Page 120 of The Serpent’s Shadow

Even as Sven Torfen bound into the glade, jaws dripping.

Chapter 35

Sven

BARGING INTO THE GLADE, I smelled the sharp scent of sex and pheromones. My animal mind roared for violence, mating. For retribution after the first time I’d failed to get what I wanted when I entered this exact same glade months ago.

Wolves were not jealous like humans were. The human emotions of envy did not invade my system.

Lust did.Thatsensation was the same, even for a shifter locked in a full-moon haze.

My senses were sharpened, eyes taking in the lovely, bouncing curves of Ravinica Linmyrr, my little menace. Watching her ride the bear shifter I had called a rival and enemy for so long—that stoic sentinel of resilience and endurance.

Their position was gaudy, Grim keeping her aloft in the air, his thick cock spearing deep into her from below.

When they finally spun, forcing me to look at Grim’s taut ass instead of Ravinica’s soft round one, something inside my primal mind broke.

It was her eyes, arms hugging over Grim’s shoulder, that made me falter. My stalking gave pause to bewilderment and utter desire.

I found myself shifting into a human before I’d made it four steps into the glade, the heat of the full moon washing off me. I was still filled with the vigor of the changing tides, the fullness ofthe moon in the sky, yet I managed to gain control of my baser instincts.

I strode forward, growing erect and unmanageable as I approached them.

Ravinica hugged Grim tight, giving me an open-mouthed, flushed look over his shoulder. Her yellow eyes had smoldered to burnished gold, narrowing on me as I neared them and bared my teeth in a snarl.

Echoes of my wolf’s mind howled in my head:Mine. Take. Keep.

I needed her. All for myself.

Yet I would have to kill Grim Kollbjorn to do it, and for the first time . . . I didn’t want to.

Perhaps it was the month of camaraderie we had shared in Ravinica’s absence, working together to find her. Maybe it was the mutual respect we had shown each other, even though our personalities couldn’t have been more different.

Whatever the cause, my mind didn’t immediately go to domination and destruction when I stared at the bear shifter’s huge naked backside, riddled with Ravinica’s red claw marks.

Instead, it was the same sensation of camaraderie that filled me. Another adventure for us to embark on, together, to prod and vex each other even as we worked toward a mutual goal.

I wanted tojoinrather than defeat.

Ravinica’s body tensed as I approached. She rested her chin on his bulky shoulder, staring at me. “You always have to be a pain in my ass, don’t you, Sven?”

I caught her eyes scanning every part of me, from my handsome face to my sculpted muscles to my hard cock.

I narrowed my gaze, smirking smugly. “I can be an even bigger pain in your ass if you’d like, little menace.”

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