Page 117 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

Farrah followed behind her, looking harried and ready to claw someone’s eyes out. She’d only been in Ashton’s life a short time, but if there was one thing to be said about my sister, it was that she was viciously loyal. She already saw him as part of her family and wanted blood for what had happened. I was glad she was on our side. She could be terrifying when she wanted to be.

“Spill it, Cole,” she said as she sat down on the couch. “What do you have planned for this prick?”

“Have a seat,” I said to Avery and Trent.

Avery gave me a faint smile, which made my heart leap. I kept telling myself that things weren’t irrevocably shattered in our relationship. We were both stressed and upset, but there was still love there, and as long as we both wanted it, we had a chance.

“All right,” I began. “We know what Kyle wants. He told Avery he… uh, well, he wants her as his mate.” The very thought of that made me and my wolf both nearly lose focus, but I managed to rein in my anger to keep going. “He’ll probably contact her soon to find out what she’s decided.”

“Most likely,” Trent said.

“So, we wait for that call. Avery tells him that she’s agreeing to the request. That she’ll be his mate.”

“Ugh,” Avery muttered in disgust.

“I know,” I said, giving her a small smile. “You’ll tell him that you want to see Ashton first. Proof of safety. You’ll have him meet you somewhere secluded.”

“I’m with you so far,” Farrah said, but she was giving me a weird look, like she was worried about what I was going to say next.

“When Kyle reaches the meeting point, Avery will be in a car. Windows down so he can see into the car as he pulls up. What he won’t know is that Trent and I will be crouched down low in the floorboards. When Kyle steps out with Ashton, Farrah will approach from the forest, and we’ll take him by surprise. He’ll probably only have another one or two guys with him. When all three of us attack, he and his men should be too overwhelmed to put up much of a fight of it.”

I looked at my sister. “Farrah, you’ll be the one to swoop in and grab Ashton. If he’s able to control his shift, even better. You two can transform and run to safety.”

Now I looked at Avery. “Avery, as soon as the fighting starts, you get your ass into the car and bolt. Leave Kyle and his men to meand Trent. Once he and his guys are taken care of, we’ll meet back up here.”

Finished, I took a breath and sat back to see what they thought. I’d expected some worried looks, but mostly I assumed they’d agree it was the best plan. Instead, all three stared back at me with incredulous looks on their faces. My skin grew hot and uncomfortable under their scrutiny, and I had to fight not to adjust my position or fidget.

“That’s the plan?” Farrah said, her face an unmistakable mask of derision.

“Yeah,” I said, suddenly defensive. “It’s the best possible plan of attack.”

“That doesn’t exactly sound safe,” Avery said hesitantly.

That felt a bit like a gut punch. I turned to Trent, hoping my best friend might defend me. Instead, he looked even more dubious than the others.

Trent cleared his throat. “I planned a lot of operations back in the service. None of what you just said sounds good to me.”

My embarrassment quickly turned to anger. “What part? Tell me what’s so bad about it?”

Trent took a deep, steadying breath, then the words tumbled from his mouth in rapid succession, each sentence attempting to knock my feet out from under me.

“First of all, Kyle’s a shifter, too. He’ll scent us and know Avery isn’t alone. Even if we somehow got lucky and he was upwind of us, he’d still assume she’d have backup or help. He’s not dumb. Also, you assume he’ll only have a couple guys, but there’s nothing to say he won’t have more. For all we know, he’ll havesome extra people arrive at the meeting location early. As soon as you or I jump from the car, a sniper might blow both of our brains out.

“Then there’s Farrah’s part of the plan. What if Kyle has Ashton restrained in some way? She can’t carry a kid of Ashton’s size. He’s new to shifting, too. There’s no way to know if he’ll be able to focus and change under that kind of fear and stress, so shifting to get out of his bindings is a no-go. Boom, Farrah is stuck trying to untie Ashton and takes a bullet to the head,followedby your son.”

Trent sighed. “I like the idea of Avery getting out fast, but what happens if Kyle has a guy ready for that? What if he has the exit road blocked? Now he’s got her and your son. That leaves you and me with no backup and no reserves if we run into trouble—ifwe even survive getting out of the car. If our brains aren’t splattered by some hidden gunman, it’ll be you and me against however many guys Kyle might have. No matter how I look at it, this is a bloodbath waiting to happen, and not for Kyle and his men. For us.”

Trent finished and sighed again before shaking his head sadly. “Sorry, Cole, but that’s how I see it playing out.”

“He’s right,” Farrah said. “There’s too much left to chance. It’s like flipping a coin. If we lose, we’re all dead, and Kyle has what he wanted to begin with.”

I wasn’t officially the alpha. Not yet, anyway, but that didn’t make this any easier. I thought it was a good plan—the best plan I could come up with in the time we had—yet everyone was poking holes in it, and none of them looked like they thought it would work. Was it risky? Sure, but my son was in danger. Wecouldn’t sit back and do nothing. Even if it meant I was hurt or killed, it would be a price worth paying to get Ashton back alive.

Avery had been mostly quiet, though from the look on her face, I could see she was as skeptical of the plan as the others. She pinned me with those dark, baggy, sleepless eyes.

“Let me guess,” I sighed, a bitter note to my voice that I couldn’t help. “You think the plan is shit, too?”

Avery jerked her gaze away from me as if she was embarrassed. “I hate to say it, but I agree with them, Cole.”

---