Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 193

193 The Slap That Set the Room Right 2

Arya’s POV

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The women’s centre had gone quiet enough now that I could hear the low crackle of the

hearth and the faint scrape of someone setting down scissors at the far end of the room.

Gail smiled, pleased with the attention.

“Now that David is back,” she said again, slower this time, “you should be careful not to

get too comfortable in places that aren’t yours. Alpha Maxwell may indulge you, but he

won’t go against his own son forever.”

That did it.

Not because she insulted me.

Because she thought she understood David. Because she thought blood alone made

people predictable. Because she had missed everything happening right in front of her

and still had the nerve to speak like she knew that house better than the wolves actually

living in it.

I folded my arms and looked at her calmly.

“You’re making a lot of assumptions for a woman not actually involved in the decisions

she keeps talking about.”

A few women inhaled sharply.

Gail’s smile faltered, then came back thinner.

“I don’t need to be involved to know my place.”

No, I thought. You only need to be loud.

Then she said it.

“Unlike some strays, I was born knowing where I belong.”

The word landed like a slap before I ever lifted my hand.

Stray.

Not rogue.

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Not cast-out.

Not outsider.

Stray.

A word used for dogs wandering between houses hoping somebody would feed them. A

word meant to strip a woman of bloodline, dignity, and standing in one breath. A word

that reached backward through everything I had lost and forward into every room I still

had to fight to stand inside.

Maybe if she had caught me on another day, I would have swallowed it.

Maybe if my body had not still remembered Blackbirth, the road, the cell, the names

building under my skin like storm clouds, I would have let it pass for strategy’s sake.

But I had bled too much to be called that in my own pack and stand there smiling.

I did not think.

I moved.

One step.

Two.

Then my palm hit Gail’s cheek with a sharp ringing crack that seemed to split the room in

two.

Her head snapped sideways. The force sent one loose strand of hair across her mouth.

Her hand flew to her face at once, eyes wide, body frozen in pure disbelief.

For one full heartbeat, nobody breathed.

I could feel the sting in my own hand.

Good.

I stepped closer before she could gather herself enough to shriek or perform.

“You will learn to respect me,” I said, my voice low and colder than I felt. “Adopted or

not, I am Alpha Maxwell’s daughter.”

Her chest rose sharply.

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“David!” she cried, spinning toward him with immediate outrage. “She assaulted me. She

slapped me in front of everyone.”

The room went still again.

This was the moment.

The one Gail had wanted all along.

The one where the Alpha’s son would walk in, see the outsider woman putting hands on

the Beta’s daughter, and restore order the proper way.

I said nothing.

I wanted to see what he would do when nobody guided him toward kindness and

nobody reminded him where loyalty should sit.

David set the blankets down carefully on the nearest table.

Then he looked at Gail and said,

“Show my sister respect.”

Those words hit harder than my hand had.

Gail blinked.

A few women actually gasped.

“What?”

David took one step closer, and his expression flattened in a way I had started

recognising. The easy teasing was gone. The humour stripped out. The Dragonclaw heir

underneath suddenly very visible.

“I said show my sister respect.”

Gail laughed once, disbelieving, but her voice broke around it.

“Your sister? She slapped me!”

David glanced at her cheek, then back at her face.

“Then you probably earned it.”

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This time several women had to hide their laughter in coughs.

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Gail looked around like she expected the room to correct him. Nobody did.

That was the first real crack in her confidence.

She tried another angle, and now desperation had sharpened her voice.

“Why are you taking her side against me?”

David’s gaze sharpened too.

“I’m taking Dragonclaw’s side.”

“That doesn’t even make sense!”

“It makes perfect sense.” He crossed his arms. “Arya isn’t an outsider. The moment my

father adopted her, she became part of this pack.”

There it was again.

Not guest.

Not tolerated presence.

Part of the pack.

I kept my face steady, but something inside my chest tightened painfully around those

words.

Gail’s nostrils flared.

“She’s not blood.”

David’s mouth curved, but there was no warmth in it.

“And?”

That single word gutted her argument before she could even try to dress it up.

He took another step, not crowding her, just standing close enough that his size, his rank,

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