Page 21 of Stormbinder King (Stormbinder Pack #1)

T he Pack meeting place was where four rivers conjoined, but here the rivers were less wild, less untamed, rows of crops spreading out under the gleam of the late slanting sun.

Betas in the Pack set up tents around a circular meeting place as Alphas placed magical wards around the area.

The Packs all hailed from different regions, Solomon had told me, sleek russet Packs from the east, big wolf Packs from the chill North with thick coats, thin Packs from the South who looked like they’d had a rough winter.

Some of the lean, skinny Packs looked a little too long at me, their eyes greedy and assessing.

“Stonebrewers,” Solomon said, nudging me. “Packs like that have a hard time finding Lunas, human queens to rut during mating season in the spring.”

Mating season?

I had to somehow find a way to escape before that, my god.

“Stay away,” Solomon advised, before joining the other Alphas for the meetings.

The male and female Betas finished setting up the tent and then began to set out food for supper—savory stews and crusty breads, thick-brewed mead and prime cuts of boar.

I unpacked the dried fish and jams I had brought and laid then on the heavy tables.

There was a sharp poke in my back and I turned around to see Aurelia jabbing me with the butt end of her dagger.

“You’re so w-w-w-w-weak,” Aurelia taunted in my ear. “That’s the only reason Jack did that. He doesn’t really care about you. He’s never stopped fucking me, you know. You mean nothing to him.”

Anger flared inside me and I spread my arms wide.

“If you’re so sure, fucking prick me with the other end of that. Then I guess we’ll see if he gives a fuck or not.”

Her gray eyes were spitting fire and she flipped the dagger around and lunged at me.

“Think you can call my bluff?”

But I didn’t move a fucking muscle, and she stopped less than an inch from my face.

“Bitch,” she spat. “He’ll get bored of you. He’ll always come back to me.”

“Take him,” I said, forcing myself to hold her eyes, even though she towered above me, her silvery blonde braid flicking back and forth. “Go on, take him then.”

She hesitated, a wrinkle of confusion between her perfect brows.

“ Take him . I’m not going to fight you.”

Aurelia stepped back, lowered her dagger.

“I will. I’ll take him.”

“Do it then,” I challenged. “If you can, do it. But you can’t, can you? And you fucking know it.”

Her fists clenched at her sides, and I brought my dagger from my pocket.

Had I ever used it against an actual person? No.

Could I use it against an actual person?

“Don’t touch me again,” I bit out, then I turned on my heels and walked away.

There was a man slinking around the Stormbinder tents, looking like he had just taken a piss as he shook a strange angular dick.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

As he stepped into the light, I noticed it was one of the Stonebrewer shifters.

I didn’t like the way the Alpha of this Pack was looking at me. Shifted back into his human form, he was a skinny, brutal-looking man with dark hair.

“You the Stormbinder Luna?”

“No,” I said. “No, I’m not.”

I wasn’t sure if he believed me, but I didn’t like the feel of his eyes on me. Abruptly, I brushed past him and into the canvas tent that had been set up for Jack and I.

I was only in there for a few minutes, when Jack appeared.

He flicked the tent open impatiently, looking more disheveled than usual, and his shirt was open.

Had he been fucking Aurelia? I wondered.

But I didn’t care.

Even the Alpha King claiming me hadn’t broken this cursed bond between us.

Jack pulled me impatiently into his arms, his fingers ravenous.

“Shit, that serpent getting so close to you scared the fuck out of me.”

He began to peel my sticky shirt off, putting a hand on my waist, drawing me closer so he could press our bodies together.

“Are you OK?”

“Fine,” I said.

He straightened my throat and kissed me, his tongue hot and urgent in my mouth.

How long would it take him to notice that tiny little scar on the other side of my throat? The one that meant Symeon’s wolf had claimed me?

I felt the familiar sickly-sweet stir of lust as his hands cupped my breasts.

I turned my head away from Jack’s kiss and he made an angry noise, gripping my chin so I was forced to look at him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you lately? Why are you turning away from me?”

Even though it was dangerous to talk back to Jack, because what if he decided he didn’t want to fuck me and left me in aching agony all night? But I couldn’t stop myself.

“We don’t have to kiss, you know,” I bit out. “You don’t have to pretend like you like me.”

He stared at me uncomprehendingly.

“Of course I like you, little brat.”

I dropped my eyes, dragging them past his lean strong body, the deep v shape of his hips, the way his body melded into my flesh.

“Is this about Aurelia?” he bit out.

I said nothing, just jerked my chin away.

Jack drew me back again. “Stop it. I’m tired of you sulking about this. I want things to go back the way they used to be. She means nothing to me. Nor does any other woman I fuck. I fuck you , I sleep with you , I want you .”

When he ran a hand down to my panties, I gasped aloud as he slipped a finger past the band and into my wet cunt, always silently begging, pleading for attention from him.

Jack chuckled.

“Your body can’t lie to me, sweetheart.”

Then he tossed me lightly onto the camp bed. As his gear clattered on the bed and floor, I saw that he was already rock-hard.

Even though my panties stuck to my pussy, I raised up on my elbows.

“Undo the spell,” I said. “Whatever you’ve put me under.”

My breath came in fast little gasps as he pulled off his shirt and yanked down his pants.

His cock bobbed heavy and thick in front of him and my mouth started to water.

What would he do if he knew his brother’s cum had been in my cunt, too?

“No,” Jack said, his fingers tightening on me, his fingers greedy for everything, even though he already had it all.

“I’ll never give you up. Ever.”

“Let your brother complete the mate bond with me then.”

“ No .”

He was hot and urgent, his knee splitting my thighs apart as he ran big fingers down my pulsing belly to my cunt.

“This sopping wet channel is all for me,” he said, gripping my ass tightly to plunge inside me with one sharp thrust of his hips.

“My brother doesn’t get any of it. Any of you.”

My whole body responded to its ensorcelled master, my hips rising to meet his rough thrusts, my hands moving of their own volition to touch his skin, feel that wicked velvety domination of hard muscle and blood.

Pressure began to build in my belly, endless heated need for Jack and his cock.

He cursed again, his fingers digging into my soft curves, chasing his pleasure.

Why, when he could have any woman from the Pack at any time ?

“Why won’t you let me go?” I whimpered.

His jerky movements bounced my small, pink-tipped breasts, shook my whole body.

“You need to see me fucking shifted to know I mean what I say?” Jack growled, flaring in an instant into his wolfish form, much bigger than any wolf on earth, with the obviously human intelligence of his eyes only increasing my prey terror.

His long-clawed hand reached up and closed around my breasts and I looked down in a mixture of terror and sick arousal to see each claw bite down on the creamy skin.

If I moved one muscle, his claw would pierce my skin and draw blood.

I gasped with the pleasure and heat of it, my hands on his back pulling him even closer to me.

He took me with powerful thrusts as he shifted back to all man, lifting my ass from the bed, and through the haze of my lust I could see the muscles standing out in his arms and legs.

“I own you, I command you, you can’t do shit without me.”

Was it a man or monster nipping my lips?

I tasted blood in my mouth, salty with a low wrong deliciousness.

Something unfurled inside me, and I felt the strangest sensation, like I was outside and inside of my body at the same time.

Above Jack’s lean back, the broad shoulders, I saw things creeping

Dark lines, spidering above my head.

What kind of strange magic was this?

Then I realized.

They were plants .

Pressure built and heated my core as the leafy vines grew above him, licking up the canvas like wicked tendrils.

My nipples pricked with the needy heat as my back arched from the cot. My fingers gripped his flesh tight, and I felt the plants move , as if seeking my fingers.

He was a torment and a savior, the only man who could draw torture down my spine and take it away again.

Jack bent and sunk his teeth into my flesh and I came with a loud cry as he released inside me, pulsing wicked pumps of cum, each one only increasing my addiction to him.

The plants covered the roof of the tent now, the long strong vines drooping with heavy, menacing power, almost close enough to slide down his back.

But Jack rolled beside me, his tanned chest heaving up and down and the bed and sheets covered in dirt and travel and lust.

My tormentor groaned in relief, running a hand through his wet hair as he pulled me into his arms.

The tendrils slithered back, back to God knew where.

What monstrous things had getting claimed by my true mate done to me?

“It’ll be spring soon,” Jack said, nuzzling my throat. “Breeding season. I can feel it. I can’t wait to put a pup in you.”

My throat constricted and I got up to splash some water on my face.

The last thing I wanted was to be bound to Jack during breeding season.

I had to find some answers, had to find out how he’d managed to mimic the effects of a fated mate.

But I was no closer to figuring it out.

“Come back to bed,” he said, leaning forward to lick up my leg, his piercing sending shivers down my spine as he collected all the cum dripping down my thighs and spread my pussy lips gently so he could spit it back in.

“I like you even more full.”