Page 118 of The Serpent’s Shadow

Over my shoulder, I smiled. “I’m not going to Isleton, mom. Don’t worry.”

She scowled, nose pinched, and pushed her glasses up her nose in a defiant way. I loved the cat shifter for caring about me and my safety so much.

Randi’s eyes flashed with mischievousness. “Neither am I.”

We shared a look of understanding. I knew she was going to find Ulf Torfen, despite the dangers of the full moon ahead.

“So, if not Isleton . . . then where?” Dagny pried.

I smiled at her. “I’m going to slay a giant, Dag.”

Up until my fateful duel with Grim, I had been tiptoeing through Vikingrune since returning. Trying to keep a low profile, with my head down, to not draw attention to myself.

Now, it was over. It was done. I could relax a bit and embrace my success. I could lose control.

But it was impossible to lose control if you didn’t have it in the first place.

So I planned on taking it.

With the sun setting behind the trees of Delaveer, making my way west through Helgas Woods, I felt empowered on my own. I had split with Randi at the base of the mountain pass, each of us wishing the other good luck in our pursuits.

I stalked through the woods, marching with purpose rather than creeping and trying to stay hidden. The full moon became visible, beaming down on the Isle. The howling of wolves carried in the distance, on their hunts. The sounds of the forest invigorated me, nighttime creatures coming to life.

My attention could have been split in any direction—left, where I heard crackling twigs of something watching me; right, where the wind blew hard against the trees with a rattle; above, where birds and scurrying rodents made their nests.

I stared ahead the whole time, however, face pinched. Letting my thoughts wander and my feet guide me.

I knew the glade to go to, instinctively. It was the same one as the first time.

And there I found Grim, in his bear form, grazing under an overturned log for something to feast on. A low growl was on his lips even before I arrived, his sturdy white form sticking out in the dark woods like a lighthouse in a foggy night.

He scented me immediately as I entered the clearing, wheeling around with his torso-sized head breaking into a snarl. Sharp teeth and blood-red eyes welcomed me.

I was never against putting myself in a dangerous position for the ones I loved.

Noticing it was me, Grim trotted forward, looming over me. He tried to figure out who I was—he wanted to eat me, but the scent of me stayed his jaws.

When I reached out and put a hand softly on his wet nose, the enraged glint in his eyes simmered. He gained a confused expression. Slowly, his body began to shrink—although not by a great amount because he was a massive human.

Grim stood before me a few seconds later, naked and alluring, muscles and cock bulging with blood and heat and vigor.

He towered, wordless. I wasn’t even sure if hecouldtalk in his heated state of bloodlust.

We didn’t need any words. We’d said enough of those.

I craved control in the moment, only so I could allow myself to lose it. So I shoved him against a tree trunk, pushing his bare chest hard in the same way I had yesterday during the duel that won me my second bout.

His body hardly moved. He obliged me by stepping back, staring down at me with a delectable tilt to his chin, a daring twinkle in his feral eyes.

I pressed up close to him, my forearm going up to his throat—as if I could keep him here all on my own, with my own willpower and strength.

Grim allowed it, curious, blinking down at me wordlessly.

With my forearm “barring” him from moving, my left hand blindly fell south. I gripped his huge cock in my hand, squeezing around the girthy middle as much as I could. Fingertips splayed apart, I stroked him until he was hard and jutting, pressed to the side of my hip.

I had missed this monstrous cock, and it showed in my low purr, the throatiness of my voice. “You better not have gone easy on me yesterday. And you better not right now, either.” Growling up at him, trying to match his animalistic instinct, I hissed, “Claim me, you fucking animal.”

And then Grim Kollbjorn was all movement and untamed wildness, my words setting off something deep inside his primal brain.

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