Tangled

100 Clayton: Clashing Alphas

CLAYTON

Lucas’s voice booms through the room, frustration palpable in every syllable. The scouts cower under his scrutiny, and I can’t blame them. The Blackwood

leaders have proven more elusive than any of us anticipated.

I should be focused on the task at hand, strategizing our next move, but my mind drifts to Ava. Is she healing well? Has she found any measure of peace. after the trauma she’s endured?

Even though the mating bond didn’t take, my wolf and I feel bonded toward her. It’s one–sided and fragile, -but it consumes my thoughts. I long to see her, to offer comfort and support. But Lucas guards any

information about her whereabouts with a

possessiveness that borders on obsession.

I don’t blame him, but after a week of knowing nothing, the frustration is getting to me.

As the meeting concludes, Lucas and I make our way back to the alpha’s house. The promise of paperwork

100 Clayton: Clashing Alphas

and hacked computer files looms ahead, a necessary evil in our quest for answers. Yet, even as I try to

center my thoughts on the investigation, Ava’s face flickers through my mind.

I glance at Lucas, wondering how to broach the subject of contacting her. His jaw is set, eyes hard with determination. I know he sees me as a threat, a rival for Ava’s affections. And perhaps I am. Everything I feel toward her is undeniable, something I’ve never felt toward a woman before. It’s like a whisper of fate that I

can’t ignore.

And yet I’m not the one she’s fated for.

I don’t want to come between them, not if Ava has truly chosen Lucas. I respect her choices, her

autonomy.

hasn’t borne his mark, and that he

a breath, preparing to voice my request, but the words die on my tongue.

Clashing

need to tread carefully, to find the right moment to express my desire to see Ava without igniting Lucas’s

next move?” Lucas’s voice cuts through my reverie, his

mind, focusing on the task at hand. “We’ve been over

despite the turmoil within. “We don’t know anything. Our

wolves back.”

pack into Westwood has been a tumultuous process, to say the least. While many have embraced the change, seeking a fresh start and a

The men, proud and stubborn, struggle to

Men were superior in the Blackwood pack. That is not true of Westwood, Aspen, or any of the surrounding large packs, where male and female live with relative

IT

Clashing

equality.

unsworn to any

female’s loyalty is expected to lie with her mate above all else, these she–wolves are breaking the mold. They gather their cubs

leaving her mate behind to join a new pack? It goes against every tradition, every deeply

to keep several of their mates separated and under guard, for the

here they are, ready to forge a new path for themselves and their young. I can only imagine the strength it takes, the courage to break free

through his hair. The silence stretches between

he speaks. “Ava asked for space.

Clashing Alphas

able to talk to her in

before I can quash it. Guilt

mine.

audible. “I want to kill you every time I see you.” He meets

how to respond. The air between us

you truly not bonded?” Lucas asks, his

lie, not about this. “I tried to mark her,” I admit,

He lunges at me, a snarl ripping from his throat as his wolf takes over. I barely have time/to brace myself before he collides. with me

wolf surges to the surface

Clashing Alphas

from our throat as we tumble across the ground in a tangle of