My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 521

Elara

"I want something warm," I told the warrior in the front seat. "Go get me a fur from the stalls. It's going to be cold."

He glanced in the rearview mirror, then away.

I fixed him with my stare. "Did you not hear your Alpha? Give the Luna whatever she asks."

He clenched his jaw, then got out without a word and went into the lantern-lit market. He did not look toward the Northern gate.

As soon as he was lost in the crowd, I got out and walked to the hide truck, not hurrying.

The trader lifted the edge of the piled hides without a word. I climbed up and under them: the weight on my back, the dark, the reek of cured hide thick enough to bury my own scent. He dropped the hides back over me.

I lay still, face against the rough hide, and listened to the market, waiting for the engine. Hammers clanged, cattle lowed, voices haggled over prices. The cold night air seeped in through the crack between two hides.

I shivered, teeth clenched.

I missed my family.

The last time I'd seen them was through a car window, from a distance as Aldric drove me past where they were kept.

My mother stood in one spot, staring blankly. She looked older than her years. Her shoulders hunched. Beside her, my sister waited. I never left the car.

To fix what I'd destroyed between me and my mother, I had to go back.

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