The Raven Queen

by Emma Jayne Mills

  “We don’t know who we can trust,” Marco repeated Jax’s words.

  “I trust both of them. They’re our beta’s sons!” She couldn’t believe Marco was suggesting they couldn’t trust their own pack members.

  “And that means they’re likely to go straight to Brone, who will go straight to Dad,” Marco argued, with a shake of his head. “Dad isn’t an option. He’s already been withholding information from you, despite me begging him and Mum to tell you everything. When I spoke to him after we got you out of that castle, he wanted us to take you back home, knowing it would put you in further danger. Brone would automatically go straight to Dad if we contacted him, not because he can’t be trusted, but because it’s his duty as beta. We literally have each other to rely on right now and that’s the way it has to stay for the foreseeable future.”

  “You don’t trust Dad?”

  “I don’t trust anyone who isn’t in this room, Aurora,” Marco told her. “You need to get in that headset too.”

  “Tell her the rest,” Jax murmured to Marco.

  “Tell me what?”

  “The rogue who took the book was wiped,” Marco revealed.

  “What?”

  “His memory was wiped.”

  “Who wiped him?” Aurora dreaded the answer.

  “It can only have been your father. He sent the rogue to us in that condition,” Cole revealed, gently.

  “There are no vampires at Shadow Fen.” Aurora dismissed the theory with a shake of her head.

  “Then who did it, Aurora? He was released from Dad’s custody straight into ours. Who got to him in between Dad questioning him and us?” Marco demanded. “We can’t trust anyone at the fen anymore.”

  “They’re our family!”

  “Who deliberately kept information from you, information that you needed.”

  “So did you!”

  “Different,” Marco stated. “It’s in the prophecy that we had to keep it from you. Gran explained to us, that we had to make it look like Jax and you had no contact, until the time came when you could be together again. Your potential power as a mated pair would have put you both in danger if you’d been together when the prophecy first came to light. Jax would have had a target on his back and we already know the alphas are competing over you. If you’d been together it all would have escalated even quicker than it has. The things our parents kept from you could have helped us now, it could have helped you understand the prophecy and its meanings. We could have been sitting here now with a lot more information than we have, instead of still being mostly in the dark.”

  “What about Gran?”

  “I haven’t been able to get hold of her since Lykos took you,” Marco admitted. His Grandmother’s sudden absence unnerved him, but he had no proof anything was wrong so he had no choice but to deal with what he knew first.

  “Mum and Dad think I’m dead,” Aurora said, quietly.

  “We had no choice,” Marco admitted with sadness.

  “I understand. Still, we need to know what happened with that rogue,” she said, an idea striking her.

  “That might work. I’m not happy about it, but it might work.” Jax squeezed her shoulder as he read her thoughts.

  “Stay the hell out of my head, Jax!”

  “Nope,” he grinned and sent her a mental image of them rolling around in bed together.

  “In your dreams!” She told him, he just kept grinning.

  -Not for much longer, wild thing.

  “What’s your idea, Aurora?” Hunter asked, leaning towards her, resting his elbows on his knees, and interrupting the silent response she was about to give Jax.

  “We use Caspian’s selfish streak against him. I speak to him, tell him I forgive him, lull him into a false sense of security and tell him I need to see him. I’ll ask him to meet me. I get to smack the crap out of my lying worm of an ex-boyfriend and we get the insight about what’s going on at home. Everybody happy,” she told them, with a smile.

  “What are the chances of him informing Lykos of the meeting?” Cole asked.

  “Strong,” she supplied, with a shrug.

  “You’re forgetting we don’t know if Lykos has shown up again yet. When I spoke to Caspian after we got here last night, he said Lykos hadn’t been seen since we took you,” Jax provided.

  “You spoke to him?”

  “He called me nonstop after we picked you up. He asked if you were alive, I avoided answering. He wouldn’t give me too many details, just kept saying he was sorry. What happened?” Jax asked for the first time.

  “He gave Axel the collar, then helped him distract Lykos so Axel could attack me. When Axel pulled out the knife, Cas realised he’d fucked up and tried to help. He may be full of woe at the moment, but he could turn back to the self-centred dick wad at any time.” She paused and thought for a second. “Right, so we assume Lykos is back, unless Caspian tells us otherwise. Caspian was accepted by the pack last night, he’s onto a good thing there, so we need to give him something to gain from giving us the information. If we can offer him more than Lykos, he’ll switch sides in a heartbeat.”

  “What can we offer him that gives him more than Lykos already has?” Zane wanted to know.

  “No!” Jax snapped before she had chance to answer.

  “Stay the fuck out of my head, Jax!” Aurora stood, turning to him and yelling.

  “You are not offering yourself to him, Rory. You are mine!” Jax yelled back.

  “I didn’t say he would get what was offered, you moron! He doesn’t know you bit me. If I can convince him I’m prepared to let him bite me and start a mate bond, making him the Raven Queen’s mate, he’ll cave instantly. It’s exactly the amount of power he’s wanted for years,” she told the other men in the room.

  “She’s right,” Marco admitted, reluctantly. “We need to know how that rogue’s memory got wiped.”

  “I don’t care if she’s right. It’s not happening. No mate of mine is offering herself to another wolf, especially when that wolf is my traitorous brother!” Jax leaped up and attempted to stare his mate down.

  Aurora put her hands on her hips and stared right back at him.

  “They’re both alphas, this could go on all night,” Marco groaned.

  “You’re right, let’s leave them to it,” Cole agreed and Aurora was vaguely aware of Melaina and the men leaving the room.

  Aurora’s eyes blazed with fury, the green darkening to the colour of moss as the raven rose to the surface within her. Jax stood toe to toe with her, held her fierce glare and bit back the grin that threatened to break through. He was going to kiss her. Any second now, he was going to kiss her. He was probably going to earn himself a broken nose for it, but he was going to kiss her.

  Their first kiss ought to be soft and romantic, the anticipation should build until the chemistry between them explodes, bringing them together in the sweetest of moments. This he knew, but he couldn’t do this slowly and gently. Not this time. Not with her. They hadn’t had a physical relationship before but emotionally, they had always been as one. That feeling between them was what he needed to make her remember. He had a matter of seconds to get his message across. She was his, he was hers, they had always belonged to each other. Slow and gentle had to wait until she trusted him again.

  Before she had chance to catch the thoughts running through his head, he reached out, hooked his fingers under the hem of her shirt and pulled her to him. She let out a startled gasp and stumbled against him, her palms landing flat against his taut stomach. Taking full advantage of her moment of confusion, he curved one arm around her waist and lifted her chin with the fingers of his other hand. Lowering his mouth to hers, he sealed two quick kisses over her barely parted lips. She instinctively wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. The next time he lowered his mouth over hers, she opened for him, allowing their tongues to clash in a war of unspoken words.

  Wandering hands grabbed her hips, pulling her tighter against him, she went willingly. He
failed to suppress the appreciative groan when her hands fisted the material of his shirt. She lifted it, and her fingertips grazed his skin sending a delicious shiver over his body. Her scent morphed from anger into desire and he breathed it in, latching on to it like it was his last breath. His hands moved lower, to her thighs, skimming over her bottom and lifting her. Her legs went around his waist, locking at the ankles and pulling him into her, needing him closer.

  The mate bond was fuelling her reaction to him, her mind could find clarity at any second, so he didn’t waste a single one. Her hands explored his body, dancing seductively over his chest, his neck, skimming his stubbled cheeks and then into his hair, fingers tangling and pulling slightly. He moaned again, louder this time and whispered her name against her lips. Fuck! That was all it took to bring her to her senses.

  “Put. Me. Down.” She moved her mouth away from his, her body rigid and her tone dark. His moment was over.

  He didn’t miss the clenching of her thighs when, dancing with danger, he defiantly pushed his hardness against her core. She dropped her head backwards, arching her back and pushed back against him, not fighting when he pressed his lips to her throat. Her body was into them, even if her mind wasn’t.

  “I’ll put you down, if you promise to stay,” he bargained, pressing his mouth against her throat.

  “Where else would I go?” she asked, with a harsh whisper. He allowed himself the silent satisfaction that he’d affected her more than she was willing to admit.

  “I mean it, Rory. Don’t run from me. We need to talk.” He raised his head to look her in the eye.

  “So, put me down and talk.” Her voice became lethal. If he didn’t put her down, he risked a major step backwards. Reluctantly, he released his hold on her, lowering her slowly to the floor. Her eyes never left his as she slowly slid her body down his, enjoying the torture she inflicted, payback for his actions a few seconds before.

  “Are you going to listen?” he asked, reaching out quickly and locking their hands together when her feet hit the floor.

  “If what you have to say is worth listening to.”

  “Always with the attitude, Rory,” he grinned at her. “I lo...”

  “Boring!” She yanked her hands from his and turned to leave.

  “Oh, no you don’t, wild thing, you are going to listen to me.” He grabbed her arm and spun her back around to face him. “I won’t say that. Yet. But you can’t deny our bond any longer, that game is up. I get it, I hurt you and you want to hurt me in the same way. I understand, really, I do. But my bite began the sealing of our bond and we will be completing it. We belong to each other. Now and forever, you and I both know there will never be anyone else. So, you need to get used to the idea that, at some point, I’m going to say those words to you. And I’m going to say them a lot.”

  “I never denied our bond. That was all you, Jax,” she seethed.

  “You have no idea how hard it was to walk away from you.” His voice broke with the emotion of his confession.

  “How hard could it have been? You managed four years without even so much as a text message.”

  “Every day. Every single second, of every single day, you were on my mind, in my heart.”

  “Why didn’t it break?” she blurted, with a furrow of her brow.

  “What?” He took a few seconds to catch up with her racing thoughts.

  “The bond. It should have broken when we weren’t together, but it didn’t. It did fade, but it never disappeared completely and it never broke. Then when I shifted the first time, it got stronger.”

  “I think it has something to do with who we are, the prophecies say our bond is unbreakable. It’s in the book somewhere, your Gran showed me.” He reached out to her, needing her close again.

  “No. Don’t touch me. I can’t be near you right now.” She stepped back, attempting to hide the indecision on her face, but he saw it. He felt it. She turned, to walk towards the bedroom.

  “Rory, please, don’t walk away from me,” he begged.

  “Hurts doesn’t it, Jax?” she sniped, coldly before disappearing down the hall to their bedroom.

  At some point during the night, Jax fell into a drunken coma. He lay face down on the sofa, having sunk a bottle of tequila and decided to give his wild thing some space. It physically hurt not to go to her, but neither of them needed to argue anymore. His mate needed time to get her head around everything that had happened in such a short space of time.

  He felt her presence before she was in the room. As she drew nearer, her scent shrouded him in its heady warmth. A need to be close to him overpowered her senses and she had given in. She padded, barefoot, along the tiled floors and across the living room, to where he lay. Although he didn’t acknowledge her, she knew he was awake. Instead, he waited to see what she would do, briefly wondering if she’d come to kill him in his sleep. After a few moments, she sighed defeatedly and the couch dipped as she climbed over him. Her weight resting on his body was heaven sent. She settled on top of him, her front to his back, and hooked her arms around the top of his, their bodies fitting together perfectly. Stretching her legs out along his own, she turned her head to rest her cheek between his shoulder blades. And they slept.

  Chapter Ten

  A heart must be open,

  before it can be fixed.

  The pillow moved. What the...? Aurora groggily lifted her head and the penny dropped as Jax’s voice filled her mind.

  -Morning, wild thing.

  -Fuck!

  Laughter. He was laughing. She shook her head and laid it back down. As much as she was kicking herself for seeking him out in the night, she didn’t want to move. He stopped laughing and flipped them suddenly. She found herself on her back, underneath him and there was that stupid grin that she really needed to start hating. Sneaky wolf.

  “Good morning,” he mumbled, in a sexy, sleep filled voice, his eyes twinkling as they looked down at her.

  “Yeah,” she whispered.

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” she repeated and his lips accepted the unspoken invitation.

  He nestled his body between her legs and deepened the kiss, every sweep of his tongue bringing them closer together, uniting them once more. Her fury, mixed with his passion was the perfect combination of sour and sweet, darkness and light. Her fingers found their way underneath his shirt and traced the hard lines of his back, nails digging into his skin, teeth nipping at his lips and drawing blood.

  “Ahem!” A voice interrupted them.

  Aurora opened her eyes and peeked over Jax’s shoulder to find Zane glowering down at them. His arms were crossed over his chest, biceps bulging through the sleeves of his black t-shirt.

  “If you flex any harder, you’re going to rip that shirt, Oso,” she observed, dryly.

  “Morning, boss,” Jax turned his head and grinned at Zane but made no effort to move.

  Zane continued to glare and flex. Aurora sighed and moved her hands to Jax’s chest. She pushed until he rolled, landing face down, in a push up position, on the floor. Rolling onto his back, he propped himself up on his elbows and watched her stand. She stepped over him and ran a hand through his hair, pausing to wipe the drop of blood from the corner of his mouth with her thumb. She lifted her thumb to her mouth and sucked it clean, before walking away, towards the bedroom.

  “We’re all living here on top of each other. Maybe we should think about some ground rules,” Zane called after her retreating figure. Aurora hissed through her teeth and shook her head.

  “You want to give Rory rules?” Jax barked a laugh.

  “Good luck with that, boss.” Aurora heard her brother’s voice join the conversation.

  “No sex on the sofa,” Zane suggested.

  “I wasn’t having sex,” she called back.

  “Then no kissing on the sofa!”

  “I wasn’t doing the kissing,” she laughed.

  “Jax...” Zane began.

  “Nope. She doesn’t let me get
close enough to kiss her very often, so when she does, I’m taking it. No matter where we are.” Jax leaped up and was on his mate’s heels before she reached the door to the bedroom.

  Following her inside, he reached out to tug on the hem of the shirt she was wearing, halting her steps. Laughter echoed behind him from the living room and he knew Zane didn’t really have a problem with what he’d seen.

  “I want to have a shower, Jax.” She turned to face him.

  “I’ll help.” He wrapped his arms around her and walked her backwards, towards the bathroom.

  “Alone,” she stated.

  “Rory...”

  “Stop, Jax.” She rested her hands on his chest, an attempt to soften the blow. “I need to be close to you because of the bond, but it doesn’t mean everything is suddenly okay between us. That’s going to take more than a fumble on the sofa. I want you, but wanting you isn’t the same as having a relationship with you. I still don’t trust you with that part of me.”

  The intensity of the bond was unbearable. She craved space, needed time away from Jax, to figure out how to move forward with their relationship. Yet, now that they were finally together again, she couldn’t bear to be apart from him. Her body tingled with desire when he was close and ached with need when he wasn’t.

  “Talk to me,” he implored, cupping his hands around the back of her neck. “Tell me what’s going on in your head. I can’t read you, you’re blocking me and if I don’t know what you’re thinking, I can’t do anything about it.”

  “I love you, Jax. I can’t hide that from you or pretend otherwise, not anymore. There’s never been a time in my life when I haven’t loved you. But you knew what we were to each other and you still left. You say it was because of the prophecies and I want to believe you, part of me already does, but right now, I can’t get past the pain that knowledge gives me. I need you to give me time for that. My heart is telling me you really do love me back, but my head says you’ve decided that because you can’t break the bond, you’ll go along with it.”