Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 228

228 Morning After, Old Threats 2

Arya’s POVO

There was warmth in Maxwell’s tone immediately, the kind that always settled

something in me. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” I said, 4

and realised I meant it. “How are you doing?”

“I should be asking you that,” he said. “You’re the one at Blackbirth.”

I laughed softly and leaned back in the chair. “I only just woke up not too long ago.”

There was a pause.

Then, with far too much satisfaction in his voice, he said, “I see.”

My face warmed at once. “Maxwell.”

He chuckled, completely unrepentant. “Is Lev treating you right?”

I rolled my eyes even though he could not see me. “I just got here.”

“That wasn’t an answer.’

My smile widened despite myself. “He has been a great host.”

“A great host,” he repeated, with the exact tone of a man who knew very well I was

saying much less than I meant.

“Maxwell,” I warned again, but there was no real heat in it.

He laughed properly then. “Good. Have fun.”

The casual way he said it did something to me. Because for so long, everything in my life. had been survival. Politics. Damage control. Humiliation. Rage. Loss. The idea that I

could simply have fun felt almost foreign.

“I’ll try,” I said.

“You’d better,” he replied. “I’ll see you at Briarwood.”

That made me straighten slightly. “You’re coming?”

“Of course I’m coming.”

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I exhaled. “Good.”

He heard what I did not say.

His tone shifted, softer. “Don’t overthink tonight.”

Easy for him to say.

But I appreciated it any

“Tell David I said hello,” I told him.

“I will.”

We said goodbye and ended the call.

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For a moment I sat there with my phone still in my hand, looking out over the garden.

Would my life really stabilise?

Would it actually become something that resembled normal again?

The thought felt fragile. Dangerous to even hold.

Because every time I had thought things were settling, something had risen up and torn

the ground apart again.

But still.

This morning felt almost… ordinary.

And after everything, ordinary felt sacred.

Breakfast arrived a few minutes later, and I actually laughed when I saw the spread.

There was too much. Far too much for one person. Fresh fruit, breads, eggs, tea, pastries, cheeses, sausages, honey, little dishes of things I did not immediately recognise, and enough food to feed three people comfortably.

“This is too much,” I murmured.

The maid smiled politely. “Alpha Lev instructed that you be given options.”

Of course he did.

That stupid, dark, overbearing man.

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I should have been annoyed.

Instead something soft twisted in my

“Thank you,” I said.

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Once I was alone again, I poured tea and started eating, slowly at first, then with more appetite than I expected. Hunger had crept up on me when I was not paying attention. Maybe because I had barely noticed it in the middle of everything else. Maybe because my body had other things on its mind last night.

I cut off that thought before I choked on my tea.

The garden was too peaceful for me to ruin with my own embarrassment.

I had just reached for another piece of fruit when a shadow fell across part of the table.

I looked up.

Diana.

She wore a smile that was too polished to be sincere.

“Arya,” she said. “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

Everything about her said she hoped she was.

I swallowed calmly and set down my cup.

“You’re already here, so I suppose it doesn’t matter much.”

Her smile widened just a little, like she enjoyed the edge in that.

“Do you mind if I join you?”

I gave a small shrug.

“It isn’t my house.”

That was answer enough.

She sat across from me with the ease of someone used to moving through spaces like she belonged in every one of them. Maybe she did. Maybe that was part of why she irritated me. Women like Diana always seemed to speak as if the world should make room before they even opened their mouths.

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For a few seconds she said nothing, just looked around the table, then at me.

Then her eyes drifted, deliberately, to my neck.

Ah.

There it was.

I kept my face blank and reached for my tea again.

Her smile turned sly. ”

was in the garden last night.”

I lifted the cup to my lips. “Was that supposed to mean something?”

She leaned back slightly. “Only that it was difficult not to notice how… occupied the Lev’s

balcony was.’

I took a sip.

Slowly.

Set the cup down.

Still said nothing.

Her gaze sharpened, maybe because she had expected an instant blush, some flustered

denial, some reaction she could feed on.

When she did not get it, she went further.

“You and Lev really couldn’t keep it down,” she said, voice light and poisonous all at once. “I thought perhaps something terrible had happened.”

And there it was.

The bait.

Crude enough to insult. Clever enough to pass as a joke if challenged.

But all she had truly done was confirm that she had been listening. Waiting. Paying

attention.

Which said far more about her than it did about me.

I picked up my fork and cut into a piece of fruit. “That sounds like a difficult experience

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for you.”

For one second, her expression shifted.

Only slightly.

But I saw it.

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Not enough to be satisfying. Enough to tell me I had landed something.

She recovered quickly. “I’m only looking out for you.”

Now I did laugh.

It slipped out before I could stop it.

Diana’s smile tightened.

“I mean it,” she said. “I would hate to see a fellow woman embarrassed.”

There it was again. That fake softness. That false sisterhood women like her only

remembered when they wanted to dress their cruelty in concern.

I met her eyes directly. “How kind.”

She tilted her head. “You think I’m mocking you.”

“I think you came here for a reason,” I said. “You may as well get to it.”

Her fingers tapped once against the arm of her chair.

Then she smiled again, thinner this time.

“Fine,” she said. “Brace yourself.”

I said nothing.

She leaned slightly forward.

“You are a distraction to him,” she said. “Maybe a pleasant one. Maybe even an exciting

one. But that is all.”

I held her gaze.

Inside, Ria had gone very still.

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Diana continued, “When the

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“Co.,

Lev will do what is best for Blackbirth.

Everyone knows that. Everyone knows power matters. Stability matters. Legacy matters. And when that moment comes, he will end up with Mary.”

The name sat between us like something deliberately dropped.

She watched me carefully, waiting.

For pain.

For jealousy.

For panic.

For some crack.

But all I felt at first was a slow, almost distant sort of irritation. Not because the idea itself did not have teeth. It did. Of course it did. I was not stupid. I understood politics. I understood how people calculated bloodlines and alliances and houses and heiresses. I understood exactly what she was trying to do.

She wanted to drag all my quiet fears into the light and make me squirm.

She wanted me to feel cheap.

Temporary.

Replaceable.

Again.

And maybe if this were some earlier version of me, the one still bleeding openly from

what James had done, maybe she would have gotten what she wanted.

But not today.

Not like this.

I leaned back in my chair and let out the smallest laugh.

Diana’s eyes narrowed.

“I don’t care,” I said.

She blinked.

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I shrugged lightly. “If that day comes, it comes.”

That was not what she expected.

Not even a little.

Her stare sharpened, like she thought she had misheard me. “You don’t care?”

“No.”

That was a lie, not entirely, but it was not for her to know where the truth bent.

I lifted my cup again. “And if he does choose Mary one day for power and stability, then I

suppose I’ll deal with it when it happens.”

She kept staring at me.