Page 140 of Broken Bonds
My face goes red. “You’re right.”
“One last thing.” He meets my gaze. “You need to tell Mal that there will be no safewords for this process.”
That makes me queasy. I am a sadistic fuck, yes, but I have to know even if someone’s pretending to thrash and struggle that they can stop it whenever they want, if they want.
“Really? Are you sure?”
“Uh, yeah. Does no good if he can stop it. Defeats the whole purpose. Don’t give him details, but explain there are safeguards in place. That for this to have the best chance of working, he needs to be all-in and unable to stop it.”
I grumble. “Okay.”
Shawn heads out. We each have a list of calls to make, and my first is to Davis.
He hears me out. “I hate we can’t have a regular initiation for him,” he says. “Dammit, I would’ve loved giving it to him.”
Davis is, if nothing else, a predictable horndog. “Hopefully we can do that after this other bullshit is out of the way,” I say. “Will Chaz let you do this? And keep it quiet, please, because part of this whole plan is wrapped up in Jax not knowing details, either.”
“I’ll call him, but I suspect he’ll say yes since my dick’ll stay in my pants.” He chuckles. “Want me to round up the usual mate hunt safety crew? I mean, if they’re not fucking the pup, I don’t see why they’d have a problem with this. And I can handle getting the tranq guns and radios ready.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “That would be incredible, thank you.”
“All right. Let me make the calls. I’ll get back to you in about an hour.”
I know I have spray paint and a marker wand from when I ran new fences just a couple of months ago, but they’re down at the barn.
Shawn was absolutely right that I have no clue how not to telegraph my thoughts to Mal.
I don’t want to block him out, either.
Guess I’ll need to nut up and learn real fast, won’t I?
I grab my phone and head out the back door to the ATV. My first stop will be the barn, and then I’ll plot and mark the course.
Please, Goddess. Let Shawn be right and let this work.
Chapter Sixty
Mal
Get set
Right now, my mind is one big fucking mess. I’m glad I have work to do because it’ll allow me to focus on that, something I don’t need to devote actual brainpower to, instead of obsessing over what’s supposed to happen.
And what’s already happened.
I guess I have myself a mate.
That thought is the only thing that helps settle my soul and gives me a modicum of comfort—Todd and I are mates, and he’s determined to do whatever it takes to make sure I’m safe.
Thankfully, the guys don’t question why I’m late. I’ve almost forgotten about the morning’s secondary developments when Todd shows up at the barn in the ATV.
His gaze immediately meets mine and it takes every single ounce of willpower I have—and some I didn’t even realize I had—not to run to him and fling myself into his arms.
He drops me a wink from across the barn before he heads into one of the storerooms. I do my best not to sploot flat on my face in cow shit while I work, because all I can think of now is that morning, of what it felt like closing that gap between us, and then my short-lived bliss because of what Jax and Shawn revealed.
Oh, yeah. Look at that. The news my dad’s still hunting me—and that others are and will hunt me—can kill my chub.
Nice.
