Rejected by My Alpha Now He Replaced Me with a Copycat Luna novel Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Raven’s POV

I shook myself out of my stupor, spooning another bite of grits with one hand while petting Lulu with the other.

“I’m good, just thinking about the fact that I missed work yesterday.” I glanced at Dexter. “Did you let Joe know I’d be out?”

He nodded. “Told him you had a bad migraine.”

The familiar explanation made an ache take root in my chest, memories rising of all the times my mother had made that excuse for me as a child. “Thanks. Does anyone know what time it is?”

“Eleven,” Nox answered. “Why?”

I popped a piece of bacon into my mouth and chewed quickly. “My shift starts at noon.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Kael said. His tone wasn’t loud, but it was final, the alpha bleeding into his voice. If he really wanted to, he could force my submission. It wouldn’t even be difficult because my empath status meant I didn’t even have a tenth of the dominance he did.

Still, my eyes met his in challenge. “Excuse me?”

Kael’s jaw tightened, a muscle fluttering there. “You’re still recovering, and it’s not safe. Not when so many dark mages got away.”

I didn’t look away or show even a flicker of weakness. “You know as well as I do that wolves recover from this sort of thing in a matter of hours.

A day, at most. It’s been almost two. I’m fine. And I doubt the dark mages will attack in the middle of the day. They don’t want to be outed any

more than we do.”

Tension bled into Kael’s neck, making a vein there pulse. “That doesn’t mean they couldn’t use humans to take you.”

He had a point, but I wasn’t about to stay cooped up in their fortress for the rest of time. “I can take care of myself. You’ve seen that.”

“What I saw was you getting a blade to the gut,” Kael growled.

Annoyance flickered, but I knew he was pulling the move out of care. “I won’t be alone. Dexter’ll be working, too.”

“I can take one of the booths,” Nox offered.

I sent him a grateful look. “See, plenty of backup. I’ll only be alone when I pee.”

Dexter chuckled. “We could use the buddy system for the bathroom-”

“Dexter,” I warned.

He held up both hands. “All right, all right.”

Kael looked at Dexter in silent question. It was then that I realized Dexter must be Kael’s beta, and he was asking for his opinion. It was so different from how my father ruled. His opinion was the only one that mattered.

Interesting choice, though. Maybe Dexter is more than meets the eye.

“Sorry, Kael, but I’m not exactly objective here. Maybe Ezra’s got a better idea.” Dexter sighed dramatically.

Right, maybe I was overthinking it.

Ezra turned that blue-green gaze my way. It roamed my face and felt almost physical, like a gentle breeze across my skin. My wolf threw herself against the walls of her metaphysical cage, wanting out. Wanting to get to him. I bit down on the inside of my cheek to keep her in check.

“A deal,” Ezra rasped. “She goes to work and the club but doesn’t fight us on staying here.”

My jaw dropped. “You know I’m not a prisoner, right?”

His lips twitched. “Prisoners don’t get a guest room.”

I let out a huff of air.

“You have one of us with you wherever you go,” Kael added to the bargain.

My back teeth ground together. “Fine.”

He grinned. “I knew you could be reasonable.”

I did the only thing I could. I stuck my tongue out at him. Kael barked out a laugh. “Such spirit.”

Dexter leaned over and squeezed my thigh. “Will it really be so bad being stuck with me?”

The contact had heat spiking in my blood, and I sucked in an audible breath. My wolf snarled, chomping at her tightly held reins. Fucking hell. It took everything in me not to shift.

Something had changed while I was unconscious. Maybe it was the injury or being so vulnerable around these wolves, but my wolf was losing it. If she went feral, there was only one thing this pack would do.

Put her down.

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