My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 71

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Sera

I dropped my half-eaten meat onto the wooden plate. It hit the wood with a loud smack.

"You handle your disputes with gold and daughters, Lord Torin," I said.

My voice was not loud, but it was cold. Absolute. It cut cleanly through the ambient noise of the High Table. Chief Vane stopped chewing and turned his head to look at me. Kael narrowed his eyes.

Torin looked at me, genuinely shocked that I spoke out of turn. "Princess, you forget yourself."

"I remember exactly who I am," I said. I turned my head and locked eyes with him. I stripped away every ounce of southern politeness I had ever been taught. "I remember standing in the dirt ring yesterday while you screamed and begged for my life because you were too weak to defend it yourself."

My mother gasped loudly, pressing her hand against her chest. "Sera! Stop this instantly."

I ignored her. I kept my eyes entirely on Torin. I watched the arrogant sneer melt off his face, replaced by a tight, ugly flush of red.

"Taya challenged my place in this pack," I continued, making sure my voice carried down the steps to the closest tables. "I answered her. In Valdris, a coward would have smiled to her face and poisoned her wine a week later. In Valdris, men hide behind thick stone walls and pay poor farm boys to bleed for them on the borders."

The warriors sitting at the tables closest to the dais stopped eating. They were listening to every single word.

Torin’s face turned a violent shade of purple. He planted his hands on the table. "You are adopting the madness of these beasts! You are a Valdris royal!"

"I am the Luna of Ironmaw," I told him. The words tasted like iron and absolute truth on my tongue.

"You are not crowned yet, Princess," Torin snapped, his face twisting with derision. "You have no right to make those claims. You are nothing to this pack until the vows are sworn and the blood is spilled."

I opened my mouth to cut him off, but a low, vibrating rumble stopped me.

"And aren't you here to witness exactly that, Torin?" Fenris spoke. His voice was not loud, but it possessed a heavy, lethal edge that forced the entire table to freeze. "Aren't you here to watch her become my Luna?"