Page 144 of Broken Bonds
There’s no “tone” in the way he says it, just matter-of-factly.
“Um, okay. Thanks.” I head that way, but I’m almost to the small barn where the fun room is when Shawn whistles to me and summons me there.
My stomach immediately knots up, and not in a good way.
He doesn’t wait for me, but heads inside the fun room, and I follow. Once I’m inside, he locks us in. We’re alone, and he hands me a plastic shaker tumbler, like what people use for protein drinks at the gym. The contents are dark green and resemble a smoothie, but I suspect I don’t want to get a whiff of whatever it is.
I also realize the room’s been rearranged, with the frame Todd played with me on moved over and turned 180 degrees around, and another frame, which looks older than this one, positioned several feet away but facing head-to-head.
Shawn, who is fully dressed, leans against the second frame with his arms crossed over his chest and nods his head toward the tumbler in my hand. “Bottoms up,” he says. “Shake it up first, and best to drink it as fast as you can, all at once, and don’t give yourself time to think about the taste. Drink the entire thing in one go.”
“Are… Is this happening now?” I was hoping at least for a shower first, because frankly, I’m sweaty and aromatic and not in a good way.
“No clue,” Shawn says, his body language and tone not giving me anything to go on. “I don’t even know if that will work. In fact, I’m nearly certain this first attempt won’t work. But I need time to adjust the formula. So drink up, grab a shower, and you and I will sit here and wait.”
Okay, yay, shower. “Is that why you locked the doors?”
He arches an eyebrow at me. I know he’s an omega, but he’s also older than me, has a lot more experience under his belt, and he’s the pack Alpha’s mate, which means a flash of something zaps me, not shame exactly, but close to it, I guess.
I take a deep breath, put my thumb over the cover for the mouthpiece, and give the tumbler several hard shakes. There’s something inside it, maybe one of those metal whisk balls, and this feels beyond ridiculous, but I know I have to go with it. Then, with Shawn carefully watching me, I take a deep breath and start chugging it.
The taste doesn’t hit me at first, but once it does it takes everything I have not to gag. It’s like drinking thick, swampy salad with such a strong, skunky herbal flavor that I have difficulty choking it down.
But I do it, shuddering as I do, because it’s just…rancid. And the lingering skunky aftertaste doesn’t help, either.
Shawn hands me a bottle of water and I greedily gulp it down. Then he hands me a thermos of something. When I open it, mint-scented steam greets me.
“Sweetened mint hot tea,” he says. “Helps get rid of the taste faster. And it’ll help settle your stomach.”
“Thanks.” I drain that. “Now what?”
He points to the shower. “Anything else you want to do in there, except jerk off, do it now. Just in case. And leave the door unlocked.”
I do as ordered, standing under the water hot as I can stand it with my mouth wide open so I can finish rinsing the remnants of that nasty concoction out from where there’s still a little between my teeth. I also let out a couple of foul-tasting belches and hope I don’t puke the stuff up.
Goddess, I hope it works this time, because I don’t honestly know if I can stomach drinking another dose of that.
We’re still alone when I emerge with a towel wrapped around my waist.
He walks over to the newer frame and pats it. “I think you know how to climb on.”
“If we don’t know if this will work, why do I have to get on that now?”
Another arched eyebrow. “Because despite our size differential, I have no desire to try to wrestle you onto it if it does work, and I damned sure don’t want to try to have to run you down on foot if you escape this room.” He points at it. “Drop the towel and get on the fucking bench, pup.”
There’s absolutely no humor in his tone. In fact, his commanding tone brooks zero bullshit.
Fear trills through me. This doesn’t feel… fun.
At all.
I walk over, drop the towel, and climb on. It’s perfectly adjusted for me, which I guess makes sense since I was the last one on it.
He quickly straps me down to it using far more straps than Todd did, and there’s no wiggle room at all.
“If anything starts feeling numb or hurting in a bad way, tell me,” he says.
“Okay.”
