My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 186

Elara

My mother kept begging, oblivious to the fact that she was making him want to kill her. I watched her drama, her weeping, her desperate, pathetic display, and for some reason, it started to grate on my nerves. It was annoying me. Her "goodness" had gotten us here, and now her "sacrifice" was just making the situation worse.

"Pull yourself together!" I snapped at her.

My mother sprang up, her eyes wide, looking at me like I’d just slapped her.

“What are you even doing?”

"Why are you crying?" I asked her, my voice hard. "What are you trying to do by offering yourself? You think he wants you?"

Mother stayed frozen, her mouth agape.

"The only reason we are in this situation is because of your personal obsession," I continued, the words coming out in a cold, sharp rush. "Your obsession with being a 'good person.' Your obsession with that woman in labor."

My mother’s eyes went even wider.

"Father would still be alive if you had just listened to him," I said, leaning toward her. "But his thoughts didn't matter to you, did they? Now he’s dead. He died trying to protect us, and he died because of your selfish ass."

I shook my head, sucking my teeth in a sharp, disrespectful click. My sister was up now, staring at me, her voice a small, terrified whisper telling me to stop.

The wolves behind Aldric were giggling. I could hear them. They were enjoying the show.

I didn't stop. I looked my mother right in the eye. "I wish you had been the one to die. If you had died, you wouldn't be here right now, trying to offer yourself up just to suit your own guilt. You're pathetic."

I was breathing heavily. The fear was gone, replaced by a sudden, massive sense of relief. It felt like I’d just let go of a heavy lump of lead I’d been carrying in my chest since the village burned.

But that release was all on my mother’s face now. I watched the moment the life left her. She was still breathing, her heart was still beating, but the light in her eyes just... went out. She looked down at the floor, her body going limp. She was done.

With that done, I looked back at King Aldric. I squared my shoulders.

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