Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 125 Ava: Negotiating the Invitation

The ominous text halts me in place, and Lisa peers over my shoulder.

"A candle?" she asks, confused.

Oh, right—I haven't spoken to her yet about my revelation of Sister Miriam's words at our parting. Only Selene knows.

Catching Lisa's eye, I give a quick shake of my head and slide the phone into my pocket. Kellan's in the distance, walking toward us.

Lisa, as quick-thinking as ever, grabs onto my arm again and returns to her ruminations about the party. By the time the beta's near us, his face is thunderclouds and lightning.

"No way," he announces, before Lisa can even say anything.

Undeterred, Lisa stands straight, toe-to-toe with him in a way I see far too often. These two will never get along. "I'm not asking, Beta Ashbourne. I'm informing you. Friday will be busy. We're going to a party."

"Absolutely not."

"Stop treating us like prisoners!"

"You aren't prisoners," he refutes immediately. "We're doing our best to keep you safe. A party? That's not safe."

"'That's not safe,'" she mimics, rolling her eyes. "So, what, we're going to be stuck in my apartment forever? We can't live at all? Can't do anything? Because to me, it sounds like you're saying Westwood is a bunch of weak-ass wolves who can't protect two little girls in their own territory."

She's a spitfire, Selene approves, back in my head again. Her marathon must be over.

to sting at the beta's pride. Kellan's jaw sets in a way that I see far too often these days, and he gives up arguing with Lisa to turn to me,

standing up for myself,

that I can't live like this forever, and things

hide me away forever. It's worse than being home. At

agonized look bring that familiar

not wrong in the words you speak. Do not walk them back. It's okay to feel the way you

with me, I would pet her and hug her with gratitude. But she's not, so I settle for sending her my intense feelings of love

a hand down his face. "Lucas is going to kill me," he mutters under

me. "He

the alpha's mate,"

like sandpaper. "I'm not his mate, Kellan. How many times

at me, exasperated. "Denial only goes so

I clench my jaw, standing my ground. "No. I'm sick of this. I'm sick of constantly being thought of as his

Ava. Not 'Lucas's mate.' I'm more than just

words pour out of me, heated and sharp. I'm so tired of my identity being tied to a man, a bond I never asked for. First, it was my father and my pack, dictating my every

me without any other consideration. Someone who isn't judged by the standing

in my mind, her presence a

my spine. I meet Kellan's gaze head-on,

holds up his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. I'm trusting you

won't," I say firmly. "Because he knows I'm right. He knows I'm more than just his... whatever I

is undeniable, a living, breathing thing, and I can't underestimate