Lahat ng Kabanata ng My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian : Kabanata 461 - Kabanata 470

LyraI cracked open an eye, wincing against the sliver of sunlight that slipped through a gap in the curtains. My head pounded, my mouth felt like sandpaper, and every inch of my body ached. I rolled onto my side and lifted the phone off the table beside the bed.The screen swam into focus. Missed calls. Three of them, from a number I did not know, all of them a little after eleven last night.I stared at it for a long time, waiting for my mind to tell me something useful about it. Nothing came. I had never seen the number before and it meant nothing to me, and I did not have the energy to sit there working at it.I set the phone face down on the blanket and let my arm drop.The ceiling of my room was pale in the morning light, the same beams I had been looking at my whole life. I lay there and looked at them and let it all come back to me, because there was no stopping it.The thick dark air had pressed around us, heavy and still. Neither Odile nor I said a word. I had no words left

Lyra"Aren't you tired of acting like everything is all right? Save that for the idiots you keep around you," I snapped, my voice cracking.I wrapped my arms around myself, fighting the urge to scream. Tears spilled down my cheeks, no matter how hard I tried to hold them back. "I did nothing. You made it perfectly clear what would happen if I ever let anything slip to Sera. And I kept my mouth shut. I told her nothing.""You did keep your silence." His voice was calm and smooth, unruffled.I glared at him through my tears. "It doesn't matter though, does it? I don't even have access to my sister thanks to you! You made sure of that."I took a shuddering breath."So why did you kill him?""Hmm. I see." He rubbed his chin. "You're talking about Edran."I stared at him, my heart pounding, my breath caught somewhere in my throat. He had said the name himself. He had not even flinched.He rearranged a few things on his desk. A paperweight. A quill. The edges of a parchment. My nails dug in

KaneI turned back to Brooke and met his eyes. "Jace is on an assignment to deal with Mistwood," I said quietly. "It's being handled." The words felt bitter on my tongue, every bit as false as they sounded.I hated myself for saying them, for letting my best and oldest friend handle this mess while I did nothing. But what else could I say?Brooke was patient. "For how long now, Alpha?"I swallowed hard, the bitter taste of my own failure. "Five weeks.""And when did we last hear from him?"My jaw clenched. I knew this was coming, knew Brooke would be the one to ask it, the one who'd have the guts. "It's... being handled," I repeated, my voice cracking.Not one call in five weeks. The realization settled in my gut, cold and heavy. Five weeks with nothing but silence from the north, from the land of the savages.Jace had gone there for help, believing the wolves of the north could provide what the south couldn't.But now... I swallowed hard, my throat constricting around the unspoken tr

ElaraThe night before."I'm sorry, Elara," Kane pleaded from the doorway. His voice cracked with desperation. "I don't know what happened to me. Please, just look at me."His words hung heavy in the stillness, the lamplight flickering off the walls as shadows danced. I sat rigid on the couch, hands white-knuckled in my lap, refusing to turn my head. My gaze remained fixed on a vague point ahead, a spot just beyond the lamp across the room."Elara. It's been eleven days. Say something. Anything."My jaw tightened. I could hear the anguish in his tone, how much he wanted to fix this, to make it right. But I couldn't bear to face him."There's nothing to say." Each word fell hard, icy and unyielding. It was the first time I had spoken to him in over a week.Kane took a few steps into the room, moving towards me. I sprang up, circling around to the far side of the couch, putting its bulk between us."Don't," I warned tightly.He froze a few paces in, hands fisted at his sides. "Elara..."

KaneI was settling Elara into our bed, the pillows stacked behind her back, the blanket pulled up to her chin. I set a glass of water on the nightstand. Her eyes stared vacantly at the wall as I bustled around her. She was limp and quiet, no protests or questions, just silence.When my hands touched her hip to straighten the blanket, she stiffened imperceptibly. I took it for grief. What else could it be? My Elara, my Elara who laughed and swayed her hips to the music, who pressed into my touch and my scent... Elara, gone. In her place this shell of a woman, this ghost of my Luna."Rest," I murmured, brushing a strand of hair from her forehead. "You don't have to do anything. Just rest."Elara blinked twice but said nothing. I sighed and turned away, pulling open the door. The woman from the staff waited patiently in the hall."Whatever the Luna needs, she gets," I instructed quietly. "Nobody disturbs her. And not one word about the pup to anyone in the pack. Not yet."The woman nodd