BirthDate (La Patron, the Alpha's Alpha) (17 page)
Read BirthDate (La Patron, the Alpha's Alpha) Online
Authors: Sydney Addae
Tags: #paranormal romance, #paranormal wolf romanance, #interracial shifter romance, #la patron series, #silas knight, #interracial family shifter romance, #wolf shifter romance
BOOK: BirthDate (La Patron, the Alpha's Alpha)
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Looking ahead in the dim corridor, she exhaled. “We’re close, the hallway make a left.” The inability to share a link with Tyrese mystified her. She had always been able to link with anyone she chose. They had spent a few moments earlier trying without success to relink.
He nodded and continued walking slowly waving his scanner from side to side and along the walls. Large, outdated black and white safety posters appeared on the walls in no specific order. Her captors never missed a trick to keep them clueless to the real world. There were no televisions or radios for entertainment. If she hadn’t gone on assignments, stayed in hotels, been given the appropriate wardrobes and taught a multitude of languages, she would be just as clueless as the residents talking with Alpha Samuel.
They stopped short of the hallway they needed to travel. Tyrese pointed to a pair of steel double doors. Swallowing hard, fighting memories she wished had died when she had, she whispered. “Surgery areas. I am not going in there.”
“No. No, of course not.” He turned and wrapped a comforting arm around her. She tensed for a moment. Uncertainty rocked her. Should she take the offered embrace or not? Accepting his care would make the horrors all the more real. She glanced over his shoulder and saw the doors again. Closing her eyes, she held on to him and breathed him in to free her nostrils of the stench of remembered surgeries.
“They do unspeakable things in there,” she whispered as the horrors of her confinement slipped from the vault in her mind and replayed in living color.
His large palm stroked her hair. She squeezed her eyes tight to keep out the visions, but they continued on a loop. Too many times she had been wheeled through those doors on a gurney, drugged and prepped for experimental surgery. Behind those doors, they had turned her into a monster with metal parts. They played with her mind, stole her memories and her identity.
Her body shook until she lay limp in his arms, terrified because she could not stop the shudders running through her body. Or the tears that overflowed from her eyes and ran down her cheeks.
“It’s over now, Asia. It’s over. They can’t trace you anymore. You still have your skills, in time your memory will be better than ever. Shhhh, they can’t hurt you anymore. We won’t let them. Plus, you don’t know my mama, she don’t play when it comes to hers. And she considers you one of hers. So don’t worry, we have your back.” He continued rubbing her until she pulled it together and wiped her face with her palm.
Ducking her head, she forced herself to step away even though she wished she could linger in the shelter of his arms. They were on the clock and needed to get Leon and the others over here to go through the rooms to search for anything of value.
“Thanks, sorry about that. The concrete floors, block walls, even the smell of the place take me back to a place I swore I would never return.” She wiped her hand on the jumpsuit. “I am nobody’s victim, Rese. Never again.” Certainty rose in her chest, she refused to allow anyone to use her again. For some reason the Goddess gave her a fresh start, she would make it count this time.
He wiped her tear with his thumb and stared into her eyes. “Never again, Asia,” he whispered.
She nodded, pleased that he got it. He got
her
. They were similar in temperament, and would make a good team. Unfortunately he believed her mate was someone important and somewhere on the horizon. She remembered the day he told her that tidbit. If he hadn’t wanted her to smell something she would have laughed him out of her small cell. It wasn’t until she realized he had stopped coming to see her as often that she realized he was serious. Tyrese was no lightweight. If he believed her mate was nearby, then she had to take the possibility seriously. But not now. Not when she needed to focus on the job of clearing the path for the team and retrieving her legacy.
“Yeah.” Inhaling, her gaze flicked over the doors that warped her past and then looked toward the opening to the hall where pieces of her future was stored.
Asia and Tyrese turned the corner to the wing where she stowed her box in the janitor’s closet. She wondered if Jan was okay? Was he one of the residents in the room with Samuel? She hoped the kind, older man could finally take time off from work and just chill.
Tyrese led the way with his scanning device. Tapping his back lightly, she pointed to the small alcove where the door was located.
He nodded and continued scanning past the doorway and across the hall. Her heart raced in her chest with each step he took. This section of the lab was further away from the fall site and was in good condition. That information made her pause and look around carefully. There was a thick ledge at the top of the wall. All the years she had lived here, she never noticed how much thicker the walls were in this area.
Dread skittered down her back as she continued to stare up at the thick wall. “Tyrese, we need to leave,” she whispered backing away from the closet door.
“What’s wrong?”
“Everything.” She turned and glanced behind him. The eerie silence made goose bumps rise across her flesh.
His head swiveled, looking behind and then in front of him before taking her hand. Seconds later they moved in the direction they had come. “I called for backup, Rone and Leon are on their way.”
The hairs rose on her back. Her leg struggled to move, one in front of the other. Biting her lip, she tried to tell him it was too late. Her enemies were in the corridor with them. Pinpricks of awareness rose on her arm and legs. The bastards had found her. Instead of speaking her thoughts, she screamed as excruciating pain from the metal in her leg ripped through her, snatching her breath.
One moment she held Tyrese’ hand, the next she was flying backward seeing his startled gaze as the wall behind them opened, gobbled her and slammed close. A bulked Tyrese running after her was the last thing she saw.
Her back hit a soft wall, as she started sliding down her arms were jerked upward. Cold metal surrounded her wrists. Seconds later her ankles were bound as well. Fear robbed her of reason and she bucked and writhed on the padded surface trying to break free. How had they found her? She continued fighting to be free until her wolf whined, telling her to stop and pay attention. From the first time they put her under the microscope to now, every action and reaction was recorded. She could not believe how quickly she had fallen back into the old habit of fighting for release. Somewhere, someone was watching with a timer and recorded how long she struggled. More importantly, that she had not been able to break free of her restraints. Damn it. She had just given them information they did not need to have.
Never again. The refrain continued rolling through her mind, strengthening her. Closing her eyes, Asia focused on the building. She would tell Mistress anything that would expedite her freedom.
There was nothing. No sounds. That couldn’t be right. Someone was nearby, she knew that as well as she knew her name. Focusing harder, she sent her senses further, through the thick walls. Pushing, she saw the grainy concrete that proved just how thick the wall actually was before finally seeing the floor and wall on the other side. Elated that her powers were intact, she searched for her captors. She inhaled. Two scents were familiar, but she could not immediately place names. There was another, but it was so different she was not sure if he was human or wolf or other.
“Why did she stop?” A female voice asked in the distance.
Asia turned, searching for the person who spoke. The voice was unfamiliar. Floating downward, she noticed four outlined bodies. One shape was a bit shorter than her and appeared to have a slim muscular build, but his scent was strange, almost appealing. She strained to make out his facial features but could see nothing more than the grainy outline. The male stood next to a feminine shape, tall and slender with a long ponytail.
“Asia?
” Jasmine called.
“Yes, Mistress?”
She expected to hear from Mistress earlier and wondered what took so long.
She understood her Mistress did not know what else to ask, but that question was…lame. Most who are abducted are not okay.
I am stuck on a padded wall somewhere in the lab
.”
She turned to see the outline of a familiar voice and scent. Deets. He was one of the first doctors, pervert in disguise, who had worked on her. She hadn’t seen him in over fifteen years and wondered why he was here.
“Can you tell me anything that will help us find you?”
Jasmine asked sounding worried.
“Four? Are you still in the lab?”
“Are you sure she regenerated? Perhaps this is her old form?” the odd man asked.
Asia wondered why the stranger made Deets uneasy, fear wafted off him in waves. She did not pick up malice or anything of that nature from the stranger. What were he and the woman doing there?
“Everything inside her shut down. Her heart, her mind, everything. There was no signal that she was alive. That is the only thing we are sure of. If Bruce hadn’t suggested we wait to see if she came for her box we would never have caught her,” Deets said.
“Good job…sorry your name again?” the male stranger asked.
“Bruce, Sir.”
“You work here?”
“Yes, Sir. I’m the janitor. No one pays attention to the cleaning staff. We see a lot that goes on.”
Asia gasped at the voice of the janitor she had thought of as a friend over the years. She recognized his scent, but didn’t know his name was Bruce, she had called him Jan, short for janitor. The older man had been a hallmark in the lab for as longs as she remembered. She couldn’t count the times they had talked about meaningless things or he held her hand offering comfort when someone they knew passed. It took a moment to grasp that he had been the one who sold her out.
“I… think so, Mistress. They have my box, they used it as bait.”
“I am sorry, Asia. We will still find your past, you can count on that. The boys are tearing the place apart searching for you. I told them there were four people holding you.”
Asia smiled. Only a mother would call Tyrone and Tyrese boys.
“We’ve been using him for years as an extra pair of eyes and ears around here. He’s given us invaluable information, a great source. Her hiding her box in his closet is just one thing. Go get my equipment, Bruce,” Deets said.
With a heavy heart, she watched the man who had once consoled her leave the room. His betrayal cut deep. There were few people in the world who knew her abhorrence to unnecessary violence and brutal acts. He had been a caregiver of those secrets. From the first time he had found her lying next to the toilet after emptying her stomach when she returned from an assignment, he had made himself available whenever she returned. Most times he shut down the area for cleaning so she would have privacy and wait with her until she was done. Sometimes he held her head, others he simply handed her a cloth to wipe her mouth. They never talked during those times. He was just there in case she needed anything.
“What was in the box?” the woman asked.
“Newspaper clippings, an old bracelet, a picture. Just bits and pieces she collected over the years. Would you like to see them, Sir?” Deets asked.
Asia snapped to attention and almost lost her focus. Newspaper clippings? Bracelet? What picture?
“Yes. I’m interested in seeing what was important enough that she would stay down here when she was free. It must be important. Are you preparing for the tests?” the woman answered in a low cultured voice. Asia tried to place the accent, but couldn’t.
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