Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 122

122 What Marcel Thought He Buried

James’s POVO

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Lesly looked shaken but not broken. Her wrists were clenched in their grips, hair disordered, eyes wide and furious and frightened at once.

I was on my feet before the door finished closing.

“What is this?”

Leah smiled like she was offering me a gift.

“Information,” she said. “Since you seem so interested in old matters all of a sudden.”

My eyes went to Lesly. Her face tightened when she looked at me, not in guilt, but in defiance.

Leah moved deeper into the room, pleased with herself. “She was the one who helped Arya escape.’

The words landed hard, but I gave Leah nothing.

She continued, voice bright with venom. “Lesly gave her a player wire to cut open the bracelet.” She looked over her shoulder at Lesly and then back at me, eyes glittering. “Imagine that. Treachery in your

own pack.”

Lesly drew in a breath, clearly bracing for punishment.

Leah had dragged her here expecting a spectacle.

She had not asked me.

Had not sent word.

Had simply used my guards and my office as if she already sat in a Luna’s chair.

Something in me went flat and cold.

I looked at Lesly first.

Then at Leah.

Then at the guards.

For one charged moment no one moved.

Leah mistook my silence for anger in the direction she wanted and smiled wider. “I thought it best to bring her directly to you before anyone else meddled. She has admitted enough.”

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Lesly’s eyes flashed. “I admitted nothing to her.

Leah whipped toward her. “Quiet.”

I lifted a hand without looking at Leah. “No. She speaks.”

Leah turned back to me, surprised.

I kept my gaze on Lesly. “Did you help Arya?”

Lesly swallowed. Her fear was real, but so was the steel under it. “Yes.”

Leah’s expression sharpened with triumph.

Lesly lifted her chin. “I did.”

“Why?”

Her throat worked. “Because she would have died.”

The room went still.

Leah laughed under her breath. “Manipulative nonsense.”

I looked at Lesly and saw no performance there. Just memory. Horror. Loyalty.

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“She was hurt,” Lesly said, voice shaking now but still steady enough. “They had already,” She

stopped herself, eyes flicking toward Leah, then back to me. “I knew if she stayed, they would finish

her. Or someone else would.”

Jasper went dead silent inside me, listening.

I stared at Lesly, and the truth of it cut through me so cleanly it almost felt like relief.

By freeing Arya, she had not betrayed my pack.

She had given it a fighting chance.

If Arya had remained trapped,

injured,

restrained,

unable to move,

those men would have found her.

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And if they had found her while I was gone,

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I saw it in one vicious flash: Arya’s body in my house. Blood on stone. My mate dead because I left her under pressure and called it leadership.

My chest tightened so hard it hurt.

Leah was still smiling, waiting for me to turn that pain into punishment.

Instead, I looked at Lesly and said, quietly and clearly, “Thank you.”

The silence that followed was so complete I could hear Leah’s breath catch.

Lesly stared at me.

The guards stared at me.

Leah blinked. “What?”

I turned to Lesly fully now. “By freeing Arya, you gave this pack a fighting chance.” My voice roughened despite my effort to keep it controlled. “You did not allow those men to kill her while I was

away.”

Lesly’s eyes filled instantly, but she didn’t cry. She looked stunned.

1 swallowed once and forced the rest out because it was true and she deserved to hear it. “I would

have been more heartbroken if I returned to find Arya’s dead body.” My jaw flexed. “Knowing she is out

there alive is better.”

Leah’s face changed.

Shock first.

Then anger. Fast and ugly.

“You are thanking a traitor in front of me?”

I turned to the guards before answering her.

The men straightened immediately.

“Who authorised this?” I asked.

They looked at each other.

One of them answered carefully. “Lady Leah said she had urgent information and wanted the woman brought to you at once.”

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Lady Leah.

The title alone scraped my nerves raw.

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