Page 46 of Broken Bonds

“We should confiscate his phone,” I say. “Not if it’s a burner, but any his father might be able to track.”

“Good point. I can send it to a friend of mine to see if anyone comes sniffing around after it’s powered up.”

“Yeah. That’ll tell us if anyone’s searching for him.”

“Let me text Todd to tell him not to turn them on,” Jax says.

“And make sure he hasn’t already,” I add. “If he has, we need to know immediately so we can plan.”

Jax grabs his phone and shoots off a text, I’m assuming to Todd. “Funny thing is, in the campaign information I’ve seen, his father doesn’t mention Mal. Or that he himself is a shifter.”

“Not illegal to withhold that information,” I say. “Plenty of shifters don’t publicly reveal their status.”

“But they’re not running for office,” Jax says. “This guy is. Meaning he lied on official FEC paperwork, and that is highly illegal.”

“Where are you going with this?”

He shrugs. “If Randolph Sterling wants to cause trouble, we can drop that he hasn’t disclosed his shifter status. I mean, it’s not a crime rising to the level of murder, but it’s damned sure disqualifying. Especially if it comes out he’s committed tax fraud.”

“How come no one else has pointed that out yet?” I ask.

“Anyone who knows is probably securely under his paw or on his payroll. Maybe both. Either way, we don’t want him poking around our pack. Depending on how the next couple of weeks go, I may opt to ship the pup out. Pops and Dad are in Colorado right now, I think. They can ask friends if we can rehome him with their pack.”

I consider it. “They do have a huge territory.”

“Yeah. Rugged. Lots of places to hide where even other shifters would have a damned difficult time finding him.”

“Probably wouldn’t hurt for us to buy more land around here,” I say. “I know we don’t ‘need’ it, but the larger the buffer, the safer we all are. Might as well pull the trigger on those parcels we’ve been looking at.”

He nods. “Very true. I might need to talk with the other packs sooner rather than later about formulating a tactical response plan. Sterling can cause a lot of trouble for us—shifters in general—if he decides to throw his weight around more than he already has.”

After dinner, I help Jax clean the kitchen and we retreat to the hot tub to snuggle without turning on the lights.

“I’m really sorry, babe.” He nuzzles the top of my head. “I fumbled this one big time. Thank you for forgiving me.”

Closing my eyes, I inhale and breathe him in. I mean, him and some chlorine from the steamy water bubbling around us.

But him.

“I need you to keep me in the loop, Jax. You can’t shut me out. We’re a team. And if you love and respect me, you’ll treat me like a partner, not like a fragile human who needs to be managed. All I want is the truth.”

When I lean in and kiss him, the world quickly falls away around us. I truly feel sorry for humans and shifters who don’t feel mate bonds. Jax and I aren’t perfect—as this incident proves—but when I can feel his heart and soul and every fiber of his being existing for me the way I can right now, it reminds me how blessed I am my path led here. Even with all the heartache I experienced, even the years of loneliness, the forced solitude.

Worth.

It.

I straddle his lap and drape my arms around his neck. Between us, his erection fully stiffens, and it only takes me a moment to impale myself to the root and set a slow, sultry rhythm that finishes hardening me.

Dark embers swirl in his blue gaze, starry midnight and far-away galaxies. His hands settle on my hips, fingers tensing and flexing, digging in a little in a pleasant way that always fires my need.

“You first,” he says, his deep voice vibrating through my chest in a husky rumble. “I want to feel you.”

It might take a little while because I already popped once, but I know how much he enjoys it.

I mean, obviously I do, too, but his looks are for me alone and something I never have to share. Jealousy isn’t something I feel very often, but in this way I never have to, because I know he’s all mine the way I’m all his where it counts. We’re joined at the souls and that thick tone, that needy, possessive, heated gaze boring through me—that’s only for me. It’s never the way he looks at or talks to anyone else.

Losing myself in my growing need and the way he starts urging me to ride him harder, faster, starts my climb. Every stroke of that magnificent cock of his perfectly glides over my sweet spot and he knows it.