Page 13 of Stormbinder King (Stormbinder Pack #1)

T he wind was howling so loudly that night and I awoke frightened and alone.

Jack must still be down at the hall with the other shifters, but I hated that the meeting had gone so late.

Maybe if I went down to eavesdrop I’d finally figure out what kind of other creatures had been seen at the border and in the outer lands.

It felt like the land wanted to rage with a thunderstorm, but because it was so hot the rain wouldn’t come, so the wind tore at the trees instead, ripping off the heavy, dripping leaves and sending them swirling in the dusky night.

The howl of the wind mixed with the distant bay of wolves, so closely that I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.

Who were the shifters not at the meeting? What other creatures were out there beyond Pack lands?

I got up and slowly began to descend the rope ladder, grabbing a silky robe as I did.

My feet felt shaky and nervous on the ladder, as it swung precariously.

Why wasn’t Jack back?

Surely the meeting wouldn’t go this late.

Finally my feet landed on the ground and I wrapped the robe tighter around myself as the howls grew in the distance.

For a moment there was something almost familiar about it, a whisp of memory that dissipated like smoke. It wasn’t a comfortable memory, though, and I shook it off as I walked closer to the meeting place.

Although the rest of the treehouses were dark, warm light spilled out from the windows of the hall.

Without knocking, I opened the door and walked in, blinking to adjust my vision.

I smelled it instantly.

The room stank of sex , of writhing, fucking, copulating, moaning bodies.

Every surface seemed to be covered with shifters fucking, and the first eyes I met were Symeon’s.

He was leaning back negligently on his throne, three women in front of him, stretching their hands around what looked like a stupidly big cock, their pink tongues eagerly licking along the seam of his balls.

I felt an uncomfortable tight sensation in my gut, and I dragged my gaze away as his eyes narrowed.

If the King was here, where was Jack ?

Suddenly I didn’t want to know. I didn’t belong here. This wasn’t for me.

I took one trembling step back when I saw my mate.

Jack and Aurelia were on one of the couches, shifting rapidly back and forth as they fucked, their energy matching as they flared rapidly from claw and fang to flesh and fingers, devouring each other eagerly, fighting for dominance with playful nips and growls.

They hadn’t even heard me open the door.

Jack shifted with a bright phoenix flash, flipping Aurelia underneath him as he pulled her knees high and speared through her legs.

He thrust in and out, then again, her eyes closing with ecstasy as his cock slid into her warm and welcoming channel.

Jack had one of her big breasts in his hand, her dress wide open to the waist and as I watched in horror, his long tanned fingers rubbed against her tight nipple, in a move he’d done hundreds of times with me.

I cried out and clutched the table, my body panicking hot and cold as my stomach clenched painfully.

Aurelia’s eyes snapped open, and immediately locked on mine.

She said nothing, but her eyes narrowed to lupine slits and she flicked her tongue out and licked a deliberate line up Jack’s neck, then flashed into her wolfish form and sunk teeth into his throat.

My mate grunted with pleasure, closing his eyes so I could see the long strong lines of his body, his moonlight hair bright against his tanned cheek.

And I had thought she was the envious one, assumed she was the one he had rejected.

He hadn’t rejected her at all.

Jack was so focused on what he was doing he didn’t even hear me approach.

His strong hand was spread under her ass, fingers biting tightly down on her skin and my stomach suddenly heaved as I covered my mouth, afraid I was going to spew my nighttime tea all over the floor.

He was holding her tightly, so tightly. Like he didn’t want to let her go.

I turned and heaved into a can of compost, vomiting into the potato skins and fruit rinds, my stomach tensed and my back slick with sweat.

When I finished, I sunk to my knees to the ground, wiping my mouth, only to see a pair of huge black shitkicker boots beside me.

“Oh, you thought he meant it when he said he loved you? Stupid girl. You didn’t know he sticks his fucking cock in every shifter for 100 miles in any direction?”

Tears started to flow from my eyes.

“He—he said we were f-fated mates. I thought he loved me.”

I was shivering almost uncontrollably, trying to stand to my feet but I couldn’t.

“Act like a slut, get treated like a slut. Now get up.”

The Alpha King nudged my knee with his foot.

“I said get up. I don’t need puke on the floor.”

Desperate to get out of there, I gripped the table leg and attempted to stand as the muscles in Jack’s back and ass tensed.

He was close to coming. I could tell.

Aurelia was still looking at me, her smile feral and twisted.

She was enjoying it, enjoying her triumph over me.

Jack’s hips snapped forward and he began to pulse inside her, looking down to where their bodies joined.

Her toned belly shook as she came on a cry, my mate filling her so full his cum ran down her thighs.

I wanted to die right there in the corner of the meeting room, right there among the grunting, earthy stink of sex and joy that wasn’t mine.

It was only when my flailing arms knocked over a clay bowl that Jack turned around.

He didn’t look surprised or pleased to see me, just jerked his head toward the door.

“Wait outside.”

“But—”

“ I said wait outside .”

I ran, across the dark clearing and up the rope ladder to our treehouse.

But the lights, the warmth of home meant nothing to me now and I slumped into a chair in the corner, pulling my toes up to my chest as I shivered.

What should I do?

Should I try to run away?

Where could I go?

Jack climbed up the ladder about ten minutes later, his light, easy tread on the boards of the porch.

“What’s wrong, Andromeda?”

My eyes stung from crying.

“What’s wrong is you and—and her ! How could you do this to me?”

“I didn’t do anything to you,” he said, kicking off his boots and walking toward me.

He still looked slick with sweat. He still smelled like her.

“How m-many women did you have sex with?”

“Do you really want to know that?” Jack countered smoothly.

A wave of his scent hit me, cinnamon-sweet and mixed with masculine odors, sweat and blood.

His cock would be wet with her cunt.

“I thought when you chose me, it meant—it m-meant?—”

I stopped, horrified that my stutter was becoming harder to control.

“It meant that I was the only one.”

I looked down at my toes, ashamed and feeling close to tears.

Jack was behind me, his cool hands gently pulling the hair off my sticky heated neck so he could kiss me.

“What you saw means nothing,” he said. “ You’re still my fated mate.”

“How can it mean nothing?” I snapped, jumping up and pulling away from him.

My heart was hammering in my chest.

“I’m leaving.”

Jack leaned against the side table. I could see him in the mirror, the strong lines of his back and body long and seductive like some Greek god.

“Don’t be silly. You’re not going anywhere.”

“Let me go,” I said. “Release me from your protective spell.”

He didn’t look particularly bothered, just cocked an eyebrow at me, his lips curved in a smile.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to. I want you.”

I felt an unwelcome flicker of pleasure at his words, mixed with a gut-wrenching sick feeling.

Would I be a fool to stay?

Maybe it had just been a mistake.

We could move past this.

Anyone could make mistakes.

“Promise me you’ll never d-do that again then,” I demanded, trembling.

But Jack’s lips only curved up a bit and he shook his head.

“No. She’s my pack mate. It’s different with her. She gives me something that you can’t, and I won’t give that up.”

“But— I’m your fated mate!” I cried.

“You’re my fated mate, but when I want to fuck someone else, Andromeda? I will.”

“Fine, then go away!” I cried, helpless rage and anger growing under my skin. “I don’t want to see you!”

I wanted to be by myself so I could sob out my fury, face the fact that I loved this man and he had never had any intention of being loyal.

Jack only chuckled, then began to pull off his shirt.

Oh, gods, I hated how even the sight of his lean long limbs, silvery in the moonlight, made my stomach turn over.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Well, don’t touch me!” I snapped.

“I’m not worried. You’ll change your mind soon enough. You can’t go very long without wanting me.”

“I can go forever!” I cried.

Those long strong fingers pulled at the tie of his pants and they fell in a heap on the floor. Then he moved with catlike grace over the bed, his thick dick dangling between his legs.

“Ready for me yet?” Jack asked, stretching sideways.

My face burned.

“No!” I cried.

The prince only fisted his cock for a second and laughed, shoving a pillow under his head.

“You will be.”

“Never,” I hissed bitterly.

But I woke up in a cold sweat, the heat pouring off my body and I hated myself for being his fated mate.

I tried to go back to sleep. But I couldn’t.

All I could smell was Jack. All I could think about was Jack.

And I knew now nothing else could satisfy me.

Gritting my teeth, I slid into bed beside him.

Fucking loathing myself, I kissed his back, sucking his skin into my mouth just for a second, just to taste that sweet nectar of his sweat and scent.

His sleepy chuckle went through me like a knife.

“I knew you couldn’t stay away.”

I wriggled uncomfortably as I put one burning hand on his bicep.

“I—need you,” I moaned, ashamed to finally have to admit my physical necessity for him.

“But I thought you were angry,” he said, his wicked voice rolling over me like honey.

“Please,” I begged. “Just touch me!”

“Louder, Andromeda!” Jack ordered, suddenly pouncing and flipping me on my hands and knees. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to really plead your case here.”

“Please, Jack, please.”

“I don’t know, you weren’t being very sweet to me, were you?”

He stroked his cock up my ass crack and down until I was thrumming with need and denied lust, the slick dripping down my thighs and pooling under my knees.

But he kept his ass on my wet crack until the cum pulsed up my back, and I could have wept, was weeping, as his cum shot up my back to my neck.

“Stay still. We don’t want to get the bed dirty, do we?”

“Please!” I begged.

“What do you want then?”

“You!”

“But I thought you were mad at me,” he said languidly as the cum dripping around my throat. “I seem to remember that very clearly. You sitting and sulking in a corner like that.”

“I don’t care anymore! I just want you to take me!”

“You don’t care about what? Why, I thought you said you’d never want me again!”

“I lied, it isn’t true!”

“Rub that cum in then. I want everyone passing to be able to smell me on you.”

“All right.”

I craned around, grinding the wet, sticky trails of cum deeply into my skin with my trembling hands.

“There’s a little left on my balls. Lick it off and beg for it.”

And even the burn of shame didn’t dissuade me as I turned and ran my tongue around the underside of his balls, collecting the salty-sweet cum in my mouth.

“Please, Jack! Please! I’ll do anything! Please fuck me!”

Heated need poured down my thighs and I yelped with relief when he finally tipped up my hips, and I immediately went face-first into the bed, spreading myself as wide as I could, hoping he wasn’t going to deny my dripping cunt any longer.

“Yes, Jack, god!” I cried out in agony and ecstasy, my nails digging hard into the wooden headboard as he finally slid his cock inside me.

I was so wet and needy that that sounds were loud, squelching, obscene, his hand slapping my ass even more humiliating.

But I was choking for it, my whole body eagerly shoving back to take his whole cock inside me, even though it burned and stung, my body jerky and frenetic until he grabbed my hips and forced them into a slow, rolling motion.

“More!” I begged, my voice raised in a shriek.

“What a naughty girl, to even talk about running away from your mate,” Jack said in a silky voice. “Because you couldn’t, you know. You’d be driven mad without me here to put my cock inside you.”

I bit my lip, shamed to know it was true.

“I don’t want to leave you, Jack.”

“I know you don’t, angel. I wasn’t going to punish you too much. Just a little bit, to encourage you to not make a fuss when I need to fuck other women. Understand?”

“Yes,” I whispered, lowering my head submissively, my nipples hardening to unbearably tight points.

“That’s my sweet good girl.”

He finally picked up the pace, thrusting in and out of my sensitive walls, and I threw my head back and screamed as his balls slammed into my thighs, sending me hurtling over the cliff and my orgasm burned through my body, the blessed instant release making me wail in relief.

Jack gripped my hair and thrust again, his hot cum pulsing inside me as he hissed in my ear.

“Just remember, Andromeda, I own you . And I always will.”

Then he pulled my hair up and began again as I writhed in ecstasy under him.

A few hours later it was morning and I awoke to find Jack gone.

My legs and back were still sticky, and I stumbled outside to grab a drink from the spigot that brought fresh stream water up to us.

Opening the door, I almost ran into the King standing on the balcony.

“What are you doing here?” I squeaked out, but he only gave me a flat, venomous glare.

“Nothing stops you from begging for his cock, does it? Not even him fucking other women? No matter what my brother does, you’re always there ready to choke on his goddamn cock.”

My face must have showed my agony and shame.

“He—he said he was going to stop,” I said lamely, although he had said no such thing. I just couldn’t bear the thought of Symeon’s scorn.

“Even you can’t be stupid enough to believe that,” he laughed contemptuously. “He’ll fuck any woman who moves and lie to your face about it. You think he’ll stop when you’re nothing but a little human without any special beauty? You’re a fool.”

The King left without another word and I fell to my knees on the ground, crawling back inside and curling up into a ball.

Symeon was always so hateful.

What had I ever done to deserve this?

What had I done to make him hate me so?