I Refuse to Be Your Luna

Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 206 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 206

Chapter 206 The Night Before

Apha Harold’s POV

The bachelor party had been going for hours before I even noticed how much I had drunk, and none of it seemed to matter because tomorrow refused to feel real no matter how many times my friends reminded me of it.

Their laughter filled the private room, glasses clinking, someone shouting a toast in my name, and none of it reached me the way it should have.

One of my friends frowned at me from across the table. “Harold, slow down.”

I ignored him and reached for another glass.

“You have to pick up Phina tomorrow,” he added, as if I needed reminding.

Another friend laughed. “At least drink less tonight.”

I slammed my glass down harder than I meant to. “Then drink for me.”

The room went quiet at that. I could feel their eyes on me, but I didn’t care enough to explain myself. My own eyes felt heavy and hot, and somewhere beneath the alcohol my wolf paced restlessly, unsettled by something I refused to name even to myself.

“I don’t care about tomorrow,” I said, and I watched the uneasy looks pass between my friends across the table.

Someone finally reached for a phone. “There is only one person who can handle him.”

I barely registered who they called. It didn’t take long before Phina walked in, her expression sharpening the moment she saw the state I was in.

“How much did he drink?”

My friends raised their hands quickly. “Don’t blame us. He drank most of it himself.”

She sighed and came to my side, helping me stand. “Come on.”

I leaned against her because my legs weren’t entirely steady, and my wolf stirred beneath the fog of alcohol, though the drink had dulled my instincts enough that I barely registered the discomfort.

She guided me toward the waiting car, and somewhere in the back of my mind I understood she had probably planned to go home to her own place tonight, not deal with me like this.

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12:22 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 206 The Night Before

Finished

inside the car, I rested against her shoulder, and the motion of the vehicle blurred everything nto something soft and distant.

I thought I heard her say my name, but I couldn’t be sure. My mind had already drifted somewhere else, somewhere it had no business going the night before my own wedding.

Her name rose in my throat before I could stop it.

‘Flourish.”

I felt Phina go rigid beside me, but the feeling registered somewhere far away, like it belonged to someone else’s night. My eyes stayed closed.

‘Flourish,” I said again, and I heard her voice come back sharp.

“Who?”

I couldn’t make my breathing even out. “You’re cruel,” I muttered, though I wasn’t sure anymore who I was speaking to.

“What did you say?”

I shifted closer to her without meaning to, still only half aware of myself. “How can you let me do this?”

“Do what?”

My voice cracked before I could stop it. “Marry someone else.”

I felt her go still against me, and somewhere in the haze I registered the driver glancing back through the mirror before looking away fast. My fingers found the edge of her sleeve and held

“Flourish,” I said once more, and I felt something in my chest crack open in a way I hadn’t let it in a long time.

“Can

you really watch me marry someone else?”

My wolf stirred weakly beneath the drink, and for one unguarded second I felt something rise up in me that I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in longer than I could remember. Regret.

Real, aching regret, the kind that didn’t care whether tomorrow was already decided.

Phina pushed me back against the seat. “Harold.”

I opened my eyes, and for a moment I actually saw her and some old habit in me wanted to apologize before I even understood what for.

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12:22 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 206 The Night Before

Finished

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Sorry for what?”

I closed my eyes again, because it was easier than looking at her while I said it. “I shouldn’t have agreed to this.”

I didn’t have the strength left to explain what I meant, or maybe I simply didn’t want to.

The truth had been sitting in my chest for weeks, maybe longer, and the alcohol had only knocked loose the wall I’d built to keep it quiet.

I had told myself for so long that marrying Phina was the right decision, the practical one, the one that would finally close the door on everything I’d lost when Flourish walked away from our wedding all those months ago.

But sitting there in the dark car, half drunk and barely able to hold myself upright, I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. Some part of me had never stopped waiting for a door that had already closed for good.

I felt the car slow as it turned toward Phina’s apartment, and I let my head rest back against the seat, exhaustion pulling at every part of me. My wolf had gone quiet again, worn down by the same weight that had been sitting on my chest all night.

Tomorrow I would stand in front of everyone and say the words that would make this permanent. Tomorrow I would put a ring on Phina’s finger and call it the start of something real.

Tonight, though, in the dark, with her scent from months ago still somehow clinging to the edges of my memory, I let myself feel the truth I would have to bury again by morning.

I didn’t want any of it. And somewhere beneath the alcohol, my wolf agreed with me completely.

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12:22 Thu, Oct 1