My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 177

Kane

I’d set up that protocol years ago. It was supposed to be for Sera. Back when Sera was the only person I trusted to handle the ledgers while I was away at the borders dealing with rogues. I’d given the Luna the power to sign trade agreements in the Alpha’s absence. It was a gesture of trust, a way to show her she was more than just a mate. I’d never officially rescinded it. I’d just... forgotten.

Sera wasn’t even Luna then. She was just acting it.

And Elara, seeing the "black beasts" prowling the eastern woods and hearing the panicked whispers of the elders, had stepped into the office and signed the damn thing. She saw the money they offered, the "immediate rations," and the promise of warriors to guard the nursery. She thought she was being a Queen. She thought she was securing a future for the pup in her womb.

She’d sold the front door to a thief and invited him in for tea.

The "beast" invasion had stopped the very next day. Jace was right. It was a set-up. Mistwood controlled those feral wolves. They’d manufactured a crisis to force our hand, and my "Luna" had handed them the keys to our resources without even asking me. And now, a Mistwood envoy was sitting in the guest hall, demanding we fulfill the first shipment of rations. Rations we didn't have to spare.

I cursed under my breath, the sound swallowed by the roar of the water.

I hated Sera for leaving.

That thought hit me hard, making me lean harder against the wall. It was a selfish, ugly thought, but it was there. If she had just been reasonable. If she had just stayed. She still would have been Luna. I would have made it official. Eventually. She just had to wait. Elara was just a necessity—a vessel for an heir because Sera’s body had failed us.

It was a fair arrangement. Or it should have been. One woman for the heart, one for the bloodline. Why couldn't she see that? Why did she have to be so stubborn, so impatient, that she had to rip my soul out and walk away? If she were here, she would have seen through the Mistwood contract in seconds. She would have managed the elders. She would have kept the pack together while I played at being a warlord.

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