Page 8 of Ensnaring Their Rabbit (Heat, Prey, Love #7)

CHAPTER 8

REEVE

I could feel my wolf. It wasn’t strong, kind of like he was trying to reach me through a miles long tunnel, but still, it wasn’t just an empty space inside me like it usually was with the collar on. He was there, deep below the surface and desperately clawing and scraping trying to get closer. I didn’t have to be able to sense his feelings to know it was because of Brynn. Whoever was coming would try to separate us, and he’d do everything possible to stop that.

Well, so would I. No one was taking our fucking mate without a fight. I stood tense, ready for anything and wondering how the fuck I was getting the three of us out alive.

The guards stopped on the other side of the door. Unlike our regular prison cell, this door was solid so I couldn’t see through it, but I could still hear three heartbeats, and the scent of cigarettes was overwhelming. It meant my least favorite guard Markel was out there. I growled despite myself. If that creepy fucker even looked at Brynn…

“Back away from the door, Balthazar. We’re just dropping off food and supplies, but you need to calm down.” The voice warned me. That wasn’t Markel, it was one of the new guards, Lionel. He seemed decent enough, and it didn’t seem like he was lying. I took a deep breath and took three steps back, still keeping myself between the door and Brynn and Riven.

The small door at the bottom of the cell opened, and a tray was slid inside. Then a thing of baby wipes and three sets of jumpsuits.

“Eat, clean up and get dressed. It’s your lucky day. There was an incident we have to deal with, so you have more time with your plaything.” that was Markel, even the slimy fucker’s voice set me on edge, “But we’ll be back later.” With that the door slammed shut and locked, and the three of us were left alone again.

“What was that?” Riven asked, his eyes glued to the fucking door. He was still crouched in front of Brynn who he’d pushed against the cinderblock wall.

“I don’t know,” I answered, picking up the tray. There wasn’t really enough food for three people on it, what a surprise. Fuckers. “But it looks like we have a few hours to come up with a plan.”

“A plan for what?” Brynn asked. He snuck around Riven’s defensive stance and was peering at the food. He hadn’t eaten much over the last few days, just a few bites of whatever we force fed him, so now that his heat was over he was probably starving. Once again I had to hold in my frustration that I couldn’t care for my mate like I should be.

The only things in this cell were a bed, a sink, and a toilet, so I put the tray on the end of the bed and started to divvy out the food the best way I could. I looked at Brynn, his gray eyes sucking me in. “They’re going to take you away,” I told him bluntly. “Then throw Riv and I back in our regular cell. But I won’t let that happen.”

I handed him a plastic bowl with some kind of mushy mixed vegetables and a stale roll. It was disgusting and made my stomach turn, but Brynn admitted he was a vegetarian, and his human body could only withstand small amounts of dairy. Byproducts of being a rabbit shifter, I guessed. The big slabs of mystery meat that Riv and I’d gotten used to would only make our omega sick.

“What are they going to do with me? Will they just let me go?”

I looked at Riven who just shrugged. “Honestly, we don’t know,” he told Brynn. “But I doubt it. Most of the omegas don’t make it out of here alive after the hunt. The ones that do, well, we never see them again. I guess they could just let them go, but I seriously doubt this is legal.”

Brynn snorted. “Considering they used magic to drug me and forced my heat, I’d go with no.”

I growled again. It was becoming a really bad habit. “They forced your heat?”

“Yeah. That was my first heat actually, well since my very first one. I usually use suppressants.” Brynn laughed harshly. “That’s what started this whole mess. I was trying to get more.”

I carefully ate the chewy meat while I considered what Brynn was saying. Why would they kickstart his heat? Was it to put us into more of a frenzy, or was there something else going there?

“I don’t like the thought of that,” Riven grumbled. “There’s no good reason why they would force that. These assholes go feral enough for any omega. They’re fucking desperate and barely have control over their animal sides.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, there’s something we’re missing here. But that just makes it even clearer, nothing good is gonna come out of them taking you away from us. We just found you, Mate, we’re not letting them take you.”

Brynn’s eyes flashed, “That’s a nice thought and all, but I’m not really sure what you can do about it.”

I ground my teeth, pissed, because he was right. There was very little I could do about it. Riven hated that thought as much as me and dragged Brynn into his lap, his arms tightening around his middle, and his teeth sinking into his neck. The collar prevented his canines from extending so I didn’t have to worry about a mating bite, but the sentiment was clear.

Brynn reacted like my brother bit him for real, sunk into his hold and just melted. It took a few minutes for him to get it back together. With hazy eyes he turned toward Riv with a soft smile, “I like you too, big guy. But I think I need more information, and I’d love a better plan than alpha posturing.”

I grinned. Mate was feisty. He had to be to survive in this world. I didn’t know anything about his life, but no one with a good one and a loving family ended up as bait for a bunch of alpha criminals, so I had to imagine it wasn’t easy.

“Okay, so first thing, what do you think they’re gonna do to me if they take me away? I know you said they wouldn’t just let me go, but I’m nobody. Who the fuck am I going to tell? Maybe they’ll dump me somewhere and then…”

He trailed off, because then what? He’d go back to his life? It wouldn’t work. I hadn’t mentioned it yet, but the claiming bite was a formality at this point. We’d spent days together locked in this room alone, literally tied together. The bite might make it official, but if we separated for any length of time or distance, we’d all get sick and eventually die. He was stuck with us, like it or not, unless we broke the bond, and that needed a mage and a whole bunch of fucking luck. Which, let’s face it, we didn’t have.

I didn’t know how to tell him that. I wasn’t sure why, but it didn’t seem like Brynn felt the bond the way Riv and I did. He felt something, because I could scent how safe and comfortable he was with us. How turned on he was. But it wasn’t the instant knowledge that we felt. He was still doubtful, and I got that. This situation was fucked. If he needed to cling onto the idea that things could be fixed for him, I’d let him. For a few minutes anyway. Time wasn’t on our side. We’d already had more than expected.

“It’s possible,” I finally answered, “but I seriously fucking doubt it. They don’t expect the omegas to survive this.”

Brynn huffed, and threw himself back dramatically against Riven’s chest. “So what, they’ll kill me, because you didn’t do the job?”

I couldn’t help it. I snarled. Just the thought of someone hurting Brynn, made me want to rampage. That hole in my chest that was my wolf tugged again, deep and far away but letting me know that he felt the same way and would basically find a way to kill me if I ever hurt Mate. I rubbed my chest, the ache too deep to actually soothe.

I felt two sets of eyes on me, one confused, one concerned. I waved them both off. Whatever that was going on with my wolf had to wait.

“Sorry. But–it’s possible. We also hear the guards talking sometimes, and well…” I didn’t know how to put this gently, and honestly it was a bigger fear of mine than death. I couldn’t tell you why but something just told me that they weren’t planning on killing Brynn. They would’ve dragged him away after my knot inflated that very first time if that was the case, “There’s a lot of money in the omega underground trade.”

Brynn’s eyes widened, and I could scent his fear. Riv’s nostrils flared, anger radiating off him. He knew I was right. He was there, helping me fix a leaky pipe, since handyman shit was our job in this place, when we heard Erikson, Markel, and a few others whispering about it. They were talking about how omegas disappeared from the omega prisons all the fucking time, and that it was a goldmine. I wouldn’t be surprised if they somehow found a way to make some of their own profit from here.

Something niggled at the back of my mind, something about breedable omegas, ones who proved they could get pregnant fared an even higher price. I hadn’t paid much attention to it, but it could explain why they forced his heat.

It wasn’t a train of thought I wanted to linger on, otherwise it would make me sick. What was done was done, we had to focus on what came next.

Brynn’s expression shifted from being afraid to steely determination, and a little bit of anger, within a second. “Yeah, fuck that. I’ve been surviving on my own since I was ten years old and managed to avoid the omega slave trade. They’re not getting me now. What do we need to do?”

I was proud of my mate while also devastated he’d been on his own all that time. Our childhood wasn’t exactly sunshine and roses, but I’d had Riven and our sister Rella. I was never alone. Never had been except that first week we were arrested, and they tried to separate us. We both got deathly ill, close to what happens when mates were separated for too long. Our lawyer, while not good for much, managed to get the judge to agree that we would be kept together.

I sighed, scrubbing my face with my hands before sitting on the bed next to them. “I don’t know,” I told him honestly. I hated it, but it was the truth. I had little control here, and no bargaining chips. If it was different guards, Riv and I had some favors we could call in, but not with Markel, and the new guy, well he was too new. So far he’d been fair, but I had no idea how he’d swing with something like that. Besides, what could they even do? We couldn’t hide Brynn in our cell forever, and that wouldn’t be fair to him. He deserved to be free.

We went back and forth for a while before we realized there wasn’t much we could do until we got more information. As much as I fucking despised why, we were banking on the theory that they wouldn’t kill Brynn and wanted him alive. All we could do was wait and hope for the best, which was fucking laughable.

All of us were on edge, and I was starting to get claustrophobic in this room. The smell of stale sex was becoming too much. We all needed a real damn shower. We tried to stay distracted by sharing little bits about each other. We learned that Brynn was born and raised in the shifter slums of Ashbrook and had been living on the streets since his mom disappeared when he was a kit. He had no idea who his alpha parent was, and though he was sure he had siblings–rabbit shifters were almost always multiples–he never heard anything about them or met them. Riven shared that we were also from Ashbrook and grew up on the predator side of the slums. It was just us and our little sister for the most part. Mom was there but she was rarely sober enough to remember she had children, and when she did, it wasn’t good for us.

He didn’t tell Brynn anything about our parents though and or how we ended up here in the first place, and our omega didn’t ask. It seemed pointless. All of this did. We had no fucking control, and my wolf and I were fucking livid.

Brynn dozed on and off, still recovering from his heat and the stress from everything. Riven stayed close and napped too, but I couldn’t calm down long enough to even think about closing my eyes.

I had no idea how long it was until our relative peace was disturbed again. “Riv,” I shook my brother awake. “They’re coming.”

Riven was up in a second, once again with Brynn pushed up against the wall and as far away from the cell door as possible. There were more of them this time, and I could hear the clanging of metal. They must’ve brought cuffs. I bared my very human teeth.

“Inmates against the wall!” Markel’s sleazy voice barked out.

I rolled my eyes. “What are you doing with us?” I called back. I wished I could see them. It sucked not having a visual of exactly how many there were and what weapons they had.

“You and your deadbeat brother are going back to your cell where you belong. It’s time to give up your toy.”

I heard Brynn whimper from behind me, and I almost lost it. Riven was vibrating with anger, and I shot him a warning glare to get his shit together.

“You have five seconds to obey, inmate, or we’re coming in shooting, and I don’t give a fuck who gets in the way. May hit your precious plaything,” Markel sneered, “And then you and inmate 46721 can recover in solitary. Separately.”

That was almost a worse threat than taking Brynn. We already knew we couldn’t survive separated, literally. There was a chance that the mating bond hadn’t fully taken, since we didn’t complete it, and we could survive long enough to find each other again. That wouldn’t happen if we were locked in solitary.

“Do what they say,” Brynn pleaded, sounding scared. I…well, it grated having to obey these assholes, but I didn’t see another choice. I nodded to Riv, and the two of us walked to the back wall and faced it with our hands on our head like was required. Brynn tucked himself in the far corner.

The locks cranked, and the door opened. I sucked in a breath trying to get a sense of who was there. Three humans, two shifters. Fuck. They meant business. The cigarette smell almost overwhelmed everything, but as they got closer, I was able to scent metal. Years here had helped me hone the difference between certain scents, and this was more than cuffs. Weapons. Tranq guns? Markel came so he was standing just inches behind me, his stale nauseating smell making it hard to concentrate on anything. I held my breath and focused on the ugly gray cinder block. I could not lose control. I couldn’t give into my impulses and tear this fucker limb from limb. We were outnumbered, and I had Riven and Brynn to think about.

He grabbed my wrists, with way more force than necessary and wrenched my arms down and behind my back, cuffing me. I grit my teeth but let it happen. Next to him someone else was doing the same to Riven. He growled, just a little, but otherwise didn’t fight the guard.

“Are you going to be a good boy and let us take the toy? Or do we need to use these?” He grabbed a handful of my hair, which wasn’t really long enough to fist like that and tugged my head back so I could see the tranq gun. Markel was grinning, his eyes bright with sadistic glee since he thought he was the one in control here. Even cuffed with wolfsbane infused cuffs and this fucking collar, I could rip him in half if I wanted to. I blinked slowly at him, knowing that not reacting would piss him off the most.

Markel scowled, the glee replaced with annoyance as he gave me a small shove away. The tranq gun was against my chest in a second.

“Markel, easy man,” one of the other guards warned. I was pretty sure it was the new one. “The warden said to only use it if it was necessary.”

Markel grinned again. “Oh, but it is necessary. He tried to attack me. And the other one hasn’t stopped growling. We were scared for our lives. We had no choice.”

Oh this asshole…

“What! They haven’t done anything, you piece of shit!” Brynn screamed, standing up and stepping out of his spot. I tried to shoot him a warning glare not to get involved, but it was too late. Two of the guards swung to him, their guns pointed in his direction.

My wolf was back, painfully clawing at my brain trying to get free. The pain in my head was unbearable as he tried to fight the collar, and I staggered on my feet. Riven stiffened. “Reeve?”

“I-I’m okay.” I stumbled.

The tranq gun stabbed my chest. “What the fuck is going on?” Markel snapped. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Something’s wrong,” Riven screamed.

“He’s sick. Stop waving those things around and help him!”

I smiled as the world started to swim. My brave, reckless mate. He didn’t need to worry. I would be fine. I tried to tell him that. To worry about himself. But another stabbing pain rocked me, and I collapsed to my knees.

There was a lot of shouting, some growling. Maybe a weapon sounded. Then everything went black.

When I woke up hours later we were back in our cell, and Brynn was nowhere to be found.