Deception (Dark Alpha #3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

couldn’t, everything was set. An entirely new life was crafted with paper and pen on the pads before them. Jak would be sure to destroy all of it before they left, but it was all inscribed on their hearts anyway. All they needed was a little luck, and within two days, Arianna would be free. Then they would leave Seattle for their new lives. Together.
    Neither of them spoke for the rest of the hour.
    Jak held her hand until the very last moment of class… then reluctantly let her go.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Mace shouted into the phone.
    Arianna flinched in the passenger seat next to him. He veered out of one lane and into a faster one. Their speed crept up, and Mace’s face turned red as the phone call progressed. She wasn’t sure who was on the other line, but it had to be someone from work.
    Mace had been taking all kinds of work calls while acting as her guard this week. She knew he hated watching over her at school, but he was too stubborn to let anyone else do it without him. Or maybe too afraid someone else would make him look bad, on the off chance the bounty hunters came back and managed to capture his mate. It was already Friday, and Arianna was starting to give up hope that he would ever let her go to school without personally guarding her himself… although this morning, he sent Beck back to Red Wolf. Apparently, work was piling up on some project, and senior Mr. Crittenden was starting to complain about them falling behind.
    “Well, call them back!” Mace shouted again, making a rude hand gesture to a nearby car as he swerved toward the exit to UDub.
    Arianna gripped her passenger side door.
    “Why the hell would you set up a meeting for this morning?” His voice was turning dangerous, and Arianna’s heart was pounding, both from his tone and the high speed they were taking the exit off the freeway. “You know I’m busy guarding Arianna. It’s on the damn calendar.”
    They lurched to a stop at the end of the exit ramp. “Shit,” Mace said under his breath. He ran a hand over his face then glared at Arianna, which sent her pulse racing even faster. She shrank against the car door. “Okay, fine,” he said into the phone, his gaze holding her in a lock she couldn’t escape. When her alpha captured her like that with his eyes, she couldn’t look away. “No, I’ll be there.” He clicked off the phone and tossed it into the compartment under the armrest.
    Arianna knew better than to say anything.
    Mace growled, pounded on his steering wheel once, then rolled the car forward with the change in the light. Silence hung heavy as they wound their way toward the university.
    Arianna waited, letting him sort it out.
    “I have a meeting I have to go to,” he said eventually. It was half growl. “You’ll have to miss class today.”
    Her heart sunk. “We’re already almost here. Maybe you could just drop me and Beck could pick me up later?”
    “Beck… I swear to God, I am surrounded by incompetent assholes!”
    She wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but she zipped her lips shut. Mace took the turn-off to head into the university. She struggled to bat down the hope that he might let her attend by herself, maybe catch a taxi back home… she didn’t dare suggest that.
    “Beck is in the same meeting,” Mace grumbled, the anger still simmering hot under his breath. “He was supposed to handle it himself, but that idiot promised the client I would be there.”
    “I’m sure it would go better with you there,” she said carefully.
    He grunted but still seemed pissed. “You’ll have just run in and get notes or something from the professor.”
    “It’s a really big class.” She swallowed. Did she dare even suggest this? “The professor’s already said he won’t hand out notes. Or let us share. He expects us to attend.” Mace growled audibly, so she rushed to add, “Maybe there’s someone else who can pick me up? Maybe one of Gage’s wolves isn’t too busy?” She