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.”

crashes down on mine, swallowing my

he kinnon me with

murarica na ha

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foracious

417

Virgin Heat

hunger. His tongue plunges past my lips, stroking against mine in a blatant possession that

kiss and the hard planes of his body pressed against mine. My fingers tangle

as the fire rages hotter, burning away the

of his hands curls into my hair, yanking my

lower abdomen in a way that makes my hips 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

until I’m writhing and riding his leg in a way I never knew

alone.

he whispers, biting at my lips. “Fuck.

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Virgin Heat

We need to get to the bed.”

his fingers take the place of his leg. They plunge inside

blossoms into

Fuck.

Fuck me.

Oh, my God.

curl, abusing that spot just inside that I can never touch quite

be screaming, because I can’t handle the

be letting this happen. But that voice is a mere whisper against the roar

think about is how badly I need this, how badly I need my alpha to claim me and sate this maddening blaze. Clayton’s tongue strokes against mine in a

Virgin Heat

as I beg for

He’ll be mine, if

66

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

Lenaleia

Creator’s Thought

Comment 12

sighs. It was a consideration, she says, and leaves

I was a defect. If I’d had Selene–if I’d gone into heat like this in the

life I would lead makes me

thinking about it helps with the symptoms of heat, too. Nothing like

affected by my heat, if it’s

has me narrowing my eyes at the

as you, child. A heat does not overcome me in that way.

I’m young and inexperienced, and therefore I

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Make Your Decision

desire when I

Selene says out of nowhere.

around, but I’m alone. My heat isn’t

control. What?

come through

are unaware.

Shit.

do I

need to tell

a claiming, if you want. You don’t have to be fully mated just

Um.

at her. I thought you didn’t want me to mate with Clayton. He’s

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

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Ava: Make Your Decision

when you’re more clear–minded.”

Oh.

guess that makes

I want

nothing but kind and respectful. He’s provided me with care in the form of an entire

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 the cost of his

comfort.

contrast to

in the garden. Lucas, who made mé feel like

my heart and left me questioning my

And yet…

notes, the apologies, the meals left at my door. Is it possible that he

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3.10

Ava: Make Your

the pain

don’t know what to think anymore.

we shared, for the way he made me feel alive and whole. But

his

easy to give in to the temptation, to give in to my heat and do what my body’s urging me to do. To mate with a near–stranger. To let Clayton

veins.

is it just the heat talking,

I don’t know.

don’t know what

bound by fate or by the expectations of others. I can choose my

a

make it.

Make Your Decision‘

nurses or choose Clayton. Hurry. He’s almost there. If you can’t make a decision, your heat will make it for

my teeth, bracing myself against the frigid tiles of the shower stall. The icy water cascades 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