Chapter 23

Philip’s POV

"Go after Royal," I said.

I did not expect the afternoon to collapse like this. I usually stayed out of it when Ripley and Robbie started poking at Royal. We all traded insults. It was how the five of us functioned. But Royal had actually snapped this time. He stormed out with a look in his eye that made me regret staying silent.

Ripley took a step toward the door. "I will get him."

"No," I said. I met his gaze with enough weight to make him freeze. "You are staying right here."

Ripley backed down. He knew that tone. He looked at the floor while Robbie stayed quiet beside him. I was the Alpha of this pack, but it went deeper than a title. These four had given themselves to me completely when we became mate-brothers. They were bound to my will. When I stopped joking around, they did not dare to push back.

Still, they were my friends before they were my subordinates. I liked to give them room to breathe. I only pulled the leash when things spiraled out of control. This was one of those moments.

Rory sighed and walked toward his car. He stopped at the door and looked back at us over his shoulder. "Fine. I will go. But if that girl is dead from her allergy, please move the body before I get back."

He spoke with his usual chilling calm. He hopped into the driver's seat and pulled away.

His words jolted me. That girl. I could not let her die yet. Not until we used her to save Rosamund. She was a tool, and a broken tool was useless.

"Call Romilly. Now," I barked at Ripley. I turned my attention to Robbie. "Grab the medical kit. Meet me in her room."

I did not wait to see if they moved. I turned and ran into the house.

When I burst into her bedroom, I stopped dead. She was curled into a tight ball on the mattress. She looked tiny and gray.

"Damn it," I hissed.

I jumped onto the bed and rolled her onto her back. I pressed two fingers to her neck. Her pulse was a thready, weak flutter. Red hives crawled up her skin like fire. Her chest was not moving. She was not drawing any air at all. If she were a normal human, she would have been a corpse minutes ago. Only her pureblood genes were keeping her heart beating.

I patted her cheek, trying to get a reaction. Her skin felt cold. Her lips were turning a dusty blue. "Hey. Wake up. Can you hear me?"

Robbie walked in. He did not look rushed. He looked bored.

"Hurry up," I snapped, moving out of his way. "Fix her before she stops breathing."

Robbie knew his way around a needle. He had finished three years of medical school before he dropped out six years ago. Back then, he was the one who stitched us up after we ran into rivals or pushed ourselves too hard in training. He moved to the bedside and opened the kit. He did not show a hint of worry. He acted like he was fixing a piece of furniture, not a person.

He filled a syringe with a clear liquid. With a steady hand, he drove the needle into her thigh and depressed the plunger. Then he pulled an oxygen mask from the bag. He fit it over her nose and mouth and began to pump the manual bag.

A second later, her body jerked. She let out a wet, hacking gasp. It sounded like someone coming up for air after being held underwater. She started to breathe in shallow, shaky bursts.

I let out a breath I did not know I was holding. I needed to finish Rosamund’s treatment quickly. If I did not, one of these idiots was going to kill this girl by accident before we were done with her.

Ripley walked into the room. "Romilly is stuck in surgery. He said he could send an assistant, but I told him no."

"She is stable for now," I said.

We did not allow strangers in this house. Only Romilly was allowed past the gates. After the disaster six years ago, our circle had shrunk to almost nothing. We trusted our own and nobody else.

I looked at Robbie. He was still watching the girl with a blank expression. "You caused this mess. You are going to be the one to look after her."

I looked at both of them, making sure they saw the steel in my eyes. "Neither of you touches her. No more 'accidents.' We need a pup to save Rosamund, and that requires her to be healthy. Once we have what we want, I do not care if you set her on fire. But until then, she is off-limits."

They did not argue. They knew I was serious. I turned and walked out, leaving them with the girl.

Robbie’s POV

I watched Philip walk out. The door had barely clicked shut before Ripley reached over and slapped my shoulder. He had a nasty grin on his face.

"Good luck playing nurse to the corpse," Ripley joked. "Try not to catch her bad luck while you are at it."

I looked at the girl on the bed and then back at him. "We are all going to be deep in her eventually. No one is coming out of this clean. You can join us in hell whenever you like."

Ripley winked. "I will stick to her mouth. I will leave the rest for you to break."

He laughed and walked out, leaving me in the silence of the room. I stood by the bed and stared down at her. She looked peaceful while she slept. It bothered me. She did not deserve to sleep well after what she did to us. She had turned our lives into a wreck, yet here she was, resting.

I thought about what she told Royal. She claimed she was framed.

I felt a surge of disgust. Royal was soft. He was always the first one to fall for a pretty face and a sad story. He actually believed her act. I knew better. I remembered how she had played Rowena. I remembered how she had fooled all of us back then. She was a liar down to her bones.

I did not care about her reasons. Asking 'why' was a waste of time. But she was a goldmine of information. If she was clever enough to steal our secrets, she definitely knew the secrets of our enemies.

If I could crack her open, I could get the upper hand on the Epsilon pack. They were just as strong as we were. Every bit of intel shortened the war and saved our men.

I squeezed my hands into fists. My blood felt cold. I did not need to be kind to get answers.

Tonight, I was going to make her talk. I would find out why she betrayed us for Royal’s sake, but then I would move on to the real work. I would pull every secret out of her head until there was nothing left.

I did not care what methods I had to use. By the time I was finished, she would be lucky if she was still alive.

"Wake up," I whispered to the empty room.