Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 156 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 156

Chapter 156 Forced To Swallow It

Phina’s POV

20

Finished

Rita called back within the hour, and I could tell from the first clipped syllable that whatever she’d found hadn’t improved her mood.

“I don’t care whether you actually copied that song,” she said, no room in her voice for argument. “What I care about is containment. If this spirals, it won’t matter whether you’re guilty. The story writes itself either way, and it’ll be the only thing anyone remembers about your debut.”

My wolf pressed low and anxious beneath my skin, the same restless hum that had kept me pacing since her first call. “Then what do we do?”

“Calm down first.” Her tone gentled by exactly the amount required to keep me functional, no more. “I’m bringing in a proper legal team to handle it. But hear me clearly, Phina, this is your one warning. If something like this happens again, guilty or not, there won’t be a second chance to clean it up. The pack gossip alone would finish what the lawsuit started.”

I nodded, though she couldn’t see it, my throat was too tight to answer properly. Even with everything Harold’s name opened for me, the studio’s resources, the top-tier producers, the doors that swung wide the instant anyone heard ‘Stonehedge’ attached to my name, Rita had never once let me coast on any of it. If I burned this chance, no amount of borrowed status would buy me another.

“You’re sure a lawyer can actually fix this?” The anxiety wouldn’t fully settle, no matter how many times she reassured me.

“I already booked the best team in the city,” she said, calm and certain in a way that usually steadied me instantly. “They’ll manage everything. You focus on staying quiet and letting them

work.”

“Who?” I asked, mostly out of habit, already bracing myself to hear some name I didn’t recognize.

“F-Tech. Poppy Farlane’s practice group, specifically. She signed the account this morning, moved fast the second word got out we might need representation.”

The name landed like ice water down my spine.

F-Tech.

I sat very still on my own sofa, the phone suddenly heavy in my hand, my wolf going utterly rigid beneath my skin.

11:51 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 156 Forced To Swallow It

AGE

20

Finished

Lady Flourish Steele ran F-Tech. I’d learned that much less than an hour ago, sitting in this exact spot, demanding Rita find out everything she could about the woman quietly funding both cases against me. And now, apparently, the very same company was about to become my shield.

“Rita.” My voice came out thinner than I wanted it to. “Are you certain about that? F-Tech, specifically?”

“That’s what I said. Why, is there a problem?”

I considered, for one long, careful breath, how much to tell her. Rita managed careers, not pack politics, she wouldn’t understand the particular tangle of history sitting underneath this coincidence, wouldn’t understand why the thought of Flourish Steele’s own company standing between me and a lawsuit felt less like protection and more like walking directly into a den I didn’t fully control.

“No,” I said finally. “No problem. Just surprised, that’s all.”

“Good. Let them handle the legal side. You focus on the press narrative – I’ll draft something for you to approve tomorrow, framing this as a coincidence being blown out of proportion by a jealous nobody trying to ride your momentum.” A pause, brisker now, business resuming its usual shape. “I have another call. We’ll talk in the morning.”

The line went dead before I could ask anything else.

I sat there a long moment, staring at nothing, my wolf pacing the same tight, restless circle she’d been pacing since Rita first said Flourish’s name out loud.

Poppy Farlane worked for Flourish. Answered to her, ultimately, however much independence she carried within her own practice group. Which meant the very team Rita had just hired to protect me sat, at the end of every reporting line, directly beneath the one woman I had every reason to believe wanted me exposed.

Coincidence, maybe. Stonehedge Holdings and F-Tech were mid-merger, every legal firm in this city with any real muscle behind it was circling that account right now, and Poppy simply happened to be fast enough to grab this one first.

It didn’t have to mean anything more sinister than opportunism.

But my wolf didn’t believe in coincidences this convenient, not after everything I’d already survived to get this far. Rowan’s death had taught me that lesson early and permanently, the world rarely handed you anything for free, and the moment it looked like it had, that was exactly when you needed to start counting your fingers afterward.

I pulled up Rita’s contact again, my thumb hovering over the call button.

Then I set the phone down instead, unanswered, some old, careful instinct insisting that

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11:51 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 156 Forced To Swallow It

20

Finished

whatever I said next needed to happen in person, not over a line that could be recorded, traced, or repeated to the wrong ears.

I needed to see Poppy Farlane’s face myself before I trusted her with anything that mattered.

I was still turning that decision over when a new message lit up my screen, not from Rita, not from anyone in my contacts at all. A blocked number, three words long, sitting stark against the glow of my phone.

‘She already knows.’

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