My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 315

Jace

"The warrior isn't happy you beat him."

I didn't hurry to face her. I finished counting the gold off my palm into the purse, took my time about it, and only then turned around. Sera stood a few feet off in furs too good for a morning walk to a sparring yard, breath showing white in the cold. Behind her, two soldiers were carrying the tall fighter off between them, her feet dragging furrows in the snow, blood gone black down her chin. Nobody in the yard was watching that anymore. They were watching Sera, and through her, me.

"Good morning, my Luna."

She laughed, short and real. "I'm not your Luna."

"No?"

"If you were from around here, I would be. You're not." She tilted her head. "So I'm nobody's Luna to you."

"Mina's mine," I said. "That's close enough to family. I'll call you what I like."

That got the laugh out of her again, smaller this time. Then it was gone, and she was studying me, which was what she'd come down here to do.

"Did you watch the whole thing?" I said.

"I watched you put money on the one who was losing." No smile when she said it. "Then I watched her win."

"That's the trade. You bet on what people are, not what they look like in the moment."

"Is that what you do with everyone?"

She put it flat, no lift at the end. More statement than question. I let it sit a second before I answered.

"Mostly."

She didn't follow up. Whatever else she'd come to say, she wasn't going to waste it on the fight. She kept her eyes on me, and I understood we were done talking about that.

"My husband asked me to come find you," she said. "He didn't put it that way. He said go see what the southerner wants with my sister before I commit to anything I can't take back." She paused. "So. What do you want with her?"

"My husband asked me to come find you," she said. "He didn't say it kindly. He said go see what the southerner wants with my sister before I promise him anything I can't take back." She let that land. "So. What do you want with her?"

"I want to marry her," I said. "That's the whole of it."

“And you have been with her for a year, and she never once said your name to me. We talk most days."

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