Page 47 of Rebellion of a Kingdom

“Since the night Greg shot me.” He shrugs slightly, “he said something about family resemblance and at the time I thought he meant to you. Then a few other things made me realize he was referring to himself.”

“You are nothing fucking like him.” She cries, “don’t even think that for a second.”

“I know. When I woke up, I had Liam dig into Sarah’s past and I found a crossover with Elliot from when they were teenagers. Didn’t take much to figure out the rest.” I can see he’s had time to digest this. Well, I haven’t.

“And when were you planning on telling us?” I blurt, breaking my silence.

“Honestly? I don’t know.” He sighs and I know he means that. “This changes everything.”

“It changes nothing.” Arthur says, “you are our son, always have been, always will be,”

“That’s not what I meant, dad. You know you guys are the only parents I will ever recognize, but we all thought this whole thing started because of what happened to Elle. But we were wrong.”

“What does this all mean?” Marcus asks and I see the flash of Donovan DNA across Zack’s face then for the first time ever.

Zack sits up straight looking at Marcus, Elle and then eventually me, “It means we’re going to kill them, all of them. Before they kill us.”

Chapter 28

MARCUS

Every single time I think the Donovan’s and their sick list of crimes can’t get any worse, they prove me wrong. Monsters like Elliot and Greg aren’t made, they are born. That pathological need to hurt people ingrained in them from the very beginning. I want to end them, stand over their dead bodies in victory and fucking cheer. I need the thrill of making them bleed, the one I got with Asher on Christmas Eve as I watched the life drain from those two bastards that helped Greg. I understand now more than ever why Elle came back, why she had to do all of this. It’s the only acceptable justice.

Zack Royton. Zack King. Zack Donovan. Not once since I met Zack had it ever crossed my mind that Elliot Donovan could be his father. A King and a Donovan. What a toxic fucking mixture. A child for a child, that’s what Beth said. So that means Elliot found out about Zack years ago and instead of looking for him like a normal fucking human being, his solution was to kidnap his little sister and use her to punish Sarah. We all thought that night triggered a chain of events that would change everything forever but turns out this was all in motion before we even existed. Zack Royton, Elle’s brother, heir to the fucking Donovan throne. What the fuck do we do with that?

I think it’s safe to say we have all undoubtedly decided that this isn’t over. We are moving forwards with Elle’s plans for revenge and hopefully this time we get no more surprises. We are completely off radar at the safe house, but school starts again in a week and then what?

We are all together in the living room including most of Max’s guys who have made it back after taking Christmas with their families. The only people missing are Cassie and Lily who went to bed a couple of hours ago.

“Are we going back?” Lincoln asks and everyone looks to Elle.

She huffs a long slow breath, like she is still thinking about her response, but we all know her answer. We knew it the moment she got Cassie back, the moment she saw Lincoln's blood, the moment she found out she wasn't the first King to be raped by a Donovan. The moment her fourteen-year-old innocence was stolen in the black of night. It isn’t over until she says it’s over.

“Yeah,” she sighs, “we’re going back. We aren’t letting them win. If Greg wants me, he can come and get me. I’ll be armed and waiting.”

“The twins will have to stay here. They can’t be that far away without protection.” Arthur says with a no-nonsense tone and I see Logan's nod in agreement. College isn’t even on his mind right now. He wants revenge just as much as Elle. She smashed into their lives and changed the course of it forever. Family is everything to them.

“That’s the best plan, this is the only safe place for any of us right now.” Zack agrees as he rubs his hand over his chest where he took the bullet. His wounds aren't even healed, and he is ready to go headfirst back into the trenches for his sister.

“Okay then.” Max starts, “we need to do a full security sweep of the school and get some extra measures put in place.” he says without pause looking at his guys, “I want every inch of that school under surveillance.”

“Principal Lock is an old friend, none of that will be an issue.” Elle replies absentmindedly, I can tell she is already knee deep back in mission mode, ready to take out her next target.

“So what? We’re just supposed to go back and act normal?” Jace asks bitterly, taking another swig of whiskey from the bottle that is permanently in his hand these days.

“As opposed to what?” I ask with warning in my tone, he might be my brother, but Elle is my girl, and we are all in this together. He just huffs in response, taking another drink.

“We put on a united front, watch each other's backs and act like we aren’t spending our nights violently murdering the scum of the town.” Elle responds to him with a glare, but I can tell she is worried about him. This is the side of Jace she hasn’t seen before.

She watches him a little longer before she brings her gaze to Asher who is silently listening in the corner, “what about you?”

He flicks his eyes to hers. “What about me?” He asks.

Elle glares at him now, “What are you going to do about school? I presume you won’t be returning to Hallows Prep, not unless you have a fucking death wish.” I refrain from rolling my eyes at her statement, because if anyone has a death wish, it’s that psycho. He’d walk into his home with no weapons and murder his father and brother with his bare hands if Elle would let him.

“I can easily hack into your files and transfer you to Hallows High with us.” Lincoln interrupts before Ash can give Elle an answer.

He looks at him now and smirks, “no thanks help, I try to avoid the masses where I can. I'll just stay home with Cassie and do some work.” He cocks his brow at him, like he is daring Lincoln to challenge him.

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