Page 132 of Broken Bonds

I return to the house, make a fresh pot of coffee, and when I hear Jax’s truck, I go to the front door and open it.

He doesn’t say a word as he follows me through the living room and to the kitchen, where I point him to the coffeepot and the clean mug I set out for him.

Once we’re both sitting at my kitchen table, he speaks first. “I take it from the smell in here that there has been a ‘development’?”

I nod. “Yeah,” I quietly say. “I know you said you’d prefer I didn’t, but?—”

“You fucked him.” He doesn’t phrase it as a question.

I nod. “Multiple times this morning.” I force a smile. “Do I get credit for holding out until this morning? And it was mutual. I’ll take the blame, because I’m older, but one minute we were standing there, and the next minute we were climbing all over each other. It wasn’t planned. It just…happened.”

He blows out a soft breath and nods, but I don’t sense anger in him.

Thankfully.

“Before we go any further,” Jax says, “I need to update you about my morning. And as your pack Alpha, I demand your secrecy unless or until I give you the okay to say something about it.”

“Yes, sir,” the words come automatically. He is my best friend, but from the moment I and the rest of the pack took a knee to him when Mike handed control to him, being my pack Alpha takes precedent.

As he tells me about his meeting and phone calls, my stomach tightens and a cold, hard ball forms deep in the pit of it.

He studies me. “If your next question is if I’m mad at you, no, I’m not. We’re long past that now. This might make things easier. Mal has to stay, but we have to take immediate action. Shawn’s working on that. I’ll call him shortly and have him come over with what he’s found out so far.” He studies me with those gorgeous ice-blue eyes of his. “I know I asked you before and you couldn’t give me a firm answer, but I’m asking you again now and demanding an answer. Is Mal your mate?”

I nod. “We have a bond, Jax. We can talk to each other silently. I honestly don’t know how the fuck elks claim mates, or if they even claim mates. I don’t know! I’m the only one here, and no, I am not asking Mom.”

That earns me the slightest smile. “Okay. He feels the same way?”

“He says he does.” I slowly spin my coffee mug in my hands on the table. “He thinks it is. He says he loves me, too. I’m terrified.”

Jax doesn’t interrupt me. I have a nervous, uncomfortable need to fill the silence because I know he won’t speak until he’s ready. “What if he meets someone and has that…that claiming urge you and Shawn did?”

Jax reaches across the table and lays a hand on my arm, his gaze steadily meeting mine. “There are a lot of things in this world, in our immediate future, that you will likely need to fear, but I seriously doubt Mal’s feelings for you are one of them. He’s a wolf, but he’s an omega. I’m reasonably sure actual talking hasn’t happened this morning between you two, but you’re a damned strong beta, nearly an Alpha. He might be a horny pup, but being a wolf, I also suspect if he didn’t sincerely think he has a bond with you that this”—he circles his finger in the air, indicating the thick scent of our sex lingering in the house—“wouldn’t have happened this morning.”

“I hope you’re right.”

He sits back and picks up his phone, calling Shawn to get him heading our way. Once Jax ends the call, he sets his phone on the table. “Is Mal next door?”

“Yeah. I asked him to stay there until I talk with you.”

“All right. We need to tell him everything. Let’s wait until Shawn’s here, then we’ll get Mal and break the news.”

“What if he says no?”

Jax looks grim. “He’s an adult. If he says no, then he can’t stay here because I won’t risk a conflict. I can’t force you to stay, either. But if anyone catches scent of you two right now? They’d still know he’s Sterling’s son. The good news is if he agrees, also based on what I’m smelling now? I think it’ll work. We can ask for volunteers for the milker if they don’t want to help fuck him, use that to smear on him, and feed it to him. If he really loves you? If he really thinks you’re his mate? If you tell him you’re both staying, he’ll agree without hesitation because he won’t want to leave your side.”

I consider that. “You know how I always joke about how I hate that you’re always right?”

“Yeah?”

“Jesusfuck, Jax, I hope to fucking hell you are right.”

“That makes two of us.”

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Shawn

What fresh Hell is this?