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.”
Chapter Eight
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.”
Oh, he knew she spoke the truth. This would all be over soon, but it wouldn’t be because she had gone anywhere.
“Ashlee, if you leave the Institute I will burn it to the ground and kill every person here until you return. Believe me because I say that with every fiber in my body, no one here will be safe if you leave.” He threw himself against the door that blocked him from Ashlee. A scream of rage tore from his throat when it didn’t budge.
“Excuse me, Ashlee.”
Whose voice was that? Tristan sniffed the air. Parker, one of the elite dominant guards. What was Parker doing here? The man had no business being near Ashlee. He rushed the door again.
“The Aunts have requested your presence on the observation deck.”
Ashlee coughed. Was she getting sick? Why did he care?
He heard Ashlee through the door. “The observation deck?”
The roof. Why hadn’t he ever taken the girl on a tour of the building? Oh well, no time for that now that she was soon to be dead. Too bad, really.
She needs to be eliminated.
I know, my Alpha, I’m working on it.
“I will stay and guard Prince Tristan until one of the other Royals can get here.”
Parker still called him Prince Tristan. He would work that to his favor as soon as Ashlee left. Then he’d find her, finish this, stop the pain and get back to things he enjoyed, whatever they might be.
Ashlee stepped through the doors of the observation deck and sucked in her breath. It was an arboretum. Plants of all shapes lined the walls and the ceilings. Exotic flowers with colors she had never seen before, except in dreams, grew to heights above her head.
She whirled around in a momentary bliss. The whole room felt peaceful, serene and left a smile on her face.
“Out here, darling girl.”
Ashlee walked towards the sound of Clarinda’s voice. She walked the entire length of the room until she came out the door on the other side. She stepped through it and onto the roof of the Institute. Clarinda and Adeline stood in the center of a stone circle. Ashlee opened her mouth to ask what they wanted but changed her mind. They would tell her when they were ready. Tristan’s soul had given her new insight into the best way to communicate with members of their pack.
Ashlee glanced around at the view that lay out before her. She could see the whole island, the woods followed by the abandoned cottages. The leaves on the trees ranged from purple to orange, and the cold chill told Ashlee the trees would soon lose their colors and become bare in preparation for the winter. Off in the distance, she saw two islands; both appeared uninhabited with no houses or buildings visible on them. Each island couldn’t be more than a mile off the western coast of Westervelt.
“Who owns those two islands?” Ashlee pointed to the landmasses, but the Aunts didn’t even turn around to look at where she indicated.
“We do, of course. Couldn’t have anyone living or working so close to us. It would be dangerous to be discovered.”
Adeline beckoned her and Ashlee joined them inside the stone circle. Anxiety soured her stomach. Ashlee didn’t know if it was from the upcoming trip to Mexico, or because she stood in a stone circle with two women so mystically powerful, they’d managed to resist the primal urge to follow their mates to death for three decades.
“Sister and I have been discussing this problem of the witch. Truthfully, we thought we had eliminated this spell long ago when we put the wards on the island. We didn’t take into account the spell was actually here on the island and not sent into the island from abroad. Your mother could mate with your father with no problems because they did not reside here or ever set foot here together. Tristan and you performed the mating ritual here, so Tristan succumbed.” Adeline’s eyes bore into Ashlee’s hard. The older woman cocked her head to the right as if she thought of something she needed to consider.