Tangled

167

167

167 Ava: Mom's Stronger?

"Mom?" I ask in disbelief.

It can't be. How can Mom be stronger than the pack beta?

In another pack, your mother would have been a strong Luna candidate.

Wow.

I'd always known Mom had a strong presence, but I would have never guessed-never, in a million years, ever-that her wolf is stronger than Dad's.

I wonder how that worked out. Did Mom force her wolf to submit?

It is likely that the alpha did.

"Alpha Renard?"

Correct. An alpha's bond can force submission in any wolf, and change dynamics as he wishes.

I'd heard about things like that, of course. I knew we all had to submit, and I knew he had the power to force submission-but I don't think I've ever heard of him forcing wolves to submit to other wolves. It happens.

"Wow." Despite my visit with Mom yesterday, I feel a little sorry for

her.

A woman like her? With a strong wolf? She must have felt so stifled in this pack.

17:38

152 Ava Mom's Strompra?

Your mother is strong in wolf, but weak in human, she explains. Not all souls are well matched.

"You said she would be a strong Lupa candidate. Why can't strong female wolves be alphas?"

They can be. They used to be. Selene sounds frustrated. But today's wolves don't recognize it. An alpha today would have been King in

my era.

My mind jiggles. A Lycan King.

Wait a second.

"Sister Miriam called you-"

I was Queen, in

stare at Selene, my mouth hanging open. "Wait, you were

says primly, sitting straight with her head

end it without offending her. Because I'm so what? Selene tilts her head, those ice-blue eyes staring deep into my soul. In her dog form, it's adorable. But that mental voice of hers is

curls her lip over her teeth in a silent snarl. I am not

Discerning tastes.

I try to keep a

continues to bare

the reprieve, I

to the

has a

That's crazy talk.

idea forms in my

suitcase tucking

need to tell Vanessa about me, cutting through my

keep you a secret." about Selene, the more I feel like

th I have

to be shared. It freedom outside of

do so. "I don't

warm and kind. 1 One of my few

firend will understandd

avoyut you Ava hist

now that he knee the

at the Butcher without really seeing them, I

Don't tell her Keep

I should want to tell

I'm always

a

or for my past. And Lucas... was angry at first, but he's

supportive."

cares about you, Ava. She deserves to

my decision made. "Okay. We'll tell

with me. The caveat being that she needs to agree with me, of course. And she holds significant

more purposeful when I resume packing as my idea roots into my brain with insistence. "We'll talk to her when we get

hospital? She sounds startled. Vanessa isn't at the

not what I

An idea?

to get some information out