Chapter 1 The Raven’s Arrival

(ISLA POV)

Kellan’s hands were on my waist, pulling me flush against him in the storage room. His breath hit my neck, making me sigh with contentment of being in his arms as I raised my hands, resting them against his chest.

He cradled the back of my head and tilted my chin up to stare at me with an affectionate look in his blue eyes.

I smiled at him, kissing his lips, and he smiled back, kissing me again. I moaned against the kiss as he deepened it and moved my hands from his chest to his hair, tangling my fingers in it.

I pulled back and stared at him with hooded eyes, trying to catch my breath.

“I need to leave before we get caught here,” I whispered, but he shook his head, holding me even tighter.

“Stay here a little longer,” he tried to persuade me, running a thumb over my hip. “We barely have time to meet with my training and all the events that you organise. Let me enjoy this moment with you a little longer, my love.” he placed a kiss on my forehead and then my nose and cheek before finally kissing me on my lips again, and I melted into his touch.

A sound outside the door snapped me out of it, and I flinched backwards and stilled.

We waited a while and didn't hear anything before I visibly relaxed.

“Come on, Kellan,” I nudged him. “I thought we had almost got caught,” but he only pulled me closer, resting his forehead against mine.

“I don't care,” he muttered against my skin, his hands gripping my waist over my dress.

I closed my eyes as his hand moved up to brush my hair away from my face, while the other hitched up under my dress.

“Kellan…” I murmured, and just as his hands went higher, trumpets began to sound, startling us apart.

“Fuck.”, he cursed, caressing the back of his head that he had hit against the door.

“Why are the trumpets being blown?” I asked him, but he shrugged, not knowing the answer. He reached for me again, and I frowned, pushing him away and pulling the door open.

Servants were running down the hallway in a panic, carrying covered trays, pitchers of water, and stacks of fresh towels. Two guards hurried past us toward the main courtyard.

I stepped into the middle of the hallway, catching a young maid by her shoulder as she tried to rush past me with a basket of bread. She gasped, nearly dropping the basket onto the floor.

“Who is at the gates? Why are they blowing the arrival trumpets?”

“Lady Isla,” she panted, her hands shaking as she tried to calm herself. “The delegation... they just passed the lower bridge!”

“Which delegation?”

“It’s the Ravencross Pack, my lady!” she squeaked out, her face pale. “They said Alpha Bastian is at the front of the line!”

What?!

Ravencross. The same pack that had slaughtered my older brother Donald two years ago. The same pack that had spent twenty years bleeding our warriors, and my father was opening our gates to let them walk right into our home?

Not in my watch!

Anger boiled inside me and the maid winced from how tightly I held on to her. Her whimper made me release her hand, and my palms folded into fists so tightly that my nails dug into them.

“Isla, wait!” Kellan called out, reaching out from the storage doorway to grab my arm, as if sensing that I was about to act out.

I pulled my arm away from his grip, not even bothering to look back at him and ran as fast as I could.

A guard stood near the curve leading to the main courtyard steps, his head turned towards the window as he tried to look outside. I ran up to him, reached across his waist and grabbed his sword, yanking it free.

“Lady Isla! No!” the guard yelled, reaching out to catch my dress, but I was already past him.

I kicked the side door wide open and burst out to the top of the entrance steps.

The courtyard below was packed with horses and men wearing their armour that was stamped with the raven crest.

Right at the bottom of the steps, a tall warrior was dismounting a black stallion. I stared down at the cloak pinned to his shoulder, and my hands tightened around the handle of the sword until my knuckles turned white.

I ran down the steps, lifting the sword with both hands.

“Isla, stop!” my uncle Edrick shouted from behind me.

I ignored him and kept running,  and just as I was close enough, I got behind a Ravencross Soldier and placed the sword to his exposed throat, stopping barely an inch away from cutting his head off his neck.

The soldier stood, shaking with fear that I was going to I end his life, and it almost made me smile at how much he feared me.

“You will regret stepping foot into my lands.” I moved to cut off his head when two huge guards leapt towards me, tackling me to the floor and the sword flying out of my hand, clattering far away and out of my reach.

“Get off me!” I screamed, thrashing around and trying to get them to get off my body.

I slammed my elbow back into one guard's chest, making him grunt and lose his grip, but three more guards rushed forward, grabbing my arms, dragging them behind my back, and pinning my wrists together.

“Hold her! Keep her down!” Uncle Edrick yelled as he walked down the stairs towards us.

The guards pulled me up onto my feet by my arms; my dress was ruffled, and I felt a drip of blood roll down my cut cheek, but I forced my head up, my teeth grinding together so hard that my jaw ached.

Just as I looked up, my eyes landed on his, staring at my face with disinterest.

He didn't look the littlest bit threatened by my act and didn't see me as necessary enough for him to draw his sword, and it hurt my pride that he did not feel fear in my presence.

Bastian Ravencross just stared at me with a cold and bored expression on his face, patting his horse gently.

“Drag her inside!” Edrick commanded, gesturing furiously to the guards holding my arms.

They yanked me backwards, hauling me away.

“Father! Where is my father? I know he wasn't aware of this foolery going on!” I screamed at the top of my lungs

“Father, you are insane if you are aware of this! You shouldn't have let them through the gates! They are going to take us out from the inside!”