Rejected by My Alpha Now He Replaced Me with a Copycat Luna novel Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Raven’s POV

The door slammed harder than necessary behind me.

“You like her, don’t you?”

Dexter’s words echoed in my head like a spell.

We don’t usually see eye to eye on many things, my beta and I.

But this time, I think… he might be right.

My fingers trembled as I adjusted the hem of my work shirt for the fifth time. The mirror showed dark circles under my eyes-telltale signs of a night spent wrestling with ghosts. My father’s face haunted the spaces between wakefulness and sleep, while Kael’s scent lingered in my dreams

like smoke after a wildfire.

The floorboard creaked as I knelt beside it, the sound as familiar as my own heartbeat. With practiced precision, I pried up the loose plank, revealing my shoebox of contingencies. The cardboard was soft with age, edges frayed from too many desperate midnight inspections.

Inside lay my salvation and my shame:

Another burner phone still sealed in plastic, more rolled money in mixed bills, another four fake IDs, and a tablet that can wipe any trace clean during and after every use.

The cash made a hollow sound as I thumbed through it. Plus those in my bag and my car, they were still not enough for Canada, not enough for Alaska. Barely enough to disappear into another nowhere town where the walls would feel just as thin.

My wolf-Lena-paced beneath my skin. “Stay,” she urged. “Hunt.”

I snapped the box shut. “We’re not animals.”

Lena would’ve laughed if wolves could laugh. Because animals, that’s exactly what we were-creatures of tooth and claw, slowly going mad from solitude. Every shifter knew the stories: lone wolves who forgot how to shift back, whose human minds dissolved into howls.

Lena showed me flashes-Kael’s hands in my hair, his teeth at my throat, the weight of him pressing me into the earth. My skin prickled with

heat.

“Not. Helping.” I muttered.

But the truth slithered through my defenses: part of me wanted it too. Wanted the safety of pack. Wanted to stop running. Wanted to wake up with someone’s arms around me who wouldn’t disappear by morning.

The floorboard groaned as I replaced it, swallowing my secrets once more.

My reflection in the bathroom mirror looked haunted. I splashed cold water on my face, but nothing could wash away the truth:

Michael’s pack hadn’t surfaced in my searches last night. No alerts. No sightings. By all accounts, I should be breathing easier.

So why did the air feel thicker?

Why did every shadow look like a wolf stalking closer?

And why-why-could I still smell winter pine on my skin when Kael had never gotten close enough to touch me?

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

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The keys jingled as I grabbed them, along with the cheap phone that held no contacts, no history, no ties.

Just another day.

The stairwell’s dim lighting did little to calm my nerves as I descended, my boots hitting each step with deliberate quiet. My mental armor was halfway up when I rounded the corner-and walked straight into what felt like a brick wall covered in leather.

The impact knocked the air from my lungs. Strong fingers closed around my bicep, and fuck-my shields slipped for a second. A tidal wave of

emotions crashed into me:

Whiskey-burned regret.

The metallic tang of old bloodlust.

Something darker, sharper-grief that cut like broken glass.

I wrenched free with a snarl, scrambling back until my spine hit the wall. The stranger held up both hands, sunlight from the bar’s front windows glinting off the ink winding around his forearms.

“Easy there, luv,” he murmured, that British accent doing nothing to soften the wolf beneath his skin. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Don’t. Touch. Me.”

I wrenched free, slamming my defenses back up so hard my temples throbbed. The man looming before me looked like he’d stepped out of some aristocratic biker gang-golden stubble, artfully messy blond hair, and eyes the color of forest moss after rain. His rolled sleeves showed off forearms that could crush skulls, the tattoos peeking through only adding to the dangerous allure.

But it was his scent that froze my blood-whiskey and woodsmoke with that unmistakable wildness underneath. Wolf.

Great. He’s probably Kael’s packmate.

And something else-something that made Lena whimper in recognition even as I bared my teeth.

My fingers twitched toward the knife at my back. “Who are you? We’re not open yet.”

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12:11

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

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