Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 158 Ava: From the Past

"Ava, is that you?"

The familiar rasp has me frozen, my heart lurching into my throat. Slowly, I turn around, coming face-to-face with a ghost from my past.

Our neighbor. Margot Mitchell.

Her once vibrant auburn hair is streaked with silver, her face a roadmap of wrinkles and scars. It's her eyes that haunt me. Piercing green eyes that see everything and do nothing.

"Margot," I greet, my voice tight with caution. "What are you doing here?"

She limps toward me, her gait uneven from some injury she incurred long before I was born. I remember asking about it once, and my mother slapped the back of my head, admonishing me for my rudeness. "Oh, Ava. I'm so happy to see you again."

I tense as she reaches out, half-expecting her to grab me, to drag me back to the hellscape I escaped. But she merely places a hand on my arm, her touch feather-light.

"I'm sorry," she whispers, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I'm so sorry for everything. For not intervening when…" She trails off, her gaze flickering to the ground.

The shame she tries to portray leaves me feeling dirty. Unclean from her mere presence.

Memories flash through my mind, unbidden. Margot's face in the window, watching as I was taunted and beaten, even by her own son. Listening at the front door as my parents berated me, their voices carrying through the window. Her figure rushing inside when I tried begging her for help during one particularly brutal group assault led by Todd Mason.

I was thirteen.

He broke my wrist.

I cried for hours that day. Hours. Until my parents, tired of my whining, finally dragged me to the healers.

Margot, always watching. Never helping.

I yank my arm away, taking a step back. "You're sorry?" Anger surges through me, hot and bitter, fueling my words. "Why are you even saying that? What does that do for me now?"

have to understand, none of us could help you. Please." She grabs at my arm again.

Ah. She needs something.

No wonder she's here.

part of me, almost miniscule, that

step back,

saw you." Her eyes fill with tears. "Please, Ava. Think of

with the alpha. Westwood is tearing us apart. They should promote your

as I take another

or anyone else from that pack.

an ugly mask

the room, her hackles raised, teeth bared.

I think she might actually shift and attack. My heart pounds against my

Margot's demeanor changes instantly. She straightens,

clipped. "We can talk when you've settled

me, curiosity etched on her face.

trying to steady my racing heart. "An old neighbor," I manage, my voice shaking

eyes, followed by sympathy. She starts to say something, but I don't hear

against me as I tremble, overwhelmed by

jeers and taunts of my packmates. The pain of their blows, both physical and emotional. The sinking realization that no one, not even our

mind. You're safe now. She

of emotions. Fear, anger, betrayal—they swirl inside me,

breaks through the

few beats of my heart, slowing down. Meeting

in her eyes. "I'll be in the other room if you need me." She pauses, then adds, "Therapy isn't

wells up inside me, and I manage a shaky smile. "Thank

to Selene, running my fingers through her soft fur. Her presence is a balm, soothing the jagged edges of my

says, her voice a gentle caress in my mind. But you