Deception (Dark Alpha #3) by Alisa Woods Read Free Book Online Page A

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