Page 14 of Stormbinder King (Stormbinder Pack #1)

T hat next day was the Midsummer Festival.

The Alphas cleared out another big open space on Stormbinder territory, but far enough from our settlement that there was no worry that any drunk shifters could shoot an arrow through village walls or into one of the treehouses.

Everyone allied with the Pack or under their protection who could walk or get transport came to compete for archery, hand-to-hand combat or stone-throwing prizes, and shop the market stalls filled with baked goods or garments.

I wished I wasn’t feeling so trapped and discouraged, or that I had a friend to share it with, because the Midsummer Festival was noisy and lively.

But Jack was helping with the archery competition and I had no friends in the Pack. I bought an enormous leg of unidentified meat and ate it, wandering around the stalls and buying cheap beads from peddlers.

It felt like everyone was looking at me, like everyone knew the embarrassing truth that my beloved mate wasn’t faithful to me.

I couldn’t believe I had pitied Aurelia. He had never rejected her.

The summer day was warm and sticky, and I couldn’t help looking at Jack, watching as he reached into one of the carts to take out an archery target, a big, heavy ungainly thing that he carried as easily as if it weighed nothing at all.

I felt the nauseatingly familiar sensation of my heart beating faster, the ungovernable captured place between my legs heating up with slick need. Jack’s light shirt was damp with sweat, and I could see the outline of his chest and the hard muscles underneath.

How could I escape Jack’s control?

I craved freedom from him, craved it so hard I tasted bitter blood in my mouth.

His love for me was a bitter, twisted thing, too.

Pack ways are different , I reminded myself.

But it didn’t help the sick feeling of betrayal.

Jack had betrayed me, had played on my love for him and bound us together as fated mates without ever intending to be faithful.

Aurelia was there too, checking the contestants’ bows and arrows in her cool, assured way.

How long had she been laughing at me behind my back as I defended what had never even been my territory?

I wished I could do anything useful, anything useful at all, but I was too small and weak.

I didn’t know Pack ways. There was nothing I could contribute except the most basic herb gathering and chores.

My eyes stung as my core heated so rapidly that my pussy swelled as Jack bent to place the target carefully in its proper location.

He would take care of my desperate desire for him. He always did. On his own time, of course.

I didn’t realize I was staring at my mate until Symeon crossed my field of vision, his face dark and cold as usual. Horrified and embarrassed at being caught looking at Jack, I turned away in confusion as my cheeks flamed in embarrassment.

I was a figure of shame to the whole Pack.

The afternoon got hotter as the long summer day wore on.

Eventually, as most of the shifters took a break for lunch, I got up from where I was sitting and headed for the cover of the forest trees.

I knew I wasn’t supposed to wander in the forest, but I just wanted to walk a few feet in to find some shade.

As I wiped my sticky forehead, I saw Jack moving through the leaves.

Aurelia was teasing him, challenging him to see whose shot was truer.

Jack was an expert archer, and even though he barely looked at the target beyond making sure that it was clear, his lazy shot still hit the center of the target.

She laughed and threw up her hands in mock disgust, while Jack shook his head.

“Was your mate very angry to find out?” Aurelia asked teasingly.

My stomach clenched as he pounced on her with a little nip to her throat.

“She’ll get over it.”

He was clearly more interested in getting a quick fuck in than talking about it, but Aurelia pressed, even as I saw her bite her lip as Jack moved behind her.

“Are you sure you shouldn’t go find her? She might wander off, after all?”

“She’ll be fine,” Jack said. “I want you right now.”

“I’m flattered,” Aurelia said. “When you’ve been spending all your nights with her .”

“When I want an exciting dirty fuck I come to you,” he growled in exactly the tone he used for me.

Only the words were different.

Suddenly I needed water.

I couldn’t breathe.

Turning, I fled further into the dense forest, brushing heedlessly past the heavy leaves, my eyes blurred with tears.

It was a lot harder going through the forest by myself, the trees dripping stinging liquids into my eyes, slipping wildly across the moss-slick surfaces.

I ran until I smelled fresh water, and then I knelt down to scoop up huge handfuls of the crystal-clear, sparkling water.

After I had a long drink, I threw myself down beside the little brook. The water here tasted so much sweeter than the water back home. As the sun tipped to the hottest part of the day, and the trees began to bow with the weight of the sticky, humid heat, I felt drowsy.

Curling up in the shade of a big tree, I stared up at the sky and let the heavy leaves bow down toward me.

How could my fated mate act like this? How could the man who said we were eternal soulmates treat me like this?

I felt so exhausted from crying that I began to get drowsy. My eyes fluttered closed and I fell into an uneasy sleep.

My dreams were strange, chaotic things, and I woke to my heart pounding. Unsettled, I sat up and looked around. As I blinked the heavy sleep from my eyes, I saw a vampire standing in the middle of the pathway.

Right between me and safety.

The creature would have been instantly recognizable in any world.

He was tall, with dead white skin and the uncanny constantly moving pinprick pupils common to their kind.

All the air seemed to leave my lungs in one burning breath, then I screamed in a breathless squawk and scrambled awkwardly to my feet.

The vampire moved with terrifying speed. One moment I was looking uncomprehendingly at him, and in a blur the monster was standing directly in front of me.

“What do we have here?” he hissed, his voice sounding curiously snakelike and reptilian.

He circled me, his body moving so fast I could only catch the motion out of the corner of my eyes.

A flash of a tall, old-fashioned white collar, lace, dark pants, dark circles under his eyes.

This creature was hungry.

“Leave me alone!” I cried, my voice trembling.

The vampire sniffed, a long, depraved sound that was measuring, assessing.

“Who are you? I know I don’t smell virgin. You’ve been fucked, and recently too. You’re not a wolf. But I smell fucking wolf cum on you.”

The vampire chuckled, a sound like crunching rocks.

I tried to hit out at him, but he snatched at my hand with superhuman strength, pulling inexorably at me as my heels dug into the ground with my desperation to escape.

I smelled burning flesh, and I looked down to see steam rising from where he gripped my wrist. The vampire looked surprised, but he didn’t let me go. He simply drew one claw slowly across my collar bone and down to my shoulder.

I screamed at the agony as lines of blood sprang to the surface of my skin. Then his deadly fingers circled my tattoo.

“Interesssssting,” the vamp said. “Someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to bind you with dark magic, little one. I wonder who?”

Dark magic?

When I didn’t answer right away, the creature pressed down harder, stabbing my skin with its vicious claws as I whimpered in agony.

“Answer me, wolf’s whore. Who bound you?”

“Jack Stormbinder,” I gasped out as the searing pain burned down my arm.

He chuckled.

“Oh, the jealous prince. Never gotten over being the second-born, has he?”

The second-born . What did that matter?

“Jack won’t like it if you kill me,” I tried to warn him.

The monster chuckled again. “Maybe. But he won’t know who killed you, will he?”

“This is a protection spell!” I cried, pulling down my torn sleeve so he could see the angry dark marks.

“Against shifters,” the vampire snorted. “Your prince thinks shifters run this land, but their time is coming to an end.”

Shit

“Go away, I’ll taste terrible,” I gasped through parched lips.

The vampire stuck his tongue out, tasting my blood with the tip as I shuddered. He rolled his head back, making a deep guttural noise with his throat.

“Oh little whore,” the monster said. “You don’t taste terrible at all.”

As the fangs moved closer to my neck, I struck out wildly with my other hand, trying to use my nails to claw his eyes out.

The vampire didn’t look amused, backhanding me around the face so hard I tasted blood in my mouth. “Foolissssh human woman,” it said.

I felt a bleak despair. I was going to die here, wasn’t I? With Jack totally unaware of where I was.

“Step away from her, blood-sucker,” I heard a familiar, contemptuous voice order.

The vampire held me so tightly, his nails digging into my skin, that I couldn’t turn around.

The King’s voice fell on me like the cold weight of iron and steel.

“Interesssting,” the vampire hissed, but I felt a sudden change in the monster, a wary stillness. He jerked my body around, closing long-nailed fingers around my throat.

I tried to struggle, tearing desperately at his hand, but it had superhuman strength, fingers closing around my throat and cutting off my breathing.

I could only see Symeon through blurred eyes.

“Drop her,” the Alpha King said flatly.

The vampire put a finger out to smear my blood down my arm in a long, vile movement. “If you want her,” he said. “You’ll have to come get her.”

The vampire’s breath stank like thousand-year-old death in my nostrils as I desperately ripped at his dry flaky hands.

“Let her go,” Symeon ordered again, and he took a step towards us.

My fingers clawed helplessly at the vampire’s superior strength.

“A little too easy to get past the wards around your land, don’t you think?” the vampire asked, but I felt him watching the big man warily.