Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 169 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 169

Chapter 169 What She Kept From Me

Alpha Damian’s POV

Finished

“Say that again,” I said, and I heard my own voice drop into a register that had nothing left in it of the man who’d just been teasing her about a bed.

“Three nights ago,” Flourish said, steadier than I expected, though I could hear the effort it cost her to keep it that way. “The night I brought you congee. When I got home, my door was unlocked. Nothing was taken. But there was a dried flower on my pillow. Black, brittle. Someone wanted me to know they’d been there.”

My wolf came up snarling, every earlier trace of warmth I’d been carrying since her call burning off entirely. Three nights. The exact same night my own property had been scented by a stranger who vanished before security could close the distance.

The exact same night I’d set that tracking alert on her location and told myself I’d explain it gently, once things settled.

“Why didn’t you tell me.” It came out sharper than I meant it to, and I heard her bristle on the other end of the line, some old, stubborn instinct in her rising to meet mine instead of backing down from it.

“Because you’d already spent that entire night convincing everyone at your villa there was danger circling both of us, and I didn’t want to hand you one more thing to feel responsible for,” she said. “I was handling it.”

“By not telling me.” The words landed harder than I wanted them to. “Flourish, I told you I’d explain everything to you from now on, every time, not after. That only works if it goes both directions.”

Silence stretched between us, long enough that I actually pulled the phone away from my ear to confirm the call hadn’t dropped.

“You’re right,” she said finally, quieter now, some of the fight draining out of her voice. “I should have told you that night. I’m telling you now.”

Something in my chest loosened, fractionally, though the fury underneath it hadn’t gone anywhere at all. “Three days is a long time for something like that to sit unaddressed.”

“I know.”

I closed my eyes, forcing myself to breathe through the particular helplessness of learning a threat had been sitting that close to her for three full days while I’d been busy chasing financial trails and midnight scandals halfway across the city. “I need you to come stay at the villa. Today. Until I understand exactly what we’re dealing with.”

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Chapter To What She Kept From Me

“Damian, I have a company to run and a merger to close.”

Eloished

“I’m not asking you to give either of those up. I’m asking you to sleep somewhere I know is secure while Fenwick and Bram figure out who left that flower.” I kept my voice level through sheer effort. “This isn’t about control. It’s about the fact that whoever left it wanted you to know they could reach you, and I refuse to find out the hard way what the next message looks like.”

Another pause, shorter this time. “Fine. Tonight.”

Relief loosened something tight in my chest, though the underlying dread hadn’t eased at all. If Karl had circled close enough to leave something like that on her own pillow, this had already moved past corporate sabotage and financial leverage into something considerably more personal, and considerably more dangerous.

There was still the matter I’d called to warn her about myself, before she’d derailed the entire conversation with her own confession. “There’s something you should know too. Ragnar’s requesting a meeting with your father. Phina told him you orchestrated the whole scandal out of jealousy.”

I heard her exhale sharply on the other end. “Of course she did.”

“I have the financial trail tying the extortion setup to Karl. I’m bringing it to Ragnar myself, before he sits down with your father and lets Phina’s version become the only one he’s heard.” I kept my voice steady, though my wolf hadn’t settled at all, still pacing the particular restless circle it only ever managed when too many threats were converging on the same target at once. “I won’t let this land on you or your family.”

“I can defend myself, Damian.”

“I know you can.” I meant it, genuinely, the way I hadn’t quite managed to mean it a week ago. “This isn’t me deciding for you. This is me telling you what I already know, the way I promised I would.”

She was quiet a moment, and I could hear the small, reluctant concession in it even before she spoke again. “Thank you. For telling me first.”

“Come to the villa tonight,” I said again, quieter now. “Please.”

“I will.”

I ended the call and sat there a long moment, my wolf still restless, still turning over the image of a black, withered flower sitting deliberately on her pillow while I’d been three miles away, entirely unaware.

My phone buzzed again before I’d fully set it down. Fenwick, this time, his message stark against the screen.

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Chapter 169 What She kept From Me

20

Emished

‘Alpha Damian. The flower’s been identified. It’s called Widow’s Kiss. And it’s not just symbolic

68

B

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1 Retuse To Be Your Luna

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