Rage and fear slammed into me, and my wolf threatened to come. I did my best to comfort her, but she was pushing at me. “I need to run,” I said through my teeth as I fought her.
“Go with her,” I heard Liam say as I ran out the back door, shifting before my feet crossed the threshold.
My wolf turned to the one running beside her. It was Philip’s. My wolf wasn’t sure what to do with herself. When the shift happens because of a stressor it’s usually because of an attack or threat of some kind. The threat in this case wasn’t here, so she paced the yard wondering what to do.
Philip’s wolf growled and swatted at her. When she just stared at him, he flew at her, hitting her in the side. It wasn’t hard, but it was enough to get her attention. He was inviting her to playfight or spar to work off her stress.
She snarled and charged at him. They stalked each other, pounced on each other, and wrestled around on the ground. Ten minutes later she was calmer and licked his face to tell him she was done.
He nuzzled her and licked her back. On a yip he ran into the woods and brought back a rabbit. She sat on her haunches and waited. He dropped the rabbit and nudged it toward her with his nose. He was giving her a gift. She nudged it back a little. And getting her point, they shared the tiny meal.
He yipped again and twirled in a circle. She gave him a little yip in return. My wolf had a new best friend. Henry figured that out too and screeched his annoyance from the trees. She looked up at him and gave a little reassuring howl before going back to the house.
Once she was in my room, I shifted and took a long shower thinking everything over. Shit had really gotten fucked recently. I kept hoping I’d wake up in my bed in my tiny house and realize it was all a weird nightmare. I knew that wasn’t the case, but a girl could hope.
Philip was a surprising turn of events. A tribreed. A human-ish-shifter-vampire all in one. It was truly fascinating. He seemed happiest in wolf form, and I couldn’t blame him. There was something freeing about not being human for a while. It was always a relief from life to run through the woods on four, furry legs.
Of course, the worst of everything was finding out the truth about Stella. My heart had cracked because of it. And I couldn’t help but feel guilty for not paying closer attention to her as we’d grown up. It’s a selfish, arrogant thought, but I couldn’t help thinking, if I’d known I could have helped her in some way.
Liam gently tugged on our bond. I responded in kind and within two minutes he was stepping into the shower behind me. He moved a hand around my waist, over my belly, down between my legs. I leaned back to kiss him, this arched my back and pressed my behind against his erection. We moaned in shared pleasure when I rubbed against him.
His mouth moved to my neck and his hands gripped me by the waist. He walked us forward and took my hands in his to press them against the wall in front of me. I pushed my hips back and moaned again as he entered be from behind. One hand moved to my breast, and the other went back to massaging my clit as he moved inside me.
On a growl, he grabbed me by the waist again. His movements grew frantic as he thrust into me harder and faster. I used the wall to push back into him, urging him on until the delicious pressure built in my core. The faster he moved, the stronger the pressure grew until the climax hit so hard, I bit my arm to stop my scream.
“Damn, Mr. Fraser, what got into you?” I asked as I turned in his arms, draping mine over his shoulders.
“I needed to work off some stress, and what better way than shower sex?”
I kissed him deeply and thoroughly. “I want you to know, I’m here for you anytime you’re stressed out.”
A laugh escaped him, and he tightened his hold on me. “Ah, Red, that’s so thoughtful of you.”
“What can I say, I’m pretty selfless.” I shrieked when he dragged me under the water and spun me around.
“You hungry?” he asked.
“Yeah. Phil’s wolf shared a snack with mine, but it wasn’t enough.”
He tilted his head. “Snack?”
“Yeah, his wolf brought mine a rabbit. She shared it with him. It was adorable, and I think they may be best friends.”
He laughed again as he passed me a towel. We dried off, dressed, and jogged down the stairs when the smell of food hit us. Philip had the kitchen staff make us rabbit stew. I grinned at him as I took the first bite. “Want to join us?”
“Nah, I don’t eat with the boss.” He chuckled when Liam growled at him.
By the time we finished eating it was almost time to head out. Isaac had left to finish some things at his work sites but had since returned. Liam had some of his men check our cars for explosive devices, but they hadn’t found anything. They also checked the brakes and gave them a good once over just to be safe.
They would check them each morning and anytime we left them for more than an hour. It was an annoying way to live, but I wasn’t putting it passed Stella to have my car rigged to blow up the second I turned it on.
We pulled up to the fairgrounds at ten on the dot. Liam’s men were already there. We split up into teams. Liam, Philip, Isaac, and I joined a couple of Liam’s men to search ‘the room’ while the rest went to the woods behind the Tunnel of Love. Whatever Stella was up to had to be on the property somewhere.
Someone had cleaned the room, but otherwise it looked the same. Roland’s body and any evidence of it ever having been there was long gone. On the surface, the room looked like it had four solid walls. But the back wall, behind the board on which Stella had been bound, had a section that sounded different from the rest when I knocked on it.
“Hey guys, I think I may have found something,” I called out.
Liam’s men came over to examine the wall. “There must be a trigger somewhere,” one of them said.