Hey everyone! Hope you enjoy this latest chapter, and yeeeaaahh :) 

If you didn't see my latest status update (on my WP profile) go and check it out for information on what is happening in regards to BOOK THREE, UPDATES and NEW BOOKS! 

Thanks for reading - and let me know what you think!

Libby xx

P.S.   '~' means break in memory/reality

Raven struggled to keep up with the Princess, Warrior and the Hunter. They were all in their human forms, sprinting through the forests to the Palace grounds. Wolf form would be easier, but Thalia was still healing and Elijah was too slow to run with wolves.

Thalia had also asked Lara to shift to human to ask how exactly the Warrior wolf found them. Turns out that Rebekah's contacts in the New York Precinct were useful to Elijah's surprise. One of her friends, Julie Sparks, had been locating Buchannan on a human search aspect to try and find his hideout. Sparks had called Rebekah when she'd arrived at her home to see if her family were alright, and Rebekah had then diverted the call onto Greg's laptop; Tin had picked it up and Lara was out of the door before they could say otherwise.

As they traded stories, they ran on two legs, although Raven was still irritated by having four. 

She'd shifted willingly into her beast, the same one that sat coiled around her spine, tickling the nape of her neck. Raven felt her wolf's own subconscious stirring at the sprint, its golden eyes glowing viciously - her beast knew that battle was approaching.

The red-head flinched as Elijah and Thalia started to bicker once again, them both telling the other to stay behind as the other fought. Raven didn't know how they were still together – or how Thalia was still standing after what Buchannan did to her flesh. Criss-cross indentations of chains were now scarred into her flesh. Raven's own scars seemed to shiver as Thalia walked through a dirty fern, the leaves poking into her wounds, without any signs of pain at all. 

She, on the other hand... Raven was petrified at the world. Her migraine had only increased ten-fold after she had shifted to the beast within her. The darkness of the wild wolf was spreading through her bones. Tendrils of pain and misery licked her limbs, but when they stroked her mind, Raven crumbled.

~

A woman with jade green eyes beamed at her as she held her above her head, a hiccupping laughter sounding in her mind. Small freckles dotted her cheeks, a crinkle in the corners of her eyes. A gold chain hung from her neck, a pendant hidden beneath the woman's shirt; which itself was covered in her own slobber.

~

Her lips wobbled as the woman set her down, tending to the man standing in the doorway. He was waving his arms frantically, The woman pointed at her tubby self, and the man nodded. As the jade-eyed woman with the pendant left, the man came and sat down with her in her place. Her wobbly lips turned into a loud tantrum.

~

"Mama!"

~

She screamed as the claws dug into each of her arms, dragging her from the grassy home she could barely remember. The jade-eyed woman was being dragged the other way, but she was merely a blurry outline, shouting a name lost in the wind.

~

"Raven!" Elijah yelled, gripping her arms tightly as she twitched against the tree. Sweat was rolling down her forehead as she whimpered, eyes shut tightly, lips quivering, her face had lost whatever colour was left. Black smoke rolled out between her light lashes. 

"What happened?!" Thalia cried as she and Lara ran over to them. The Hunter was puzzled and petrified as he stepped away from the smoking girl. The Princess, ignoring the screaming in her legs, crouched in front of Raven. She placed a hand on her knee, and another on the nape of her neck. 

"Raven?!" She called, scanning her closed lids. "Can you hear me? Raven, it's Thalia, you're in the middle of the forest." 

The quivering started to subside, but the red-haired girl's eyes remained crinkled. Thalia licked her lips before gently stroking Raven's short curls with a firm hand on her knee. "Raven, open your eyes. Breathe, and open your eyes."

Raven's shivering dropped, but with twitching hands she gently reached up to her knees. Thalia caught the moment, holding her hands tightly, and watched as the young girl stared back at her. With Thalia's obsidian eyes and Raven's scared grey, they were almost opposites. 

"Raven," the Princess said firmly when the young wolf seemed some-what alive. "Are you in control?"

Her hands shook in Thalia's vice grip, the question echoing around her head. A cold shiver spiked in her heart as dark tendrils from her wolf wrapped loosely around it. She wasn't in control, and she knew it, but those tendrils were lining her muscle and forced her to nod. 

Thalia narrowed her eyes at her. With a tight smile, the Princess returned the nod and pulled Raven to her feet. She gave a look to Lara, who was standing tall behind her, before motioning for the four of them to walk once again.

"We're running out of time." Lara said with a voice void of emotion before she shifted into her brown beast, galloping like a mustang, towards the Palace grounds. Thalia yelled for her to come back, but the estranged Warrior was already out of range. Huffing furiously, Thalia shifted into her golden wolf and lumbered after the Wolf. Raven flinched as dirt from Thalia's paws was flung up in her face. 

Elijah sheathed his knives and sprinted after his mate, leaving Raven no choice but to follow. With fumbling feet, she ran over logs and twigs, trying to keep up with the Hunter at least – she wouldn't shift into her wolf just to catch Lara and Thalia. Her breathing grew heavy as her muscles screamed in protest at exercise. Her dark heart convulsed as the tendrils tightened, memories flashing in her mind.

~  

Screams of pain and laughter from a monster. Chills ran down her spine as more needles were inserted into her body. A metallic ring sounded; a machete being sheathed.

~

Grass beneath her feet, her hair in curly braids, and looking into a pair of grey-jade eyes too similar to her own – smiling. Happiness flooded her blood, and a snorting laughter was shared between the two of them.

~

Buchannan watched her squirm under silver cuffs, her whimpering only powering him to bare his dripping fangs, and-

~

The woman with the pendant laughed as she pushed her on the swing, her green eyes a glow-

~

His shadows eyes were snarling with fury beyond anything she'd seen. Buchannan roared at the table she lay on, and deemed he was unsatisfied with the amount of blood that was on the table. Raven knew he was angry over Meredith's death.

~

Raven tripped, hyperventilating, but Elijah shouted for her to hurry up. He was blinded by his desperation to get to Thalia that he didn't see dark smoke pour over Raven's lashes again. The red-haired wolf steeled her stomach and got up. She started to run once again, as memories pounded her mind once again.

~

Red-Eyes watched her carefully as she writhed under the needle in her arms. His dark hair was swept to the side, ruffled from where Buchannan had hit him into injecting her. 

"Good." The Master said to his protégée, and Raven swore that Red-Eyes eyes flickered with hatred – not to her, but to the vampire behind him.

~

After hours with the man sitting in front of her, the green-eyed woman returned. She hopped about as the woman approached the two of them. She brought her up to her height and wiped the dry tears from her eyes and hugged her close. Raven heard some words being whispered into her ear, and also to the man – words of warning and secrecy.

~

Raven gasped, stumbling, but her steel core wouldn't let her fall. She pushed her feet forward, her mind trying to pull her back into her recent memories, but she couldn't. Not yet. Not when Buchannan was launching a full-scale attack on King Elliot and Queen Seraphina – she had to help them. 

Elijah shoved his way through the trees to encounter the clearing of the Royal Palace. The thin grass, stretching for just under a mile, was all that stood between them and Thalia's old home. He would have run across that large clearing, Raven too, if there weren't any obstacles. 

Like a thousand vampires; Elijah couldn't run through that unseen.

The two halted, and he saw that a pair of brown and gold wolves stood, haunches low and ears back, in front of him. Lara and Thalia had obviously cleared up the Warrior's lack of obedience and were now prepared to attack as many vampires as possible when given the order. With the moon high on their backs, Elijah knew that the amount of heads he could see of Vampires, he knew that they had all been called here tonight – to fill out one psycho's vengeance. 

The Hunter drew his knives soundlessly and turned behind him to tell Raven to stay hidden - but the grey-eyed girl wasn't looking at him. Elijah followed her vision and realised just who stood at the front of the army.

Buchannan, Master of the Vampires, bitten father of Meredith, and attempted murderer of Wolf Heir, was standing arms spread, facing another army emerging from the Royal Castle. He was laughing, grinning sickly, as the Royal Wolf Army walked with murderous intent towards the field; towards their enemy. 

Lead by a shirtless King Elliot, the only one in human form, his midnight blue eyes dark with hatred as he gazed at the ecstatic Buchannan; he seemed to be the only one enjoying himself. The King of the Wolves' dark blonde hair shone in the moonlight, the crown of his head glowing, as he raised his chin in defiance as he came within twenty metres of the Vampire Master. 

A very thin line of tension stretched between them; a grinning vampire and a murderous wolf, each with an army at their disposal.

"No..." Elijah spat, as Raven collapsed against a tree. Lara growled low, hunched, eyeing off the vampires in front of them. Thalia swept her eyes over the front of the army, spying her cousin Jackson O'Hara, her brother, and even her twin Lorraine. They were ready to attack.

So was she.