The Raven Queen

by Emma Jayne Mills

  “I will be solely responsible for his actions,” Lykos pressed. “You have my word, Aurora, that I will not instruct him to move against you or any member of this team. If he should do so, I will kill him myself.”

  -What do you think, Jax?

  -My wolf wants to kill him, but my gut says if he’s here, we can watch him, stop him from causing any more trouble for us.

  -Same as Lykos then

  -Keep your enemies close.

  -I agree. Tell him.

  “You do as you are told, you keep your head down, your mouth shut and never at any point do you attempt to be alone with Aurora.” Jax pushed the power of his alpha wolf into his voice to instruct his brother.

  “Understood,” Caspian lowered his eyes and submitted to his brother.

  “You are all to watch him like hawks! Do not assume he can be trusted.” Jax met the eyes of each of the other men in turn, until he got to Lykos. “He’s staying because of you, if he fucks up it’s because you’ve allowed it. You’ll be out with him.”

  “I don’t think that’s your decision to make, little king.”

  “As the queen’s mate, I was tasked with finding and putting together her team of warriors. I am her chief warrior as well as her mate. Are you questioning my authority?” Jax demanded, calmly.

  “When you have a sealed mate bond, perhaps I will defer to your lead. Until then, I answer only to Aurora,” Lykos snarled back.

  “I agree with Jax.” Aurora rose from the table, needing space and time to think. “Fighting him, is the same as fighting me. Are you going to fight me, Lykos?”

  Aurora and Lykos stared at each other for several silent minutes, a war of unspoken words going back and forth in their expressions. The team watched as alpha powered off against alpha. Lykos had the utmost respect for Aurora, but that did not extend to her mate currently.

  -You ask too much of this alpha wolf, Koraki.

  -I ask for your trust and your respect for my mate.

  -I cannot respect a man you refuse to seal a bond with.

  “Our bond is not your concern!” Aurora slammed her fists on the table and glared at Lykos.

  The others in the room looked between the two in confusion, until Jax spoke quietly. “Can you hear him?”

  “Yes,” Aurora breathed and turned her head to meet her mate’s eyes.

  “We are bound, Koraki,” Lykos smiled, smugly.

  “I’m about to wear your face on my fist!” Jax threatened, menacingly.

  “It had to be him, didn’t it? It had to be him first!” Marco spat, throwing his arms in the air defeatedly.

  Aurora took a few breaths, regaining her composure and faced the group, looking to Zane, seeking his okay to address the team. He nodded, assuming her intention was to move on to the book of prophecies.

  “Caspian, you said you had news of the book,” Aurora prompted him.

  “Your Dad had it all along,” Caspian revealed. “He made me give it to him before the poker game.”

  “Stop!” Aurora screamed at her brother, her arm flying out to halt his attack on Caspian. She lowered her voice. “If Dad used his power as the alpha, Caspian had to give the book up. This is your final chance though, Caspian. You need to tell us everything. I won’t protect you again if you keep things from us.”

  Caspian nodded his understanding. Marco lowered himself back into the chair he had sprung from.

  “Talk!” Jax growled, holding onto his anger.

  “The poker game was a ruse. He knew if the book went missing, it would get Jax out in the open and hopefully bring him back to Shadow Fen, once he saw Aurora again.” Caspian looked at his brother. “Connell wanted you back home, so he could school you, the way he was Aurora. The book was never missing. Until the poker game, it was in my cabin where Aurora left it. He forced me to give it up and go along with the fake mission in Dublin.”

  “So, he deliberately put them in the same place at the same time. Then, when he realised Aurora and Jax weren’t going to fall back into each other’s arms and play nice, he came up with the tournament,” Marco assumed.

  “Yes, only by then, I was already talking to Lykos about getting Aurora out of there. He approached me about her months before. He knew her identity and wanted her for himself, but you know all that. There was an element of wanting what he could give me, I admit, but it was also about getting you away from Connell.” Caspian looked at Aurora, regret blanketing his features. “I knew he wasn’t doing anything out of love for you anymore.”

  “Where do the vampires come in?” Aurora asked, ignoring Caspian’s hint that his actions came from caring about her.

  “Connell had one erase the rogue who was hired to hit the poker game,” Caspian said.

  “Name?” Jax prompted, getting information from his brother was like getting blood from a stone.

  “Eldon,” Caspian said. Various angry reactions took place among the shifters around the room.

  “Where is the book now?” Zane asked.

  “Connell has it locked in his office in the jail house,” Caspian supplied.

  “We need to inform Drake,” Aurora said, pushing her emotional reaction to the news aside. “I think Ambrosios could be working with my father too. The book in the auction was a fake. I’m almost certain it was put in to entice would be tournament entrants into the open. That lion shifter mentioned something about wanting the information first. What’s the betting that anyone who expressed an interest in the book was taken out there and then?”

  “Eliminate the competition,” Jax agreed. “If Eldon was working with Ambrosios all along, he would have known who had the dagger. Putting you at the auction was their opportunity to take Lykos and me out and drag you back to Shadow Fen.”

  “The auction was a fake in more ways than one,” Hunter stated.

  “Exactly,” she nodded.

  “We’ve been running around like fucking idiots at my father’s will for weeks!” Marco fumed.

  “What now?” Melaina spoke for the first time, having once again listened closely but had no input in the conversation.

  “We need to tighten security. I’ll see if HQ has a team in the area to join us. Marco and Hunter take first guard of the grounds,” Zane instructed, then looked to Aurora to continue.

  “Cole, Mel, can you start looking into the tournament? Caspian will help. We need dates, location, that kind of thing.” Aurora laid out instructions, but it was evident in her tone that she had resorted to autopilot. Her words held no feeling, none of her usual fire, only a list of what needed to be done.

  “I’ll get in touch with HQ, see if they can give us any info,” Cole said, looking at Aurora with obvious concern. “We’re due a check in anyway.”

  “I’ll contact Drake,” Zane offered and Aurora nodded her agreement. “Anything else you want me to do?”

  “Can you and Lykos see if you can find out about the entrants to the tournament? It could help if we know who our enemies are. As alphas, you can both dig around legitimately and not raise suspicion. I’m assuming the belief that Lykos and I are mated is no longer relevant, so he would have a reason to want in on the tournament.” Aurora continued, pausing only to glance up at Lykos, who told her silently that he would do whatever was needed to assist. “Jax and I are going into town to look around and see if we can get any information on this witch. Mel, do you have an address?”

  “You’re looking for Harrington Hall. It’s on the edge of town in the woods, but you won’t find it,” Melaina supplied. “Harrington Hall is protected by magic, unseen by anyone who isn’t invited.”

  “It’s true, I have a vague memory of where it is, but nothing definite,” Zane informed her. “Veronica frequents the town’s market regularly though.”

  “If you find her…” Melaina began.

  “We’ll come back for you first,” Aurora assured her before looking to Zane. “Anything to add, commander?”

  “All good.” Zane smiled at her.

  “You,” Au
rora pointed at Lykos, regaining some of her fierceness. “I’m not done with you, I want to speak to you later, don’t disappear.”

  -I look forward to our time together, agapi.

  “Stay the fuck out of my head!” Aurora snapped, standing with Jax to leave.

  “As you wish, Koraki,” Lykos bowed his head slightly and smiled.

  The Irish Rover was all dark wood and Irish décor, set on a cobbled street, in a town that screamed old England at you from the second you set foot in it. The busy market on the high street was filled with smiling faces, each one waving to the next and stopping to chat without a care in the world. It was what she sensed beneath the surface that worried Aurora about the place.

  An unseen, foreboding haze hung over Frost Ford, heavy with the weight of oppression and darkness. It was magical in its origins, Aurora could sense it, dark magic. A curse, perhaps? One that had existed in the town for many years, affecting the lives of all who lived there.

  “How are we supposed to fight a fucking war when all we do is fight amongst ourselves?” Aurora said, morosely as she and Jax entered the small town’s only pub.

  “We’ll figure it out, so many dominant personalities in one place is never going to be easy.” Jax rubbed her shoulder while they waited at the almost empty bar. A police officer sat at the far end, eating a plate of food and a dark-haired woman stood opposite him on other side of the bar.

  “Do you think there’s a reason behind it?”

  “So many alphas? I guess only the book can tell us that,” he said, wondering what reason there could be, but knowing there must be one. Maybe it was just down to the need for absolute power to make sure the raven queen succeeded this time.

  “It would just be nice to understand it.”

  “I know you’re not ok, Rory, you don’t have to pretend with me.”

  “I can’t deal with it right now. I’ll get to it, just not yet.”

  “I know,” he rubbed her shoulder again. “Shite, do you think the fella who owns this place has even been to Ireland? Look at it. Why do the English think this is what all Irish pubs look like?”

  “The owner was born and bred in Dublin,” the dark-haired barmaid interjected. She looked at them with suspicion, as she fiddled with a row of bracelets on her wrist.

  “Was he, now? And what about you?” Jax grinned, attempting to draw a smile from her.

  “New in town?” the police officer moved in beside them.

  “Just visiting.” Aurora smiled at him.

  “We don’t like trouble in this town,” he told her. “And you look like trouble.”

  “Oh, I’m all kinds of trouble.” She winked at the officer, also unable to draw a smile from him.

  “Are you looking for Mick?” the woman asked them.

  “Never heard of him,” Jax told her. “Wouldn’t mind a drink though.”

  “What can I get you?” she relented, seeming to relax slightly at his ignorance of Mick, whoever he was.

  “Well, if the owner is Irish, we’d better try his Guinness,” Jax said.

  “We’re not here to cause trouble, we’re just passing through on the way to visit an old friend.” Aurora inspected the police officer, there was something about him and the woman, something different.

  “You don’t pass through Frost Ford. You were either born here or you’re hiding here.” He nodded once, still not smiling and turned away, walking back to the other end of the bar, where he sat on a stool and resumed eating his lunch.

  -They’re bonded! Aurora’s voice sounded in Jax’s head.

  -Like us? But they’re human!

  -Not entirely, it’s buried deep, they’ll never know, but it’s there.

  -Wolves?

  -He is, she’s a witch.

  “Anything else?” The woman placed two pints of Guinness on the bar

  “A menu, I could eat a horse!” Jax patted his stomach.

  The woman turned her back and grabbed two menus from behind the bar. “I’ll be back to take your order in a few minutes.”

  She walked away, towards the policeman and rounded the bar to stand next to him. He abandoned his food and reached out automatically, drawing her body into his and turning on his stool so she could stand between his legs. They spoke in hushed voices, but Jax and Aurora could hear every word.

  “Do you think they’re connected to Killian?” she whispered.

  “I don’t think so, they seem genuine. Nobody connected to the Murrays would bother coming here now.” He kissed her forehead and she leaned into him.

  “I can’t stand not knowing, Adam!”

  “I know, Angel, I know.”

  “The witch and her wolf!” Aurora gasped.

  “What?” Jax frowned.

  “Do you remember the story?”

  “The one your Gran used to tell us? You actually believe that?”

  “Not at the time, but with everything else we’ve found out recently, why not? The witch and the wolf were madly in love, but she was burned at the stake. She cast a spell as she was burning, stating that they would find each other in every lifetime thereafter.”

  “They didn’t though, they kept missing each other, dying before they could find one another,” Jax remembered.

  “Until the magic was so filtered in their blood that they were nothing more than human, then they finally met. Their love was unbreakable, soul bonded like shifters and destined to be together always.” She smiled dreamily at the couple, whose bodies were still entwined around each other, unable to spend more than a second not touching.

  “There’s a romantic in there after all,” Jax murmured in Aurora’s ear, his closeness sending shivers over her body.

  “Look at them, Jax.” She moved her head so his lips could caress her neck. “They’re so in love.”

  “The human version of us,” he smiled, watching the human couple laugh together.

  “Only their bond is sealed,” Aurora’s voice became wistful.

  “Soon, wild thing.” He turned her in his arms and smiled down at her.

  “Soon.” She smiled back up at him.

  “Do you need another minute?” The woman’s amused voice interrupted their moment.

  “We’ll take two of whatever he’s eating.” Jax nodded over to the police officer. “That looks good!”

  “Two Cajun chicken baguettes, but you won’t want it the way he eats it.” She couldn’t help but smile as she looked at her lover.

  “How’s that?” Aurora wanted to know.

  “Filled with salt and vinegar crisps and gallons of salad cream.” She pulled a disgusted face.

  “I want mine exactly like that!” Jax announced.

  “Um…” she paused.

  “Looks like we both bagged ourselves freaks. I’m Aurora, by the way,” she introduced herself.

  “Callie,” the woman smiled and shook the hand Aurora offered.

  “Callie? I thought I heard him call you something else.” Aurora frowned while more dots connected.

  “He calls me Angel. I have a lot of nick names. It seems like I’m easy to give a nick name to. I don’t know why, I mean, it’s not like I have a common name and they could mix me up with anyone else.” She lifted her hands and dropped them to her sides in exasperation. “I’ll get you those sandwiches.”

  “Wait, Callindra?” Aurora asked and Callie stopped in her tracks.

  “How do you know that?” She frowned, as she turned back to face them.

  “Have you ever read a story called the witch and the wolf?”

  “Well, I read a lot of paranormal romance books, there are dozens with that title.”

  “It’s not a book, more a myth, an old Celtic legend. Look it up, I think you’ll like it.”

  “I might just do that.” Callie walked away.

  “Why did you tell her that?” Jax asked.

  “Her name is Callindra, Jax. That was the witch’s name. I just wanted her to know.”

  “You like her,” Jax teased.

&n
bsp; “What if I do?” she defended.

  “Don’t ever change, Rory.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and she rolled her eyes at him.

  Aurora and Jax further ascertained that the witch they were looking for was a recluse, rarely seen around the town except for market day and she had already been out that morning. Callie had mysteriously told them that if Veronica Harrington wanted to speak to them, she would find them. They should just wait for her to come to them.

  “We got a message while you were out,” Melaina announced, when Aurora and Jax returned to the safe house later that afternoon.

  “From who?” Jax asked.

  “Fucking Santa Claus!” Hunter grumbled.

  “What?”

  “That thing,” Hunter shuddered and pointed at an envelope on the kitchen table. “Floated down the fucking chimney!”

  “Hunter is freaked out by the magic.” Melaina rolled her eyes.

  “What does it say?” Aurora asked, moving towards the table.

  “No idea, it’s addressed to you, nobody else can open it.” Melaina laughed and waggled her fingers at Hunter.

  “Fucking voodoo!” Hunter murmured, opening in the fridge, and pulling out a plate of steaks. “I’m cooking these, who wants one?”

  “Yeah.” Jax frowned at the envelope that bore Aurora’s name in delicate scrolls. “Why haven’t you opened it?”

  “What part of we can’t, did you not get?” Melaina asked.

  “Fucking voodoo, I’m telling ya!” Hunter clattered around in a cupboard looking for a pan to fry the steaks, then looked at Melaina. “You helping me, or what?”

  “I told you I would,” she stated, watching as Jax reached out to touch the envelope.

  The paper slid out of his reach just as his fingers were about to make contact. Jax grunted and reached out again, the envelope slid further out of his reach and Aurora giggled, delightedly. Encouraging his mate’s lighter mood, he leaned over the table to slam his hand down on top of it and it flew into the air. Jax lost his balance and collapsed on the table while the envelope circled his head.