Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 230

230 Beside Him 2

Arya’s POV

Diana kept going, too furious now to stop herself. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

For a second, truly just a second, even the birds felt quieter.

Lev set his cup down.

Carefully.

Then he turned fully toward her.

“Diana,” he said.

Nothing in his tone was raised. Nothing in it was openly violent.

That made the warning in it even colder.

She must have felt it too because some of the heat went out of her face. But not enough.

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He went on, voice low and clear.

“This should be the first and the last time you raise your voice at me and speak to me in

that manner.”

The air changed.

I did not know how else to describe it. It was not just authority. It was rank. Wolf. The thing in him that did not need to snarl to make itself felt. The thing that made other wolves remember their place even if they hated it.

Diana’s lips parted.

Lev stood.

Not abruptly. Not wildly. He simply rose to his full height and looked down at her, and somehow that was worse than any dramatic explosion would have been.

“Blackbirth is my home,” he said. “This is my house.”

Each word landed clean and hard.

“If you do not like how things are run here, you are free to return to Greenwich.”

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Shock flashed over her face.

Real shock.

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Like she had expected resistance perhaps, but not this. Not this cold dismissal. Not him

drawing the line so clearly and in front of me too.

Her pride flared almost instantly after.

Color climbed into her cheeks.

“You would speak to me this way because of her?”

Lev’s expression did not change. “I would speak to anyone this way if they disrespected

me in my own home.”

And then, after the briefest pause, he added, “As for Arya, choose your next words

carefully.”

My heartbeat stumbled.

Diana heard it too. The meaning under that. The warning. The fact that he had not

distanced himself from me or corrected her insult with something polite and neutral. He

had drawn me into the boundary line with him.

She looked furious.

Humiliated too.

Good.

For one second I thought she might keep pushing. She looked angry enough. Proud

enough. Stupid enough.

But some survival instinct finally kicked in.

Her mouth hardened. She grabbed at whatever scraps of dignity she could still carry and

stepped back from the table.

“This is absurd,” she bit out.

Lev said nothing.

He did not need to.

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Diana’s eyes flicked to me, and there was so much ugly annoyance in them that I almost

smiled before she even turned.

Then she stormed away across the garden path, stiff-backed and fuming.

I watched her go.

And then, because I could not help it, a laugh slipped out of me.

Not loud. Not cruel. Just honest.

Lev looked down at me.

There was a faint look in his eyes now. Not irritation. Something warmer. More amused.

“You enjoyed that,” he said.

I lifted a shoulder. “A little.”

“A little?” he repeated.

I glanced back in the direction Diana had disappeared and chuckled again. “Maybe more

than a little.”

He sat back down beside me, the tension gone from him now, though not fully. I could

still feel that dark edge under his calm. That part of him that had risen the second Diana

insulted me.

It settled something strange inside my chest.

He was quiet for a moment, studying me.

Then he said, “Naughty.”

The word made me smile despite myself.

“I have never let pettiness get to me that much,” I said. “Women like Diana always

believe they can wound you if they sound polished enough.”

His

gaze moved over my face slowly. “And can they?”

I looked down at the half-finished breakfast spread. At my tea. At his large hand resting

near mine on the table.

“No,” I said after a moment. “Not really.”

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That was not the full truth.

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Because words still had teeth. Some words always would. Especially when they touched

old wounds.

Discarded mate.

Another Alpha’s leftover.

Temporary.

Not enough.

Easy to move aside.

Women like Diana did not invent those things. They just weaponised what the world

was already eager to believe.

But she was not the one who could truly hurt me.

She had no access to that place.

Only one man had ever gotten that far.

And the one beside me could, if I ever let him.

The thought sobered me in a way I could not hide fast enough.

Lev noticed.

Of course he noticed.

He always seemed to.

“What is it?” he asked.

I hesitated.

Ria nudged at me softly, curious.

I looked at him and told the truth as simply as I could.

“I have never cared much what petty people say,” I said. “The only time I will be hurt…”

My throat tightened, but I made myself finish. “The only time it will really matter is if you

are the one who treats me badly.”

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His whole face changed.

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Not in some dramatic way. He did not gasp or rush to speak. He just went very still and

very intent, like every part of him had turned toward those words.

Then he reached for my hand?

His touch was careful. Warm. Large enough to make mine disappear inside his.

He lifted it slowly and pressed a kiss to my knuckles.

The tenderness of it undid me a little.

Then he looked up at me and said, very quietly, “I will die first before I ever hurt you.”

The words went through me like something physical.

Not because they were pretty.

Because they were not.

They were dark. Stark. Very him.

Not I would never.

Not trust me.

I will die first.

There was something brutal in the promise. Something possessive and absolute.

Something that told me he was not making a polite vow. He was stating a law he had

already written inside himself.

My throat tightened.

I believed him.

That was the frightening part.

Not because I was foolish. Not because men had never lied beautifully before.

But because Lev did not say things like that lightly. He was not a man who used big words to make women melt. He spoke as if every sentence was a decision. As if once he said something, it became his.

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He kissed my hand again.

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