Page 48 of Stormbinder King
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 wasyourfated mate? Why did youbindme 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.
“Sohecould 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 fatedmates now. And it’s enough to know that my brother will never be with his. Because his mate wantsonedamn thing in this world, and it’s to choke onmycock. 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 becrushed 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 meoutside, 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.
