by Alisa Woods
Jak stepped back from the door, giving her room. “You can do it, Arianna.”
“But I can’t leave. Mace doesn’t want me to leave.” She shook her head quickly. He was asking her to do the impossible.
“Mace isn’t here.” Jak’s dark eyes bored into hers.
“But he wouldn’t want me to.” Her wolf whined in her ears, tail tucked and afraid. If Mace found out, if he even knew she thought about leaving…
Jak lunged forward and grabbed her hands, which were clasped together. Before she realized what he was doing, he had yanked her across the threshold. She stumbled and almost lost her balance, but Jak caught her and held her upright.
She was in his arms.
His eyes were wide, waiting for her to speak. She looked back at the door, only a couple feet away, but it suddenly seemed like a distant planet. The haze had lifted almost instantly from her mind as soon as she was out in the night air.
Jak’s hands went to her shoulders, holding her gently. “Are you all right?”
Arianna smiled. “Yes.” But then her smile dimmed… she didn’t know what Jak had planned, but even if he’d managed to wrench her free of Mace’s domain, this was still crazy. She couldn’t be out here with him. What if someone saw them together?
“Come with me.” He grabbed her hand and towed her toward the forest. The lights from the main house spilled out onto the lawn, but from this angle, at the back of the house, no one could see them. They ran in a straight shot between the back door and the darkened forest that surrounded the estate.
She still couldn’t help questioning the sanity of this. “What are we doing?”
He threw a playful grin back to her. “Having some fun.”
They were running across the open lawn now, half way to the beckoning dark of the trees. “We’re having fun in the forest?”
“Oh yes.” His grin was decidedly wicked now, but she let him keep tugging her along with their clasped hands.
She glanced back at the estate, still convinced that someone must be able to see them, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. “What if we’re caught? What if Mace finds out?”
Jak didn’t answer, just picked up the pace until they broke the edge of the forest and plunged into the darkness within. He kept going until even the lights of Mace’s house were obscured by the thick tree trunks. Fall leaves crunched under their shoes, and spots of moonlight speared through the canopy where the trees still held their leaves, providing islands of white light in the darkness. Jak pulled her into one of them then spun to take her into his arms.
His lips were on hers before she could speak… and then there was no need for words. His hands pulled her close while his mouth claimed hers. She melted into him, not wanting even the moonlight between them. Her own hands clutched at his shoulders, wanting him closer and closer still. When Jak broke the kiss, pulling back to look her over, she was momentarily stunned—she had been so lost in their kiss, she had forgotten that what they were doing was pure insanity.
But she wasn’t the only one slightly breathless… which edged a smile onto her face.
Jak leaned back to look over her jeans and t-shirt, her third change of clothes since this wild day had begun. “Are you all right? I’ve been going out of my mind, worrying about you. Please tell me you’re all right. That Mace didn’t find out or hurt you or…” He stalled out, and the torment on his face wrenched Arianna’s heart.
“Mace doesn’t know.” She couldn’t bring herself to say that Mace had… forced himself on her. It wasn’t like it hadn’t happened before. Every day, whether she had realized it or not.
Jak’s hands cupped her cheeks, and his dark eyes peered into hers. “What’s wrong?”
“I just…” Arianna didn’t know what she could say. “I don’t want to be there. I don’t want… Mace’s hands on me. Not anymore.”
Jak slowly slid his hands away from her face, his expression turning to moon-glinted stone. She was afraid she had said something wrong, but then she saw his claws come out and curl around into his fists, biting into his own flesh.
“Did he hurt you?” The words were a half-growl.
Arianna covered his clenched fist-paw with her two hands. “No, I promise.”
“You’re not telling me the truth.” His fist was still as hard as a rock under her hands.
She moved her hands to his face, touching his cheeks with her fingertips. His shoulders relaxed with her touch. “The truth is that Mace holds me captive every day. Today was no different… except that you were part of it. And, for the first time since I came here, I actually felt alive.”
“Arianna.” His voice was soft, almost broken. “I swear I’m going to free you from him.”
She slid her fingers across his lips. “Shhh…” She still felt the ghost of his kiss branding her own lips. “There’s nothing you can do about it, Jak. You have to just let it be. And…” She glanced around at the silver-frosted forest around them. “This is madness. If we’re caught, he’ll kill you.”
“I don’t care.” His dark eyes were piercing hers. “I don’t care about any of that. All I care about is you. I want you. I want to be with you. And not just once, in the back of my car. I want you free from Mace forever.”
She shook her head. “You know that’s impossible.”
“Maybe,” he said. “Maybe not.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“What if…” He licked his lips, and a glint of moonlight danced in his dark eyes. “What if there were a spell—a witch’s spell—that could free you from Mace? That would break the mating bond. Would you do it?”
“What?” She drew back from him. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Neither have I… but I’ve seen the witches and their magic. There’s no telling what they might be able to do, given the right persuasion. And I think I just might have the right persuasion for the right witch.”
Her heart was starting to pound. “You’re talking about using dark arts.”
“I am.” Jak bit his lip then let it go. “Arianna, I’m sure it won’t be easy. It might even be painful. I won’t know until I talk to the witch. But before I go in there and ask, I need to know: do you want to break your mating bond with Mace? I mean, if she can do it… will you come away with me?”
Arianna’s eyes went wide. “You would leave your pack? For me?”
“Yes.” He swallowed, visibly, and she could hardly believe what he was saying.
“Jak, I can’t…” She was shaking her head. “I can’t ask you to do something like that for me. I mean, you hardly know me—” He cut her off with a finger pressed gently across her lips.
“I know your smile brightens my day.” Jak’s eyes were shining again. “I know you like to run free but you won’t run from a fight. I know you flush pink when you’re excited, and you’re beautiful even when you’re sad. I know, right here, right now, you’re more worried about me than you are about yourself. And I know you were only beginning to live when Mace forced you to mate… and that’s something so horribly wrong that I can’t stand by and watch it any longer.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “Jak… how can you feel all those things…” She didn’t want to say that every single word pierced her heart in a way he couldn’t possibly know.
“Arianna, I’ve been dreaming about running away with you ever since you arrived.”
She threw her arms around him and pressed her face into his shoulder so he wouldn’t see the tears crest and fall. “I had stopped dreaming of anything… until I met you.”
He held her tight, nuzzling his face into her hair. The feeling of elation running through her was so intense that she thought she might actually be floating.
“It may take some time,” he whispered into her hair. “Maybe days. Maybe weeks. But I swear to God, Arianna, I will get you free.”
She pulled back enough to seek out his lips with hers, reaching up on her tip-toes to show him with her kiss what those words meant to he
r. Her hands threaded through his hair, bringing him down so she could revel in his mouth on hers, his tongue flicking across hers, his hands on her body. Her heart pounded, and blood rushed in her ears. She had that floating feeling again, like she had been transported to another world, one filled with magic and moonlight and heart-stopping sex-drenched kisses.
But the truth was she and Jak could only have stolen moments. Until Jak could find a way to free her—and the mere possibility of that sent her soul flying—she would have to continue to live in Mace’s world.
Arianna pulled back from their kiss before it got too hot. “We can’t…” She was breathless with it. “…even with a kiss, your scent is on me. It’s too risky. Mace will find out.”
Jak pulled her close again, an adorable smirk lifting one side of his mouth. “You can wash away my scent when you get back to the house… but first I want to give you something worth the shower.”
Then he kissed her again, but this time, his hands didn’t stay confined to gripping her back and holding her close. This time they came around front and caressed her breasts. His fingertips sought out her nipples, and he groaned into her mouth when he found they were already hard, pushing against her thin t-shirt and bra.
Without a word, he lifted her t-shirt over her breasts, freeing them from her bra as well, and then dropped down on one knee before her. She gasped at the cool night air on her flesh and Jak’s hot mouth nipping at it. He lavished attention on one breast, then the other, sucking in her rock-hard nipples and grazing them with his teeth. Wetness was already pooling in between her legs, but each near-nip on her sensitive flesh sent electric sparks of pleasure to her core. She fought for breath, hands in his hair, awash in the pleasure he was giving her.
“Oh, God, Arianna, I want you so badly.” His words were whispers on her skin, while he unbuttoned her jeans and worked his hands under her panties. She gasped again when he touched that spot, the one she barely even knew she had before this morning, but that he had brought alive with the orgasms he had already given her. It was swollen, sensitive to him, and he seemed to know exactly how to touch her to make her want to squirm the rest of the way out of her pants.
Then he worked her panties down and seemed to freeze up. His gentle hands skimmed her hips as he peered at them. When she looked down, she could see the myriad scars left behind by Mace’s claws by the many, many times he had marked her. Heat rushed her face, and she tried to cover the scars with her hands, but Jak just pulled her hands away and looked up at her.
“Did he do this?” There was cold fire in his eyes.
She nodded, suddenly shaking in the cold and not sure what to say.
Jak turned his attention back to her hips, gently kissing right where the scars were. Relief flooded her body. When he looked up at her again, his eyes held that deep sadness she’d seen before.
“I will never hurt you, Arianna,” he said, but she already knew that. Jak was better for her than Mace ever could be in a million years.
Jak returned to kissing her scars, gliding his fingers over her skin and slowly working his lips across her belly. Then he moved farther down, until his tongue found that sensitive spot that was aching for his touch. She nearly shrieked as his tongue worked her, but she managed to clamp a hand over her own mouth, the other still on his head, keeping her upright as the tip of his tongue slowly turned her legs into jelly.
“Jak,” she panted. “Oh god, Jak, what are you doing— ” But then words were obliterated from her mind as his fingers slipped inside, pumping her while his tongue worked her electrified flesh. She bit down, hard, on her hand to keep her moans from filling the forest. Jak lifted her knee over his shoulder, and his one hand held her back, keeping her upright while the other brought an orgasm crashing out of her. She bucked into him, unable to control herself, and nearly crumpled to the ground as the waves of pleasure washed through her.
Just as her body crested the peak of those waves, Jak’s hand and mouth left her, and he stood. He shucked off his jacket and tossed it on the leaves.
“I need to be in you.” He quickly unbuckled his pants and kicked them off. His erection was thick and strong in the moonlight. She couldn’t help reaching for it, but he held her wrists away. “None of that. I want you to ride me with that beautiful body of yours, not your delicious little hands.”
His words made her body throb.
His hands left her wrists and trailed down her legs, tugging her pants off. Then he sat on his jacket and pulled her down facing him. She straddled him and took him inside her. He groaned and leaned back, giving her room to get settled. He was so deliciously big, filled her so completely, but she wasn’t quite sure what to do next.
“I’ve never…” Her breath steamed the night air. “I’ve never been on top.”
Jak half-laughed and grinned up at her. “You just hold still then, my love, and let me do the work.” He held her hips in place, hovering over him with only about half his length inside her, then he quickly lifted his body to thrust up into her.
She gasped with how deep he went and how his body met hers in just the right spot, sending an electric pulse of pleasure through her. He groaned again. “God, Arianna, you’re so tight… so good…” He thrusted up into her again and again, faster and faster, until she was seeing stars dance in front of her eyes, more than just the ones peeking through the canopy overhead. She bit her lip to keep her gasps and shrieks inside, but the pressure kept building until finally that mind-blowing pleasure wracked her body again. She came and came, and it seemed like an endless time until Jak stopped thrusting, his own body stilling with his climax. Her body deflated, collapsing on top of him, all pleasure completely wrung out of her.
She had never been so completely and wonderfully close to someone in her entire life as she was at that moment, half-naked on the forest floor, joined together, panting into Jak’s chest like she had just run a mile.
When her breathing settled a little, she sighed, long and contented. “I want this, Jak. I want it forever.”
His hands were in her hair, touching her face, running along her back. “I promise, Arianna. I promise.”
And she had no doubt in her heart that Jak could make the impossible happen. Because he had already done it: he’d already found a way to rescue her when she hadn’t even known she was drowning.
It was nearly Saturday night before Jak got the call.
The evening before, with Arianna in the forest, had sealed everything in his mind: he would find a way to free her, no matter the cost. That he would have to leave his pack was a given. It would mean moving away, getting a new job, and starting over... but it would be worth it. He might have to wait, though, at least a week, until the full moon, when the entire pack pledged their submission to Gage. If Jak didn’t re-up his submission to his alpha then, he would be free to do anything he wished: including killing Mace.
But he was hoping the witches would have a better way—one that wouldn’t involve him going to jail for murder. Not least because that would leave Arianna unprotected in a world where she was far too vulnerable.
But he needed to get Arianna free as soon as possible. Every day she was in Mace’s house was another day he was putting his hands on her. Jak’s claws came out and sliced into the leather grip of the steering wheel. He had a hard time keeping his wolf under control when he thought about Mace and Arianna together, so he pushed that image to the back of his mind and focused on the dangerous task at hand: bargaining with witches.
Hecca had messaged him using Morgan Media’s account—it was nothing more than a time, but he knew exactly what it meant. Circe had delivered his cryptic threat, and Hecca had realized her plan to capture Arianna and him for her dark magic had been exposed. And that Morgan Media’s relationship with Red Wolf was at risk. Hopefully, that meant she was ready to bargain… and not merely summoning him to his death.
Jak pulled his car into the parking garage and took the elevator to the 35th floor. He was right on time, and this time
, the hot blonde witch in front didn’t even ask, she just escorted him through the cubicle-and-art-table open area to Hecca’s corner office in back. The receptionist knocked and let him in, closing the door behind him, once he was inside.
Hecca stood at the window, gazing out over downtown Seattle with her back to him. The dying rays of the sun were turning the city’s towers into purple obelisks and Hecca’s office into a palace of gold and shadows.
Jak waited.
“Give me a reason, wolf,” she said.
“A reason?” He didn’t like how this was starting out.
“A reason not to turn you into ash where you stand.” She finally spun to face him. Her long black hair flowed in a wavy flare, settling on her generous curves once she had turned. Her purple-tinted hair streak gave an artistic flair to business-sexy, curve-hugging lavender suit. But it was her eyes, alive with a dark fire, that told him they’d already skipped to the heart of the negotiations.
“You could kill me,” he said as coolly as he could manage, thankful that witches didn’t have a shifter’s ability to scent. Otherwise, she would smell the tremor of fear clutching his gut. “If you want to lose Red Wolf’s business and possibly start a war.”
“A war?” She was smiling, but there was no warmth in it. “A little dramatic for a wolf, don’t you think?”
“Wolves tend to take the attempted murder of our females rather seriously.”
Hecca’s smirk faded. “What are you talking about, beta?”
“Yesterday, two bounty hunters nearly captured one of our mated females and her guard. But you already knew that.”
Her dark eyes narrowed. “Bounty hunters.”
“Armed with dart guns and a bag.” Why was she pretending she didn’t know anything about this?
“So someone came after your pack. It’s hardly the first time.” She flicked her purple-nail-tipped fingers at him, as if this was some kind of pack business that was inconsequential to her. “Who says Morgan Media was involved in any of it?”
