My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 75

Sera

The ground underneath me was solid, but I wasn't cold. I woke up to the steady, heavy thud of a heartbeat directly against my cheek.

I kept my eyes closed for a long moment. I inhaled slowly. The air around us was thick with the humid heat of the hot springs, but right against my nose, the scent was pure Fenris. Sharp mountain pine, cold iron, and that dark, spicy musk that belonged entirely to him.

I realized I was lying completely flush against his side. We were still in the hidden garden. He was stretched out flat on the thick grass, and his massive left arm was wrapped firmly around my waist, pulling me tight against his broad chest.

I didn't try to untangle myself. I didn't pull away. A quiet, genuine smile pulled at the corners of my mouth. I liked this. I liked the heavy, grounding weight of his arm pinning me to him.

I thought about Kane. Whenever Kane finished fucking me in the Blackwater guest rooms, he never stayed. He rolled over, pulled the heavy blankets up to his chin, and went to sleep on his side of the mattress. He never pulled me against his chest. He never just held me in the dark. I didn't read much into it back then. I thought Alphas simply didn't do things like that. They were too busy, too important to hold a girl while they slept.

But experiencing it firsthand, right now, the feeling was on an entirely different level. It felt incredibly secure. It felt possessive.

Someone cleared their throat loudly.

I opened my eyes instantly. I jerked my head up.

Yvara stood three feet away. She had her hands planted firmly on her leather belt, staring down at us with a flat, completely unimpressed expression. The morning light filtered through the green canopy above her head.

I gasped and tried to spring up. I couldn't move. Fenris’s arm didn't budge an inch. His grip around my waist was completely solid. It wasn't painful, and it wasn't uncomfortable. It was just a firm, immovable weight holding me exactly where I was.

His chest rose and fell in a slow, deep rhythm. He was still asleep.

I looked up at Yvara. My face flushed hot.

Yvara let out a loud, dry scoff. She rolled her eyes toward the canopy.

I twisted my torso and grabbed Fenris’s shoulder. I shook him hard. "Fenris. Fenris. Wake up."

His eyes snapped open. There was no grogginess. There was no slow transition from sleep to waking. He went from completely unconscious to fully alert in a fraction of a second.

He looked straight down at me. Our faces were mere inches apart.

I stopped moving. I was completely lost in his gaze. I had never been this close to his face in the daylight. His grey eyes were much paler up close than they looked from a distance. They looked like chipped winter ice. I saw the dark, messy stubble covering his strong jaw. I saw the white patches on his white beard.

My fingers twitched. I felt a sudden, intense urge to reach up and run my bare hand over the rough skin of his face. I wanted to tangle my fingers in his beards.

Yvara cleared her throat again, louder this time. She let out a sharp, snide comment. "If you two are finished staring at each other, we have a massive problem."

Fenris finally broke eye contact with me. He looked up at his second-in-command. His thick brow furrowed deeply.

"What?"

Yvara glared at me. She clearly didn't want to speak pack business in front of a southern outsider.

"You can speak," Fenris told her, reading the hesitation instantly. He sat up, finally pulling his arm from around my waist.

I sat up next to him, brushing the damp grass off the knees of my leather pants.

Yvara dropped her hands from her belt. "Kael called a closed meeting."

Fenris stopped moving. The relaxed, quiet energy of the garden vanished completely. "How many of them are present?"

"Five of them," Yvara answered. Her scarred face was entirely serious. "The inner council. And that includes Chief Vane."

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify