Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 131 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 131

Chapter 131 Surprised To See Him There

Lady Flourish’s POV

Finished

The restaurant Julian had chosen turned out to be far more elegant than his reputation for stinginess suggested. A quiet courtyard threaded with small wooden bridges and koi ponds, greenery spilling over every railing, the whole place steeped in the kind of hush that made me lower my own voice without meaning to.

Even my wolf settled at the scent of it, clean water and cedar and old stone, nothing like the sharp, artificial perfumes of the salon we’d just left.

Lucinda tugged me along by the hand, chattering about how she intended to order the most expensive dish on the menu out of pure spite, entirely unbothered by the serene setting around us.

We reached our reserved room, and Lucinda slid the wooden door open with a flourish.

I froze in the doorway.

Damian sat at the low table inside, dressed down in a way I rarely saw him, his usual sharp tailoring traded for something more relaxed, his long legs stretched out beneath the table with the unbothered ease of a man completely at home.

His scent hit me a half second later, cedar and that faint cold-storm undertone I’d know anywhere now, filling the small room until it felt like the only air worth breathing.

“Uncle-” Lucinda caught herself, then blinked, clearly startled. “Damian? I didn’t know you’d be here too!”

I understood her surprise instantly. From everything I’d heard, Damian rarely ate anywhere outside his own kitchen, let alone a place like this.

“Come in, Lucy!” Julian called from beside him, then turned to me with an easy, familiar nod. “Hey there-“.

Whatever he intended to say next dissolved the moment I started coughing, sharp and sudden, my whole body flushing hot with the effort of not visibly reacting to the sight of Damian sitting there like he owned the room, which, in every sense that mattered to my wolf, he absolutely did.

Damian’s gaze cut to Julian with a warning sharp enough that even I felt the edge of it, and Julian, wisely, closed his mouth.

“Flourish, are you okay?” Lucinda pressed a hand to my back, genuine concern written across

her face.

11:43 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 131 Surprised To See Him There

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Finished

“Fine,” I managed, waving her off, my face burning. “Just the wrong pipe. I’ll be alright with some water.”

We settled onto the low cushions, and of course, of every possible seat in the room, I ended up directly across from him. My wolf noted the arrangement with entirely too much satisfaction, as if she’d personally engineered it.

His eyes tracked me the entire time I lowered myself down, something warm and faintly amused flickering behind the calm surface of his expression.

Even seated casually, there was no mistaking the coiled strength beneath the fabric of his slacks, the particular stillness of a predator entirely at ease in his own territory.

“Take it slow,” he said, sliding a cup of water toward me himself, his voice dropping into that low, deliberate register that did absolutely nothing to help my racing pulse.

I murmured a quiet thank-you, keeping my eyes fixed firmly on the cup rather than the man offering it. Beneath my blouse, the sapphire pendant had gone warm again, pulsing faint and steady against my skin, as though it recognized exactly whose territory I’d just walked into.

Julian, predictably, couldn’t resist. “So, Ms. Steele. Excited to be seeing Mr. Harold again?”

My grip tightened around the cup hard enough that I half expected it to crack.

Lucinda jumped in before I had to answer, laughing. “Julian, I think you’re the one who terrifies her, not Damian.”

“Excuse me?” Julian sputtered. “Why would I be the terrifying one?”

Damian took a slow, unhurried sip of his own drink. “Perhaps it’s your face.”

Lucinda burst out laughing so hard she nearly knocked over her own water glass. “There it is! I told you Damian doesn’t hold back!”

Julian gritted his teeth, visibly deflating. “Have you both forgotten who’s paying for this meal?”

Lucinda mimed zipping her lips shut, though the grin never left her face.

It was in the silence that followed, while Julian sulked and the server arrived with the first round of dishes, that I noticed Lucinda watching me a beat too long. Her gaze flicking between Damian and me with a slow, dawning focus that had nothing to do with the food in front of her.

She went suddenly, unnaturally still, nostrils flaring the barest fraction, the same subtle motion I’d caught my own wolf making a hundred times whenever something worth investigating crossed her path.

11:43 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 131 Surprised To See Him There

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22

Finished

Her eyes widened.

“Wait,” she said slowly, setting her chopsticks down without looking away from either of us. “Wait a second.”

The teasing had drained entirely out of her voice.

“Why do you two smell like the same bond?”

The words landed like a dropped plate, sharp and impossible to take back. Julian’s chopsticks stopped halfway to his mouth. Even the low murmur of water from the courtyard outside seemed to fade into the sudden, ringing silence of the room.

I didn’t dare look at Damian. I didn’t need to because I could feel the shift in him anyway, the way his stillness sharpened into something far more deliberate, a man deciding in real time exactly how much of the truth this dinner was about to survive.

My own wolf pressed close against my ribs, torn between the instinct to hide and the fierce, stubborn urge to simply let the truth stand.

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11:43 Thu, Oct 1

I Refuse To Be Your Luna

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