My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 361

Sera

"Stop," Mina snapped. She grabbed Taya by the shoulders and spun her around to face her, shoving between us. "You will not do this."

But the crowd didn't stop. More pack members arrived from both ends of the corridor, drawn by the chanting. The hallway filled with the crush of bodies until there was barely room to breathe. Taya's eyes danced over the sea of faces. The chant rose to a roar.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"She can't back down now," a rough voice called from the back of the crowd. "She's the Luna!"

"Put her in her place Luna!!"

Taya's smile widened going ear to ear. "See, Luna. They want this. We can't deny them a good fight now."

"You are not going to do this," Mina growled, her nails digging into Taya's shoulders. "Not in my kitchens. I won't have it!"

"I don't know why you'd want to stop a good fight," someone else called out. "The Luna will win!"

"Shut your face!" Mina at the voice.

The crowd swells, and I could feel their weight behind Taya. More voices rose — "Fight! Fight!" — and a woman near the front of the gathering called, "Will you answer, Luna?"

To put that into perspective, what she meant was, 'Will you run?' Will you walk away from this in front of half the keep? The implication hung in the air — that any sign of hesitation now will be read as fear. Taya grins like a dog as I stood there. Just far behind her, I could see Bram standing at the edge of the crowd, his eyes on me.

"Fight!" the pack chanted, surging closer as more poured in from the kitchens, from the training grounds, from the upper levels of the keep.

I felt their heat on my skin. The hallway narrowed and shrank until the faces in it were just inches from mine.

A heavyset warrior near the back bellowed, "Tear her apart, Luna!" and the rest of them cheered.

I was still in a fury, still seeing red from Taya's challenge, still feeling the rasp of her throat under my palm, but underneath all that, I could see the situation for exactly what it was. I was working the problem, the odds.

Declining, in this moment, did not cost me the title of being Luna. It cost me nothing.

But it would be a story for weeks. The Southern Luna who folded when tested in front of her husband's pack.

Mina spins on me, her face pale. "You can't do this, Sera, you know you don't have to do this!"

Of course I knew that. But it was done now.

"I think she does," Taya said. She gave me an exaggerated bow, her eyes sparkling. "I can't wait, my Luna. You're sure too kind to me."

The crowd breaks around us, some laughing, some arguing the outcome of the fight, voices rising as the chant becomes a chant and then a yell. I catch fragments:

"Alpha's honour!"

"Settle it now!"

"Luna can't back down now!"

Taya gave me another mocking smile as she backed away. "See you soon", she smiles, "My Luna."

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