Page 33 of The Serpent’s Shadow

She was my silver-haired beacon. I would toss aside all grievances and petty squabbles if it meant getting her back. And I couldn’t deny Sven’s tracking abilities, even better than my own. If anyone was going to find her, it was the wolf shifter, which meant I had to begrudgingly follow his lead. Even if he was an aggravating asshole.

I didn’t know Sven’s motivations. Did he feel the same draw for Ravinica that Magnus and I seemed to share? If his intent was to bully or torment her once she returned, our alliance would crumble quickly. I would kill him and his kin once and for all. I’d already decided it.

If, by chance, his intentions were good . . . then I would reconsider and gauge my actions based on what he did.

The Torfens had always been enemies of mine. My fathers Koll and Kerr had instilled their fear and hatred of the wolf shifter pack when I was a cub. Even as a child, they held undue power within the paranormal community, and I felt they were partly responsible for the deaths of my fathers. Indirectly, at least, because the terror and hatred they imprinted on the minds of normal humans.

“Stop getting lost in thought and listen to me,” Sven growled, more annoyed this time.

“It’s difficult,” I said. “Your voice is grating.”

“Fuck you, bear. My voice is like honey.”

“Honey that’s soured and turned poisonous, perhaps.”

We stood together in the Torfen family longhouse. His three siblings were out, and I sat on the edge of a cot, watching him pace from one side of the room to the other.

“Dammit,” he said with a scowl, staring out a window at the sinking sun. “When the hell will it be sundown?”

“I share your impatience,” I muttered. It was a stupid question. He knew exactly when it would be sundown, because his powers were strengthened at night, like all shifters. During a full moon most of all.

“You don’t look like it, stoic bastard,” he seethed.

My big shoulders lifted. “I’m calmer than you are, Sven.”

“Lazier, I think.”

I stood from the cot. “Are we going to have problems before we even make it outside the academy walls?”

He squared up to me, tilting his chin while thrusting a finger at my chest. “I’m not the one who lost control and slammed our captive against a wall, almost ruining everything.”

“You’re right,” I admitted. “You’re just the one who beat him senseless.”

Now it was his turn to shrug. “It worked, didn’t it?”

We stared at each other for a moment longer, eyes narrowing, and then he turned away.

I, too, felt no desire to battle the wolf shifter. Not now, with so much on the line.

But I did have a desire to know his motives. So, as he turned away to stare incessantly at the sun, I asked, “You still haven’t answered why you’re doing this, wolf. Why you want to rescue Ravinica.”

“Yes I have. I told you, it’s because she’s the only one keeping me from tearing your throat out.”

I snorted. “Not good enough. We’ve done fine so far, without her. As fine as could be expected between a wolf and bear.”

He let out a harrumph, palming strands of hair fallen over his forehead, slicking it back over his scalp. With a dark glare, he said, “My reasons are my own, bear. I like you more when you’re silent.”

When he turned away this time, I hid a small smile. The man was incorrigible and vexing, yet his barbs had a bit of humor to them—something I never expected a Torfen to have.

“Just know,” I said, “if you try to harm—”

“A silver hair on her body, you’ll stomp my heart through the back of my chest and blood eagle me. Yeah, yeah, I know. You’ve said it all before.” He rolled his wrist at me, annoyed.

I let out a sound of acknowledgement. “Good. So long as we’re on the same page.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Now, did you want to go over the plan again?”

“Not without the tattooed asshole. We need his abilities. Where is—”

A knock came at the door.

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