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

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

Clashing Alphas

tread carefully, to find the right moment to express

cuts through

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

times, Lucas.” 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,

wolves back.”

a tumultuous process, to say the least. While many have embraced the change, seeking a fresh start and

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

superior in the Blackwood pack. That is not true of Westwood, Aspen, or any of the

IT

Clashing Alphas

equality.

men remain rogue, unsworn to any

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

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

of their mates separated and under

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

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

he speaks. “Ava asked for

Clashing

able to talk to her in days.”

it. Guilt follows swiftly on its heels. I shouldn’t

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 don’t want to upset

swallow hard, unsure how to respond. The

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

my answer could be the spark that 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

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

surges to the surface forcing

Clayton Clashing

the ground