Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 34 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 34

16:53 Wed, Sep 30

I Retuse To Be Your Luna

Chapter 34 – Almost Nothing

Lady Flourish’s POV

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The silence that followed was almost as satisfying as the wine itself.

Selene stood frozen, red liquid dripping from her hair, her face, her expensive dress.

Beside her, Phina looked equally stunned, though she recovered faster, she always did.

The whole restaurant had gone quiet. Every wolf in the place was staring at us, some horrified, some clearly impressed, and one elderly she-wolf by the window looked like she was fighting the urge to applaud. I adjusted my purse and smiled politely.

“Have a lovely afternoon.”

I turned for the door.

“You psycho!”

I kept walking.

“Flourish! Are you insane?”

Selene’s heels clicked after me. I stopped near the entrance and turned around slowly.

Her face was bright red, whether from embarrassment or fury I honestly couldn’t tell.

“You poured wine on us!”

“Did I?”

“You know you did!”

Her voice climbed, and my wolf’s ears flattened at the pitch of it. A headache was already forming behind my eyes.

“You should be grateful,” I said, glancing at the stains soaking her dress. “At least now you match your personality.”

A few nearby wolves inhaled sharply. Selene’s nostrils flared, and for a second I actually thought she might shift right there in the restaurant, her shoulders stiff, her wolf pressing close beneath her skin.

Lucky for her, Phina grabbed her arm.

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Chapter 34 Almost Nothing

:

“Selene.” Gentle. Patient. Sweet. I nearly rolled my eyes.

Selene pointed at me instead. “You’ll be paying my hospital bill.”

“My what?”

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“Wolves react to wine on their skin! You drenched both of us.”

Phina squeezed her arm. “She’s upset, I’m sure she doesn’t mean it.”

How insightful. I’d hit my daily limit for nonsense, so I turned and walked out without another word.

The second the doors closed behind me, I breathed in fresh air and let myself feel relieved. It lasted less than ten seconds.

An itch crawled across my neck, and when I touched the skin under my collar I remembered exactly what had hit me.

Moonrose wine. Of every drink that existed, Selene had managed to throw moonrose wine at

My wolf went instantly restless as the itching spread across my collarbone and jaw. Scratching only made it worse.

“Damn it.”

up toward my

I called Walter. Nothing. Tried again. Still nothing. I tried a mind link and got silence back, which bothered me more than the wine did. Walter always answered.

My skin was starting to burn. I needed a cold shower, antihistamine herbs, and my own bed, and what I definitely didn’t need was a public allergic reaction in the middle of the street.

I tried Walter one more time and got nothing, then pulled up a taxi app in frustration. The first driver cancelled. The second was twenty-five minutes out.

The third somehow couldn’t find the restaurant despite apparently standing on the same block.

I was seriously weighing whether to just walk home when a black car pulled smoothly to the curb. The window lowered, and I already knew who it was before I even looked.

Damian, of course. Apparently every humiliating moment of my life now required his attendance.

His eyes swept over me once, then again, and whatever amusement he’d walked in with vanished. “Who poured wine on you?”

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16:53 Wed, Sep 30

Chapter 34 Almost Nothing

“Hello to you too.”

“Flourish.” The way he said my name made my wolf go still.

“It doesn’t matter.”

His gaze dropped to my neck and his expression hardened. “Get in.”

“No.”

“You need a hospital.”

“I need to get home.”

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His jaw tightened. I turned away and tried the app again, and three seconds later a shadow fell over me. I looked up to find he’d already gotten out of the car.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?”

He stepped closer. I stepped back. “Damian-”

Before I could finish, he bent down and lifted me off my feet.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Solving a problem.”

“Put me down.”

“No.”

I should have fought him. I should have kicked, bitten, done something. Instead my body just gave out on me.

I was tired, my skin was crawling, my wolf was rattled by the whole afternoon, and fighting him suddenly felt like more effort than I had left in me.

So I let him carry me, which somehow felt even more humiliating than the wine had.

A minute later I was in his car, Damian beside me, the vehicle already pulling into traffic. I stared out the window and could feel him watching me without bothering to hide it.

“What?”

His eyes dropped to my neck again. “Does it hurt?”

16:53 Wed, Sep 30

Chapter 34 – Almost Nothing

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“Not really.” A lie. It burned. But I’d handled worse.

“It’ll calm down eventually.”

He was quiet for a while, then asked, “Why do you always do that?”

“Do what?”

“Brush off your injuries like they’re nothing.”

“I’m not brushing them off.” I touched my neck and instantly regretted it as the itch flared. “I’ve had these allergies for years. Honestly Selene probably has it worse than I do.”

The look he gave me was enough to make me stop talking. Then his voice went formal and quiet. “Take better care of your body. No one else is going to enjoy living in it more than you.”

Something in my chest ached at that, and I hated it. I hated the sincerity, hated the concern, hated that some part of me wanted to believe him.

“Tell your driver to stop the car.”

His brows drew together. “What?”

“I’ll find my own way to the hospital.”

“Why?”

I looked toward the window. “Just do it.”

I couldn’t explain why his concern made me uncomfortable, or why it got under my skin more than Selene’s insults ever had.

I couldn’t remember the last time someone had looked at me and actually cared about how I was doing without wanting something in return.

Not Harold. Not my father. Not Lydia. Not Selene. No one. Only Grandma, and now, somehow, him.

That realization hurt more than the wine.

“We’re almost there,” he said quietly.

I didn’t answer.

“You don’t need to worry.”

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Chapter 34 – Almost Nothing

Still nothing.

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Then I felt him shift closer, and before I could react his fingers moved gently through my hair near the base of my neck. I froze.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking for inflammation.”

He examined the skin behind one ear, then the other, his touch careful. His jaw tightened. “It’s spreading faster than you think.”

He kept checking along my scalp, his movements surprisingly gentle. No teasing, no smug smile, no expectation waiting underneath it. Just concern, plain and real.

My eyes burned. I blinked once, twice. It didn’t help. A tear slipped down my cheek, then another, and I turned my face to the window hoping he hadn’t noticed.

He had. His hand went still against my hair. My wolf whimpered quietly.

I pressed my lips together, but the tears kept coming anyway. For once I couldn’t force them back, couldn’t make a joke, couldn’t get angry enough to cover it up.

Damian stayed completely still beside me, and for the first time in longer than I could remember, I let myself cry in front of someone.

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16:53 Wed, Sep 30