by Alisa Woods
Torment (Dark Alpha, Episode 1)
Copyright © 2015 by Alisa Woods
January 2015 Edition
All rights reserved.
Sworn Secrets Publishing
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author. For information visit:
Alisa Woods
Cover by Steven Novak
Torment (Dark Alpha 1) - New Adult Paranormal Romance
Shifters live in the shadows of Seattle, just under the skin of the alpha male, dot-com entrepreneurs who are building a new Silicon Valley in the Emerald City.
Jak enjoys the female human population of Seattle as much as any wolf, but his heart belongs to a female shifter who's already mated. Worse, she's the mate of his alpha's brother.
Arianna was captured from her pack when she was only twenty and mated to a wolf whose dark side takes full advantage of her unbreakable bond to him. Her nights belong to him, but her days are free to explore other things... including feelings for a wolf she can never have.
Is love stronger than magic? Or will breaking an unbreakable bond destroy them both?
Torment (Dark Alpha 1) is 60 pages or 15,000 words. It’s the first of six episodes in the Dark Alpha serial. Dark Alpha is the sequel series to True Alpha, the debut shifters-in-Seattle paranormal romance from Alisa Woods.
Dark Alpha Release Schedule - 2015
1 - Torment (1.19)
2 - Pleasure (2.2)
3 - Untitled (2.16)
4 - Untitled (3.2)
5 - Untitled (3.16)
6 - Untitled (3.30)
Box Set (Dark Alpha 1-6) - releases 3.30
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If only she weren’t so beautiful, it might not hurt so much to watch.
Jak guarded Arianna’s backpack while she skipped around University of Washington’s Red Square—although the red brick paving of the central plaza was mostly covered by the colorful fall leaves that Arianna was kicking up as she twirled around, arms flung wide. Her smile was big enough to garner smirks from the passing students who had to dodge her little freedom dance, but she didn’t seem to care. The mountain was “out” today—the normal dreary drip of Seattle had parted to reveal brilliant blue skies and Mount Rainier shining in the distance. It was gorgeous and breathtaking and far, far out of reach… like Arianna in every way.
She spun closer then stopped and fixed him with her blue-dazzle eyes. “What are the chances, Jak?” Her breath make a small puff in the cool fall air, and her smile was infectious.
He grinned. “The chances of you being late to class? Getting better all the time.”
She lunged over and hit him. Not hard, of course. A slap on the shoulder for daring to remind her why they were here. But it was the first time she had ever touched him, and it brought a whiff of her natural scent over the backdrop of fall leaves: his shifter-enhanced senses detected a hint of musk under her blackberry-and-lavender soap. The earthy scent might be arousal… or it might just be the plain joy clear on her face. Either way, it speared through his heart. He had to force himself to keep the grin in place.
“No, Mr. Bodyguard!” She grinned again, and the noontime sun played with her hair. “What are the chances we would have such glorious weather for my first day back at school?” She tipped her head back, arms flung wide again, as if to embrace the sky. Her cascading brown hair picked up red and gold tints from the leaves. “It’s a sign!” she declared to the heavens.
His grin was more natural again. “A sign of what? That you’ve been cooped up in Mace’s house too long?” His grin faltered as he realized how bitter the words sounded out in the air, not just in his head. Mace was her alpha… but he might as well be her jailer. As far as Jak could tell, Arianna hadn’t left the Red pack estate since she’d been brought there, nearly six months ago. Jak lived in the main house, with the rest of the unmated wolves, and while he could see Mace’s house from his window, he rarely saw Arianna… and then only when she haunted the windows like a pale wraith imprisoned in the suburban-styled home. Mace didn’t let her even step foot on the lawn outside without an armed guard.
Which made sense, given Mace had basically kidnapped her.
But, for some reason Jak wasn’t privy to, Mace had decided to allow her to return to school. And today, for Arianna’s first day of freedom, Jak had pulled guard detail—probably because he was a recent alum of UDub himself. Or maybe because Mace was still angry with his own betas about the run-in over the summer with the Sparks pack. But whatever twist of fate that allowed Jak the right to escort Arianna out into the world again, it was a duty that both twisted his stomach and enlivened every other part of his body.
Arianna had sobered with his words as well and now gazed at him with those big blue eyes. “Can I tell you something, Jak?” She was only twenty-one, a few years younger than him, but in that moment, she seemed much older… yet still innocent at the same time. She was as winsome as a barely-grown girl, yet already burdened by the many things life had thrown at her.
Jak understood that feeling. “I am an excellent keeper of secrets.” His mouth twitched with a repressed smile. If she only knew how many times she had filled his nighttime thoughts… and not always in an innocent concern for her safety.
Some of the glow left her face. “I haven’t felt this alive since…” She blinked. “Since my alpha claimed me.” And like that she was a ghost again, an empty shell where life used to be.
The lump in Jak’s throat refused to budge.
A stray wisp of cloud drifted over the sun, and a shadow fell on her face. It was as if the light had gone out of the world. Arianna shrunk back a little and glanced at the red-bricked buildings encircling the central plaza.
“Mace doesn’t really want me here.” Her shoulder twitched.
Jak swallowed the lump and reached out to her, gripping her shoulders with both hands. He could feel her quake through the thin jacket she wore, and his inner wolf growled: not at her, but at the idea that anyone would make her feel afraid. Least of all, her own alpha.
“Everyone in the pack is expected to contribute,” he said, “and the best way to do that is to join the company. Your alpha knows that. And you won’t be much use to Red Wolf, Inc. until you have a degree in something. It’s only logical for you to go back to school, now that you’ve… settled in.” Given up running away. Become used to being a captive. Had your spirit broken. Those were the words he wanted to say… but he never would be able to, no matter how many times he pictured himself sneaking over to Mace’s house and wrenchi
ng her free of his magical hold. Like that was even possible. Jak had managed to free one girl from Mace’s grasp—all without Mace ever realizing Jak helped her escape—but that was before she became his mate. Mace still blamed his betas for the loss of the Sparks pack female. But Jak knew he was beyond lucky to have gotten away with something like that. The universe wasn’t kind enough to let him get away with it a second time. Besides, Arianna was beyond saving: the mating bond was for life.
You can’t save them all, he told himself. Again and again. It really didn’t help.
Arianna’s face remained clouded. “What if I can’t… what if I’m not good enough? UDub is so much bigger. Bellevue was just a community college. And I didn’t even finish my second year before… before coming here.”
Before being kidnapped. Jak’s inner wolf growled, and this time it almost reached his lips. “You’ll do just fine.” He tipped his head to the nearby buildings. “Although not if you don’t attend your classes.”
She gave a short nod, and he could see a steely resolve take hold as she squared her shoulders and marched off toward Kane Hall. She only had Business Finance today, but it was an upper level class. One he’d taken and passed easily, in spite of his major being in technology… but he hadn’t been ripped from his home and essentially imprisoned for half a year, like Arianna had. Although Jak did know something about being uprooted and thrust into the middle of a new pack. Only in Jak’s case, his alpha was saving him, not stealing him away. He owed his life to Gage Crittenden, and not just the part where Gage rescued him from being torn into small bloody pieces in the Olympic mountains. His alpha had welcomed him into the Red pack and put him through school. If only Mace Crittenden were half the wolf his brother was, maybe Jak’s inner beast wouldn’t bang against his skin and fantasize about saving Arianna from her fate every time Jak looked her way.
He watched Arianna ascend the broad, concrete steps of Kane Hall, her jeans hugging low on her hips as they swayed in a dance that spoke directly to his cock. Who was he kidding? He and every other wolf in the Red pack fantasized about Arianna’s curves in exquisite detail, including how and where they’d like to put their paws on her.
It was the idea of Mace putting his hands on her that brought Jak’s snarling wolf to life.
She’s too good for him. And Mace was no good for any female.
Jak sucked in a breath and tried to rein in the slow-boil anger that thought raised. He and Arianna passed through the tall concrete pillars that lined the boxy modern building of Kane Hall. Inside was a little warmer than the cool fall air. Arianna shucked off her gray jacket and held out a hand for her backpack. He gave it over.
A tiny frown wrinkled her forehead. “Sorry you’re stuck babysitting me while I’m in class.”
Jak slipped his phone from his back pocket and wagged it at her. “I’ve got plenty of work to do, no worries.” He lifted his chin toward the classroom door where students were already filing in. “Go kick some ass in there. Show them UDub’s got nothing on Bellevue.”
A smile burst onto her face, and it stirred something around inside him that almost hurt. Like a physical ache, a pressure that needed release. It made his smile in return falter.
She turned and disappeared inside the lecture hall. Her sudden absence from his view left a weird kind of hollowness in his chest, a deepening of the ache that had sprung up from nothing more than her smile.
Goddamn Mace. The fact that a female like Arianna was mated to a dark alpha like him was proof that the world was essentially cruel.
His steaming hatred was jarred by a soft giggle down the hall. A trio of college girls—all bared legs and revealing midriffs even in the cool weather—strolled down the corridor, biting their lips and running appraising looks over him. He smirked and raked an appreciative gaze over their toned bodies and perky breasts. He could have all of that he wanted—human girls responded to his inner wolf without even knowing he was a shifter, and his wolf had a taste for the doe-eyed brunettes that Seattle seemed to possess in abundance.
But tasting was all he could have with them. Shifters mated with shifters—Jak may have come from a small pack in country, but every pack-raised wolf knew that much. Which was great, except for the fact that female wolves were relatively more rare than males. A lot of wolves like him would forever be living in bachelor pads… or have to settle for marrying humans.
Even marrying outside their breed didn’t help—other shifters didn’t experience the same magical bond that wolves did. It was like nothing else. Jak felt a shadow of that bond each month when he submitted to his alpha. The magic of their blood linked in a way that went beyond brotherhood. Beyond love. It was an unshakable force that bound them together.
It made them pack. It was the sense of belonging that every wolf yearned for from the time he was a pup. And it was a bond he could never share with a human or non-wolf shifter.
But Jak was only a beta and could never compete with an alpha like Mace for a mate—especially not anyone near the caliber of Arianna—a fact that only twisted the knife a little more. His inner beast whined at the injustice, but his human side really couldn’t complain. He had a fantastic job as tech analyst at Red Wolf, one of the fastest growing dot-com investment companies in the Seattle area. He had quickly risen to become beta to Gage Crittenden, an alpha second only to Mr. Crittenden Senior in the Red pack hierarchy. And he was free to screw any woman in Seattle who chose to join him in his bed. And there were plenty who chose that on a regular basis.
The Ariannas of the world were simply never meant to be his.
She’s not meant for Mace, either. Jak backhanded that thought to the dark recesses of his mind. It had no place in his world. He pulled in a breath and leaned against the cool stone wall opposite the classroom door, dragging his mind away from all the flavors of temptation of Arianna and focusing on his phone. A dozen messages and fifty new emails fought for his attention, and he was soon immersed in them.
Gage had a line on a new tech startup—something in data storage on quantum chips with some new laser accessing that looked promising. Jak set up an appointment to meet with the founders, which consisted of a professor and two graduate students working a side business. But that was often where the best startups came from. Scanning their bios he saw the professor had done time at Google, so there was even more hints of promise there. He would definitely have to dig into the tech, see if they really had the goods, but there was a reason Red Wolf had doubled their portfolio every year for the last ten. The Crittendens were keen investors and quick to jump on promising leads. And the strength of the pack helped keep smaller investors, at least ones run by shifter packs like Red Wolf, out of the running. The Sparks pack were the only ones who gave them any competition at all, and since the run-in over the summer, even they had been keeping their distance.
Jak was buried in spreadsheets and halfway through a fifty page report thick with graphs and mathematics, when movement at the periphery of his vision caught his notice. He dragged his attention away from his phone only to find the hallway was filled with students. His heart spasmed as he flit his gaze across the moving sea of backpacks being slung and jackets being donned… but he didn’t see her. Then, at the very end of the hallway: Arianna was standing at the corner, staring right at him. Then she slipped out of sight.
Oh shit.
He took off, shoving his phone in his back pocket as fought his way past the mass exodus from the classroom. He muttered apologies but picked up the pace further until he was practically running when he reached the end of the hall. His boots screeched on the polished wooden floor as he took the corner. He barely saw her curvy rear end before it disappeared around another corner.
Goddamit. He couldn’t believe he had let her slip past him. If she made a run for it while he was supposed to be watching her… Mace would literally have his throat for it. Although, honestly, that wasn’t what really concerned him. He was more worried about what would happen to her if she escaped… only
to be caught again. He couldn’t let that happen—he couldn’t let whatever punishment Mace might dish out be his fault. He would much rather have Mace’s fangs sunk into his neck than see him lay a hand on Arianna.
Jak dashed down the hall, rounding the second corner, only to see she had doubled back… he barely caught the flutter of her gray jacket slipping out the door of Kane Hall. His heart rate skyrocketed. She was outside. There was no end of places she could run, hide… hell, get lost for all he knew. She was a shifter: he wasn’t concerned about anyone in the human population giving her any real trouble. UDub students didn’t exactly pack concealed weapons. But she was young, inexperienced, and on her own completely. And UDub wasn’t Bellevue, where she likely had friends and family watching out for her most of the time. If she wandered off campus she might find trouble in the shape of something more sinister than a frat boy trying to make moves on her.
Jak burst out into the sun-drenched Red Square. It was crisscrossed with students traveling and lunching and strolling, but it wasn’t hard to find her. She was the thin girl with long brown hair hauling ass across the plaza. Breath heaving, he hesitated on the outside steps. One lone girl sprinting across a plaza was someone late for class. A girl running like her hair was on fire with a six-foot over-muscled guy on her tail… that was someone being chased. A dozen cellphones would document the whole thing before you could say Twitter, and campus police would almost certainly reach her before he did.
