“Because I know how that event changed me. It altered who I was even more than the death of my parents did. I don’t want to see that happen to you, Summer. You have the most beautiful soul. I wouldn’t want you to sully it with revenge.”
Summer opened her mouth to answer him when a huge boom filled the room. The cottage they were in started to shake.
Danger. Her wolf screamed for the shift. Cullen wrapped his arms around her rolled the two of them off the bed onto the floor. A moment later the shaking stopped.
Cullen jumped up and ran to the window.
“The Institute’s on fire.” As he ran for the door, he shifted into his wolf. Without thought, Summer followed him and assumed her wolf form as well. Cullen had been right. It was easy to shift after the first time. In fact, she hardly noticed she’d done it. It felt like riding a bike. She just knew what she was doing but she couldn’t get over how well she could hear and how sharp her sense of smell was. The wind was on her back, the grass beneath her feet, and she was a part of all of it.
The Institute was on fire, and Ashlee, Tristan, and the babies were in there. She wouldn’t lose all of her family in one day.
Chapter Six
Cullen ran hard towards the burning building. What the hell just happened? He turned around abruptly, checking to see that Summer was still behind him. Her white fur shone in the darkness like a beacon, and he would gladly follow it home if he could.
Keep going. I’m fine.
He loved that she could communicate telepathically now. Her voice in his head was like a caress of satin on his senses. It felt so intimate to communicate with her that way. Of course, it would probably be the only way they were ever going to be intimate, so he would take what he could get.
Cullen turned his attention back to the problem at hand as he rounded the corner and surveyed the scene in front of him. Flames tore through the Institute. It had only been rebuilt for two years ago and flawlessly done at that. Windows smashed open with the heat of fire reaching extraordinary levels. Black, thick smoke pooled from the open doorways and bright orange flames were visible through the destroyed windows.
Cullen could only hope everyone had gotten out.
He shifted into his human form and spun around. Summer had reached the clearing, still as a wolf. She sat, head raised, eyes wide as she stared at the blaze. She was safe. He would have preferred her to stayed back at his cabin, but he’d known it was a fruitless argument and had not brought it up
He hoped he didn’t live to regret not making her stay behind.
He quickly did a headcount. Cullen knew he was the only member of the pack who didn’t live in the newly built Institute. Twenty-seven others stood in the clearing staring at the blazing inferno, their mouth open in various states of horror.
Since the addition of Ashlee to their midst three years earlier there were a total of thirty-one shifters living on the island. Four were still missing. Cullen’s heart fell into his stomach as he realized the Alpha and his wife were among the missing. Who else? He whirled around again as Summer, who had shifted back to her human form, grabbed onto his arm. He made himself stare at her face but god did he want to have the time to admire her naked form. He swallowed and pushed his eyebrows down as he concentrated.
“Ashlee, Tristan and their children, plus Rex and Theo.” She’d somehow read his mind and known what information he needed. He rushed towards the front door, Summer at his heels.
He turned to face her as the approached the building, the heat almost unbearable from the outside of the building. It had to be nearly fatal in the interior.
“Stay here.” He hoped she would listen to orders.
She snorted. “Like hell.” So much for his brief inkling of hope.
He opened his mouth to retort as Rex and Ashlee stumbled through the front door. Rex held Ashlee up by her arm and Ashlee held her newest child, the baby Virginia, close to her chest. The child wailed and Cullen sighed with relief. If she could scream, she hadn’t inhaled too much of the deadly black smoke.
“Summer,” Ashlee gasped as Summer reached out to embrace her older sister. Rex let go of Ashlee’s arm and the two women almost fell over. Rex collapsed on the ground, Michael and Gabriel surrounded him.
Cullen rushed to Summer and her sister. “Ashlee are you hurt? What happened? Where is Tristan?” He watched as Summer reached out and took Virginia from Ashlee. She held the baby close up against her chest.
“They came for the children.” Ashlee gasped between words, struggled for air. She was going to need help and he was relieved to see Azriel approach with an oxygen tank.
“Who came for the children?” He needed information before he could let her rest.
“These creatures, I’ve never seen anything like them. I can’t describe it. Dark, creatures with wings. They broke through the windows of our suite.”
Flying demons. He’d not seen them in two hundred years. There was more to the death of his parents than he’d let Summer know. Looked like it was time to break his promise to Kendrick of secrecy. It didn’t make any sense that he’d kept quiet this long. Truth was, he just didn’t want to talk about it. These were stories he’d hoped to take to his grave. He was the only one left alive who knew them. Damn.
Ashlee continued to try to talk. “Tristan and Theo, they went after the creatures. One of them has Braden. Oh god,” Ashlee sobbed but her cries were subdued due to her lack of oxygen. She gripped onto her sister harder. “They took my baby, Summer. Those creatures took Braden. Tristan and Theo are still in there battling one of those things in the flames.”
Cullen’s eyes bore into Summer’s, he could see questions in hers. His mate was too intuitive by far. “Stay here.” Maybe this time she’d listen. “Take care of your sister.”
Before he could change his mind, he ran through the flames into the front door. He felt Gabriel behind him and he whirled around. The wall behind them wasn’t yet engulfed and Cullen pushed Gabriel into it. The acrid smell of the fire singed the inside of his nose.
“What do you think you’re doing, Prince Gabriel?” He knew the titles infuriated them but he needed to remind the man who he was and what his station in life required.
“My brothers are fighting and those creatures took my nephew, what the hell else do you think I’m doing? I wasn’t even in the building when it happened. I need to help.”
The flames around them made crackling noises and he could hear a groan from the steel which, Cullen suspected, started to melt from the heat. Cullen coughed once into his hand and restrained Gabriel again.
“They’re fine. If they’re fighting those creatures, they are protected from the flames. Don’t ask me to explain it to you right now. But you are part of the Royal Six and Tristan is your Alpha. You, Rex, Michael, and Azriel have to live through this. If Tristan and Rex perish it will be a great tragedy but one of you will have to be Alpha. The child is fine, for now. The creatures won’t kill him, at least not yet.” He yanked Gabriel from the wall and pushed him towards the front door. “Stay outside. I’m the only one who can fight them and win right now. If it is earthly possible, I will bring Tristan and Rex back alive.”
Gabriel nodded although Cullen could see defiance in his eyes. He waited a moment until he was certain Gabriel had followed orders before he turned and ran. He’d made it a few feet before he had to stop. The further he got into the building, the thicker the black smoke became. He needed to get low which made his decision to call the shift onto himself an easy one. For a moment white light engulfed him as his body took on his wolf shape.