“Mel?” Aurora’s astonished whisper sounded harsh in the empty air.
Veronica nodded, glancing towards the door. “I must speak quickly. Your pack is restless. Their protective instincts are kicking in and they want you back beside them. Melaina came to me as a broken teen, unable to remember her beginnings, having been kept in captivity for so long by a deceitful master. Her wounds go deep, but she remembers little of that time.”
“But she’s a shifter, I can see her animal.”
“She is born of witch and shifter bloodlines. Descended from which coven, I do not know. She was unable to control her animal. In the beginning, she attacked and fought, shifting at every emotional upheaval. I believe she was forced to fight in cat form but it is only a feeling. I cannot see her past, only snippets of her future and then there is little detail because I believe her path is not yet set.”
“So, what happened to her animal? It’s like it’s dormant.”
“I had no choice, for her safety and mine, to put her animal into a state of deep sleep. It is there, aware of what is happening around it, but unable to rise to the surface.”
“Does she know she’s a witch?”
“No, those powers I bound,” Veronica sighed. “It was not a decision I made lightly. Her magic rests on the cusp of light and dark, with the ability to step either way.”
“You mean she could be evil?”
“Easily, if she chooses it. The decision to reveal her legacy is entirely yours, Aurora. As the raven, you are the most powerful of the three queens, but it is your combined power that gives you the ability to complete the prophecy. You can succeed without the third queen, but it will be a harder, bloodier battle and many lives will be lost. You must decide if Melaina is worth the risk.”
“How am I meant to decide that? She’s good. I see no evil in her. I can’t make decisions about someone’s future.”
“You are a queen. You must find the courage to make the decisions that others cannot. Nobody said it was a pleasant task, but it is one you must fully embrace. Melaina killed several men in cold blood before I bound her. Men who meant her no harm, merely came upon her at the wrong time. She killed them with her magic, not her animal, although that has killed too.”
“Maybe she killed out of fear. If she was caged for so long, how could she know any other way?”
“And there lies your quandary. I cannot see your decision, only that you make the right one.” Veronica laid her hands over Aurora’s. “Make your decision with your heart, your mind and your gut. They must all agree. If one does not, it is the wrong decision.”
Aurora thanked Veronica and left the house to join the team. Jax immediately picked up on her whirling thoughts. A silent conversation between them told him the basics on the drive back to the safe house, she would give him details when they were alone.
“So, what now? We just go back and wait for another letter from Santa?” Hunter asked.
“What else can we do?” Melaina responded.
“I suppose sometimes you just have to handle things one what the fuck moment at a time.” Aurora shrugged, preoccupied with Veronica’s revelations.
“The Raven Pack, I like that,” Cole pondered after a few moments of silence.
“Me too,” Aurora looked from Jax to her brother. “No use pretending we’re part of the Shadow Pack anymore.”
“The Raven Pack is more badass anyway.” Jax winked and leaned over to kiss her temple.
“How does Lykos fit, he’s still got his own pack?” Marco asked.
“Who says he can’t have his own pack and be part of ours?” Aurora said with a smile. “New pack, new rules.”
“My pack are your pack, Koraki, they accepted you as their queen, that has not changed.” Lykos returned her smile.
“The Raven Pack it is then,” Zane clapped his hands together, feeling positive about their future and whatever they would face.
The group had begun the transformation from a team of warriors into a family the moment Aurora had joined them and they all felt the warrior bond snap into place. Since figuring out that they all had a possible connection, the alphas among them had managed to open that communication with each other and with the other pack members. Aurora didn’t think it was coincidence that the alphas in the group were the ones who had opened their connections first, being the most powerful.
They had spent time playing around with the mind control bond, as Marco had named it, since Jax and Lykos connected. Abandoning the beat the shite out of each other theory, they soon discovered that Jax, Zane, Lykos and Aurora were able to communicate silently as a group and separately between themselves. The process had taken a lot of concentration and a more than a little practice, but they eventually found they could also form a network of connections and communicate with the other pack members -Hunter, Cole, and Marco. It was a one-way connection at present and would take more practice to open the links both ways. Zane suspected the others would fall into place once Jax and Aurora sealed their mate bond. If their joined power was as strong as Veronica and the prophecy claimed, there was bound to affect the entire pack.
His hand moved, lazily, along her side, slowly caressing the skin that covered her ribs and reaching around to cup her breast. She moaned at the feel of him, her sleepy mind thinking she could be brought around to the idea of morning sex. His body pressed against her back, the evidence of his arousal hard against her. She pushed back against him and his rough growl dragged her fully from sleep. This wasn’t Caspian, this was Jax. His hand stalled in its journey when her body stiffened. He had assumed her awake and responsive, her thoughts now told him otherwise.
“You thought I was him!” Jax’s voice was a low snarl.
“Get off me, Jax.” She remained calm when he responded by flipping her onto her back and climbing over her, pinning her arms above her head.
“You thought I was my brother. You reacted to his hands on your skin. Not mine!”
“I was asleep, Jax. Don’t read more into it than it was.” She attempted, half-heartedly, to push him off. The guilt, over her relationship with Caspian, had begun to weigh heavily on her mind since things with Jax had been progressing. Her gut reaction to dealing with it was to push him away. “It’s not even as though we’re…”
“Mated? Don’t you dare tell me we’re not mated after what you’ve been letting me do to you. I’ve had my fingers inside you. Your taste is branded on my tongue. Those pretty nipples of yours get hard for me and me alone. Do you feel that, Rory? That’s for you, only you.” He pressed his hips into hers, drawing a gasp. She squirmed, but the movement only served to allow him to settle himself more deeply between her legs, pressing his solid length into her groin. He tortured both their naked forms with the closeness and his voice was pained when he spoke again. “I feel you, Rory, you’re wet for me. Your juices are already coating me, one small move and I could be inside you. You want me. Why won’t you complete our bond?”
“You know why,” she whispered and looked into his eyes, desire flaring in hers.
“Rory…”
“Please don’t think it’s because I don’t love you. I’ve always loved you. The love I feel for you only gets stronger the longer we’re together.”
“You still don’t trust me.”
“You hurt me.”
“I had no choice.”
“I know, I know this now and I’m almost there, Jax. It’s not just that,” she admitted.
“Then what?” He grew impatient, his wolf patrolling beneath the skin.
“Guilt!” she blurted and all hint of arousal dispersed between them. “I feel guilty. I could shove it out of my mind when you weren’t there, but now it’s in my face all the time. It’s like I cheated on you.”
“I have no right to be jealous. I am, of course I am. It kills me to think of you with him but I shouldn’t react that way. I pushed you into the relationship. It was my fault as much as anyone’s. I knew you wouldn’t feel the bond as strongly as I did
until you shifted and I used it against you. You were seventeen, Rory and I manipulated you into being with my brother against your will. I’m the guilty one, I only have myself to blame.”
“It wasn’t against my will, I did love him, just differently. The bond with you was there, but I somehow could block it out before I shifted. Then, by the time I had my first shift, I’d grown to love Caspian. It wasn’t the love I felt for you, but I thought you weren’t coming back. I believed you wanted to break the bond. You didn’t want me, so even though my feelings for you became stronger, I did everything I could to put it out of my mind and be with him. Caspian was all I had for a long time. He was the only one who knew about me, apart from you and Marco, but you weren’t there and he was. Those years, when you were gone, despite what he’s done since, he got me through that time.” Jax let out a snarl, unable to contain the reaction. “Let me finish…” He nodded but his hold on her didn’t loosen.
“I depended on him. I loved him, in my own way and I thought he loved me. When I look back, I can see that I was using him to get over you, but there, in that moment, I felt as though he was all I had. Then he gave me away to Lykos like a football card in a game of swapsies and that should have hurt. It didn’t. I was angry, but it didn’t hurt because he didn’t matter enough for it to hurt. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“I mattered, so I had the power to hurt you.” Jax smoothed the hair away from her face and his eyes filled with regret.
“You matter. Present tense. You’ll always matter. More than anyone else ever could. That’s why only you will ever have the power to break me and why I feel guilty about my relationship with Caspian.”
“I’m so sorry, wild thing. I wish I’d done it differently, found a better way.” He buried his face in her neck and she turned her head to rest her cheek against his, basking in the feel of his warmth against her. “I can’t stand the thought of his hands on you. My need to mark you as mine is so strong. I don’t know how much longer I can control it.”
“Don’t you think it’s the same for me with any woman you’ve been with?”
He lifted his head to look at her and a small smile kicked up the corner of his mouth. “There have been no women.”
“Since…” she probed, not really knowing why she wanted details.
“Since forever, Rory. You’re my mate. I will only ever be with you.”
You mean…” The words died on her lips and she stared into the deep brown eyes that met hers.
“No guilt, that’s not on you. It was my choice. I know, it’s ridiculous. The big tough alpha, the king to your queen, the first of your warriors, is a virgin.” He laughed at himself and shook his head. “I tried. I knew you were sleeping with Caspian and out of anger, revenge, jealousy, I dunno what it was, but I tried. I couldn’t stand another woman’s hands on me. I loathed the thought of touching anyone but you. My wolf refuses to accept another female anywhere near him.”
Aurora pulled her wrists free from his hold and he settled his arms either side of her head. She reached up to cup his face in her hands and secured his eyes in her gaze. “Complete the bond, Jax.”
His eyes widened and he paused, thinking he couldn’t have heard correctly. His fingers were light on her collarbone and he sensed the pulse in her neck quicken, betraying her calm exterior and. She smiled, sensing his hesitance. “Tell me you love me and seal our bond, Jax. I want you as my mate, forever.”
That sparkle in his eyes and the cocky grin reappeared as he lowered his mouth to hers, speaking against her lips. “I love you, Aurora Byrne. I’ve loved you all my life and I’ll love you long after we’ve both left this world.”
“I should warn you, I claw and bite,” her eyes gleamed with mischief, only adding to the beauty of the moment.
“You’ll scream and beg too.” He beamed down at her, their eyes locked and the enormity of their love filled the room.
There’s a moment, a brief second, before a look becomes a kiss and a kiss becomes something more. Time stands still and the only thing that exists is the anticipation of lips touching. A moment that is so intense it lingers in the air, bringing you closer, changing you from that second on. It marks the beginning. In the seconds it took for their lips to collide and their bodies to tangle they became something new, knowing they could never again deny the feelings they had for each other. The kiss became the words they couldn’t speak and with every shared breath, they poured their love into each other. The pain of their past melted away and was replaced with a soothing balm that healed all their wounds.
Her body was a map of uncharted territory that his fingers explored, with each new patch of skin came a desire to memorise every piece of her. She was a warrior queen, untamed and wild, yet in his arms, under his body, she melted. He was a soldier unarmed and she destroyed him with her moans, as he followed the wave of shivers across her skin, from hips to ankles, with his kisses. A growl rose in his throat when the sizzle of their bond sparked to life and pulsed under his skin. The scent of freshly fallen rain filtered in through the open window, a storm was brewing.
She trembled as his body cast a shadow over her. He bent his head to wet her lips with his tongue, leaving behind a lingering kiss. Their bodies surrendered to each other, not by command, or power, or dominance but by trust and love. Pulling away, to look into her eyes, he recited the words of the mate bond.
“Look at me with an open heart, as I will look at you,” Jax whispered, aligning his hips with hers, the tip of his arousal soaking in her slick heat. The curtains billowed at the window as the wind built.
“Share with me your past, present and future, as I will share with you.” She tangled her legs with his and let out a gasp to match his ecstasy filled groan, when he slipped inside and their bodies joined.
“Love me purely,” he breathed, burying himself deep within her.
“Love me truly,” she lifted her hips to meet him.
“As I will love you. For the rest of my days, I am yours.” They spoke the final part of the vow together and their passion awoke, easing the tension filled lust that had taunted them since finding each other again. The rain hit the glass of the window with a power that splintered the wooden frame and shattered its panes as they began to move together.
Jax lost himself in her arms, giving himself up to the night and the oncoming storm. She was his addiction, his sin, a delicious secret only he got to taste. Clutching at her hips, he thrust deeper, and lowered his head to close his teeth over her nipple. She arched her back when he drew the peak into his mouth and sucked hard. With every circle of his hips, he pulled her closer to him, delving deeper, wanting to feel every tight pulse of her walls around him.
She clung to him, nails digging into his back, drawing blood as he rode her waves. She didn’t want the quiet tapping’s of love; she wanted the door kicked down and torn from its hinges. That’s what he gave her. With every touch, every breath-taking kiss, every roll of his hips, he showed her that even in her wildest dreams, no other man could give her what he could.
Aurora slid a hand between their bodies, circling his girth with her fingers in a tight grip, the pressure adding to his pleasure. He could feel the movement of her thumb on the bundle of nerves there and lifted his weight on his arms, to lower his head and watch as she touched herself.
“Fuck, that looks good,” he let out in a ragged breath, watching himself pump in and out of her.
“You feel good.” She lifted both hands to his cheeks and brought him down for a kiss, wrapping her legs around his waist and securing him there.
Their bonding was lewd and lovely, poetic in its humanity and dirty in its desire. Their human emotion working alongside their animalistic nature, to bring about a union unlike any other. His wolf surged and her raven rose to the surface as their bond began to fuse, humming through their veins and embedding itself within them, joining them for eternity. His fingers caught in her hair, bringing their passion to a climax. Her nails in his back, his teet
h in the crook of her neck, she breathed his name into the air and their entwining souls sealed their unbreakable bond.
Lightning flashed and thunder cracked, lighting up the room as their powers threaded together. With light fittings swinging, cracks appearing in walls, a deafening thud in the garden, the raging storm reached it crescendo with them as they came together. Intoxicated by each other, they rode out the sensuous squall until they collapsed in an exhausted tangle of limbs. Sated and blissful in their euphoria, he looked down at her as he pulled away. A vision of wild hair and flushed skin, she had never looked more beautiful to him.
“Mine.” He nipped at her ear lobe. “Forever, mine.”
If she were asked her favourite colour in that moment, her only answer would be him. He was her favourite everything. The pressed indents of his teeth patterned her breasts, marking her as his and she pushed at his chest, rising with him, wanting to see her marks on him.
“Turn around,” she ordered and he chuckled, loving her governance. He turned, kneeling on the bed and felt her hands brush the broken skin. Her whispered breath touched the back of his neck and she drew up to her knees to kiss him there. “Mine.”
“Yours,” he agreed, playfully turning, and jumping up from the bed, standing at the end, looking down at her.
On hands and knees, she crawled to him, teeth biting into the lips he craved. Her desire hung in the air, letting him know she wasn’t done with him. She hung her legs over the bed, either side of his and reached out to take him in her hand. Lowering her head with upturned eyes, she flicked out her tongue and licked his tip, circling and licking the length before taking him in her mouth. Their combined tastes on her tongue primed her for him and she reached a hand between her legs, while she pumped him back to arousal. Willingly surrendering himself to his queen once more. his hands threaded through her hair and he thrust into her mouth. She smiled around him and moaned, urging him to continue. With three more thrusts, the sight of her sent his wolf into a frenzy, he wanted her back under him. Gripping her shoulders, he guided her back to the bed and moved over her.
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