Chapter 34 | Ravinica

Chapter 34

Ravinica

SHIFTERS WERE STARTING to leave campus before the sun had gone down, in preparation for the wild evening.

I spent most of the day hanging out with Randi and Dagny. Passing by a few students, I heard a new title shouted at me.

"There's the giant-slayer," one initiate called out with a smirk.

Randi and Dag laughed, and I flushed, passing by the inebriated young man and his friends.

I paced myself and only had two drinks by sundown, to keep my focus, while others had been drinking all day, celebrating their initiate passing.

"Giant-slayer, eh?" Randi said, shouldering me with a grin. "I think I like it."

"Much more agreeable than the previous ones," Dagny muttered.

"Yes," I said with a chuckle. "Much better than bog-blood or half-breed."

My finals duel against Grim had been making the rounds through the academy. It was no small thing, taking two out of three bouts against one of the strongest fighters at school.

Would it have been different if we'd used real weapons and actually tried to kill each other? Probably. I still had to use every bit of cunning and sprightliness I had to beat him—and even then it had been close.

The fact Grim had been nothing but welcoming and congratulatory for defeating him spoke volumes of the man. He didn't care about accolades or his own ego. He only cared to see me succeed and prove my worth to the naysayers at Vikingrune Academy.

"Perhaps the tide is finally starting to shift," I said under my breath.

I was finally coming around on Arne, too. It was a big weight off my shoulders, not hating the man like I had the past few months.

Hate was a sure way to cripple myself. If I could keep things honest and lighthearted with the iceshaper, perhaps we could get over the elephant in the room once and for all, and put it behind us. Gods knew he had done the most to try and please me.

I looked forward to my second year at Vikingrune, though it was also nerve-wracking. I didn't know what the future held once the snows started falling and the school went underground to train and learn.

The rebellion was becoming a sore point for the Hersirs. I wasn't looking forward to a face-off against them. Students against professors never ended well. It reminded me of history lessons about peasants versus noblemen. For the most part, it rarely worked out in the peasants' favor.

There were two-dozen dead Huscarls deep in Delaveer Forest we also had to contend with. Sending that many soldiers out, and having none of them return, had to be concerning for the Hersirs.

If they discovered what actually happened—that they had not been killed by elves, but by their own students and Lepers—well, that did not bode well for any of us.

Reclaiming some of the power from the faculty at Vikingrune might be the only way to be victorious and come out unscathed.

Doing that, however, is much easier said than done.

I noticed our trio had instinctively walked from the southeastern section of Nottdeen Quarter to the western gates, where students were coming and going in a flux. It was the first day in over a month the gates were opened, and everyone was using it to their advantage.

I imagined Isleton was bustling, rip-roaring with activity and scandalous behavior. I didn't really feel like being in that mix right now, yet I headed for the gate anyway.

Dagny stopped at the edge before the gate, asking, "Where are you two going? It's going to be a madhouse at Isleton."

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 he could talk 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.

His hands whipped up, smacking mine aside—even the hand I'd been gliding down his length to get him stiff for me. He tossed my fur coat off my shoulders first, then stepped forward and ripped my shirt open.

When my breasts bounced down, the evening chill and molten heat of Grim pebbled my nipples. I did nothing to hide myself, letting him devour me with his eyes.

He snarled and reached for the waistband of my pants.

I yelped when he yanked them down, forcefully, the heat pooling at the base of my belly and begging for release.

He had me naked in an instant—bare like him, our bodies warm and pressed flush against each other.

Grim's powerful arm dipped behind my right thigh to grab a handful of my ass, and then he bent my knee and hoisted my leg up for leverage.

I inhaled sharply, drooling arousal all over his hand as his fingers moved to my inner thigh.

He toyed with my engorged lips for two seconds before losing all control and lifting me, grabbing the backs of both thighs to hoist me into the air.

My legs kicked as I went airborne, so I wrapped them around his thick middle, my pussy torturously gliding over the top of his cock.

Grim ravaged my lips, bruising them with the force of his bloodthirsty kiss. All I could do was thread my arms around his neck to keep myself from toppling over backward.

He licked and laved, dominating my tongue with his, all the while lining up his cock below.

Lifting me a few inches further, tits against his face, he settled me back down and I gasped as his cock speared into me, stretching my walls and filling me with utter warmth and fullness.

This dangerous man could hit every part of me, and he did just that as he thrust deeper and punched my insides.

I rested my forehead on his shoulder, gasping for breath at the size and sheer ferocity of his thrusts. Keeping me aloft the entire time he did me in, claiming my body just as I had begged.

My flesh rippled and smacked against his as he bounced me on his cock, standing and carrying and fucking me with his back against the tree trunk.

He had yet to say a thing, and I wanted it that way. I didn't need anymore words. I knew what I meant to him. He could be a golden retriever and a gooey, kind man when he wanted.

But now I wanted the worst of him. The animal. The predator who took what he wanted and wrested any semblance of control from my white-hot fingertips.

It had been too long for us. For this. The wait had been agonizing, but that made the explosion of sensations all the better.

I raked my nails down his back, breaking skin, and he let out little more than a grunt. I could do whatever I wanted to him and he'd be fine with it. In fact, he'd return the favor threefold, and that was exactly what I needed after such a tumultuous, chaotic term.

I had made it to the finish line. Now, Grim Kollbjorn was my prize, and he knew it. He made sure I knew it, too.

Pumping his hips, my thoughts dwindled away, only focusing on the piston thrusts and the way he impaled me and brought me to a toe-curling orgasm.

Out here in the woods, we could be animals. It had always been our safe place, with the trees around us, nature on our side.

It never felt more dangerous than it did right now, as I lost myself to pleasure and my inhibitions and doubts fled my mind.

Grim bent his head and took my nipple in his mouth, teasing and tormenting even as his dick ran wild inside me. I planted my ass down on him, using his beefy shoulders as leverage so I could push up and then slam down on his length.

I felt completely widened, filled, and blissful. Like the gods had come down and kissed me with their favor, in the form of this righteous protector, this diabolical animal.

Panting, sweating, I cried out as he demolished the tenderest parts of me and made my calves bounce on his taut ass. He continued to push through the resistance of my climax, which only made me unravel harder and wind up for another one.

My body trembled. I couldn't hold back the pleasure. The moans. The heated breaths on his neck, in his ear, showing him he was giving me exactly what I wanted and deserved.

Then he spun us around, putting my back against the tree trunk to give himself more leverage as he fucked me silly.

And when my eyes went over his shoulder, in a bizarre moment of déjà vu, I noticed glinting yellow eyes in the trees, staring at us—watching us fuck and lose our minds the entire time.

"Fuck, Grim," I groaned, but he only took it as a request for him to go harder, deeper, punishing the very depths of my insides.

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