Raven's Embrace

By Steven Sterup, Jr

Fawn, although most people know her by her code name Raven, is one of the best assassins in the world. When she takes on a very lucrative job to kidnap, then kill the prince, she realizes that the bumbling fool isn’t the cruel womanizer she’s been led to believe. She thought assassins were deceptive, nobles and royals are worse. Can she find her way through this web of lies before it is too late? Despite his roguish charm and possible innocence, she has a job to do and Raven always kills her mark.

When Alexander Kurts, the prince of Selenthal, wakes up in a prison cell, he is surprised to find out that the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen has kidnapped him. While trying to find a way out of his situation he comes to realize that she is even more deadly than she is beautiful. Someone wants him dead and this gorgeous assassin might be his only hope for survival. If he could only figure out why she seems to detest him he might just get out of this.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steven Sterup, Jr
• Release date: Sep 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370697960

Steven Sterup, Jr

I enjoy reading and writing fantasy themed books, including romance novels. Most of my work is about fantastical worlds with magic and monsters.Since I was young I've had a strange desire to create 'something' and as soon as I started writing my first book I knew I had finally found what I was looking for.I hope you enjoy the worlds I have created and I appreciate your feedback. Feel free to contact me on my website at www.StevenSterupJr.com or email me at [e-mail].

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Raven’s Embrace

Written By: Steven Sterup Jr.

Copyright 2017 Steven Sterup Jr.

Legal Disclaimer - This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Special thanks to my wife Tammy for her help with editing and pretty much every step of making this book.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Epilogue

Chapter 1

Fawn didn’t think of herself as a small woman. She preferred to refer to herself as petite. At five foot four, she wasn’t tall, but she also wasn’t short. She was very average, and that is exactly what she wanted to be. The mask she wore hid her face quite well, and Fawn’s shoulder-length, brunette hair was neatly pulled back in a small ponytail which she had tucked underneath her cap. She needed no distractions. This stupid test must go off without a hitch.

Fawn looked down at her feet on the narrow decorative ledge that traced the castle walls. It was, at most, four inches wide. How had the designers of this place not realized that someone might be able to use this to gain access to the royal bedrooms? The question came and went as more pressing matters filled her mind. One of them being her frustration with herself. This would have been much easier if she had remembered her wrist hooks. She had made them herself. A simple strap of leather that fastened to her wrist with a hook that could be used to hoist herself up when her fingers couldn’t find a hold. The metal for the hook and the leather for the strap were strong enough to hold her weight. She was, after all, petite.

Fawn laughed at herself silently. What kind of assassin thinks about such things at a time like this? At least she was wearing her leather shoes. These particular shoes were made for stealth. Instead of a hard sole, they had a quarter-inch thick sole made out of suede. Not the best thing for situations that required her to have waterproof shoes but for climbing and silent movement, they were perfect.

She laughed again in her head, this time at her previous thoughts, as she turned a narrow corner. The designers hadn’t considered this as a potential security breach because most assassins were men, and there was no way a man could get into the prince’s room like this. Fawn stretched her legs until she was almost doing the splits to get across a gap in the ledge. Fawn’s foot slipped, and she looked down at the ground. Three stories was a long way to fall. Even she couldn’t survive that. She chastised herself again for forgetting her wrist hooks. To be fair with herself, she hadn’t realized that there would be a test before the actual job. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that a try-out was a more accurate term for what this was.

The queen insisted that all the potential assassins be able to sneak into the prince’s room and steal one silver coin the queen had placed on the prince’s nightstand. She didn’t care how the assassin got the coin, but the prince was not to be harmed, and he couldn’t catch them. The prince’s death inside the castle would cause the queen many uncomfortable questions, as well as dangerous accusations. Since the king had died nearly six years ago, everyone in the kingdom, from lowly peasants to the royal advisors, suspected the queen had something to do with it.

Fawn didn’t care about the politics, nor the queen’s problems, she only cared about the money. And there was a lot of money on the line here. Twenty gold coins as a retainer with more to come as the job went on. This wasn’t going to be an easy stab and run. This had to be planned meticulously, so the queen was free from fault and even removed as a suspect in her husband’s death. There would be a patsy and a foreign conspiracy once it was all said and done. The pieces were laid out like a chessboard, and Fawn was a rook. At least she wasn’t a pawn. Her safety was not guaranteed, but, at least, neither was her death. The poor sucker that was going to take the fall for this, would suffer dearly at the hands of the royal court.

Fawn neared the window and checked it quietly. It was unlocked, just as the queen had promised. Not that she wouldn’t have been able to unlock it. She was quite possibly the fourth-best assassin in the whole kingdom. This was saying something, the kingdom of Selenthal was very large. In fact, it was by far the largest in the world. Even the three assassins that were considered better than her, wouldn’t have been able to pull off this stunt. Ok, well, to be fair, Cat probably could have, but she was either dead or retired, no one knew for sure. Fawn hoped for retired but in this line of work it was a pipe dream. Assassins never retired.

Fawn laughed quietly outside the window and quickly covered her mouth. What kind of narcissist names a whole kingdom after themselves? And what kind of name is Selenthal? The king who had named this place was long dead, and the current rulers were not his descendants. The current ruling family name was Kurts. Not a particularly ominous-sounding name but people don’t get to choose their names, not unless they were an orphan like she was. Truth be told, Smith was not her real last name. She didn’t have one. It was just the one she was using this month. She was raised by two very loving people, but these were not her parents. The loving couple that had adopted her died over ten years ago. Being an old couple, there was nothing outrageous nor devious about it. They had simply been too old to keep struggling with this rough world. Her adopted father died first, what seemed like a heart attack, while he was out plowing their one field. Her adopted mother died a week later. Fawn thought her mother might have died of a broken heart. These two loved each other very much. Her mother simply had no reason to keep living once her husband had passed.

Fawn, however, was her real name, as far as she was concerned. Her adopted mother and father had named her and told her the story of it as often as they could. She was named Fawn because her father had taken one look at her and made a comment about how she looked like a newborn fawn. She was so thin and frail, hardly making a sound as she sat on their doorstep wrapped in a blanket. Someone had left her at the old couple’s house, presumably her real parents. Fawn’s new mother decided then and there that her name would be Fawn. Her adopted parents never gave her a last name, and they didn’t force theirs on her either. They told her that if she ever found her real parents, she could decide if she wanted to take theirs, until then she was just Fawn.

Fawn pulled back from the window. A shadow moved across the dimly lit room and then she heard the door open. Two men stood inside, one a striking man with broad shoulders and a breathtaking face. This was the kind of man she could have a wonderful night with. His blond hair and blue eyes were almost mesmerizing, not to mention that body. The single candle in the room lit his face and his gorgeous body, making every ripple of his muscles stand out against his tight fitting shirt.

Quit it Fawn, she chastised herself quietly. There will be plenty of time for pleasure later. After you have the gold.

The second man looked rather ordinary. He wasn’t large, he was somewhat muscular, but he looked more like a stable hand than a prince. He was shorter than the man she assumed must be the prince by a good four inches. This man had brown hair that was neatly trimmed and brown eyes to match. He had a kind face that looked soft and caring. This was the type of man you wanted for a father or a best friend, not a one night stand. A sharp contrast from the beautiful man who had to be the prince.

Fawn stifled another laugh. She was having way too much fun with this job. Not having to kill someone filled her with a sense of relaxation. If only thieves made better money, she might have been one of those, but that was not the case, at least not in this kingdom. A thief would be lucky to get one job a month, barely enough to put food on the table, but assassins worked non-stop. There was always someone wanting someone else to end up dead, and they were willing to pay through the nose to have it done right.

Fawn felt a little warm staring at this specimen of male perfection. He was absolutely kissable, though that was not what she wanted to do to him. She thought for a moment and adjusted the cloth that was wrapped tightly around her breasts. Perhaps it wasn’t the man making her warm after all. Maybe it was just the cloth she used to hide the fact that she was a woman. She giggled quietly, as she looked back into the room. No, it was definitely him!

Fawn was a master of disguise or so her mentor, Wolf, had told her. She was also good at manipulating people and ‘out conning the conmen’ as Wolf put it. She never went on a job unprepared, the one exception being this try-out. Often times, Wolf made the joke that if she wouldn’t over-prepare, she would be able to take on more jobs. These were the reason’s her code name was Raven. The epitome of death, its dark outline stalking you, just waiting for its chance to steal your life. Most people didn’t realize it, but Ravens were also very intelligent and cunning. Fawn loved her code name. It made her feel smart and deadly.

Each assassin had a code name to protect their identity. It was hard to get a job without a name, but using your real name could get you killed. Cat was the woman considered to be the best assassin in the world, let alone this kingdom, despite the fact that she had been missing for ten years now. Wolf, currently second to Cat, was Fawn’s mentor and occasional lover. She sometimes thought of Wolf as a friend, but as Wolf always said, ‘Assassins have no friends other than their blades.’ Then there was Stallion, number three. This blustering buffoon loved his codename, probably because he thought it meant he was some kind of stud. In reality, he was given this name partly due to his womanizing but mostly because he couldn’t sneak up on a passed out drunk. He was heavy-footed, almost like he had hooves, but damn the man could fight, and he was strong as a horse. One on one, no one stood a chance against him.

None of the assassins knew the other’s real names. In fact, the only time their real name was used was when they took a contract with a client. This was the first and most important rule of being an assassin. Well, after the ‘Don’t get dead’ rule but that one went without saying. Giving the client their real name meant there was no backing out of the deal by either party. Knowing an assassin’s real name and going back on the deal, or even trying to short the payment was a death sentence. After the job was over the