My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 346

Elara

Evening fell fast in the valley, the way it always did. We'd moved inside after the sun started dipping, Kane pulling me into the kitchen under the pretense of helping with dinner. He didn't help. He leaned against the counter, content, watching me work my way through the carrots and potatoes like I gave a shit about any of it.

I kept my hands busy. Chopped. Stirred. Arranged my face into the soft, listening thing he needed to see. Under it, the thing I'd been shoving down all day kept pushing back up—this exhaustion, this flatness that had nothing to do with tired. I wasn't afraid of this house anymore. I wasn't afraid of Kane or the pack or any of the wolves that circled me like I was prey.

I was tired of it.

Tired of the stink. The wolves reeked, all of them, this cloying musk that clung to my clothes, my hair, my skin no matter how hard I scrubbed. The scent-blocker kept my stomach settled, kept me from gagging every time Kane pressed his mouth to my neck, but it didn't erase the smell. It just dulled it. Made it bearable. And I'd been bearing it for months now, breathing it in, letting it coat my lungs, waiting for the day I could finally get the fuck out.

But I couldn't go. That was the thing sitting hardest on me—I wanted out, desperately, viscerally, but Aldric was the only door and Aldric had gone quiet. Weeks of it. Every message I sent into the brass box disappeared into nothing. No response. No instructions. Just silence.

The last time I'd pushed, I'd paid my fake parents a visit. Marcas had slapped me hard enough to split my lip and told me to stay put. I wasn't afraid of Marcas—I had a whole payback saved for him, for the day Aldric finally reached down and pulled me free. But that day wouldn't come until Aldric decided it came.

Until then, I was stuck here. Playing wife. Breathing the reek. Waiting.

And Kane would not shut up about the baby.

"I was thinking," he said, his voice warm, easy, the kind of tone that made my jaw ache from holding my smile, "maybe we start teaching him young. You know, get him out in the valley, show him the borders. Let him see what it means to protect something."

I nodded, slicing through a potato with more force than necessary. "Mm-hmm."

"He's going to need to know the land. Really know it. Not just the pack house and the town, but the whole valley. Every ridge, every stream." He was lost in it now, his eyes distant, his mouth curved in that soft, dopey smile he got when he talked about the imaginary "son".

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