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.

she hasn’t fully committed to him, that she hasn’t borne his mark, and that he doesn’t have hers, gives me a

my request, but the words die on

Clayton Clashing Alphas

find the right moment to express

Lucas’s voice cuts through my reverie, his

to shove thoughts of Ava to the back of my mind, focusing on the task at hand. “We’ve

My voice is steady despite the turmoil within. “We don’t know anything. Our best bet is that Renard is going

wolves back.”

least. While many have embraced the change, seeking a

along gender lines. The men, proud and stubborn, struggle to let go

their resistance to this new reality. 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

IT

Clashing Alphas

equality.

unsworn to any

to lie with her mate above all else, these she–wolves are breaking the mold. They gather their cubs close, eyes bright with determination as they step forward to pledge their

be unthinkable in most shifter communities. A female, leaving her mate behind to

several of their mates separated and under

to forge a new path for themselves and their young. I can only imagine the strength it takes, the courage to break free from the constraints of the past.

his hair.

speaks. “Ava

Clashing Alphas

haven’t been able to talk

igniting before I can quash it. Guilt follows swiftly

mine.

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

The air between us is charged, dangerous.

not bonded?” Lucas asks, his voice low and

spark that ignites the powder keg. But I can’t lie, not about this. “I tried to

ripping from his throat as his wolf takes over. I barely have time/to brace myself before

the surface forcing a

Clayton Clashing

across the ground in a tangle of