Tangled

121 Lucas Sell Searching

121 Lucas: Still Searching

LUCAS

Being away from Ava is torture, but the random photo updates from Kellan help ease the ache in my heart. And the wolf snarling in my head.

He’s pissed that we’re far from her again, logic and reasoning be damned. And if I hear one more word. about that damn dog, Selene–I don’t even know what

I’ll do.

I can feel his frustration case as we stare at the photo Kellan texted me; she’s exhausted, her cheeks red with

exertion and her bangs damp against her head.

She hasn’t been wearing her glasses. Two days after her discharge, she’d complained about them making her vision blurry.

Vanessa and Dr. Beaumont are certain it’s a sign that her wolf is awakening, but Ava had taken the news in stride, asking no questions.

Her disinterest worries me; to be wolfless is a curse among our people. To know that her wolf might come?

<121 Lucas: Still Searching

She should be over the moon, praising the Goddess for such a blessing. And yet Ava acts as though it doesn’t involve her.

Dr. Beaumont says it’s probably a trauma response to her life in the Blackwood Pack, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something more to all of this.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. As long as she’s safe and happy, I won’t ask for much more. It was hard to watch her as she lay in her hospital bed, day after day. Hard to watch as the nurses bathed her with gentle hands. Hard to watch as her cheeks thinned, even with the intravenous nutrition they’d started her on after three days.

Losing her would mean losing everything. I can’t survive in this world knowing she isn’t in it.

Simple daily activities like basic hygiene were out; no showers, and meals were only taken because Kellan would bring food and stand watch until I ate it. Lisa wouldn’t eat until I did, and I remember thinking that

Ava would kill me if her human friend starved to death

because I was too sick at the thought of losing her.

The entire world could burn, as long

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Still

her

Kellan stepped up for

is why I’m back in the Blackwood territory,

I want

“Alpha?”

Shit.

thoughts away from Ava takes too much effort, but I focus again on the

his brow, but he maintains a professional demeanor.

“Yes?”

“The report…”

him off before he can continue. “Summarize it for

me.”

straightens, clearing his

that a woman resembling the

to the

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Still Searching

borders.”

The Unregistered Communities.

words for vampire

over every bit of land. There are registered supernatural communities under Supernatural Committees, all who work with the packs within

then there are the

supernatural community, usually under the control of vampires, who see

war, there’s no way to erase these communities from the world. There are too many, and vampires are too powerful. Even an alpha requires backup against a single high

that shithead Renard work with them, with his ego?

13:41.

Still Searching

him from our world, my wolf growls. He’s bloodthirsty enough to challenge the entire pack, seeing little benefit from saving those who watched as Ava was

not to

sigh escaping my lips. Frustration settles into my gut like a meal of spoiled fish, sending nausea through me at the thought of how much time has been wasted

it for one of our scouts

darkening. “We’ve lost

bleeding into my own. Two lives, gone. Two

the force, splinters