Page 139 of Broken Bonds

Jax kisses Shawn and heads for the front door. I retake my seat at the kitchen table and blow out a long breath. “I guess I’m just waiting for instructions.”

Shawn props his elbows on the table and leans forward. “We’ll need a course not too long, but long enough you can get ahead of Jax and beat him to the finish line to grab Mal. Meaning we’ll need to delay Jax’s start somehow without him ripping anyone’s head off in the process. You can’t outrun him shifted in a sprint, but I’m afraid to make the course too long, or we risk Mal wearing out and dropping out of the headspace we need him in.”

“Why does this not fill me with happy feelings, Shawn?”

“Because you’ll have to challenge him for pack Alpha. I’m talking you need to do whatever chest-pounding, head-butting bullshit you can to fully trigger his Alpha into emerging ready to throw paws. Mal needs to see that side of Jax and feel terrified that Jax will reach him first instead of you. Plus, I need to make Jax jealous as hell and make him think I’m challenging him, too.”

I snort. “He’ll know that’s bullshit.”

“I don’t mean for pack Alpha—I mean, I have to convince him I want to fuck Mal before he does, or maybe even that I want you to fuck me before Jax does.”

“I don’t understand.”

“He’ll want to make me submit because I’m his mate, meaning he’ll go after me first and knot with me.” He shuffles his notes around until he finds what he’s looking for. “We will—hopefully—trigger Mal’s first heat. For that we’ll strap him to a frame and give him the worst case of blue-balls in history. I’ll help with that. Simultaneously, you’ll rile Jax to trigger his Alpha. I’m hoping with both of us pushing his buttons at the same time, Jax will be able to mentally let go and get into it, at least for a little while. If we can keep Jax deep in Alpha mode long enough, it should terrify Mal and make him think it’s real, once his heat starts.”

“Can we strap Jax to a frame?”

He considers it. “That would solve the problem of giving you a head start. Do you think you can physically overpower Jax if neither of you are shifted?”

“Huh?”

“To get him strapped down?”

I consider it, then grin. “No, but I can get a helping hand from a little friend.” I stand and step onto the back porch, where I know I have one hanging on the wall, and bring it inside and hand it to Shawn.

His face screws up in confusion. “What the fuck is that?”

“It’s a cattle prod. I rarely have to use them, but the last time I needed one, one of my bulls got loose and made it all the way up here, and I didn’t have one handy. So now I keep one up here.”

He chuckles as he returns it. “That’ll sure piss him off, regardless.”

“Bonus.” I set it aside. “If we work together, we can drop a loop of chain around him before he realizes what’s going on, pull it tight, and bind him to the old frame with his arms against his body and his legs straight, not spread out.”

He thinks about it and slowly nods. “He won’t be able to shift and get out of it that way if it’s tight enough. Do you have thick tow straps or something? Maybe we can loop them around him and the frame, shoulders to knees, have a guy on each end keeping them pulled tight. Then, when it’s time to let him loose, they can drop the ends and get out of his way while he wriggles out from the straps and the chain and comes after us.”

“I’ll figure that out later tonight,” I say. “And I’ll plot the course. How will Mal know to follow it?”

“Use a paint sprayer wand and neon paint. If you don’t have one, I’m pretty sure I have one at the house…”

We spend the next hour planning the logistics, coming up with a list of names for the safety team, and planning two sets of mating heat helpers for Shawn and Mal after the main event. I look at all our notes, and while this is not how I want to do things, I’m forced to agree with Shawn that, considering the tight deadline facing us, this is the best way.

Well, it’s our best chance of doing it successfully.

“Now what?” I ask.

He stands, stretches, and gathers his notes. “I get to go on a scavenger hunt. I have a lot of the components on hand that I’ll need for the herbal mixes, but I’ll have to run to Tampa for the rest.”

“When are we doing this?”

“Ideally, tomorrow afternoon. It might take as long as a couple of hours after I dose him to see if I’ve got the mixture right. I would rather not do this in the dark, and there’s no way we can pull everything together in time to do it today. I’ll call you once I’m back so we can discuss logistics. But I mean it—don’t tell Mal anything. Not even the timeline. If we can ramp up his anxiety, that works in our favor.”

“Okay. What about…” Well, that’s a moot point. “Sleeping together?”

Another of his trademark smirks. “Fuck him? Sure, but I would send him back to his place tonight to sleep alone.”

I don’t want him to sleep alone. Hell, I don’t want to sleep alone. “Why?”

“Again, anxiety.” He taps his temple. “The brain is not only the biggest sex organ, it’s also the fastest way to fuck ourselves up emotionally. Anything he can imagine happening will likely be a lot scarier than what will actually happen. He knows we have a few days, so if we’re doing this tomorrow, that’ll immediately make him nervous when we spring it on him. You and I have to play our roles to the best of our abilities. If we do? Well, hopefully we all get happily ever afters. Oh, and the main reason is that I suspect you have no clue how to conceal your thoughts from him yet.”