Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 120

120 Names on the Board

Gut 20

Meny

James’s POV

The answers came too quickly and in the same shape every time. Arya ruined it. The officers were real. He did me favours. I owe him patience. Leah is waiting. The gold must be secured. Repeat,

repeat, repeat.

It smelled rehearsed.

It smelled like a sham.

And underneath it, my suspicion kept growing darker.

I still did not ask about Lisa and Margaret.

I wanted to. God, I wanted to.

I wanted to drop their names into the room and watch his eyes. Watch the pause. Watch what he reached for first, denial, outrage, confusion, a counter-question. But I stopped myself.

If Marcel realized I was investigating the poisoning through them, he would shut every door harder than he already had. He would know exactly where I was digging.

So I stored it.

I let the silence answer for me instead.

Marcel mistook that silence for uncertainty and pressed on, more forceful now.

“I came here because you are in a difficult position,” he said. “You need support. You need allies. Instead of accepting help, you question me as if I am your enemy.”

I tilted my head. “Am I not allowed to ask whether I’m being swindled?”

That did it.

He surged to his feet, chair scraping back.

“Swindled?” he snapped. “Do you hear yourself?”

I remained seated, looking up at him, calm on purpose. “I hear myself clearly.”

His face was flushed now, anger finally out in the open. “If not for me, you would still be standing outside the Union gate with nothing but ambition and a damaged reputation.”

I held his stare.

120 Name on the Board

“And if not for my land,” I said quietly, “you would not be sitting here pretending this chauty

His jaw worked

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then Marcel straightened, dragging composure back over himself in stiff, angry lines.

2 stan

“Believe what you want,” he said, voice clipped. “But if you keep speaking to me this way, you may find out how much harder your path becomes without my support.”

Threat

Barely disguised, but there.

I nodded once, as if taking the warning seriously and nothing more.

James doesn’t accuse, I reminded myself. James stores it.

So I stored that too.

Marcel looked like he wanted me to react, challenge him, back down, explain myself, something he

could use

I gave him nothing.

After another beat, he turned and stalked out of my office in a fit of anger, shutting the door harder than necessary behind him.

The moment the latch clicked, I stood.

Jasper tore through me, furious.

It’s him

The words hit with the force of a snad

He fed the fear. He pushed the blame. He needed Arya under pressure. He needed you distracted

I paced once to the window and back, heart pounding

“I know

If she had been fully incapacitated, they would have taken the pack before you returned

I stopped dead

Because that was exactly what the pieces were starting to look like

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The attack timing.

My absence.

Leah’s absence.

The expectation of weak defense.

The confidence of those who moved against us.

They had planned around us being gone.

They had not planned around Arya stepping in and coordinating the defence.

She was the reason they failed.

The realization hit me so hard my chest hurt all over again.

If she had not taken charge, I would have returned to a packless title and empty land.

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And I had repaid that by doubting her, punishing her, severing what should have been protected.

I pressed a hand to the desk and bowed my head for one brief moment, rage and grief and shame

locking together so tightly I could barely breathe.

I had really wronged Arya.

Not in some abstract way.

Not in a “mistakes were made” way men liked to use when they wanted to soften the damage they

caused.

I had wronged her.

Deeply. Cruelly. Publicly.

Jasper’s voice dropped lower, more savage.

You betrayed your mate again.

I closed my eyes. “I know.”

The words tasted like ash.

Another knock came at the door.

I straightened immediately and forced my voice steady. “Come in.”

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<120 Names on the Board

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Nixon stepped in first, Devin behind him, then Archie All three looked like men who had ridden hard and come back angry at walls they couldn’t climb.

My focus snapped into place.

“Report.”

Nixon shut the door before answering. “We were unable to get any information on Lisa and Margaret”

I stared at him. “Nothing?”

“Nothing solid,” he said. “Silverfang has tightened security.”

Devin gave a curt nod. “More than usual. Even neighbouring Union packs are being restricted.”

Archie folded his arms, frustration written all over his face. “Men who normally get waved through are

getting delayed, questioned, turned around. It’s locked down.”

I felt something cold settle deeper in my gut.

“Locked down because he fears retaliation,” I said slowly, thinking out loud, “or locked down because

he’s hiding something.”

Nixon’s expression darkened. “That’s exactly how it feels.”

Jasper rumbled low.

Hiding.

I looked between the three of them. “Did any of you hear even a rumour? Punishment details. Location.

Condition. Whether they’re still in Silverfang custody.”

Nixon shook his head. “No clear answers. Too much caution. People are nervous.”

That, by itself, was an answer.

Silverfang had tightened itself so hard that even Union neighbours couldn’t easily move through. Marcel had just come here in person after warning me to stop digging. He kept blaming Arya, kept repeating the same rehearsed story, kept pushing the same pressure points.

The sham smell was all over this now.

My jaw tightened.

It didn’t make me want to stop.

It made me want to tear the whole thing open.

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