Page 11 of Conquering the King of Storms

Guilt welled up in my chest, but my throat dried as I tried to come up with a way to explain my relationship with Steven to him, without leading him to believe I was ready to start hooking up.

Despite everything I’d thought about Storm—Sirus—it was clear that he was a good uncle, a good friend, and a goodman.

“If there was a portal in front of us that would take me back to Earth, I wouldn’t walk through it,” I finally said to him. “I was trying to figure out a way to leave Steven without marrying him—becoming mates with him. But we had already merged our bank accounts, and our house and vehicles were only in his name…”

I trailed off, biting my lip. “That doesn’t make sense to you, probably. But he wasn’t a kind man. Ivy told me that you don’t have cheating here, but cheating is when a committed person chooses to have sex with or a relationship with someone other than their partner. It would be like Flame kissing Margo, or having sex with her. Steven cheated on me, more than once. He would say it was an accident, that I wasn’t good enough in bed, that I’d stopped trying to keep him interested…”

Storm stopped walking.

I cleared my throat. “When I tried to leave him, he hurt me physically. I was trapped, in many different ways. So I’m not broken-hearted right now; I’m relieved. I don’t want to jump into the kind of relationship Ivy and Flame have, because I’m not ready. I just want to live for a while, without the pressure to make someone else happy or the possibility of getting hurt again.”

The things I said weren’t completely true.

Ididwant a relationship, more than just about anything. It was what I had always yearned for; to find someone to love me and be there for me no matter what.

But if I said that, it’d be open season.

I didn’t know if I was ready for anything more with Storm, despite the constant dirty whispers from the wind and the overwhelming horniness I hadn’t been able to do a damn thing about.

When I finally looked at Storm, he wasn’t trying to hide his fury any longer.

Tendrils of wind were lashing around him, never touching me but looking pretty damn violent.

“Your Steven is lucky to be an Earth human,” Storm said, his voice low. “Any of those actions would lead to a swift death in my kingdom. Please give me a moment to collect myself.”

His hand released mine, and then he turned and stalked into the swamp.

Pretty much everything about our conversation had shocked me… but not in a bad way. Especially the last bit, where he’d excused himself because his anger was too fierce.

I watched the swamp’s trees as he disappeared between them.

A moment later, there was a loud cracking noise that made me jump.

Another followed, and then another.

My eyes were glued to the tops of the trees as I saw the mouth of what looked like a fucking tornado rising from within it. I’d seen his magic create a monstrous funnel-cloud before, but it was still insane to me.

The tornado rose higher and higher.

More cracking noises followed, and I gawked when I saw an actual massive swamp tree circling within the funnel.

The storm grew slightly bigger before remaining the same size for a solid five minutes.

And then it finally began shrinking.

Slowly, the tornado dissipated. I felt a few strong breezes hit me, all of them blowing in different directions, as Storm—Sirus—came walking out of the swamp.

I wasn’t prepared for the way his appearance affected me. My toes curled, my body heating.

His magic hadn’t spoken to me or touched me since the man had been sane, and yet his power over me still seemed to be the same.

He didn’t look like he was entirely relaxed, so I turned and began walking again as soon as he reached my side.

Walking was practically therapy for me, so maybe it would affect him the same way.

“I regret that I wasn’t in your world to protect you from the bastard who had you trapped,” he said to me, his voice even. I could tell it was taking him a shitload of effort to stop from letting his fury take over again.

“It’s alright. I’m here, now.”

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