Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 40 Ava: Make Your Decision

Selene's words echo in my mind for a long time.

Is that why you took so long to come to me?

She sighs. It was a consideration, she says, and leaves it at that.

For the first time, I think I'm truly grateful that I was a defect. If I'd had Selene—if I'd gone into heat like this in the pack…

The life I would lead makes me shudder.

Thankfully, thinking about it helps with the symptoms of heat, too. Nothing like an instant turn-off even in the face of Lycan reproductive urges.

Wait a second. Why aren't you affected by my heat, if it's because of the Lycan part of me?

Selene's silence has me narrowing my eyes at the empty air. Selene!

I am not as young or as inexperienced as you, child. A heat does not overcome me in that way.

So, I'm young and inexperienced, and therefore I become a slutty ball of desire when I go through heat? Not fair.

Be careful, Selene says out of nowhere.

I look around, but I'm alone. My heat isn't out of control. What?

He's going to come through the window. Your guards are unaware.

Shit.

What do I do?

I need to tell the nurse.

Mating with an alpha would help your heat. You can do it without a claiming, if you want. You don't have to be fully mated just because you mate once or twice.

Um.

Selene was here so I could stare at her. I thought you didn't want me to mate with

you choose. I don't think you need to be loyal to a fate

Oh.

guess that

I

my heat driving us both to the brink of insanity, he's doing everything in his power to protect me. Guards stand outside my door, ready to intervene if he loses control. He's prioritizing my safety and well-being, even at the cost of his

stark contrast to

rejected me so callously after our moment in the garden. Lucas, who made me feel like I was nothing. Lucas, who shattered my

And yet...

has been trying to make amends, hasn't he? The notes, the apologies, the meals left at my door. Is it possible that he regrets his actions? That

don't know what to think

way he made me feel alive and whole. But my mind reminds

my body's urging me to do. To mate with a near-stranger. To let Clayton soothe the desperate, aching

what I truly want? Or is it just the heat talking, clouding my judgment and obscuring the deeper truths of

I don't know.

know what to

or by the expectations of others. I can choose my own path, my own

that I have a choice, it feels impossible

or choose Clayton. Hurry. He's almost

does nothing to quell the searing flames that lick at my insides. I'm already struggling to think, going in circles, and I can't leave the water to

this. Why does this

it out, Selene says.

of my skin. I feel like I'm being consumed from the inside out,

tone steady and reassuring.

in Selene's words. But it's a losing

My body craves it, craves the touch of

willing the chill to seep into my scorched skin. But it's

whimper, my mind conjuring his

the garden flashes through my mind, vivid and torturous. The way he held me, the way he kissed me, the way he made me feel like I was the only thing

crave his touch, his scent, his claiming. Every fiber of my being yearns

down my body, my