Free Escape (Dark Alpha #4) by Alisa Woods Page B

him, but Alric and Beck caught him from behind. He roared and snapped at them, but they sunk their teeth deep into his legs and dragged him down. Pain streaked white hot through his body. He was kicking and biting, but they had two sets of flashing razor sharp teeth, slicing through his flesh. Just like a hundred times before, when his older brothers had pinned him, Mace’s betas were ripping him to pieces until the agony overtook him, and he had stopped fighting. But Jak wasn’t giving up, not this time, not until he was dead. He raked a claw across Beck’s eyes and tore a piece out of Alric’s ear. Their yelps of pain and anger were enough for Jak to break free of their grips and scramble to his paws.
    Just as he lurched forward, a gun went off… and something slammed into him with enough force to fling him back against Alric’s flea-bitten hide. The searing pain hit a half second later, blossoming across his shoulder and sending him rolling to the side. The world went white for a moment. He blinked through it, bringing the night back in focus just in time to see Arianna in wolf form, leaping through the air and snapping her jaws on Thomas’s arm. The gun went off again, which made Jak’s heart spasm. He struggled to get to his paws, but one whole side was useless and screaming with pain. Beck and Alric were at his back, but he couldn’t fight them this way. He shifted human, praying Arianna was all right as he struggled to his feet.
    She was still wrestling with Thomas, on the ground, she in her wolf form and him in his human one. But a moment later, she shifted human. And when she came up, standing over Thomas in all her naked beauty… she had the gun pointed in his face. He just looked up at her, confused.
    Jak almost laughed. It was the most gorgeous thing he had ever seen.
    Alric and Beck had shifted human behind him, but they just stood there with dumbass looks on their faces. Arianna stepped away from Thomas then swung the gun to Alric and Beck.
    “Stay back!” she yelled. “Don’t touch him!” She meant Jak, which flushed him with joy… until he realized how much her hand with the gun was shaking. The smile fell off Jak’s face, and he lurched to her side, leaving Alric and Beck still staring and Thomas struggling to get up off the lawn.
    Jak’s body was screaming in pain—his shoulder and legs were a bloody mess—and a wave of dizziness almost made him lose his footing, but when he reached her, he took the gun from her trembling hands. He only had one good hand left. His other one dangled uselessly at his side. Flashes of numbness ran up and down it, and he could feel the blood gushing out of his body. His breath was becoming labored, and he shuddered violently in the cold night air. He was fairly certain he was going into shock.
    Not good.
    His hand shook even more than Arianna’s, but at least he stood between her and Mace’s betas now. And he had a chance of getting her out of there.
    “Move!” Jak ordered Thomas away from the heap that was Jak’s clothes.
    Thomas shuffled toward Alric and Beck, hands up.
    More gently, almost in a whisper, Jak said to Arianna, “I need my phone. Right pocket.”
    Arianna bent down and rifled through them. Mace was still moaning and holding his side, but he had managed to get to his knees. He must be hit bad because he wasn’t saying anything. But when Arianna stood up with the prize of Jak’s phone, Mace’s face came back to life.
    “What are you doing?” he screamed at his betas, who were all clustered together with Jak’s gun trained on them. “Get him!”
    Jak swung his gun to point at Mace. “Move a muscle, and I’ll shoot your alpha.” The three betas snarled and clenched their fists, but he knew with their submissions fresh, they wouldn’t do anything to endanger Mace. They would sacrifice themselves in a heartbeat, but at this range, there was no way they could reach him before he could pull the trigger. And Jak wouldn’t miss a second