Page 25

CHAPTER 24

Raven

T he morning was not far away, but the darkness of night still held tight. I slipped from the bed, reluctantly. I left Diana to sleep though, knowing she needed it now more than ever. Much as I would have liked to remain with her, I’d promised Dominic and Lochlin I’d do a perimeter sweep of the keep with them.

Dressed, I paused at the door, a strange feeling washing over me. I blinked and saw Diana in full battle gear, her fangs exposed, fury written across her face.

“If they think they are taking Raven, I will show them just what they are up against.”

I blinked and shook my head, my heart pounding. What the actual fuck was that?

Forcing my feet to move, I opened the door and slid through. The hallway was quiet, though I could pick up slight movement at the far end. I assumed it was a guard, by the soft clink of armor.

I moved in that direction, to be sure. We’d set guards up at both ends of the hall to Diana’s rooms to give us time if anyone burst in.

“Soldier.”

The guard straightened and shot me a look. “Sir. Is the queen sleeping still?”

I noted that he didn’t give me the side eye as so many of the wolves did. They thought I was stealing her away. They still didn’t fully understand that she’d been on loan to them—that she’d always been destined to come back to me.

“Yes. Let her sleep. I will check in with Lochlin and help him do another sweep over the grounds.” I clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a squeeze. “If anyone shows up that shouldn't, make some noise. She would not like it if you died on her behalf.”

His grin was a sudden flash of white. “I would be honored to fight at my queen’s side, but I hope that it does not come to that. The way she fucked up Cammon…epic. Legendary. There will be bards singing that for a thousand years. The Queen slays the Giant.”

A shiver slid through me and I grinned. “I cannot wait to hear it.”

I slid past him and made my way through the nearly silent keep, down the main stairs, and to the Great Room. Lochlin and Dominic were already there, waiting on me.

“Took your time,” Lochlin raised an eyebrow.

“Spoke with the guard, made sure he was awake.” I stretched my shoulders back, feeling my spine crack, thinking about the vision of Diana I’d had.

I wasn’t about to tell them about that. Because for all I knew, it could have just been my imagination, and not because finally sharing blood with my fated mate had stirred up the future sight Myrr had supposedly gifted me with…Right?

Right.

“We’ll start on the east side,” Lochlin said. “Case the sun decides to make an early appearance.” He motioned at me and Dominic, “Can’t have you two getting an unscheduled tan.”

Dominic shook his head. “I’ve no plans of that. Did it once, lived to tell the tale.”

I touched the dagger at my side. “I’m covered. I’ve still got the dagger that protects me from the sun.”

Lochlin clapped his hands together. “Excellent, let’s go boys. See what we can see. We had the guards clear out the area where the mob was and secure the perimeter so there won’t be any additional contamination of the scene. I want scents. I want tracks. I want whatever we can gather so we know exactly who we are dealing with. Every fucking name is going to be nailed to the wall before we are done.”

“Agreed,” Dominic growled. “We can’t leave any of them to fester into another rebellion.”

I kept my mouth shut on that topic. Not because I didn’t think it was possible, but because another vision smacked me in the face. Diana again, only this time she was not alone. Elka stood with her, as did Dominic, Lochlin, and William. Dominic and Lochlin were wearing the same clothes that they were in now, only they were torn and ripped, covered in blood. The sun was only just coming through the upper windows.

I was not in the scene and Diana’s face…fury and fear warred in her green eyes.

“What do you mean they took him hostage?”

I stumbled and Dominic shot a hand to steady me. “Seriously, did you not get enough blood?”

Clearing my throat I pulled away. “No, I’m fine. Sorry.”

Dominic’s eyes didn’t leave me. He knew me too well. “What’s going on?”

I ran a hand through my hair. “Fuck, if I figure it out, I’ll tell you, how about that?”

“Fair.”

We were at the eastern side of the keep only a minute later, and Lochlin led us out.

He squinted and took a long deep breath. “There weren’t many on this side, I don’t think. Maybe five or six.”

We spread out and combed the ground. I marked hoof prints with unusual shapes, two that had broken hoof walls which gave distinct patterns. Bits of clothing, even things like coins that had fallen out of pockets. We bagged it all individually in the clear plastic bags that Lochlin gave us.

Slowly we made our way to the south side of the keep where there was less evidence, but there was a body. A guard had taken an arrow to his left eye on the parapet above and fallen over.

“Shit, that’s Brandt,” Lochlin muttered and then let out a low rumbling growl. “He’d barely taken on the guard mantle. He just turned eighteen.”

It was more of the same on the western side. Dead guards, a little evidence. But it was the northern side, facing the deep forest where the rebels had come from, and it was where much of the evidence sat. More bits of cloth, leather, items that had fallen from pockets, even a few strands of hair, both horse and werewolf. All of it would be used to condemn those who followed Maverick.

There was no coming back from what he had incited them to. All because they refused to follow a queen who’d proven herself time and time again.

We had a stack of clear plastic bags in under thirty minutes. The sun was getting closer to rising, though that was not what had my attention.

I couldn’t help but look to the forest over and over, instead of keeping my eyes on the task at hand. Because they would be coming from that direction.

Would it be Maverick, though? I didn’t think so. It didn’t feel like him. It felt like his big, thuggish friend, Teeter.

I put a hand to my head and closed my eyes. Was this how Myrr saw things?

Fuck me with a cactus, no wonder she was the way she was—scattered and saying the craziest things. I could see things coming. Could feel them.

And I knew in my gut I had to let it happen. This was the path that I was on—the path that Diana was on.

“Dominic,” I grimaced. “You aren’t going to like it. But something’s going to happen while we are out here. You can’t fight it; you have to let it happen.”

Lochlin and Dominic turned to me at the same time.

“What?” Dominic stared hard at me. “What are you talking about?”

Lochlin opened his mouth, and I knew that he was going to call the guards.

I held my hand out to stop him. “Don’t. People will die, and that’s not what Diana would want.”

Dominic’s eyes narrowed. “This is from that fucking blood you drank from Myrr days ago, isn’t it? Some sort of premonition?”

I might have done more than nod, but the sound of hundreds of feet, their bodies racing from the shadows of the trees, the harsh breathing.

I couldn’t help it, I still put up something of a fight even though I knew I had to go with them. Hell, I landed some blows, watched as Lochlin and Dominic were hit with a smoke bomb of some sort and a thick rolled parchment was thrown at their feet.

“Bind him!”

Ropes were tossed around me, and yanked tight, and I was pulled to the ground and dragged from the keep, feet first. “Fuck. I didn’t see that coming.”

The words popped out of me and then I started to laugh, I couldn’t help it. Because I’d heard Myrr say that exact same thing, with the same note of surprise.

The laughter rolled through me, until I was baying like a gods damned hyena. I couldn’t stop. Tears rolled down my cheeks as my chest heaved and I howled.

“Shut the fuck up!” Someone kicked me in the belly, knocking the wind out of me.

I struggled a moment to catch my breath. “Thanks, I’m not sure I could have stopped on my own.”

“Do you ever shut up?” Teeter loomed over me. “You’re going to fucking die, and you’re laughing?”

I grunted. “I’m not Maverick, I’m certainly not going to go out crying like a baby.”

Another boot landed in my low back, sending a sharp pain up and down my spine that stole my breath in a whole other way.

We’d traveled only another few minutes before they hoisted me up onto a horse. “You leave a ransom note?”

Teeter glared at me as he tied me face down on the horse, my hands and feet attached by a rope run under the horse’s belly.

“Maybe.”

“Oh, I know you did.” I winked at him. “You’re going to ask Diana to hand over Elka?”

Teeter’s eyes widened and a sharp spike of fear rolled off him. “How the fuck did you know that?”

I grinned, making sure my fangs were visible, thinking about how Myrr would react. I leaned into it. “Oh, trust me, I know a hell of a lot more than you pups even realize. You got any cookies on you or some sort of snack? If this is going to be a long trip, I might get peckish.”

If I’d sworn at him, demanded that he release me, told him I was going to kill him, I don’t think that would have fazed him.

But asking for a cookie?

He stepped back, a trickle of sweat rolling down his face. “Let’s go.”

Rattled…fuck, I’d rattled him by thinking like Myrr. That had not been on my bingo card this morning.

We rode for a good hour, and in that time whatever brief sense of certainty I’d had about the future had fled, no matter how hard I concentrated. I couldn’t tell you if someone was going to sneeze, never mind if I was going to survive this. It had been the potent elixir of Myrr’s lingering blood along with the fresh from the vein infusion I’d taken from Diana that had offered me the window of insight, but it was gone now.

The choice to hand myself over without ever seeing how it all ended might haunt me, but at least I’d had one last night with Diana. If I was going to die, then I had that to think about as my life fled—the feel of her skin, the touch of her hands to my body, the love in her eyes. Love. She’d said it over and over. She loved me. Not because I was her fated mate, just for me. Raven. The man I’d become after the boy I’d been saved her.

“Cut him down.”

Maverick’s voice snapped me out of my reliving of my night with Diana.

The ropes that tied me to the horse were cut, but the rest remained as I was yanked off my mount and dropped to the ground. I blinked up at Maverick.

“Hello, chickenshit.”

Maverick smiled; his teeth were…bigger than before. But not white. More yellow. As if the giant wolf connected to him was consuming him already.

“Shit for brains. They said you barely fought? I’d really hoped you would have done more, we had a special surprise for you.”

He pulled out a wooden long-handled weapon with a metal prong at the end. He shoved the prong against my chest and there was a click, like a lock being opened. Electricity rocked through me, darkness and stars burst across my vision and my teeth clacked shut as the pain lit up every nerve ended in my body.

I couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t think.

The prongs were yanked back. “We need him alive, boss. At least until those bitches pay the ransom.”

“He’ll survive,” Maverick all but purred. “And I’ve waited a long time for this moment. To have him here, at my feet. Seeing just how fucking weak he is. How fucking weak all bloodsuckers are.”

The crowd gave a growling roar, but it wasn’t as loud as I expected. Smaller numbers than before. But that made sense. Many had backed away from Maverick when Elka had made her declaration as future queen. The werewolves weren’t stupid.

My muscles were still spasming from the bolt of electricity even if my head was reconnected to my thoughts. I should have kept my mouth shut. Should have just let him have his fun. But if Maverick was going to light me up like a human Christmas tree, I might as well earn it.

I spat to one side and let out a low moan. “You going to let them take the fall for you? Like you let that girl Opal die while you waited to steal her power?”

The prongs slammed back into me and my teeth cracked hard against one another. Longer this time. My heart really wasn’t a fan of the treatment as it stuttered and slammed inside my chest.

Darkness once more, then light finally. I blinked as breath came whooshing back into me. I didn’t think this would kill me. But to be fair, electricity was connected to fire…heat and power. Maybe I shouldn’t be pissing them off quite so much. Even if I knew I had to be here, I should probably contain myself.

Teeter came into view next to Maverick. “Boss man. Let it be. He’s dead either way. But you gotta wait, or we’ve got nothing to bargain with.”

I blinked up at Teeter, and my words were a bit slurred, as if I’d been drinking. “I knew you secretly loved me. But I’m a one-woman guy.”

Teeter snarled down at me, grabbed the prongs and slammed them into me himself.

So much for containing myself.

Before the darkness took me fully, one last thought whipped through my mind, and down the bond to my mate.

I trust you with not only my heart, but my life, Diana.