Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted novel Chapter 102

102 Lucas: Jealousy

LUCAS

She’s going to talk to Clayton tonight.

She won’t let me call her, but she’ll talk to him.

Fuck. I’m going crazy.

My wolf gives me the silent treatment, a palpable wall of disapproval and resentment radiating from him. I

know he blames me for this mess.

“I’m trying,” I mutter, pacing the length of my office. “I’m doing everything I can to fix this.”

There would be nothing to fix if you hadn’t rejected our mate in the first place, he snaps, his voice dripping with accusation.

Rubbing my hands over my face, I struggle not to

groan in frustration. He’s right and I fucking hate it. If I hadn’t been so goddamn stupid, Ava would have been with me long ago, Safe. Marked. Mine.

But I can’t change the past. I can only try to salvage the future.

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102 Lucas Jealousy

Go to her, my wolf demands. Claim her before he does. 

I shake my head. “She needs space. I have to respect

that.”

Space is the last thing she needs. She needs her mate. She needs us. 

The temptation to give in, to storm over there and drag her back to my bed, is almost overwhelming. But I can’t. I won’t be that kind of alpha. That kind of man. I won’t be enslaved to the urges of the fate bond inside

of me.

I need to clear my head. Get out of this suffocating office and just… run.

Without a word to anyone, I strip off my clothes and shift, letting my wolf take over. He surges forward, all coiled power and barely leashed aggression, and we race out into the woods.

The cold night air whips past us as we run, the scents of summer filling my lungs. Out here, with nothing but the wind and the trees, things seem simpler. Clearer.

I know what I have to do. I have to fight for her. Show her that I’m the one she belongs with, the only one

who can riva har avaruthing cho nooda.

15:20

102 Lucas Jealousy

But I have to do it the right way. Earn back her trust, her affection. Prove that I’m worthy of her.

My wolf growls, impatient and unsatisfied, but I push on. One step at a time. One day at a time.

The steady rhythm of our paws against the forest floor drowns out the chaos in my head. With each stride, the turmoil fades, replaced by the simple joy of the run. My wolf revels in the freedom, the wildness of it all.

This is what we need, he rumbles, content for the first time in days.

I 

can’t help but agree. Out here, the complications of pack politics and the tangled web of my love life seem far away. There’s only the wind in my fur and the earth beneath my feet.

We run for miles, losing ourselves in the primal

pleasure of the hunt, even if we’re chasing nothing but our own shadows. The worries melt away, leaving only the purity of the moment.

And then, a scent on the breeze. Something that doesn’t belong.

Stray dog, my wolf snorts, his nose twitching as he

catches the odor. Probably some human’s lost pet.

And then we see it. A husky, its fur matted and dull, ribs showing through its skinny frame. It looks up at us with wary blue eyes, hackles raising slightly at the sight of a wolf.

Selene. 

What the hell are you doing? I demand, but he ignores me, too intent on his goal.