by Alisa Woods
When he reached the branch Mason was perched on, Jak saw he had carved a notch into the thick wood with his claws and lashed the keg to it with a rope he must have secreted away in the forest prior to the hunt. Jak braced himself to fight Mason for the prize, but he just looked defeated as he watched Jak climb up next to him.
“Hidden rope,” Jak commented casually. “Nice touch.”
“You’re the game master,” Mason said, grumbling. “I didn’t count on you breaking the rules.”
Somehow that stabbed Jak in the heart. He was going to miss Mason. All of them, really. Now that he was human again, his stomach was back in knots.
“We could just keep it for ourselves,” Jak said, patting the tap on the keg.
Mason’s face lit up—his reddened cheeks looked like he had already taken a few slugs to drink. “Yeah?”
Jak just laughed. The pack was howling their impatience below, now that Jak was just cozying up to the keg like Mason. “No. But it was a respectable try.” His smile faded. “Maybe next time, I’ll tell Gage to make you game master.”
Mason’s grin was ear to ear then.
“Let’s lower this thing down,” Jak said. “I don’t want Billy breaking his damn neck trying to get up here.”
As they worked the rope, the clench in Jak’s stomach just grew. Breaking the rules was all fun and games within the pack, but the truth of his words plowed into him like an avalanche: his enemy had already broken the rules. The rules of being alpha. Of protecting your own. Of caring for your mate. Jak hadn’t been born alpha—he was the last in brutal line of brothers competing for dominance in their tiny pack—but even he knew that a dark alpha like Mace was a betrayal of everything their kind stood for. Being alpha meant doing everything for the ones you loved. Everything for your pack.
Mace had broken the rules.
And Jak would do the same to take him down and give Arianna the alpha she deserved.
Saturday nights… Arianna dreaded them even more now.
The weekends were when Mace came home with another girl’s scent on him, usually ready for a drunken round two. If she were asleep when he arrived, he would just awaken her—and half-asleep was no state to deal with her alpha. She needed all her wits about her to get through it with the least amount of pain, physical and emotional.
But now… now that Jak had promised an escape… it was almost unbearable to contemplate another Saturday night with Mace. Whatever dark art deal Jak was making with the witches to free her, no matter how painful that might be to endure, it would eventually be over—unlike the purgatory she lived in now. Like she told Jak in the forest, he had given her hope. But back in Mace’s house, the mating bond still hung over her, wringing her with guilt and fear about even the possibility of leaving Mace. She felt feverish, running hot with anger and cold with fear, one moment contemplating taking a butcher knife and plunging it into Mace’s heart, the next curling up on the floor in a ball of self-loathing for even thinking of raising a hand against her alpha.
Hope was a dangerous, volatile thing. If Jak didn’t free her soon, she might go mad with it.
Arianna paced the house, tidying things that didn’t need tidying, straightening her dress, reapplying her lipstick. It helped when she looked like she had been waiting for Mace: that seemed to appease him or perhaps flatter him. But she could hardly look in the mirror anymore. Just as she was heading up the stairs to the bedroom, to make sure everything was in order there as well, an insistent tapping sound drifted in from the kitchen.
Jak. Her heart seized, and she prayed she was wrong.
It took her three heart-stopping seconds to race to the kitchen, but it was him: hands pressed against the glass of the door’s window, looking handsome and sexy with his wind-tousled hair and half-open shirt.
She threw open the door. “Are you insane?” she gushed out. “Mace could be home at any time.”
Jak held up his hands. “He’s not. I just got back myself, and I know Mace’s pack is still out at the clubs.”
Her hammering heart slowed even as her heaving breath was finally catching up. “How can you… Jak, someone will see you.”
“It’s all right,” he said. “They’re all heading to bed. I just… I had to see you. Please, just… come outside with me for a little while.”
She shook her head vigorously. She couldn’t even chance having his scent drifting into the house. “I can’t.”
“Just for a few minutes. Just so I know you’re free of… him.”
“I can’t.” She tried to close the door, but he shoved his hand against it. “He’ll be here any minute.” The terror was making her voice squeak. If Mace even suspected anything… on a Saturday night… a full-body shudder made her hand on the door quiver.
“Okay, okay!” He eased back but still held the door open. “I just needed to tell you that… well, plans have changed.”
Her heart dropped to her stomach. He’s changed his mind. She blinked, feeling lightheaded and suddenly unable to speak.
“The witches can’t do the spell the way I thought they could,” he said.
She almost couldn’t hear his words over the rushing of blood in her ears. He’s changed his mind. He’s not going to rescue me. I’m stuck, trapped here. She braced herself against the door, holding on so she didn’t tip over with the sudden nausea tearing a hole through her.
“Arianna, honey? Arianna!” The panic in his voice finally brought her back. His face was etched with concern. “Are you okay?” He was on the edge of coming in the house.
She couldn’t let that happen. “I’m fine, I just… need a moment.” She held up her hand to stop him from coming in. “I understand.” She couldn’t keep the sob out of her voice. “I should have known it wouldn’t really work…” Then her throat closed up completely.
“What? No!” He reached for her, but she backed away. “Arianna, listen to me: I am going to get you free of Mace. I promised I would, and I will keep that promise.”
Her gaze wandered up from the floor to meet his dark eyes. “I don’t understand. You said—”
“I said the witch’s magic isn’t going to work.” He paused then stood straighter in the doorframe. “I’m going to kill Mace myself.”
She shrunk back from the doorway, fear hammering her heart. “What?”
“Arianna, it’s the only way—”
“You can’t do that!” Her voice was screeching now… too loud, someone would hear her… she brought it down to a hiss. “I will not let you die for me, Jak.” There was no way he could kill Mace without his pack taking Jak down. Even his own alpha wouldn’t be able to tolerate it—he might have to kill Jak himself, a mercy killing, just to make it fast. Unlike Mace’s betas who would… she couldn’t even think about it. A sob reached up and choked her anyway.
“I have no intention of dying.” Jak gave her a small smile.
For a brief moment, Arianna thought maybe he was losing his mind. This was crazy talk, pure and simple.
“Besides,” he said, and the smile was stronger now. “I want to make sure you’re taken care of—the right way—once Mace gets what he deserves. I’ll need to be around and breathing to make that happen.”
He was serious. She could tell by the look in his dark, smiling eyes that he had a plan to make this actually happen. And Jak was so smart… maybe, just maybe, he could pull this off without dying in the process. He certainly seemed determined to try.
He was really going to kill her alpha.
Her wolf recoiled so strongly from that thought, Arianna had to retreat another step from the door, wrapping her arms around herself.
“Arianna.” There was pain in Jak’s voice and worry in his eyes. And she didn’t want that either, but she couldn’t help herself, not while she was in Mace’s house. Not when he was minutes away from being home.
“You need to leave,” she said softly.
“Arianna, please… I just need to talk to you for a little bit. Explain what I’ve got in mind.”
“You need to go.” She dashed toward him but only to grab the edge of the door and try to close it. He held it open, but she pushed hard enough that he finally relented and let her close it in his face. She had to wrench herself away from his sad look on the other side of the glass.
She stalked out of the kitchen and nearly ran up the stairs to the bedroom.
Could she do this? Could she let Jak take that risk? What if it didn’t work? Jak would be dead, she would be to blame, and Mace… Mace would make her pay in ways she couldn’t even imagine.
Arianna ran to the bathroom, getting there just in time as the contents of her stomach emptied out. Which only made her panic more: Mace would not be happy to come home to a house that smelled of vomit. She briefly considered feigning illness: maybe he would leave her alone for a night. Only wolves didn’t get sick, not that way.
Before she could figure out what to do, the front door opened.
Her heart quivered so badly, she couldn’t do anything but curl up on the floor and pray that Jak had gotten away before Mace arrived at the house. Mace stomped around downstairs for a while, probably getting another drink. He took long enough that her racing heart started to calm. Taking deep breaths to quell the shaking in her hands, she grabbed the sink and hauled herself off the floor. She had to clutch the sides not to go tumbling back to the tiles. She flushed the toilet and was just splashing cold water on her face when Mace tromped into the bedroom.
“Arianna?” His voice had a bit of a slur, just enough that she knew he had been drinking. “What the hell’s that smell?”
She grabbed a hand towel to wipe her face. Her lipstick smeared all over it. She had to look like hell as she stumbled out of the bathroom.
Mace gave her a look of disgust. “What happened to you?”
“I… I don’t know,” she said, floundering. “Maybe it was something I ate, I just… felt sick.”
His fists curled up, and Arianna felt the blood wash out of her face with the murderous look on his. “Do not tell me you’re pregnant.”
“What?” she said, genuinely shocked. “No! I know you don’t want that, Mace. I know it. I take my pill every morning.”
He narrowed his eyes at her, as if he thought she would actually do that—have pups against his wishes. His scrutiny made her stomach churn, and she pressed the towel to her mouth, but she managed to keep more from coming up.
“I think it was just that fish I had for dinner, that’s all,” she managed to mumble through the towel.
He must have had a fair amount to drink because the suspicion didn’t last long. He grunted and gave her a short nod. She finally had a chance to look at him: his shirt was rumpled and half-untucked, and it wasn’t hard to figure he had already had his pants down once tonight. She prayed it would be enough. He turned away from her, toward the closet, and she sighed in relief. He wouldn’t bother changing if he wanted sex tonight.
“Well, whatever it is, get rid of that smell,” he called from the closet. “And if you’re going to be throwing up all night, use the bathroom downstairs.”
She stumbled on spaghetti legs down to the kitchen to get some disinfectant and deodorizer. Her sense of smell was inundated, but she had to get the mess cleaned up quickly, before Mace decided it annoyed him even more. She hurried back upstairs and scrubbed the bathroom floor, toilet, sink, everything that might have even the tiniest residual… then sprayed the air with deodorizer. It was the scentless kind, the one that captured the airborne molecules and deactivated them. It should act quickly.
Mace had changed into sleep pants with no shirt. She wasn’t sure what that meant in terms of sex, but she had to get rid of her soiled clothes, so she quickly changed out of her sexy dress and into a nightshirt she hoped wasn’t too appealing. By the time she emerged from the closet, he had flopped down on the bed, lying on his back and rubbing his temples with his eyes closed. She hoped all the cleaning chemicals weren’t giving him a headache and crept toward the bed. When he looked at her, she froze.
“Are you going to throw up some more?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Then come to bed.” He patted the white comforter next to him.
She shuffled over, but she had no read on him: she couldn’t tell his mood at all. And her body was still shaking from being sick… and the stress of Jak’s visit.
Jak. He was going to try to kill Mace. The tremulous hope that she could actually be free was crushed as soon as Mace’s hands found her body next to him. He was her alpha. She belonged to him. Yes, he was horrible in many ways, but as long as she did what he asked, he wouldn’t kill her. Or Jak.
It was only wanting to be free that put everyone at risk.
Arianna shuddered as Mace palmed her breast and seemed to be warming up for more.
Surprisingly, he stopped caressing her. “Are you sure you’re not going to be sick again? Because I do not want you throwing up on me, Arianna.” There was less menace in his voice than normal. Maybe the liquor had softened him. That happened sometimes. He usually wanted sex when he was drunk, even more than normal, but sometimes… sometimes the alcohol seemed to deaden some of the anger he flung around like scattershot.
“I’m okay now,” she said quietly.
“Should I call a healer?” he asked. There was almost a hint of concern in his voice.
“No. I’ll be fine.” She swallowed down the last of the bitterness in the back of her throat and took a deep breath.
Mace was quiet a moment. “Apparently those bounty hunters who were after you have gone on the run. Fucking Jak let them get away, and now they’ve cleared out.”
Arianna perked up a bit. Mace rarely shared information with her… unless there was a need for her to know. And even Jak hadn’t told her about finding the bounty hunters.
She edged up on her elbows to look at Mace. “Are they gone for good?”
He frowned, like it was a puzzle his alcohol-fogged brain couldn’t quite put together. “I guess. They’re probably not stupid enough to try hitting the same wolves twice.”
“So… what does that mean? For school, I mean?” She knew better than to straight-out beg to go. She needed desperately to talk to Jak, to convince him this was crazy, his idea of killing Mace to free her… but there was no way she would be able to leave the house again, if Mace thought she was still in danger. He didn’t love her, not the way an alpha should love his mate, but she knew the last thing he wanted was to lose her. She was too important to his position in the pack. But she had to let him think going back to school was his idea.
His frown grew deeper. “The old man thinks you should go back.”
“What do you think?”
“I think it’s a fucking stupid idea.” He turned to her, taking her cheek in his hand. It wasn’t entirely rough, but it was firm. “And if anyone tries to take you from me again, I won’t let them slip away into the dark like cockroaches. I will crush them.”
She nodded her head. The movement wasn’t much, since he had such a grip on her, but her heart was thudding in her chest. Her wolf was responding to his alphaness, whining and tucking her tail, but Arianna knew Mace wasn’t protecting her… he was protecting his position in the pack. She had no doubt he would hunt down and kill Jak if he took her away.
Mace was staring into her eyes, licking his lips.
“Those hunters wouldn’t stand a chance against you,” Arianna whispered, and it had the effect she hoped, flattering Mace’s ego.
“Damn straight.” He was eyeing her lips. She could smell the scotch on his breath.
She wasn’t sure what he intended, but she wanted to take advantage of this moment, this brief period when he seemed softer than normal. Maybe it was her sickness or the scotch… or the close-call, almost losing her to the bounty hunters. She didn’t know.
“Maybe I should go back,” she said softly. “I don’t want to get behind in my classes. I want to make you look good, Mace.”
He nodded, absently, hi
s eyelids drooping. He was tired. Maybe that was it. “I’m going with you this time. And I’m bringing Beck, not Alric. I want no fuckups with this.”
Arianna nodded quickly, but her heart sunk. How would she meet with Jak if Mace was watching her every move? “Whatever you think is best. Like you said… those hunters wouldn’t dare mess with an alpha like you.”
Mace grunted, but she could see he was flattered again. He released her face and eased back on the bed, letting out a long sigh. She lay still next to him, waiting to see if he would turn his attention back to her. But before long, he started snoring. She wrapped the edge of the comforter around her, trying to calm the shivering in her body while not moving too much and waking him.
Mace might want to guard her for a while, but she knew he would bore quickly with that. Eventually he would let others guard her again… maybe even Jak, once Mace was sure the bounty hunters had fled. The only question was if she would get a chance to see Jak before he took matters into his own hands.
Jak checked the time on his phone for the third time in as many minutes.
Professor Nalik didn’t notice, still going on about his test results and the laser apparatus. Jak nodded at all the right times, but his attention was on the clock, counting the minutes until Arianna’s class started. Visiting Silver Quick’s lab was a decent excuse for being on campus, in case his plan went sideways, but if the timing wasn’t as precise as Nalik’s laser setup, the whole thing could unwind.
And Jak wasn’t ready to go fang to fang with Mace. Not yet.
“The calibrations are certified,” Nalik said. “We are quite certain there are no errors in our measurements. Besides, the optical memories would be less if there were any such decoherent effects in the crystal.”
“No system is error free, professor,” Jak said. But he really needed to make an exit if he was going to get where he needed to be on time.
The diminutive Indian man’s spine stiffened. “We’ve accounted for all the stochastic interactions that could be reasonably interfering.”