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,

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

Clashing

tread carefully, to find the right moment to express my desire to see Ava

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

my mind, focusing on the task at hand. “We’ve been

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, to take his

wolves back.”

into Westwood has 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

stubborn, struggle

pack. That is not true of Westwood, Aspen, or any of the surrounding large

IT

Clashing Alphas

equality.

unsworn

mate above all else, these she–wolves are breaking the

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

and under

their young. I can only imagine the strength it takes,

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

of nowhere he speaks. “Ava asked for

Clayton: Clashing

been able to talk

in my chest, a flicker of hope igniting before I can quash it.

mine.

his breath, his 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 want to upset

how to respond. The air between us is charged,

bonded?” Lucas asks, his voice

But I can’t lie, not about this. “I tried

his wolf takes over. I barely have time/to brace myself before he collides. with me mid–shift, all fury and

surges to the surface forcing a

Clayton Clashing Alphas

we tumble across the ground in a tangle of fur