My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 318

Jace

The laugh was gone. She'd put her face back exactly where I'd known she would, cold and even, and the woman standing in front of me now was the one I actually had to deal with.

"You want me to make you Alpha."

"No."

That got something out of her. Not a laugh this time. Closer to interest.

"I asked for that because it was the bluntest version of what I needed, and I wanted to see what you'd do with it. Now I know. I don't actually want the chair." I shifted my weight. "I want access. Those aren't the same thing, and I'm about to show you the difference."

She didn't tell me to go on. She stood there and let me decide whether I was wasting both our time.

"Mistwood's people are already working the ground I need. Under the deal Kane signed, they've got rights inside Blackwater's hills, and the spot I need sits right in the middle of what they're already digging. I can't get near it without going through them first."

"So clear them out."

"Blackwater can't. Mistwood didn't get as big as they are by losing fights, and they're bigger than us by a long way. The only force anywhere near here that could put them out and walk away standing is the one your husband commands."

"So you want me to start a war for your sake."

"No." I held her eyes. "For ours."

She waited, same as she waited on everything, which by now I'd learned wasn't patience. It was a test of whether I'd fill the silence with something stupid.

"That metal doesn't run out," I said. "It's not coal, not gold, not anything you dig until the hole's empty. Pull everything you can carry out this year and there's just as much sitting there next year. Whatever Ironmaw takes from it doesn't shrink what's left. It's the same well, and there's room at it for both of us."

"And what does Ironmaw get from a war fought over your family's debts."

"Strength that doesn't come from blood or borders. Money the rest of the South will never see coming, for as long as that ground keeps producing, which is forever. You're not doing me a favor. You're building something that outlasts both of us."

She tilted her head a fraction.

"You haven't told me what you get out of this. Last I heard, you wanted a chair."

"I still want it. That part hasn't moved." No reason to dress that up. It was true, and she'd have caught me lying about it inside a breath. "But the chair's not where the real claim sits, and that's the part I need you to hear. Once Mistwood's out, they've got no treaty left to stand on, nothing tying them to that ground anymore. Ironmaw becomes Blackwater's supreme province. On paper, even with me sitting Blackwater's seat, the direct claim on what comes out of that ground belongs to Ironmaw. To you."

"So you get the title. I get the metal."

"You get the metal whether I keep the title or lose it tomorrow. That's the point. I'm not asking you to trust a man on a throne. I'm asking you to trust a claim that doesn't depend on me at all."

"And Kane."

Fuck. I had not planned that at all. It was a slip.

I'd known since Blackwater who she was. It had been a surprise what she was doing in a pack like Blackwater in the first place. I never said anything since it was none of my business. Everyone had their secrets.

The cat was already out the bag, so I pressed my advantage.

"Yes," I said. "I know King Aldric is your father."

"And that's exactly why this can't wait for next season, or the season after," I said. "You know better than anyone what he does with a thing once he decides it's worth having. So do I, now. We can’t get a head start by sitting on this."

Her eyes went off toward the soldiers, and she swallowed.

"I…I have to go."

She turned and walked, fast, away from the keep, not toward it, and she didn't look back to check whether I was watching her do it.

I was. I stood there in the cold with the whole offer still hanging in the air, unanswered, an army and a province and a metal that didn't run out, all of it sitting unclaimed between us, and none of it was what either of us was thinking about anymore.

I'd said the one thing I never meant to say. Once it was out, I'd leaned into it instead of backing off. That was the only part of the morning that had gone the way I planned.

* * *