Page 75 of Blood of Ancients

Chapter 20

Grim

I COULDN’T STAY WITHRavinica all the time. But whenever I had the chance—after her classes ended, when I wasn’t on field duty, and when I wasn’t sleeping—I was by her side.

Sven had been relinquished of his Huscarl-in-training work after putting four Lanfen siblings in the hospital and leaving his dragon-badge on the ground of his own family den with a note threatening their safety.

Since then, he’d been slinking around campus like a pariah.

Out of all Ravinica’s mates, I understood Sven the best. It was odd, given he had been my rival before my little sneak brought us together.

Arne was tricky and cunning, and I’d never felt I could trust him completely. Magnus was mysterious and vague, and his emotionless tendencies unnerved me. Corym I didn’t know well enough, and I suspected none of us humans did.

But Sven Torfen? He was a man who made his intentions clear. Like me. He was brash and arrogant. I knew how he operated. In a way, I respected his straightforwardness.

As a child, my biological family had betrayed me, literally sending me out to the wolves in the wilderness, with no hope of surviving or returning. I had beaten the odds through sheer grit and determination to stay alive and prove myself.

My foster fathers had found me, taken me in like a miracle child they couldn’t have on their own. For a few short years, there was bliss in my life, as we lived in the forest in a little cottage, away from civilization and prying eyes. Kerr and Koll taught me the meaning of family—atruefamily—and that it didn’t need to be dictated by blood.

Ravinica had only driven home that point further. I’d found my new family in the most unexpected of circumstances. Rival, spy, enigma, elf. The four men I now called brothers.

Of course, the bliss with Kerr and Koll could not last. My biological family couldn’t stand to see me succeed. They came with their pitchforks and fire, with their soldiers, and burned us out of house and home.

When my fathers were murdered in front of me, it sparked the inner rage, triggering something inside me I’d fight for the rest of my life to stuff down. And, in that rage, I killed the people who gave birth to me.

Comparing my painful past with Sven’s current situation, I found the similarities easily enough. While Sven’s circumstance triggered my trauma all over again, I felt I had a duty to try and guide him through the emotional turmoil he’d never admit to feeling, because I had been through a similar experience before.

Betrayal was the worst feeling I’d ever known. It cut much deeper than any blade. It awoke something visceral and primal inside you. I wondered if I couldn’t stray Sven off this path of retribution and vengeance, before it was too late. Before he ended up like me.Unless it already is too late for the temperamental shifter.

During one of Ravinica’s classes, when I found myself alone with my thoughts, I strolled over to the nearest mess hall and found him there, sitting alone and eating.

My heart hurt for the dark-haired man, hunched over his bread and meat, clawing into his food like it was going to attackhim.Bears are meant to be solitary. Wolves are not. A wolf without a pack is no wolf at all.

I passed other lounging cadets in the hall, lumbering my way toward him. My size brought more than a few stares and awkward glances from my peers, and I ignored them.

I was staring at Sven’s hunched back, coming at him from behind, yet I knew with his senses and his current situation he would feel me coming.

Sure enough, at the last second, he spun on his bench with an eating knife gripped between his fingers, ready to lodge it into my throat.

I stepped back, my large hand whipping out and clutching his wrist to stop him before he could attack me. “At ease, wolf,” I grunted, pushing his hand and knife away.

He grunted at me, eyes narrowing suspiciously, and sat to continue eating. As I moved to sit across from him, he said, “What do you want, bear? I’m busy.”

My hands clasped together on the tabletop. “This self-imposed misery is not like you, Sven.”

He didn’t look up, chomping away violently at his food. It made me wince.

When no answer was forthcoming, I continued. “Ravinica wouldn’t like to see—”

“This isn’taboutRavinica.” The man flared his nostrils, snarling up at me.

I slipped a small smile out. “You know, for how handsome of a man you could be, this enraged, victimized expression you’ve been wearing is quite unattractive.”

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