Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 157 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 157

Chapter 157 A Door Closing

Lady Flourish’s POV

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Finished

For three days, I worked the case quietly, careful not to let it touch anything with F-Tech’s name attached.

I combed through Ethan’s original files myself, cross-referenced timestamps, and reached out personally to two music critics whose reputations carried real weight in the industry.

Both agreed to record video breakdowns of the overlap between the tracks; measure for measure, phrase for phrase, the kind of expert testimony that could turn a shaky plagiarism claim into something a court couldn’t easily wave off.

Given that Ethan’s original had been registered years before Phina’s version ever existed, I put our odds somewhere around sixty to seventy percent in his favor.

Good odds, for a case this messy. My wolf hummed with the particular satisfaction of watching a strategy click into place piece by piece, the same low, focused thrum I felt every time a negotiation started tilting my way.

That confidence lasted exactly until my phone buzzed with a message from Ethan.

‘Ms. Steele, I’m sorry for the trouble these past few days. I’ve decided not to pursue this after

all.’

I read it twice, certain I’d misunderstood something. I typed back immediately. ‘What happened? If you’re worried about losing, don’t be. Losing the first round isn’t the end of it. We can appeal, and the critics’ testimony gives us real leverage either way.’

‘It’s not that,’ he replied. ‘I just don’t want to go through with the lawsuit.

I stared at the screen for a long moment, my wolf’s satisfaction curdling into something far more frustrated. There was nothing left to do. A lawyer couldn’t drag an unwilling client into court, no matter how strong the case looked on paper. Once he pulled the plug, the whole thing simply stopped existing.

That evening, once Wren finished her shoot, she pulled me into a small, secluded lounge that guaranteed nobody would recognize either of us before last call.

“Finally done,” she said, dropping into the booth across from me with the loose, satisfied exhaustion of someone who’d spent the day doing genuinely dangerous stunt work and lived to brag about it. “I did wire work today. Looked incredible, if I do say so myself.”

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Chapter 157 A Door Closing

“You did great,” I said, and even I could hear how flat it came out.

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Finished

Wren didn’t need a second look to catch it – her nose tipped up, faint and automatic, the particular tell of a wolf reading the room the way most people only managed with their eyes. “You’re somewhere else tonight. What’s wrong?”

I shook my head, but the frustration slipped out anyway. “Your friend backed out of the lawsuit. I don’t suppose you know why.”

Wren’s connection to Ethan went back years, a soundtrack collaboration, back when he’d still been trying to make it as a performer rather than just the composer everyone else quietly relied on.

His singing had never quite landed with audiences, but half the industry’s biggest names had built hits off songs he’d written and handed away without ever taking credit for himself.

When the plagiarism rumors started circling, Wren had sent him straight to me, certain I was the only lawyer who’d actually fight for him instead of just billing hours.

“He’s really backing out?” She went still for a second, then reached for her phone. “Give me a minute. I’ll find out what’s actually going on.”

She stepped outside to make the call, and I sat there turning my glass in slow circles, my wolf still restless, unwilling to let the case go quite as easily as my hands had already been forced to.

Ten minutes later, she came back looking considerably less relaxed than when she’d left.

“I owe you the real story,” she said, sliding back into the booth. “He didn’t tell you everything. Stonehedge Studios leaned on him hard, making it clear that if he kept pushing, doors would start closing all over the industry. Quietly, nothing traceable, just enough that every producer he’d ever want to work with suddenly stopped returning calls.” She winced. “I’m sorry, Flourish. I sent him to you thinking you could actually help.”

I let out a quiet laugh, more tired than amused. “Nothing to apologize for. He’s the one whose work got stolen, and now he’s the one forced to swallow it just to keep working.” The unfairness of it sat heavy and familiar, an old, well-worn shape I recognized from every other corner of pack politics I’d ever navigated.

Wren studied me a moment longer, clearly debating whether to say the next part at all. “There’s one more thing. I overheard part of the call before he picked up, my manager was on the line with someone from Stonehedge’s side, arranging their own legal defense.” She hesitated. “Flourish, they already hired counsel. F-Tech’s handling it.”

My stomach dropped straight through the floor of the booth.

“F-Tech,” I repeated slowly, the word tasting wrong in my mouth. “Which team?”

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Chapter 157 A Door Closing

Wren’s expression turned apologetic before she even said it. “Poppy Farlane’s.”

Finished

I sat back against the booth, my wolf gone suddenly, sharply still, every careful piece of the last three days rearranging itself into a shape I hadn’t seen coming at all.

My own company. My own building. Somewhere down the hall from my own office, a team I technically had authority over was about to spend the next several weeks building a defense for the exact woman I’d been quietly working to expose.

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