Chapter 4 | Grim

Chapter 4

Grim

MY LARGE HEAD CONNECTED with the invading wolf square in the side, sending him skittering and rolling across the clearing with a whine.

The three other wolves spread out, darting away on their hind legs so they could surround me in a half-circle.

I roared, shivering the trees with the brutal sound, and launched back on my legs to stand tall. When two wolves charged at me from either side—Edda and Olaf—I focused my energy on the eldest Torfen, the girl, and swiped my paws at her.

Edda barely managed to sneak under my vicious claws, raking her smaller nails down my leg as she streamed by. Olaf came in from the other side—

I growled, dropped to my legs, and kicked out, catching Olaf in the face.

With blood spouting from his snout, the wolf catapulted into the air, end over end, and landed on his back before force-shifting into a human.

Human , I thought vaguely, remembering that I, too, was a human.

It did not feel like it during moments like these, which were becoming more frequent as the days passed without any sight or sign of my little sneak.

Olaf lay on his back, staring up at the canopies of trees and the blue sky overhead. Naked, groaning in pain, he coughed and had a dazed expression on his bleeding face.

I had half a mind to stomp all my weight onto him, cave in his chest, and stop his heart. Put an end to one-fourth of the Torfen scum at Vikingrune Academy once and for all.

"Kollbjorn!" a voice yelled behind me.

My focus on Olaf blurred. I turned to the voice. Sven Torfen was on one knee, hands raised, scuffed up and also nude after shifting into his human form.

At first I thought the man was in a pose of submission, which was insane for someone of Sven's temperament and stature. Then I recognized he was kneeling because he was favoring his left side, wincing—he had been the wolf I initially headbutted.

He pumped his hands at me. "Peace, bear. We have not come to harm you."

If I didn't know any better, it sounded like a tinge of . . . fear in his voice. The proud bastard would never admit it, but it gave me twisted satisfaction knowing he was frightened of me.

I shook my head, trying to focus my scattered animosity at the wolves, who had barged in on me like enemies.

Enemies , I thought, mulling the word over. A bearish growl mixed in my head. These are . . . not them.

Tilting my head, the blanket of rage that had settled over me slowly dissipated. The two Torfens still in their wolf forms—Edda and Ulf—stayed on the peripheries, raised on their haunches and ready to pounce.

My eyes flickered to them, left and right, to gauge my next move if they attacked.

"Sister, brother," Sven said, standing to his full height. "Stand down."

Edda and Ulf glanced at their brother and slowly, hesitantly shifted into humans. My eyes landed on Ulf's large frame first, before glancing over Edda's muscled form and heavy breasts.

I sniffed the air with a snort, smelling nothing but human scents. Their odor, sweat, and essence permeated my senses. Gone was the earthy, ripe stench of wolves in the air—the thing that had set me off in the first place.

I didn't trust anyone these days. It was getting worse the longer things went without Ravinica. I hated every moment of my time at the academy without her.

The swelling anger inside me simmered. From a boil, it became a bubble, and then I simply felt tired.

I shifted out of my bear form, joining the other four in their states of undress. Four men and a woman, standing naked in a clearing in the forest as if we were about to partake in a midday ritualistic orgy.

It was par for the course at Vikingrune Academy, where so many shifters ran amok freely.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I watched with half-lidded eyes as Edda Torfen's eyes darted south between my legs. When she gave me a devilish grin, I sneered at her.

"What in all hells was that?" Sven demanded, lowering his arms. "Are you so incapable of controlling yourself?"

"I smelled enemies," I explained in my slow, measured pace. Then I shrugged. "I attacked."

Sven walked toward me. It was only then I realized I was standing over Olaf, still on his back, with the third-year student getting an eyeful of my rear.

Wrinkling my nose, I turned and lowered my hand, reaching down.

Olaf looked up at me, coughed, and cautiously grabbed my forearm with his. As I lifted him to his feet, he said, "Good hit, that last one."

"I was seconds away from stomping on you for good measure."

"I could tell." Olaf glared at Sven behind me. "I suppose I have you to thank for that, brother. Never would've thought Sven Torfen would be defusing anything."

Edda and Ulf chuckled.

Sven and I stayed silent, eyeing one another suspiciously.

"We came to talk," Sven said, "and you punted me halfway across the damn clearing."

My shoulders bobbed. "Announce yourself more openly next time."

"Rage has taken you."

It was a statement, not a question. It was only partly correct. "I have not gone berserk, if that's what you're implying, Torfen." I sniffed the air defiantly. "If I had, none of you would be standing."

"Like Anders Rennarfen?"

Leave it to Sven to dredge up old news. Yes, I had killed the wolf shifter who had trained me my initiate year. Do I need to be constantly reminded of the tragedy, and my part in it?

I lowered my chin, glowering at the handsome wolf shifter. None of these fuckers were as imposing when they stood in my woodsy lair naked as the day they were born.

"Yes, like Anders Rennarfen," I grunted past gritted teeth. "Admittedly, I have felt a bit . . . lost."

"Is it Ravinica?"

I nodded slowly, ashamed I had let my anger rile me up; that I'd taken out my frustrations on this pack, whom I had a tenuous truce with.

I'd always done best keeping to myself. Now I was inundated with daily messages from Ravinica's friends, Dagny and Randi, as well as these bastards barging into my place of solace.

Truthfully, it was my place of hiding. I didn't trust myself around people these days, knowing myself and the bloodlust that cursed me. The fact I'd deteriorated so fast, in a mere two weeks, showed how fast and hard I had fallen for the silver-haired warrioress.

"What do you want, Torfens?" I grunted out, eyeing each one in turn.

They deferred to their aggravating leader, looking over at him.

Sven said, "Ravinica is why we're here."

My body tensed, muscles tightening. I didn't even try to stave off the twitch of my cock, because there was no use. Simply mentioning Ravinica got my blood running hot.

Interestingly, Sven's announcement seemed like news to his three siblings—as surprising to them, judging by their tense reactions, as it was to me.

"Is that where you've been going without a trace, brother?" Edda asked, scoffing. "Should have suspected, you weak-willed lout."

Sven snarled at her. "I've been tailing someone. I think he knows something."

"Who?" I asked, voice echoing through the breezy canopies.

"Arne Gornhodr."

"The iceshaper? Why have you been following him?"

"Why haven't you ?" Sven shot back. "You say you care for Ravinica Linmyrr, yet you wallow in these woods, self-isolating, to wage your pity-party?"

I wouldn't let his barbs affect me. Not now. I was too curious. "You're saying you suddenly care for the girl, then?"

Sven ignored me. "We must question Arne. I believe someone already is. I don't know how innocent that interrogation might be, seeing as he was the lone survivor from the river massacre. Do you not find that strange?"

"I do," I said. I hadn't given Arne much thought since he'd come back to us wide-eyed and bloodied and told us about Ravinica's abduction.

I cursed myself for not staking off into the Niflbog and deeper into the Isle back then, to try and recover my little sneak before she got too far away from me.

Granted, we'd had no idea what we were up against. We'd been lost, confounded, and faced with an immediate new threat with the Ljosalfar elves.

Since they hadn't killed her on the grass next to the creek, they likely wouldn't kill her at all. At least that was my hope—my burning need. Because if the elves harmed a single silver hair on Ravinica's body, I would find a way to Alfheim and destroy their entire plane of existence.

A jag of rage stabbed through me, and I quickly stifled it.

"Why have you come to tell me this, wolf?" I tilted my head. "Your typical move is to shoot first and ask questions later."

"Says the bear who just tried to kill us for existing in the same space as you."

"Why haven't you already engaged Arne, if you believe he's lying to us or hiding something?"

Sven glanced away, showing a moment of self-reflection and perhaps some discomfort. "Same reason I orchestrated rescuing you from Jorthyr's prison. Ravinica would want your assistance."

"It certainly isn't because you're a wiser, saner, more stable presence, Kollbjorn," Olaf added, coughing as he pounded his chest and wiped his bloody nose.

Point taken.

"I know you didn't kill Astrid Dahlmyrr," Sven said. "I suspect I know who did." He tapped his clean-shaven chin. The man liked to keep his face bare and fresh.

"You would continue our alliance?" I asked.

Sven sighed. "Cautiously."

I snorted with a small chuckle. "Then let us question Arne together."

"Which one of you is going to be good cop, bad cop?" Edda asked. "You're both assholes."

My small smile widened, and Sven's did too as he glanced over at me.

We had an understanding.

"You never pull your punches, eh, sister?" Sven asked.

"Neither do you, brother," Ulf cut in. "Remember when you throat-chopped me for no gods-damned reason, during orientation?"

"You were being a whiny bitch, little pup," Sven pointed out.

Olaf and Edda laughed, and the quartet started walking out of the clearing together.

I slowly followed behind them, feeling stunned I was placing my trust in these four members of a wolf pack that had always been at odds with my own people.

"Just stuff your tits away, Edda, and we'll be fine," Sven chimed in.

"As soon as you stuff that puny thing you call a cock away," Edda shot back.

Ulf continued chuckling, and Olaf wheezed with trembling shoulders.

Sven glanced over at the two men, the four of them walking abreast through the forest. "What're you two laughing at? I'm bigger than both you measly fucks."

Edda laughed loudest this time. "We're not comparing dicks right now, dear Sven. But if we were . . . did you see the jotun-sized man behind us? Now that is a co—"

"Shut up, Edda," Sven cut in before she could finish.

Edda continued laughing with a guttural, manly rasp. She clapped Sven hard on the back, making him cough.

Gods, this family is fucking strange. I shook my head as I followed ten steps behind them, listening to their ludicrous banter.

It strangely made me feel . . . better. More sane. Like things could go back to normal, somehow, in time.

But not without Ravinica wrapped in my arms.

"Sven," I called out.

The foursome stopped strolling. Sven glanced over his shoulder with a raised brow.

"Perhaps we should speak with Eirik Halldan about his missing sister before we go attacking anymore students."

He crossed his arms, facing me fully. "What has he done for Ravinica so far?"

"He has more access to Hersirs than I do. Says he's been talking with higher-ups about getting a scouting team together to go looking for her."

Sven scoffed and flapped a hand at me. "Bullshit. You ask me, Kollbjorn, it was a blessing you got out of that gang when you did. They're weak."

It wasn't out of choice. I had left Eirik, Gryphon, Tyrus, and Eila because they'd forced me out after Anders Rennarfen's death at my hands.

"Fine, then we won't talk with Eirik first," I said. It was the first time I could remember agreeing with Sven.

My eyes darkened, a grim disposition coming over me as my eyes locked with his dark, depthless orbs. "We may have to make our own search party, wolf, if the academy doesn't make a damn move soon. Because I'm telling you right now, if Ravinica doesn't return to my side soon, the berserker will come to life. And then no one will be safe."

There was a glint of excitement in Sven's wicked face. I could feel the primeval rage pushing through my barriers, trying its damnedest to take over. And Sven, being the sadistic, brutish shifter I knew him to be, relished the idea of my downfall, and the carnage that would come with it.

"Understood," he said with a simple nod. "And agreed."

With a wink, he turned back around to walk away, but not before quipping, "Let's just see if we can keep you out of Hersir Jorthyr's prison cells while we do this little mission, eh? I don't want to have to save your big hulking ass again."