I made my way through the tunnel until I heard them. The noises coming from ‘the room’ made me hesitate. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see it. But when I heard her scream, I couldn’t stop myself from kicking in the door. What I saw stopped me in my tracks.
He’d chained her to a board with her arms and legs splayed so she looked like an X. She wore very little because Roland had cut or whipped her clothing from her body. The most recent wounds across her torso were already healing.
They were so busy neither of them noticed me. Roland whipped her again and leaned over her to grab her jaw as he spoke to her. “I told you never to question me. And what do you do? You question me in front of our guest! What more can I do to teach you how to act properly?”
After hearing about the childhood she had kept from me, I imagine that last question was something her parents had said to her often while they punished her for not behaving the way they wanted her to. To my surprise though, she smiled and turned her head to lick his hand.
“Good. Good, Roly. You’re getting better,” she said, her voice held a sense of pride that thoroughly confused me. “Now let me down.”
He undid her restraints, and she lowered to her hands and knees.
“Get ready,” he said.
“Enough,” I said when he knelt behind her.
I felt an odd sensation in my chest but ignored it as I focused on the couple.
“Stella, stand up and get dressed, please.”
She smiled and moved closer to me. “Why, Ember, are you shy? I never would have pegged you as someone to be uncomfortable around nudity. We are shifters after all.” She was so close to me her breath tickled my ear.
I turned to look her in the eye, putting our faces less than an inch apart. “Fuck you, Stella.”
Before I realized what she was doing, she closed the gap between us and ran her tongue over my lips. She moaned and slipped her hand around to my ass. “Don’t think I haven’t fantasized about that, but now’s not the time,” she said with a pout as she turned back to Roland.
She stopped to kiss him, but when his hand slipped between her legs, she smacked him and shoved him away. “I told you not in front of her,” she said, taking the whip from him and stepping back while he moved toward me.
“Ember, you really should have let this go. You really should have left me alone.” She was running her hand along the whip as she spoke. “You just can’t stop thinking of yourself as the savior. The hero. Well, you’re going to learn you can’t always win.”
I waited for Roland to reach out for me before letting my wolf’s teeth grow. I bared them and growled when his hand touched my arm. He yelped and jumped backward. I smiled, still letting my teeth show. It was a trick I’d learned after my dad died. As far as I knew, it wasn’t something any other shifter could do, but as usual, I’m not like the others.
“Roly, stop being a pussy and get her,” Stella said with a snap of the whip.
“Y-yes, M-mistress,” he said with a whimper.
Mistress? I tilted my head suddenly seeing this in a new light. Is Stella the real master of all of this? I thought as I studied Roland. His bottom lip was twitching, and his eyes were glassy.
“Holy shit, are you about to cry?” I asked him. The sensation in my chest grew stronger. I absently rubbed at it trying to make it go away. Stella’s eyes locked on my hand as it moved in little circles over my breastbone.
She met my eyes for a second before huffing out a sigh and slashing the whip across Roland’s back. “What have I told you about crying? It’s a weakness. You need to be strong if you want to be with me. You can’t crumble in the face of danger. Be a man and GET HER!”
“Wow,” I breathed. “I had this relationship dynamic all wrong. What the hell, Stella?”
“What? You really thought I didn’t know he’s not my mate. I knew that story he told me was bullshit, but he does whatever I tell him to. Can’t I have this one for myself without you interfering? That’s all I wanted.”
I shook my head. “You can have whatever you want. I just don’t understand why you played Little Miss Innocent all these years. I wouldn’t have cared or judged you. Why do we have to be enemies?”
She changed back to Mistress Stella. “You made us enemies. I was content keeping things the way they were. But you keep trying to mess with my plan. And you think you would have been okay with all this?” She gestured to the board and tray of various toys. “You think you would have understood?”
“Why would I care how you get off? If everyone involved is willing, I don’t give a shit what you like. What I do judge you for is drugging and kidnapping people. That I will never be okay with or understand.”
Before she could respond I grabbed Roland, twisting his arm behind his back, and holding him in front of me. With my free hand, I reached into his pocket for the syringe I knew was there.
“Tell me where they are. Where are the shifters, Roland?” I asked, pressing the tip of the needle into his neck. When he didn’t answer, I leaned in close with my wolf’s teeth and snapped my jaws. “Tell me. Now.”
“There’s a door over there,” he pointed to the board. “It leads to them.”
Stella let out a howl as she charged us. I dropped Roland so I could back up a few steps and brace for a fight. But she wasn’t after me. She wanted him. She shifted and pounced on him, pinning him down to tear out his throat.
He was still breathing—kind of—as the blood flowed from him. Shifters can heal from some of the most horrific injuries, and if given the time, Roland would heal from this. It would be hell, torture even, but it would heal.
Stella shifted back, licking Roland’s blood from her lips. “Now. Where were we?”