Rejected for a Fake Luna

I had been the sole heir to the oldest pack in the world, Ravenwood Pack. My father had always made me hide my identity, so I had presented myself at the academy as nothing more than an ordinary lone wolf.

My dormmate, Brielle, a grassroots Alpha, had loved flaunting her top-tier knockoffs that looked real enough to fool most people. She had even made a spectacle of passing herself off as Ravenwood Pack’s young lady.

What I had never expected was that the contract mate from the alliance marriage between the two packs transferred to our academy—and she, a counterfeit wrapped up by some unknown force, not only relied on high-end replicas but also, by some filthy means, stole my exclusive scent. At this very moment, she stepped in first and impersonated me.

“This moonshadow stone was a personal token my mother took from the pack treasury. Only the purest Alpha bloodline was worthy of wearing it.” Brielle raised her voice and spun once across the dorm’s polished floor. She had deliberately unbuttoned her uniform collar today, displaying the gray-blue crystal at her throat from every angle.

I had just finished combat conditioning. The instant I pushed open the dorm door, in that cramped room, above Brielle’s pungent, bitter grassroots-Alpha scent, there was—absurdly—an extremely faint yet razor-clean trace of cedar.

My fingers froze on the doorknob for a beat.

That scent had belonged exclusively to my pure blood. On the entire continent, only I, the highest-ranked Alpha, could have carried that distinct cedar note.

How could she possibly have had my pure-blood scent clinging to her?!

“Oh my God, Brielle, the spiritual fluctuation from that moonshadow stone is insane!” the other two roommates said at once as they crowded around her, their eyes shining with undisguised fervor. “I heard that on the underground black market, a piece that small was worth ten years of resources for an average wolf! Your pack is really powerful.”

Brielle lifted her chin, soaking it in, the smugness at the corners of her mouth impossible to hide.

“It’s nothing. When I enter my awakening period next month, I’ll toss this stone to you as scrap so you can play with it.”

The two of them got so excited their tails practically wagged, and they fawned over her again.

I forced down the churn of doubt in my chest, said nothing, and walked to my bed with my back to them, organizing my frost-cold tactical boots.

“However—” Brielle called out with lofty arrogance at my back, “Wren, if you ever want to broaden your horizons, you can beg me to let you touch this high-tier crystal. But you have to wear gloves. If you stain it with that poor lone-wolf stench, you could work your whole life and still not afford to赔 it.”

I paused mid-wipe on my combat blade. I turned my head and swept a cold glance over the “rare treasure” on her neck.

It was an extremely rare, high-end replica—its color, its cut, even the faint spiritual pulse sealed inside it all reached an astonishing 99% fidelity. Even if an heir from another top pack had stood here, it would’ve been hard to tell real from fake with the naked eye.

But I knew perfectly well that the true moonshadow stone’s core carried a naturally formed dark-red bloodline, and that supreme authentic piece had lain quietly in my inner suitcase at that very moment.

“No need. I had my own.” I withdrew my gaze, thinking: who would want your knockoff?

Brielle glared viciously at my back. “Stubborn to the end! A lowly stray with no background—let’s see how long you can keep that mouth tough!”

I didn’t bother with her barking.

I had lived under too many hunting eyes for more than a decade. Now I only wanted a low-key academy life, and I didn’t want to nitpick with her over any of this—especially while I waited for my contract mate, Kane, a guy rumored to be from Sterling Pack, someone I had never even met.

When I thought back to the first day of term, the first time I saw Brielle, she had already been like this—desperate for everyone to know how noble her pack background was, grabbing every chance to show off.

When people talked about the territorial council, she said, “My mother went to the council all the time for work. I’ve even met a few elders.”

When people asked her for an introduction, she refused on the grounds that “the council work couldn’t be disturbed.”

When people discussed high-tier salves, she said, “That won’t do. Mine are better—straight from my family,” and then she pulled out unmarked little bottles and jars, claiming they were “custom-blended by the main house.”

After it happened enough times, the entire year had treated Brielle as if she came from a top-tier wolfline, imagining her as a lofty royal-blooded noblewoman.

I had only ever watched it like a joke. True top bloodlines had always been restrained and low-profile; they had never made such a loud show of themselves, flaunting status everywhere.

I had assumed it was just vanity—playing dress-up for attention. But I had never imagined Brielle’s ambition reached far beyond that. She didn’t only imitate me and steal my bloodline scent to pose as pack royalty—she even set her sights on my unseen contract mate, Kane.