Page 59 of Betrayed Kidnapped Mate

“You could have it all, a beautiful place to live, a life of luxury, power,” he says, tipping his head down like I’m still a little girl like he’s explaining to me for the first time what my adult life will look like.

I can picture it now—given the chance, he will drag me back to California and force me to blood bond with whatever alpha has bid the highest price to possess me. A shudder runs through my body when I think of what my father will do to Kaila. There is not a single doubt in my mind that he’ll kill her, given the first chance.

Forget that she’s his family. Forget that she’s just a little girl. Forget that she’s the one thing in this life that brings joy to me every day. My father would kill her without a second glance, just to position me how he wants me in this world.

I palm the serum in my pocket, feeling like my heart is beating in my throat. Down the street, I can see Bigby fighting through shifters, hear him calling my name, but it feels like it’s coming through a dream.

“No, Dad,” I say, voice thick with anger and grief. “You’re the one who wants it all. You’re the one who wants the power. I just want a peaceful, content life with people who love me. And you’re not it.”

“Rosa,” he growls, “don’t push me.”

I wrap my hand around the vial, pulling it out of my pocket.

“No, Dad,” I growl, not caring about the implications of using the serum, not caring that it’s one of our last samples, not caring about anything except for the fact that my father needs to die. “You don’t push me.”

He launches forward, trying to get his arms around me. I step to the side, smashing the vial into his shoulder as hard as I can, feeling the glass break and crunch under my hand, watching the blood trickle from his skin as the glass cuts in, embedding the glass deep in his flesh.

My father turns, laughing at me, reaching up to touch the blood on his shoulder.

“You have a lot to learn if you think that’s going to stop me,” he mutters, his gaze turning to death and ash.

My breath is coming hot and fast, and I have to force myself to stand my ground, knowing that if I turn and run, he’ll have me in a second. My father rolls his eyes, reaching around and pulling out a blade.

“Enough of this,” he says, stepping toward me, “if you won’t listen, I’ll just tie up loose ends.”

My heart jumps to my throat. Across the way, I hear Bigby roar, and he stands, throwing several shifters flying away from him. Right now, our bond is growing stronger and stronger, and I can feel it rolling off of him—the rage, the absolute feral energy, the desperation to get to me.

I don’t understand why the serum isn’t working—it should be in his bloodstream, burning him, weakening him, blocking his ability to shift.

“For once, I really am sorry, Rosa,” he says, raising the blade, his eyes narrowed on me, locked in like a missile. I scream as the blade come toward me, but before it can find me, something—someone—flies out from behind a building, catching my father in the side and taking him down. The knife clatters loudly across the ground, coming to a stop just before falling into a storm drain.

The two tussle for a moment, then the mystery man pops up onto his feet, scowling intensely at my father.

Our father.

“Hector?” I cry just as Bigby barrels through, throwing several shifters to the side to meet us. His eyes dart between me, Hector, and my father.

“Well,” my father says, “isn’t this a perfect little family reunion?”

Chapter 33 - Bigby

Hector looks different.

Much different.

The guy has clearly been training for years to get to this point—he’s well-built now, completely transforming from the scrawny, geeky college kid I met years before. It’s not just the physical transformation; there’s something lethal in his eyes now. Something aimed directly at his father.

“Hector,” Amon mutters, as though this appearance doesn’t affect him at all, “I didn’t realize you were still alive.”

“You killed him,” Hector says, his voice wavering for only a moment. Buried in the layers of Hector’s voice is a kind of sorrow and grief that I understand immediately. I felt it when I lost Percy and had to leave Rosa. It reminds me that we’re not the only people who have experienced Amon’s wrath. When Hector speaks again, it’s with loathing dripping from his words.

“And now, I’m going to kill you.”

Hector launches at Amon, and the two shift simultaneously, their growls and snapping jaws louder than anything else in the street, including the other battling shifters. I have a flashback to the day in the woods when we fought Varun’s shifters, and I have to shake my head to snap out of it.

“He shouldn’t be able to shift,” Rosa says, catching my arm as I turn to join the fight again. “I—I had some of the serum, I smashed it into his skin. My father, Bigby, I don’t understand—”

I take her face, leaning down and kissing her as hard as I can. Around us, the Rosecreek pack is struggling. We’re holding our own, but Amon has brought an unfathomable number of shifters to fight us. This may very well end in Amon acquiring yet another territory if the tide doesn’t shift.

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