My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 438

Fenris

I felt the weight of Halvard's gaze on me. He took a long pull from his cup and set it back down.

"Do you know why the wolves of the North are the size they are, Fenris?"

The fire popped. I turned my eyes to the hearth, my gut tight.

"I don't."

"There is a reason they are bigger than animals should be. Stronger."

I said nothing. I looked at my own cup.

"You don't believe me."

"No."

He nodded slowly. "I would not believe it either, if I heard it from another man." He paused. "But you are a Northerner. You were born and bred among the North's wolves. You know they are not like other creatures."

"I do," I said. My voice was even. Inside me something stirred, dark and uncertain.

Halvard nodded again. "But we are not born. We are made things."

I dropped my eyes to the floor. Something in me was starting to rise, a slow seethe of anger and denial. "No man can make a wolf."

Halvard was quiet a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was slow and measured.

"You know breeding. What a man breeds, he breeds for a purpose. For some trait or quality. If a farmer breeds chickens, he does not want birds with broken legs. If a huntsman breeds dogs, he does not want hounds who cannot chase."

"No, he does not," I said. My eyes were still on the floor. I did not want to hear the rest and I could not stop him saying it.

Halvard sat back in his chair. "If a man wanted a new kind of wolf, he would want it bigger. Stronger. Faster. He would want it clever, relentless, near enough un-killable. He would want it so sharp it put fear in bears." He let the silence sit. "And if he bred it for generations, he would get exactly that."

I raised my head then and looked into his face. He looked back without flinching.

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