I Refuse To Be Your Luna (Flourish and Harold) novel Chapter 163

Linished

Chapter 163 When Will He See Me

Alpha Harold’s POV

Phina’s voice cracked one more time before I finally got her to hang up. “I’ll behave,” she’d said, forcing steadiness into it that hadn’t been there thirty seconds earlier. “I’ll wait for

your update.”

I set the phone down and pressed my fingers hard against my temples, the ache behind my eyes sharpening with every passing minute Cousin Damian refused to answer. Five calls. Five, and not so much as a text back.

I pulled a cigarette from the drawer and lit it without thinking twice, the first drag doing almost nothing to loosen the knot sitting behind my ribs.

The door swung open a moment later. “Who’s smoking in here? This is against Alpha Damian’s rules, did someone forget…” The woman working late trailed off the instant she saw who it was. “Oh. Alpha Harold. It’s you.”

I shot her a look sharper than I meant to. “Is there a problem?”

She’d already half retreated through the door, though something stubborn kept her rooted just long enough to add, carefully, “It’s just, Alpha Damian really doesn’t allow smoking in the office.”

Irritation flared hot and fast. This was Stonehedge Holdings’ headquarters, not some private kingdom my cousin ruled outright. My own father sat on that executive board. Since when did lighting a cigarette in my own family’s building require anyone’s permission but mine.

She must have caught the frost settling over my face, because she went pale before Bram appeared in the doorway behind her, drawn by whatever tension had spilled into the hallway.

“What’s going on here?”

“I was only reminding Alpha Harold about the no-smoking policy,” she said, her voice shrinking with every word, some quiet resentment leaking through despite her best effort to hide it. I could smell it on her, faint and sour beneath the fear, the particular scent of someone quietly recalculating everything they’d assumed about the polite, easygoing heir they thought they knew.

Bram’s gaze flicked briefly to the smoke curling toward the ceiling. “That’s enough. Go on home.”

He turned back to me, his expression calm, careful, giving away nothing. “No offense meant, Alpha Harold. The rule applies to everyone. Senior executives, board members. Even Alpha Ragnar.”

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11:59 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 163 When Will He See Me

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Finished

Not Damian. My own father. I stood there with nothing left to say, the anger inside me boiling with nowhere useful to land. I stubbed the cigarette out harder than necessary. “Satisfied?”

“Yes.”

I let a beat pass before I asked the only question that actually mattered. “When is my cousin finished with his meeting?”

Something in Bram’s expression cooled by a fraction, his voice sliding into something more official. “Alpha Damian’s schedule isn’t mine to interfere with.”

Nothing followed that. I stood there feeling the entire day finally catch up with me all at once, and there was nowhere left to put any of it.

It was nearly eleven that night when Damian finally summoned me.

“What’s going on, Harold?” He asked it lightly, almost detached, slipping his suit jacket back on with the same unhurried precision he brought to everything, fingers adjusting his tie without looking up.

I drew a slow breath, careful to keep whatever frustration had been building all day out of my voice. Whatever else I felt toward him tonight, I’d never once dared show him real attitude. “Someone’s deliberately targeting Phina today. Accusing her of plagiarism, pushing the trend hard. I tried burying it myself and couldn’t. I was hoping you’d say something.”

He finally looked up, his gaze steady, unreadable in the particular way that always made me feel like he already knew the answer before he asked the question. “You’re saying she didn’t plagiarize anything.”

“Of course she didn’t.” The words came too fast, and the flicker of unease in my own chest surprised me more than his question did. “Cousin Damian, you know she’s never dealt with anything like this. She’s been torn apart online for hours. Do you understand what that’s doing

to her?”

He gave a small, indifferent nod. “I understand it’s painful.” His tone stayed cool, measured. “But that world was never gentle to begin with. If she can’t survive this kind of pressure, maybe you should be the one telling her to walk away from it, sooner rather than later.”

He paused, then added, with a quiet weight that landed far heavier than the volume of it suggested, “You won’t always be there to catch every blow aimed at her. You understand that, don’t you.”

I froze. He wasn’t raising his voice. He wasn’t accusing me of anything outright. And yet every sentence felt like a measured, deliberate reminder of exactly how little power I actually held in this building, this family, this fight.

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11:59 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 163 When Will He See Me

“Is that a threat?” I asked quietly, before I could stop myself.

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Finished

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