Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 235 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 235

Chapter 235 Message

Lady Flourish’s POV

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Marvolo smiled at me, apparently unaware the temperature beside me had changed entirely. “Come on, Flourish. I told you, just call me Marvolo.”

Damian’s wolf stirred beside me, and I felt the Alpha pressure before anyone else at the table noticed it.

I kept my eyes on my plate. “Mr. Fischer is fine.”

He laughed softly. “You really like keeping people at a distance, don’t you?”

Before I could answer, Damian reached for his glass, his fingers brushing mine as he lifted it, and the contact sent a familiar pull through the mate bond. “You should listen to her.”

The table went quiet. Marvolo turned toward him, still polite. “I wasn’t aware Mr. Levine was answering questions for her.”

“And I wasn’t aware you had trouble understanding the word no.”

My eyes widened. Eugene cleared his throat. “Mr. Virel, I think Marvolo was only joking.”

“Then he should be more careful with his jokes.”

Marvolo’s scent shifted slightly, subtle enough that the humans at the table missed it entirely, but my wolf lifted her head at once. Damian noticed too. Marvolo was not completely human.

I lowered my gaze, pretending to focus on my food while my senses sharpened.

“Flourish,” Eugene said carefully. “You haven’t touched your food.”

“I’m fine.”

Damian glanced at my untouched plate, then without asking moved a dish closer to me. “Eat.”

“You’re ordering me now?”

His mouth moved slightly. “You haven’t eaten properly since last night.”

Eugene’s eyes moved between us. “So you two know each other?”

My stomach tightened. Marvolo leaned back, watching with too much interest.

Damian looked at Eugene. “Yes.” Nothing else.

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Eugene blinked. One of the lawyers laughed awkwardly. “That’s surprisingly vague.”

Damian ignored him. I picked up my fork, the mate bond already tense enough without him making the whole table curious about us.

Across from me Marvolo’s phone vibrated. He glanced at the screen, and his expression changed for less than a second, but I caught it. My wolf caught something else right after. Fear.

He looked toward the door, then back at me, quick, but Damian noticed too, his shoulders tightening beside mine.

“Is there a problem?” Damian asked.

“No.”

Damian’s eyes narrowed. My phone vibrated under the table. Unknown number. My heart started racing.

Damian’s hand closed over my wrist before I could open it. “Don’t.”

“What?”

His wolf had pushed closer to the surface. “Not yet.”

The table had gone quiet again. Eugene looked uncomfortable. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” I said quickly.

Damian still hadn’t let go of my wrist, his thumb resting against my pulse, and I hated that the small contact steadied me. Marvolo watched us in silence.

I pulled my hand free and opened the message. My blood ran cold.

A photograph. Elara, sitting against the same stone wall, but this time someone stood behind her, face hidden.

“What is it?” Damian asked.

I didn’t answer. He took the phone from my hand, and the moment he saw it, the calm scent around him vanished. His wolf surged. The glass beside his hand cracked.

Every conversation stopped. Damian stood.

“Mr. Virel?” Eugene looked alarmed.

Damian didn’t answer him, eyes fixed on Marvolo, who sat completely still. Damian set my

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Chapter 235 Message

phone on the table, the photograph still visible.

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Marvolo looked at it, and for the first time since walking in, his calm expression disappeared.

“You know this?” I asked.

“I know the tunnels.”

Damian stepped closer, Alpha pressure rolling through the room hard enough to tremble the glasses on the table. Eugene and the others couldn’t understand what was happening, but they clearly felt something was wrong.

“Damian,” I said. He didn’t look at me. “You smelled like the tunnels beneath Stonehedge the moment you walked in.”

“That doesn’t mean I took her.”

“Then explain why you’re here.”

The room went completely silent. Marvolo glanced at Eugene, then back at me. “I didn’t know you were coming tonight.”

My wolf growled. “That isn’t an answer.”

His eyes changed, a faint silver glow surfacing beneath his human gaze for a second. Damian moved in front of me at once, and my wolf reacted to his protection, but I stepped around him

anyway.

“Flourish.”

“No.” I looked straight at Marvolo. “Where is my mother?”

His face tightened. “I don’t know.”

Damian laughed once, nothing amused in it. “You should think carefully before lying.”

Marvolo stood, and the tension between the two of them shifted instantly. Eugene rose. “What’s going on?”

Damian didn’t look away from Marvolo. “Stay out of this.”

Eugene froze. I looked back at Marvolo. “Who are you?”

Several seconds passed before his phone vibrated again. He glanced at it, and his expression went completely still.

Damian noticed. “So you are connected to them.”

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Marvolo set the phone on the table, screen lit. One message.

She is closer than you think. My heart dropped. Damian’s eyes darkened.

Then the lights in the private dining room went out. Someone screamed. My wolf surged forward.

And in the darkness, Marvolo’s voice came right beside me, barely above a whisper.

“Flourish, don’t let Damian take you back to Stonehedge.”

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