Chapter 26

Levi’s POV

Days passed in a haze, to the point where I wasn’t exactly sure how many it’d been. I mainly spent all my time in my office, locked away from everyone. The only time I unlocked my door was to let someone bring food, which I barely touched, or to bring more Scotch which I went through faster than they could supply it.

The furniture in the room wasn’t as neat and tidy as it normally was. Every time the rage became too much for me to bear, I took it out on everything around me. Plenty of glass lay around me, shattered and forgotten.

It didn’t matter if I still had the rest of the pack, I was still empty on the inside. Harper had been a part of me for decades. Not having her there, not being able to reach her, made me feel like I was all alone.

I downed the contents in my glass, ignoring the persistent knocking at the door. It had to be Avery or Noah, and I didn’t want to talk to either of them. I didn’t really want to talk to anyone. I don’t know if I could even face Harper right now; what would there be to say anyway?

“Levi, honey, it’s me. Please open the door.”

Avery. There was no way that I would open the door for her and let her see me like this. Not out of pride, but because I had no patience left. She didn’t deserve to be snapped at when she meant well, but I knew exactly what she’d do if I let her in. She’d pick and poke and prod, driving me insane. I already wasn’t in the best state of mind and that wouldn’t help.

I ignored her and filled my glass again. The small container was nearly full to the brim, but my bottle was almost empty. I’d need a new one soon.

Avery didn’t stop her incessant pounding on the door and I couldn’t take it any longer. Grabbing my newly refreshed glass and pack of cigarettes that would also need to be replaced soon, I stepped out of the balcony and shut the door behind me to try and block out the noise.

It was replaced with the noise of Harper in my head, continually reminding me that smoking was bad for my health and I needed to make sure that I would be able to be around for a long time for her and the rest of the pack.

I just kept drinking until I couldn’t make out my own thoughts.

It was better that way for everyone. I knew I would have to get myself together eventually, but thinking about Harper…it fucking hurt. I could barely understand my own feelings. All I knew was that they were uncomfortable, and I was trying not to deal with them as much as possible.

Maybe I could just keep drinking, until I was over it. Then, I could move on with myself. I could get myself back together and live out the rest of my life with Avery.

It may not be the best plan, but it was one, and that was all I had.

I wandered back into my office, realizing that there wasn’t anything left in the Scotch bottle. I forgot to tell Noah about that. I may not want to see him, mainly because I didn’t want him to try and talk to me about Harper. I knew he cared about her too, but I just couldn’t handle it. However, desperate times called for desperate measures.

Shuffling around the mess, I eventually found my phone in the ruins of a picture frame. I vaguely remembered throwing it at a picture of Harper and I from a few years ago after debating unblocking her for the hundredth time.

The little letters all blurred together on the screen, barely registering in my brain before I figured out how to get to Noah’s contact and call him.

He answered on the second ring. “Alpha.”

“Need more booze.”

I waited for him to reply, but he didn’t say anything. Pulling the phone away from my ear, I checked the screen to make sure that I hadn’t accidentally hung up on him.

“Noah,” I growled. “I know you’re there.”

He sighed. “I just don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“And why not?”

“Levi, I respect you and care for you enough to say that this is not healthy. You need to find a better way to process losing Harper.”

His words were like a shot through the chest that only made me more angry. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. I suggest if you care for your position in the pack at all you need to do exactly what I tell you. Your ass better be at my door in five minutes, and make sure Avery isn’t there.”

I hung up before letting him argue with me. I didn’t have time to listen to any kind of voice of reason. I didn’t really care what he thought about how I was handling the situation.

Noah had enough common sense to listen to me and knocked on my office door a few minutes later. Stalking over, I threw it open, relieved that he made sure that Avery wasn’t anywhere in sight. I could barely deal with one of them nagging me, both would've been a disaster.

“Drinking because of Harper won’t bring her back,” he said, setting the new bottle down on my desk.

I picked it up before opening it and pouring myself a new glass. “It’s not because of Harper.” I knew I was lying, but there’s no way that I would admit that to anyone.

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, okay, and the sky isn’t blue.”

Rounding on him, some of the amber liquid jumped out of my cup and onto the floor. I didn’t care anymore, the whole place was a mess. “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that you’ve always cared about Harper, so I understand that this situation is difficult for you, but you need to find some other way to manage it.”

“Harper has never seen me as her true father or treated me as such,” I snapped. “Never bring her up again, do you hear me?”

The door opened again, causing both of our heads to swivel in that direction. Avery strode in with her nose high in the air like she owned the damn place. I forgot to lock the door. I narrowed my eyes at Noah. Or maybe it was his fault since he’d been the last one to come through it. I even warned him that she was trying her hardest to get in.

She barely spared either of us or paid any attention to the disastrous mess that was my office before sitting at my desk. “Levi, we need to nail down some details about the wedding. I’ve emailed you several times with different options for flowers and caterers. If we want our wedding to be something we deserve, we need to be able to reserve these way in advance or we’ll be stuck with our last choices.”

Noah looked at me with his eyebrows raised, but I turned away from both of them. I couldn’t care less about the wedding. We weren’t even officially engaged yet. If she wanted to plan the wedding that badly, I didn’t give a shit what she picked. It was nothing more than a business transaction in my eyes.

She kept whining and whining, but I just kept drinking until she eventually left. Noah is still unfortunately there.

Maybe if I kept ignoring him, he would leave too.

I moved over to the newly vacated office chair. The screen was awake, probably because Avery was messing around to try and pull up my email to try and get me to pay attention to her bullshit. I nearly disregarded the screen until a familiar name caught my eye.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE? DIVORCE RUMORS SWIRL FOR ALPHA MASON AND LUNA HARPER!

It took me a moment to realize that I wasn’t imagining the news headlines blasting across the screen of the computer. Married? When did they get married?

I stand up so quickly out of my chair that I send it flying back into the bookshelf. There were plenty of crashing sounds, but I didn’t pay attention to any of them as I ran over to Noah, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and hauling him off his feet.

“What the fuck is going on?” I demanded.