Avery cleared her throat and made her voice stronger. “He didn’t get the Novak Raven.”
Benjamin’s lips curved up into a predatory smile. “Wrong again. You never stopped being the bait, Avery. I’ve read all his letters to you. We all have. Weston Novak fell for you when you were kids. He was so fucking predictable. All we had to do was give you a few weeks with him to revive the bond and then bring you back. Your mom messed up by telling Aviana about the council’s involvement ten years ago, but Caden is the best hunter in the whole flock. All he had to do was wait patiently until you convinced the Novak Raven to forgive you. He just had to wait until he could draw Weston out of the protection of his people.” Benjamin lifted his chin and looked down his nose at her. “You brought him straight to us, just like you were born to do.”
No. They didn’t have Weston. They didn’t! He was strong and smart, and he wouldn’t let them. But Benjamin looked so triumphant. So sure.
Fuck! Now Raven!
Pain blasted through her as she pushed her Change. It was death in an instant, and then there she was, her black-feathered phoenix. Avery struggled out of the neck of her tank top, costing her a precious second. The camera was right in front of her on the tile, and Benjamin was looking at it with a deep frown. Now that dumbass was starting to get it. He was the fucking bait. Not her!
Avery snatched it up in her beak as Benjamin rushed to pull off his shirt. Stretching her wings, she flapped furiously for the door. That crack was her salvation. Stupid Benjamin, so scared of locking himself in here with her. Caden would’ve never made that rookie mistake.
“Caw!” Benjamin cried out from behind her when she tucked her wings and shoved the door open with a vicious jerk of her beak. The camera loosened, but she held on tighter. She would not let go, she would not fail, she would not let her mate down. She would not let her Bloodrunners down. She would not let herself down. As Avery flew past, she checked the other two rooms in the basement. If Caden had Weston, he hadn’t brought him here. Fuck, where would he be keeping him?
Benjamin was right on her tail feathers. She could feel him getting closer, so she blasted up the stairwell and into the first floor. Frantically, she searched for an open window, open door, something. She made two desperate passes through the dining room and living room.
The house was locked up tight, though. The bedroom doors were closed, and the windows were covered with blinds that would tangle her up. She ducked sharply out of the way of Benjamin’s outstretched talons, flittering this way and that to avoid him. There! The small window above the kitchen sink only had two thin curtains over it, no blinds. Her raven was big, and the window was small. It would be close. She could get trapped and bleed out on the glass, but there was no other way. Benjamin would get her if she stayed in here, and she was running out of time. She had to find Weston. She had to help him.
He was her heart, her blood. She couldn’t live without him.
Avery gained speed, flapping furiously as she angled toward the window. She clamped her beak onto the camera and hoped to hell she kept it secure. And then like a torpedo, she dove for the window, Benjamin right on her tail. She tucked her wings as tightly as she could and smashed through the window. The pain was blinding, not only on her face, but when she opened her eyes and the glass was raining all around her, something sharp and excruciating radiated through her right wing.
The camera slipped out of her grasp, and she watched in horror as it catapulted toward the ground. Determined, she dive-bombed, but something hit her on the back like a cannon ball, and she blasted into the dirt.
Before she even could right herself, Benjamin was on her, pecking, slashing, raking his nails across her breast feathers. Fury rocked her. All these years, they’d trained her raven to be small and submissive. Fuck that. This was where Avery took her raven back and let her be as aggressive and dominant as she wanted. This was where Avery gave her raven permission to be a War Bird like Weston was.
With a battle screech, she rolled him over and slammed her beak into his neck, into his eye, against his skull. He fought, but not like her. And the second she gained ground, dominated, hurt him, she stretched her wings, ignoring the horrible pain that arced like electric currents through her body, and she hopped to the camera sitting in the middle of the sea of glass.
Benjamin was flapping in the dirt, righting himself, but he was shaking his head hard, as though she’d knocked him straight into confusion. Good. Fucker deserved that and worse. One of his eyes was bleeding bad, and the other flashed with hatred and pain in the glow of the kitchen light, but Avery couldn’t conjure a single solitary fuck right now. She needed to get to Weston.
Camera in her beak, she flapped her wings hard and was nearly immobilized by the pain. Something reflective flashed right by her face, scaring her, and when she banked to the left and arched her gaze, she could see it. A huge shard of glass was lodged in her wing, right at the base, glistening with blood and moonlight. But something else flashed in the reflection of the jagged glass as she flapped upward into the sky. Something orange and glowing.
Avery searched desperately across the tree line. A bonfire had been built in the woods of The Hollow. Bonfires were only for special occasions. They signified Change, or were built when a severe punishment was being decided on.
She wanted to scream in agony with every beat of her wings, but she could hear it now. She could hear the collective caw, caw of the flock. Something awful was happening. And as she struggled over the last line of trees, Avery saw him. Weston leapt into the air, human and naked, covered in crimson gashes, muscles flexing as he reached for a dive-bombing raven. He grasped the bird and slammed it to the ground, and mid-jump, his raven exploded from him and continued to battle. A hundred ravens swarmed around him, pecking and slashing. They surged onto him in a ball of violence as he thrashed and fought. He couldn’t even spread his wings, so he was falling with the rest of them.
Caden was standing to the side, glowing like a demon in the firelight, chin lifted high, eyes full of raw triumph as he watched his people bleed the Novak Raven.
She would kill them all to see Weston live. Kill them all to save one.
Avery swooped lower, dropped the camera into a fern, and flapped furiously toward the battle, pain be damned. Weston Changed into his human form right before he hit the ground, and he fought savagely. His face was full of intensity, not fear, as though he knew exactly how to fight a war like this. The hoard of ravens lifted as Weston ducked, hit, and grabbed. He never missed, and he was so fast he blurred.
And when he ran and leapt into the air with ravens trailing, Avery tucked her wings and smashed into the closest two. Their talons had been out, ready to hurt him mid-Change, but as Avery barreled into them, the power of Weston’s shift blasted through her. Everything slowed as she stretched her wings to catch the currents and Weston, just under her, flipped upside down and stretched for her, war in his eyes. She cawed at him. It’s me, my love. I’m here. The death-bringer in his eyes softened. He answered with a strong, bellowing battle cry, and then he arched his back and fought the hoard following them. Taking his cue, Avery bowed her back and flew over the flock of blood-lusting ravens. She caught one by the outstretched claws and spun the raven around, slammed it into a tree trunk and searched for the next. Weston was engaged with three, flapping his wings desperately, trying to keep them all from slamming back down to earth. He couldn’t bear more weight, so she dive-bombed the fourth, knocked it off course. Above, ravens circled, cawing constantly, drawing more and more of the flock into the battle, and it was her and Weston against the entirety of Raven’s Hollow.
She was hit from behind, and another raven clashed with her front, holding onto her with nails dug deep into her flesh. Avery ducked the sharp beak as she flapped desperately under the new weight. Her wing was injured, though, and she wasn’t as strong as Weston. She was going down hard. In a desperate move, she Changed to her human form right before she struck the earth. She slammed into
the ground, and the air was shoved forcefully from her lungs. She was too close to the bonfire, and heat flared up her legs as she thrashed and grasped for the ravens. There were too many now, but she could see him coming—Benjamin. He was naked and streaked with dirt and blood. His eye was swollen closed, and it looked as if he was crying rivers of crimson, but hate flashed across his entire face. When the ravens lifted from their attack on her body, she could see Benjamin was holding an ax in his hand. Avery tried to force her body to move, to scramble away, but the wind was still knocked out of her, and her body was frozen in fear.
Three more long deliberate strides, and Benjamin lifted the ax gracefully over his head, an evil smile on his face, the fire illuminating his ruined eye. This was it, the end, and it would hurt so bad to die this way. Avery drew her hands over her face and flinched as the ax began its arch toward her.
And then Weston was there, human, his great weight covering her body protectively. He cupped her head tightly against his shoulder, shielding her.
A sick thunk sounded, and Weston’s body jerked.
“No!” Avery screamed, tears burning her eyes.
After a horrifying second of silence, Weston eased up, his eyes wide with shock. He jerked his gaze over his shoulder, and Avery could see it, too. The ax wasn’t buried in the man she loved. It was hanging limply from Benjamin’s hand, and he was looking down at his chest in shock. The handle of a knife was lodged against his sternum.
Benjamin sank to his knees, and above, the battle song of the ravens wrenched up in volume.
Weston looked behind Avery toward the woods, flickering in an orange bonfire glow. Avery followed his glance, grasping his tensed arms desperately.
A man stood there with blazing green eyes and dark hair. In his hand was another blade, ready to be thrown. He stood to his full, imposing height and bared his teeth. His face looked like a predator’s, twisted and wild. In a booming voice, he said, “You won’t be layin’ another hand on my boy.”
A woman stood behind him, long, dark hair streaked with silver and waving down her shoulders, her eyes the pitch black of a raven. Avery recognized her from the picture she had. Aviana Novak. And that meant the man—the wild one who’d just saved Weston from an ax blade—was none other than…
The man opened his mouth and yelled as an enormous silver grizzly bear ripped out of his skin. His bellow tapered to a roar that shook the woods.
Beaston.
Above, the ravens’ battle song turned panicked and disjointed.
Beaston and Aviana weren’t alone. Harper melted out of the woods flanked by Lexi. Then another bear answered Beaston’s call, and another. Alana’s dark-furred bear followed Wyatt’s and Aaron’s out of the tree line, and a massive snowy owl stretched its wings against the wind and landed on a branch above Beaston.
“Move,” Weston said low.
The instant he grabbed her arm, she gasped at the pain. His eyes flashed wide when he laid eyes on the glass sticking out of her shoulder. Look away.”
After she squeezed her eyes tightly closed, he pulled the glass from her in a quick jerk. The pain drew a sharp yelp from her lips, and then he was pulling her up, pulling her away from where Benjamin had fallen to the side, his one eye staring vacantly at her. It was still filled with hate, even in death. Caden was walking closer, flanked by the rest of the council, but Weston picked her up like she weighed nothing and strode toward the Bloodrunners.
Avery stared in horror over his shoulder at the council coming for them.
Rage-filled eyes on Aviana, Caden screamed, “Kill them all!” to the ravens above.
But something moved just beyond the trees, and Weston skidded to a stop, his heart pounding hard against her shoulder. “Holy shit,” he murmured.
Avery twisted in his arms. In the shadows of the trees, barely lit by the bonfire, behind Beaston, Aviana, and the Bloodrunners, something massive and serpentine moved through the woods. A low rumble filled the forest, and a huge eye opened, the elongated pupil constricting as it focused on Caden. The eye was the color of gold fire, and the scales of the monster dragon were as dark as night.
Terrified, Avery whispered, “Is it Kane?”
“No,” Weston murmured. “That’s Rowan of the Gray Backs.”
The gray-scaled dragon pushed up on massive legs until her back blocked out the moon. Her long neck unfurled, and she lifted her enormous head into the air. Long, arched horns extended from face, and her back was covered in razor sharp spikes. A few terrifying clicks sounded, and she bellowed a roar, blowing a stream of fire and lava into the air.
The circling ravens scattered like ashes in the wind.
“That’s as much warning as you’ll get,” Harper shouted at Caden, fury tainting every word. “Come another step closer, and you’ll get a war you aren’t prepared for.” She planted her feet near Aviana and Beaston and leveled her glowing gaze on the leader of Raven’s Hollow. “You’ve done enough.” She gestured to the limp ravens scattered across the clearing around the bonfire. “You’ve caused great loss to your people in the name of vengeance. Save what remains of The Hollow and let us go in peace.”
“She’s mine!” Caden screamed, jamming a finger at Aviana. “And she’s mine.” He pointed to Avery.
Beaston’s bear snarled and circled his mate tightly, his glowing green eyes promising death to Caden. Weston set Avery down and held her protectively behind him as he backed her toward the safety of the crew. Weston’s voice came out a feral snarl. “My mother was never yours. My mate was never yours. You’ll let them go for good, or your last breath will belong to me.”
Caden was alone in the clearing now, his countenance enraged, his thick crop of silver hair disheveled, his chest heaving, fists clenched at his sides. His council was on the run, his protégé was dead, and his War Birds had abandoned him, yet still he faced the Bloodrunners, insanity in his dark eyes. And in a flash, his glare on Weston, he leapt into the air and burst into a raven.
Weston took two steps, jumped and morphed into his raven in an instant. He hit Caden full in the chest, locked his talons onto his and flew them up higher and higher.
Heart in her throat, Avery moved to Change, but Harper was there, hand resting on her forearm. “Let him end this,” she murmured, power in her words.
And her animal wanted to listen. She wanted to obey Harper, not because she was bullying her into submission like the ravens had done. She wanted to listen to Harper because her words were wise. Weston needed to defend Avery, to end her hurt because that’s what real mates did. She’d had the same instinct, to protect him from everything. But also Harper’s words had fused with some deep instinct to expose her neck and obey for the good of Weston. For the good of the crew. She’d always wanted to fight submission to the ravens, but this felt so right. So important.
Harper was Avery’s alpha now.
Lifting her eyes to the sky, she squeezed Harper’s hand as hard as she could and watched her mate avenge her. And when the birds tumbled from the clouds, locked in war, beating their wings and slamming their beaks into each other, she didn’t run to fix this herself. Weston was good at battle. He was capable. Avery winced when they reached the ground, but with a booming thud, one raven lay limp near the fire, and the other, the biggest raven of all, spread his wings, arched upward, and ghosted the ground before lifting up on the air currents victorious.
Caden and Benjamin were gone, and never again would Avery have to fear The Box.
Never again would she have to fear anything.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Weston glanced over at Avery again, just to make sure she was okay for the hundredth time. She was huddled into herself, staring out the window as the Smoky Mountains blurred by.
“We’re almost home,” he murmured, wishing he could take her pain away.
She rolled her head across the seat and gave him a tired smile. There were ghosts in her eyes, though.
Today had been hell. She’d gone to battle with the flock,
been hurt escaping The Box and defending him, and then she’d spent the entire day in the Damascus Police Department, making her statement and answering questions.
She’d done so fucking good getting the video. On it, Benjamin had admitted so much, not only for himself, but he’d unknowingly testified against Caden, too.
She was a phoenix now, just like he’d always known she would be.
“What will happen to the ravens?” she asked in a hoarse voice.
“Caden and Benjamin are gone, and the council has been arrested for their involvement in what happened, not only when you were growing up, but in the calculated manipulation of law enforcement and the attack on both of us. The leadership of The Hollow has been dissolved, and the raven shifters have a real shot at changing their ways. They can grow, join modern times, and respect their women, or they can fail and fall back into darkness. The choice is theirs, Avery, but at least they have a choice now. You gave them that.”
“My mom said she’s proud of me,” she murmured. “She said she hopes that someday she can be strong like me.” Avery sniffed and wiped her cheek on her bandaged shoulder. “I never thought she would say something like that to me.”
Weston slid his hand over her thigh and squeezed. Avery didn’t see her worth, but he did. She had so many layers to her. She was sweet and sensitive, caring to a fault, but when it had come time to let her inner raven loose, she had no fear. She’d viciously fought her own people to protect him. She’d willingly gone into The Box to protect the crew. She didn’t realize how tough she was yet, but she would someday, and he was so damn proud that he got the chance to watch her rise up from the ashes of her past. He was so damn proud she had chosen him to hold onto all these years. So proud she’d chosen him as her mate.
He pulled to a stop in front of 1010 and gave a two-fingered wave at the truck that passed carrying the other Bloodrunners.
It was full dark in Harper’s Mountains, but the glow of 1010’s lights beckoned, welcoming them home.