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

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

Clayton Clashing Alphas

tread carefully, to find the right moment to

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

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

turmoil within. “We don’t know anything. Our best bet is

wolves back.”

tumultuous process, to say the least. While many have embraced the change, seeking a fresh

men, proud and stubborn, struggle

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

IT

Clashing Alphas

equality.

men remain rogue, unsworn

all else, these she–wolves are breaking the mold. They gather their cubs close, eyes bright

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

separated and under guard, for

path for themselves and their young. I can only imagine the strength it takes, the courage to break free from

hands through his hair. The silence stretches between us, heavy with unspoken tension.

he speaks. “Ava asked

Clashing

been able to talk to her

heart stutters in my chest, a flicker of hope igniting before I can quash it. Guilt follows swiftly on its heels. I shouldn’t feel this way, shouldn’t want what isn’t

mine.

words barely audible. “I want to kill you every time I see you.” He meets my gaze, eyes flashing with barely restrained anger. “But I don’t

swallow hard, unsure how to respond. The air between us is charged, dangerous.

truly not bonded?” Lucas asks, his voice low and deadly.

But I can’t lie, not about this. “I tried to mark her,” I admit, my voice barely above a whisper. “But it didn’t take.”

instantaneous. 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

surges to the surface forcing a shift

Clayton Clashing Alphas

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