My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 69

Sera

The heavy bear pelt was suffocatingly warm.

I opened my eyes. The ceiling of the den was made of thick, dark wooden beams. The light in the room was entirely wrong. It wasn't the pale, grey light of morning. It was the deep, muted amber of late afternoon.

I took a slow breath. My chest tightened, but the sharp, stabbing agony in my ribs was completely gone. I brought my hand up from under the furs and touched my face. My nose was perfectly straight. The skin along my cheekbone was tender and slightly raised, but the split flesh was fused shut. The forced healing had worked.

I turned my head.

The heavy oak chair in the corner of the room was empty.

I stared at it. Fenris had sat down in that chair last night. He pulled the pelt over my bare shoulders and told me he would be right here. He lied.

The door latch clicked. The heavy wood swung inward.

Mina slipped into the room. She carried a stack of folded dark clothes and a pair of clean leather boots. She kicked the door shut behind her. She turned around, saw my open eyes, and let out a loud, relieved exhale.

"Finally," Mina said. She walked over to the foot of the bed and dropped the clothes onto the wooden trunk. "I was starting to think I needed to fetch the healer again."

I pushed myself up onto my elbows. My muscles ached with a deep, hollow fatigue, the kind that settled right into the bone marrow. My stomach let out a loud, aggressive growl.

"How long was I asleep?" I asked. My voice was thick and dry.

"Almost a full day," Mina said. She walked to the small table near the hearth, picked up an iron pitcher, and poured water into a cup. She brought it over to me. "It is getting close to dinner time. Drink this."

I sat up, keeping the heavy pelt pulled up over my chest. I took the cup and drank the water in three long, desperate gulps. It was freezing cold and tasted like metal, but it was exactly what I needed.

"Were you waiting outside the door?" I asked, handing the empty cup back to her.

"I have been checking on you every hour," Mina said, a bright, genuine smile stretching across her face. "You slept like a stone. I didn't want to wake you. Your body needed the rest after what you pulled in that dirt ring."

She set the cup down and put her hands on her hips.

"Your mother has been going absolutely crazy," Mina said, a note of deep satisfaction in her voice. "She has been pacing the lower corridors, demanding answers from every guard she sees. She tried to order Torin to tear the keep apart looking for you."

I frowned slightly. "Where did she think I went?"

"She didn't know," Mina laughed. It was a sharp, cheeky sound. "She cornered me near the kitchens two hours ago. She grabbed my arm and demanded to know where they hid her daughter."

"What did you tell her?"

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify