“Tristan, what is it? What’s going on?” Her voice sounded scared but he didn’t dare open his eyes to look at her.
Kill her. Obey your Alpha.
“Ashlee,” he barked. “I need you to run or I’m going to kill you.” He pulled a deep breath into his lungs, trying to fight the sick, heavy fog that swamped his mind “I have to obey my Alpha. Run, baby, run now and hide from me. Don’t let me find you.”
Pain knifed through him and he felt like he was being gutted. Bright lights danced behind his closed eyelids. A fog formed over his mind and tried to put him into a deep sleep. He fought back, but the command to obey was strong. He felt a tear escape his eye and his wolf howled inside of him not to give in, to fight the pain, not to kill her. He could barely hear his constant companion. Ashlee let go of Tristan’s body, and he heard her run into the hall. Good, he had wanted that, hadn’t he?
Ashlee needed to die and he would see to it. Then he could rest, and then the pain would stop. If she wanted to run, he would chase her. He was a wolf after all. He called the shift to himself, and he followed his mate.
Kill her.
Yes, my Alpha, I will.
7
Ashlee tore into the hallway from their bedroom like the hounds of hell were after her. And the scariest part was that wouldn’t be far from the truth. Her bare feet hit the ground hard as she forced her sleep-deprived, recently sated body to move faster. Something had happened to Tristan and Ashlee had no idea what it was. But he’d told her to run, told her he would kill her if he found her. Her wolf’s ears pulled back and inside she whimpered. Tristan was in pursuit. Her wolf could sense him.
If he catches me, I’m dead. But even worse—he is too.
She possessed part of Tristan’s soul now. If he murdered her, he would then be compelled to take his own life as well, and he would never forgive himself for her pain.
She could not let that happen.
She rounded the corner, her hands scraping at the walls. Every step, every ragged breath put more distance between her and Tristan. Or so she hoped.
She screamed as loudly as she could. She wasn’t even sure what she said but the further she ran, the more she bellowed. He was getting closer; in a moment he would catch her. Her heart pounded and she gasped for breath. She could smell his approach. Just moments earlier Tristan’s scent—the forest, the breeze, and the water—would have meant heaven to Ashlee. Now it terrified her.
Theo and Rex ran into the corridor. Ashlee had just seconds to take in their appearance. Theo was half-dressed, shirtless, and the expression on his face said he wasn’t happy to have been disturbed. Rex looked exactly like he had earlier at their meeting but now he held a beer bottle in his left hand. She careened into Rex’s arms.
Rex almost fell backwards as Theo questioned her. “What is it?”
“It’s Tristan—he woke up and now he wants to kill me. He told me to run right before he lost control. Help him, you have to help him,” Ashlee panted out each word, as she struggled to catch her breath. Her wolf howled for release, to be allowed to shift, she wanted her mate back, and she wanted Tristan. Ashlee’s eyes filled with tears. She wanted the same thing.
Rex set her on the ground and shoved her next to him. “Did you perform the mating ritual?”
Ashlee nodded. It felt wrong to even voice that answer. The time between them had been so private. It dawned on her suddenly what Rex had just asked—he didn’t want to know if they’d had sex. He thought the spell had come back, that Tristan had been afflicted with the endless desire to kill her, as his kin had been thirty years earlier. Was that it, was that what had happened? Ashlee let out a half-sob and covered her mouth with her hands.
“Shit,” Theo screamed. “He’s right around the corner. We’ll head him off. Ashlee, Trip is fierce, deadly. Our father trained him and Gabriel as assassins when he was Alpha. It’s likely he will overpower Rex and me in a matter of moments. Get to Gabriel and Michael. They are two floors up. Take the stairs, run, now.”
This was the second time today she’d been told to flee, and once again she obeyed. Ashlee turned towards the stairs and sprinted. She heard growls behind her and even though she knew it was stupid, when she reached the stair landing she turned around to look at the scene as it unfolded. Her wolf didn’t give her any other choice. She wanted to see her mate, and just as strongly, she didn’t want any of the other pack members to get hurt on her behalf.
Stay.
Her wolf begged. Ashlee was surprised to see that she agreed. She wasn’t going leave others to this. If this was to be her fate, she would face it with dignity. She sucked in her breath. That hadn’t been her own thought; it was Tristan’s. It was the part of his soul that she now shared speaking to her. Tristan would not run from danger and now neither would Ashlee.
Theo and Rex had shifted into their wolf forms. Theo was brown with stripes of silver fur intertwined, Rex all black as she‘d seen him that night at the zoo. When Tristan appeared before them, the length of time it took him was a tribute to how long he’d held himself back from stalking her.
Theo and Rex growled in unison. In response, Tristan bared his teeth and snarled. Tristan raised his head to look past them at her where she stood in the landing. She could see the saliva drip from his mouth and hit the floor. His eyes spoke of menace and the hard set of his jaw made Ashlee gasp. She didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what he’d come for. He wanted her dead. Ashlee swallowed and pushed herself to be brave.
She stepped forward. “Tristan, you don’t want to hurt your brothers.”
Tristan growled louder and lunged forward. Theo intercepted him, used his own body to block Tristan’s way to Ashlee. They snarled and ripped at each other. Fleetingly, Ashlee realized she would have to rethink her opinion of Theo. He’d come off so cold, so brusque but whatever else he might be, he was the type of man to put his body, without thought, between a woman and the man who wanted to kill her. Even when the man was his own brother.
“Stop it, Tristan.” Ashlee shouted, her voice sounding hysterical to her own ears. Her face felt tight. She clenched her fists at her side.
Tristan pulled off of Theo and the two backed up and circled each other in fight positions. Rex growled, and the hair on his back stood up. He would attack Tristan next. Ashlee’s wolf knew what would happen. If Tristan was attacked on both sides, he would kill his attackers. She was sure about it. And even if they then found a way to stop this madness, Tristan would never be okay again.
At that moment, the stair door swung open behind her. Ashlee was suddenly aware of the amount of noise they made because Michael, Gabriel, and Azriel poured through the door one after another, each panting. They must have been drawn to the sounds of the fight. Ashlee watched as Gabriel assessed the scene and within seconds the wolf appeared in his eyes. According to Theo, he might actually be able to take Tristan down. Less than a minute later, the Aunts and the remote man they called Cullen followed through the door.
“Everyone is here, Tristan,” Ashlee whispered, crouching down to the floor to act non-threatening.
“Oh God, not again,” Adeline screamed. “Not like Chester.” Adeline’s husband had been Chester, as Ashlee had learned the day before. He had killed himself rather than kill her, although from her desperation to end her own life it seemed to Ashlee she might have preferred the other option.
“Quiet,” Ashlee commanded everyone. “Tristan, you don’t want to kill me. You told me to run. You’re in there somewhere.” Tears filled Ashlee’s eyes but she didn’t let them fall. It wasn’t the time for hysterics, but her eyes burned from the effort to hold them back. “Neither of us has to die. We can beat this. Do you hear me? What we just shared, it makes us stronger. The others, they didn’t know what happened, they couldn’t reason through it. But we know the past, we know the events of thirty years ago. We can beat this now. You told my mother you were your mother’s son, not your father’s. She foiled your Dad, her Alpha, thirty years ago. Let’s
destroy him now too.”
A white light swept over Tristan and he changed back into his human form. He writhed on the ground, naked, and Ashlee had to resist every primal instinct she possessed and stop herself from running over to him. She swallowed hard; her mouth was so dry, her throat hurt.
“Brother,” Tristan called out to Theo. “Please, brother, I beg you. Kill me or give me something to get the job done myself. Please…it is too painful. I cannot take anymore. It
is eating my brain, devouring me from the inside out. Please.”
Theo turned around to them and Ashlee saw him blink away tears.
Michael stepped forward. “If you kill yourself, brother, you will doom Ashlee to follow or live a half-life like our aunts have all these years. You do not want that. You and Ashlee are our salvation. If you die, all hope will be lost. I am your Alpha; I command you to hold on.”
“Ha! You are not my Alpha.” Drool escaped Tristan’s mouth as he rolled over on to his stomach. He tried to stand up and failed. “You have never been willing to be my
Alpha, so you cannot claim to be now. Do the ceremony if you want the respect.”
Ashlee stepped towards Tristan and he jerked off the floor as if he was possessed. He rolled over and groaned. “Knock him out, Gabriel. Don’t kill him, just render him unconscious and then we will lock him up where he cannot hurt himself while we figure out what to do to rid him of this.”
Gabriel looked to Michael for confirmation; he nodded. As Gabriel stepped towards Tristan, he growled low in his throat. Tristan answered in kind. The hairs on Ashlee’s arms stood up in alarm. She didn’t want to watch this. Even if it was the best possible thing for Tristan, she couldn’t watch her mate get injured and not interfere. Ashlee whirled around to not look at what was about to happen. She covered her ears with her hands, and when that was not enough of a separation, she ran for the stairs.
Ashlee called to the gathered people behind her as she ran. “All of you who don’t need to be here, come with me, please. We have work to do.”
They had to find the witch who’d done this and remove the spell from the shifters so Tristan could be restored to health. And when all of that was done, she was going to string the wretched woman from the roof of the Institute. She would leave her out there to rot or freeze, and laugh when the crows got to her.
For a moment, she wondered if she was channeling Tristan’s feelings again, but no, they were her own. It seemed when it came to protecting the people she loved, she was a bloodthirsty bitch.
Tristan jerked awake. He snarled and looked around his enclosure with impotent fury. Trapped again. The bars closed in on him for a moment, then he composed himself and walked the length of his five-by-five cell. He knew the measurements because he designed the damn thing. He was Prince Tristan; he would find a way out of this. He pounded on the door.
“Let me out,” he bellowed.
The guards always responded to him. They vied for his good favor. One of them was going to help him take care of the pain in his head. He looked down at his hands. They shook violently. He pounded on the door again.
“We’re not letting you out, Trip.” Rex’s voice answered him. They’d been smart, they’d known he could have ordered the guards around. But Rex would never tolerate his demands. It wasn’t going to be so easy.
“Rex, please, it will be very fast. I won’t even let her suffer. One, two, three, I’ll break her neck and then you and I can go to Portland to do whatever it is that you do there.” He was being reasonable, despite the throbbing on his front lobe and the needles that poked every inch of his body. Surely, Rex would see that.
“If you could just hear yourself, Trip. You sound just like him. It’s horrible.” Rex’s voice sounded strained.
“Sound like whom? What are you blathering on about, Rexy?” Why couldn’t Randolph just be reasonable this one time? Why must he always put up with such a huge amount of incompetence from his family?
“You sound like our fucking father. Even your tone of voice has changed. Keep it together, Trip; you have the best thing in the world, and she is working like a lunatic to save you.”
What? Something about what Rex said stuck Tristan as strange. What was the best thing in the world? He just needed to kill Ashlee and then he would remember, and then the pain would stop. Ashlee…her name brought a pain to his stomach and he doubled over. His love, his life, his mate. He wanted her, needed her to love him.
Obey me.
Oh no.
Kill her.
No.
Obey me. I am your Alpha.
No, Tristan shook his head and fell to his knees. He clutched his head.
Then you will suffer.
The pain started in his feet; a hundred needles attacked him, and then the burning started. He didn’t even know when he started screaming, but he was grateful when he lost consciousness again.
Ashlee knew the second Tristan awoke and the second he lost consciousness again. She blinked in frustration and bit her fingernail down to the skin. She was running out of fingernails to destroy.
Michael, Gabriel, Azriel, Theo—who was a little worse for wear after his fight with Tristan—Adeline, Clarinda, Cullen, and five other pack members who Michael called the top ‘dominants’ who were named, in seated order, Parker, Sean, Jack, Don, and Marlin.
Ashlee blinked again. “Tell me again.”
Cullen sighed. Ashlee didn’t need to read minds to know he rapidly lost patience with her. “The witch is in the facility with our former Alpha; she is virtually unobtainable.”
“Not true. We just haven’t figured out how to get her yet.” Ashlee was right and no one would tell her otherwise.
“Say you actually manage to get her out of there. She is a very powerful witch. How do you plan to subdue her?” Cullen’s tone started to annoy her.
Ashlee shook her head. “We’ll get to that. I want to focus on the getting her out of the building. Tell me about the facility.”
“It’s a medical building where they bring mental patients. They have doctors, none of the respectable variety, and they use magic to try to build wolf-infused super-soldiers and mercenaries that they can control by making Kendrick their Alpha who they are forced to obey. They still haven’t been able to duplicate our abilities. Whatever magical forces formed us, it is far above either their scientific or mystical capabilities.”
Ashlee stood up. “Do they have a website? How do they promote their shady doctors?”
Azriel grinned and jumped from his chair. “They do have a website.” He rushed to the corner of the room and took out a laptop computer Ashlee hadn’t noticed was stored there. “I’m the resident computer geek around here. I’ve been keeping track of their site since it went up about eight years ago.” Azriel carried the computer over to Ashlee and she looked down at the screen.
“The Institute for Personal Achievement and Growth. IPAG. He took the name Institute on purpose, because that’s what you guys call this place. Located fifteen miles southwest of Playa Del Carmen, Mexico—I’ve been there on vacation. He’s built this practically on top of the Mayan ruins.” Ashlee clicked on the ‘contact us’ button and moved to the next page of the site. We at the Institute are always anxious to hear from other medical professionals who might help us build and build our program. That was how she would get inside the damn building. “Michael, I need to call home.”
8
Tristan’s eyes flew open. He sniffed the air and smiled. Rex had abandoned his position by the door and there was someone else watching the outside. Her. Had they really been so stupid as to let Ashlee within five feet of him? He would break down the damn door to kill the bitch.
“Hello Ashlee, my love. How nice of you to come and visit with me.” He hoped he’d kept the snarl out of his voice, but really, what did it matter? She knew she was dead.
Maybe she’d come to accept the inevitable and just finish the whole excruciating process.
It would be nice to finally make
the burn that accosted his body cease.
“Tristan.” He thought he heard a sigh and a sob. Something inside him twisted at the strained sound in her voice. He pushed the feeling down, ignored it. “Rex was right; you don’t even sound like yourself anymore.” Why did everyone keep saying that? As far as he could tell, he’d never felt more himself, more alive. He was powerful and strong, finally not suppressed by meaningless traditions of morality and falsehoods.
“Blah-blah-blah, darling, smallest violin and all that.” Tristan swung his hand in the air in a dismissive gesture, annoyed that there was no one in the room to witness his dramatics. What good did it do to be so fabulous if no one was around to watch him do it?
“Listen to me, Tristan.” He heard her fingers scratch at the door. “I know you must still exist, deep down inside, even if it’s hidden in the depths of your soul, but I am leaving.”
Tristan snarled and he felt his eyes turn wolf. Excellent. He would take great pleasure in tearing out her throat. “There is nowhere you can go, Ashlee, that I will not find you. I will hunt you to the ends of the earth and through time if I have to, you belong to me. You’re mine to do with as I will.”
“I believe that is true, Tristan. I know you would always find me. You did promise me forever.” The sob returned in her voice and he thought he heard her scratch the outside of the door. Why did the sound of this infuriating woman’s tears cause his gut to clench like that? Wasn’t it enough that he was trapped in this room where invisible bees stung his body every other second? When would he finally have relief?
Kill her.
I am trying, my Alpha.
But he wasn’t trying. For some reason, he fought a battle and he didn’t know why.
Or what the end result would be—even if he won.
“I am going away so I can help you. When I come back, this will all be over. Please believe me.”