Deception (Dark Alpha #3) (6 page)

“Oh… only a few,” he said, still grinning. “Less than ten, for sure.”

“You are awful!” She swatted him on the shoulder. He was still dragging her past shelf after shelf, searching for something. Then he seemed to find it and veered down one row. At the end was a heavy wood-carved table with two chairs, clearly set up for the scholars and their work in a previous era. He clasped her hand and brought her to the table, twirling her around and backing her up against it. He kissed her again, and she could feel his cock growing hard as he held her against him.

Then he pulled back from the kiss and just held her in his arms. “However… I’ve never been here with someone I actually intended to spend the rest of my life with.”

Her breath caught, and she stared up into his dark, shining eyes. “You do?”

He brushed her hair back and lightly kissed her face, starting with her cheeks, then her nose, then finally, her eyelids. At last, he swept a feather kiss against her lips. “I know it’s fast,” he whispered. “I know it’s crazy. But I want to spend the rest of my days giving you everything you deserve, Arianna. If you’ll let me.”

Her heart felt like it might burst with his words. “I already told you,” she whispered. “You’re everything I want.”

Suddenly, all the gentleness was gone from his touch. Jak’s hands roamed her body, his fingers tugging at her clothes, his commanding touch igniting a fire between her legs. Her backpack and jacket were gone first, discarded to the floor, but her shirt went next. She grabbed at his, trying to get to his bare skin, but she wasn’t fast enough. He shucked them off quickly and set Mace’s gun down on the table. Then he came back to her, his mouth nipping at her neck as his hands worked her bra free. He groaned as her breasts met the bare skin of his chest. Then his hands attacked the buttons on her pants, working them down. He hoisted her up on the table, pressing his cock, still straining against the fabric of his pants, against the ache between her legs. Her wolf whimpered for him to go faster, to take her
now.

“God, I need you, Arianna,” he said hoarsely. “Now and again and again. Forever.”

“Take me,” was all she could manage to get out before his mouth found her breasts and his hand slipped between her legs. Her words became moans and then gasps as he pulsed pleasure through her body like only he knew how to do. She grasped at his pants, trying to clear the last of his clothing, and when his cock finally sprung free, she wanted nothing more than to take it into her mouth and pleasure him the way he was pleasuring her. But he wouldn’t allow it.

He held her tight to the edge of the table and thrust into her, gasping as he did so. The table cried out in protest just as she cried out in pleasure. The fullness of him, the hot shocks of heat that raced through her with every pound against the table… it quickly crashed an orgasm through her. She clawed at his back, arching hers in pleasure and gasping her way through it. As it peaked, she kept calling his name, and he kept murmuring
my love, my love, you’re mine,
over and over. It was such sweet music to her ears, filling her with such lightness, she scarcely could breathe. He kept going, building to his own climax, and his touch on her, stroking her with his fingers while filling her with his cock, was quickly building another orgasm inside her, tight and low and hot.

She cried his name again as she came, and his groans matched hers. Then he slowed, but didn’t stop, the steady beat, working her body with his. When she could breathe again, she held onto him tight and whispered, “What you do to me, Jak…”

He pulled back to look in her eyes but still slowly stroked into her body. “And what do I do to you, Ms. Stefan?”

She was still breathless—with pleasure, with the look of love in his eyes. “Everything.”

“Not everything.” He grinned. “Not yet. I still have an hour.”

She laughed, lightly, but that was soon lost in the joining of their bodies, hot and hard and secret among the dusty tomes of forgotten books.

Jak was everything to her: freedom, pleasure, hope.

Soon, all of it would be hers forever.

Saturday night. The ceremony. Time to kill Mace.

Only… not quite yet.

Normally, Gage and Mace would have their submission ceremonies in different parts of the Olympic mountains. There was no love lost between the brothers, no reason to have a family ceremony. But this time, they were staying at the estate, which meant carving out different sections of the sprawling landscape in order to still have a sense of separation. Gage’s pack would meet at the south end of the main house, Mace on the north, in the clearing near his house. Jak had gotten all the details of how Mace normally ran the ceremony from Arianna, and he wasn’t surprised to find it different from the way Gage ran things.

Jak’s alpha always used the submission ceremony as a time to draw the pack together. Even Gage’s two mates were brought into it, with everyone submitting to their alpha under the full moon at the same time. Then, the pack usually ran, including the females, in some sort of game, bonding them further together. Later, after the festivities, Jak was sure Gage went home to claim each of his mates… maybe in turn, maybe together. That part was none of the pack’s business, and Gage never made it so. It was private.

Apparently Mace’s goal was to humiliate everyone.

According to Arianna, Mace fought each of the three members of his pack—Beck, Alric, and Thomas—individually in a sparring match. They started human then shifted, wrestling, biting, drawing blood… eventually, when Mace had pummeled them sufficiently and had their throats in his mouth, they would submit. He would take each of their submissions in turn. When all the fighting was done, and Mace had a hard-on the size of Manhattan at how much of an alpha he was, then he would take Arianna. The rest of the pack would wait… and watch… while she submitted.

Jak needed to know the exact order of events, but it had taken him several tries to get out of her what precisely happened. And Jak could see why. Mace, bastard that he was, didn’t fight Arianna… he just forced her to have sex in front of the rest of the pack. She said he did it while in wolf form, once she had submitted, but still… just because she was covered in fur didn’t mean the pack didn’t get off on the show.

It made Jak want to retch. And eased any guilt he had about putting a bullet in Mace tonight. Jak had one of the pack’s guns holstered under his arm, loaded and ready. It felt heavy and hot, warmed by his body and the tension of carrying it. But the timing would have to be just right to pull this off: Jak needed to catch Mace in wolf form. If he died that way, it would be a lot easier for Jak and Arianna to make their escape—they didn’t need to have a murder charge trailing after them. In case Mace was carrying a weapon, being in wolf form would mean Jak would have crucial seconds to make their getaway before Mace could get to it.

Plus killing Mace at all required Jak to be free of his own submission bond to Gage. Jak could feel the effects waning already, as the night wore on. Jak needed to push it as far as he could, get as free of his commitment to Gage as possible before pulling the trigger. Just in case any of a dozen things went wrong.

Timing would be everything.

Jak paced the floor of his room, his phone in his hand, waiting for Arianna’s signal. The wolves of Gage’s pack were starting to scuffle out in the hall, gathering to head over to the far side of the estate… farther away than Jak wanted to be when Arianna’s text came in. Plus, he would need an excuse to leave, and that would be tough when in the middle of his own submission ceremony. Which he couldn’t, under any circumstances, actually complete. The last thing he wanted was to fight his own alpha… which wouldn’t even be possible if he submitted. Jak had to stall as long as he could.

A rapid knock sounded at his door.

Jak lifted the phone to his ear, as if he was talking to someone. He covered the microphone and shouted at the door, “Be there in a minute!”

The doorknob turned, and Gage stuck his head in. Every muscle in Jak’s body tensed.

“Hang on,” Jak said to his imaginary phone caller. “What’s up?” he asked Gage.

“What’s up?”
His alpha gave him an exasperated look. “Did you forget we’re having a ceremony tonight, Jak?”

“No, I just…” He held the phone out. “I’ve got these jokers from Silver Quick on the line. They’re giving me some bullshit about the numbers being different than what they were showing us yesterday.”

“On a Saturday night?” Gage asked, skeptically.

“They had some grad student working late, and he found something… I’ll be off soon, I promise.” The gun under Jak’s arm felt like a heavy indictment of the betrayal he was about to commit. Was
already
committing…

Gage frowned. “All right. But we’re ready to go. The guys are going out afterward, and I’m sure they’re anxious to get to the party phase of tonight’s activities.”

“Yeah, okay.” Jak nodded then pretended to talk into the phone again. “Hey, I’m back.” He waved to Gage. “Okay, fine, but tell me how that changes anything…”

Gage shook his head and retreated from the room.

As soon as he was gone, Jak drifted over to the window, still holding the phone to his ear, in case someone else decided to pop in on him. The moon lit up the entire estate, turning the grass into a silver-frosted carpet and the trees into dark sentinels protecting the perimeter. Mace’s house still had its lights on, but that might not mean anything. He was only going out into the meadow in back to do the ceremony. Jak ground his teeth as he realized Mace had every intention of forcing Arianna to have sex with him in front of his pack in the middle of the estate.

Not tonight, asshole.

The rustling sounds from the hallway settled, and the distant thumping of boots on the stairs said most of the pack was heading outside. His time was growing short. A couple more minutes, and Gage would be back in Jak’s room, insisting he call the university nerds back later. Jak really needed a backup excuse for delaying further. Maybe he should take this moment, when everyone was heading out, to slip outside on his own and just lurk around Mace’s house until he got the signal from Arianna that Mace had shifted. Problem was, Jak didn’t know who was still straggling behind in the house like him.

Or if Gage was waiting just outside his door.

Just as Jak was about to pace the room again, and try to come up with a backup excuse for delaying, a movement over at Mace’s house caught his eye. Shadows moved across the blind-covered windows, and a breath-stopping ten seconds later, he saw long shadows cast by the moonlight of something moving at the rear of the house. Jak glimpsed five figures just briefly before they moved deeper into the meadow where he couldn’t see them. But that had to be Mace, his three pack members, and Arianna.

Come on, come on, come on.

Jak pulled the phone from his ear and looked at the face of it, willing Arianna’s text to come. Just at that moment, Mason stuck his head in Jak’s door, jolting surprise through him.

“Hey, are you done?” Mason asked. “Gage is getting pissed.”

Jak shook his head and quickly put the phone back to his ear.
He needed more time.
“What do you mean, the basement’s flooded?” he said harshly into the phone. He held up a finger to Mason, indicating he needed another minute.

Mason just crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.

Shit.

“Well, yeah, but I don’t see why that would shut down your hoods,” Jak said into the phone. He shrugged to Mason and held up his hands like he was helplessly stuck on the phone then waved off Mason, like he should leave.

Mason just shook his head and stayed put.

Meanwhile, Arianna could be texting him any second.

Dammit.
Jak covered the microphone and whispered to Mason, “Dude, I’ll be there. Just start without me.”

“No can do,” Mason said, not moving an inch. “Gage says not to come back without you.”

Jak stalked across the room, still holding his hand over the phone. “Look, just give me two seconds, all right?” He uncovered the phone. “Yes, I’m still here,” he said into it. “I’ve got to go, so can we—yes, I know that’s a problem.” Jak took his free hand and shoved Mason out the door. He closed it in Mason’s face before he could get a foot back in. Jak leaned against the door to hold it closed. He sighed in relief. At least Mason would be out of the room when Arianna’s message came in, but now Jak was stuck in a major way.

He glanced at the phone.
Still nothing.

Jak would have to take Mason out somehow. Once the message came in, everything went into play. Jak had to be ready to move. The last thing he wanted was to have to shoot Mason, not least because it would be
too soon
for shots to be fired and send everyone into red alert. And because he actually liked Mason. His stomach knotted up even more than the ball of extreme tension it was already. Jak would have to knock Mason out or come up with some excuse—

His phone pinged.

Morgan Media.

What the hell?

Ice ran through his veins. Why were the witches calling him?