Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 116

116 A Debt That Learned My Name

Arya’s POV

Morning came sharp and restless.

I woke with the taste of anger already in my mouth.

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The house was quieter than the night before, the aftermath of celebration settling into routine. I dressed simply and left my room, intending to find air before people found me.

I had barely reached the corridor when a Dragonclaw guard came in fast from the outer hall. He saw me, straightened, and hesitated.

That hesitation was enough.

“What is it?” I asked.

He glanced behind me as if checking for Maxwell, then looked back. “There was a report from the outer woods.”

My chest tightened.

“Say it.”

The guard swallowed. “Someone from Nightwind was seen near the boundary. Asking questions.”

For one heartbeat, everything in me went still.

Then rage hit.

Not hot first.

Cold

A clean, brutal cold that sharpened every thought and stripped out hesitation.

Nightwind.

The name alone was enough.

Nightwind meant James.

Nightwind meant the pack that watched me break.

Nightwind meant the place where my child died while politics ate the truth.

116 A Debt That Learned My Name

Nightwind meant humiliation, blood, severing, and a man who called cruelty strategy

I was moving before the guard finished speaking

“Where exactly?”

“West line, near the woods, but they’re gone now. We only got,

I was already heading for the outer corridor.

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If one of James’s people was near Dragonclaw asking about me, I wanted them found before the scent trail cooled. I wanted answers. I wanted a throat under my hand. I wanted Nightwind to bleed for daring to say my name beyond their borders.

I rounded the hall too fast and nearly slammed into Lev.

He was coming from the opposite side, hair still slightly damp from a shower, shirt half-buttoned, expression unreadable until he saw my face.

Then his eyes sharpened.

He didn’t ask what happened.

He looked once at the guard behind me and said, “You’re not leaving this territory alone.”

I laughed, sharp and furious. “Move.”

“No.”

I stopped in front of him, shaking with the effort not to claw through his calm. “Someone from Nightwind was near the woods asking questions about me.”

“I heard enough.”

“Then get out of my way.”

He didn’t move.

No grab.

No threat.

Just that infuriating stillness, shoulders squared, body placed exactly where it needed to be to block

“I’m going,” I snapped.

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“Not alone.”

“You don’t decide that.”

His jaw tightened just once. “I do when you’re this angry.

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I stepped closer, lowering my voice because fury made it shake. “You have no say in this. I am not a member of your pack. I am not your subject.”

There it was.

I saw the words land in him.

Small shift.

Tighter jaw.

A flash in his eyes quickly buried.

But he controlled it.

Of course he did.

“You don’t need to be either,” he said, voice low. “You still don’t leave alone.”

The command in it made something in me splinter.

Maybe it was the Nightwind name.

Maybe it was the sleeplessness.

Maybe it was the leftover sting of whispers in Maxwell’s hall.

Maybe it was Lev standing there, steady and certain, while I felt like a blade being dragged across

stone.

Whatever it was, it broke loose.

“Didn’t you hear them?” I shouted.

The words surprised both of us.

Lev’s expression sharpened. “Hear who?”

“The people at the banquet.” My breath came too fast. “The whispers. The way they spoke about me.”

His gaze did not leave my face.

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I hated that he was seeing too much already.

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I laughed once, bitter and breathless. “They said you shouldn’t associate with me. That I’m a rogue Maxwell took pity on. A stray. Beneath you.” My throat tightened. “Maybe they’re right.”

The last words hurt to say.

I hated them the moment they left my mouth.

I hated myself more for letting faceless whispers crawl this deep under my skin.

Lev stared at me, utterly still.

I lifted my chin, trying to hold the anger in place like armour. “So don’t stand here acting like I’m yours

to order around when you know exactly what they think I am.”

My vision burned.

No.

No, not now.

I clenched my hands and turned my face away, furious with myself because tears were already rising, hot and humiliating.

This was what I hated most, when rage and grief tangled so tightly that my body chose tears while my

mind wanted violence.

A tear spilled anyway.

I swore under my breath.

Lev closed the distance in one quiet step.

He did not pull me into him.

Did not start speaking in soft, useless comfort.

Did not tell me to ignore them.

His hand rose, thumb rough against my cheek as he wiped the tear away.

“Breathe,” he said.

I stared at the floor, jaw shaking.

Another tear slipped. His thumb caught that one too.

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“Again.”

The words were quiet.

Command, not comfort.

I dragged air into my lungs because he was right and I hated that too.

Bootsteps sounded behind us.

Maxwell.

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He took in the scene in one sweep, my face, Lev’s hand, the guard, the tension in the hall, and his

expression hardened.

“What happened?”

The guard answered quickly. “Report from the outer woods, Alpha. Someone from Nightwind was

spotted near the boundary asking questions about Arya.”

Maxwell’s eyes went cold.

I laughed again, small and cracked this time. “There. Nightwind comes sniffing and I stand here crying

over gossip like a fool.”

Maxwell’s head snapped toward me. “Watch your mouth.”

Nooked at him, anger still spilling over grief. “What else should I call myself? They already did it for

1. Rogue. Pity case. Something you picked up and,”

Maxwell cut in, his voice low and hard enough to stop me. “If you call yourself a rogue, then you don’t

acknowledge me as your father.”

Silence slammed into me.

The words hit harder than anything whispered the night before.

I stared at him, breath catching.

The hurt in his face was brief, but it was there. Real. And I had put it there.

Shame flooded me so fast my knees nearly weakened.

“Maxwell,” My voice broke. I swallowed hard and stepped toward him. “I’m sorry.”

He held my gaze.

3116 A Delt That Learned My Name