I Refuse To Be Your Luna (Flourish and Harold) novel Chapter 269

Chapter 269 The Dead Were Not Dead

Alpha Harold POV

“Roderick didn’t just survive. He’s the one who’s been running the Eastern Army’s tunnel network for the last fifteen years.”

I stared at Voss.

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For a few seconds, I couldn’t make sense of what he’d said. Roderick had been dead before I was born.

That was what I’d been told. There had been no reason to question it because his name rarely came up, and whenever it did, the elders ended the conversation before I could ask anything useful.

Now his face was sitting inside a photograph connected to Flourish’s bloodline.

And apparently, he was alive.

“Where is he?” I asked.

Voss looked at Elara.

“I don’t know where he is tonight.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“I don’t know.”

I stepped toward him.

My wolf pushed hard against my control, reacting to the name and everything it represented. The scent of old stone, blood, and strangers still clung to the room, and every instinct in me wanted answers immediately.

“Then tell me how a dead man has been running an army under my territory for fifteen years.”

“He hasn’t been under your territory for fifteen years,” Voss said. “Not the entire time.”

“That isn’t helping.”

Flourish moved closer to the table where the old photograph lay.

“Harold.”

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Chapter 269 The Dead Were Not Dead

I looked at her.

“I think you should speak to Magnus.”

She didn’t need to say anything else.

I turned toward the guards.

“Bring the elders here.”

One of them hesitated.

“Alpha, the council chamber is still being secured.”

“Then bring them wherever they are.”

The guard nodded and left.

I looked at Elara.

“You knew about Roderick?”

“No.”

“You knew he was connected to the bloodline.”

“I knew his family was involved with it. I didn’t know he was alive.”

I believed that answer less than I wanted to.

M

Not because I thought Elara was lying, but because every answer we had received tonight seemed to lead to another piece of a history someone had buried.

The elders arrived within minutes.

Magnus came first.

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He was still wearing the same clothes from the attack, with dried blood on one sleeve and a tear near his shoulder. Two other elders followed him, both looking exhausted.

Magnus stopped when he saw the photograph.

His eyes stayed on it.

I noticed.

“You know him.”

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Chapter 269 The Dead Were Not Dead

M

Magnus didn’t answer.

I picked up the photograph and held it toward him.

“Who is Roderick?”

His gaze lifted to mine.

“He was part of the family.”

“Was?”

Magnus sighed.

“Roderick was your grandfather’s cousin.”

“So he wasn’t just some distant name.”

“No.”

“And he isn’t dead.”

Magnus’s silence answered before he did.

My wolf growled.

“You knew.”

“I knew he disappeared.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“I never saw proof of his death.”

“Yet I was raised believing he died.”

Magnus lowered himself into one of the chairs.

“That was the story given to you.”

“By whom?”

He looked at the other elders,

Nobody spoke.

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Chapter 269 The Dead Were Not Dead

I felt my claws start to push through my fingertips.

“By whom?”

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Magnus finally answered.

“Your family.”

I laughed once.

It wasn’t funny.

“So the same family that told me the tunnels were nothing more than old service knew there was a bloodline vault underneath Stonehedge.”

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Magnus didn’t deny it.

“The tunnels were built generations ago,” he said.

“For what?”

He looked at Flourish.

Then at Elara.

Then back at me.

“To monitor descendants of the First Alpha.”

The room went quiet.

My wolf slammed against my ribs.

“You knew.”

“Yes.”

“You knew all these years?”

“I knew about the tunnels before you were born.”

“And you never told me.”

“You weren’t meant to know.”

I stepped closer.

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Chapter 269 The Dead Were Not Dead

“Why?”

“Because the council believed the information had to remain restricted.”

“Restricted from whom?”

“From everyone who didn’t need it.”

I shook my head.

“I was Alpha.”

“Not then.”

“I was your successor.”

“Yes.”

“And still you decided I didn’t need to know the history underneath my own estate?”

Magnus rubbed a hand over his face.

“The records were sealed long before you took command.”

“Who sealed them?”

“Members of our family.”

That answer hit harder than I expected.

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I turned away from him and looked at the shelves along the wall. Stonehedge records had been passed down to every Alpha. I had trusted those records because they were supposed to contain the history of our pack, not a version of it.

“How many were altered?”

Magnus didn’t answer immediately.

“How many?”

“Some.”

“That’s not a number.”

“Enough”

My claws came fully out.

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Chapter 269 The Dead Were Not Dead

品

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One of the elders stepped back.

I barely noticed.

“So when I was studying our territory maps, the eastern passages weren’t there because someone removed them.”

“Yes.”

“When I asked about the old family names, people changed the subject.”

“Yes.”

“And when I was told Roderick died, that was also part of it.”

Magnus looked down.

“We didn’t know where he was.”

“But you let me believe he was dead.”

“We thought that was safer.”

“For who?”

Magnus looked at me.

“For you.”

I shook my head.

“You don’t get to make that decision for me.”

“I know that now.”

That was the first time I heard something different in his voice.

Not authority.

Regret.

I glanced at Flourish.

She stood beside Elara, listening to everything. Her expression hadn’t changed, but her fingers were curled tightly around the edge of her sleeve.

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Chapter 269 The Dead Were Not Dead

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One of the elders stepped back.

I barely noticed.

“So when I was studying our territory maps, the eastern passages weren’t there because someone removed them.”

“Yes.”

“When I asked about the old family names, people changed the subject.”

“Yes.”

“And when I was told Roderick died, that was also part of it.”

Magnus looked down.

“We didn’t know where he was.”