Penance (Dark Alpha #5) by Alisa Woods Page B

I know better than to risk the karma of messing with a love bond that strong.”
    “I… don’t understand.” Jak clenched his fists. “Will you do the spell or not?”
    She sighed again. The lust in her eyes had cooled ten degrees. “Why not just give her to the family? They’ve wanted nothing more than to have her back all along. Or, hell, run away with her! Are you so territorial that you’d rather die than have another wolf’s magic in her blood?” She wrinkled up her nose at this, like he had suddenly turned into a distasteful beast that might soil the carpet.
    Jak just shook his head, mystified. Did he really need to explain his reasoning to this witch? “Why do you care?”
    “Performing dark arts is a tricky business,” she sniffed. “And a deadly one. Why are you so eager to die, little wolf?”
    “I don’t want to die.” He ran a hand through his hair and stepped back farther. This witch was confounding him. “I’d like nothing more than to run away with her. But as long as she’s tied to her mate, she’ll never have the things she deserves.”
    Circe shrugged. “She could still have pups. What does it matter if they’re not yours? So to speak.”
    Jak growled and took two menacing steps toward her. He stopped before reaching her when her look changed from annoyed to glacier cold. She could kill him if she wished. And now that she wasn’t, for some reason, clawing at him for sex, she just might do it out of frustration.
    He dialed back his own frustration and said softly, “I would happily run away and spend all my days loving her. I would like nothing more than to make a family with her. But in the end, it would all be for selfishness. Because Mace wouldn’t stop hunting her. And one day, he would find her—then he would claim not only her, but her pups too. Our babies…” Jak swallowed down the thickness in his throat then looked away to hide the water glassing his eyes. “He would have every right in pack law to claim them all. I would die before I let that happen, but I might not be able to stop it. Arianna would always live in fear of that.” He took a breath and looked back to Circe, whose face had opened in surprise. “This way I can ensure that it never comes down to that. No matter how much I want her for myself, the most important thing is to simply get her free from him.”
    Circe pressed her lips together, but Jak could tell something had changed. There was a look on her face, a concerned look, that made the sharpness of her features soften.
    She nodded slowly. “You may not think much of witches, little wolf, but even we are not so heartless as to stand in the way of something so… noble.”
    He raised his eyebrows. “That sounds suspiciously like a compliment.”
    She scowled at him. “Something you will not speak of again and will take to your grave.”
    He smirked. “Of course.” But the smile was fleeting. “Will you do the spell, Circe?”
    Her scowl darkened. “Yes. But it’s not something we can do in my office. And you’ll need to be in wolf form at the end. I prefer not to dispose of human bodies.”
    Jak swallowed, the reality of that sinking in. “Understood.” Then he blew out a sigh of relief and gestured to the desk. “I’m still not sure why we’re not…”
    “Having amazing sex on my desk?” She smirked and eyed his body. “Make no mistake, little wolf, it would have been one of the best experiences of your life.”
    He cocked his head to the side. “It seems I’ll never know.”
    She let out a wistful sigh. “It would have been delicious. But you were much more fun to bed when you weren’t quite so nobly rescuing the woman you love.”
    He frowned. He had no idea such things mattered to witches.
    She folded her arms. “Hecca would say I’m foolishly romantic. I think she’s just had one too many dark-art spells worm their way into her heart. But regardless… I’ll help you for the same reason I agreed to help Arianna’s family