The Raven Queen

by Emma Jayne Mills

  “Maybe, you didn’t look properly,” Marco retaliated. “Or maybe, I still don’t trust you.”

  “Your dick doesn’t seem to have a problem trusting me!” She looked around the room for any sign of the book.

  His mind wandered as he flicked through the filing cabinet she had already checked. The woman was a liability. A seriously hot liability, with mesmerising, smoke-filled eyes, who sucked his cock like a Goddess, but a liability all the same.

  “That’s just fucking, don’t read more into it than there is, Smokey. I’m not in the market for a mate.”

  “Yeah, well, neither am I. Been there done that and history will not be repeating itself. Consider yourself cut off, Marco Byrne.”

  “Is that right?” He turned to face her; his eyes intensely tracing to her sleek, graceful body.

  Three minutes and forty-six seconds. That’s how long it took for their argument to turn into the violent lust they shared. Marco moved fast, shoving her against the closest wall and attacking her with his mouth. Melaina gripped his shirt in her fists and lifted her legs to secure them around his waist. It wasn’t a move to bring him closer, it was an attack of her own. Her legs squeezed as he thrust his tongue into her mouth, crushing his hips against her, and painfully heating the vicious lava that flowed between them.

  “I hate you, mutt.” She bit his lip, drawing blood.

  “Back at you, hellcat,” he snarled and bit back.

  “Erm, hello?” A third person entered the room and Marco stepped back. His hold on Melaina dropped instantly, each of them going cold on the other. Luckily for her, cats always landed on their feet, or she’d have found herself with a bruised backside on landing.

  “Darius.” Marco nodded at the son of the shadow pack’s beta. “It’s been a while.”

  “Yeah.” Darius stared at Melaina, barely acknowledging Marco, until a snarl passed the beta wolf’s lips and snapped Darius’s attention back his way. “What’s going on?”

  “We’re looking for the book.” Marco saw no point in lying, they needed the book and Darius might be able to help. If not, he’d knock him out and they’d continue looking. “Do you know where it is?”

  “Over there.” Darius pointed to the desk, which sat on a rug. “You have to move the desk, there’s a trapdoor under the rug. It leads into the tunnels underneath the fen.”

  “Tunnels?” Melaina questioned, drawing his eyes back to her.

  “Hang on, you gave that up far too easily.” Marco assumed a protective stance in front of Melaina, breaking her eye contact with Darius. “What’s going on, Darius?”

  “I was coming to get it. I was going to grab it and release Jax, give it to him. You lot are bound to have something planned to get out of here, I want to help. Aurora is my friend, so are you and Jax. I can’t stand back and watch this go down,” Darius explained, seeing little reason to be anything other than open with them. He was drawn to the female. He had been planning to help anyway, but he found himself unable to do anything else now, as though under her spell. “I found out my brother has been working with Connell all along, sneaking around, making life difficult for Aurora. They’re rigging the tournament. Lykos’s brother is here, they just put him in the ring. It won’t matter who wins, they plan to kill them both anyway. Aurora is who they want. Connell intends to mate her to Finn as soon as this is over. They’ll force her if they have to. It’s all just to bring the power back to him and eliminate a couple of his strongest rivals in the process. He plans to offer their packs refuge here. Those who accept will be fine, any who don’t will be killed. Then, he’ll move on and do the same to the other packs.”

  “Another fucking set up,” Marco fumed, wanting nothing more than to charge the arena and kill the man who had given him life.

  “He’s gathering an army,” Melaina realised. “Get rid of the alphas, take over their packs. I bet he doesn’t intend to stop there. He wants the war. Where do the tunnels lead to?”

  “All over the fen,” Marco answered.

  “And the arena,” Darius added. “He extended one of them, it comes out underneath the podium Aurora is sitting on.”

  “Let’s go.” Marco gripped one side of the desk and looked to Darius for help in lifting it.

  “What about Jax?” Darius asked, moving to the other end of the desk.

  “We’ll explain on the way.”

  Five minutes and fifty-seven seconds. That’s how long it took Marco and Melaina to find an allay, recover the book, and make their way through the tunnels to the arena.

  “Grenade?” Hunter suggested.

  “Why?” Cole asked.

  “Why not?”

  “Grenades are loud.”

  “They won’t hear a thing over that crowd in the arena.”

  Addie shook her head, affectionately, at the bickering shifters and cast a hand over the lock. The metal heated quickly. Her magic melted it away to nothing and destroyed the lock to the room that held Elouise and Aislinn. She pushed open the door and walked inside, leaving the men to their discussion.

  Easily locating the two women, she quickly learned that Connell, having been confronted by his mate and mother, had locked them up for daring to disagree with him. Elouise and Aislinn readily agreed to join them. After a brief mother daughter reunion between Addie and Elouise, the women left the confines of the silver encased cell they had been locked in.

  Something bothered Addie about Aislinn. She was distant and showed little relief at being freed. Perhaps, it was that she was a woman who was reacting to her true mate’s betrayal. Perhaps, it was that she felt uncomfortable with the woman who had given birth to the girl she raised as her own. Addie couldn’t pinpoint it, but something didn’t sit quite right with her about the woman. Doubting her fears were anything more than paranoia, she led the women back towards a still debating Hunter and Cole.

  “Are you boys ready?” Addie interrupted the men.

  “Holy crap monkeys!” Hunter startled and looked at the three women who now stood before them.

  “How did you…?” Cole marvelled.

  “Magic!” Addie winked and waggled her fingers.

  Aurora stepped down from the podium, risking an uneasy glance back at the mirage on the seat. It looked real. It moved like her. It was dressed like her. Although she trusted Xander, she wasn’t familiar enough with magic to be certain the spell would last. Not prepared to take any chances, she resolved to do what she needed to do quickly and get back to stop the tournament with her true mate by her side. Silver on Jax’s cell had prevented them from communicating through their bond while they were separated. She wouldn’t relax until he was with her again.

  She ran around the back of the podium, doing her best to ignore the fight in the arena. Lykos had urged her to leave, do not change the plan, he had sent through their link. That he was a formidable warrior and had Zane and Caspian to back him should have been a comfort. The fact was, she feared for them all. Her father had proven himself a deceptive son of a bitch. There was no telling what he might spring on her warriors. Her only option was to get to Jax and end this. Fast.

  “I look forward to breaking your little pet in, after I kill you, brother,” Ambrosios taunted.

  Aurora turned to see Lykos launch himself at Ambrosios, taking him to the ground in a vicious barrage of punches and kicks. Telling herself his uncharacteristic brawling had gained him the advantage, she disappeared into the tunnels, unseen.

  Moving at speed, she easily picked up her mate’s scent and followed it to where he was being held. The tunnels underneath Shadow Fen were among the places that had been forbidden to them as children. To Aurora and Jax, forbidden was like holding a red rag to a bull. They had spent many hours, along with Marco and Caspian, exploring the underground paths. Jax was locked in a cell, with silver coated bars to hinder any attempt at escape, far away from any occupied part of the fen. Above ground were only trees.

  “You took your time, wild thing.” He grinned through the bars at her, h
is fists closed around them.

  “What are you doing?” She looked at his hands.

  “Well, you were taking so long, I had to amuse myself.” He opened his palms to show them to her. “Turns out I’m not quite as allergic to silver as I used to be.”

  “You’re either allergic or you’re not, Jax,” she turned his words on him. “So, you can get yourself out of there!”

  “Technically, I was right about that. For you, it’s true,” he teased with a wink then shook the bars. “I can’t do your metal melting trick. I’m gonna need you to rescue me, baby.”

  “I should leave you there.” She grinned back, curling her fingers around the bars.

  “You’d miss me.”

  “I hate that you’re right.” She tightened her grip on the bars and concentrated hard.

  Addie and Xander had worked with her on some magic, concentrating on the abilities they already knew she had, rather than spells, namely her ability to melt silver. Discovering that she was a witch with the power to shift, not a full shifter as she had believed all her life, explained her invulnerability to silver. She suspected all the warriors, being descended from witches as Addie had revealed, also had some immunity to it. Silver had long been widely used in magic to enhance psychic abilities and for its protective powers. It made sense that anyone with witch blood in them would not be allergic to it. The metal bars heated quickly when she focused her mind on then, envisioning them melting and becoming nothing more than pools of molten metal.

  “My mate is a badass witch.” Jax looked at her adoringly, taking her cheeks in his hands when he squeezed through the gap she had created for him. “I fucking love you.”

  “I fucking love you too,” she breathed against his mouth just before he kissed her.

  Both keenly aware that they were running out of time, they cut their reunion short. Aurora filled Jax in on the situation in the arena while they moved. After a quick confirmation of where in the tunnels they were, they concluded that the quickest route back to the arena was above ground. Exiting the tunnels beside the pack house and came across a dirt bike. The bikes were used by the shadow pack’s security detail and were regularly left lying around the fen.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Jax gave her his lazy grin and mounted the bike.

  “Wheels are faster than feet.” Aurora climbed on behind him and secured her arms around his waist. “Let’s go fuck shit up!”

  “This is why we’re made for each other.” Jax started the bike and wheelied away.

  Finn ran towards the fighting men and skidded across the ground, a spray of dust and grit rising in his wake. Sliding in behind Lykos, while Ambrosios kept him occupied, he slashed the sword across Lykos’s back. He didn’t pause to see the damage inflicted, hastily racing to the podium, and laying the sword on the steps. The silver, which had been thrown into the ring by Connell’s gloved hands, would also affect himself and Ambrosios if they weren’t careful. Ambrosios, he didn’t care too much about, but he wasn’t going to knowingly put his own life in danger. Sparing a quick glance at Aurora, who was glaring angrily at him. He winked, unaware that he was interacting with a hologram and re-joined the fight. She wouldn’t always glare at him that way, things would change.

  Lykos was dragged to his feet, battered and bloody. Exhaustion had crept up un-noticed and although holding his own, fighting two against one had begun to take its toll. With his attention diverted, he hadn’t seen the silver sword coming. Nor had Zane’s mental warning been quick enough to allow him to react. His last encounter with the poisonous metal had been a lucky escape, this time Aurora wasn’t here to save him. Blood gushed from the wound. He felt it coat his skin, dripping down his back to drench his clothing. He had no choice but to continue, losing this fight was not an option. If he died, he would take his brother with him.

  -Ready to admit you need my help yet, Lykos?

  -A diversion while I shift would be welcome.

  -We have your back.

  -If you did, I wouldn’t be bleeding from it, Commander.

  -Jokes, you’re funny! Shift and heal yourself, it’s time we saw some of their blood!

  “Silver, ladies and gentlemen!” Connell showboated, prancing around the edge of the arena like a circus ring master.

  The silver wasn’t affecting Lykos as quickly or as badly as it had before, but if he didn’t shift to heal the wound, blood loss would leave him weak and vulnerable. Shifting was against the rules, being that the entrants were only allowed to shift to deliver the killing blow. He figured the rules were blown to shit now anyway, since Ambrosios and Finn were using weapons. He allowed his wolf to come forth and shifted.

  The white wolf snarled, its nose down, hackles raised and teeth bared. The effects of the silver had completely disappeared during the shift and he was re-energised, ready to end the fight. Finn shot forward, harnessing the wolf in an arm lock around its neck. The wolf twisted in Finn’s grip and latched his teeth around the young man’s throat. Finn shifted. The two wolves rolled to the ground in a whirlwind of snarls and growls. Having healed on transformation, Finn escaped the white wolf’s hold and his red wolf now prowled the arena.

  “Kill him!” Connell roared, delighted at the sudden change in pace. “Kill the white wolf!”

  Connell watched the action greedily, loving every second of torment inflicted upon each being in the ring. A glance at this daughter gave him the satisfaction that she was not enjoying the tournament as much as him. He hadn’t wanted her to enjoy it, he wanted her to suffer in the way he had to all her life. Bringing up another man’s child as his own had not been his plan. He hadn’t wanted the baby. One screaming brat was enough for him. But Aislinn had begged for a daughter and when his mother told him of the prophecy, he saw an opportunity.

  However, Aurora had not been an easy child, while he taught her and prepared her for her life to come, she was wild and unruly. He often had to explain her behaviour away, making excuses to the elders when she and Jax had got themselves into trouble again. He deserved to control her destiny as payback for the hours he spent preparing her. If he had to raise her as a daughter, he should have a father’s rights when it came to her future and should see the benefit of her destiny.

  A deafening roar caused the crowd to turn in unison and witness Zane’s bear, rearing up to its full height of over ten feet. The thundering of its front paws hitting the ground cracked the earth beneath it, sending a shallow fracture streaking across the arena. The ground quaked and Finn’s wolf jumped to one side of the crack. The move separated him from Lykos, Zane and Ambrosios, but put him within spitting distance of Caspian. Seeing an opportunity to take Caspian while he was in human form, Finn pounced.

  Caspian, watching closely, deliberately placed himself on the same side of the crack as Finn. He shifted before Finn could make contact and the two wolves clashed in mid-air. A vicious symphony of gnashing teeth played as they hit the ground tussling. A yelp escaped one wolf, it was impossible to tell which, although both would later claim it was the other.

  Zane’s bear cornered Ambrosios, caught in the act of sneaking away, allowing Lykos to strike. The white wolf took the man to the ground with teeth embedded in his neck. Ambrosios didn’t have time to fight, but Lykos wasn’t satisfied with killing him this way. He wanted closure and as happy as his wolf was to take the man, Lykos wanted their fight to end in human form. Lykos shifted. Xander’s magic, from wherever in the crowded arena he was, clothed him in combat gear and Lykos faced his brother.

  Ambrosios, bleeding from his torn neck, found himself unable to shift. He lifted his hands to his throat to try and stem the bleeding and turned his dazed focus to Lykos, who now stood over him. Fully dressed. Not possible, the man thought to himself. Was he delirious? Could the silver in his brother’s blood somehow have transferred to him? Again, not possible.

  “Are you ready to die, brother?” Lykos repeated his own words to him, as he moved to the podium to retrieve the sword.


  “I have no fear of death,” Ambrosios ground out hoarsely, falling to his knees at his brother’s feet. “It will be as it was in our father’s arena. You have bested me. I am the lesser warrior.”

  Lykos felt no remorse, there were no doubts in his mind about what he was about to do. Ambrosios needed to die and he would happily be the one to take his life. Holding the sword aloft, he swung widely and a gasp went through the crowd. Ambrosios’s head tumbled from his shoulders and rolled across the ground, becoming lodged, wide eyes staring up at the sky, in the fault caused by Zane. It was done. His father’s legacy no longer hung over him. Lykos was free.

  An explosion to the left of the arena diverted the crowd’s attention again.

  “Grenade.” Hunter grinned.

  “Grenade,” Cole agreed.

  Both men jumped through the hole the grenade had made in the arena’s wall and entered the ring, closely followed by Marco, Melaina and Darius. Connell, realising things had spiralled out of his control, called his men to arms. He flung his arms around, demanding that all intruders and contestants must die. Men surged into the arena from every direction, some shifting, others preferring not to. Onlookers saw their own opportunity and began to invade the ring. Some intending to aid the raven queen’s warriors, others siding with Connell.

  Connell watched in morbid fascination as animals battled animals and men battled men. The bear dealt with his men in rapid succession. The giant beast threw each one that dared attack, whether animal or human, with a force strong enough to snap their necks. Some would die, most would heal, eventually. Realising his tournament had descended into chaos, he made his way towards Aurora. It was time for them to leave.

  “Stay with them,” Marco called to Melaina, referring to Elouise, Aislinn and Addie. Xander had joined them. He and Addie would protect the women with magic, while the others dealt with the battle in the arena.

  Marco, Cole, and Hunter wasted no time in jumping into the fight. With weapons containing tranquiliser darts, they began taking down those who posed the biggest threat. The Laignach Faelad would round up the unconscious shifters later for questioning. Darius headed straight for his brother. Yelling at Caspian to get out of the way, Darius shifted into his own red wolf. As the brothers clashed and wrestled in the dirt it was impossible to tell one from the other.