Caught: A Paranormal Romance (The Swamp Book 3) Read online

  Caught

  The Swamp #3

  Rebecca Royce

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by fines and federal imprisonment.

  Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Caught (The Swamp #3)

  Copyright @ 2020 by Rebecca Royce

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-951349-44-8

  Print ISBN: 978-1-951349-51-6

  Cover art by Syneca at Orignal Syn

  Content Editing: Heather Long

  Copy Editing: Jennifer Leigh Jones at Bookends Editing

  Final Proof Editing: Meghan Leigh Daigle at Bookish Dreams Editing

  Formatting: Ripley Proserpina

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Rebecca Royce

  www.rebeccaroyce.com

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Foreword

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Other books by Rebecca Royce…

  For Ripley Proserpina. -- I didn’t kill off MacKenzie’s whole family because you asked me not to.

  Foreword

  Dearest Reader,

  Thank you so much for picking up Caught (The Swamp #3). I am so grateful to all of you who have gone on this ride with me. I have loved writing MacKenzie, Rainer, Preston, Jarret, and Anton. They have been like family to me. And I love how you love them.

  So I’m not sure why I need to say this but for whatever reason every time I publish one of their novels, I receive hate messages afterwards. I thought the message telling me off that Hidden had a cliffhanger was bad but that was before the message came through on Facebook after Pursued telling me to stop writing. That one was such a bad hit that it threw me off my game for nearly a week. I couldn’t write this book or any of my co-authored ones for days and days. Ultimately, I had to put this book away for months and write other things before I could come back to it.

  I’ve never thought of myself as being thin-skinned. I take bad reviews really, really well. So this is what I would like to say to all of you today. I am a human, a real one. In addition to writing, I’m a mother of three, a wife, a friend, the vice president of communications for our local elementary school PTA, a pet owner, a movie lover… I could go on and on. We’re all many things, right? As my mother would say, we all wear many hats.

  The point being, I am a human being. And if you wouldn’t say something to my face, please don’t say it to me in a message. There are plenty of places for you to vent your spleen if you don’t like a book—as is your right. Goodreads, anyone? Please do it there. Remember, authors are human.

  My books aren’t for everyone, but I truly appreciate you taking the time to read my words. I love my readers. I am grateful for every single one of you. Grateful to do this job. Lucky.

  And now on to MacKenzie’s happily ever after that I’ve been promising you from book one.

  Thanks for giving me the chance to tell it,

  Rebecca Royce

  Chapter 1

  Preston

  There were times in my life that I never saw coming. Lately, it felt like every day was one. I stood to the side of the bed, watching Mac writhe on top of the covers. She talked to someone, but I had no idea with whom she held that conversation. We were losing her to madness. Every day, it got worse. Or at least, it seemed that way. This was only day two. Perhaps there would come a time when it would stop progressing. We hadn’t hit that day yet.

  A man named Ross Morgan was taking her piece by piece, until she’d stop communicating altogether. That was what happened to female werewolves when they became their version of the Loup. They faded into madness in their minds, unable to communicate with the outside world. But we weren’t there yet. Bit by bit, we were losing our mate, and so far, there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it.

  Even through the closed windows, I could hear the sounds around me. More werewolves than I’d seen in decades swarmed through my house. They were here, a makeshift pack, to help my family fight this Loup who was after us. All of them had suffered. Yet, I had never loved huge crowds, even if they were pack, and their constant presence grated on my nerves like someone had taken a garlic peeler and tried to use it on my skin.

  Beyond them, the sounds from outside warred with the scents I was desperate to get closer to. Forget that, what I really wanted was to scoop my mate off this bed and take her outside to the swamp with me. We were fucking home, but we weren’t home. And all I wanted in the world was to get her to where she could really be home with us.

  I stalked to the window, taking a deep breath. This was where my family had always lived, until the Accords screwed everything up. We were meant to be here. I could smell the deer, the raccoons, the alligators, frogs, and turtles. Fuck, I could even smell the snakes. All of it called to my wolf, begging me to shift, but all my wolf wanted was my mate. Healthy. Happy. Here.

  The door opened and closed, and my younger brother Jarret entered. Without a word, he walked to the edge of the bed and scooted in next to Mac. Wrapping her in his arms, he held her like he would never let her go.

  We all had our ways in life. He wanted to cuddle, to heal. I wanted to rage. But at the end of the day, we were both stuck with no way out of this mess.

  The phone rang in my pocket, and I picked it up before it could bother Mac. Although, I would love to see her eyes open. They hadn’t done that yet today.

  “Yeah?” Yes, I was answering the phone that way. Anyone who called instead of texted would get that kind of annoyance right now.

  “That’s how you say hello?” It was Rainer. I’d never been so happy to hear my big brother’s voice in my life. Truth was, we’d been close most of our lives, until it all fell apart when he went to jail. These days, he was more than my trusted friend and relative, he was my pack leader, and we shared a mate.

  He’d been hauled off by the police and worrying about him was my second most concerning thing at the moment. Rainer could handle himself. He wasn’t being attacked psychically by a sick wolf who I might have had sympathy for, if he hadn’t come after what was mine.

  “Talk.” I hoped he could hear what he’d certainly smell if he were here. I was the on the edge of losing my mind.

  “I’m on my way back. The cops don’t even know why they have me here. Looks like Ross can mind control humans, too.”

  I winced. “The hits just keep on coming. So we can’t even be sure the humans we don’t want to deal with in the first place aren’t working for Ross.”

  “We kind of knew anyway.” Rainer was quiet for a second. “That’s how he got all of those people to attack u
s to begin with.”

  “Sure.” I lifted my mouth off the phone to speak to Jarret. “Big brother’s okay.”

  He held up his thumb in the universal sign for good. It was like he was up-voting us. I swore he spent three times the amount of time online that I did, liking things or whatever. I only cared about social media in as much as it helped with my business. The same job that was probably gone now, since I hadn’t set foot inside the building or seen any of the employees or boats in I didn’t know how long.

  Oh well. Starting over would just have to be the name of the game.

  “How is she?”

  I regarded Mac for a long second before I answered him. “She’s not awake, but she’s not sleeping.” The acrid smell of pain assaulted my nose, as though speaking about her made me even more conscious of the situation. “She’s not doing well.”

  Rainer audibly sighed. “As you are the king of underplaying things, I’m going to take that for just as bad as it must be. I’m on my way home. I borrowed this phone from my driver.”

  “You’re with a driver, and you’re talking about humans as though you aren’t one?”

  He laughed. I was glad one of us still could. “He’s a wolf. I knew him back when I worked as a chef. He was a waiter in the restaurant. Anyway, he’s coming with me. Wants to join the pack. Heard we’re shifting. It’s apparently all anyone is talking about.”

  “Interesting.” I actually didn’t care if he brought back hundreds of former waiters turned drivers. I supposed numbers were better than not. Even if I wanted all of them out of my house yesterday. I sighed. No, what got me was that Rainer had just suggested that we had a pack. When had that become something he’d accepted? Last I’d heard, he railed against it.

  He said something to the man driving and then back to me. “Tell her I’m coming.”

  I shook my head, not that he could see that. “I’m not sure it’ll matter. She can’t hear us right now. Wherever her mind has gone…it’s not here with us.”

  “Fuck.”

  To say the least. “Yep. See you soon.”

  I disconnected the phone. Jarret’s eyes were closed, and he was asleep now, holding her like she was his pillow and he needed her to get through the night. Part of me was willing to climb in next to them and cuddle, too. But that wasn’t how I functioned. Not really. Not when there were things to be done.

  Leaving her in Jarret’s loving arms, I exited the room quietly. The dull roar of noise greeted me even stronger, which showed me just how good the doors to my room were at canceling noise. This was an old house. Sometimes, older was just made better.

  I took the stairs two at a time, ignoring everyone, even Miranda, who was an Alpha wolf who had saved our asses. I just couldn’t talk. Not to anyone right then.

  My mate was slipping through my hands, and I was powerless to help.

  I’d even googled Ross Morgan to see if I could come up with anything. He had to be super rich. Surely, there couldn’t be that many Ross Morgans running around who had that kind of power and influence to fund the things he was doing. Nothing.

  The building we’d raided in Atlanta, where we’d found everyone, was registered to an LLC that was connected to an offshore account I couldn’t yet infiltrate. This was like super spy shit, and I couldn’t compete. I was a werewolf. A swamp rat. A small business owner. No fucking way was I supposed to be playing at this level.

  I knew how to kill. How to protect. I didn’t know how to fix this. How to save her. I was lost.

  I’d never been a crier, and I wouldn’t indulge now. Mac deserved better than that from me. Focus.

  I pulled off my shirt, even as I was out the front door, shifting into my wolf body. I needed moments to collect myself. Then I’d return and be back to her.

  If Mac were conscious, she’d tell me to do this. To settle. To be the wolf. Or some shit. She was a healer. An Omega. This was what she did. She’d put her hands on me and heal me from the inside out. I’d watched her push a bullet out of Jarret with nothing more than her mind and her hands on his body. She’d turned us all around from the control Ross Morgan had on us. The woman was nothing less than a miracle. My miracle.

  And I was a total failure in helping her.

  Fully shifted, I rushed into the forest around the swamp. The heat hit me differently than it did in my human form. I craved this. My vision tunneled. There was a rabbit nearby. What a stupid fucking rabbit to hang around in the vicinity of so many werewolves.

  I wasn’t interested in hunting. Not then. What I needed was to run. I’d had enough blood, had enough fighting. I had to run until I could think, until I could come up with the Hail Mary pass that would save the love of my life.

  So help me, I would not lose her to madness. I would not lose our happy future with her. We needed to just be allowed to be. I growled at the thought.

  A scent caught my attention, and I turned to face the wolf who had come to invade my solitary run. I knew Anton’s as well as I did anyone. My brother who had been silenced by Morgan and his ilk when he was just a baby. They’d taken his fucking vocal cords.

  There he was, staring at me through his wolf eyes. How long had he been out here? I didn’t know. Anton had always done his own thing. Whether that was a natural tendency, or because he’d been rendered mute and my mother had refused to help him communicate out of some fucked up need to believe he’d eventually be fine, I didn’t know. We’d never know.

  He loved our mate with an intensity that matched my own. And right then, he was exactly what I needed.

  Anton was here. That was great. We were going to fucking run.

  Taking off as fast and mindlessly as I could, I ran against Anton’s speed. I ran against his pain. I ran, knowing he’d chase and maybe beat me because he could feel it, too. If ever there was a person who knew what this hole in my chest felt like, it was Anton. We were fighters. And we had no enemy to challenge, no battle to win.

  Pack. Mate. They were everything, they were life. All of it dissolved while I stood with nothing to do.

  That damned Loup. Why hadn’t some pack eliminated him when he first changed to the madness? We hunted the lone wolves who lost it. That was what we did.

  Well…used to do. Until Morgan changed all that by pushing the Accords and somehow stopping us from having Omegas.

  If I ever saw him, I might ask him how he’d done that. Then I’d tear out his throat.

  I didn’t know how long we ran. Anton was a great partner for this. He kept up, sometimes pulling ahead, sometimes falling behind. There were new smells—alligators, snakes, flowers—that came and went. We were far from home. He must have realized that we’d gone too long at the same time I did, because we both skidded to a stop, panting.

  Mac was too far away. I nodded my head at him before I bumped him in the side. We’d run back. That would have to be enough.

  Anton shook his head, and I stopped. He nodded up toward the moon, and I followed his gaze. It was full tonight. Why did he want me to see that? Full moons had nothing to do with our lives. Not really. We were werewolves when the moon was full, we were werewolves when it wasn’t. What difference did it make? It was pretty, but I’d rather go after a gator if he needed to do something else before we returned.

  I blinked. Hold on. Anton was incredibly smart, probably the most intellectually superior of any of us. All the time we wasted arguing and talking about nothing, he was forever thinking of things we never considered.

  Why was he indicating the moon? What did that mean?

  Fuck me. The Loups were affected by the moon. The rest of us, no. But they couldn’t help their shifts during that time. They had to. That was part of what made them so dangerous. Exposure.

  Ross Morgan—whatever superior Loup he was—needed to shift tonight.

  And must have every full moon for however long this had been going on for him.

  He was old. We knew that much. At some point, that fucker had probably been caught. Humans didn’t know what to do when
they ran into proof of us. They freaked out. Sometimes, they took to social media. The Accords couldn’t stop the Loups. Not that there were too many of them around anymore, but before we’d all shut off the best parts of ourselves, there had been wolves whose job it had been to take care of exposure. My father, Cristian, had been one of them for a while.

  I took off running toward the house. It was going to be time consuming and mind numbing, but so help me, I would place money that I could find this asshole by just following his crumbs. Sighting after sighting, I’d go through all of them until he was mine.

  I shifted as I hit the porch. I’d made the run back in record time with Anton right on my heels. Swinging around, I stared at my brother. We were both out of breath. “Thanks.”

  He nodded before he placed his hand over his heart.

  Yeah…that’s what she was. Our heart.

  I grabbed a pair of sweatpants that we’d started storing on the porch to take care of the nudity-after-shifts problem and stormed into the house. I’d figure out a shirt later. Right now, I was too hot for one anyway. I stormed into my office.

  Mac’s brothers were in there, but they both jumped up like they were ready for orders as soon as I entered.

  “How is she?” Agustin asked first.

  I shook my head. “Currently not verbal. Which might be better because she smells like pain.”

  I’d had more than enough of that scent from her. We’d finally gotten her back from the agony of losing her mating marks. When this was all over, Mac was going to be warm, well-fed, well-loved, and happy every day of her life.

  Or as close to that as I could make it.