My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 77

Sera

"This meeting is adjourned,"

The heavy wooden chairs scraped against the stone floor.

The sound echoed sharply in the circular room. The elders stood up from the cracked table. They didn't speak. They kept their heads down and filed out toward the heavy double doors. Chief Vane walked out first, his scarred face tight with completely restrained anger.

Fenris stood near the center of the room. Yvara stood to his left. I remained in my seat. We watched them leave.

Kael did not follow the others out.

He stopped right at the threshold of the open doors. He turned around. His face was a dark, splotchy red. The veins in his thick neck bulged against his collar.

He should have just left. But the idiot didn’t.

"You need to understand something, Alpha," Kael said. His voice shook with a furious, ugly energy. "You are making a grave mistake. You sit here and disrespect this council in front of a Southern Princess. A lunatic who almost killed my child."

Fenris didn't raise his voice. He stood perfectly still. "It was a fair challenge. The entire pack watched it."

"She butchered her in the dirt!" Kael shouted, pointing a thick finger at the floor.

"Taya should have given up," Fenris replied coldly. "She had the chance to yield. She let the fight prolong to the point of getting butchered. That is on her."

Kael shook his head violently. A bitter, hateful laugh tore out of his throat.

"I know you think I am stupid, Fenris, but I am not," Kael spat. He took a step back into the room. "We all saw it. We saw you standing there at the edge of the ring. You held me back from helping my own child while she was bleeding out on the ice."

Kael shifted his glare. He looked directly at me. His eyes were completely black with rage.

The room grew incredibly tense. The silence stretched out like a pulled wire.

Kael let out a strained, nervous chuckle. He reached up and rubbed a trembling hand over his face.

"Viktor would never have permitted this," Kael said. His voice was quieter now, but laced with a deep, cutting poison. "Your father would have gutted you for letting an outsider sit in this room. You are acting out of duty. You are doing things you shouldn't do."

Fenris’s jaw locked. The muscle ticked hard under his scarred skin.

Kael looked past Fenris. He looked right at me again.

"You can dress her up in pure wolf skin," Kael sneered, his lip curling in disgust. "You can put her in our leathers. But she will still remain exactly what she is. A southern wolf. A weak, manipulative southern wolf."

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