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 doesn’t have hers, gives me

voice my request, but the words die on my tongue. Lucas’s posture is rigid, his eyes fixed

Clashing Alphas

isn’t the time. I need to tread carefully, to find the right moment to express my desire to see Ava without igniting Lucas’s

what’s our next move?” Lucas’s voice cuts through my reverie, his gaze piercing.

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

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

wolves back.”

many have embraced the change, seeking a fresh start and a more stable future,

the division seems to fall along gender lines. The men, proud and stubborn, struggle

Blackwood pack. That is not true of Westwood, Aspen, or any of the surrounding large packs, where male and female

IT

Clashing Alphas

equality.

unsworn to any alpha.

They surprise me. In a society where a female’s loyalty is expected 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 allegiance to the

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

had to keep several of their mates separated and under

for themselves and their young. I can only imagine the strength it

through his hair. The

of nowhere he speaks. “Ava

Clayton: Clashing Alphas

been able to talk to her in days.”

flicker of hope igniting before I can quash it.

mine.

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

how to respond. The air between

you truly not bonded?” Lucas asks, his

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

is instantaneous. He lunges at me, a snarl ripping from his throat as his wolf takes over. I barely have time/to

own wolf surges to the surface forcing a shift a

Clashing Alphas

the ground in a tangle of fur