Page 18 of Stormbinder King (Stormbinder Pack #1)

“ W hat would happen if you did claim me as your mate?” I asked the Alpha King later that week.

I had finally begun to see evidence of spring—slightly longer days, the snow melting away, green buds beginning to show in the forest trees.

Symeon was sitting in a chair in the village, repairing fishing line.

“I don’t know,” he said harshly.

“But you’re driven to claim me,” I asked from a safe distance, clutching my cloak tighter. “From my scent?”

Soon it would be warm enough to go without it.

Symeon paused and glared up at me.

“Yes.”

I said nothing, and he narrowed his eyes.

“I will never claim you. Do not ever run in front of me,” the King ground out. “Do not ever display strong emotion in front of me.”

“What if I don’t want to obey you?” I asked.

“You must,” he said. “I have no idea what effect claiming you would have on your protective binding. I expect your obedience on this matter, Andromeda.”

“I didn’t ask to be your fated mate,” I said pettily. “Asshole.”

I turned to leave, but Symeon caught my arm, his fingers biting down despite my protective spells.

“You will obey me, Andromeda or you will be punished. I will not risk your safety.”

“Since when do you care about my safety?” I hissed at him, but he would not let me go until I agreed to obey.

But I had no intention of keeping my promise.

A promise made to a brute was not a promise at all.

What I was contemplating was dangerous.

What would happen if I activated his Alpha instincts to claim me?

I might get hurt.

Jack’s binding spells that tied me to him would resist it.

But anything was better than living in this helpless purgatory, tied with a dripping cunt to a man who had betrayed me.

And what if it broke the spell?

The risk was worth it.

So on the first warm day, the first day when the streams and rivers flowed and the snow had retreated to the distant peaks, I went out into the forest.

I knew Symeon’s favorite hunting grounds.

I just had to get there without him catching wind of my scent.

Every step I took I feared another creature coming out from behind a tree, another vampire, or even Jack, ambling in his deceptively casual way.

But I was able to make it to the base of the waterfall without seeing anything.

I clambered up, careful not to lose my footing and slip into the rushing waters.

By the time I reached the top I was panting.

I didn’t have to wait long.

The King soon appeared in his shifted form on the other side of the waterfall, with a massive boar in his jaws.

I tried to calm my breathing, but seeing him there tearing the creature’s heart out meant my own would not stop pounding.

It was only a few beats before he suddenly transformed, spinning to face me. I was transfixed by the predator’s glint in his eyes.

His ability to scent me must be very strong.

I was hoping for that.

I was also hoping he’d be compelled to protect his fated mate, even though he hated me.

Otherwise I might be in serious trouble.

“What the fuck are you doing out here?” Symeon growled, making the hairs on my neck stand on end. “Turn around and get your ass down the way you came. I’ll meet you on the other side and take you back home.”

The sight of him on the other side of the stream, his massive hands on a tree trunk like he wanted to tear it from the earth, made me shiver.

But I whirled around and began to walk along the edge of the stream where it flowed faster and faster toward the waterfall.

I glanced back and saw his dark predator’s eyes narrowly focused on my movements.

He did not run, but there was something about his slow, unhurried pace that turned my spine into ice.

I spun back around and focused on not falling into the stream.

“Andromeda, too close,” Symeon growled. “Get your ass away from that edge.”

But I knew now that he wasn’t going to kill me.

There was something in his eyes, a subtle flaring of his nostrils, but it was there.

He might catch me and spank me until I was black and blue but he wasn’t going to kill me.

Were we truly fated mates?

It seemed unbelievable, but I was reckless enough to try it.

I started to run.

“Andromeda!” Symeon barked. “Stop, damn it! You’re going to fall in!”

But I only ran faster, my feet pounding on the grass.

I heard him begin to run too. Although there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t cross the river here.

Fear gripped my heart as the edge approached.

What if I missed?

What if I sent Symeon spiraling into madness?

Then I turned and leapt over the edge into the waterfall.

For a moment I hung suspended over the crystal-blue waters, the spray wetting my legs, then I plunged deep into the thundering waves.

The waterfall dragged me down down down until I scraped along the bottom of the river.

Panicked, I pushed up from the pebbly bottom as hard as I could, out and away from the falls, and my lungs were burning before I was able to break through the surface, gulping desperately for breath.

I let the river pull me along until I was able to grip some of the low-hanging ferns and haul myself over the edge.

Shit

A few feet in the wrong direction and I might have dashed myself on the sharp rocks.

But I hadn’t.

The air was still, so still and quiet that I couldn’t even hear the bugs making a sound.

And that should have been a warning for me, but I was too busy sucking deep lungfuls of air into my chest and trying to remember how to breathe.

Finally, I rolled to my side and scanned the other side of the river.

Nothing

Staggering to my feet, I attempted to wring out the water from my skirts, my teeth chattering.

Then I froze.

Two coal-black eyes gleaming from the treefall.

No, surely not. It had been a trick of the eyes. . .

And then. . . One step. Two.

And the Alpha Wolf King slunk menacingly into view.

Shit, how had he gotten to me so fast?

I turned and fled, stumbling headlong into the forest.

After all, I wanted him to catch me, but when I heard that deep, angry growl I couldn’t suppress the gut-deep panicked prey instinct to run.

And I ran.

He chased me, his wolf form massive, the dark fur blending into the forest.

Hot, angry breath scorched down my back as I fled as fast as I could through the trees, gripping wildly at branches and leaves, trying to tear them off, throw something behind me to get him off my trail.

But it wasn’t going to work.

Symeon pounced, and for a moment he was all wolf, and I felt sharp white teeth sink into my throat.

Shrieking wildly, I cried out in pain with the claiming bite.

Then he was man and beast and man and beast again.

“You disobeyed me, Andromeda, and now you are going to suffer the consequences!”

He was even bigger and more imposing up close, with thickly banded muscle covering his chest and arms.

The King yanked me flush against his body, and I started to struggle, forgetting my whole plan had been for him to claim me.

The place where he had bitten me throbbed, the marks big and menacing.

Symeon knocked into the back of my knees, catching me in his arms and then forcing me down to the forest floor.

“You want to be taken like the bitch you are?” he snarled in my ear.

I did, this had all been part of my plan, but as I arched my back, I felt pure fear slither down my spine.

Was it a man or beast behind me?

There was a clawed hand on my thigh, but then it became Symeon’s hard, angry fingers, digging down into my trembling skin.

I had felt wanton and naughty without my panties, but now I just felt exposed.

I could feel by the movement of his breath and the pressure on my back that he was very aroused.

The Alpha king was so big that he surrounded me with his body, his arms encircling me, while his broad chest kept me from wriggling away.

“Is this what you wanted?” he growled angrily in my ear. “To be taken savagely?”

I felt the intake of his breath against my back and he tore savagely at the branches, making them rain down on my head.

“I didn’t tell you to come after me,” I whimpered.

The king bent closer, twining my hair tightly with one hand and knocking me onto my belly so hard that the breath was forced out of my lungs.

Then he tipped my ass up into the air.

“You’re going to get what you wanted, you little brat,” he said savagely. “I’m going to take you now.”

I felt another sliver of fear go through me.

But it was too late to back out now.

My skin started buzzing, a wild, heady sensation, as I felt the hard press of Symeon’s member at my entrance.

Twisting around, I saw the massive span of the cock in his hand, and it was an angry reddish color, a thick trunk-like base tapering up into a furious rounded head.

“Wait—“I protested, trying to crawl away, but he grabbed me by the hips and dragged me back.

I knew he must be feeling intense pain from Jack’s binding spell but I still yowled in panic.

The King spat harshly on his cock, then put the head firmly at my entrance.

Think of the spell! I reminded myself desperately as I dug my hands into the ground.

What if this frees me?

The big head of his cock split my pussy lips and instantly stuck.

He growled in displeasure and spat harshly several more times, then put his hand on the base of his cock and pressed it forward.

Just an inch.

I wanted to scream with the tension, rocking my hips back and forth, but it wasn’t enough to get him inside me.

With a hiss, he snaked a hand around my belly and I gasped as it came into view. Half-man, half-wolf, corded muscles with sharp claws extending from a hairy hand.

The claws tore through my shirt, and he took a handful of my breast, the claws digging into my flesh as they closed over my sensitive nipple.

I gasped, feeling unwilling slick heat flooding into my channel, and Symeon pressed his cock further in.

My hands were inches deep in the forest floor, gripping onto a root, as my body burned, split open and spread as wide as I could to accommodate his monstrous girth.

I smelled burning flesh everywhere he touched me, Jack’s spell spitting, furious, trying to burn the King off my body.

But Symeon would not let go.

The pressure building in my belly was unbearable and the King sunk his long, lupine fangs in my throat again, instantly hitting a spot that made my knees go weak.

I couldn’t tell if it was pain or pleasure, and I began to feel flashes of what I realized with a shock of horror must be the Alpha’s King’s sensations.

I couldn’t catch what he was actually thinking, only what he was sensing, scenting my own deep plum scent through his body like it was through my own.

What would happen with my tattoo?

It was throbbing, sending anchoring waves of pain through my shoulder and back.

For a moment, I thought I would faint with it.

The tip of his cock felt like it split my cervix, and I arched my back in agony and ecstasy as he dragged his cock through my tensed and dripping muscles.

Then he began to suck where he had bitten, gulping my blood in his mouth and I came hard, almost blacking out with the speed of my release.

Mine mine mine mine mine roared through my senses as Symeon’s thoughts invaded mine. My hips were numb with how hard he was gripping them, and with one final hard yank, he released inside me, long, heavy pulses of hot shifter cum, splattering in my insides and dripping down my thighs.

I lost consciousness and when I came to, I screamed, tearing myself off his cock.

Shaken, I scooted desperately away from him.

I did not want to know his thoughts. I did not want to feel his craving for my scent.

“Do not ever touch me again,” I hissed at him.

“Andromeda—” Symeon began, his voice sounding choked and strange, but I ignored him.

What about the spell?

I twisted around to look at my tattoo, but it was still there, jet black, dangerous swirls, glittering eye of the wolf. Painted, marked, cursed.

“Andromeda—I can—feel your heartbeat in—my chest--” he began again, but I cut him off.

“I only did that to break the spell. And it didn’t work. There’s nothing else to say.”

And as I straightened up and faced back to the village, I felt the familiar pulse deep inside me, even as my fated mate’s cum leaked down my legs.

Jack

Jack

Jack