Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 317 Ava: Mindscape

Diving into my bond with Selene is like falling into warm clouds. It's an odd feeling to enter a mental space, but she draws me in naturally, her expertise in this space far outstripping mind.

It's as if my body is separate now, almost a distant memory.

I can't feel the air on my skin. Can't feel the ground I'm sitting on. Even the weight of Selene's body against mine is gone.

There's no smell here.

It isn't even accurate to describe this place as darkness.

It's just—void.

This isn't a place of physical senses, but something else. An energy of the mind, with its own current that ebbs and flows.

As I sink deeper, initial comfort gives way to a maelstrom of emotions so intense, so raw, that I nearly lose myself in them. It's as if I'm drowning in a sea of feelings that aren't entirely my own, yet resonate within me on a primal level.

I want to rage at the fleeting memory of my mate rejecting our fate.

I want to cry as I die alone, the last of my pack.

I'm suffused in wonder as my eyes open to a new life.

Panic. Longing. Frustration. Love. They crash over me, intense and impossible to control, coming and going in such fleeting moments that I can't hold my own.

As soon as I recognize a memory as not mine, it's gone, replaced by another that drowns me in how real it feels.

Focus, Ava, Selene's calm voice cuts through the chaos. Let me guide you. Focus on the bond between us. You're drowning in my memories.

The bond between us has a sort of glow that doesn't exist in the real world. Something I can see with my mind's eye, despite there being nothing here.

She steers me through the tumultuous sea. Gradually, I begin to discern a pattern in the chaos, a rhythm that pulses with a familiar energy.

His wolf.

into me. Old memories mix with new. Selene's fury mix with her mild exasperation. Her desire to

Ava.

memories. But this time, the frantic energy of his wolf engulfs me, a whirlwind of recognition, joy, and desperate frustration. He knows me. He sees me as his mate, his other half.

He's half feral already.

Here

heart. I want

dragging it

but it isn't as

hope of being reunited has incited a sort of madness in him. Just focus on me. Push away what

heed her advice, but it's like navigating through a storm with my eyes closed. The wolf's emotions buffet me from all sides, each one a vivid burst of sensation. His frustration at being separated

then, suddenly, I

mental landscape—but it might as well be. One moment I'm swimming through a sea of emotions, and the next, I'm brought

almost forgotten about him in the intensity of the experience. This is the barrier

Let it flow through you, through Selene, through the bond. All you need to

fixate on how his wolf

Selene's words are calm, though

ground me, no physical sensations

reach for my magic, trying to summon that familiar warmth, but it's not there. It just doesn't

can't find it. It's not... it's not

coming from my body

I can't tell.

think it might be in

for it in the

through the

least, I imagine I do. Her words anchor me, giving me

love for Lucas. That's mine. Undeniably, irrevocably

his arms, the way his eyes light up when he looks