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.

borne his mark, and that he doesn’t have

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

Clayton Clashing

to find the right moment to express my desire to see Ava without igniting

voice cuts through my

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

times, Lucas.” My voice is steady despite the turmoil within. “We don’t know anything. Our best bet is that

wolves back.”

have embraced the change,

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

true of Westwood, Aspen, or any of the surrounding large packs, where male and

IT

Clayton: Clashing

equality.

unsworn to any

lie with her mate above all else, these she–wolves are breaking the mold.

would be unthinkable in most shifter communities. A female, leaving her mate

of their mates separated and

are, ready to forge a new path for themselves and their young. I can only imagine the strength it takes, the courage to break free from the constraints of the past.

he runs his hands through his hair. The silence

out of nowhere he speaks. “Ava

Clayton: Clashing

to talk to her in

of hope igniting before I can quash it. Guilt follows swiftly on its heels. I

mine.

words barely audible. “I want to kill you every time I see you.”

The air between us is charged, dangerous.

bonded?” Lucas asks, his voice low and deadly.

could be the spark that ignites the powder keg. But I can’t lie, not about this. “I tried to mark her,”

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

surges to the surface

Clayton Clashing

as we tumble across the ground in a tangle of fur and