All Chapters of THE SPARE LUNA: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The meeting ended without another word. One by one, the elders stood and left the chamber. My parents followed them. My father did not even look back at me. My mother paused at the door. For a moment, I thought she might say something. She didn’t. She simply walked away. I remained seated. The room suddenly felt much larger than before. Deucalion was still there, standing near the window with his back toward me. His parents had already left. I stared at him. “So that’s it?” He didn’t turn. “The decision has been made.” “You all are just so pathetic.” My voice came out bitter. “I just thought I should at least have a say in my own life.” He finally turned around. “You had a say.” I laughed without humor. “When?” His eyes hardened. “You asked to leave. The answer was no.” “That isn’t having a say.” He said nothing. I stood. “I don’t understand you. You clearly dont—” “You don’t need to.” I looked at him for several seconds before walking out. By the afternoon, the enti

The door slammed shut behind us. I stood in the middle of the guest room, breathing hard. My arm still stung where he had gripped it. Deucalion locked the door. The soft click made my stomach twist. He turned to face me. His eyes were dark. Not angry in the way I expected. Something else sat there. Something heavier. He walked toward me slowly. I stepped back until my legs hit the edge of the bed. He stopped right in front of me. His voice was low when he spoke. “Do you want to know why I refused to let you leave during the meeting?” I looked up at him. “Why?” He leaned down until his mouth was close to my ear. His breath was warm against my skin. “Because you happen to be one of the Lunas I have ever enjoyed on a bed.” The words hit me harder than the slap I had given the maid. I pulled back to look at his face. “What?” He didn’t repeat himself. He simply stared at me. “Get on the bed.” I shook my head. “Explain that first.” “No.” “You cannot just say some

The stranger finally moved. He stepped away from the stone pillar and started walking toward me. I remained where I was. Part of me was curious. Another part of me was cautious. Still, we were in the middle of a crowded hall. There were dozens of people around us. Whatever his intentions were, he could not easily do anything foolish without everyone seeing. So I stayed still and watched him approach. With every step, I noticed more about him. He was tall, well-built, and dressed in a perfectly fitted black suit. His movements were calm and confident, but there was nothing arrogant about him. Everything about him suggested good breeding. When he finally stopped in front of me, he smiled. “Good evening.” His voice was smooth. “Good evening.” He extended both hands toward me. “My name is Lucian Vale.” I looked at his hands for a moment before placing mine in them. “Malia.” His smile widened. “Malia,” he repeated, as though testing the sound of my name.

The next morning I heard it by accident. Two servants were speaking near the laundry room when I passed. “The Alpha asked about her again this morning.” “He wanted to know if she ate.” “He has been asking more often.” I stopped walking. My heart gave a strange, uncomfortable beat. Deucalion had asked about me. The same man who could barely look at me for weeks. The same man who told me the marriage was only duty. The same man who moved me into the guest room the moment Aria arrived. Why was he asking about me now? I walked away before the servants noticed me. All day the question stayed in my head. I tried to ignore it. I tried to tell myself it meant nothing. But the more I thought about it, the more restless I became. By late afternoon I could no longer sit still. I needed answers. I needed to know where he stood. If he was going to keep treating me like an unwanted duty while somehow tracking my every move, I wanted him to say it to my face. That evening I changed int

After that night, my life inside Blackridge became even harder. Deucalion’s order had spread through the house. Every guard knew I was not allowed to leave the grounds without his permission. Every servant seemed to know it too. I could not walk to the garden without someone watching me. I could not visit the library without a guard appearing nearby. Even when I went downstairs for water, I felt eyes following me. I was being watched. And Aria made sure I never forgot why. She started appearing everywhere Deucalion was. At breakfast, she sat beside him. In the garden, she walked with him. In the evenings, she found reasons to stay near him, laughing at things he said and touching his arm whenever she had the chance. I knew she was doing it because she wanted me to see. One afternoon, I entered the library and found them together. Aria was sitting beside Deucalion on the long sofa. Her head rested against his shoulder while he read something from a book. She looked up when sh