I Refuse To Be Your Luna (Flourish and Harold) novel Chapter 137

9 Thu, Oct 1

I Refuse To Be Your Luna

Chapter 137 Bridesmaid

Selene’s POV

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21

Finished

Phina called almost the moment I stepped out of the shower, her voice pitched high with an excitement she clearly expected me to share.

“Selene, I’m getting married!”

I nearly dropped the phone. “Wait – seriously? To Harold? Already?”

“Of course it’s real,” she said, laughing. “Damian arranged the whole thing himself. Practically insisted on it to the council.”

Damian.

Something cold and familiar coiled low in my stomach at the sound of his name, the same useless, aching want I hadn’t managed to burn out of myself no matter how many times reality made it clear exactly how impossible it was.

My wolf still remembered the scent of him from the banquet, faint and maddening, cedar and something colder underneath,the scent of a man who had looked straight through me like I didn’t exist the moment he’d caught wind of what I’d tried to do.

If I couldn’t have Damian, and Harold had never truly wanted me either, there was still, technically, a version of this family I could belong to.

I just needed the right entry point.

“Have you picked your bridesmaids yet?” I asked, keeping my voice light. “We’re friends, right? You’ll pick me?”

“Of course,” Phina said warmly. “You’re definitely part of my squad.”

I could already picture it — standing at the altar in whatever color she chose, close enough to the Stonehedge family that no one could pretend I didn’t belong there too.

Close enough to watch Flourish’s face the entire ceremony, to make absolutely certain she understood exactly how far I’d climbed while she thought she’d won everything that mattered.

My wolf paced restlessly at the thought, some hungry, dissatisfied part of her never quite willing to accept that the family she wanted had already chosen someone else entirely.

We talked for a few more minutes about colors and venues before hanging up, and I didn’t waste a single second afterward before finding my father.

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11:49 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 137 Bridesmaid

ཉྙཱ

21

Finished

Garret was still in his study, the same tired slump to his shoulders he’d carried around the house for days now, ever since the scandal at the Cedarfall Lounge had finally started to quiet

down.

“Dad.” I planted myself in front of his desk, chin lifted, doing my best to look like someone bringing good news rather than another complication. “Didn’t you say Flourish was trying to reconcile with Harold? Well, he’s marrying Phina next month!”

He looked up slowly, brows drawing together in confusion. “What? Who told you that?”

“Phina did. She just called me herself.” I couldn’t quite keep the satisfaction out of my voice. “I’m going to be her bridesmaid, too.”

My wolf preened at the small victory, curling with satisfaction even though nothing about tonight had actually changed anything real between me and the family I still couldn’t fully claim as my own.

It was a small, hollow kind of triumph, the sort that never quite filled the space it promised to.

“That’s…” Garret rubbed a hand over his face, exhaling slowly. “That’s not what I heard at all.”

“Well, now you know the truth.” I kept my chin lifted, refusing to let the flicker of doubt in his eyes rattle me. “I don’t know who told you otherwise, but it clearly wasn’t accurate.”

He studied me a moment longer than I liked, the particular searching look he’d started giving me more and more often since the scandal, like he was trying to see through to something underneath my words that didn’t quite match up.

I held his gaze anyway, forcing my wolf to stay calm, to keep my scent as even and untroubled as I could manage. Garret had never been able to read a lie off me the way Damian apparently could off anyone within a mile of him, but I’d learned not to underestimate a father’s instincts either.

“I just want you to be careful, Selene,” he said finally, quieter now. “There’s already been enough noise around this family this month.”

“I know.” I softened my voice, letting just enough genuine exhaustion bleed through to make it convincing. “I just thought you should hear the truth from me instead of more rumors.”

It was enough, for now, to watch the confusion settle over my father’s face, proof that whatever version of events I’d fed him earlier about Flourish and Harold had already taken root, exactly the way I’d planted it to. Whether it was true almost didn’t matter anymore. Only that he believed it, and that somewhere across the city, a wedding was about to hand me the closest thing to belonging I’d ever managed to get near.

I left his study with my head high, already imagining the exact shade of dress I’d request, already imagining Flourish’s face when she realized I’d found my way into the family after all.

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R

11:49 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 137 Bridesmaid

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