Get Back The Abandoned Luna (Scarlett and Alexander) novel Chapter 78

Lucien’s POV

Blood.

Too much of it.

It soaked through the linen I pressed against her shoulder, seeping between my fingers no matter how tightl I held on. My hands shook–hands that had cut down a dozen rogues without flinching now trembled becau the woman in front of me refused to stay still.

“Scarlett,” I growled, low. “Stop moving.”

She winced, sucking in a breath, but her chin lifted stubbornly. “Others need it more. You should-”

“No.” My voice snapped, harsher than I intended. I forced it lower, steadier, though my chest still heaved. “You’re bleeding out in front of me, and you think I’ll see to someone else first? Don’t test me, Scarlett.”

Her

eyes softened, not because she yielded, but with a look that tore at me harder than the blood on her skin.

“Lucien,” I heard her whisper. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine,” I bit out. I pressed another strip of linen into the hole in her shoulder, watching crimson spread through white. My wolf raged at the sight

claws raking my insides. “If I hadn’t reached you when I did

“You did,” she cut in, her voice firm despite the tremor of pain. “You came. That’s what matters.”

The same words she had thrown at me earlier. You came.

As if that erased the image burned into me–the rogue’s blade driving toward her chest. That half–second when I thought I’d already lost her.

I felt her hand brush mine, briefly, as if sensing the storm under my skin. “Lucien, it’s over. I’m fine. Really.*

For her, maybe. Not for me. It would never be over.

But before I could say it–before I could beg her to never, ever put herself in front of a blade like that again- she shifted away from me.

“Let’s go back now and tend the wounded warriors too.”

I gritted my teeth and glanced at the wounded warriors before heaving a nod.

We returned in heavy silence.

There were already many healers in the courtyard, their fingers smeared with herbs and blood, and their babbled conversations cautious as they passed from one battered body to another.

Chapter 78

On the benches, warriors slumped under the burden of their pain, some bound by strips of cloth, others w hands clutching wounds that would leave scars–or perhaps cost them their lives.

But all I saw was her.

Scarlett.

Moving through the wounded as if she belonged among them, not above them. Her braid was half–loosene her hair stuck to sweat–damp skin. The side of her face was streaked with dirt, and the sleeve of her tunic w ripped up from shoulder to wrist.

She ought to have been lying down and letting someone tend to her injuries, but of course she had not. She was kneeling before Joren, her hands steady even as mine trembled with rage that hadn’t yet burned out.

“Hold still,” she told him, binding the gash across his arm.

“You shouldn’t—”

“I should,” she cut in, her voice as sharp as the staff she’d wielded earlier. “If I can fight beside you, I can tend your wounds too.”

Her words sank like stones in my chest.

Joren gave her a tired smile. “You don’t have to prove yourself anymore, Luna.”

My jaw clenched. Even with death having grazed her, she still felt the need to stand strong. She leaned towar Nami, tending to the slice across her cheek, whispering comfort until her trembling hands eased.

And all I could see–again and again–was the flash of silver when that rogue’s blade had arced toward her chest.

I hadn’t meant to find her out there. At first, I only noticed her absence–the empty space at my side, the gut- deep knowing that something was wrong. I went to Kathleen. She looked at me strangely when I asked, then told me Scarlett had joined the patrol.

My blood had gone cold.

I’d stormed to the borders, scent sharp, vision blurred with rage. When I found them, the rogues had already broken through. Steel flashed, bodies clashed–and Scarlett stood at the center, staff swinging, defiant and burning like a star even as the circle closed around her.

Too many. Far too many.

And then-

The knife.

It had cut through the chaos like a nightmare made real, its gleam finding her chest. Her eyes widened only for a heartbeat before instinct flashed, fighting back. But I knew–gods, I knew–she wouldn’t be fast enough.

My lungs collapsed. My wolf howled. Something inside me tore free.

hapter 78

I was lightning. Each movement came faster, sharper, fueled by a terror so savage it felt like fire in my My blade struck before the knife could, ripping the rogue apart in a blur of silver.

But the words came anyway, even as I fought, because the fury in me was too great to keep silent.

“You’re reckless,” I growled, shoving another attacker aside.

Scarlett spun, her staff cracking against a skull. “I held them off before you came!”

“You nearly died! What if I didn’t come?!” The words burst out of me, half–snarl, half–begging.

She glared at me, dirt streaking her face, blood on her arm. “I’m still standing! Besides, you still came–a that’s what’s important!”

“Barely!” I roared, my sword driving through another chest. My heart thundered so hard that it hurt. “Let talk later about how you sneak from me after this.”

Her defiance blazed even brighter, even in the blood–soaked clearing. And gods help me, I both loved her it and wanted to lock her away so she could never be touched again.

I could not get that memory out of my mind as she knelt before Nami, tenderly wiping a bloodstain from cheek as if she had no idea the warrior had been on the brink of being torn apart herself.

She never turned her eyes in my direction. But I could not look away.

-Lucien’s POV

The war room was thick with smoke. The map spread across the table, rivers and forests inked in, borders underlined in red. I leaned on it, palms pressed hard against the wood because, if I didn’t, my hands would tremble.

“We strike back,” I said, my voice low but edged with steel. “Tonight, tomorrow–I don’t care when. Crescent Moon crossed the line. They sent blades into our forest, into your back. They drew first blood. We will answer.”

Scarlett stood across from me, her posture steady but her eyes fierce.

“That’s exactly what Faye wants,” she said, calm, measured–too calm. “She provokes, we retaliate without proof–suddenly I’m the jealous Luna who lashes out at the woman who replaced her, the one who’ll drag the pack to war. She’ll paint me as unstable. It will be my ruin, not hers.”

My fists slammed down, rattling the ink bottles. “She nearly had you killed. Do you not understand that? Does she think Nightshade can be challenged just because she wants to? She’s asking for war!”

Her chin lifted, fire sparking in her eyes. “And what would you have me do? March into Crescent Moon, screaming for her head, while she smiles sweetly and denies everything? She hides her hands, Lucien. Let her. Because the moment she strikes again, she’ll leave them bloody–and then I’ll rip the mask from her face myself.”

Her defiance burned just as it had in the clearing, standing bloodied and unbroken with her staff raised. My chest ached.

Chapter 78

“You’re too calm about this,” I ground out. “Too willing to gamble with your life.”

“And you’re too blinded by your rage to see the trap,” she shot back, voice sharp as her blade. “She wants y charging. She wants you feeding her story that I’m the unstable one, dragging Nightshade into bloodshed over jealousy.”

“I don’t care about her story,” I snapped, my voice breaking with more truth than I meant to reveal. “I care about the fact that one of those blades was an inch from your heart.”

The room went still.

The torches hissed. The map blurred in front of me.

Her breath hitched, just faintly, before she steadied herself. “I’m still here,” she said quietly.

It wasn’t enough.

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