My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 382

Sera

"Why does it sound like you're taking the father thing a little too seriously?"

Bram stopped cold. For a second he looked genuinely confused, opening his mouth to answer and closing it again before the words came. "Isn't that the point of it all?"

I smiled despite myself. "Of course it is."

"I didn't accept Taya's challenge because I wanted to roll around in the dirt with her again," I said. "I accepted it because she needs somewhere to put what's building in her. The ring is the safest place I have to give her that."

Bram frowned. "That makes no sense."

Even Mina gave me a look. "What are you even saying right now?"

I sighed. "No matter what any of us do, Taya's going to keep pushing for answers. And the more she pushes, the more cracks are going to start showing, until eventually she finds out what actually happened."

I let that sit for a second. "She already hates me. What do you think happens when she finds out her father is dead, and the Alpha's own house had a hand in it? Me, especially?"

Nobody said anything for a moment. Then Mina scoffed and shook her head. "Letting her beat you half to death in a ring isn't going to fix that. If anything it makes it worse."

"That's true," I said, and looked down at the woman curled against me, thinking it through properly for the first time. A wounded enemy left alive is worse than no enemy at all. That's what my father told me. You've given it a grudge and the time to grow strong on it. Better to finish a thing completely, or never touch it at all.

Taya wasn't a threat to me now. But she wouldn't stay that way. Not once she found the last piece of it, not once she understood exactly how much of her own life I'd already quietly rearranged behind her back. A thing like that doesn't stay small if you leave it alone long enough to grow into itself.

And the only way to deal with something like that was to end it before it got strong enough to fight back.

"She wouldn't be an issue if we kept her at bay," Bram said, breaking into the thought before I'd finished having it. "Keep her on a short enough leash, she won't do anything. You don't have to listen to her, Luna. I'm already planning to make sure she declines the duel. She won't be fighting you."

I heard Mina let out a breath beside me, relief plain in it. "That's good," she said. "If Taya backs out, you don't have to get in that ring at all."

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