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

as he kinnon me with a

murarica na ha

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foracious

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Virgin

in a

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

hotter, burning away the last vestiges of

of his hands curls into my hair, yanking my head back as he plunders

down, pressing against 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

twisting, pinching, rubbing in turns until I’m writhing and riding his leg in a way I never knew I could, exploding from that little

alone.

he whispers, biting at

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Virgin Heat (1)

need–the bed. We need to

move anywhere as his fingers take the place of his leg. They plunge inside

blossoms into the

Fuck.

Fuck me.

Oh, my God.

nothing gentle about his movements as his fingers curl, abusing that spot

screaming, because

that voice is a mere whisper against the roar of instinct, against the primal

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 moan, bucking my hips

41 Ava: Virgin Heat

as I beg for

be mine, if only for this

66

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

Lenaleia

Creator’s Thought

Comment 12

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

a defect. If

would lead makes me shudder.

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

heat, if it’s because of the

my eyes at the

as inexperienced as you, child. A heat

young and inexperienced,

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Make Your Decision

a slutty ball of desire when I

careful, Selene says out of

alone. My heat isn’t

control. What?

come through the window. Your

are unaware.

Shit.

I do?

tell the nurse.

you want. You don’t have

Um.

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

don’t think you need to be loyal to a fate who didn’t recognize

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Make Your Decision

when you’re more clear–minded.”

Oh.

that makes

do I

and respectful. He’s provided

Even now, with 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 the cost

comfort.

stark contrast

so callously after our moment in the garden.

shattered my heart and left

And yet…

been trying to make amends, hasn’t he? The notes, the apologies, the meals left at

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3.10

Make

for the pain he

know what to think anymore.

for Lucas, for the connection we shared, for the way he made me feel alive and whole. But my mind reminds me of the agony that followed, of the shame and humiliation I

of his

to the temptation, to give in to my heat and do what my body’s urging me to do. To mate with a

veins.

it just the heat talking,

I don’t know.

what to

expectations of others. I can choose

I have a choice, it feels

make it.

Make Your Decision‘

Hurry. He’s almost there. If you can’t make a decision, your heat will make it

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 about to come