Caught: A Paranormal Romance (The Swamp Book 3)

by Rebecca Royce

  I nodded toward him. “Come with me.”

  He tilted his head. What did he understand in that head of his? How often did he stay like a human, and how much like this? I had a million questions, but right now, I had to get him out of this office before someone I worked with showed up and saw him. Then the reports of werewolves would start to appear here, and we could see them on the internet the next time we searched. Or worse, hunters not affiliated with Morgan would…

  I stared at him. Morgan was so strong psychically because he was an Alpha as a Loup.

  “Tell me something, buddy. Do you ever hear voices?”

  I didn’t expect him to be able to answer, and he didn’t. I wouldn’t be able to reach him like this, but my brother Jarret, the oddball we always sort of misunderstood, had been able to connect to Mac psychically. Was that just something he could do? We were going to find out.

  “Come on.” I pulled on the Loup. He was coming with me.

  We both stumbled. He at my unexpected movement, and me because he was a lot heavier than I’d anticipated. I really hoped I wasn’t going to have to knock him out and swing him over my shoulder, because as strong as I was, I wasn’t at all certain I could actually do that.

  He growled, and I responded, letting my wolf come into my voice box. I was tougher than he was. Better he understand that now.

  MacKenzie

  “I took your memories as a courtesy to you, and this is how you repay me? Using language like that?”

  I rolled my eyes. Whoever this guy was, he had no idea just how foul my language could get. Crap was a problem? Maybe I should go ahead and tell him to fuck himself.

  “What century were you born in? This is how people talk now. Get over yourself.” I looked away from him. I wasn’t going to be held hostage by some ambiguous set of rules I was pretty sure he was making up as he went along.

  He growled, which was a strange noise. Who growled? I opened my mouth to ask him that, when suddenly, my head wanted to explode. I grabbed on to it, pain rocking me forward, until I almost fell into the water. What in the ever-loving hell was going on? Ouch. Fuck me. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  Yes, I was going to use that word just as much as I wanted to, because fuck me, this hurt.

  But as it passed, I knew. I was MacKenzie Harper. Mate to Rainer, Preston, Jarret, and Anton. The only Omega born in a generation because of the man standing in front of me. He’d trapped me here with him.

  I held my head. Having my memories back wasn’t making this better. If anything, it was making it worse. Not that I’d tell Ross how I felt—yes, that was this sonofabitch’s name, I remembered it now. He was in control of this situation, and the only thing I could do was try to reason with him so that I could get out of it.

  This dock wasn’t real. The setting was something he projected into my head. To the best of my recollection, I was home, in the house that was falling down around us, in the swamp. My guys were with me. I’d rescued them. In fact, I’d saved everyone in need who had crossed my path. It had nearly killed me to do so.

  Whatever this was, it was what Ross did. He stole people psychically. The strongest Loup ever, or some crap, was now fucking around with me.

  “Why did you do this?”

  He growled. “Because you shouldn’t exist, and I’m trying to understand you.”

  I sighed. “I’m not really in the mood to go over the nature of existence with you. Why do any of us exist? Why are any of us here? What’s the point of life? Blah. Blah. Blah. No.”

  He pointed at me. “You know that’s not what I meant. I prevented Omegas from existing.”

  I took a deep breath. Yes, I knew exactly what he meant. “How did you do that?”

  “It’s not hard actually. When we are born, we connect psychically to our pack through the Alpha. It’s a simple matter of not letting the Omega connection take place.”

  I didn’t understand any of that. “Is that an Alpha thing? The ability to feel that connection?”

  “It is.” He sighed like he was bored. “Like you connect. Don’t expect to understand it. You’re not an Alpha. I don’t presume to know how it feels to be an Omega.”

  Well, that was something. He was sounding…reasonable. “An Alpha who became a Loup. Is that it?”

  “Yes. It happens. I know people think that it doesn’t, but an Alpha can get lost, even as they run a pack. An Alpha can get lost to the madness.”

  Yes, but an Alpha should have had a pack to notice. An Alpha should have had someone summon an Omega if they didn’t have one in the pack. An Alpha shouldn’t have been able to run amok like this without someone getting him some help before it happened.

  Why and how did this take place?

  I didn’t have an Omega I could ask. Of course it would be really helpful to see the old woman from my dreams—who may or may not have been a dead Omega—talking to me right now. Not that I thought that might happen. Ross was clearly controlling my mind.

  “What is the plan here? Trap me in here with you indefinitely until I perish? Seems a little beneath you.” I knew I should have been controlling my temper, but so far, I wasn’t having any luck with it. My fingers tingled. I was going to explode with anger. What would the guys tell me to do? They weren’t real breathe-and-relax people. We were werewolves, and this was bullshit.

  Ross’ eyes flared. “Do you actually think you can win here? Do you actually think that you could beat me in some kind of fight in a world that I am literally controlling?”

  I guessed I hadn’t done a wonderful job of hiding my feelings. Or maybe he could smell it. I didn’t seem to have any of my wolf senses, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t have some. I stood, staring him in the eyes as best I could, despite the fact that he was significantly taller than me. “You’re a Loup. I could help you with that, but I don’t think I’m going to because you’re an asshole. And I think it might be better for the world that you die. I don’t care how rich you are. How powerful you’ve made yourself. You’re clearly just an Alpha whose pack didn’t care about him enough to keep him alive.”

  He growled, this time, a true wolf sound. Yeah…he had some werewolf ability. “How dare you speak to me like that? I could drown you in the lake.”

  Could he? I supposed it was time to find out. I shoved him, just as hard as I could. His eyes widened. He hadn’t expected that. I did it again while he was surprised, and this time, he stumbled backwards.

  Straight into the water.

  Never had the sound of a splash ever felt so good.

  Jarret

  “You want me to do what with this Loup?” I stared at the scene in front of me. My brother Preston was holding a Loup’s hand on our front porch as though the man was a small child he was worried was about to dart into traffic.

  Preston’s annoyance was an acrid smell that made me want to gag. When Pres got upset, he really ran with the emotion, and maybe it was the little brother in me that never wanted to make him mad, but I always wanted to do anything to not turn his annoyance into anger. I was bigger than him when we were werewolves, but he was meaner than me, hands down.

  Still, I wasn’t going to be bullied into… I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do with that sick man he should not have brought anywhere near the house where our sick mate suffered upstairs.

  “I want you to get in his head, use the psychic link Morgan has over all Loups, follow it, and break the link to Mac.”

  Yeah…that’s what he said when he arrived. I looked at Miranda, and then Rainer, to see if either of them followed what he said any better than I did, but both were silent. They were pissed at each other. I could smell that, too. Sometimes, my nose was a real burden. Humans didn’t know how lucky they had it.

  “How am I going to do that?” I rubbed the back of my neck. I’d do whatever Kenzie needed, but it really sounded like Preston might have lost his mind.

  He waved his hand in the air. “You just mind melded with Mac. Do that again.”

  Oh, that was where he
’d gotten the idea. “Mind melded? Like Spock? From Star Trek?”

  “Sure. Whatever. I didn’t watch the show. Pointy ears. That’s what I remember from just fandom stuff.”

  I did watch the show. A lot. I loved it. But I was going to leave this alone, because arguing with Pres when he was like this was like hitting my head against a brick wall repeatedly. “Preston—”

  “Hold on,” Rainer interrupted. “This is a really good idea.”

  Preston nodded fast. “See? I knew it was.”

  “No doubt, it’s a wonderful idea,” I agreed. “Problem is, I don’t know how to do that. I don’t think it was me who made that happen, per se. It was Kenzie. Our Omega mate, who is amazing. She did it. I went along for the ride.” Rainer rocked back on his feet. His thinking pose. Uh-oh. No. “Rainer?”

  He held my gaze, and I couldn’t look away. “Here’s the thing…I think you can do this.”

  “Have you all lost it?” Where was Anton? He was reasonable. He’d at least be able to see they’d gone off the deep end. Why not ask me to shift into an alligator? I’d probably sooner be able to do that than this.

  Rainer took a step toward me. “Listen…one of the last coherent things that our mate knew was that she had lost her Omega powers. They were gone. Stolen by the piece of shit who’s doing this to all of us.”

  I waited, but he didn’t continue. “And?”

  “If she has lost her powers, then she didn’t draw you into where she was. No way could MacKenzie do that. Not if she’s powerless.”

  I walked to the window. “Maybe she only thinks she’s powerless.”

  “I think I’m going to trust our mate to know if she has her Omega abilities or not.” Rainer snorted. “And spare you her wrath by not telling her that you suggested she didn’t know herself.”

  I rubbed my arms. “Rainer, you know that’s not what I’m doing.”

  “No, what you’re doing is negating the idea that you have the ability to do this. I get it. Not a traditional wolf power. But it’s yours. And there is lots of precedent for it. This is a threat. You’re a high up beta in my pack. You could be Alpha if I weren’t here.”

  I snorted. “I could never be Alpha.”

  “You could, but that isn’t for me to tell you. Besides, I don’t need you to get all growly and challenge me right now. Do it later. Fuck. He’s a threat. You can help eliminate that threat. That’s what enforcers do. That’s how pack works. We all have gifts. They come from our wolves. Yours might be able to connect to other wolves differently. I am asking you to use it.”

  I ran a hand through my hair. “What was it that Gus used to call me? Problematic. That’s always what I am, right? Even as a wolf, I have to be an oddball.”

  Rainer put his hand on my shoulder. I didn’t know why, but the touch helped. Maybe that was a wolf thing, too. Just because I could now shift didn’t mean that I understood everything that came with it. We should all have had pack instruction as children, and instead, we’d been too busy suppressing our very instincts because of this fuckin’ Loup who now had my girl.

  “Gus doesn’t have a way with words. Whatever he meant by that, I am grateful for whatever you can do. Okay? I don’t find it odd. I mean…Anton wrote books with hidden clues in them. None of us are exactly normal, right? But I know that in the past, there were things that everyone could do. That’s what makes us unique. That’s what I need from you. What makes you, you.” He paused. “That’s what MacKenzie needs.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “That’s dirty pool right there, Rainer. Using her at the end like this to get me to agree. Fine. Yes, I’ll try. But I don’t know how I’m going to do it. I held Kenzie and sort of pleaded with her to let me in.”

  Preston grinned. “Well, come give big boy here a hug. Let’s see if that works.”

  Fuck my life.

  Chapter 4

  Rainer

  I knew I was asking a lot of Jarret. Sure, little brother, go ahead and make a psychic connection with the Loup. No big deal. Just get right on that. How was he supposed to do that? I had a houseful of older werewolves, and there wasn’t one—including Miranda, who stared at the three of us with the Loup like we’d all grown a second head—that I’d trust to instruct me on anything.

  Why? Well, the problem was two-fold. First, the ones who signed the Accord and forced us into submission had all become weak in my eyes. Even my own parents. We never should have been in this situation. How was I to lead? Well, I certainly couldn’t learn that from my parents. My biological father was gone now, and much as I loved Kevin, and would mourn him every day for the rest of my life, he’d been pivotal in the Accords, so sad about Anton being taken, he’d led us straight into self-destruction and not even seen it.

  We were all of us flawed. I didn’t expect perfection from any living creature. But they had fucked this up big time, and now it was my woman and my family who had to fix this somehow.

  “Can I speak to you?” It was Miranda.

  I shook my head. “No.”

  I didn’t need wolf senses to know that pissed her off. She was strong, but I’d discovered I was stronger. She was in my house. Here, she would do as I wanted, and I didn’t wish to hear from her right now. My heart was too angry. I wouldn’t say or do anything productive, and she had nothing to teach me right now. Miranda had opted not to have her pack sign the Accords. I’d give her credit for that, but her Omega had died. Mine was not going to do that. She didn’t know how to save MacKenzie any more than I did. In fact, she probably knew less. She’d let her sister die.

  She stormed from the room.

  “If you’re not careful, she’s going to take her pack and go home.” Preston raised his eyebrows, the Loup he held not seeming to follow our conversation as he stared dazedly at all of us.

  I shook my head. “She won’t. She’s fascinated with this, and we have the only living Omega. She’s going to need MacKenzie for her pack. If she takes off now, she’s screwing herself.”

  “You seem…frustrated with her,” Jarret supplied.

  Now was not the time for me to lose my temper with them, too. “I am. Frustrated is not the right word. I find her presence to be jarring and disconcerting. And… I don’t want to discuss this right now.” I nodded toward the Loup. “Jarret, your turn.”

  I didn’t need them to tell me that it was hard for two Alphas to be in the same room together. I was fully aware. Unlike them, I could remember a lot about pack before our parents and their generation fucked it up. Cristian never liked to leave the house more than he had to, lest he accidentally run into another Alpha. And he had followed Kevin’s lead as their true Alpha. So it was very complicated and bound to get worse for my brothers soon, as their natural Alpha abilities were all showing up. One of them might very well challenge me, and I might let them have it if it meant I could love on MacKenzie all day.

  But I didn’t have time to become a shut-in right then. And this was my house, so if anyone was going to be uncomfortable here, it could be Miranda, not me.

  My second youngest brother approached the Loup. A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Really? I have to hug him?”

  “I won’t let him hurt you. He’s actually pretty…docile.” Preston looked between the Loup and Jarret.

  Jarret growled, a strange sound from him. He was the gentlest of us all. People might think that was Anton, but it absolutely was not. The silence lent itself to that impression, but it was wrong. Jarret was the least likely to get angry or violent.

  When he spoke, it was through gritted teeth. “I’m not afraid. I just don’t go around hugging people. Not regularly, okay?”

  I didn’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to hug the Loup either. “Maybe just put your hand on him or something.”

  He shot me a look that spoke of pain later. I almost smiled. I’d take what he dished out, gladly, if this worked.

  Jarret put his arms around the Loup. He winced like it pained him, and I was sure it did, from the smell alone. That man needed a ba
th, and he needed one yesterday.

  I wasn’t volunteering for the job.

  “Nothing’s happening.” Jarret stated the obvious.

  Yes, okay, that was true. “Are you trying?”

  “I told you that I don’t have a clue how I did that earlier. It’s not like a skill I have. Paint walls, inserts oneself into a…”

  He stopped talking, and suddenly, my brother wasn’t there anymore. He was present in body only. The Loup’s eyes closed, and it was everything I could do to not rush forward and rip Jarret backward. That was my little brother. I’d pulled him out of the swamp once when he’d almost drowned. It was hard to not do the same right here. Of course, it was like I’d pushed him into the water this time.

  Preston met my gaze. “It’s okay.”

  I hoped he was right and concerned he’d read me so well. It was the scent thing these days. I had to get used to it, again. Too many years not smelling anything of significance from forcing our bodies to pretend to be human, and I was out of practice with how to deal with everyone smelling every emotion I had. Of course, Pres was out of the habit of minding his own fucking business and not commenting on everything he could smell.

  Jarret gasped and fell backwards. I darted forward and managed to catch him in time so he didn’t hit the ground

  “Jarret?” Even a human would hear the sound of my concern at this moment. My little brother had just collapsed. “Speak to me.”

  He rubbed his face and then laughed. Shit. What had happened? He didn’t smell like a Loup, but had I just infected him with some kind of madness?

  “That was…awful.” Jarret shuddered and then pulled out of my arms. “I could see a lot of this guy’s memories. He had a whole life. He was an electrician. Couldn’t handle The Accords. It was hard to get through just being stuck with him.”

  I sighed. So I’d put him through that, and it hadn’t worked. “Sorry it was a waste of your abilities, but at least we know you can do it.”