“Tell you what Daddy, if we get through this and find the witch—which is already unlikely—say we do that, then I somehow subdue her and drag her out of the facility without getting caught, again a big problem. Then we put her in the car, get her back into the United States and onto the boat to the island, where I miraculously perform and survive the cleansing spell, that is after I kill her—”
Her father grimaced.
“Okay, when I let someone else kill her, and save Tristan, then we’ll have a traditional human marriage ceremony and you can walk me down the aisle. Deal?” “Just that little amount of stuff, huh?” Scott grinned at her.
Love him. Her wolf grinned.
Me too. She smiled.
“You look so much like your mother right now.” Scott touched her face, on her cheekbone, gently.
The gesture brought tears to her eyes. “People always say that to me, but with my red hair and green eyes, I look like your mother, not mine.” Summer looked like their mother. She always had.
“I don’t mean your physical looks. Here,” He touched her on her jaw line again. “I’ve loved you your whole life, since the moment you were born. But for the last, I don’t know, twelve years, you’ve seemed so lost. Oh, you pretended to be in love with Tom. Maybe you even did love him a little, but you always seemed hidden, like you weren’t complete. Your mother, she has this inner strength—I know it’s her wolf. She’s unmovable, secure, complete in herself. When I look at you now, we’re in the middle of a terribly dangerous time, and yet you seem more you than you’ve ever been before.”
Ashlee never got the chance to answer her father as their car pulled up, and the apologetic driver, who couldn’t believe how long it’d taken him to get out of the parking lot, hustled them into the car.
Here we go, Ashlee told her wolf.
Good. Tristan.
Yes, we will save Tristan.
Tristan knew Ashlee wasn’t on the island anymore. Anger surged within him to such an intensity he thought he might explode. Coupled with the sharp needles, the bee-stings, and the burns all over his body—even though he couldn’t see the injuries, he knew they were there—now he had to contend with a woman who had disobeyed him. He had told her what would happen if she left. He hadn’t been lying.
He sniffed the air. Parker was still outside on guard duty. “Parker, my old friend, what is happening to me?”
Silence met his query for a moment before he heard a chair scrape backwards on the floor. “Prince Tristan?”
“Where is Ashlee? Why am I in this room? Has something terrible happened?” Believe me, he silently willed to the guard outside the door.
“Prince Tristan, perhaps I should get your brother.”
Bad idea, Michael would see right through his act. “Please, Parker, don’t leave me in here.”
“You have been struck down by the curse that destroyed our kin thirty years ago.
Ashlee has left the island, maybe that’s why you’re feeling better.”
Good. Tristan jumped from foot to foot with excess energy. “Won’t you open the door, Parker, so I could get something to eat? I will not leave this room if you like, but I cannot stand to be caged up any longer after my ordeal in the zoo.”
“I will open the door for you, Tristan, and then I’ll go and get your brothers.”
Tristan nodded and tried to put on his most sincere expression for when Parker opened the door. He heard the latch turn on the lock and the door flung open revealing a smiling Parker in front of him. It was a good thing Tristan had earned so much loyalty over the years for being trustworthy and dependable, otherwise he’d never have gotten Parker to open the damn door.
Not wanting to risk his luck, as soon as Parker was fully visible, Tristan leaped on top of him. Being superior in strength and agility, he easily knocked Parker to the ground. But his opponent was a dominant wolf, and an alpha-class at that, so he didn’t immediately relent to Tristan’s attack.
Parker shoved back at Tristan and soon they rolled on the ground, each one gaining and then losing position.
Kill him and be done with it.
“But he is not Ashlee. Killing him will not stop the pain, my Alpha.”
Parker got a good solid grip on Tristan’s neck and pinned him to the floor. Tristan noticed that Parker’s eyes had gone wolf. In a moment, he would shift. “Who do you speak to, Tristan? Who controls you in this madness?”
“No one controls me, Parker, or you’d already be dead.” The burn that plagued Tristan started to creep onto the skin on his neck. Tristan raised his knee and smashed Parker in the groin. It was a low blow, and Tristan knew it, but it stunned Parker long enough for Tristan to regain the upper position in their fight.
Now subdued, Parker groaned in pain. Tristan slammed Parker’s head into the wall and his opponent lost consciousness.
“I told Ashlee what was going to happen. She didn’t listen, so now this whole place goes up in flames.”
Tristan lifted Parker off the ground and swung his body over his shoulder. He wouldn’t let him burn to death. After all, there was no sense in wasting a perfectly good hostage.
10
Ashlee’s first look at The Institute for Personal Achievement and Growth knotted her stomach. She raised her head to stare out the car window as they approached. The building, made of blank tan bricks, looked to be at least fifteen stories high. Two redbrick smokestacks towered above the building and blended into the landscape behind it.
No signs adorned the outside, no indication of what the institutional building was, and no neighbors for miles to hear anyone inside should they scream.
If all had gone according to plan, Gabriel and Cullen would be twenty minutes behind and ready to break in and out of the facility when she called them by cell phone.
Ashlee swallowed her fear; there was no time for anxiety now.
She had a job to do, and a love at home that needed her to do it. Her cell phone rang and she stared at her father in alarm. Michael had given her this phone in case of an emergency. Her father maintained eye contact with her for a moment without speaking as the ring continued. Finally, her Dad nodded to the phone. She looked down at it and answered it.
She gulped. “This is Ashlee.”
“It’s Az. Michael asked me to phone you. Tristan broke out. He has a hostage and he’s going to burn down the place if you don’t return immediately. We’re doing our best to not let this situation get out of hand, but don’t dawdle.” Ashlee heard Azriel exhale into the phone.
“I have no intention of wasting time.” Don’t dawdle? What the hell did they think she had come to Mexico to do, sunbathe? “Tell Michael I’ve just arrived at the IPAG and I expect him to do everything he can to keep Tristan safe until I get back.” She clicked off the phone. Her wolf howled.
Alpha! For now.
Ashlee grimaced. Her wolf was right. Interim or otherwise, everything inside of Ashlee rejected the idea of speaking in any way disrespectfully to Michael. Tristan would hate it. But, the woman she’d been raised to be, despite her breakdown over Tom, would not let her back down. Michael’s top duty needed to be to keep Tristan safe until she returned with the witch.
Remorse flooded her system. She picked up the phone and called Azriel back. He picked up on the first ring.
“Ash?”
“I didn’t mean to be as rude to Michael as I came across.” Her father raised an eyebrow at her. He’d never understand her trepidation and that was fine. Ashlee needed her wolf to settle down before they got out of the car.
Az laughed. “I altered the message you sent slightly when I relayed it to him, sister.”
Ashlee smiled. Sister. She was, for all intents and purposes, Tristan’s wife, which would make them her family now. “Thanks, Az.” She deliberately used his nickname.
“You’re welcome.”
“Hey, Az, by the way, before I go in, did you ever get to catch that television show, ‘The Smurfs?’”
“I hate that
stupid cat.”
Obviously, he’d seen it. “Good luck, Ash.” She heard him click off the phone before the sound of the dial tone met her ear. She closed her phone and grinned at her father.
Scott unhooked his seatbelt as the car came to a stop inside the IPAG gates. “Do I want to know?”
Ashlee shook her head. “No. It’s pack politics.”
“Technically, I am pack.”
“You still don’t want to know.”
Scott nodded. “All right, how long will those herbs you took disguise your wolf smell?”
Ashlee looked at her watch. “Another four hours, which should be more than enough time to either subdue the witch with this…” Ashlee pulled a hypodermic needle out of her pocket, which was filled with a combination of Nembutal and Phenobarbital, enough of both to knock out an elephant but not kill the witch, “…or get caught by the armed guards and locked in a cell to be experimented on for the rest of my life.”
“No one is going to lock you up and experiment on you, sweetheart.” Scott raised his shirt to reveal a gun under his sweater.
Ashlee’s mouth dropped open. She sucked in her breath. “Where did you get that?
Did you have that on the plane?”
“No, Cullen slipped it to me in the airport. He thought perhaps we needed more of an insurance policy.”
“Dad, do you even know how to use that thing?”
“I’ve never used one, but I imagine it’s got to be sort of like point and click.”
Ashlee shook her head. Visions of her father shooting someone—or worse, himself—filled her head and she shuddered. “Promise me you won’t use it. You have no experience with it and if, God forbid, you actually have to resort to using the gun, then the plan has failed anyway and the best thing you can do is get yourself out and back to Mom.”
“You are so focused on saving Tristan. You love him so much you’d do anything to save him. Do you think your mother and I love you any less?”
Ashlee never got the chance to answer, as the door to the car opened and a hand reached inside to help her get out of the car. She took the hand and stepped out. The contrast between the air-conditioned car and the heat of the Mexican desert left Ashlee stunned for a moment. She felt someone grab her shoulders to keep her upright in case she should faint.
Ashlee had no intention of swooning or suffering from heatstroke. She blinked rapidly to clear her head and smiled, hoping to create the image of the dumb, spoiled brat, her cover persona for the rest of her time in IPAG.
“Daddy.” Ashlee spun around to look at her father who had stepped out of the car behind her. “How long is this going to take? I want to go to Señor Frog’s tonight.” She stomped her right foot. The nightclub had been a favorite of her friends who had spent spring break in Cancun the year before.
Her father gave her an indulgent look, and Ashlee had to suppress her snicker. If she’d ever really behaved that way, both of her parents would’ve grounded her. “We will, darling, I promise.” He patted her on the back.
Ashlee’s father turned to the man in front of her. He held out his hand. “I’m Dr. Scott Morrison and this is my darling daughter, Ashlee.” Ashlee felt her shoulders released and she turned to look at the man who shook her father’s hand.
“I’m Kendrick Kane. It’s a pleasure to have you and young Ashlee here with us, Doctor. The Institute has been trying to get a doctor of your caliber interested in helping us develop this place for some time.”
Ashlee sucked in her breath and then covered it with a cough. No one had told her how much Tristan resembled his father. He was the spitting image of the man. All of the Kane men resembled each other, and clearly took after Kendrick, but Tristan held the closest similarity. They had the same shade of brownish, blondish hair with an infusion of red. Steady brown eyes shaped just like her mate’s stared at Scott as he nodded to something her father said. But Kendrick Kane’s eyes were cold, like steel. Even when he was crazed in the hallway, Tristan’s eyes had never looked so calculating.
Ashlee pretended to sneeze and inhaled deeply. He didn’t smell anything like Tristan either. He smelled unnatural, like hospital sterilization tools and cheap cologne. How could he even stand to smell himself? She would never mistake Kendrick for Tristan, not even in a pitch-black room. She ached for the woodsy smell that Tristan carried and silently she begged the universe to not let her fail at her task so she could be close to Tristan’s scent again.
Bad man. He does bad things to his wolf.
Oh yes, bad man. He’d done bad things to his wolf? What did that mean?
Not pack.
No, not pack.
The basic introductions between Kendrick and her father ended and Ashlee took the opportunity to act up again. “Daddy, I thought you said this was a spa?” Should she stomp her foot again or would it be overkill? Ah, what the hell. She stomped.
“I said it might be a spa, darling. We might help to add a spa to it where my patients can relax and vacation after they’ve had a little nip or a tuck. They’ll also be able to partake of this fine institution’s actualization techniques that will help them to become stronger, better people.”
Ashlee put her hands on her hips. “Bored, Dad. And I don’t like to be bored.”
Ashlee’s father turned to Kendrick. “Is there somewhere my daughter can sit and amuse herself while you show me the facility and we talk?”
“My office has a television and an internet connection.”
Ashlee rolled her eyes. “I suppose I could order those new Gucci sandals I’ve been wanting while I wait for you.”
Kendrick extended his arm. “Right this way, Ms. Morrison.”
Ashlee’s father put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed. “Do you have children, Mr. Kane?”
Kendrick shook his head. “No, I don’t. I’ve never been married, never had children.” Evil. I want to bite him and get back to Tristan.
Ashlee shook her head to clear her wolf’s thoughts. Ashlee would love to tear him to small, tiny bits and throw away the pieces. But first she had a witch to capture.
Tristan stood back and watched the Institute burn bright orange and red in the distance. Distantly, in the back of his mind, he knew he should feel something about the destruction of a building he’d once designed and helped to build with his bare hands. But he could barely bring himself to focus on it. He closed his eyes and inhaled the smoke into his lungs. The wood burned first; the insulation would go next. When that happened, it would soak the island in a damp, foul odor they’d never get rid of. Fortunately, it wasn’t his problem.
His brothers were near. He could smell them. They kept their distance, and that was smart. The breeze danced on his skin and he smiled at the sensation. It was nice to have even the smallest bit of relief to the constant burn. He looked down at his skin. There was no physical manifestation of his pain, no burns or rash to indicate the trauma that was going on inside of him. If that was odd, Tristan didn’t know why.
Kill her, Tristan, kill her.
Love to, but she’s not here.
Tired of the constant nagging from his father, Tristan rolled his eyes.
In the distance, he heard a wolf howl. Whose wolf was that? He didn’t sound like his pack. The same howl carried through the night to him again. Tristan sucked in his breath.
He knew that noise. It was his wolf.
He covered his ears unable to bare the sound. What was wrong with his wolf? The yowl came louder, his wolf was angry. But why? He’d been trying to relieve the pain from them; it wasn’t his fault Ashlee hadn’t come back yet.
The thought of Ashlee’s name brought the wolf’s shriek louder. Tristan fell to his knees. There was something about Ashlee the wolf didn’t like.
Ashlee needs to die.
Mate. We die for our mate, we don’t kill her. Or we end our own life and wait for her in the next one, where we beg forgiveness for causing her pain.
His wolf had spoken to him. When had he last heard him
? How many hours had it been? Tristan fell even further to the ground, he lay out flat on his stomach, his hands still on his ears to drown out the noise his wolf made.
His wolf was right. Ashlee was his treasure. He held part of her soul inside of his and, needing her desperately, he called to it. She rose up inside of him. Tristan could feel Ashlee’s goodness wrap itself around him like a warm blanket. He closed his eyes for a moment, but Ashlee roared at him to get up and do something to fix his problem. If he was burning, he needed to put out the fire.
Kill her. That voice, his Alpha.
Not Alpha.
Tristan rolled onto his back and screamed. What was happening to him?
You told her you were your mother’s son.
He had told Ashlee’s mother he was his mother’s son. He’d been so sure he wouldn’t lose control.
How had he let this happen? He roared, his pain not physical but mental anguish this time.
Kill her.
In the back of his mind, he heard Ashlee’s soul speak to him again. It wanted him to put out the fire. The cool breeze touched him again and he sighed. Ashlee was right. He needed to cool off, that was the key. But where? The cliffs he stood on gave him a perfect view of the water that surrounded the island.
He stood up.
Kill her, boy.
His wolf howled and Tristan ran for the edge of the cliff. The water below would do the trick. He leapt.
In the distance, he heard Michael scream his name as the cool, rough water surrounded him.
If you won’t kill her, you will die.
Then kill me.
11
Ten minutes after her father and Kendrick Kane left her in a pretend snit, Ashlee felt safe enough to start the first part of her plan. In what little time she’d had to prepare for this nightmare, she had tried to be meticulous and organized. She stuck her hand in her pants pocket and felt for the needle that contained her best hope of success. It was still there.