Rise Of A Shattered Luna (Natalie) by Kave Derry novel Chapter 38

Chapter 38 The Cufflinks

Chapter 38 The Cufflinks

Natalie’s POV

“Baron, I want a new face.” The words left my throat like jagged glass.

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Before eighteen, I had been the daughter of the Summers family–the Alpha’s daughter trying to earn love that was never meant for her.

After that, I was Jensen’s secret weapon, kept in a cage of gratitude and silence. I never relied on his money, and I sacrificed my very soul to build his pack, but to the world, I was nothing but a wolfless girl.

The fire at twenty–three had severed that cord forever; it had burned away the girl who waited to be chosen or loved. From now on, I belonged to no one but myself. I was done being a reflection of Jensen’s guilt or Sharon’s jealousy.

Baron’s gaze sharpened, the tension in his shoulders loosening just a fraction. He didn’t look at me with the pity Jensen used to wear; he simply looked at me like a soldier weighing a survivor. There was no clinical distance in his eyes, just a heavy, focused intensity.

“Skin grafts and reconstruction are painful,” he said. His voice was a low, steady hum that grounded me. “The process is long and grueling. Are you sure about this, Natalie?”

“I’m sure.” I forced the words out past the agony in my nerves. My skin felt like it was still shrinking, pulling tight against my bone. “Thank you, Baron. I know you didn’t save me to hear me say that, but right now it’s all I have to offer. I know how things work with the Witch Doctor, he never helps anyone without a price. You can contact him for me, but I’ll negotiate the debt myself

No one got a miracle for free in the black market; I didn’t want more charity from him. I knew the legend of the man he spoke of. I’d lost

my rib to him.

Baron’s tone remained calm, though his eyes darkened for a split second. “We’ll deal with that later, and for the next month, you focus on one thing: healing. Don’t worry about anything else.”

“Okay.” I nodded, and the movement sent a flare of heat down my neck, but I didn’t flinch.

“Close your eyes and rest,” he commanded softly. “That’s what you need right now. If the pain becomes unbearable, tell me. have someone bring you pain relief sticks.”

I shook my head. My jaw tightened, my teeth grinding against the scream I was still holding back. “No. I want to remember this pain… every single moment of it.”

I wanted the fire to stay in my marrow, and I also wanted to remember what it felt like to be abandoned in the dark white the man loved walked away with my sister. I bit down on my lip until I tasted copper, my eyes locking onto his kneeded the agony to fact the reconstruction of the woman I was becoming.

But when I looked at Baron again, the steel in my gaze softened. There was a flicker of warmth in my chest/Countryqlam strange safety in his presence that I had never felt in five years at the Nightfang pack or at my home pack the Novumain pas

“Baron,” I whispered. “I made you something to thank you, it might be the last piece lever design with the sated

He froze.

For a second, the predatory Alpha in him vanished, replaced by a strange, quer antiopation, desta fingers twitching against the edge of my medical chart

“What did you make me?”

He leaned in close… His gaze was so clear, so focused on me, that it felt like staring into the eyes of a child–raw and unguarded.

It had been years since I saw someone look at me with that kind of uncomplicated interest.

I smiled, even though the motion cracked the dry skin of my lips and made blood bead at the corners. There was a warmth in my chest that had nothing to do with the fever.

“I designed a pair of cufflinks for you,” I said, my voice a ruined scrap of sound. “They’re with an old craftsman I’ve worked with for years. By now, they should be finished. I’ll give you the number–you can just say I sent you.”

I wished I could see what those cufflinks looked like on him. I knew my transcribing days were done, and I would never get another sacred stone again.

But those sketches were the last clean thing I had left. I had completed the designs before the fire and also sent out the last of the sacred stones.

I sent them off in a moment of lingering hope that I might actually have a friend to give them to.

Baron’s eyes lit up, a tiny, genuine lift of his lips following. Even the tiny mole at the corner of his eye seemed to burn a deeper red.

“You designed them just for me?”

“Yes.”

I nodded, and he couldn’t stop the slight shift in his expression. For a man who ruled Blackridge with a blade, he looked remarkably eager. It was the first time I had seen him look truly happy–not triumphant, but happy.

“Give me the phone number and the address,” he said, his voice dropping into a ton.

of urgent authority. “I’ll go pick them up

myself.”

To me, he really did seem like a child at that moment. He was eager to claim something that was purely his.

I couldn’t move, and I needed time to recover. I couldn’t show my face to the world yet, and I definitely couldn’tler Jensen find a trail.

“All right,” I said. “Just tell them you’re my client, I have a senior partner in the city who receives my deliveries. The package should include the design sheet and an order form with my signature and watermark. But Baron for now, I want to stay hidden.

Baron understood immediately, he didn’t ask questions. He didn’t push.

“I see, you need to rest. You don’t want the cufflinks to expose that you’re alive and give lessen the chance to pound star right?”

#yes”

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