I Refuse To Be Your Luna (Flourish and Harold) novel Chapter 185

Chapter 185 What Elara Knew

Lady Flourish’s POV

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Finished

For several seconds I couldn’t move after Lydia said my mother had been murdered, and my wolf went unnaturally still, as though she needed time to process something my mind was still refusing outright.

I looked at the sealed envelope on the table, then back at Lydia, searching her face for any sign this was manipulation rather than truth.

“You’re lying,” I said quietly.

She didn’t react. “I expected you to say that.”

“My mother was sick.”

“That’s what they wanted you to believe.”

I glanced at Damian. His expression had gone hard, his wolf clearly sitting close to the surface. “How did she die?” he asked.

Lydia looked at him. “Poison.”

My stomach dropped. “The same poison?”

“I don’t know what was used on you recently, but your mother died after ingesting something that attacked her wolf directly.”

My claws extended before I could stop them. “Her wolf?”

Lydia nodded. “Elara’s wolf weakened first. Her body followed after.”

I thought of the diary, her despair, the pregnancy, the doctor’s warning, her grief spilling across those pages in handwriting that grew shakier by the entry. “Why wasn’t it ever discovered?”

“Because Garret made certain no investigation was opened.”

I looked toward Damian. He didn’t look surprised, and that frightened me considerably more than anything Lydia had said so far.

“You knew?”

“No.” His eyes stayed steady on mine. “But I knew Garret was hiding something. I just didn’t know how deep it went.”

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back to Lydia. “Then why should I believe anything you’re telling me?”

Finished

“You shouldn’t.” She pushed the envelope toward me across the table. “Read what your mother wrote herself.”

My hand trembled as I reached for it. Damian placed his hand over mine before I could lift it. “You don’t have to do this alone.”

“I know.”

His thumb brushed slowly over my knuckles. “Then let me stay beside you while you

do.”

nodded, and we opened the envelope together. Inside sat four carefully folded pages, the handwriting unmistakably my mother’s, her scent still faintly clinging to the paper enough that my wolf reacted the instant I unfolded the first sheet.

“October 14th. Garret has been lying to me, but I now understand there is something far larger happening around my family.”

My breathing changed as I kept reading.

“My father warned me before I married him that the Voss bloodline had enemies. I thought he was only trying to frighten me into coming home. Now I know he was telling the truth.”

The next paragraph landed worse.

“Someone has been following me. I don’t know who, but I recognize the scent.”

stopped. My wolf lifted her head sharply. “She wrote about scent.”

Lydia nodded. “Keep reading.”

“It’s a woman. She’s been near the house several times now. Garret insists I’m imagining it, but my wolf knows exactly what she smells.”

My hands tightened around the page as I turned to the next one.

“October 17th. I found something in Garret’s study. Records connecting my family to Stonehedge. I don’t understand why he has them, but I know he’s been communicating with someone there.”

Damian’s expression shifted instantly. “Stonehedge.”

I kept reading,

“If anything happens to me, Flourish must never be given fully to Garret’s control. She carries my bloodline, and someone will eventually come for her.”

Chapter 185 What Elara Knew

Finisher

My vision blurred, and I pressed the page flat against the table to steady myself. My mother hac known. She’d known, years before it happened, that someone would eventually come looking for me.

“Why didn’t she tell anyone?”

“Because by then,” Lydia said quietly, “she knew she was already being watched.”

“Watched by who?”

“She didn’t know.”

“Then how do you?”

“Because I found the rest of her records after she died. In Voss territory.”

My wolf growled low in my chest. “Then why did you disappear for all these years?”,

Her face tightened. “Because I was afraid.”

“Of who?”

“Everyone.” She glanced at the pages between us. “Your mother’s death destroyed the last real protection the Voss family had left.”

Damian leaned in. “What protection?”

“The Voss bloodline held an old agreement with Stonehedge. Protection, in exchange for access to certain ancestral resources.”

My heart picked up speed. “What resources?”

“Something your mother inherited.”

“Garret said it wasn’t money.”

“It wasn’t.” Lydia held my gaze steadily. “It was an ancient bloodline archive.”

My wolf reacted violently enough that the room felt suddenly too small around me. “Why would anyone want that?”

“Because it holds the identities and abilities of certain werewolves descended from the original Voss line.”

Damian’s jaw hardened. “That could be used to track them.”

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Chapter 185 What Elara Knew

“Or control them,” Lydia said.

I looked back down at the diary. One final paragraph remained.

“October 20th. I have discovered who the woman is.”

My heart stopped. The next line had been smudged badly, only three words still legible.

“She is Lydia’s-”

The rest had been torn away entirely.

I looked up. “Lydia.”

She lowered her gaze. “I know.”

“Who is she?”

Her silence stretched several long seconds before the answer finally came, barely above a whisper. “Your mother’s sister.”

My breath caught. “Lydia?”

“No.” She shook her head slowly. “Lydia had another sister.”

“What was her name?”

Something shifted in Lydia’s expression. “Phina.”

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