All Chapters of His Dying Luna Became His Greatest Enemy : Chapter 41 - Chapter 49

"Absolutely not." Ella's voice cut through the kitchen like a blade, sharp enough that even Leo startled slightly in his highchair. "Hell no, Aria. I don't care how desperate we are for answers, I am not comfortable putting our fate in that man's hands. Not after everything he's done to you."I sat back against the counter and let her finish, because I understood exactly where the fire in her voice was coming from. I'd felt it myself, every single day for months."I'm not asking you to trust him," I said finally. "I don't trust him either, Ella. Believe me, out of every person left standing in this world, he is the very last one I want to sit across from ever again.""Then why are we even having this conversation?""Because we don't have another option." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "He's the one who took those wounded soldiers. He's the one holding whatever answers they have locked inside them. If we want to know why James sent his warriors after my children, Damon is the

ELLA POVPacking for a trip back into James's territory should have felt like walking toward my own execution. Instead, I found myself oddly calm, folding a single change of clothes into a bag while Aria hovered in the doorway looking like she wanted to physically block the exit."You don't have to do this," she said, for what had to be the fifth time that morning."We've had this conversation." I zipped the bag closed and looked up at her. "Someone has to talk to him directly, Aria, and it can't be you. You're the one he's after. Walking you into his territory would be like delivering the exact thing he wants straight to his front door.""And walking you in isn't dangerous?""It's less dangerous than the alternative." I softened my voice, because I could see the fear underneath her frustration, plain as anything. "I know him. Whatever he's become, whatever he's planning, I still understand how he thinks better than anyone else you know. If there's a version of this where we get real

ARIA POVI was folding the last of the tiny onesies when my phone lit up with Ella's name, and I answered before it even finished its first ring."Hey, stranger," I said, smiling despite myself. "I was starting to think you'd forgotten how phones work.""Please. I've called you three times today, you're just too busy being a security-obsessed hermit to notice." Her voice sounded tired but steady, which was more reassuring than anything else she could have said. "How's my favorite fortress holding up?""Standing. Barely. How about you? Any progress?""Nothing solid yet. James is being predictably slippery about the whole thing — lots of vague answers, lots of 'we'll discuss it soon,' absolutely nothing that actually resembles useful information." She sighed, and I could picture her rubbing her temple the way she did whenever frustration got the better of her. "Rian thinks he's stalling deliberately. I think Rian's probably right, unfortunately.""Please be careful.""I am being careful

ARIA POVI woke up in a panic, already halfway out of the bed before my eyes had even fully adjusted to the morning light, heart slamming against my ribs with the certainty that something had gone wrong overnight."They're safe. You're safe too."The voice stopped me cold. I turned and found Damon sitting in the chair beside the bed, still in the same clothes from the night before, dark circles carved deep beneath his eyes like he hadn't slept a single minute.For one unguarded second, something soft and unwelcome moved through my chest — pity, maybe, or the ghost of an old tenderness I thought I'd buried months ago. He looked exhausted in a way that went beyond physical, the kind of tired that settles into a person's bones after carrying something too heavy for too long.It disappeared almost as fast as it came.I stood without a word and crossed the room to the bassinet, checking Luna and Leo the way I needed to check them myself, with my own eyes, regardless of how many times Damon

ARIA POVThe pull started somewhere beneath sleep, in that strange space where dreams haven't quite formed but consciousness hasn't fully let go either.*Aria.*My own name, except not spoken the way anyone spoke it. Deeper. Older. Coming from somewhere inside me rather than outside, like my wolf had found her way to the very edge of my mind and was pressing against it, insistent, urgent, trying to drag me toward something I couldn't yet see.*Aria. Wake, something is—*The rest dissolved before I could catch it, words scattering the way dreams always did the harder you reached for them. I felt myself being pulled deeper instead of closer, the pressure building behind my ribs like something was trying to claw its way loose from the inside.I'd felt this before. Not often — maybe three or four times over the last year, always fleeting, always gone before I could make sense of it. But this time it didn't fade the way it usually did. This time it held on, sharp and insistent, my wolf str