Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 216

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Arya’s POV

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The drive to Blackbirth should have felt normal. Just another road. Just another car. Just

another day. But the moment Dragonclaw’s gates closed behind us and the trees started

swallowing the road again, my body already knew this was not normal. Lev was beside

me in the back seat, quiet at first, like he was giving me space to breathe. Like he was

letting the world settle around me before he touched it. I tried to let it work. I really did. I

kept my eyes on the window and watched the trees blur past and the sky change colour

little by little. I told myself this was simple. Just two people getting g to know each other

better. That it would just be a house full of eyes and whispers and women that would

rather choke than see me near a man they wanted. I told myself I could handle it. I told

myself I was fine.

But Lev always made lying to myself harder. His presence alone did that to me. His

scent made it worse. It was not just soap or cologne or the clean smell of a rich man with

access to things. It was him. Cold air. Leather. Steel. Male wolf heat under all of it. Like a

storm that looked quiet from far away but could still swallow you whole if you stepped

too close. And I was too close. I had been too close from the moment he showed up at

Dragonclaw with flowers in his hand like he was not supposed to be one of the most

dangerous men in the Union. He had been calm all morning. Calm through the teasing.

Calm through the kisses. Calm through the way he watched me do Luna duties like he

enjoyed seeing me in control. Then Maxwell had looked at him and told him to bring me

back in one piece, and Lev had promised like it was not even a promise. Like it was

already decided.

Now we were in the car. Driving into his territory. Into Blackbirth. Into the lion’s den. And

somehow the thing making me most nervous was not Mary or Diana or Radimir. It was

him. It was the way my body kept reacting to him like I was no longer the one in charge

of it. I kept staring out the window longer than necessary, mostly so I would not look at

him and blush like an idiot again.

It did not work.

Lev shifted beside me, closer, his knee brushing mine, and his voice came low and easy.

“Why are you quiet?”

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I swallowed.

“I’m thinking.”

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“About what.”

It did not sound like a question. It sounded like Lev being Lev. Calm. Direct. Wanting the

truth and not planning to let me hide behind sarcasm. I kept my eyes on the trees.

“About why you invited me.”

He hummed softly like he had expected that. The car hit a small bump. It was smooth

enough, but my body moved anyway, and that was when I noticed his hand was already

resting on my thigh. I did not even know when he had put it there. He did not move it.

Did not rub. Did not tease. He just kept it there. Heavy. Steady. Like it belonged there.

Like I belonged under it. I hated how much that made me feel safe.

“I didn’t invite you.”

That made me turn to him.

“You didn’t?”

His eyes met mine. Dark. Steady. Serious.

“I brought you.”

Heat rushed up my neck so fast it annoyed me. I rolled my eyes, but weakly.

“Same thing.”

“No.”

His thumb pressed lightly into my thigh. Barely anything. Still enough to make my breath

catch.

“Not the same thing.”

I wanted to argue. I did. I always wanted to argue with him when he got like this. But there was something different about him today. Less teasing. More certain. Like he had stopped pretending what he wanted was light. So I asked again, quieter this time.

“Why?”

Lev did not answer straight away. He looked out the other window for a second like he

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needed that second, then turned back to me.

“I can’t stand being away from you.”

The words landed so plainly I almost did not know what to do with them.

“What?”

His mouth curved a little.

“Any time I’m not with you, you plague my mind.”

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My heart did that stupid little jump again. I hated how easily he could do that to me with a few words. I tried to cover it.

“That’s dramatic.”

“It’s accurate.”

I let out a small breath and looked away because if I kept looking at him with that look on my face, he was going to see too much. Not that it mattered. He already saw too much. He always did.

“I want you with me,” he said. “Not just at dinners. Not just when Radimir summons

everyone.”

My jaw tightened at Radimir’s name. Lev noticed, of course he noticed, and his hand tightened a little on my thigh like a warning not to disappear into my head. Then he said the next part so calmly it took me a second to feel the full weight of it.

“If you’d let me, I’d claim and marry you on the spot.”

I froze.

Actually froze.

The car kept moving. The road kept sliding beneath us. The driver kept facing forward like he could not hear the words that had just landed in my chest like a blow. But for a second I could not breathe properly. Marriage. Claim. Just like that. My mouth opened, but nothing came out.

Lev watched my face carefully. Then his voice softened.

“I know you need time. I respect that.”

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My throat tightened.

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Because that was the thing with him. He could be terrifyingly direct and still patient. Still

careful. Still not trying to trap me with it.

“I just want to spend time with you,” he said. “I don’t want to keep borrowing you from

your grief and your rage like you’re only mine in stolen hours.”

That hit harder than the marriage part somehow. Maybe because it was too honest.

Maybe because it reached the exact place in me I kept trying not to expose. The old part

of me, the part that had once believed in forever, wanted to lean into him and stop

thinking and just rest. But the newer part of me, the part built from betrayal and grief

and humiliation, pulled back hard. It kept my throat guarded. It kept every promise

looking dangerous.

So I said nothing.

Lev did not push. He did not repeat himself. He did not ask for an answer. He just looked

at me like he already knew there was a war inside me and did not take it personally.

Then he moved.

One second I was in my seat. The next, his arm was around my waist and he pulled me

onto his lap like it was the most natural thing in the world. I gasped and grabbed his

shoulders on instinct to steady myself. He was warm under me. Solid. Too solid. The

kind of strength that made you feel small without making you feel weak.

“You,”

His hand slid up my back and spread between my shoulder blades, holding me there.

“Sit.”

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