Tangled

62 Ava: Homecoming (IV)

This is insane.

This can’t be happening.

My feet carry me from one end of my room to the other as I pace, nibbling ferociously on a nail as I think.

Alpha Renard’s sons have all died. I’m not sure on the circumstances of the first two, but the third one died a few years ago in a skirmish with rogue wolves. He’s had no success in bearing a new child, with no pregnancy making it to the end–so Phoenix was brought in as the alpha heir, due to his alpha level of strength.

But, from what I’ve heard, the alpha still has multiple lovers. Dad and Phoenix have talked about how

Phoenix cannot walk with arrogance in the pack,

because Alpha Renard is still seeking to create a new

heir.

It’s an open secret within the pack, but I’ve never spent time thinking about it before.

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62 Ava: Homecoming (IV)

Now, I am, and the implications make me want to

vomit.

He knows I’m an omega by birth. If that’s so, isn’t my ability to carry a baby to term much better than that of other she–wolves? Wouldn’t it be easier for me to get pregnant? The omega designation is not given to the weakest in our pack–though they are–but to the ones mated off for the purposes of bearing pups.

He’d already planned for me to mate with more than one of our warriors. Now, is he on that list with them?

Or has he taken over the list?

It doesn’t matter; neither option makes it okay.

hands off me. Alpha

Fuck.

thought that my own pack

about these rumors.

hall has me twirling, facing the door in a defensive posture, hands up and

it’s just

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Homecoming

with a slight curl of his lip, as though my attempt at self–defense is laughable, before twirling me around and

my head slamming into the wall and my

Phoenix sits on my leg and pins me down with a hand to my shoulder.

of anger and something else I can’t quite place. The weight of his body

hell,

that sends a shiver down my spine. “Calm down, Ava. I’m not going

everything, I believe

the tension radiating from his body. He’s not here to hurt me, but

My body goes limp against the mattress as I stare up

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3/7

Ava: Homecoming

long moment, his eyes searching mine. “You have

before

you go

know. They assumed I had a wolf, but I have

You think I’d be here if I didn’t? I would have Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the FɪndNøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest

shifted and run.”

he lets go, letting me sit up. I thrash my leg until he shifts over, no longer parking his ass

me the truth. Are you really an omega?” he asks,

heart stutters in my chest as the realization hits. me. Phoenix is worried about losing his status as the alpha heir. If Renard manages to get me pregnant, any child I

he bring

say, because it’s the truth. There’s no way he’s going to scent any deception from that.

flicker of hope ignites deep in my heart. Can I use

If Phoenix sees me as

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Homecoming (IV)