Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 343 Ava: Prototype Progress

Ivy and her people are settled into a place of their own, and I'm left feeling awkwardly unbalanced between trusting her and feeling like I can't.

Lucas doesn't seem to have the same misgivings, and—despite Selene's soft growls in my head—I leave him to handle the Aspen wolves, resolving to talk to him later.

It doesn't feel like the issues with Ivy will be detrimental to the pack or cause issues with our alliance with Aspen, but it's not something I want to ignore, either.

She's a strange one, Selene murmurs.

Grimoire sounds thoughtful. She seems to have a great amount of power and respect in her pack. Perhaps she had always hoped to mate another alpha and become Luna, rather than an alpha's sister.

"Maybe." Heading toward the gnome's cabin, I add, "She was strange before Lucas ever entered the picture, though."

Yes, when you mated with the Aspen alpha.

My feet stumble over nothing. "I didn't mate with him. I was in heat."

He marked you, Grimoire points out. That's mating. Though you're lucky it didn't take.

It's a grim reminder of a dark past I really don't want to think about. "Let's move on from this topic."

It didn't take because we are stronger, Selene says, proudly ignoring my request. She is only matched by our Alpha.

Her smug tone irks me. "You hated him, remember? I distinctly recall you making snide remarks and encouraging me to sleep with—"

The past is the past, she mutters, and I can practically feel her metaphorical tail tucked between her legs.

Oh, so the all-knowing wolf is capable of mistakes? Grimoire sounds positively gleeful at this new knowledge of Selene's past. She isn't perfect after all?

up, book. All you have is theory with no real life experience. You've lived

a wolf who pretends to know everything when she

slip into the gnome's cabin after

Sage's head pops up over a pile of gadgets and gizmos on his dining table, his eyes

but smile back. "Hello, Dr. Blackwell.

you wouldn't believe the progress we've made!" He waves an arm wildly around to gesture at

he's gotten that much paper from. It must have come from one of the supply runs. Everyone wants to help Dr. Blackwell, though most wolves are confused about who he is and why he's so

let me

carefully navigate around the clutter, glancing over the (presumably) organized chaos. The dining table, once a place for

the magic watch?" I ask, genuinely curious about

magic batteries you provided into the basic digital watch structure. The energy conversion rate is remarkable! We're

nod, trying to follow

create a stable magical field within the watch casing, which allows for the storage and manipulation of magical energies

display now serves a dual purpose - not only does

genuinely impressed by the words I'm not

well, that's where we've hit a bit of a snag. You see, while we can project magical energy through the crystal,

magical signal tends to degrade after about fifty miles. We need to find a way to amplify and stabilize it without overloading

watch more closely. But to me, it just looks like any old watch. "Is there anything

the last of an echo. Your magic, however, is live, coming straight from you. If we could somehow incorporate that into

snapping back to attention. "Would you mind if I took a small sample of your magical

my magic has been unpredictable or dangerous. "Is

to infuse it into this crystal. It's been specially prepared." He holds up a piece of what looks

is this different from the stones I've been infusing with

you've been working with are meant to store magical energy, like batteries.

hair behind my ear to keep my vision clear, I tilt my

looks like plain

"How so?"