Page 12 of Stormbinder King (Stormbinder Pack #1)

T he summer days ripened even hotter, moving toward the Midsummer Festival, where other shifter Packs would gather on Stormbinder land to drink and eat together, competing in skills like archery and stone tossing.

I was looking forward to it very much, even though I who was outside the Pack hierarchy had noticed that ever since the King came back, there had been an increase in lengthy meetings Jack had been required to attend.

But when I asked him about what the King was so worried about, he only brushed aside any concerns, saying shifters living outside the Stormbinder lands had been reporting an increase in sightings of other creatures.

“What kind of creatures?” I asked, but he only waved it aside, pulling off his lightweight linen shirt to reveal his tanned chest and flat defined belly.

“Just some shifters indulging too much in summer blackberry wine. They wouldn’t dare to come to our lands.”

“I heard some of the Betas gossiping there is something wrong with the boundary,” I said. “Something working to weaken it.”

Jack scoffed. “Betas are always gossiping. Don’t worry about it.”

Then he bent to lay a kiss on my throat, and I forgot everything else in my eagerness for my mate.

The next day, shifter families began to arrive in noisy little convoys, and I stood by Jack and Symeon’s uncle Solomon, watching them all arrive.

Solomon was a whip-thin shifter in his 50s with a salt and pepper beard and a taciturn disposition.

I had assumed he disliked me like all the other shifters, but he only grunted when I offered him a ginger cookie, and didn’t outright react with hostility, so I felt a little cheered.

The shifters cleared a wide, flat area just outside the village, cutting down some of the tangled underbrush in a way that made me catch my breath.

But why?

A forest couldn’t fight back. Could it?

“Can I have one of those?” I asked a shifter named Carlotta, pointing to the light, diaphanous head scarves she and the other female shifters wore. They seemed almost to have a magical quality, since they weren’t nearly as affected by the heat as I was.

Or maybe that was just an unfortunate side effect of being the only Human here.

She was about to hand it to me, when Aurelia snatched it out of her hand.

“Shifters only,” Aurelia said, her mouth creased up in a little smirk.

“How can that be?” I asked. “It’s just a piece of fabric.”

She shook her head.

“I don’t care, I’m taking one,” I said resentfully, turning away from her.

But she whipped me around, digging her sharp nails into my skin. I was startled to see her shifting back and forth to dull the effects of the magic, flipping back and forth into her wolfish form and digging her claws into my flesh.

“You will not be getting one, you trashy little slut. Pack members only. And you aren’t a member of the Pack.”

“How—dare you talk to me like that!” I protested. “I’m Jack’s mate!”

“You’re Jack’s temporary interest,” she snarled, her lip curling up.

I wished he was here to defend me. Aurelia was so much bigger and angrier than me.

And it wasn’t true. It wasn’t.

My tattoo was evidence that he was going to love me forever.

“Are you just jealous?” I asked boldly.

“Jealous? Of a weak little brat with no skills or powers or the ability to shift? No.”

“Maybe you wish you were Jack’s fated mate, too,” I shot back as my arm stung.

She dropped my arm and for a moment I thought it was over. Then her sleek hand was coming up, slapping me across the face as my head rocked back.

“Shut your mouth. I’m not jealous of anything.”

She stalked away, the cool wispy scarves tucked in her arm.

Carlotta shrugged almost apologetically and followed her.

The midday sun burned down on me in the clearing.

I looked down to see blood streaked up and down my arm where her claws had scoured my skin.

Wiping my arm hastily, I smeared the hand with the blood on my dark skirt so no one would know what happened.

My legs trembled, and I felt weak all over.

How long would she bully me because she had been rejected by Jack?

In the center of the clearing, the Alpha prince sparred lazily with his cousin Leo, parrying his cousin’s attacks easily with his lithe moves.

He saw me watching and, laughing, strode over and pinched my chin affectionately.

His lightweight white shirt was open at the throat and his sleeves were rolled up.

Jack reached out for me, hooking his fingers possessively around the fastenings on my bodice, pulling on the eyehooks to bring me closer.

He tasted deliciously like sun and sweat, and I could feel his heart beating.

I wanted to put my hands under his shirt and run them up and down each heated, golden inch.

Jack loved me. I needed to tell him about Aurelia’s bullying.

“Jack, why don’t the—women here like me? I’m trying to make friends but everyone acts like they hate me.”

“Hate you?” he asked, flicking his tongue piercing into the hollow of my throat. “How could anyone hate you?”

“They do!” I insisted. “Especially Aurelia. Was she—did the two of you--?”

I searched his face to see if he had any guilt over rejecting her, because I was more sure than ever that she wanted to be his mate.

But the little frown line between his eyes cleared.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jack said, his fangs extending for just a moment to make two delicious little pricks in my throat, then he went back to sparring.

Agile, yet aggressive, there was no one who could match him.

Without the tree covering or the magical scarves, I was forced to head back into the shadows to keep from getting heat stroke.

Wandering about at the outer edges of the village, I stumbled over a rock and noticed more of them on the ground—as well as broken bits of woods and crushed beams, rocks looking like they had been broken in two.

I looked up in astonishment. The entrance to a beautiful little building had been destroyed, the intricate flowering vines laying torn on the ground.

What had happened to it? Even the pretty green door was so crumpled and mangled that it looked impossible even to get in. The stone walls had been utterly destroyed, collapsing in on themselves.

An unfamiliar wave of sorrow washed over me, gripping me utterly even though I had never been inside the building. I didn’t know why the damage had affected me like this.

I reached out tentatively, my fingers brushing down the rough and splintered surface of the door.

It had been such a pretty, jewel-like green color.

Who could have done such a thing?

But before my finger could barely brush down the wood, a rough hand was gripping me by the back of my dress and yanking me away.

“ Never go in there ,” Symeon growled. “I do not want to see you anywhere near this building.”

“I just wondered what it w-was!” I protested, hating the stammer that always betrayed me. “It’s a beautiful building.”

“It was a holy place,” Symeon corrected me. “No longer.”

“But why?” I cried. “Why destroy it?”

“It no longer serves its purpose,” the King bit out.

What had prompted Symeon to only recently fill it in? If it had been a sacred area?

“What was its purpose?”

But he did not answer the question.

“If I see you anywhere near here, my brother’s whore, I am going to beat this little ass.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” I gasped.

“I would,” he said, baring his teeth at me.

How could you stand against the Alpha Pack King?

I turned aside, clenching my weak fists at my sides.

How I wanted to put them around Symeon’s neck and squeeze.

But of course I couldn’t.

If I tried taking him on I’d only be embarrassed.

But I couldn’t help my curiosity about this building.

Why had he destroyed it?

What was inside there?