Page 24 of Stormbinder King (Stormbinder Pack #1)

D ark clouds had begun to mass and form unsettling shapes in the sky as the wind picked up and roared through the village.

“Stop fighting!” our guard ordered, rattling the bars.

The vampire outside our cage was very tall, and the muscles on the creature’s pale arms stood out. Its face was livid, inhuman, with sharp predatory fangs.

The vampire threw himself against the strong bars without ceasing or caring that they dented his pale skin.

“Fuck up some more,” he snapped at us. “I’d love any excuse to suck you dry.”

But the anger was still sizzling through my body like a live wire.

I wasn’t hiding any longer.

I hissed right back at him.

“Let me out.”

“You’re lucky to be in that cage, little girl,” he said. “If you were out here I’d tear you limb from limb.”

“Would you? Or are you just the cheapest half-ass guard dog sent to scare us? I know damn well they’ve taken us to breed us. You’re under orders not to hurt us.”

“Be quiet,” he snapped.

But I was done being quiet.

I pulled at the earth, roots and vines snapping like cannon as they burst from the ground.

I still wasn’t sure exactly how to control this, but the rage was driving me so hard I didn’t have to.

It was like the vines could sense my will to escape, and they wrapped around the steel bars and began to yank.

“Shit. Shit! Somebody get over here!” the vamp yelled.

The silver bars were almost covered with the dense, leafy vines, smelling like old forest and leaf mold, rustling as they rushed to cover the metal.

The door to the cage splintered open with an ear-splitting scraping sound, and for a moment the vampire hesitated, maybe wondering what the fuck was wrong with me.

Then he sprung, but by then I had pulled at the ground, and the vines surrounded his legs, dragging him to his knees.

Still he hissed, baring his fangs at me.

My fingers clenched into fists and the vines tightened.

As he clutched at his throat, I heard a raw howl, equal parts mournful and enraged.

Symeon

How did I know it was him?

There was nothing to this whole fated mate thing.

It was all bullshit.

But I knew which war cry was his.

The place where he had bitten my throat throbbed.

But even the power of his stupid fucking bite hadn’t broken the connection between Jack and I.

And nothing would, as long as Jack lived. . .

The vamp’s face bulged as the vines twisted tighter around his throat and the wolves rushed into the clearing just as his head separated from his body.

They thundered in with a roar of growls and hisses as the huge russet wolf I knew to be Symeon went for the Stonebrewer Alpha’s throat.

Then the rest of them followed, vicious and uncontrolled in their rage.

It only took a few moments for the Stormbinders to run through the entire Stonebrewer Pack.

Jagged flashes of lightning lit up the sickly green sky.

A lean silvery-white wolf leaped in front of me, shifting mid-flight into Prince Jack.

“Are you OK?” he asked.

There was a smear of blood on his lip and he was breathing heavily, his eyes dilating as he devoured me with his eyes.

His touch ignited the low burn inside me

“No,” I said. “I’m not.”

“Come with me now.”

Without thinking I flung my arm out, vines snapping from my fingertips, and a whip-thin cord snaked toward his boots, wrapping around the sole and yanking him sideways.

“Andromeda, what the hell—” Jack expostulated. “How did you?—”

I felt my hands trembling and I held them up in the moonlight.

“I’m tired,” I said. “I’m tired of being ruled by you, Jack.”

Jack slashed at the vine with his dagger, cleaving it in two with one swift hack.

“Andromeda, stop this!” he ordered, shifting back into his wolf form.

But I put my hand down to the ground and heavy roots broke through, snaking around Jack’s legs and trapping him in place as he growled and used his sharp fangs to break through the thick vines.

He shifted back to his human form, kicking off the shorn vines.

“Andromeda!” he growled.

But more were coming.

“No!” I hissed at him.

I felt raw power surge through my body and vines snapped down from the trees and encircled his neck.

“Stop it!” he choked. “I love you, baby.”

I laughed bitterly.

“You don’t love me. You’re not even capable of love.”

“Yes, I do!” Jack roared, but his eyes were wide, his pupils dilated as I tightened my noose.

I had never seen the arrogant prince like this and maybe there should have been some mercy in me, but I didn’t feel like it.

I only twisted my fingers and the vines tightened around his throat.

Jack’s strong clever hands tore at the leaves but I only tightened them, adding more vines until they dug into his flesh.

“There’s only one way to free yourself,” a deep, hard voice rumbled from beside me. “Kill him.”

“Go away,” I told the King. “I reject our mate bond and this isn’t your fight.”

“How could it not be my fight?” Symeon said through gritted teeth. “He put godsdamn dark magic on my fated mate.”

He faced his brother, aiming a vicious dagger directly at Jack’s heart.

“It’s time to put you down like the dog you are. I only wish this could have been in shifted form so I could have torn your heart out with my teeth.”

The massive muscles of my mate’s shoulder rippled in the moonlight as he stretched his arm back to plunge the knife into his brother’s heart.

The words hovered on my lips.

Do it

Sever me forever from this man

But something stayed my hand.

“No,” I said. “Don’t kill him.”

There was a beat, and I saw Jack’s chest heave in and out. The vines were so tightly wound around him that he could barely speak, his golden tanned body straining ineffectively against the bonds.

“I love you, Andromeda,” he rasped out through the vines around his throat.

But I ignored him.

“Hold him still. I’m going to take his spellcasting hand.”

Symeon stepped forward and gripped Jack by the hair, holding his arm steady with his incredible strength.

And maybe I should’ve felt regret as I drew my sharpened blade and sliced through Jack’s wrist as the prince howled in agony.

But all I felt was relief.

The minute his severed limb dropped to the ground, I felt the spell lift from me, swirl around my head in wicked little flecks of black ink.

And then I was free.

THE END OF BOOK 1

STORMBINDER QUEEN, BOOK 2,

Coming Fall/Winter 2025