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

but the words die on my tongue. Lucas’s posture

Clashing

find the right moment to express my desire

voice cuts through my reverie,

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

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

wolves back.”

Westwood has been a tumultuous process, to say the least. While many have embraced the change,

men, proud and stubborn, struggle to let go of

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

IT

Clashing Alphas

equality.

remain rogue, unsworn

women? 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

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

of their mates separated and under guard, for the

they are, ready to forge a new path for themselves and their young. I can only imagine the strength it takes,

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

nowhere he speaks. “Ava asked for space.

Clayton: Clashing

able to talk to her

flicker of hope igniting before I can quash it. Guilt follows swiftly on its heels. I shouldn’t feel this

mine.

audible. “I want to kill you every time I see you.” He meets my gaze, eyes flashing with barely restrained anger.

to respond. The air between us

asks, his voice low

hesitate, knowing my answer could be the spark that ignites the powder keg. But I can’t lie, not about this.

as his wolf takes over. I barely have time/to brace myself before he collides. with me

wolf surges to the surface forcing a

Clashing

the ground in a tangle of fur and fury.