Rejected by My Alpha Now He Replaced Me with a Copycat Luna novel Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Kael’s POV

The moment I pushed through the back door of Off the Rail, the scent hit me like a sucker punch to the gut.

Smelled like wild sage and breeze.

Human.

The air was thick with the usual stink of sweat, blood, and adrenaline, but beneath it all-her. Wild and sharp, like lightning on the wind, but tangled with something else. Something weird. Something wounded. A bitter undercurrent of old pain, like scars that never quite healed right.

My nostrils flared. Where-?

The crowd near the pit roared, snapping my attention forward. And there she was.

Lean, wiry, with dark hair pulled into a messy braid and a face that looked like it had seen every kind of fight and won most of them. She moved like liquid shadow-slipping a punch, countering with a knee to her opponent’s ribs. Fast. Precise. Dangerous.

Marty spotted me first, his nose wrinkling as he grinned. “Boss, back already? Couldn’t stay away, huh? Workaholic.”

I barely registered his words. My entire focus was locked on the girl who’s fighting one of our biggest guy Rod.

“Who’s that?” I asked, my voice rougher than I intended.

Marty shrugged. “Name’s Raven. Showed up in town bout a week after you left. Quiet, keeps to herself-but damn, can she throw a punch. Our girls won’t spar with her anymore; she’s too quick. Only a few boys can keep up.”

Raven. The name fit her-dark, sharp, a creature of storm and shadow.

Two months. Me and my team had been gone two goddamn months hunting a target who’d taken three bullets and still wouldn’t stay down. And in that time, she had walked into my territory, into my club, without me even knowing.

Then, mid-strike, I saw her froze for a moment.

And in that split second of distraction, Rodriguez’s fist cracked across her jaw.

She hit the mat hard.

“Damn… that’s a mean right hook you got right there.” She murmured, obviously still dazed.

Rodriguez cursed under his breath and knelt beside her immediately, his grin replaced by wide-eyed concern. “Shit, Raven-you okay? I didn’t- Sorry, didn’t mean to hit you this hard. I thought you’re gonna block me. You never freeze like that.”

She spat blood, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Yeah, yeah, no big deal, I’ll live. Guess I’m probably tired or something, double-shifa bitch. Don’t worry, I’ll just walk it off.”

my body was coiled tight as steel cable as I vaulted over the ropes into the ring. The crowd’s murmurs faded into white uld hear was the rapid thud of her heartbeat, the sharp inhale as she registered my approach.

riguez shot me a wary look, hands raised in a placating gesture. “Hey, boss, it was just a spar-”

“I know.” My voice came out rougher than I intended. I didn’t look at him. Couldn’t. Not when every primal instinct screamed to put my body between hers and any perceived threat.

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She was already pushing herself up when I reached her, movements sharp with defiance despite the blood trickling from her split lip. Up close,

her scent was intoxicating-wild sage and iron, with that underlying note of something uniquely her.

Then my wolf, Krux, surged forward in my mind with a snarl so vicious it made my teeth ache.

“Mine.”

I froze.

Oh, fuck no.

Mate?

Could just be a strong attraction. Could be-

“MINE.”

Krux wasn’t debating.

“Hi,” I managed, extending a hand. “Kael. Owner of the club.”

Her eyes-Christ, those eyes-narrowed. A rich, impossible turquoise that glowed faintly even under the shitty fluorescent lights. She ignored my offered hand, wiping her mouth with the back of her wrist instead. “Raven.”

Again, the name suited her.

The cut on her lip was shallow but angry-looking. My canines ached with the need to fix it, to drag my tongue over the wound and let the

healing properties in my saliva-

Get a fucking grip, Kael.

“You should get that cleaned up,” I said, forcing my voice into something resembling casual. Like my wolf wasn’t currently shredding my insides

to get to her. “My office has a first aid kit. Better than the rusted-out one Marty keeps under the counter.”

To my surprise, she smirked. “What, the big bad club owner plays nurse now?”

The tension in my chest eased a fraction. There she is.

“Only for pretty girls who take punches worse than they throw them,” I shot back.

Her laugh was short, surprised. “Pretty, huh?”

Fuck. Had I said that out loud?

Before I could backtrack, she pushed past me toward the ropes-but not before I caught the faintest hitch in her breath as our arms brushed.

Nothing

of recognition. No cosmic click of THIS IS THE ONE. Just… skin against skin, warm and alive, but utterly, disappointingly normal.

out a wounded noise in the back of my skull, the sound of a wolf who’d just been denied his favorite toy. “But-but she smells right,” he

ed, paws scrabbling at my ribs like he could dig his way out and claim her anyway.

Yeah, well, life’s unfair, buddy.

I swallowed the irrational disappointment and kept moving, guiding Raven through the dimly lit back hallway of Off the Rail. It wasn’t until we passed under a flickering overhead light that I got a proper look at the other side of her face.

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And fuck.

The scar wasn’t some thin, accidental slice. My stomach twisted. I’d seen enough blades in my time, and this? This was deliberate-a jagged line from cheekbone to jaw, old enough to have faded silver but deep enough to tell a story.

Knife work.

Krux went ballistic.

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Rejected by My Alpha, Now He Replaced Me with a Copycat Luna?

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