoration for Aurora. The iron will of an alpha was the only thing holding him back, as Lykos flexed his fingers on Aurora’s waist. The other man moved his hand up to skim his palm across her breasts, pulling a gasp from her. Pausing, he lifted his eyes to Jax’s and flashed him a satisfied smile. His eyes lowered to watch the path his hand continue its journey upwards, to secure his fingers around her throat. He whispered quiet words into her ear while he marked her with his scent, kissing every inch of exposed skin he could see.
Jax, sensing his own musk being covered by the stench of another wolf, wanted nothing more than to yank the other man away from his mate and cover her with his own scent once more, but he had to see this through. There was no way he could allow his stubborn mate to walk into a pack of potential hostiles unmarked and Lykos was his only way of stopping that from happening. He concentrated on his mate bond, feeling along it for the love they shared through the anger that Aurora sent his way. He found it, as strong as ever and resolved that this was the right thing to do. It was the best way to ensure her safety without being with her himself.
The Raven Queen Page 33
