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, gives me a glimmer of hope. Maybe, just maybe, there’s

words die on my tongue. Lucas’s posture is rigid, his

Clayton Clashing

right moment to express my desire to see Ava without igniting Lucas’s

what’s our next move?” Lucas’s voice cuts through

to shove thoughts of Ava to the back of my mind, focusing on the task

Lucas.” My voice is steady despite the turmoil within. “We don’t know anything. Our best bet is that Renard is going to try to come back,

wolves back.”

the least. While many have embraced the change, seeking a fresh start and a more stable future, there are those who cling to their

the division seems to fall along gender lines. The men, proud and stubborn, struggle to let go of their ties to

is not true of Westwood, Aspen,

IT

Clayton: Clashing Alphas

equality.

unsworn to

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

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

mates separated and under guard,

here they are, ready to forge a new path for themselves and their young. I can only

hands through his hair. The

of nowhere he speaks. “Ava asked for space.

Clashing

talk to her in

can quash it. Guilt follows swiftly on its heels. I shouldn’t feel this way, shouldn’t

mine.

to kill you every time I see you.” He

hard, unsure how to respond. The

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

answer could be the spark that ignites the powder keg. 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

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

own wolf surges to the surface forcing a

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from our throat as we tumble across the ground in a tangle of fur and fury.