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.

him, that she hasn’t borne his mark, and that he doesn’t have hers, gives me a glimmer of

to voice my request, but the words die on my tongue. Lucas’s posture is

Clashing

the right moment to express my desire to see Ava

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

the back of my mind, focusing on the task at

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

wolves back.”

have embraced the

struggle to

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

IT

Clashing Alphas

equality.

rogue, unsworn to any alpha.

her mate above all else, these she–wolves are breaking the mold. They gather their cubs close, eyes bright with determination as they step forward to pledge their allegiance

unthinkable in most shifter communities. A female, leaving her mate behind to join a new pack? It goes

mates separated and under

forge a new path for themselves and their young. I can only

his hair. The silence stretches between us, heavy

he speaks.

Clayton: Clashing Alphas

able to talk

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

mine.

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

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

not bonded?” Lucas asks, his voice low

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

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

own wolf surges to the surface forcing a shift a

Clashing Alphas

tumble across the ground in a tangle