The Alpha King's Contracted Luna by Nelson Claudia

Chapter 247

Chapter 247

-Ava’s POV-

1 froze.

For a second, I forgot how to breathe, how to think, how to do anything but stare. My heart thundered so violently it hurt, my pulse pounding in my ears like war drums.

And then–when I finally moved, when I blinked-

He was gone,

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A fresh wave of grief slammed into me, knocking the breath from my lungs, crushing me beneath its unbearable weight. My entire body shuddered as the hope that had briefly flared within me was torn away, leaving nothing but an aching, gaping void. The wind howled, rattling the trees, kicking up loose leaves and dust, but I barely registered it.

Because he wasn’t there.

Because it had only been my mind playing cruel tricks on me, dangling the impossible in front of me before yanking it

away.

A choked sob tore from my throat, raw and broken. I collapsed forward, my forehead pressing against the cold, damp earth as tears poured freely down my cheeks. I cried until my voice was hoarse, until my lungs burned, until there was nothing left inside me but emptiness.

Until the world blurred.

Until everything faded into nothingness.

Until I was just an empty, shattered thing kneeling in the dirt, holding onto a love that no longer existed.

I didn’t know how much time passed. Minutes. Hours. Maybe longer. The sky had darkened, the last remnants of daylight bleeding into the horizon like a dying ember.

Then, after what felt like an eternity, I felt someone sit beside me.

At

first, I didn’t react. I was too exhausted, too hollow, too consumed by the weight of my grief to care who it was. But then, with every ounce of strength I could muster, I turned my head–just enough to glance at the figure beside me.

It

was Raina.

My grandmother sat there, her back straight, hands folded neatly in her lap, her silver hair catching the dim light. She wasn’t looking at me. Her gaze was fixed on the tombstone, her expression unreadable. She didn’t speak, didn’t reach for me, didn’t offer any empty words of comfort.

She just sat there, silent.

And so, I looked away.

The two of us sat in that silence for what felt like forever, both lost in our own thoughts, our own pain.

finally, she broke the

tedious thing,

quiet, almost contemplative, like she wasn’t speaking to me but rather to the

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Chapter 947

uength to speak, and even if i did, i

could i

i wasn’t

I wanted to scream at the sky and demand to know why Grayson was taken from

I would trade anything, everything,

change the reality of the ect, torty, gin front

I said nothing

ute. Torn, Ken syke again, her voice barely louder than the whisper of

take it all back,” she murmured, her words dow, carted. ” you could wwwynything that waynth for we the loss, the pain and know that this exact

ran through me, and I sucked in a shaky breath. My fingers day, who the cold dirt beneda me, denching to tightly that my nails bit into my palins,

with put, “How could I not have loved him? How could I not

much understanding, “Loving, tám does not

real.”

swallowed the lump in my throat, but it didn’t help. The tightness in my chest only grew, upecang until it

certain. “But pain is not proof of weakness. It is proof

would. Maybe,

comfort in them.

they meant nothing

this would ever be okay.

strong enough to move forward,

that the realm no longer had a king, That Damien was still out there, waiting in the shadows, biding his time. That

About the realm. About the crown. About all the people focusing on the fact that I

But I didn’t.

about any

moment of solitude–when a sharp, searing pain exploded in my chest. It felt familiar.

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Chapter 247

but the breath

flooded my mouth. Another cough

spilled onto Grayson’s

something deep inside me–something

then, all at once, it hit

Burning.

through my veins, like fire licking at my bones, like something

doubled over, my nails raking against the dirt as my body

haze, sharp with

barely heard

the deafening roar of whatever was inside me–whatever was clawing

a breaking point and then it exploded.

so violent that the earth trembled beneath us. The

gasped, my body seizing, my breath stolen by the sheer force of whatever was happening to me. My limbs locked, my skin burned, my head pounded with something ancient, something