The Alpha Twins' Lottery Mate

In Asterion Academy, making it onto the Apex Rankings or becoming a trending topic on AsterBuzz wasn’t something that happened overnight. In fact, for most students, it took months or even years. The academy was filled with thousands of talented werewolves and humans, all competing for attention in one way or another.

To earn a spot on the Apex Rankings, a student usually had to accomplish something significant, whether it was achieving exceptional academic results, winning competitions, gaining influence within the student body, or doing something remarkable enough to make the entire campus take notice.

AsterBuzz worked in a similar way. It was the academy’s largest social platform, a place where students discussed campus events, shared gossip, followed trends, and kept track of rising names. Most students spent their entire time at the academy trying to make a name for themselves, only to remain complete nobodies. Simply put, a person had to already be a student and do something noteworthy before anyone paid attention to them. That was precisely why Starlight’s situation was so unbelievable.

She had barely made it to the academy, yet her name was already circulating across AsterBuzz, and she had somehow appeared on the Apex Rankings before officially setting foot on campus. When the girls had first seen her name spreading through the academy network, they naturally assumed she knew exactly what was happening.

They had figured she must have some special connection to the Alpha Twins, perhaps even a secret relationship with one of them, because there was simply no other explanation that made sense. After all, not many people could brag about having the Alpha Twins’ support and becoming famous at Asterion before even arriving.

There had never been a case of someone climbing the rankings before setting foot in the academy. The entire situation was so unprecedented that rumors had exploded across campus almost immediately.

That was why seeing Starlight standing in front of them, genuinely confused and completely unaware of what AsterBuzz and the Apex Rankings even were, felt almost impossible to Ariel. It was like meeting someone who had accidentally become a celebrity without realizing the entire academy was already talking about her.

How was that even possible?

Ariel shook herself out of her disbelief and pointed toward the lounge area.

”Bring her over here, Elle. We need to show her everything before she says something else that gives me a heart attack.”

Before Starlight could react, Elle grabbed her wrist. ”Come on, come on, let’s get you caught up before your confusion starts confusing the rest of us,” she said excitedly.

Starlight barely had a chance to protest before Elle started dragging her along. Feeling completely out of her depth, she allowed herself to be pulled across the room while Chloe followed behind them. Together, they joined Ariel in the seating area.

”Sit down first!” Elle ordered as she promptly pushed Starlight onto one of the sofas.

Starlight dropped onto the cushions with a soft plop, feeling as though she had just been swept into the middle of something everyone else understood except her. Everything was happening so fast she could barely keep up. One minute she had been standing by the door, and the next she was being marched into an impromptu meeting.

”Where do we even start?” Ariel said.

Leaning forward, she pulled out her phone and opened an app. The screen displayed a sleek black icon with a sharp, angular crown-like symbol glowing in pale gold.

Above it was the label Apex Ranking.

She tapped it, and the interface opened with a smooth transition into a dark, polished dashboard. ”This academy uses a system called Apex Ranking to track student popularity and influence,” Ariel explained. ”Every student has a profile. Usually, people spend months trying to climb the rankings, but your profile was added before you even officially settled into the academy, which has literally never happened before. That’s how we found out what Starlight Dawson actually looks like.”

The layout was clean and sophisticated, with ranked profiles displayed in descending order alongside profile pictures, vote counts, engagement statistics, and trending indicators. Ariel scrolled through the list before stopping abruptly. ”See this?” she said, turning the screen toward Starlight. ”You’re already sitting at fifteenth place.”

Starlight stared at the display. A high-definition photograph filled the screen.

It was her. More specifically, it was the photograph taken the moment she had stepped outside her house and been confronted by the crowd of reporters waiting in front of her home after the Lunar Lottery announcement.

What the fuck was going on here? Her mind reeled. This couldn’t possibly be normal.

Before she could even begin to process what she was seeing, Elle practically bounced forward in excitement. ”And that’s not even the craziest part!” she exclaimed.

”The Alpha Twins have been pumping votes into your profile ever since it appeared on the rankings. Not only that, they’ve been encouraging their fans to vote for you too. Do you have any idea how insane that is?”

She narrowed her eyes dramatically at Starlight before leaning even closer. ”Seriously, what’s your relationship with the Wolfhart Twins? We promise we’ll keep it a secret if there’s something going on. Trust us, we don’t gossip.”

Ariel snorted. ”That’s a lie.”

”A complete lie,” Chloe agreed immediately. ”But we promise not to spread anything you don’t want us to. You’re practically our queen now.”

Ariel and Elle nodded, their attention fixed squarely on Starlight as they waited for her answer. The intensity of their stares was almost comical, if Starlight hadn’t been so thoroughly confused by everything that was happening.

”Wait.” she held up a hand, feeling a headache beginning to form. ”Just... wait.”

None of what they had said made any sense to her. As a matter of fact, nothing had been making sense since she stepped foot inside this academy. Everything was becoming more confusing by the second, and she still couldn’t understand how any of it had convinced them that she had some sort of special relationship with the Alpha Twins.

”Hold on,” she said slowly, looking from one girl to the next. ”Don’t tell me the reason you’ve all been so friendly and welcoming is because you think I have some kind of connection to the Alpha Twins.”

The thought stung more than she wanted to admit. What if all this warmth had nothing to do with her at all? Had they been nice to her because they believed she had some sort of special connection to the Alpha Twins? Had their smiles, excitement, and enthusiasm been directed at the idea of who they thought she was rather than who she actually was? The possibility left an unpleasant feeling in her chest. She hadn’t known these girls long, but she found herself hoping that wasn’t the cas

Chloe scoffed. ”Well, duh. Why else would—”

Elle immediately slapped a hand over her mouth before she could finish. ”What Chloe means,” Elle said quickly, shooting the other girl a warning look, ”is that it wouldn’t exactly be a bad thing if you were in some kind of relationship with one of the twins. It would explain... well, all of this.”

”Well, I’m not,” Starlight said flatly. ”I don’t even know them. I’ve only ever seen them on television, and I definitely don’t know why they’d be supporting me in the first place.”

Ariel blinked. ”Wait, you’re serious?”

”Yes, I’m very serious,” Starlight replied. ”I honestly don’t understand why anyone would even think that.”

”It’s because of the video that’s been trending on AsterBuzz,” Chloe said after finally prying Elle’s hand off her mouth. ”Everybody thinks you’re secretly involved with one of the alpha twins. Some are even convinced you’re already dating one of them and say that’s probably why you were picked as one of the Lunar Lottery winners.”

Starlight just stared at her. The look on her face was so incredulous that Chloe snorted. ”What?” she asked. ”You don’t believe me? Ariel, show her the video.”

”With pleasure,” Ariel said immediately. She tapped through several screens on her phone before turning it toward Starlight.

”You might want to brace yourself for this.”

A few seconds later, a video filled the screen.