Silvertip Mountain Most pitbulls are just three shih tzus wearing a trench coat

Arielle looked down at her handiwork and Aventus let his eyes rove over her shoulders and the slope of her neck and for once relished the hunger that writhed in his stomach. Even in the water, even in that tiny hollow, he had not paid so much attention to the inviting curvature of her body. What would she feel like below him, he wondered. Certainly not like the coyote had. Stronger. Fiercer. Warmer?

Aventus had to mentally slap himself back to reality when he felt his body reacting to his thoughts. He shifted as subtly as he could, wrapping his tail close to hide anything before she could notice. That was the easy part. Try as he might, he could not chase the hoarseness from his voice when he said, thank you, Arielle. He frantically began to think of his dead mother, willing her memory to put his blood to rest.

This, of course, resulted in a long moment of silence during which Aventus stared down at Arielle while trying his very best to see Astara’s face there. By the time he felt safe to stand, assuming she had not noticed in the first place, the silence had grown awkward. Um. Well, he said with a deep chuckle, I should go and see father. Tell him about Nyra. I will see you tonight?