Tangled

40 Ava: Make Your Decision

Selene’s words echo in my mind for a long time.

41 Ava: Virgin Heat (1)

41 Ava: Virgin Heat (I)

I brace myself against the slick tiles, my chest heaving with harsh, ragged breaths as Clayton’s eyes blaze into mine. The heat between us is a living, breathing thing, a palpable force that crackles in the air like an electric

current.

“Clayton,” I manage, my voice a breathless rasp. “We need to… call the guards.”

My words would probably have a little more punch if I wasn’t still working my fingers between my thighs. His eyes fall from my face to my hands, and he steps

forward.

A thrill rushes through me, and I spread my legs a little farther. “The guards,” I prompt, even as I bring myself to yet another orgasm, panting as my face flushes with

its heat.

I want his fingers, not mine.

I want his tongue, not his fingers.

I want his cock, not his tongue.

I want…

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41 Ava: Virgin Heat (1)

Fuck, I can’t handle this.

His nostrils flare at the sound of my voice, his jaw clenching as a muscle ticks in his chiseled cheek. I can see the war raging within him, the primal alpha instincts battling against his ironclad control.

“Ava,” he growls, and the sound of my name on his lips sends a fresh wave of desire crashing through me. I whimper, my thighs clenching tight as I struggle to stay standing.

Clayton’s eyes zero in on the motion, darkening to smoky jade as a low rumble builds in his chest. He takes a step forward, his movements slow and deliberate, like a predator stalking its prey.

“You’re playing with fire, little one,” he warns, his voice a low, gravelly purr that sends shivers racing down my spine. “I can smell your need from here. It’s taking everything I have not to take you right now.”

A whine escapes me at his words, my body arching helplessly towards him. The heat is a living inferno now, an all–consuming blaze that threatens to reduce me to ashes if I don’t find release soon.

“Please,” I beg, the word torn from my lips in a

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41 Ava: Virgin Heat (1)

desperate, keening cry. “I need…”

I can’t bring myself to say it, to voice the craving that consumes me from the inside out. But Clayton seems to understand, his eyes glittering with a feral light as he takes another step forward.

“You need your alpha,” he finishes, his tone a dark promise that has my core clenching with fresh need. “You need to be claimed, don’t you, little one? Filled and bred until that delicious heat of yours is sated at

last.”

A broken moan spills from my lips as images explode behind my eyes–Clayton pinning me down, spearing into me over and over as he takes me with brutal, claiming force. His knot swelling inside me, locking us together as he floods me with his seed, branding me as his mate from the inside out.

It’s everything my body craves, everything this maddening heat demands. But some small, rational part of me knows that it isn’t right, that Clayton isn’t my fated mate, no matter how badly my instincts are screaming for me to let him claim me.

No claiming.

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41 Ava: Virgin Heat (1)

Just sex.

Just relief from all this.

But-

“Guards,” I force out, my voice cracking with strain. “We need… the guards.” I’m trying to maintain rationality, and yet I hold out my hand, beckoning him

closer.

A low, rumbling snarl builds in Clayton’s chest as he prowls closer, his eyes blazing like twin emerald flames. “No guards, little one,” he counters, his tone laced with steel. “Just you… and me.”

He closes the distance between us in two long strides, his hands slamming against the tile on either side of my head as he cages me in. I can feel the scorching heat of his body, can smell the heady, musky scent of his arousal mingling with mine in the steamy air. He’s soaked from the water, and I struggle with the urge to lick every drop off his skin.

“Let me take care of you, Ava,” he murmurs, his breath fanning hot across my lips. “Let me claim what’s mine.”

mouth crashes down on mine, swallowing my

of unrice as he kinnon me with

murarica na ha

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foracious

417

Ava: Virgin

mine in a blatant possession that has me arching into him

drowning in the taste of him, in the blazing heat of his kiss and the hard planes of his body pressed against mine. My fingers tangle in

burning away the last vestiges

his hands curls into my hair, yanking

buck. He slides one jean–clad leg between mine, and I grind down immediately, groaning at the feel of rough, wet denim against my core. The friction is maddeningly delicious and I can’t quite get the angle for my

I’m writhing and riding his leg

alone.

whispers, biting at

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Avar Virgin

need–the bed. We need to get

don’t move anywhere as his fingers take the place of his leg. They plunge inside

and pain blossoms into the

Fuck.

Fuck me.

Oh, my God.

about his movements as his fingers curl, abusing that spot just inside that I can

I might be screaming, because

part of me knows that this is wrong, that I shouldn’t be letting this happen. But that voice is a mere

my alpha to claim me and sate this maddening blaze. Clayton’s tongue strokes against mine in a heated promise, and I shudder against him with a low, keening

Ava: Virgin Heat

as I beg for more.

if only for

66

So if you’re interested in Ava and her journey to find herself (it’s there in the plot somewhere between all the smoot smoot), or if you shamelessly are just here for the spice (TOTALLY OKAY, girl, I get

Lenaleia

Creator’s Thought

Comment 12

was a consideration, she says, and leaves it

that I was a defect. If I’d had Selene–if I’d

lead

of heat, too. Nothing like an instant turn–off even in the

you affected by my heat, if it’s because

eyes

you, child. A heat does

I’m young and inexperienced, and

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Ava: Make Your Decision

of desire when I go through heat? Not

careful, Selene says out of nowhere.

around, but I’m alone. My heat isn’t

control. What?

to come through the

are unaware.

Shit.

do I

to tell the

can do it without a claiming, if you want. You don’t have to be fully mated

Um.

her. I thought

huffs. You can mate with whoever you choose. I don’t think you need to be loyal to a fate who didn’t recognize what he had. I just think you should

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Make Your Decision

you’re more

Oh.

guess that makes sense.

I

He’s provided me with care in the

my heat driving us both to the brink of insanity, he’s doing everything in his power to protect me. Guards stand outside my door, ready to intervene if he loses control. He’s prioritizing my safety and well–being, even at

comfort.

contrast

the

shattered my heart and left me questioning

And yet…

he? The notes, the apologies, the meals left

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3.10

Ava: Make Your

for the pain he caused me?

know what

made me feel alive and whole. But my mind reminds me of the agony that followed, of the shame and humiliation I

his

my heat and do what my body’s urging

veins.

is it just the heat talking, clouding my judgment and obscuring the deeper truths of

I don’t know.

don’t know what to do.

don’t have to be bound by fate or by the expectations of others. I can choose my own path,

now that I have a choice,

make it.

Ava: Make

to make a choice, Ava. Alert your nurses or choose Clayton. Hurry. He’s almost there. If you can’t make a decision,

over my body, but it does nothing to quell the searing flames that lick at my insides. I’m already struggling to think, going in circles, and I can’t leave the water to warn the nursing station of what’s