Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 99

99 The Bond He Refused to Hide

Arya’s POV

When I saw Lev, everything in me stalled for a second.

I was surprised to see him.

And even more surprised to feel the bond slam into me with no room for denial.

Fated.

To him.

My wolf purred louder, almost smug, as if she had known before I did and was only waiting for me to

catch up. I sat very still, forcing my face blank, forcing my breathing steady, because the last thing I

was going to do was let anyone at this table see me unravel over a bond I did not ask for.

I composed myself quickly, but my mind moved just as fast.

The wedding.

The last time I saw him.

I had left them there and never returned. To anyone looking in from the outside, it must have looked

rude. Worse than rude. It must have looked disrespectful, chaotic, suspicious. Like I had simply

disappeared after making a scene out of nothing.

But it wasn’t my fault.

couldn’t come back because someone had the bright idea of locking me up in a toilet and leaving me

here to rot while my life burned outside.

My jaw tightened.

wondered if Lev had felt slighted. If he had been disappointed. Then I crushed the thought.

Why did it matter?

Why would a man like him, Lev Nikolaev, Future Alpha of Blackbirth, with all that power and status

wrapped around him like a second skin, want anything to do with me, bond or no bond?

And even if he did, I wasn’t looking for a mate.

Not now.

Not after what James had done.

(99 The Bond Me Refused to Hide

Not after blood, chains, and loss.

Not after a knife to my neck and a dead child.

I forced myself to look away from Lev and hold my posture steady.

Rebecca had once told me he was engaged, and as much as I hated that woman, there was no reason

for her to lie about something like that. Rebecca was wicked, yes, but that kind of lie would be

pointless. She preferred lies that caused damage. An engagement was too easy to verify.

So if Rebecca said he was engaged, he probably was.

Good.

That meant he would likely dismiss the bond.

That meant this would be simple.

That meant I could breathe.

Except my wolf wouldn’t stop purring.

Lev crossed the space between us and joined the table with that same calm way he moved, controlled,

efficient, never wasting a step. He didn’t storm in. He didn’t perform. He didn’t need to. Men like him

did not arrive loudly. They arrived and the room adjusted around them.

He took the seat beside me.

Beside me.

Not across. Not at a safe distance. Right beside me.

My shoulders locked for a fraction of a second before I made myself relax.

Maxwell looked at him once, then at me, and if he noticed the strange tension under my skin, he didn’t

call it out. He simply spoke like a man laying down fact.

“Lev,” Maxwell said, “Arya is now part of my pack.”

I kept my face straight and stared ahead.

Lev simply nodded.

No smile.

No visible reaction.

20 Bre Fund Fe Refused to Hide

No warmth in his tone.

No excitement.

“Understood,” he said, composed and unreadable.

That was all.

I swallowed the stupid little sting that came with that and scolded myself for even feeling it.

What had I expected?

He was composed to the point of cruelty, and I was sitting there with a cancelled claim on my neck

and grief in my bones. Of course he was going to be careful. Of course he was going to act like the

bond was nothing more than a complication to be managed.

In fact, his calm made me suspect exactly what I had already told myself.

He planned to dismiss it.

The breakfast started, and the silence turned awkward almost immediately.

Not because anyone was fumbling for manners.

Because there was too much unsaid.

Because Maxwell knew me.

Because Maxwell knew Lev.

Because I was trying very hard not to react to the mate scent curling through my senses.

Maxwell, tired of pointless silence, took charge of the conversation.

“So,” he said, looking directly at Lev, “how is it being head of the Union and Alpha of Blackbirth?”

I turned my attention to my plate so no one would see the shock hit me.

Head of the Union?

My pulse jumped again, but this time for a different reason.

I had not known.

No one had told me.

answered calmly, as if Maxwell had asked him how the weather was.

que Bund Me Refined to Hide

“Busy,” he said.

Maxwell snorted. “Busy?”

Lev took a sip of his drink. “You wanted details?”

A small sound nearly escaped me, but I kept it in.

That answer alone told me enough. They were familiar. Comfortable. Maxwell wasn’t afraid of him,

and Lev wasn’t interested in pretense around Maxwell.

I kept quiet, but my mind had already moved ahead.

If Lev was now head of the Union and Alpha of Blackbirth, then he was the very person James would

be trying to gain favour from if James was still clinging to that desperate ambition of his.

And if James kept chasing Union approval after everything, then he was even more of a fool than I already thought.

A bitter thought flashed through me before I could stop it.

That was, if James even had a pack left by the time Marcel was done with him.

I did not speak. I did not let my face betray me.

I was still thinking through the implications when I felt it.

A warm hand on my thigh.

Under the table.

I stiffened instantly and turned to look at Lev.

His face gave nothing away.

Nothing.

He did not look at me.

He did not smirk.

He did not even shift in his chair.

He sat there eating like a man discussing ordinary business while his hand rested on my thigh as if I belonged to him.

The audacity of it hit me first.

The Bond He Refused to Hide

Then the heat.

Then Ria’s delighted purr, traitorous and deep.

I stared at him, my eyes narrowing.

He still didn’t look at me.

Slowly, carefully, I slid my hand down and pushed his hand off my thigh.

Not dramatic.

Not weak.

A warning.

His fingers moved when I pushed them, and I caught it then, a faint smile on the corner of his mouth.

Brief.

Gone in a blink.

But I saw it.

Heat crept into my face before I could stop it, and anger followed fast, because I knew exactly what he

had done.

He had touched me just to see what I would do.

He had tested my reaction.

He had enjoyed it.

Maxwell either didn’t notice or pretended not to.

He continued speaking, his tone easy but direct.

Will the Blackbirth dinner party still be happening?” he asked.