Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 277

<277 Dragged in Daylight 3

Not one bit of it.

Leah at least knew what she had been part of. Leah at least knew the lies. Leah at least knew the

arrangement. Arya? Arya loved me. That was all. Arya trusted me. Arya carried my child. Arya built Nightwind beside me. Arya stood at my side and became the one person I should have defended with

my full chest, and instead I let the whole pack chew through her because I was too frightened of losing

power and too blind to see who my real enemy was.

That truth sat in me while I watched Leah dragged and it made every bit of satisfaction taste rotten

Maybe that was my punishment.

To never fully enjoy justice because I knew too well what injustice I had already allowed.

The yard had gone loud by then. Loud enough that more people had come out from other sections of the compound to see what was happening. They saw Leah in chains. They saw the officers around her. They saw me behind them. And they understood enough. Faces hardened. Whispers rose. More boos. More voices throwing accusations. A few stared at me too, and I could feel their thoughts without hearing them properly. So this is what it takes. So now he sees. So now he acts. So now he drags the right woman after the wrong one already bled.

I deserved those thoughts too.

Every last one.

Leah twisted again and nearly fell.

“Please,” Leah cried, but now it sounded smaller. Weaker. Less sure. “Please, James.”

That should have moved me more than it did.

It didn’t.

Not because I had no heart left. Because the place where softness for pleas used to live had already been burned hollow by hearing Arya hurt and still not stopping it fast enough.

Raymond dragged her toward the holding wing. Devin opened the outer gate. Archie kept the crowd from getting too close. Nixon had come up beside me by then, quiet for once. He looked at the scene,

then at me.

“You should have done this earlier,” Nixon said.

He said it low.

Not accusing.

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Not mocking.

2་,!

Just true.

I looked at him and said nothing because what was there to say? Yes? Yes, I should have. I should have done many things earlier. I should have seen Marcel earlier. I should have seen Leah earlier. I

should have listened to Arya earlier. I should have gone to Maxwell earlier. I should have protected my

mate earlier. I should have loved her better earlier.

Too many earliers.

Too many things already broken.

Leah screamed once more as Raymond hauled her through the gate.

The sound rang ugly in the air.

Then the gate shut.

And just like that, the yard began to settle.

Not fully.

The energy was still there. The ugly satisfaction. The muttering. The sharp new courage. But the centre of it was gone now. The body in chains. The woman crying. The lie made public. Pack members began talking in groups. Some looked at me with approval. Some with uncertainty. Some with something harder to read. I did not enjoy any of it.

I stood there and looked at the closed gate and thought of how quickly a crowd turns once fear ch

anges sides. How quickly they boo the woman they once defended. How quickly they tell themselves they knew better all along. Maybe they were glad to finally show their disgust. Maybe they were reliev ed. Maybe they were ashamed. Maybe it was all mixed together, same as it was in me.

Nixon folded his arms.

“They’re done with her,” Nixon said.

I nodded once.

But my mind was elsewhere.

On Raymond stepping in without hesitation. On Devin and Archie following. On Nixon smirking the second I gave the order. On the way my officers looked almost pleased. Not because they enjoyed cruelty. But because they were relieved. Relieved I had finally stopped being blind. Relieved I had

finally chosen to act against the lie instead of letting the lie keep swallowing us.

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That hurt in its own way.

Because it meant the blindness had been mine most of all.

I had thought I was leading.

Maybe I was only stumbling forward while the men around me waited and watched and hoped I would

wake up before the whole pack went under.

I let out a breath and finally turned from the gate.

The yard was still full of people pretending to drift back into their duties while stealing looks at me.

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