My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 49

Fenris

“Why are you allowing something like that? She is supposed to be your bride. Are you ever planning on making her your Luna, or are you just trying to add an extra warrior to your platoon?"

I looked down at her. I kept my face completely blank. "In Ironmaw, those two things are the same. A Luna is a warrior. She leads. She fights. She survives. The South breeds ornaments. You breed women to sit at tables and look pretty while men make the decisions. I do not need an ornament. I need someone who will not break when the winter comes."

The Queen’s eyes filled with tears. They spilled over her cheeks, cutting through the pale powder on her face.

"Please," she begged. The aristocratic mask finally fell away. "Please, Alpha Volkov. I am begging you as a mother. Do not do this to her. She cannot take it."

"Did she tell you that?" I asked.

"My…my daughter is stubborn. And you do not understand her," the Queen cried. She grabbed the edge of my leather sleeve.

I looked down at her hand. I did not move, but the sheer coldness of my stare made her pull her fingers back instantly.

"She spent years in a different life," the Queen said, her voice dropping to a frantic whisper. "She spent three years in Blackwater. She thought she mattered there. She thought she was loved. That Alpha manipulated her. He built her up just to tear her down."

I had smelled the deep, rotting scars of that rejection bond the moment I found her in the cabin.

"She is fragile," the Queen continued, crying openly now. "She is barely holding herself together. She spent years thinking she was important, and it turned out to be a lie. If you do that exact same thing to her—if you make her think she can fight, and then you let her get destroyed in front of your people—she will not survive it this time."

She wiped her face with a shaking hand.

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