Rejected by My Alpha Now He Replaced Me with a Copycat Luna novel Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Nox’s POV

“The Devil.”

Raven’s words echoed in my mind as my brothers argued in the kitchen. But I could only think of the woman lying in the guest room bed that

never held guests because we never trusted anyone enough to let them across our borders.

It wasn’t just Raven’s words that held me hostage; it was how she’d said them. Devoid of all emotion. Like a robot.

That wasn’t the woman I’d been growing to know over the past week. She was fire and kindness, light and mirth, and I wanted to kill whoever had stolen that away.

“I want to burn them alive and feed their entrails to the buzzards,” Ezra snarled.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Some of us were just a bit more colorful about it.

“Jesus,” Asher muttered. “Get a grip. We don’t even know if she’s telling us the truth. It could all be a cover story to garner sympathy.”

Dexter shoved him hard. “What the hell’s wrong with you? No one would do that to themselves.”

“Did. You. Just. Push. Me?” Asher clipped.

“Shut up!” I yelled. “All of you just shut the hell up. We’re going to keep her safe. We’re going to give her time to heal and not force her to talk about anything she doesn’t want to. And if any of you try to push her, I’ll hack your whole lives. You won’t be able to move without hemorrhaging money or your phone accidentally sending out fart sounds.”

Four sets of eyes came to me. Asher’s and Dexter’s expressions were full of shock, interest filled Ezra’s, and I saw respect in Kael’s eyes.

“Did he just threaten us?” Dexter asked, sounding more confused than anything.

I understood it. I’d never been a dominant wolf. It was why my parents had abandoned me as a pup. I’d been worth less than dirt to them.

But my brothers here? They saw my value, it just wasn’t usually in fights or issuing threats.

“I think he did,” Kael said, one corner of his mouth kicking up.

I was too annoyed to respond to either of them. I grabbed the tray I’d prepared for Raven and stalked toward her room. The anger and frustration were so strong in me that I forgot to even knock. Pushing into the room, I came up short.

Raven was trying desperately to get one of the huge picture windows open. At the sound of the door, she whirled, hands up in a defensive

posture.

The move sent an ache through my chest. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’d never hurt you.”

Raven’s hands dropped a fraction. “I don’t know, you seem pretty well trained.”

My lips twitched as I set the tray on the bed, lowering myself to the bench at the foot of it. “I hate fighting.”

She studied me for a moment before moving closer. “Why?”

“I’m sure you’ve sensed that I’m not exactly dominant.” Wolves could sense those levels in one another; it was a self-defense technique.

She tugged the corner of her lip between her teeth. “I’m not either. It doesn’t mean we can’t learn.”

My brows lifted at that. In the handful of moments I’d been able to inhale Raven’s true scent, I hadn’t felt her dominance or lack thereof. But I’d been too wrapped up in trying to figure out what she was.

“I’ve learned. I’ve mastered enough to keep myself safe. But I still don’t like it,” I admitted.

Raven lowered herself to the mattress. “Fair. The world would be a better place without all the bloodshed.”

I prefer to keep my battles to firewalls and system backdoors.”

“You’ve got me there. I wish I were better at that sort of thing.”

My wolf Grit perked up at that, his ears twitching. “I could teach you.”

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. It was monumentally stupid.

“Really?” Raven asked, something that sounded a lot like hope in her voice.

My gaze snuck up to her face for the briefest of moments. There was more than beauty there. There was genuine interest. “Sure. I don’t have many people I can geek about tech with.”

An adorable little furrow appeared between Raven’s brows. “The rest of the guys don’t like that stuff?”

One corner of my mouth kicked up. “They like the intel I provide, but none of them has enough patience to sit behind a monitor for hours.” I shook my head. “Which doesn’t even make any sense because Asher will lay in wait for days for his targets.”

“Targets?” she asked.

I snapped my mouth closed. Ash wouldn’t be happy I was spilling his secrets.

“Don’t worry. You didn’t let me in on anything I didn’t already suspect. You guys have a pretty gnarly reputation in the supernatural world.”

I shifted on the bench. I knew we had a rep, but it didn’t mean I liked it. “We’re trying to do good. Most of the time, anyway.”

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