Rejected by My Alpha Now He Replaced Me with a Copycat Luna novel Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Asher’s POV

The scent of aggression thickened the cramped office air like gunpowder before a shot. I glared at the idiots crowding Kael’s space-my so-called brothers-who were swallowing this Raven bullshit like it was gospel. Even Ezra, usually the only one with half a brain, wasn’t reacting like he

should.

Kael’s warning growl rolled through the room, but I was too far gone to care. That woman was a walking red flag, and they were too busy sniffing after her to see it.

“Dragons don’t just let anyone near their mates,” Kael said, like that proved anything.

Ezra shifted, his usual confidence wavering. “They were… territorial about her.”

I barked a laugh. “Or she’s got leverage. Blackmail. A dead man’s switch-you really think those overgrown lizards would let her live unless she

had insurance?”

Dexter leaned against the wall, arms crossed, looking like this was all some joke. “If that were true, she’d be ashes in a ditch, not slinging drinks at Jack’s.”

My jaw clenched hard enough to crack teeth. They were all blind. “Or maybe the dragons have gone soft. Mates make you weak.”

Dexter smirked. “Tell Cain that. I’m sure he’d love to demonstrate how ‘soft’ he is-right before he skins you alive.”

I exhaled sharply through my nose. “Whatever.”

The word tasted bitter. They weren’t listening. And that was going to get someone killed.

Kael’s irritation rolled off him in waves, his alpha energy pressing against my skin like a physical weight. But instead of tearing into me-which I half-expected-he turned to Nox. “Break it down. What did you find?”

Nox stiffened, fingers flying over his laptop keys like they were the only thing keeping him grounded. The glow of the screen reflected in his

glasses, turning his usual guarded expression into something even more unreadable.

“Standard checks first-government databases, financials, criminal records. No hits. Whoever she is, ‘Raven’ doesn’t exist on paper.”

A snarl ripped from my throat. “You don’t scrub yourself that clean unless you’ve got something to hide.”

Dexter shot me a look, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Says the guy with enough fake passports to start his own country.”

My lip curled. “Difference is, I don’t pretend to be some harmless bartender.”

“You really think she’s a threat?” Dexter challenged, jaw tight.

“I think we’d be idiots not to consider it.” My fingers flexed at my sides. “One slip, and we’re all dead.”

Dexter exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. “I can’t explain it, Ash. But I know she’s not dangerous. It’s… instinct.”

Kael folded his arms, his massive frame blocking half the dim office light. “Same.”

I scoffed. “Of course you do. You’d adopt a rabid girl if she limped at you the right way.”

The temperature in the room dropped. Kael’s growl’vibrated through the floorboards, deep enough to rattle the glass in the windows. For a second, the air itself felt charged, like the calm before a storm. It was a damn good thing the walls were made of cinderblocks. Otherwise, the

club members would’ve thought there was a wild beast in their midst. And they would be right.

The words left my mouth before I could stop them-and instantly, I regretted it. Fuck. There were lines even I didn’t cross, not with Kael. Not

about this.

We’d all suffered losses. Betrayals. But Kael? They’d carved him open in ways the rest of us couldn’t fathom. Shadowpine hadn’t just taken his sister-they’d made him believe he could save her. Let him chase that sliver of hope until it turned to poison in his veins. By the time we found Clara, there was nothing left to bring home but a ghost.

I dropped my gaze, exposing my throat in the oldest shifter apology there was. But Kael deserved more than just submission. “That was out of line,” I muttered. “I’m sorry.”

The suffocating pressure of his alpha dominance eased just enough for the room to breathe again.

Dexter, ever the bastard, couldn’t resist. “Damn, Ash. Sounded like you were gargling glass saying that.”

Nox snorted, then immediately pretended he hadn’t when I shot him a look sharp enough to flay skin.

I ignored them, pressing my point. “You really don’t find it suspicious? She waltzes into town the second we’re gone, plants herself in our businesses without us knowing-”

“Speak for yourself. Joe kept me updated,” Dexter cut in, smug as hell.

A rough sound tore from my throat-not quite a growl, not quite a scoff-but pure, undiluted frustration. Part of me almost wished Raven had tried to slither her way into the tattoo shop Ezra and I ran. At least then I could’ve ripped her out of our territory with my bare hands instead of playing these fucking mind games.

She was smart, I’d give her that. She’d picked her targets carefully-Dexter with his easy charm, Joe with his bleeding heart. To an outsider, they

might’ve seemed like the weakest links in our chain. But anyone who actually knew them understood how wrong that assumption was. The only

reason Nox had been spared her infiltration was because the bastard worked from shadows too deep for even snakes to slink through.

I leveled a glare at Dexter, who looked about as concerned as a cat sunning itself on a windowsill. “You didn’t even question it. Just let a stranger

dig her claws into our territory.”

Dexter’s smirk was infuriatingly casual as he stretched his arms behind his head. “The horror. Giving a roof to a woman who works twelve-hour

shifts without complaint. What monsters we’ve become.”

My molars ground together hard enough to spark. Before I could retort, Nox’s quiet voice cut through the tension like a knife.

“Guys.”

The room stilled. Nox never spoke up unless it mattered.

He adjusted his glasses, the blue light from his laptop casting eerie shadows across his face. “Asher’s so focused on her being the threat… but

what if she’s the one threatened?”

The atmosphere in the room turned electric-a current of protectiveness so potent it made the hair on my arms stand up. I could practically taste the shift in their scents: anger, concern, that stupid fucking alpha instinct to shelter anything that smelled like vulnerability.

Even if Nox was right—even if Raven was running from something worse than we could imagine-that didn’t make her harmless. It made her a

goddamn lightning rod. And we’d be the ones burned when the storm finally hit.

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