Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 227

227 Morning After, Old Threats

221 po ust

Arya’s POV

Get 28 >

Menu

I had only just started breathing again after what James had done. Only just pulled myself together enough to stand straight in front of people without feeling like I was walking around with old blood under my skin. Only just started putting my anger where it belonged instead of letting it rot inside me.

And now here I was, standing in another man’s bathroom, flushed and sore and marked all over, feeling like I had stepped onto some dangerous edge.

What if I was falling too fast?

What if I had mistaken need for safety?

What if I had let one night, one strong pair of arms, one dark steady voice make me

stupid?

What if…

I stopped.

Actually stopped.

Chapter Unlocked, Enjoy Reading!

I looked at my reflection properly.

Not as a woman trying to police herself. Not as a woman trying to anticipate pain before

it came. Just as me.

And the truth came out clear.

How could I not feel something for him?

How could I not?

Lev was everything I had once begged fate to give me and then stopped believing

existed.

He was strong, but not threatened by my strength. Protective, but not controlling. Possessive in that dark wolf way that should have irritated me, except with him it did not feel like ownership. It felt like recognition. He saw me. Even when I was angry. Even when I snapped. Even when I did not know what to do with my own hurt.

47.1%

<227 Morning After, Old Threats.

He did not ask me to shrink.

Get 28 >

Menu

He did not ask me to wait quietly while he arranged my life around another woman’s

comfort.

He did not look at me and see a complication.

He looked at me and saw something he wanted.

Something worth choosing.

A shadow of James tried to push into my mind then. James’s face. James’s voice. James telling me things would only be temporary. James acting like my pain was the unfortunate cost of a bigger vision. James watching while Leah took what had been mine. James looking more afraid of losing his political advantage than of losing me.

I sucked in a breath and shut that door hard.

No.

No, I was not doing that this morning.

I was not dragging James into Lev’s bed. I was not letting my past crawl all over the first thing that had felt good in so long. I was not giving James that much power over me

anymore.

That did not mean he was forgiven.

It did not mean Marcel was forgiven.

It did not mean Nightwind was forgiven.

They would still pay. Every one of them who had stood there while I was humiliated, while I was pushed aside, while my pain was treated like some political inconvenience. Marcel would pay for what he orchestrated. Nightwind would answer for what it allowed. James would live with what he chose.

But I was done letting that pain chain me to the floor.

If love, or something close enough to it to frighten me, had reached for me again, I was not going to slap its hand away just because I had once trusted the wrong man.

I rested my hand more firmly over my chest and exhaled slowly.

46.96%

<227 Morning After, Old Threats

“I won’t let the past ruin the present,” I whispered to myself.

Ria stirred, softer now.

Get 28 >

Menu

Good.

That did not erase the fear.

I still had it.

Especially with Briarwood hanging over everything.

Mary, power, heir politics and stability.

All those ugly words people liked to dress betrayal in.

It was hard not to think about what Diana had implied before, what the world would probably expect, what alliances men like Radimir might prefer, what old houses like

Briarwood might demand.

If Mary truly was Briarwood’s heiress now, then any fool could see how people would line up to talk about how suitable she was. How proper. How politically wise. How neat. Men were always being advised to marry for stability while women like me were expected to bleed quietly and call it fate.

The thought made my mouth flatten.

But even then, I refused to let it steal this morning from me.

One thing at a time.

I showered slowly, letting the hot water work through the ache in my muscles. Every now and then my mind drifted back to the night before and my stomach flipped all over again. Once, I had to brace a hand against the wall because I remembered the exact sound Lev had made in my ear and nearly lost my breath over it.

This was ridiculous.

I should not have been this affected.

But I was.

And maybe, just maybe, I was done apologising to myself for that too.

When I came out of the shower, I took my time dressing. Nothing too dramatic. Nothing

47.0%

<227 Morning After, Old Threats

Get 28 > = Menu

that looked like I had spent an hour trying to impress a man. I chose something soft and elegant, comfortable enough for the day but still flattering. Then I dried my hair, pinned part of it back, and stared at my reflection one last time.

I looked… calm.

More than calm.

I looked like a woman who had slept in desire and woken up in possibility.

That alone almost made me laugh.

I left the room because I could not stay there forever pretending I was not curious.

The hall outside was quiet and polished, all dark wood and expensive stillness. Blackbirth did not feel like Dragonclaw. Not softer, exactly. Not harsher either. Just different. Older in some places. More controlled in others. It carried Lev’s presence even where he wasn’t there. That same dangerous restraint. That same clean, masculine order

with something darker beneath it.

As I moved down the corridor, one of the staff greeted me respectfully and asked if I

needed anything.

“I was thinking of seeing the garden,” I said.

She smiled at once. “Of course. I can show you the way.”

So I let her.

We went through a side hall and down a short staircase, then through a set of wide doors that opened onto the grounds. The second I stepped outside, a soft breeze

brushed my face and I paused.

The garden had been beautiful from the balcony last night.

From here, it was even better.

It spread out in careful, deliberate beauty. Stone paths curved between flower beds and trimmed hedges. There were tall trees placed in a way that made the space feel shel tered without closing it in. Roses climbed part of the far wall. A fountain stood near the centre, catching the light. Beyond that, I could see a shaded area with wrought iron seating and low tables half hidden by vines.

47.03%

< 227 Morning After, Old Threats

Get 28 >

Menu

It was the kind of garden built by people who liked beauty but also liked privacy.

I understood at once why Lev had brought me to the balcony last night instead of some

loud public terrace.

This place invited intimacy.

I walked a little farther in, slower now, taking it all in.

My guide stayed with me until another maid came up with a small bow and asked,

“Would you like breakfast served here, my lady?”

I blinked.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify