I looked up at Isaac wondering what he thought Philip’s wolf was. But the wolf in question yipped and started moving through the tunnel. When we turned a corner, he was sitting in front of a door. He looked at us with a huge wolf smile and then back at the door with a whine.
When we approached, Philip ran back to his clothes. Before I could even reach for the doorknob, he was already dressed and standing next to Isaac.
“Damn, you’re fast,” I said.
He looked at me with a grin. “I am when it’s called for, but I know how to take my time.” Liam glared at him, and he laughed. “Oh, Mr. Fraser, I won’t screw your mate.” He grinned again. “Unless she wants me to.”
“Mate?” Isaac said before Liam could respond.
“Uh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot to mention that with being kidnapped and all,” I said pointedly to end any further discussion. Now was so not the time.
“I assume you smelled Stella behind this door?” he asked Philip.
“Yes. She is in there with the runt.”
I took that to mean she was in there with Roland. “All right let’s see what’s behind door number one,” I said as I turned the knob and flung open the door.
It opened to a large bedroom. They’d set cameras up along one side of the room, as well as around the bed. Roland was kneeling in the center of the room with Stella standing over him.
His head hung like a boy being scolded, which is what was going on. She berated him for telling me where the shifters were. I assume he’d only recently finished healing if she was still yelling at him about that. Her attention was so focused on him she hadn’t noticed us yet.
I cleared my throat.
She froze, slowly lifting her gaze to me. “Roly, we have company,” she said as she smacked him. “Get up and greet our guests.”
He did as she told him to. When he faced us, I saw his throat hadn’t fully healed but wasn’t an open wound anymore.
He moved to a table and grabbed the dart gun Stella had in the training room.
“Bane darts,” I said to let the others know to be careful.
“Philip,” Liam barked.
I wouldn’t have believed what happened next if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. I watched Philip pull his lips back to reveal fangs that looked nothing like a wolf’s. Roland screeched and ran away, but Philip was faster than any shifter I’d ever seen and pounced on him.
For some reason, he shot me a huge smile before sinking his teeth into Roland’s neck.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from Philip. He’d torn into Roland’s neck like it was a turkey leg. When he pulled his face away, it was covered in blood and Roland was white as a sheet. His body fell to the floor with a sickening thud.
“What in the actual fuck?” I breathed.
Philip smiled at me again. “You look shocked. Have you never seen a tribreed before?”
A tribreed? I thought staring at Philip. What the hell was a tribreed?
He licked his lips and winked at me before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, smearing blood across his face. Then he stripped and shifted. His wolf took a moment to lick its bloody paw before turning to Roland’s limp body. He sniffed at him a few times before clamping his jaws around Roland’s neck. I watched in horrific fascination as Philip tore his throat out and then ate it.
“Holy shit,” I said. I looked around to see Liam and Isaac had their attention on Stella.
She glanced at Roland whose head was now off to the side. He also had a hole in his torso. Philip’s wolf, or whatever it was, was having a little too much fun. When the wolf realized Stella was watching him, he turned to face her with Roland’s blood dripping from its jaws.
“Oh, no. What have you done,” she droned before grinning. “Eh, he was so weak I was getting bored with him anyway.” She smiled at Isaac and sashayed her way over to him. She ran a finger from his forehead, down his face, over his chest to the waistband of his jeans.
“Now you, my old friend, you’re strong.” She slid her hand down to cover him through his pants. “Mmm, oh yeah, we could have been happy together. I think you’d agree, we had fun with each other. Too bad you were too into Ember.”
He pulled her hand away and shifted his hips to readjust himself. She pouted up at him before turning to me. “Ember always wins. Not this time. You won’t win this time.”
I didn’t know what she meant by that. But it didn’t matter because within seconds a boom echoed through the room, followed by the thunderous sound of numerous feet running toward us.