Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 86

86 Adopted by an Alpha, Betrayed by a Mate 4

Arya’s POV

Maxwell watched me for a moment. Then he spoke.

“Tell me everything.”

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It wasn’t curiosity.

It was command.

But it wasn’t cruel.

He wasn’t asking like an Alpha collecting gossip.

He was asking like a father who had already decided he would carry whatever truth I handed him.

My throat tightened.

I didn’t cry.

Not now.

I swallowed and started.

I told him about the day Marcel came to our pack.

I told him about the pressure, the demands, the promises that sounded like safety but felt like a leash.

I told him about Leah, how she arrived like she owned the place, how she smiled in public and

sharpened her cruelty in private.

I told him about how the pack shifted, how people who used to call me Luna started looking at me like

I was a stain.

I told him about the accusations.

Lisa

Margaret

The poisoned story.

The way the crowd wanted a villain and I was already bleeding, already convenient.

I told him about the cell.

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The silver

The way it burned my skin.

The way it weakened me until standing felt like punishment.

I told him about the flogging.

The whip cutting deep.

The pack’s laughter.

The way people pointed like my pain was entertainment.

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I told him about James, how he justified it, how he said he was protecting me, how he said he had no

choice.

I didn’t dress it up.

I didn’t make it poetic.

I told it like a crime report.

Then I told him about my baby.

How I lost the baby.

How Lesley said it gently and still the words shattered me.

How my body felt like it had failed.

How my grief turned into rage because there was nothing else left to hold me upright.

I told him about Leah coming into my room and admitting she poisoned herself.

I told him about smashing her face into the wall.

I watched Maxwell’s eyes darken at that.

I didn’t apologise.

Then I told him about the attack.

How it hit the pack like a blade in the dark.

How the pack bled.

How I fought anyway.

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< 86 Adopted by an Alpha, Betrayed by a Mate 4

How I left.

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E Mens

I said it all.

No softness.

No protection.

No excuses.

But I didn’t tell him about the bond James cut. About the rogue brand. I couldn’t. At least not yet.

By the time I finished, my throat was dry.

My hands were steady on the table only because I forced them to be.

Maxwell’s expression had changed completely.

His eyes were darker now.

His jaw clenched so hard it looked like it might crack.

His hands tightened on the table, knuckles whitening.

For a moment, I thought he might flip the table just to have something break.

Then he spoke, voice low and furious.

“How,” he said, “could he believe that sly fox over his own mate?”

His voice rose slightly, anger thick.

“All because he didn’t want to fight,” Maxwell snarled. “Since when did council officers visit packs for signing?”

I frowned, sharp confusion cutting through my rage.

“What?” I asked.

Maxwell stared at me like the question offended him.

Then he pushed back from the table and leaned forward, voice clipped and brutal.

“The Union joining process is not done like that,” he said. “It never has been.”

My stomach tightened.

Maxwell didn’t slow down.

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“A pack has to be in existence for five years,” he said, tapping the table once. “Then the Alpha and Luna go to the head office in Blackbirth. Verification is done there. Licence is issued. Certificate is

issued.”

My pulse picked up.

Maxwell’s eyes narrowed as if he was slicing through a lie.

“The reason is simple,” he continued. “If a pack has lasted five years, it won’t be easily disbanded. It

stops impulsively formed packs from getting certified, then collapsing the next month. It’s to stop

chaos.”

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