Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 134

134 Poison Promises, Public Blood

Arya’s POVO

The meeting should have ended with politics.

That was what everyone in the hall expected, I think.

A few more tense exchanges. A few polished lies. Men with

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Marcel nearly lose control in his own hall. Then food les pretending they hadn’t all watched

dressed as diplomacy.

Instead, it ended with blood truth.

It started so fast I didn’t think.

quiet deals, and the usual hypocrisy

Servants and women from the house began moving through the hall again with trays and pitchers, smoothing the edges of the gathering now that the formal discussion was done. Wolves stood in clusters, murmuring over the rogue issue, over Maxwell’s challenge, over Marcel’s temper, over me. I

could feel the weight of their eyes without turning.

I was still standing near Maxwell when one of the serving women stepped into my line of sight.

A tray in trembling hands.

Head lowered.

Silverfang cloth.

Familiar shoulders.

Familiar mouth.

My whole body went cold first.

Then red-hot.

Margret.

For one split second I simply stared, unable to reconcile what my eyes were seeing with the memory carved into my bones. This

This woman whose voran who had sobbed in public and pointed at me while my life burned.

This woman whose voice had helped bury my child. This woman moving through Silverfang’s hall like she belonged there.

Safe.

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Fed.

Protected.

My feet moved before my head caught up.

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I crossed the space in three strides and grabbed her wrist so hard the tray clattered from her hands. Cups crashed. Liquid splashed over stone. Wolves turned.

Margret gasped, eyes flying wide. “A-Arya,”

I yanked her toward me.

She cried out and stumbled, and that was when I saw it.

The Silverfang insignia burned into the skin of her wrist.

Not a visitor mark. Not a servant tag.

Membership.

Protection.

Rights.

Something in me snapped so violently I felt it in my teeth.

Rebecca’s voice rang out at once, sharp and outraged. “Let her go!”

I didn’t even look at her.

Margret tried to twist free, crying now, “Please, please, you’re hurting me, ”

“Hurt?” I repeated, my voice low and shaking with fury. “Now you know the word?”

I grabbed a fistful of her hair and dragged her down. She screamed as I forced her to her knees in the

middle of the hall.

Gasps broke around us. Murmurs swelled.

“Arya,”

“Wild,

“What is she doing, ?”

I didn’t care.

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Let them call it wild.

They had called me worse while I bled.

Margret clawed at my wrist, tears streaming down her face, and I tightened my grip until she

whimpered. Her fear poured off her so thick I could smell it. Good. Let her feel a fraction of what she

sold me into.

Rebecca was already striding toward us, face blazing. “Release her this instant! You will respect

boundaries in my house!”

I jerked Margret’s head back harder and finally turned to look at Rebecca.

“Your boundaries?” I said, voice rising. “You want to talk to me about boundaries?”

Rebecca faltered for half a heartbeat, then squared her shoulders. “Let. Her. Go.”

Maxwell stepped in then, not between us, but close enough that the room shifted around his presence. His gaze swept over me, over Margret on her knees, over the insignia on her wrist, and his expression

sharpened.

“Arya,” he said, steady and controlled. “What’s the matter?”

I laughed once. It came out broken.

“What’s the matter?” I repeated, and then I said it loudly, for every wolf in that hall to hear. “This is Margret. One of the women who lied against me.”

The murmurs changed. Thickened.

I yanked Margret’s hair again and she cried out.

“She and Lisa stood in front of everyone and accused me of poisoning Leah,” I said, my voice shaking with rage and old grief. “Because of their lie, I lost my baby. Because of their lie, everything that followed happened. I will not forgive them.”

Silence cracked through the room.

Rebecca recovered first, chin lifting with venomous certainty. “That is a lie,” she snapped. “They told the truth. They admitted what you made them do. You were in charge in Nightwind. They had no

choice.”

I stared a

Even now.

Even with one of the women in my hands and Silverfang’s mark on her wrist and half the hall

134 Poison Promises, Public Blood

watching.

She was still standing in it.

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Still speaking like truth could be rewritten if she said it loud enough.

Maxwell turned his head slowly toward Rebecca. When he spoke, his voice was almost conversational, which made it crueler.

“And then you brought them here,” he said, “and made them members with full rights?”

Rebecca’s jaw tightened. “That is not your concern.”

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