Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 177 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 177

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Chapter 177 Stealing A Kiss

Lady Flourish’s POV

“Tell me,” I said, watching his jaw work through whatever he’d just read.

He didn’t try to soften it, and something in me eased slightly at that, small and steady proof he’d actually meant what he promised weeks ago. “They found Nerissa. She’s dead. Left somewhere she’d be found quickly, which means whoever she was working for wanted it discovered.”

The cold that settled through my chest had nothing to do with the rain. “A message.”

“A cleanup.” His voice stayed flat, controlled, though I could see the fury banked hard beneath it. “Loose ends don’t survive long around whoever we’re actually dealing with. That should worry you considerably more than a scent in the trees.”

My wolf went quiet and grim at that, some old, practical part of me already understanding exactly what it meant to be valuable enough to threaten and disposable enough to discard the moment you stopped being useful.

I thought of the second vehicle Fenwick had flagged, waiting outside the villa gates the night Nerissa fled. Someone had picked her up. Someone had made sure she never had the chance to talk.

“We should go somewhere safer,” I said quietly.

“We will.” He glanced past me, toward the gravestone still waiting patiently in the rain, then back to my face, something gentler easing back into his expression despite everything he’d just told me. “But not before I do what I actually came here to do.”

He handed me the umbrella. “Hold this. Let me greet her properly first.”

I watched his back as he stepped into the drizzle without hesitation, lowering his head before Isolde’s stone, expression solemn, eyes closed.

Whatever he said stayed locked in silence, private, his lips barely moving. Then he bowed once, unhurried, entirely sincere in a way that caught somewhere tender in my chest despite the danger still humming beneath everything else tonight.

When he turned back and reclaimed the umbrella, I tilted my head at him. “Were you talking to her just now?”

His smile sharpened, some of the earlier grimness finally loosening. “Asking whether she’s willing to let her granddaughter marry me.”

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Chapter 177 Stealing A Kiss

“And?” I raised a brow. “Did she answer?”

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“She did.” He said it with entirely too much confidence for a man having a conversation with a headstone. “Said we should register tomorrow.”

My mouth twitched despite everything. “You picked that date yourself. How exactly did it become her decision?”

He leaned closer, his voice dropping, ear near my lips. “What was that?”

“Nothing.” I straightened, ignoring the warmth crawling up my neck at the proximity. “Tomorrow works.”

We started down the path together, his hand finding mine without either of us discussing it, my wolf settling into the contact despite the danger still pressing at the edges of the evening.

It felt, absurdly, like we were hiding something even now, some old habit neither of us had fully shaken from weeks of careful discretion.

“I flew straight here after landing,” he said, mock wounded, “and you still won’t give me a proper title in front of your own family.”

“We agreed,” I said. “Not public yet. That announcement happens on my terms.”

He hummed, unbothered, and dipped his head lower, close enough that his breath warmed my cheek despite the cold rain still falling around us. “Then how about a reward, for showing up exactly when you needed me tonight.”

Heat rushed straight to my ears. “What reward.”

“What do you think?” He dragged the words out, entirely too pleased with himself given everything we’d just discussed.

I understood exactly what he meant. I hadn’t expected him to actually be this shameless about it, not tonight, not with danger still hanging thick in the air around us both. I closed my eyes and leaned in, meaning to press a quick kiss to his cheek and settle the matter.

At the last second, he turned his head and caught my mouth instead.

Warmth bloomed against my lips, brief and startling, gone before I’d properly registered it had happened at all. My eyes flew open. “You—”

He pulled back immediately, one fingertip grazing the corner of his own mouth, something wicked and satisfied written all over his face despite the exhaustion still lingering beneath it. “Thank you. I like this particular reward.”

I huffed, equal parts flustered and furious, and stormed the rest of the way downhill under his

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Chapter 177 Stealing A Kiss

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umbrella, my wolf entirely too pleased with herself to actually back up the irritation I was trying to perform.

At the base of the hill, my father’s car was still waiting, exactly as promised, his eyes narrowing slightly the moment he caught sight of my flushed cheeks despite the cold. I didn’t give him the chance to ask whatever question was clearly forming behind his careful expression.

“I drove myself,” I told him. “We’ll head back separately.”

He studied me a beat longer than necessary. “Finished visiting Grandma?”

“Yeah.” I kept my voice light, aware of Lydia and Selene still settling into the car behind him, entirely unaware of anything that had actually happened on that hillside tonight.

He let it go, though I caught the particular, thoughtful look he gave me as he pulled away, the look of a man already piecing together a puzzle he hadn’t quite finished solving yet.

Damian’s phone buzzed again the moment my father’s car disappeared down the road, and whatever brief warmth had settled between us evaporated instantly at the look that crossed his face.

“Fenwick traced the second vehicle,” he said slowly, staring at the screen like the words might rearrange themselves into something less alarming if he looked hard enough. “It’s registered to Stonehedge Holdings’ own executive fleet.”

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I Refuse To Be Your Luna