Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 63 Ava: Homecoming (V)

The next few days are agonizing.

There are shifters outside my house every hour of the day.

Mom and Dad have disappeared, doing… Honestly, I don't know what they're doing.

Phoenix was never around much to begin with, so I'm not surprised that I don't see him.

It occurs to me that I haven't seen Jessa even once since I've been home, but, again, not really surprised. It isn't like we were ever close.

So I pace in my childhood home, trapped, with no idea what's coming next, building nightmare after nightmare of assumptions in my mind. Sometimes I catch Selene's show on TV and watch that. Other times I watch the news, a habit I've gotten used to since working at The Novel Grind. Mrs. Elkins often had it on in the background.

It's amazing how sheltered I was from the human world, even when living in it. I see why Dad never let me watch the news; it's enlightening to see how things are outside of the views of your pack.

I always knew they were a little outdated. After being in the Aspen territory, I've learned that my family pack is barely out of the Dark Ages. Now that my eyes have been opened, there are so many details I can pick out that are just wrong.

The fact that I had a phone at all was a miracle—of course, I bought it with my own money.

Jessa begged Dad for one when she was twenty-one, and he relented. But so many women in the pack don't have a cell phone at all. My dad is sometimes considered a little too lenient on his women.

Except for me, of course.

jobs. They're

come in with his child, looking for a book or having them read while they do

I don't think

few months

Carlos, and Franklin. Of Clayton and

still thinking about me. If they're worried. How

Don't get me wrong…

I'm going to escape.

just don't know how quickly I can do

much I wrack my brain, I don't

I could just run on foot, but I can't shift. They'd catch me within hours. The only way to escape is with

take a boat, if we

a response. Alpha Renard strides in, smiling sweetly, but the look is all wrong—his eyes too calculating, his face too smarmy, his voice like poison to the little happiness I've managed to

dear," he croons, reaching out to touch my arm. I fight the urge to recoil. "I trust you're

myself, even though I'm fully dressed. There's something predatory in the way he looks at me that makes my skin crawl. There's no desire there, only a sick

squeezing my arm. "I wanted to discuss a few things with you, now that you've had some

hard, bracing myself for whatever twisted scheme he has

I can't pull away without

my hands folded in my lap to hide their trembling. Renard settles beside me, entirely too close for my liking, but I force

he begins, his tone deceptively gentle, "your situation is unique, to say the least. A woman of your age, unmated and unshifted—it's quite the conundrum. You have no direction, no purpose. These are all things you need to get your mind off your lack of a wolf." He clicks his tongue, his gaze hardening just a bit. "And then there's the