My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 231 - チャプター 240

Sera"He is not your problem. He has not been your problem from the day he opened his mouth in your mother's company. He thought with his cock. He fucked the wrong woman. Your mother used him because that is what your mother does with men who think with their cocks, and now he is in a bath in my keep because he could not keep himself out of a bed he had no business being in. That is not on you. That is on him. And on her.""He didn't know what she was —""Sera. The first time you broke Taya's leg on the training ground, I told myself I had picked the right woman. I had not picked you yet. I had been told to. I had taken the contract. But that morning I watched you put your knee through her thigh and I thought — yes. Yes. This one. This one has it. Do you know what I wanted to say to you that night.""What.""Don't apologize."He held my eyes."I didn't say it. I thought you weren't ready to hear it. I'm saying it now. Don't apologize, Sera. Not for Taya. Not for Kael. Not for Torin. I

I watched Torin.The brine had moved with the small currents in the bath when the door had opened, and the surface had settled again, and what I had in front of me was a man in pieces under a layer of yellow water. The left arm was gone at the shoulder. The right arm was whole below the elbow, but the elbow itself was a flat working joint with hide grown back over the moving parts — Madra's work, slow patient layers laid down across. The chest was not the chest of a man who had been intact a month ago. There were sections of the ribcage that had been taken and the skin had been pulled across the gap and stitched to the meat under. The legs below the water were the things I did not let myself study for long. The legs were the part Madra had not been allowed to heal, because she needed to keep specific channels open for the brine to work, and what was under his waist did not have a name in any anatomy I had been taught.The face above the strap was almost whole. The face had been prese

JaceI sighed. I looked toward the Northern Soldiers. Even with the crowd moving around, they were impossible to miss. They were just that tall."What are you here for, really?" the guard asked again."I told you. I'm seeing a friend in Ironmaw."The border market was a symbol of the treaty. Travelers had to pass through it. It was neutral ground, but the rules were strictly Northern."I'll let you in," the guard said, pointing a thumb toward a small, narrow gate. "But if you love yourself and you don't want trouble, you'll take heed. Ditch the clothing. Wash off that reek."I looked at the small gate. Then at the main entrance where the mastiffs stood. I wasn't an Alpha. I didn't have a crest to show, mainly because I’d told Kane I didn't want it. I wanted to come in lowkey. I wanted to find my friend first. It had been years since I’d seen her. If I showed a crest, the guards would immediately yank me to the Alpha's audience hall. I didn't want that. Not yet. I wanted to spend time

Sera"I'm sorry, what?"The laugh that came out of me was a jagged, ugly thing that hit the damp stone walls of the cellar and flatlined. My hand was still trapped in Madra's grip, her fingers like dry, cold bird talons digging into the skin of my wrist. I didn't pull back. I leaned in until I could see the yellowed film over her eyes."The brine is getting to your head, Madra," I said, my voice dropping to a harsh scrape. "I'm barren. My father made that clear years ago. My previous mate confirmed it for three years with every month my body failed to do its job. I am an Omega who couldn't even provide a single heir to a backwater pack. So don't stand there and tell me jokes."Madra didn't flinch. She didn't even blink. She held my stare with a terrifying, clinical stillness."I do not tell jokes, Luna. I deal in the meat and the blood. And your blood is singing a different tune than the one you were told."She tightened her grip. The ache in my wrist was a sharp, localized throb."I

Sera“Your scent, it has changed.”"Since when?"I forced the words past a throat that felt like it had been scraped with a dry stone. I kept my face tight, pulling my brows into a frown of defensive confusion. Fenris didn't let go of my arm. He tilted his head, his nostrils flaring as he drew in another slow, methodical pull of air. His grey eyes were unblinking, the pupils dark and fixed."Since you stepped out of that room," He shook his head slightly. "And it is not the salt, Sera. I know the smell of Madra’s cellar. This... this is different."I swallowed hard. I needed to move. Every second I stood within his reach was another second for his nose to name the truth. "I told you before," I said, my voice gaining a sharper, impatient edge. "I reek of that room. The brine is a stagnant, heavy quality that sticks to the skin. I need a bath. When I am done, the smell will be gone. You’re picking up the leftover filth from that cellar."Fenris sighed, defeated. He certainly knew what