Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 164 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 164

Chapter 164 Meeting Her

Alpha Damian’s POV

Harold’s question hung in the air between us, waiting, his eyes fixed on me with a hope I had no intention of feeding tonight.

I let the silence stretch longer than was comfortable for either of us, weighing exactly how much truth he could handle against how much he actually deserved to know. In the end I gave him neither. “Go home, Harold. I’ll look into it.”

Something in his shoulders loosened, relief flooding through a face too exhausted to hide it properly. “Thank you, Cousin Damian.”

“It’s nothing.” I waved him off, already turning back toward my desk, my attention already sliding somewhere he couldn’t follow it. “We’re family.”

The word left my mouth cleanly, and I heard exactly how hollow it landed even as I said it, the way it always did whenever I used it on him.

Family had never been the thing holding Harold and me together, not really. Blood, obligation, the careful pack arithmetic our fathers had built between two branches that had never quite trusted each other, that was closer to the truth of it. Harold heard the hollowness too, I suspected, though he was too worn down tonight to push against the shape of it. He left without another word, his footsteps fading down the hall.

Bram stepped in the moment the door clicked shut behind him. “Alpha Damian. Should we have the trending topic pulled?”

I raised an eyebrow, unhurried, settling back into my chair. “Why the rush? If she had the nerve to steal someone else’s work, she can manage the consequences of getting caught with it.”

“You told Alpha Harold you would look into it.”

“I did.” I let a thin, deliberate smile touch my mouth. “I said I’d look into it. I never once said I’d take it down.”

I never misspoke. Every sentence I’d given Harold tonight had been built to leave me exactly this much room to maneuver, and he’d been too exhausted, too desperate for reassurance, to notice the gap I’d left myself standing in.

Bram observed me a moment, wearing the particular careful stillness he only used when deciding how far he was actually allowed to push a question with me. “You’re letting her burn.”

“I’m letting the truth surface on its own.” I moved to the window, watching the city settle into its late, indifferent glow far below. “If Phina genuinely stole that song, this exposure was coming

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11:59 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 164 Meeting Her

20

Finished

regardless of anything I did or didn’t do tonight. All I’ve declined to do is spend my own capital protecting her from consequences she brought entirely on herself.”

“And if she didn’t steal it?”

I turned that possibility over slowly, though I already suspected the answer wasn’t nearly that simple, not with Karl’s name sitting where it had no business being.

“Then someone wanted it to look exactly like she did, badly enough to manufacture proof convincing enough to fool a respected critic into staking his own reputation on it.” My jaw tightened at the thought. “Either way, Harold needs to see clearly what he’s actually protecting before this goes any further than it already has. He can’t do that if I keep handing him convenient answers every time he shows up here panicking.”

My wolf, restless since the moment I’d read Karl’s initial on that financial trail, hadn’t settled once tonight, no matter how carefully I’d kept my voice level in front of Harold.

Something about tonight’s timing felt too neat, too many separate pieces sliding into place at once for any of it to be coincidence. Ethan’s withdrawn lawsuit.

The trending scandal breaking exactly when it would cause the most damage. Harold rattled enough to come begging at my door instead of thinking clearly for even a moment.

And Flourish, circling every piece of it from the outside entirely unaware, never once suspecting how many separate hands might already be reaching for the same thread she’d been quietly pulling all week.

My phone buzzed against the desk. Fenwick’s tracking alert, the one I’d set quietly three nights ago after the scent outside my own villa, the one Flourish didn’t know existed yet because I hadn’t found the right way to explain it without sounding like I didn’t trust her to handle her own safety.

I’d told myself I’d bring it up gently, once things settled. I was starting to suspect that moment had already come and gone without my noticing.

I read the notification twice before the words fully registered.

‘Harold Virel’s vehicle, en route to Flourish Steele’s residence. Current speed suggests urgency.’

My wolf came up snarling before my human mind had even finished parsing the sentence properly.

“Bram.” My voice came out low, dangerous in a register I rarely let slip in front of anyone but him. “Get the car. Now.”

“Alpha Damian?” He was already moving, reading the shift in me before I’d explained a single detail of what had actually happened.

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11:59 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 164 Meeting Her

20

Finished

“Harold’s headed to Flourish’s building.” I was already halfway to the door, my earlier calm burning away entirely, replaced by something sharper, older, considerably less patient than the man who’d just sent his own cousin home with a hollow reassurance. “If he thinks tonight’s the night to corner her over a scandal I let happen, he’s about to learn exactly how much of my restraint tonight was actually generosity, and how little of it is left.”

I hadn’t lied to Harold, not technically. I’d simply let him believe protection and patience were the same thing, and it was costing me now, watching that same misplaced confidence carry him straight toward the one person in this city I had absolutely no intention of losing to anyone, family or otherwise, blood or not.

The drive across the city stretched longer than it had any right to, every red light feeling like a personal insult, my wolf pacing beneath my skin the entire way there, already half convinced I wouldn’t arrive in time to matter at all.

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11:59 Thu, Oct 1

1 Refuse To Be Your Luna