Page 16 of Stormbinder King (Stormbinder Pack #1)

D ay later, my fingers bled as I worked at the rubble.

For the first time, there was a tiny tang in the night air. Something a little different. Despite the sticky, unbearable temperatures, fall was coming.

I didn’t know where to look.

All I knew was that something in the holy place had made Symeon so angry that he’d destroyed it. So I was here at night to see what that was.

It looked like Symeon had only buried the entrance to the holy place.

The chapel itself was structurally sound.

Hopefully.

Why had he done this?

All I knew was that he had told me to stay away.

And that was enough for me to want to do the opposite.

Jack’s cum was still sliding down my thigh, so I knew I would be good to dig around here for a while until the fated mate connection twanged again.

Carefully, I pulled the chunks of stone and rock from the door. Although Symeon said it was impossible to get in, he must have only been thinking about someone of his massive stature, because after twenty minutes of hard work I had managed to make an opening almost big enough for myself.

When I finally broke in, I looked nervously around to make sure no one heard me, but the village was silent.

I ducked inside, the light clutched tight in my hand.

I didn’t have any magic but I did have matches, which would work just as well.

When I raised the light I gasped with pure delight and shock.

What was this?

Inside, it was an ethereal forest chapel, elegant wooden floors and smooth stone walls decorated with stylized flowers and elaborate artwork.

How could anyone want to smash something so beautiful up?

Holding the candle, I followed its flickering light around the room.

What were these images?

They looked like a combination of mythological elements and everyday ones.

Monstrous sea creatures, underground fires, terrible floods.

The illustrations were rich and compelling, drawn in bright vivid colors, but I couldn’t understand any of them.

I didn’t know what I hoped would be in there.

A path to a secret magical dagger, maybe?

Something that would enable me to stab Symeon in his sleep?

Maybe I should just go.

Then my eyes were caught by a few of the drawings.

Wait, was that supposed to be the King?

The drawing looked strikingly familiar to him--with his massive size, the harsh lined face, dark raven’s wing hair, heavy-lidded eyes. And the illustration had captured the uncaring and cruelty in his eyes.

It almost looked like the drawings were meant to be prophecies. One image showed Symeon on his throne accepting a crown.

But many other images had been pulverized beyond recognition.

There were lines of writing carved into the wall, so deep that even the destruction of the chapel hadn’t totally erased them.

They weren’t all readable, but the first lines said:

The Alpha King’s Fated Mate

She will cross galaxies to find me

Our love will span worlds

By her signs will I know her

So apparently Symeon had a fated mate, like his brother did.

But why destroy this evidence of her? And then try to bury it?

It looked like he’d taken a pickaxe to some of these scenes.

Wait, no, those were his claws .

I shivered at the evidence of his power, the destructive violence of his fury.

I moved the light closer, curious if I could see any evidence of what had sent him on such a psychopathic rampage.

There were literally chunks of the wall on the ground, some of them smelling unsettlingly like old blood and despair.

Carefully, I picked up a few chunks of the rubble on the ground, marveling at the strength it took to tear literal stone apart.

Then I turned over a glistening piece of rock and saw something that made me choke.

It was me.

Long, thick blue-black hair, light blue eyes, the light spray of freckles across my nose in the distinctive shape of a constellation.

What the hell

Stunned, I looked up at the wall, the deep gouges clawed there.

The Fated Mate

The one whose love was supposed to span worlds

Was me .

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t breathe.

It was a goddamn lie.

But I couldn’t deny the uncanny accuracy of the images.

But if I was Symeon’s fated mate, what was I to Jack?

Suddenly I heard a loud roar at the entrance.

“Who dares to be in here?”

I clutched the chunk of rock so tight in my hands that I felt the soft skin on my palms start to bleed.

The Alpha King burst in the entryway, stone and rubble crumbling around him.

He looked angrier than I’d ever seen him.

“Andromeda,” he spat with loathing.

Before I could speak, his hands were around my throat, his thumbs pressed down on my windpipe as I gasped for breath.

But I felt my anger growing, too.

“You’re going to choke out your own fucking fated mate?” I cried.

His face whitened and he dropped his hands suddenly.

“ I know ,” I hissed, throwing the chunk of rubble at him as I stumbled away.

He glanced down and his face looked like death as he stared down at the unmistakable image of me.

Then his fingers tightened on the rock and it crumbled under his fingers.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, and I let out a little scream.

It doesn’t matter was confirmation.

It doesn’t matter meant it was true.

“Why did no one tell me?”

“Because it doesn’t matter what the prophecy says. You might be my mate but I’ll never take you. I’ll never claim you.”

My heart was pounding through my chest at his rejection.

“Who asked you to?” I yelled. “I’m not yours, I’m Jack’s.”

He gripped my arm, making me yelp.

“You’re fucking welcome to the prince, slut.”

I tried to rip away, but he still held me tightly.

“I smell burning flesh,” came a cool, cocky voice by the front door and Jack came strolling into the ruined chapel.

But although he had his hands in his pockets and his stance was casual, I felt deep inside me that the prince was very angry.

“It’s not true I’m his fated mate, is it?” I asked Jack, darting toward him.

Even though he was a cheater, he loved me. There had to be a mistake somewhere.

But Jack only shrugged his shoulders, his eyes on his brother.

“What do the prophecies say? Looks like you to me.”

I felt like I’d been punched in the gut as I grasped at his shirt, his tanned warm hand.

“Why did you tell me I was your fated mate? Why did you bind me Jack?”

His posture was lazy and relaxed, but I knew that was only an affect. He was really anything but.

He looked down at me, but there wasn’t any affection in those blue eyes, in the cold remote planes of his face.

“So he could never have you.”

The ground seemed to fucking open up underneath me.

“So it was—it wasn’t true love? It wasn’t because I was your mate?”

Jack only snorted. “I don’t believe in that shit.

Or at least I didn’t until Symeon had that reaction to you.

I believe in fated mates now. And it’s enough to know that my brother will never be with his.

Because his mate wants one damn thing in this world, and it’s to choke on my cock. I made sure of that.”

“Wait—how—what,” I began in a broken voice, but I heard the king growl beside me.

“You’re a fucking sniveling worm,” Symeon spat at his brother.

“And you don’t deserve to be Alpha King,” Jack retorted. “There’s a lot of fucking strange creatures we’re finding in the forest recently. Are your protective wards not even strong enough to keep the Pack safe?”

“You’ve always been fucking nipping at my heels,” Symeon said contemptuously. “Always the jealous little brother.”

Jack shrugged, but his eyes were gleaming.

“And this time I took something you wanted, and now you’ll never be able to have her.”

They both shifted in an instant, and flew at each other, colliding with a massive crash that shook the ceilings.

I screamed as Symeon drove Jack into the wall, the stones crumbling where they hit, Jack flipping out from under his brother with a clever move, lunging for Symeon’s throat and tearing at the dark fur on the back of his neck.

They fought with furious low growling, their massive sharp white fangs dripping with rabid spittle.

Were they going to murder each other?

How long had this rivalry been going, how long had they hated each other?

A huge beam detached from the ceiling, heading directly toward me, and my feet stumbled over the rubble, I was going to be crushed underneath oh help me ? —

And then a firm hand gripped me by the back of my nightgown and ripped me out of the way. Then he dragged me outside, and my fated mate dumped me unceremoniously on the ground.

The Alpha King didn’t spare me another glance.

Shifted back, the King and Prince both had wounds from their fight—there was a dark mark on Symeon’s cheek and Jack’s mouth was bleeding.

Other shifters had started to come out their homes now, cluster around the ruined chapel.

“We’ll haul these stones out of town,” Symeon ordered. “I want all evidence of this cursed place gone.”

“Go back to the house, Andromeda,” Jack said.

“Jack—” I tried.

“Go back to the house,” he repeated without looking at me, and I couldn’t swallow past the lump in my throat.

When I finally ascended the rope ladder and looked around my treehouse, long, wracking sobs burst out of me.

I had nothing. I was no one.

Try to run away? Symeon would only capture me and drag me back, then punish me for running.

And if somehow I did manage to hide my scent and escape? I couldn’t stay away. Somehow, Jack had ensorcelled me.

I would need his godsdamn cock in me every day of my life.

There was one thing I had left, and that was my tea-making.

I looked at the pretty little corner of the kitchen, the neatly pressed fragrant herbs and the pestle I had used to ground them into Jack’s tea. The cleanly washed teacups.

On a sob, I shoved the entire contents of the corner out of the window, where they crashed to the ground with a distant tinkle.

By the time Jack made it back to my bed it was early morning, the room still dark.

I lay under the covers, unable to sleep, my thighs slick and wet.

He smelled like strong, wolf-brewed mead.

“Ready for me, Andromeda?” he asked, and there was a low, triumphant rasp in his voice. “Or are you going to pretend you’re not waiting with your cunt dripping with need for me?”

He knew that even though he was drunk and had probably just fucked Aurelia and who knew how many other women, I could never turn him down. Need ran through my veins like dark black ichor, like a poison that seeped into every pore of my body.

My eyes were dry and raw from crying, but I flipped over on my belly, my hands clenched tight in the tangled sheets as I presented my cunt for him.

I would not beg

I would not beg

He crawled over me on the bed, placing a hand on my back, burning me as my protective tattoo recognized its master.

“Do you want me, Andromeda?”

I said nothing.

“I can go out there and fuck whoever I want,” he hissed, his cruel words sticking in my skin like barbs. “ You need me .”

“All right,” I croaked.

“Beg for it,” Jack said, his hands resting on my hips as he positioned himself at my entrance.

I felt hot angry tears spring to my eyes.

I was a fool to think he had ever loved me.

“Please, Jack,” I choked out.

“Please what?”

“Fuck me.”

“Fuck me with what?”

“Your cock,” I whimpered, despising myself.

“Louder,” he hissed, his body over mine, his bite on my ear. “Louder so my brother can hear.”

“Fuck me with your cock,” I screamed as loudly as I could, my whole body tensing in need.

I heard an eerie distant howl, somewhere outside the village, pain and fury mingled together in one powerful skin-crawling sound.

Symeon

My fated mate.

But my whole body was tensing, waiting for the only thing that could satisfy me.

And when Jack’s cock slid between my thighs I was already moaning in relief.

He fucked me hard and fast from behind, grinding my body into the bed.

The room was filled with the heavy, hard smacks of our bodies connecting, his heavy balls slapping me in the thighs.

I came with a little shriek, the sickly-sweet relief flooding my body.

But Jack wasn’t done, his cock barely softening as he flooded my channel with cum, moving his hands to grip my hips.

If he wasn’t done, I wasn’t either, another orgasm pressing urgently at me.

And then he fucked me again, and again, until we were both slick and dripping with sweat, Jack’s cum running down my leg out of my overstuffed pussy.

Then he moved to my ass, his strong fingers running down to spread my cheeks wide.

“Your pussy is a little sloppy. I think I’ll try this nasty little hole.”

And I could only moan in whimpering, weak submission to him as he took me there too, pressing his cock in past the tight ring of muscle until my ass stung, but still I burned for him.

Still I wanted him, craved everything he gave me, begged for more, cried out with pleasure as his hands gripped my hips, even as I hated it.

When he finally let me go, I collapsed on the bed, my limbs trembling and my dark hair stuck to my sweaty face.

I heard Jack’s heavy breathing, felt his chest rising and falling.

“I know that fucker heard every bit of that. Every moan you made.”

He slapped my ass as he always did, but I didn’t move. Usually I turned to snuggle into him, fit my head in that crook between his chin and sculptured chest.

But it was a lie. It had all been a lie.

I stayed in my collapsed position, my dry eyes staring unseeing at the wall and the dark forest beyond, the sun peeking over the tops of the trees now.

I thought Jack would go but he squeezed my chin with a little pinch.

“Open,” he said.

Then he bent between my limp legs, running his tongue up my leg and scooping up a slick pile of cum.

Then he opened my jaw and spit it into my mouth.

I swallowed it obediently and then turned to the wall again.

But he grunted with displeasure, and pinched my cheek with his hand, turning my face this way and that.

There was a puckish, gleeful look on his face and I knew it meant he was pleased to be giving his brother pain.

“Now, no sulking sweetheart,” he said, dropping a kiss on my feverish face. “I’m not angry with you, Andromeda. Your needy little body pleases me. Just be a good girl and everything will be fine.”