Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 31

for My Replacement

Arya’s POV

The banquet continued.

And the performance became smoother.

Leah directed servants, asking for more wine for the Union officials.

Rebecca spoke loudly about lineage and tradition, telling stories that painted rogues as

wild animals who should never lead.

Leah laughed politely.

James sat stiff, smiling at the right moments, tightening whenever Arya’s name was spoken too sharply.

The Union officials asked questions.

“How many warriors do you have?”

James answered.

“What are your patrol schedules?”

James answered.

“How have you handled border disputes?”

James answered.

Leah added, “We value peace.”

Rebecca added, “We value proper order.”

And I sat there, the silent reminder of what they were erasing.

At one point, the female official looked at me directly.

Her gaze was calm.

19:30

“Your name is Arya,” she said.

Not a question.

A statement.

I nodded once. “Yes.”

She studied me. “You fought for this territory?”

Leah jumped in instantly, smiling brightly.

“She did,” Leah said. “She was brave.”

The official’s gaze remained on me. “And you support this joining?”

James’s hand tightened on the table.

I felt his eyes on me like pressure.

I kept my voice even. “I support the pack’s safety.”

Leah’s smile widened, delighted.

Rebecca’s eyes narrowed slightly, like she wanted to punish me for speaking without permission.

But the official nodded.

“That’s good,” she said. “Unity matters.”

James exhaled like he’d been holding his breath.

Leah turned to the hall, lifting her glass again.

“To unity!” she called.

The pack cheered.

“To unity!”

The noise rose.

20

And for a moment, everything looked perfect.

Like a pack ready for the Union.

Like a pack that had moved on smoothly.

Like a new Luna embraced.

Like a former Luna quietly compliant.

The Union representative, the male official who seemed to carry the most authority, stood.

The hall hushed quickly.

He lifted his glass, his posture formal.

“Tonight,” he began, “I have seen a pack prepared for leadership.”

Cheers rose, but he lifted his hand, and the hall quieted again.

“I have seen discipline,” he continued. “Strength. Structure. Order.”

Leah’s smile glowed.

Rebecca sat taller.

James’s shoulders tightened, as if he wasn’t allowing himself to relax until the ink dried.

The official looked at James.

“Alpha James Nightwind,” he said clearly. “Your pack has shown readiness.”

A wave of cheers spread.

He turned slightly, scanning the hall.

“The Nightwind pack,” he declared, “is ready to join the Union.”

The hall erupted.

People stood.

Shouts.

1.00

Cheers.

Fists pounding tables.

Someone cried out, “Finally!”

Someone else yelled, “We’re safe!”

Leah clasped her hands together, eyes shining like she’d been given a crown.

James rose too, lifting his glass high.

“Thank you,” he said loudly, voice firm.

The official nodded.

“Bring the documents,” he ordered.

A servant hurried forward with a thick folder.

The official stepped toward the head table.

The hall quieted again, anticipation thick.

Leah leaned toward James, voice sweet and intimate, loud enough for a few nearby to

hear.

“We did it,” she whispered.

James didn’t answer her.

His eyes were locked on the folder.

On the pen.

On the moment.

The official opened the folder.

He flipped through pages, scanning.

He reached the final sheet.

He lifted the pen.

My heart didn’t jump.

My body didn’t celebrate.

I just watched, tense, silent, waiting for the next humiliation, the next demand, the next

proof that nothing here was mine anymore.

The official lowered the pen toward the paper.

And then,

A scream tore through the hall.

Not a startled gasp.

Not a small cry.

A full, sharp, panicked scream that sliced through every sound like a blade.

Leah.

The pen froze midair.

The entire hall froze.

Leah’s chair scraped back as she jolted up, clutching her stomach.

“Ah, !” she screamed again, louder. “James!”

The hall erupted in confusion.

“What happened?”

“Luna!”

“Leah!”

James was on his feet instantly, chair clattering behind him.

“Leah!” he barked.

Leah doubled over, trembling, her face twisting in shock and fear.

“I, I,” she gasped, voice cracking. “It hurts!”

Rebecca shot up, eyes wide.

“What did you do?” she snapped, scanning the hall like she expected an attacker to step

forward.

Leah’s attendants rushed toward her, panicking, hands fluttering uselessly.

“Luna, breathe,”

“Luna, sit,”

Leah screamed again, louder, and then froze.

Her eyes went wide.

Her mouth opened as if to speak.

Then she looked down.

Blood.

It seeped through the fabric between her legs, dark and fast.

A collective gasp ripped through the hall.

“Oh my Goddess,”

“She’s bleeding!”

Leah’s attendants screamed.

“Help her!”

“Get Lesley!”

Someone pushed back, knocking a chair over.

The Union officials stepped back quickly, their faces hard, eyes narrowing.

The authoritative male official snapped, “What is happening?”

Leah clutched James’s arm, nails digging into him.

“My baby!” she cried, voice shrill. “James, my baby!”

James’s face turned savage.

“Lesley!” he roared.

A few people surged toward the door instinctively.

A guard at the door shouted, “Stop! No one leaves!”

The hall faltered, confusion rising.

“What?”

“Why can’t we leave?”

Leah let out a sob and folded again, trembling.

Rebecca’s voice rose, sharp as a whip.

“Someone did this!” she shrieked. “Someone poisoned her!”

James’s eyes snapped across the hall like he wanted to kill the first person he saw.

“Move!” he barked at Leah’s attendants.

They scrambled back, sobbing.

Leah’s knees buckled.

James caught her.

He lifted her easily, like she weighed nothing, like he was moving on instinct.

Leah clung to him, crying.

“Don’t let her take my baby,” she sobbed. “Don’t,”

Rebecca rushed after them, frantic.

<31 The Banquet That Bled: Applause

“James, hurry!”

The Union official stepped forward, voice hard.

“Alpha Nightwind,” he said sharply. “Explain this.”

James didn’t stop.

He didn’t even look.

His voice was a growl.

“Seal the hall,” he ordered. “No one leaves.”

The guards moved immediately, shutting doors, locking bolts.

The hall erupted.

People stood, shouting.

“Why are we trapped?”

“Let us out!”

“Union leaders are here!”

A warrior near the middle table shouted, “This is madness!”

The authoritative Union official’s face tightened.

“This is unacceptable,” he said coldly.

Leah screamed again in James’s arms, drowning out everything.

A woman near Leah’s seat suddenly shrieked and pointed.

“Her cup!”

Everyone looked.

Leah’s cup sat on the table, half full.

A man, one of the older warriors with a strong nose, leaned forward and sniffed it.

His eyes widened.

He jerked back like the scent burned.

“Wolfsbane,” he spat.

The word hit the hall like a bomb.

Gasps.

Cries.

Shouts.

“Wolfsbane?!”

“Who would,”

“Someone tried to kill her!”

Rebecca turned, eyes wild, face twisted with fury.

“Find them!” she screamed. “Find the traitor!”

People began shouting over each other.

“I didn’t do it!”

“Why would I do that?”

“This is a set-up!”

The Union officials moved closer together, guarded, their hands near their sides like they

were ready to draw weapons if needed.

The authoritative male official’s voice cut through, loud and commanding.

“Enough!”

The hall quieted slightly, but panic still surged beneath it.

He pointed toward the head table.

31 The Banquet

Bled. App!

“That drink,” he demanded, “who prepared it?”

Servants began trembling.

One stammered, “I, I don’t know,”

A guard grabbed him by the arm.

“Answer!”

The servant cried, “It was poured from the main pitcher, the Luna’s attendant brought it, ”

Leah’s attendant screamed, “No! No, I didn’t!”

Rebecca’s eyes blazed.

“Liar!” she shrieked.

James carried Leah toward the doors, his face carved into rage and urgency.

He barked again, “Lesley! Now!”

A guard ran ahead of him.

The hall erupted again as the doors remained sealed.

“No one leaves!” a guard repeated.

People pushed forward anyway.

Someone slammed fists against the door.

“Open it!”

“Let us out!”

“We didn’t do anything!”

Union security moved, positioning themselves.

The authoritative official’s eyes were cold.

“This is chaos,” he said.

<31 The Banquet That Bled: Applause for My Replacement

His female colleague narrowed her eyes.

“Your pack claims unity,” she said sharply. “Yet this happens at the signing?”

The third official, quiet until now, spoke, voice low but firm.

“This will delay the process.”

James didn’t answer them.

He didn’t look back.

He carried Leah out of the hall, moving fast.

Rebecca followed, sobbing and yelling instructions.

“Get more guards!”

“Find the poison!”

“Lock them in!”

The doors slammed shut after James and his escort passed through.

And the hall remained sealed.

No one was allowed to leave.

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