My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 97

Sera

Mina kicked me in her sleep.

Her bare heel hit my ribs hard enough to knock the air completely out of my lungs. I opened my eyes. The room was pitch black. The fire in the hearth had died down to a few glowing orange embers, offering zero heat.

I lay flat on my back and listened to Mina’s deep, rhythmic snoring. She was entirely dead to the world. She took up more than half the massive mattress, her limbs sprawled out in every direction.

I was wide awake.

The exhaustion in my bones was heavy, but my mind refused to shut down. The adrenaline from the last forty-eight hours still buzzed faintly under my skin. I kept seeing the clay mask peeling off Kael's face. I kept hearing the sound of his neck snapping.

I shifted my hips on the mattress. A dull, heavy ache pulsed right between my legs. It was completely physical. It was the lingering, unsatisfied tension from Fenris’s fingers inside me earlier that day. My body felt incredibly tight, strung entirely too high.

I threw the thick fur blanket off my legs.

The freezing air in the room hit my bare skin instantly. I wore a thin, white cotton sleep tunic that ended midway down my thighs. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and let my bare feet hit the stone floor. The cold shocked my system, but I didn't reach for my boots.

I grabbed a heavy dark wool blanket from the foot of the bed and wrapped it tightly around my shoulders.

I walked to the heavy oak door, pushed the iron latch down silently, and stepped out into the corridor.

The fortress was dead quiet. The torches on the walls had burned down to smoking stumps. I walked down the long, winding stone hallways. The stone was like solid ice under my bare feet. My toes went completely numb within twenty steps. I didn't care. The freezing temperature kept my mind focused. It kept the phantom smell of the burning pyre away.

I knew exactly where I was going.

I walked up the central staircase to the Alpha’s level. There were no guards stationed directly outside his private den. Fenris didn't allow them up here.

I saw a thin line of yellow light bleeding out from under his heavy oak door.

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