Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 276

276 Dragged in Daylight 2

James’ POVO

Leah tried to plant her feet, but he yanked the chains and her body jerked forward. She cried out. It was not enough to stop him. He dragged her toward the door, and I followed behind because I wanted to see it. No, that was not even the full truth. I needed to see it. I needed the whole pack to see it. Needed them to understand. Needed them to watch the woman they tolerated, defended, and made excuses for finally lose the protection of the lie.

The corridor swallowed her cries first. Then the stairs. Then the larger hall.

By the time we came fully into view of the main floor, heads were already turning. Pack members

stopped where they were. Servants froze. Wolves coming in from patrol slowed down. The sound spread faster than fire. That was how it always happened. One voice raised, one body dragged, and suddenly the whole place knew something ugly was being exposed.

Leah looked around wildly.

“Help me!” Leah screamed. “Help me!”

Nobody moved.

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Nixon dragged her down another stretch, the silver chains clinking and her dress twisting awkwardly under the force of it. I stayed behind them, not too close, not too far, and the whole thing felt

sickeningly familiar. That was the worst part. The familiarity. The way my body remembered this exact

shape of shame even before my mind fully let itself go there. Arya. Arya dragged. Arya looked at like

she was the danger. Arya made into a lesson. Arya made into a public thing.

And here I was again. Different woman. Different lie. Same corridor.

Leah turned to the pack again, more frantic now that no one had rushed to her.

“Our safety depends on this!” Leah cried. “James has gone mad. He will make my father come and destroy this pack. Do something!”

Faces stared back at her.

Some of them were the same men and women who once clapped for her place here. Who smiled at her. Who whispered that maybe she really was the best chance for Nightwind’s Union future. The same people who tolerated her because they believed helping her meant helping me. Because they believed securing her position meant securing all of us. Because they believed Arya was the problem and Leah was the answer.

I looked at them now and felt another ugly thing move through me.

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How blind I had been.

How blind we all had been.

Get 15.

#Me

“If something happens to me,” Leah shouted, “you will all be blacklisted from the Union!”

Still no one moved.

That rattled her.

I could see it.

Because up until that moment, she still believed fear would save her. Fear of her father. Fear of the

Union. Fear of what Marcel could do. Fear of being cut off. Fear had been working here for too long.

had worked on me. It had worked on my officers. It had worked on my people. It had worked on Arya

because she carried the punishment of it on her skin. But something had shifted now. The fear was

cracking. Too late for the people it really mattered for, maybe. Too late for my child. Too late for Arya’s

pride. Too late for the bond I shattered. But it was cracking.

Leah kept trying.

“You know my father!” Leah cried. “You know what this means. You know what he can do.”

Someone laughed.

A hard sound. Not kind. Not nervous. Just done. Then another voice rose.

“We’re done with your lies!”

Leah stopped fighting for one second and looked toward the voice in shock. Then another one came.

“Let your father do his worst!”

Then another.

“We’ll be waiting!”

The words spread fast after that. Faster than fear. Faster than her pleas. Boos rose around her. Pack

members who once kept quiet now spoke with open disgust. Someone threw a small stone first. Then

another. Then another. They were not trying to kill her. Not yet. Not like that. But the message was c

lear. They were done. Done with the tears. Done with the false warnings. Done with being led by the

nose through fear and Union promises and Leah’s fake softness.

Leah stared around like she had lost her mind.

“No,” Leah whispered. “No, that’s not right.”

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But it was.

And I laughed.

The 1].

I did not mean to at first. It just came out. Harsh. Bitter. Full of disbelief. Because look at them. Look

at my people. The same pack that once helped tear Arya apart because they thought they were securing my future had now turned on Leah with open contempt. The same mouths that once cheered for this arrangement were now telling her, her father could come and do his worst. If I was a better man, maybe I would have felt only anger at them. Maybe I would have thought only of their hypocrisy.

But what I really felt was something uglier and sadder.

This was what they had always been.

This was what fear and manipulation had made out of all of us.

And I had led it.

Leah looked at me like she no longer knew the room.

“James,” Leah said, voice breaking. “Make them stop.”

I did not.

I stood there and watched.

Not because I was noble. Not because I was teaching some clean lesson. Because I was angry. Because I was full of old images and old blood and old regret, and some part of me wanted her to taste just a little of what Arya had been forced to stand in. Shame. Exposure. The collapse of false safety. It would never be the same. Leah was not innocent. Arya was. Leah was not beloved and betrayed. Arya was. But still, I wanted the pack to look at Leah and see her properly.

Raymond came forward then.

That almost made me blink.

Because Raymond did not hesitate. He stepped out of the watching crowd like he had been waiting for the moment he was finally allowed to stop pretending. He took the reins from Nixon without a word and gripped Leah hard enough that she cried out again. Devin moved after him. Archie too. Just like that. No confusion. No reluctance. They fell in beside the scene like it made sense to them, like they

understood the shape of it, like they had already chosen their side and were almost relieved to stop

acting otherwise.

Raymond yanked the chains.

“Move,” Raymond said.

276 Dragged in Daylight 2

Leah stumbled.

Devin walked on one side. Archie on the other. Nixon stepped back and smirked like he had expected exactly this. I stood there looking at all of them and something twisted hard inside me.

They were thrilled.

Not happy in a light way. Not playful. Not cruel in the foolish way young men get cruel when power turns. No. They looked satisfied. Grimly satisfied. The kind of satisfaction that comes when people have been choking on a lie too long and finally get to spit it out. They wanted this. Not because Leah alone deserved it. Because this meant something larger. It meant the lie had broken. It meant Marcel’s reach was no longer sacred here. It meant Arya had not been crazy. It meant maybe, deep down, they knew how badly we all failed and they were glad to finally drag the wrong person for once.

And me?

I realised then that I had been blind in more ways than one.

I had been blind to Marcel. Blind to Leah. Blind to Rebecca. Blind to what fear was doing to my pack. Blind to how much resentment had been building under the smiles and the obedience and the talk of Union advantage. Blind to my own officers. I thought they were in step with this arrangement. I thought they were accepting Leah because they believed in it. I thought they were tolerating her because they trusted me. Maybe they did at first. But now, watching Raymond take over like this, watching Devin and Archie move without hesitation, watching Nixon wear that ugly little grin, I saw it. They had been waiting too. Waiting for the lie to crack. Waiting for me to see what they had seen. Waiting for the moment I would stop being a fool.

That was another kind of humiliation.

Realising the men around you saw the poison long before you did.

Leah kept pleading.

“You can’t do this,” Leah cried. “You can’t! My father will ruin all of you. He will ruin all of you!”

The pack booed louder.

Someone threw another stone and it clipped her shoulder. She yelped. Another landed near her feet. A woman from the back spat on the floor and called Leah a liar. One of the younger warriors told her father to come himself if he wanted a fight. The crowd was turning mean now. Too mean. Too alive

with all the ugliness of a pack finally given permission to hate openly.

Part of me wanted to stop it.

Another part did not.

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