All Chapters of My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian : Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

MinaThe smell of my mother’s death never really left my nose, but the smell in this room was trying its best to replace it.It was the copper sting of fresh blood, the sharp, medicinal burn of the healer’s salves, and the heavy, musky scent of Fenris’s possessive rage still hanging in the rafters. I stood by the door of the Queen’s quarters, my hands tucked into the folds of my wool skirt so no one would see the way they were vibrating. I felt like a wire pulled so tight that a single sneeze would snap me in two.The healer finished his work, packed his blood-stained linens, and bowed his way out. He didn’t look at me. No one really looks at the Omega when there’s a mutilated Queen in the chair and an Alpha breathing fire in the corner.Fenris walked over to Sera. He didn't say anything, he just touched her shoulder—a heavy, grounding weight. He looked at me, his grey eyes flat and unreadable."Stick around until she’s done," he told me.I just nodded. I couldn't find my voice. It wa

KaneThe grass was still slick with the kind of heavy, grey dew that soaked straight through your socks if you weren't wearing the right boots. I wasn't. I was wearing a pair of old sneakers that had seen better days and jeans that had a permanent grease stain on the left knee from fixing the tractor last Tuesday. I didn't care. Being the Alpha of Blackwater meant I could technically walk around in a burlap sack and people would call it a fashion statement, but mostly, I just didn't have the energy to give a damn about the optics.I stood at the edge of the long field, the heavy iron-headed club weighted perfectly in my right hand. It was an old game, something my grandfather used to play when the pack was still fighting for every inch of the valley. It looked like golf if golf was played by people who expected to be attacked by a mountain lion at any moment.I stared at the red flag fluttering three hundred yards away. The wind was coming in from the east, a sharp, biting breeze that

Kane"I still wonder why you let her go." He didn't look at me. He was staring at the red flag in the weeds.I felt like he’d just shoved a needle into my ear. "What the hell has that got to do with the subject on the ground?""If Sera were to be—""I already told you never to bring her name up!" I shouted, my voice cracking. "What is wrong with you?"Jace shook his head, his red hair catching the light. He continued anyway, his voice flat and hard. "If you hadn't been an idiot to think you could keep a woman like that while you got another one pregnant, Blackwater would not be at the mercy of a pack that wants to run us into the ground."I went quiet. I couldn't breathe. Jace was putting salt in the wound, just like he always did. He didn't care that I was the Alpha. He didn't care that I was bleeding internally. He just wanted me to see the mistake I’d made.Because the truth was, everything was falling apart.While I was playing "Duty" and "Alpha" in the office, the world had move

KaneI’d set up that protocol years ago. It was supposed to be for Sera. Back when Sera was the only person I trusted to handle the ledgers while I was away at the borders dealing with rogues. I’d given the Luna the power to sign trade agreements in the Alpha’s absence. It was a gesture of trust, a way to show her she was more than just a mate. I’d never officially rescinded it. I’d just... forgotten.Sera wasn’t even Luna then. She was just acting it. And Elara, seeing the "black beasts" prowling the eastern woods and hearing the panicked whispers of the elders, had stepped into the office and signed the damn thing. She saw the money they offered, the "immediate rations," and the promise of warriors to guard the nursery. She thought she was being a Queen. She thought she was securing a future for the pup in her womb.She’d sold the front door to a thief and invited him in for tea.The "beast" invasion had stopped the very next day. Jace was right. It was a set-up. Mistwood controlle

ElaraThe steam in the shower was thick enough to choke on, but I leaned into it, letting the hot needles of water hit the back of my neck. I could feel Kane’s chest pressed against my spine, his heart thudding a heavy, predictable rhythm that I’d learned to mimic with my own breathing. His hands were on my hips, fingers digging in with that desperate, possessive edge he’d had ever since the Omega walked out the door.He thought he was drowning in me. He thought the scent of my skin—carefully curated with expensive oils and heavy chemical blockers—was his anchor. He didn't know that every time I looked at him, I was calculating the remaining shelf life of this particular lie. He didn't know that while I was moaning against his mouth, I was thinking about the gold Aldric still owed me for the "drops in the tea" that had turned his fated mate into a barren pariah1.I closed my eyes, the heat of the water blurring into a different kind of heat. A memory I couldn't shake, no matter how muc