Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 16

<16 A Promise I No Longer Believe

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Sitting beside the bed, close enough that I could feel his heat, close enough that the bond between us hummed faintly, thin, strained, like a rope fraying.

The sight of him didn’t soothe me.

It frightened me.

Because my mind jumped straight to the worst possibility, like it had been waiting for it.

He had Lesley abort the baby.

He did it while I was unconscious.

He did it because he didn’t want it.

Because he said it was just,

My chest tightened so violently I couldn’t breathe.

I pushed up too fast, dizziness crashing through me like a wave. The room tilted. Black

crept into the edges of my vision.

My voice came out broken and raw. “Where is it?”

James stood immediately, hands lifted in a calming gesture. “Arya,”

“Where is my baby?” I demanded, the words tearing out of me with a sob I couldn’t

swallow. “Did you, did you let her,”

“No.” His voice cut through me, firm, urgent. “No. Calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down,” I snapped, tears already spilling, my hands trembling as they clutched the blanket. “Don’t you dare,”

James leaned closer, eyes dark and bloodshot, and for once there was no mask on him. No Alpha calm. No political composure. Just something raw and exhausted.

“The baby is fine,” he said, slow and deliberate, like he was setting each word down carefully so it wouldn’t break me. “Lesley checked. You’re still pregnant.”

For a heartbeat, my mind refused to accept it.

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< 16 A Promise I No Longer Believe

Then relief punched through me so hard I folded forward with a sob.

My body shook.

Not softly.

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Violently.

Like my bones were trying to rattle the terror out of my skin.

I clutched my stomach again, crying harder now, the sound ugly, cracked, uncontained.

“Oh God,” I whispered. “Oh God…”

James’s hand closed over mine, warm and steady, but I couldn’t stop shaking. My breath

came in uneven gasps, and the memory of that locked door pressed in from all sides,

tightening around my ribs.

The horror wasn’t just physical.

It was mental.

It was the helplessness.

Knowing I was trapped.

Knowing I couldn’t shift.

Knowing my baby was inside me and I couldn’t protect it.

It was lying on that floor and realising that in my own home, in the pack I built, I could still

be treated like something disposable.

My tears didn’t slow.

They became rage.

I lifted my face toward James, eyes burning. “I can’t do this anymore.”

James went still.

The words came out sharper as I said them again. “I can’t. I can’t keep living like this. I can’t

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< 16 A Promise I No Longer Believe

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keep swallowing humiliation and fear and telling myself it’s for a bigger purpose.”

James’s jaw flexed. His gaze dropped briefly to my stomach, then back to my face.

“You just have to hang on a little longer,” he said.

The sentence landed like a slap across my mouth.

I stared at him, stunned, the disbelief almost freezing my tears mid-fall.

“That’s your answer?” My voice shook. “Hang on?”

“Arya,” he said, voice tight. “You don’t understand what’s at stake.”

“I understand what’s at stake!” I snapped, my throat aching. “My life. My sanity. Our child.”

I forced my hand free of his, pointing weakly toward the door as if the rest room were still down that corridor, still waiting to swallow me again.

“The Rainhorns have to pay for what they did to me,” I said, each word shaking with fury. “They locked me in there like an animal. They poisoned me with silver. They tried to,” My voice broke. “They tried to take my baby.”

My breathing hitched. I pressed my palm hard to my stomach again, as if the pressure could keep the fear from creeping back in.

“If anything happens to my baby,” I hissed, eyes blazing through tears, “I will make them pay.”

James’s expression tightened. “Don’t be rash.”

“Rash?” I laughed once, bitter and cracked. “Was I rash when I begged you to defend me? Was I rash when I asked you to protect me? Was I rash when I told you your precious Union deal was costing me everything?”

James leaned forward, voice lowering. “I will handle it.”

I shook my head hard. “No. You won’t.”

His eyes flashed. “Arya,”

“You have limits,” I cut in. “You’ve been proving that for weeks.”

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<Luna Forsaken