Rejected by My Alpha Now He Replaced Me with a Copycat Luna novel Chapter 82

Chapter 82

Kael’s POV

Dexter shoved back from the desk, letting loose a stream of curses, his British accent growing thicker.

Dwayne grabbed a chunk of Raven’s hair and yanked her head back. “What do you think, bitch? You want to play a little more? Show those bastards just how pretty you scream?”

“Go-to-hell.” Raven’s words were more rasp than fully formed syllables, but Dwayne heard her just fine.

He slammed his knife into her side, the force of it making Raven’s body bow.

Snarls lit the air around me, and fur rippled over my arms. I wouldn’t be able to hold my wolf back for much longer. Not now.

“Tell. Me. Where. They. Are,” Dwayne demanded.

Raven’s head lolled to the side as he released her, like she was too weak to even hold it up anymore. Agony tore through me. My mate. Hurt. Tortured. Close to death. Because of us.

Dwayne moved into her space. “You will break, but I hope not too quickly. This is too much fun.” He grabbed her hair again. “Say hello to your fuck buddies.” He lifted the blade to her neck, and then the video shut off.

No one moved.

I wasn’t sure any of us even breathed. All I could hear was the blood roaring in my ears, pounding with panic and failure.

“She’s trying to protect us,” Nox whispered.

We all knew it. She was taking the pain so we stayed safe. Fucking hell.

We didn’t deserve her. None of us. But especially me.

“It could be an act. Faking it to get us to do something. They’re probably going to ask for a ransom,” Asher argued.

I whirled on him. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

I’d barely gotten the sentence out before Nox’s fist crashed into Asher’s jaw. He followed it up with a jab to the nose that had a satisfying crunch piercing the air.

“Fucking hell,” Asher growled as Dexter moved in to push Nox back.

I knew it wasn’t for Asher’s benefit; it was for Nox’s. As much improvement as he’d made in hand-to-hand, Asher was a trained assassin and

could kill Nox in two seconds flat if he wanted to.

“I’m not even allowed to state a possibility?” Asher snapped; grabbing for a paper towel to put under his nose,

“You can, but you’ll have to deal with the consequences.” My voice held no emotion as I moved into Asher’s space. I’d gone completely cold. “And if you say something like that about my mate again, I will see it as a challenge to my alpha status and grant you the duel.”

Surprise and the briefest flicker of fear flashed in Asher’s eyes. My wolf loved the terror. It fed him, gave him energy for the battle to come.

“Is that understood?” I growled,

Asher’s jaw worked back and forth. “Crystal fucking clear,” Shoving the paper towel under his nose, he turned on his heel and stalked out of

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

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Nox’s room.

Dexter’s hand dropped from Nox’s chest, and he ran it through his hair, tugging hard on the strands. “He didn’t ask for anything.”

At least one of us had it somewhat together and was thinking logically. Because he was right. There’d been no request. The Infernos didn’t want money; they wanted vengeance. And they were using Raven to get it.

I stared hard at the screen, the final image up now, the knife pressed to Raven’s throat. “We have to find her.”

Who knew how much time she had before Dwayne decided the best sort of vengeance was to kill her?

“Nox, can you do something with the video? Find her location that way?”

He was already moving, sliding back into his chair, his fingers flying over the keyboard. “The video itself won’t have a location, but the email might.” Nox’s hands blurred with how fast they moved. “If they sent it from a device, it may give us information I can track.”

I hoped like hell these vindictive bastards were dumb and had left countless trails for us to find. Ones that would lead us straight to Raven.

“She’s not healing,” Dexter said, his voice low.

“I know,” I rasped. I could see that Raven’s more recent wounds weren’t closing like they should have. It could happen when our systems were overloaded. When there was just too much damage. It meant she didn’t have the same kind of protections she’d typically have.

Dexter squeezed the back of his neck hard. “And she’s not shifting.”

I knew that, too. It meant she was too weak. Too drained. Too close to death.

“I can’t lose her,” Dexter whispered.

My eyes burned with the worst kind of pain. “That’s not going to happen.”

I spoke the words with a certainty I didn’t feel, hoping I could somehow speak the outcome into existence.

The typing stopped, sending Dexter’s and my focus back to Nox and his computer.

“What?” I demanded.

Nox simply stared at the screen for a long moment, then slowly turned around. “The IP address from that email?”

“Yeah? Where’s it coming from?” Dexter demanded. Nox looked up at him. “Inside Jack’s.”

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

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