I Refuse to Be Your Luna

Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 170 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 170

Chapter 170 Leave Him No Choicd

Lady Flourish’s POV

Finished

“Grandmother’s mourning period ends next Saturday,” I said, watching the morning light spread thin and gold across my kitchen counter. “When do we register the marriage?”

There was a pause on the line, and I could hear the smile settling into his voice even before he spoke. “Not sure yet. I’ll have Fenwick check the calendar.”

“Okay. Let me know once you do.” I hesitated, then added, quieter, “And thank you. For the trending topic.”

So I’d figured it out.

A warmth I couldn’t see slipped into his tone anyway, low and satisfied. “It’s nothing. That’s what a husband does, isn’t it. I told you I’d back you. I wasn’t going to let you take a loss on my

account.”

I laughed softly, something loosening in my chest that had been tight since the moment Wren confirmed my suspicion. “Thanks. See you next week, then.”

The next time we met, we’d be doing it as husband and wife, a fact that still hadn’t fully settled into anything real yet, no matter how many times I turned it over.

We hung up, and I let myself sit with the warmth a moment longer before I gathered my things for the day, still half convinced I’d imagined the particular softness in his voice a moment ago.

My wolf, at least, hadn’t imagined anything. She’d gone quiet and pleased the second he called himself my husband out loud, some deep, old instinct settling into place like it had been waiting for exactly that word.

Ethan’s case still sat unresolved in the back of my mind, though at least the pressure had eased somewhat since Damian confirmed he’d bring Karl’s financial trail directly to Ragnar himself.

I hadn’t heard back yet on how that conversation had gone, which meant I still had to build my own morning around the assumption that Stonehedge’s legal team remained fully entrenched against us.

I made it as far as the elevator bank at F-Tech before my phone buzzed with a message from HR, the subject line alone enough to stop me cold in the middle of the lobby.

‘Following an internal review, you have been found to have committed serious misconduct harmful to firm interests. Effective immediately, you are placed on suspension. Compensation withheld for the duration.

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12:01 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 170 Leave Him No Choled

Finished

I read it three times, certain I’d misunderstood something, my wolf going utterly still with the particular disbelief that came right before real fury.

I was CEO. I owned the majority stake in this company, had built half of its client roster with my own hands over the last four years.

A suspension notice, issued by HR, with my own name on it, made no sense at all unless someone had gone over my head entirely, to a board with actual authority to override me on matters this specific.

My phone buzzed again before I’d finished parsing the first message. Shawn, this time. ‘Serena, what’s going on? HR just blasted your suspension in the main chat.’

Then Lila, seconds later, her message stacked directly beneath his. ‘Flourish, are you okay? Are you at the office yet? Did you see this?’

I typed back to Lila only, my hands steadier than I actually felt. ‘I’m downstairs. Coming up.

I stood there in the lobby a moment longer, my wolf pacing hard beneath my skin, running through every board member with enough combined shares to actually push a vote like this through without my knowledge. My father held a minor stake, inherited from an early investment round years ago, nothing close to controlling interest. That left exactly one name that made any real sense.

Adam Rowe. Chairman of the board, the one voice on that particular committee who’d never quite warmed to me the way the rest of them had, the one man in this building who answered to shareholder pressure faster than he answered to anything resembling loyalty.

And if Adam had moved this fast, this cleanly, someone had clearly handed him a reason compelling enough to act without so much as a phone call warning me first.

I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the executive floor, my reflection staring back at me from the polished steel doors, calm on the surface and considerably less calm underneath it.

Whoever had orchestrated this, Ragnar’s people, Chris and Poppy circling for advantage, or something reaching considerably further back than either of them, I intended to find out exactly how deep this went before the day was finished.

The doors slid open on the executive floor, and the first thing I saw was Rhys, already storming out of Adam’s office, his expression darker than I’d seen it in the three years I’d known him.

匪

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12:01 Thu, Oct 1