Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 275

275 Dragged in Daylight

James’ POVO

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The door had barely shut behind Marcel when Leah turned on me like something inside her had snapped. The tears were still on her face, but they did not look weak anymore. They looked ugly now. Angry. Bitter. Her chest was rising fast, and her eyes were burning with the kind of rage that comes when someone realises the game they were playing has suddenly turned on them.

“You’ve done something bad,” Leah said. “And I won’t plead with my father on your behalf.”

I looked at her and said nothing.

There was no point.

Not because I had nothing to say. Because I had too much, and none of it would have made me

cleaner.

Leah laughed once, but there was no joy in it. It sounded sharp and broken.

“I wish I never asked my father to help you,” Leah said. “I should have known better. A rogue will

always be a rogue.”

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That one landed.

It landed hard.

I felt it in my chest and in my throat and in that dark place in me that had been rotting for weeks now. It hurt, yes. But I was glad it hurt. That was the ugly truth. I was glad for the sting of it because it was small compared to what Arya felt. Small compared to what my child lost. Small compared to what I

did with my own hands while still pretending I was protecting something. Leah was right. Not in

everything, but in enough. I was disloyal. I betrayed my mate. I betrayed my unborn child. I betrayed

the woman who stood with me when I had nothing. That stain was never leaving me. It would live on

me for the rest of my life. I knew that. Maybe I deserved to hear it every day until I died.

Leah took a step closer, breathing hard.

“I should not have expected loyalty from you,” Leah said. “Not from a man who could betray his own

mate.”

There it was.

The thing I could not deny.

Not even if I wanted to.

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Because yes. I did that. Not in some little way. Not in some soft selfish way men later dressed up as

weakness. I betrayed Arya badly. Deeply. Publicly. Cruelly. I betrayed her body. Her trust. Her heart. Her pride. I betrayed our child. I let fear make me filthy, and that filth touched everything. It touched her. It touched the pack. It touched the future. It touched the child we never got to keep. Leah’s words

hurt, but they hurt because they were true, and truth always cut deepest when it came from mouths that had no right to speak it and still spoke it anyway.

I let the sting sit there.

Then I turned away from it.

Not because I was running. Because I was done letting everyone else move first while I stood there

choking on regret.

“Nixon,” I called.

The door opened almost at once. He must have still been close. Good. Nixon had learned to stay close these days. Maybe because the pack was unstable. Maybe because he no longer trusted the sort of people walking through my halls. Maybe because he knew I was one bad thought away from tearing the whole place apart. He stepped in and looked from me to Leah to the tension still hanging in the

room.

“Yes, Alpha?” Nixon asked.

I looked at Leah.

Then at him.

“Lock her up in the cells,” I said.

For one second the whole room went still. Leah stared at me like she had misheard. Nixon did not.

Moon, Nixon did not even blink.

He smirked. It was small. Fast. But it was there.

And that did something strange to me, because I realised he had been waiting for this. Maybe not this

exact thing. Maybe not this exact second. But he had been waiting for me to finally stop pretending

Leah was anything but another problem in my house. He had been waiting for me to act.

Leah’s face drained of colour.

“What?” Leah asked.

“You heard me,” I said.

“You can’t be senous

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“I am.”

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Nixon moved at once.

Leah stepped back and tried to twist away, but she had no time. He was faster than her and far more prepared. The silver chains were around her wrists before she fully understood what was happening. She gasped when the metal touched her skin and then began fighting properly, but it was too late. Nixon had her. He was not rough for sport, but he did not handle her softly either. Not today.

“James!” Leah screamed. “Have you gone mad?”

Maybe.

Maybe I had.

Maybe madness was a man finally seeing clearly after too much blood had already been spilled. Maybe madness was realising how blind he had been and deciding someone else would finally feel the weight of the lies they helped create.

Leah struggled harder.

“You will regret this,” Leah cried. “My father will come for me. My father waits to hear my call every day. He will know something is wrong.”

I looked at her without blinking.

“He will know,” Leah said, voice rising. “And when he finds out, it will be the end of your pack.”

That might have frightened me once.

Not anymore.

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