Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 143 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 143

Chapter 143 Alpha Harold’s Ex

Lady Flourish’s POV

Finished

I sent the text to Rhys and nearly walked straight into someone coming the other way around

the corner.

I looked up, and my stomach dropped somewhere near my shoes.

Ragnar.

Harold’s father. Second in line beneath old Alpha Magnus himself, and a man whose scent lheavy cedar and iron, unmistakably Stonehedge I’d have known blindfolded from across a crowded hall.

He looked just as startled to see me. “Flourish? Here to see Harold?”

–

“No, Alpha Ragnar.” I shook my head, keeping my tone light, professional, betraying absolutely nothing of the small, humiliating jolt his question had sent through me. “I’m here on business.”

Beside him, his assistant, a lean, sharp-eyed man I didn’t recognize placed the pieces together first. “Lady Flourish is with F-Tech, Alpha Ragnar. They’re handling outside counsel on the Dartwood merger.”

“Ah.” Ragnar’s expression cleared, and something in his posture relaxed by exactly the amount required for basic courtesy and not a hair more. “Of course.”

He offered me the kind of smile that didn’t reach his eyes at all, the smile of a man being perfectly polite because the alternative would look bad, not because he particularly wanted to be. “If you need anything from Stonehedge’s side, don’t hesitate to reach out to my assistant.” A beat. “I have another meeting. Good to see you, Flourish.”

And then he was gone, his scent fading down the corridor behind him, and I stood there for a moment longer than I meant to, working very hard to keep my expression exactly as pleasant as it had been thirty seconds ago.

I understood, of course. There had been a time years ago now, before either of us had grown into whoever we’d become when our fathers had spoken seriously about a match between our houses. Nothing formal.

Nothing that ever made it to paper. But enough that Ragnar had once looked at me the way pack elders look at family, not strangers.

That courtesy had quietly evaporated the moment the arrangement did, the same season Harold’s engagement to someone else became public knowledge. I didn’t blame him for it.

11:49 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 143 Alpha Harold’s Ex

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โรต

21

Finished

Pack alliances ran on usefulness, not sentiment my own father had taught me that lesson personally, in the back of a moving car, no less. I simply hadn’t expected it to sting quite this much, watching a door I’d never particularly wanted open shut so smoothly in front of me

anyway.

My wolf huffed, unbothered, already more interested in the memory of glasses and a low laugh in an empty conference room than in a closed door that had never truly belonged to either of

Fenwick

I walked Beta Rhys as far as the elevator bank, answered his question about next week’s scheduling, and turned back toward Alpha Damian’s office feeling reasonably pleased with how the afternoon had gone.

Ragnar’s assistant was waiting outside my door.

“Emeric,” I said, surprised. Stonehedge rarely sent anyone down to our floor unless something needed smoothing over. “Something I can help with?”

“Just confirming, you won’t need the east conference room again this evening? Alpha Ragnar has a call scheduled there at six.”

It was an odd question. There were four other rooms on that floor alone, and the booking schedule went out to the whole building every morning. Was he fishing for something?

“It’s free,” I said anyway, keeping my tone easy. “Alpha Damian’s finished with it for the day.”

Emeric nodded, satisfied, then paused halfway through turning to leave, the way people do when they’ve decided to say one more thing after all. “By the way, did F-Tech send over a Lady Flourish for this deal? I thought I recognized her in the hall just now.”

“That’s right. Why?”

“No real reason.” His mouth curved, faintly, in the particular way that meant there was absolutely a reason. “Just didn’t expect to see her back in this building, given everything.

Alpha Harold’s getting married soon, after all, best to keep old almost-arrangements at a comfortable distance, don’t you think? Wouldn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea.”

I felt my expression go carefully blank while my mind scrambled to catch up.

Almost-arrangement. With Harold.

I thought of Alpha Damian, twelve minutes late to every meeting he already owned, lingering

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11:49 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 14 Alpha Harold’s Ex

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Finished

behind in an empty conference room for a woman who worked outside counsel on a merger he’d personally slowed down just to keep his weekends free.

“I didn’t realize.” I said carefully, “that Lady Flourish had any history with Alpha Harold.”

Emeric’s smile didn’t waver. “Didn’t you? I assumed everyone knew.” He glanced once toward Alpha Damian’s closed office door, and something flickered behind his eyes that I couldn’t quite name. “Well. Have a good evening, Fenwick.”

He left before I could ask him a single one of the six new questions currently rearranging themselves in my head.

I stood there a moment longer, staring at Damian’s door, weighing whether this was information my Alpha would want tonight or information that would only make an already complicated week considerably worse.

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11:49 Thu, Oct 1

1 Refuse To Be Your Luna

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