by Alisa Woods
“Jak!” The word ripped through the air, carried on a command from his alpha. It stopped Jak in his tracks.
He kept his gun trained on Mace, but he couldn’t help searching for the source of the voice. Gage stood twenty feet away, Mason by his side, both of them looking aghast at the scene in front of them.
“What the hell are you doing?” Gage’s rebuke was harsh. Jak felt it through to his bones, but it didn’t have the power to hold him. He glanced up at the moon. It was close enough to full. His submission bond to Gage wouldn’t stop him from leaving. He started his slow backward march again, Arianna at his back as they crept toward the forest. Even if the bond wouldn’t stop him, the pain of walking away from Gage was worse than the physical agony ripping through his body.
“I have to do this,” Jak said to Gage, his voice rough but strong. “I can’t let him hurt her anymore.” It felt good to say the words out loud. It was the truth of why he was here, why he was taking her, and why the rest of it—the shooting, the betrayal, the breaking of pack law—didn’t matter. Because Mace had violated everything that made pack law decent and right. He had steeped darkness into the mating bond, the one that should be sacred above all.
Jak’s words carried across the cool night air, met only with silence.
He prayed Gage would figure it out and see that Jak was doing the right thing. But if he didn’t, that also didn’t matter. All that mattered was righting the wrongs done to Arianna. And setting her free.
Gage’s brow scowled deeper, and Jak figured he was putting together what had actually happened here; what had been happening all along. Between the six of them—Mace, his three betas, Gage and Mason—they could stop him. They might not be able to stop him from shooting Mace, but they could keep him from leaving with Arianna.
But Gage just stood and watched as Jak drew farther and farther away.
Mace growled when he realized his brother wasn’t going to help. He lurched to his feet. “Arianna, come here!” It was a full command. Jak could feel the strength of it, even though Mace wasn’t his alpha.
Arianna whimpered behind him and clutched his shoulder. Her claws came out and dug into his flesh. It hurt, but nothing like he imagined the fight she was waging inside, disobeying her alpha so she could leave.
“Stay human, baby,” Jak whispered. “Stay with me.” If she shifted, he would lose her. The bond would be simply too great to overcome.
He groaned as her claws dug deeper into him, but the rest of her stayed human. And they kept marching, slowly backward. They were far enough now that they might have a decent chance at escaping just by flat-out running. But their chances would be better if they reached the forest first.
Seconds ticked with each step closer to freedom.
Jak had to look away from Gage’s broken expression.
Mace snarled, but didn’t move. His betas did likewise. Mace must know by now that, if he tried to stop Jak, he wouldn’t hesitate to finish the job.
If Mace let them go, he would live.
Mace glared hatred across the growing expanse between them. Jak knew this wasn’t over. Mace would search the ends of the earth for Arianna and kill Jak, if at all possible. Jak would just have to make sure he never got that chance. He and Arianna kept inching backward until they reached the forest.
Then they turned and fled into the darkness.
Arianna felt like her mind was ripping in two.
Her mate, her alpha, was furious. Furious. As she backed away from Mace, fleeing with Jak, Mace’s hatred reached across the night air and choked her. Part of her knew this was wrong—this vile, deadly hatred shouldn’t come from her own alpha, the man who was supposed to love and protect her—but her wolf whimpered to return to him, all the same.
It took every ounce of human inside her to withdraw her claws from Jak’s shoulder and still remain by his side. And seeing his injuries, his blood-covered body, made her tremble even more. She hated that she had added even a tiny scratch to his pain… because Jak was her savior. He may be a beta to the world, but in her eyes, he was all alpha. The good kind. The kind who, before her eyes, was giving up everything, risking everything, including his own life, to free her. Even with the turmoil in her mind, her love for him glowed like the sun.
Her inner torment lessened with more distance from Mace. And once they turned into the darkness of the forest, it eased considerably. She and Jak were running now, Jak leading her but keeping close by her side. He still held the gun, so he couldn’t hold her hand. His other one was slick with blood and hung at his side in a way that made her stomach clench. His chest and legs were also drenched with the dark red stain—she was amazed he could still walk, much less hurtle through the forest as they were now, with all the blood he had already lost.
“It’s going to be okay, baby,” he kept saying over and over. “It’s going to be all right.”
She kept a hand on his shoulder, claws retracted, so she could gently squeeze it in response. Her throat was too thick for words, and her breath too ragged. It seemed to take forever, but eventually, they reached the fence. She handed Jak’s phone over to him. Everything had gone wrong with their plan up until now: she half expected Jak’s program to deactivate the security system with a special app on his phone to fail utterly. For them to be trapped. Breath heaved out of her as she waited, but with a few swipes on his phone, the hum of the electrified fence ceased.
“Can you climb it?” Arianna asked as he handed the phone back to her. She couldn’t imagine how he could in this state.
“Not much choice, have I?” He gave her a lopsided grin, half filled with pain.
It wrenched her heart.
“You first,” he said.
She almost insisted that she help him up, but she knew he would fight her on that, and that would only slow things down. They needed to get off the estate before Mace changed his mind and came after them with guns. Arianna clamped the phone in her mouth and quickly scaled the chain link fence, dropping down the other side. Her heart thudded as Jak tried to do the same, only one-handed, with a gun held in his mouth and a body slick with blood.
He groaned several times, each one piercing her heart. When he reached the top, she didn’t know if he would make it. He handed the gun down to her and stayed there for a heart-stoppingly long moment before rolling off his perch. She couldn’t help crying out when he hit the ground. She rushed to him, hands out to do something, anything, to make sure he was okay.
He groaned again, longer and deeper. “Let’s not do that again.” His voice was wheezy.
She let out a short, shaky laugh through the tears threatening to spill and helped him to his feet. But he was considerably less steady now. He paused to swipe at his phone, and the electric hum of the fence started up again. Jak had thought of everything, including closing off their escape route, in case Mace came after them.
She shuddered. She knew that would happen eventually.
The tromp through the rest of the forest was considerably slower now. She carried the gun, and Jak draped his arm over her shoulder, but she could tell he was barely making it.
When they broke free of the trees, Jak’s car was waiting for them. Arianna sighed in relief. They were going to make it. They were actually going to get free.
As they lumbered toward the car, Jak said, “Baby, I think you need to drive.”
“Really?” she said, trying to keep her voice light. “I thought you might take me for a tour of the nightclubs in Seattle.”
He chuckled, but it just ended in a cough. She helped him into the passenger seat and hurried around to the driver’s side. Once she was inside, she tucked the gun under the seat.
“You need a healer,” she said, reaching to the back seat and pulling up the stash of clothes Jak had put there. She didn’t bother with pants, just threw on a t-shirt so they wouldn’t get pulled over for indecent driving.
“I know one downtown.” Jak wheezed, and she hated the sound of it. “The address is in my phone, und
er Richter. Just plug it into the GPS.” Then he seemed to melt into the car seat with exhaustion, eyes drifting closed.
Arianna scrambled to do as he said, then started the car and put distance between her and the Red pack estate. It almost seemed like a dream, like they were heading off to UDub for class, not running away, never to return. After a few blocks, she pulled over. Jak was shivering, and the car wasn’t warming up fast enough. She brought more clothes up from the back and struggled to get a t-shirt over his head. He resisted, but without much force, not even opening his eyes. He just mumbled some protests then lolled his head to the side and let her work. She got the t-shirt on, but just draped his jacket over the rest of his body, hoping it would keep him warm.
She threw the car into drive and barreled toward downtown. It was killing her not to speed the entire way, but they couldn’t afford to get stopped. She hoped the GPS wasn’t leading her astray—this part of downtown was run-down and shady-looking. Probably filled with city shifters in low-life gangs. That was one reason her family stayed to themselves, just a small pack out in the country. The biggest “city experience” she’d had so far was attending UDub. But Jak needed a healer, and this was where the healer lived. She would just have to act like she had a clue about what she was doing and get through it.
The address of Jak’s healer was an apartment in a decrepit tenement, number 3B.
She parked and struggled into the rest of her clothes before going around to the passenger side. Jak had fallen asleep on the ride over, but she wasn’t alarmed until she couldn’t wake him back up. Kneeling on the edge of the passenger seat, she tried to gently shake him, calling his name… nothing worked. Tears blurred her eyes, but there was no time for that. Hands shaking, she pressed two fingers to his neck. He still had a pulse, and she could see his chest rise and fall, but it seemed to be in jittery movements. Her shifter genes gave her more strength than your average college girl, but even she wasn’t going to be able to haul Jak out of the car and up three levels to the healer. Not to mention that he might get hurt along the way.
Biting her lip, she tucked the jacket tighter around Jak to keep him warm and reached over him to grab the gun from under the driver’s seat. She tucked it into the back of her pants, which seemed ridiculous, but openly carrying it seemed to flash a neon sign to the darkened street, inviting trouble. Then she locked Jak into the car and strode up to the apartment with her head held high.
You’re a shifter and you’re armed, she told herself. You can do this. She kept her head up as she climbed the concrete steps and buzzed the door for 3B. She couldn’t help looking back to the car, checking on Jak, but he hadn’t moved.
There was no answer.
Come on! Her heart lurched and jumped around as she buzzed the apartment again and again. What was she going to do if the healer wasn’t home? It was the middle of the night, but who knew? Maybe he was out at the clubs. That’s what Mace and his pack did every Saturday night. Something banged inside the apartment complex, startling her, and she stopped buzzing. There was no window to peer in, but she heard some kind of rapid pattering, maybe someone coming downstairs, so she held off on buzzing again.
She waited.
Nothing happened.
Just as she was about to push the buzzer button again, the door cracked open. Inside was a woman in flannel pajamas and a thin tank top. Her pink fuzzy robe was hanging off one shoulder, crooked, like she’d just thrown it on, and her hair was mussed.
“Who are you?” the woman asked.
“I… I’m a friend of Jak’s,” Arianna said, surprised at the shakiness of her own voice. She cleared her throat. “I’m looking for Richter.”
The woman lifted an eyebrow. “Well, you found her.”
Arianna was speechless for a moment. All the healers she’d known were men, all shifters with some kind of medical training. It wasn’t that female shifters couldn’t be healers… it was mostly that they were so rare that Arianna hadn’t met many others. Especially out in the country.
She had better make sure, just in case. “You’re a healer, right?”
The woman narrowed her eyes. “I’m out of the business now. Shifters bring nothing but trouble into my life.”
Arianna didn’t know what to make of that, but it didn’t matter right now. “Jak’s hurt. Badly. He needs a healer… please. He gave me your name and said you could help.”
The woman bit her lip and peered around Arianna. “Jak, huh? Where is he?”
Arianna stepped back and gestured to the car. “I couldn’t move him. Besides, there’s so much blood…”
The woman sighed as she peered at the car. “All right. I’ll be right back. Need my kit.” The door slammed in Arianna’s face, but she only hesitated a second before sprinting back to the car. The street was dark except for a few buzzing streetlamps. If this healer woman was going to work on Jak in the car, she would need some light. Arianna hopped in the driver’s seat and edged the car forward so it was directly under the white glare of the lamp. Then she parked, and checked Jak’s pulse again. She could feel it, but his skin was clammy and cold. He mumbled something when she touched him, but he wasn’t really awake.
The healer returned a minute later, a black leather bag in one hand. She peered in the passenger side window then opened the door.
She pulled the jacket away from covering his body, then wrinkled up her face. “Jesus, what a mess.” She looked to Arianna. “We need to get him in the back seat. Easier to work there.”
Arianna jumped out of the driver’s seat and raced around to the passenger side. The woman pulled off Jak’s blood-soaked t-shirt, then together, she and Arianna wrestled Jak out of the front seat and into the back. He was still only partially awake, and his flailings got in the way more than helped. The healer climbed in the back, practically on top of Jak… who still had no pants on. Arianna felt her face heating, but there wasn’t any room for modesty right now. Not that Jak would probably have minded having the petite, blond healer perched on top of him. Arianna slipped back into the front and watched the healer go to work, wiping away the blood, probing his wounds.
“Do you have a first name?” Arianna asked.
The healer glanced at her then went back to examining Jak’s wounds. “Sarra. You?”
“Arianna.”
She nodded. “All right, Arianna, I’m seeing a bullet wound to the shoulder and deep lacerations in his thighs and side. No major organ wounds that I can tell, but one of the slashes in his leg nicked an artery, and he’s lost a lot of blood.” She finally looked at Arianna. “Anything else I need to know about?”
Arianna shook her head. “It was a bad fight.”
She wrinkled up her nose and turned back to Jak. “Are there any good ones?”
They didn’t speak as Sarra dug a needle and thread out of her bag and started with the gaping bullet wound in Jak’s shoulder. The pain of the stitching must have started to rouse Jak. He groaned a few times, his head moving a little. When she plunged the needle into his skin again, he tried to sit up, pushing Sarra’s hands away with his good arm, even though his eyes were still closed. Sarra shoved his chest down into the seat with one hand and smacked Jak on the face with the other.
“Hey!” he said, his hands flailing up in front of his face.
“That’s for messing up my stitch, Jak Roberts.” Her voice was frosty.
Arianna held her breath. There was more than just a messed up stitch charging the air.
Jak creaked his eyes open and peered at her over his raised arm. “Sarra?”
“I’m trying to stitch up your sorry ass.” But her tone had warmed a little. “Lie down.”
He obeyed, but a half second later, he was up again. “Arianna!” His frantic gaze swept the car.
“I’m right here,” Arianna said quickly, and his gaze found her face.
He breathed a sigh of relief and eased back down to the seat.
Sarra lifted one eyebrow, taking in the whole exchange, then went back t
o sewing up Jak with renewed speed.
He winced as she dug into his wound. “Lost your gentle touch along the way, Sarrabear?” He breathed through his teeth.
“Only for guys who don’t call the morning after,” Sarra said coolly. “Those get special treatment when they show up at my door covered in blood and towing a new girl along.”
Jak grimaced. “Oh come on, Sarra. It wasn’t like that.”
Sarra tugged on the stitch, keeping it tight, but also causing Jak to grunt. Arianna bit her lip, hating to see him in pain, but knowing the stitching was the only thing that would stop the bleeding. Jak’s normal shifter healing ability was useless without enough magic-filled blood to make it work. Arianna gripped the edge of the front seat, watching Sarra’s needle dip back into Jak’s shoulder.
“So that wasn’t you who rocked my world for a couple weeks and then disappeared? That was some other hot shifter?” Sarra asked coolly. “Good to know. By the way, who’s the new girl?”
Jak let out a pain-filled breath, and Arianna could see him sneaking looks at her. He didn’t need to worry about anything. She knew a handsome shifter like Jak would have had lots of girls before her. She also knew he had just given up everything to save her. There was nothing Sarra or anyone else could say or do that would change that. Or change how Arianna felt about him.
“Arianna is…” He paused, sucked in a breath. “If I could make her my mate, I would, Sarra. Just like I would have with you, if you hadn’t been so stubborn.”
“Oh, that’s how it was, huh?” But her voice was teasing, and she snuck a glance at Arianna. “Well, your new girl’s pretty tough, hauling your sorry ass into this part of town. I’ll give her that.”
“She was in a bad situation, Sarrabear.” Jak winced again at Sarra’s stitching. “I had to get her out. And she needs a place to stay. Just for the night.”
Sarra sighed. “I figured that out as soon as I saw the mess you made of her car. You have any idea how much blood you’ve lost?”
