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.

she broke the

a tedious thing,

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

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Chapter 947

uength to speak, and even if i did, i

could i

i wasn’t fair!

and demand to know why Grayson

everything, to have him back

None of it would change the reality of the ect, torty,

I said nothing

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

you could wwwynything that waynth for we the loss, the pain and know that this exact moment was waiting for good mood you have cars sex toonzekerer’s

sucked in a shaky breath. My fingers day, who the cold dirt beneda me, denching to

you expect me to answer that?” My voice came out hoarse, raw with put, “How could I not have loved him?

too much understanding, “Loving, tám does not make his death my less

real.”

my throat, but it didn’t help. The tightness in my chest only grew, upecang until it felt impossible

this pain,” She continued, her voice Meady, certain. “But pain is not proof of weakness. It is

one day, they would. Maybe, years from now,

comfort in them.

right now, they

would ever be okay.

wasn’t strong enough

still out there, waiting in the shadows, biding his time. That it was only a matter

About all the people focusing on the

But I didn’t.

care about any

to tell Raina to leave–to beg her for just one moment of solitude–when a sharp, searing pain exploded in my chest. It felt familiar. The kind that I hadn’t been able to understand where it came

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Chapter 247

to breath but the breath never

of copper flooded my mouth. Another cough tore from my throat, harder

crimson streaks spilled onto Grayson’s grave.

stomach twisted violently, nausea rising as something deep inside me–something old, something,

all at once, it hit

Burning.

like venom through my veins, like fire licking at my

scream ripped from my throat, I doubled over, my nails raking against the dirt as my body convulsed, every nerve

haze,

heard

anything over the deafening roar of whatever was inside me–whatever

a breaking point and then

a force so violent that the earth trembled beneath us. The graveyard quaked, cracks splitting through the ground like

by the sheer force of whatever was happening to me. My limbs locked, my skin burned, my head pounded with something