Page 142 of Ravenous

This male had drunk his aunt and uncle to death and planned to annihilatethe Berserker clan with a new Horde. Fighting to protect his family and his people, he battered Co?tin’s sword over and over, positioning for the death blow that his parents hadn’t been able to deliver.

“Enough of this!” Yrsa snarled. She released her Berserkerage.

Torben released his.

Too late.

She slammed Co?tin aside with blurring speed and launched herself at Torben.

He evaded a slash of her claws and struck her with his sword, then again, hits that seemed to bounce off her flexed muscles, a pelt of steel.

With a yell, he swung a two-handed hit, landing it near her waist. It should have cut her in two, but his sword wedged into her hipbone, stuck there.

He wrenched it free a split second after her hand shot out. She’d punched a hole through his chest. Then she yanked her hand back.

She’d ripped out his heart.

She showed it to him.

He fell to his knees, gurgling blood, disbelief crashing through him.

The she-bear took a bite from his still beating heart, coating her face with his blood. She chewed as she stifled her Berserkerage.

Heart in hand, she took Co?tin’s sword from him. “If you want something done…”

Torben raised his weapon on instinct to protect his neck.

She cleaved through both.

Torben’s head hit the ground.

Painless. Body floating. Berserkerage no more.

But his immortal mind clung to life for long moments as he gazed at his beheaded corpsebeside him?

“We’re done here.” Co?tin clutched his bleeding stump. “The ruse is up across two kingdoms.”

“Trace this one’s remains away,” Yrsa said, “and in time I’ll convince others that Torben never existed.”

“You’re speaking to a king now. Clean up your own mess. Besides, news of my army will soon reach all ears.”

“What? That wasn’t part of the plan. I just convinced the Fey that Bloodreach’s threat was forever neutralized! You’ve made me look a fool.”

“The plan changed. It’s none of your concern now. I’m going to go retrievemyqueen. Thank you for keeping her protected for me. Though I wonder how your jealousy made that possible.”

“Because I am clear-eyed, just as I was when I spared you all those years ago. When you try to make your sister love you, eventually you will understand that she never can. You’ll return to me, and the millennia have made me patient.”

“Like my father, you’ve always underestimated me.”

“I estimate your mediocrity perfectly, and you’ve never proven me wrong. Doesn’t mean you’re not mine. But we must deal in realities.” She took another bite, then grabbed Co?tin to kiss him with a mouth full of Torben’s heart.

The vampire yanked back from her and swiped his lips in disgust. “You’ll see. Soon everyone will see.” He vanished.

Yrsa gazed down at Torben’s head, taking another nonchalant bite. “I always favored Arctos over you.” Then she left him too.

Torben’s life dimmed. He didn’t grieve his immortally wounded body, though it had been strong and had fathered a babe with his beloved mate.

He grieved the fact that he’d fought with Dagny the very night of his death and their parting had been filled with anger. Would those last moments overshadow all her other memories of him? He grieved the fact that Arctos would never believe that Yrsa could do this, until it was too late for him as well.