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.

that she 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

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

Clayton Clashing

to find the right moment

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

try to shove thoughts of Ava to the back of my mind, focusing on the task at hand.

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

wolves back.”

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

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

is not true of Westwood, Aspen, or any of the surrounding large packs, where

IT

Clashing

equality.

rogue, unsworn

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

be unthinkable in most shifter communities. A female, leaving her mate behind to join a new pack? It goes against every tradition, every deeply ingrained

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

can only imagine the strength it

his hair. The silence stretches between us,

nowhere he speaks. “Ava

Clashing Alphas

haven’t been able to talk to her

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,

mine.

to kill you every time I see you.” He meets

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

bonded?” Lucas asks, his voice low and

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

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

the surface forcing a shift

Clashing Alphas

tumble across the ground in