Hidden: The Swamp

by Royce, Rebecca

  “You’ll never take her.” It was Jarret who spoke. He didn’t even smell scared. “Oh, you can shoot us. But not all of us. Not before some of us could take out some of you. Enough for Kenzie to get away. And you’ll be dead. You and your plans. All the things you said you did for all of us. Keeping us weak so that we’d be easy to take. Whatever you’re telling yourself. You sold us out. I don’t know if it was fear. I don’t know if it was greed, if you’re getting something from this, but all I know is you just shot my father in the head, took my brother from his fucking crib and permanently changed him, and even if it wasn’t you personally? You did it. And my love knew it the second she smelled you because she’s just that good.”

  That was a lot for Jarret to have said. My heart swelled. He really wasn’t scared. For all of his insecurity and worry, in this moment, he was as cool as I’d ever seen him.

  “Oh, you can’t get away. I’m sorry about that. But I don’t even really need the guns. I don’t even need the nifty little noisemaker. No, you see? The companies that have been taking us, working on us, using us? They’ve learned some things over the years.”

  Goosebumps broke out on my arms. I didn’t like his tone or how profound his scent had suddenly become. This was an important moment for this little man, and one he’d been waiting to reveal for some time. He’d had this inside of him for too long, and he was finally going to get to say it aloud.

  “One of the things they discovered about us didn’t surprise me at all. They explained it, and I think they thought I’d be surprised. But I wasn’t. It made such sense. In the end, it was all about the blood.”

  Well, I was glad that made sense to him because I was still clueless. It was Gus who finally spoke. “Blood? I think you might have us mixed up with a different monster myth. We don’t have that much to do with blood. Not really.”

  “Blood. Like family. Like pack. And the ways we’re all connected to each other. In the end, I won’t have to do a thing because you will do it for me. And the few of you who won’t? Well, there are guns.”

  He was delusional. There wasn’t a wolf in this room who would hurt anyone but Brennan and his sick crew of humans.

  “You see? We’ve always had an in to the powerful Lejeunes. Too important to take the Accords. Too proud to be members of the Council. The perfect, famous Lejeunes. Whatever name you take now, you’re still them. And all those years ago, I waited. I watched. I called them and told them it was time to go. That Aurora Lejeune, so sure of her place in the world, had left her children home alone. All those years ago… they took Anton.”

  He reached for my love, and Anton swatted the man’s hand away. “You may not know this? I mean, how could you, but all of these years? Silent. Hurting. Creative. Alone. Probably the smartest person in this room when it comes down to it. But unfortunately, all these years, you have ultimately belonged to us.”

  I could hardly breathe. I struggled in Preston’s hold. “Don’t touch him.”

  “All I have to do is turn him on. And then his blood will do the rest. All the people he shares blood with? All of them will do just as he does. We are pack after all. That’s the issue with the Omegas. You just do nothing right. We can’t have you here if you can’t obey. Anton here. He is going to give you to me. He’s going to turn you right on over.”

  Chapter 18

  Anton shot daggers with his eyes. If he could have burned Brennan to death from his glare alone, he would have done so. They stayed like that for a long second. Then Anton turned his head to look at me. I’d always been able to read him, to hear his thoughts, and now was no different. I didn’t know if it was a mate thing or an Anton thing. They weren’t wrong. He was exceptional.

  But then so were Rainer. Jarret. And Preston. If they couldn’t talk, I would be able to hear them, too. I could feel everything about them. There was something so fucking beautiful about that.

  I love you. I could hear him as clearly as though he’d spoken that. The emotion filled me up before cold infected my soul. He wasn’t saying that randomly. He was saying it because he thought he’d never get to say it again. Whatever nonsense Brennan spouted, Anton believed it. Which made it very likely not nonsense.

  “Anton.” I had to get to him. Preston held tight while I struggled in his grip. “Let me go. Let me…”

  Brennan pushed a button on his remote. The loud noise didn’t come back. Instead, everything seemed to go quiet. I could hear Preston’s breath in my ear. Rainer jumped to his feet. He rushed toward Anton. My youngest mate hardly seemed to notice. His gaze remained on Brennan. “When this is over, you will go back to them. To the men who made you like this. They’ve missed you all these years. You were so little. It only took them hours to do this.”

  My brother growled. “Leave him the fuck alone.”

  Brennan held up his hand. “You’re next. It’s convenient to have two of you in this room that belong to us.

  “Anton, get me the Omega. I want her mine or I want her dead. Those are your two options.” He looked over his shoulder. “I realize I’m going off book, but they’re going to kill her anyway. Now watch this.”

  The man holding the gun didn’t blink at Brennan. He kept his gun pointed at us.

  “Brother.” Rainer shook Anton’s arm. “Whatever it is, it’s nothing. Don’t let him talk to you about nonsense.”

  But that button had been pushed, and as I watched, all the life seemed to drain from Anton’s eyes. He stood there, but the bright, vibrant gaze, the one that let me hear his thoughts, was gone. Instead, he tilted his head, and his wolf appeared. But not the wolf I knew either.

  “Fuck.” My brother’s remark seemed accurate. They’d done something to Anton. He wasn’t here. Was that what my brother had meant about not being in control of his own thoughts?

  “Hold on, Anton. I want the Omega to see. How blood always plays out.”

  Aurora gasped, loudly, grabbing her head. Her tears abruptly stopped and the same… nothingness… took over her gaze.

  “His mother. No surprise. That’ll go first.” Brennan sounded downright gleeful. I growled. If Preston hadn’t been holding me, I’d have launched at him, consequences be damned. “And we’ve always suspected Gus was his father. Were we right?”

  Gus groaned, and like Aurora, he was quickly on the ground. We were all frozen, watching. This was really happening. Some things seemed too surreal to actually be true and yet I viewed this with my own eyes.

  Rainer grabbed his head. He doubled over, his gaze met mine and then over my head. “Preston, get away from her. I don’t know what’s about to happen. But if it’s me… it’s you, too.”

  “And there go the brothers.”

  Preston let go of me a second before he also writhed in pain. Jarret stumbled backward, hitting the couch and falling over the back of it. As Jarret went, a second later Brian hit the ground. It was moving, blood-to-blood. Son to mother to father to brothers to father. I broke out in a sweat. Oh fuck me, this couldn’t be happening.

  “Preston…” He was closest to me. “Don’t do this. Whatever it is. They don’t get to tell you what you’re thinking… what you’re doing.”

  My hands burned. In fact, my whole body did. I reached for Preston, but my brother yanked me back. Where had he come from?

  Brennan’s eyes widened. “You should be controlled, too. You’re ours.”

  “Not anymore, motherfucker.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Brennan yelled as Cristian launched himself at him. He didn’t have a blood son here. Rainer had been Kevin’s son, who was dead. Preston had been Joe’s, also gone, from the fight to recapture Anton. Jarret was Brian’s. They were both taken. Anton had belonged to Gus. They were taken from me.

  All of them were going and there was nothing to do but fight for our lives to get out of here. Those being controlled all turned to me.

  Brennan got Cristian off of him for half a second. “Tranq the ones left and for god’s sake all of you get the Omega or kill her.”r />
  My brother hit the floor as a tranquilizer whizzed past him, crashing into the fireplace. He darted to his feet, shifting as he did. Agustin charged the door. My heart was in my stomach as each of my guys and their parents shifted seemingly at the same time. They only had eyes for me, and it wasn’t with their usual adoration.

  Agustin leaped at the man blocking the door, tearing his throat out. I couldn’t give this any more thought. If I stayed, they were taking me or killing me. I was certain of it, and I didn’t think my begging or appealing to them to remember who they were or who I was would work right at that second. Agustin turned back, growling at me to follow him. I shifted into my wolf form, running after him as fast I could.

  “Stop her.”

  I guessed my loves and their family were taking a little longer adjusting to their mind-controlled state than Brennan would have preferred. Guns were being fired. Tranqs for the other fathers. Noises sounded behind me as I ran with Agustin out into the woods, the same to our left.

  I could smell him… it was Anton who had chased me outside. My love. But also somehow not. He didn’t smell right, and I didn’t have to turn to know what I’d find. Fuck me. He’d catch me no problem, and Agustin was still too new a wolf to count on in a fight. I didn’t even know if Agustin could beat Anton in a fight. This was all lunacy. I shifted back and jumped into Gus’ car. It was such a shitty truck, half falling apart, but hell, it got him where he was going.

  He never locked it and thankfully had done just what I remembered him doing the last time I was in it—he’d left the keys in the ignition. I guessed he didn’t care if anyone stole it which was great since I was going to be doing just that. Agustin leaped in next to me, and I took off like I had some semblance of an idea of where I was going.

  I didn’t.

  My brother shifted back, grabbing his head. “Fuck. The haze.”

  I grabbed a blanket from the backseat and threw it at him. “It’s the new wolf problem. Close your eyes. Pass out if you need to.” I couldn’t make him feel better right now. I was too busy gunning it out of the area on roads I’d never personally driven on and checking my rearview mirror to see if anyone chased me. So far no one else was on the road. That didn’t mean that they weren’t in the woods. We were wolves. I’d not done so yet, but I imagined we could run a very long time chasing after cars. I took a deep breath. Truth was, I had no idea if Anton or any of them were there at all.

  I’d just left them. Tears flooded my eyes and down my cheeks. My brother reached out and grabbed my arm. “I’m so sorry, Kenzie. I don’t… I mean, I couldn’t have imagined…”

  I nodded. “Thanks for saving me.”

  “Stop. You’re the one who saved me. I can’t… They took your mates just from their hold on Anton.”

  I’d been there. I’d seen it. I didn’t know what I would have said to Agustin because when I finally felt like I might be able to actually form words, he was out cold. I drove and drove and drove. Highways. I pointed Gus’ car straight until there was no way any wolves could follow me in wolf form. There was nowhere they could have run to chase me. At some point I had my brother hold the wheel so I could put on some of the extra clothes Gus seemed to have in the car. They were too big on me, and I suspected they were meant to fit my brother since they did. He’d been prepared for shifting werewolves. Still, I was at least dressed.

  I drove until we were almost out of gas and Agustin woke up, blurry but okay. How many hours? I didn’t know. I just kept going because my entire world had shattered and what was a person supposed to do when everything they’d circled their life around was gone? I was an Omega, and my mates were gone. What was I supposed to do?

  We stopped at a hotel. I didn’t have cash, but once again, Gus came to my rescue. I owed that man. If I ever got out of this situation and somehow managed to save everyone, I would pay him back. I used the credit card and then chewed on my bottom lip as we walked quickly to the room we rented. This might not be safe. If Brennan was to be believed, and I did think he’d told me the truth, these were very rich men after us with a vendetta coupled with some kind of agenda I didn’t yet grasp

  They could probably trace Gus’ credit card. Okay. I had to assume they weren’t that organized yet. Maybe I was being too optimistic. But I was going to go with that for now. They knew I had Gus’ truck. That Agustin was with me. I’d use the card tonight and maybe tomorrow before I never did again.

  My brother rubbed his eyes. “Give it to me. That card we’re using. I’ll go get us food.”

  I nodded. “Okay. Then we have to talk. Be careful.”

  “I won’t leave you, little sister. I promise. We’re going to sort this out together.”

  I believed him. That didn’t mean we didn’t need to be careful. Once again, I found myself with no clothes or stuff. I took off the borrowed ones and walked into the bathroom. The motel was cheap, but it had hot water. I let that roll over me, washing away my terror, I hoped.

  I had to think. I was bright enough. I could do this. Figure things out and save my loves, my family. I’d brought back Agustin. I could save the others. Not Kevin. I let out a sob. The guys, when they were back, when they were clear, they were going to be devastated. I hadn’t known him, but I could smell their love for him. He’d been everyone’s leader in that family.

  Oh, poor Aurora. I gripped the side of the shower.

  Okay. Okay. There were things to do. We needed to get rid of Gus’ truck. They’d start looking for that, and I had to assume given the rich people after us that they’d have resources to check things like cameras and satellites. Maybe I was overthinking this but that was what I was going to do from this moment on—overthink everything.

  I had to save my guys. That meant I needed somewhere to do that and also to keep moving so I couldn’t be caught. How to do both of those things? I didn’t have a clue. We needed help. Werewolves. Where were there werewolves? Where were the other places that we’d gone off to? I had to remember my history. I had to…

  The pain hit me hard. My neck and chest burned. I cried out, falling out of the shower as I crawled along the floor to the sink with the mirror. What was happening? What was… I stared in horror after hoisting myself up to the mirror so I could see.

  My marks. The bites my loves had given me were going away, healing. They weren’t supposed to do that. Permanent mate marks. Always with me. But no, they were… disappearing. What did that mean? I touched the mirror then my neck, my chest. Piece-by-piece they vanished. That had to mean the mating bond was gone, that somehow it had been broken. That my mates were gone.

  Whatever I’d held onto that this could easily be fixed disappeared. I pressed my head against the cool porcelain of the sink.

  That was when the emptiness hit. The last time I’d felt like this I’d begged Rainer to fill me, to make it better. He’d done just that. But that was gone now, like my marks, like my mates. My brother burst through the door

  “Kenzie?” He knelt next to me, bringing a towel. “What is it?”

  I was a mateless Omega. Alone. Empty. Hunted. And there wasn’t anywhere I could go that I could stay hidden.

  I stared up at my brother while he handed me the towel. “Agustin, things might get very bad for me for a while. Being an Omega… it hurts. I’ve been lucky thus far. When I come out the other end of what I think is going to happen, I’m going to be okay. Strong. But tonight? I’m not.”

  My brother nodded fast. “Okay. What do you need?”

  I swallowed. “Revenge.”

  Afterword

  * * *

  Dearest Reader,

  Please don’t fret. Pursued (The Swamp #2) is coming very fast. Please join my reader group on Facebook if you haven’t already to get more news on this release (https://www.facebook.com/groups/rebeccasrandomness) or sign up for my newsletter at www.rebeccaroyce.com .

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  Hugs and Best Wishes, Rebecca.

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  About the Author

  As a teenager, I would hide in my room to read my favorite romance novels when I was supposed to be doing my homework.

  I am the mother of three adorable boys and I am fortunate to be married to my best friend. I live in Austin Texas where I am determined to eat all the barbecue in town.

  I am in love with science fiction, fantasy, and the paranormal and try to use all of these elements in my writing. I've been told I'm a little bloodthirsty so I hope that when you read my work you'll enjoy the action packed ride that always ends in romance. I love to write series because I love to see characters develop over time and it always makes me happy to see my favorite characters make guest appearances in other books.

  In my world anything is possible, anything can happen, and you should suspect that it will.

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  Other books by Rebecca Royce…

  Wings of Artemis

  Kidnapped By Her Husbands https://amzn.to/2BQdUxy