Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 2 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 2

Chapter 2 The Price Of Showing Up

Flourish’s POV

I did not cry after leaving Stonehedge Lodge.

Honestly, that scared me more than if I had.

Because six years with Harold Virel should have earned at least one dramatic breakdown beneath the moon.

Instead, I felt… cold.

Not empty, just painfully awake.

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The western estate stood quiet when I arrived near dawn, silver lights glowing softly through the tall windows. This place was supposed to become my home after the Luna Rite.

Funny how quickly a place could stop feeling welcoming.

The guards at the gates looked confused when they saw me returning alone in ceremonial white.

One of them opened his mouth to ask questions.

I kept walking before he could.

Inside, servants immediately straightened the moment they saw me.

“Lady Flourish?” Mira hurried forward. “Did the rite finish early?”

pulled the ceremonial crest from my dress and set it down.

“No,” I said. “It didn’t happen.”

Silence dropped heavily across the entrance hall.

Mira nearly dropped the towels in her hands.

Because everybody understood what those words meant.

An Alpha abandoning a Luna Rite was humiliating enough.

But abandoning it beneath the blood moon?

Stonehedge would gossip about this for

years. 

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Chapter 2 The Price Of Showing Up

Mira looked horrified. “Should we prepare chambers for Alpha Harold when he arrives?”

I almost laughed.

“He won’t be staying here tonight.”

The words came out sharper than intended.

Mira immediately stepped aside which was better.

I did not trust myself to speak kindly right now.

I walked upstairs alone.

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The western estate still smelled like fresh moonflowers and candle smoke. Servants spent weeks preparing the place for the completed bond ceremony.

For me and Harold.

For a future that suddenly looked ridiculous.

I pushed open the master bedroom doors and froze immediately.

The room smelled like her moon herbs and winter sage.

Phina.

My wolf stirred angrily beneath my skin.

Near Harold’s bed sat several medicine bottles beside a half–empty cup of healing tea.

A soft grey blanket rested across the couch near the fire.

Not just any blanket.

Harold’s blanket.

The one he never let anyone touch because his late beta gave it to him years ago.

Yet Phina’s scent covered it completely.

My chest tightened painfully.

Slowly, I walked deeper into the room.

A dark silk robe hung beside Harold’s clothes near the wardrobe.

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Chapter 2 The Price Of Showing Up

Not mine.

Phina’s.

My stomach twisted.

How long had she been staying here?

How long had everybody known except me?

Then a notification sound broke the silence.

I turned toward the couch.

Harold’s tablet lit up briefly across the cushions.

Normally, I would never touch it.

Harold hated people using his personal things.

Once, he snapped at me for moving it while cleaning coffee off the table.

Yet tonight, the device sat unlocked beside Phina’s medicine like she used it freely.

A bitter laugh almost escaped me.

Of course she did.

I picked up the tablet slowly.

The screen displayed a reminder notification.

Phina’s treatment after moonrise. Don’t forget this time.

My throat tightened.

Below it sat another unfinished note Harold apparently forgot to delete.

Move Phina into western room permanently before winter gets worse.

I stared at the words for several long seconds.

Western room.

This room.

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Chapter 2 The Price Of Showing Up

The future Luna chambers.

A painful knot tightened inside my chest.

Not because I still doubted what Harold felt for her.

But because he planned all of this before tonight.

Before the failed rite.

Before humiliating me before the elders.

He already made space for her here.

Scrolling down I found a private voice memo.

Without thinking, I pressed play.

Soft breathing filled the bedroom first.

Then Phina laughed quietly. “You really shouldn’t touch me there.”

Harold’s voice came low and rough. “Then stop climbing into my bed wearing that.”

A kiss followed.

Slow. Intimate. Familiar enough to make my stomach twist.

“Your future Luna is going to hate me,” Phina whispered between breaths.

Harold answered without hesitation.

“She doesn’t need to know.”

The recording ended there.

Suddenly every cold kiss Harold ever gave me finally made sense.

I had spent six years trying to earn warmth that came naturally to another woman.

I lowered the device slowly back onto the couch.

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My wolf curled away from the bond between Harold and me like she finally understood what kind of male he truly was.

I stood there quietly for another minute before walking toward the wardrobe.

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Chapter 2 The Price Of Showing Up

I did not pack much.

Mostly because there was not much of me left inside this room anyway.

I removed my scent oils from the bathroom.

My clothes from the wardrobe.

The silver Luna hairpiece from the vanity table.

Then I paused beside the bed.

A framed sketch rested near the lamp.

Harold and me beneath the winter moon during last year’s hunt festival.

I stared at it briefly before turning the frame face down.

That felt more honest somehow.

By sunrise, I was gone.

Harold returned to the western estate the following night.

I knew because Mira mind–linked me almost immediately.

Lady Flourish… Alpha Harold is asking for you.

I sat near the fireplace inside my smaller cliffside residence, slowly stirring tea I no longer

wanted.

Tell him I’m not there.

A long pause followed.

Then she responded…

He already noticed.

Good.

Several minutes later, Harold’s mind–link forced itself against mine.

“Where are you?”

No apology. No explanation. Just Harold being exactly who he had always been..

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Chapter 2 The Price Of Showing Up

I leaned back against the chair slowly.

“Interesting,” I said calmly. “You noticed I left.”

His breathing sharpened slightly through the bond.

“What childish game are you playing now?”

That almost made me laugh.

Because somehow humiliating me before the entire territory was reasonable.

Leaving quietly was childish.

“I’m tired, Harold.”

“Then stop being difficult and come back.”

Difficult.

Not heartbroken. Not humiliated. Not furious enough to walk away after what he did.

Just… difficult..

My wolf bared her teeth silently.

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“You should focus on Phina instead,” I replied softly. “Wouldn’t want her medicine getting cold.”

Silence settled heavily between us before Harold finally spoke.

“You went through my tablet?”

I closed my eyes briefly.

There it was, not regret or guilt.

Only irritation that I saw the truth.

“I’m done having this conversation,” I said.

“Flourish…”

I severed the link completely.

The next morning, Alpha Magnus contacted me personally.

Unlike Harold, his grandfather at least sounded tired.

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Chapter 2 The Price Of Showing Up

:

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“Tomorrow is the pack’s winter moon gathering,” he said. “Every major Alpha territory will attend.”

I stared out across the cliffs quietly.

“And?”

“And after what happened during the Luna Rite, Stonehedge cannot afford more rumors.”

There it was again—the pack’s image, the territory’s reputation, the endless politics that somehow always mattered more than people did..

“You still want me standing beside Harold after he abandoned me publicly?”

A long silence followed.

Then the old Alpha sighed heavily.

“You know I care for you, child.”

Unfortunately, care was not the same thing as choosing me.

“I’ll think about it.”

After the call ended, I sat quietly for several minutes before reaching for my phone.

Then I opened Harold’s messages.

If Alpha Harold wants me smiling beside him tomorrow night, it will cost him.

The reply came almost immediately.

You’re unbelievable.

My smile widened slightly.

“And yet you still need me there“.

Several minutes passed.

My phone buzzed again moments later.

This time, it wasn’t a reply.

It was a black–card authorization under the Virel family seal.

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Chapter 2 The Price Of Showing Up

Another message followed immediately after..

“Be ready before moonrise“.

I stared at the screen briefly before replying.

“Pleasure doing business with you, Alpha“.

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