Page 12 of The Delta’s Rogue (Crescent Lake #4)

Two days.

Two days of dead ends, faded trails, and no gains.

The only consolation is that my brother hasn’t called or texted to check on our progress. Then again, he’s probably dealing with his own shit show at the pack. I don’t envy him.

At least he’s able to shower and sleep. I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck, and I’m sure I look like I have as well.

I scrub my hands over my face several times, slapping my cheeks in quick succession to wake myself up.

Sarina glances at me from the passenger seat of the pack SUV we sit in as we take a break. Her lips twitch as she tries not to laugh. “What’s wrong, Pretty Boy?” She pouts her lower lip teasingly. “Are you tired?”

“Fuck yes.” I groan, lowering my head to the steering wheel. “How are you not?”

She shrugs one shoulder. “I have stamina.”

My jaw ticks, but I don’t respond or glance at her.

We haven’t discussed what happened at The Black Door since we walked out the back exit together. I’m not sure why she hasn’t brought it up, but my reticence is twofold—we have a job to do, and it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

We got caught up in the moment and the club’s atmosphere. We fell too hard into our act. The heady, heavy eroticism surrounding us worked its way under our skin and into our veins, until it was too overwhelming and the only way out was through her sexual release.

A beautiful, intense sexual release like none I’ve witnessed.

Her body was so pliant and soft under my touch, and she knew exactly how to react to my dominance with minimal coaching.

I couldn’t have found a better female to share that moment with, and everything in me aches for it to happen again, even though I know it can’t.

But I crave her submission. I want to flaunt my dominance over her.

I want to dress her up in leather and lace, and parade her through the club for all to see.

Then keep her on the edge all night as I tease her while we watch others in the club, until she’s begging me to give her the release she so desperately needs—in full view of the club or tucked away in private.

It doesn’t matter to me where she is when she comes, as long as I get to play with her sweet little body again whenever I want.

I push that train of thought away. Too many times, over the hours since we left The Black Door, I’ve entertained different variations of that fantasy.

But I need to focus on this task, this hunt for Lennox, and not the sounds the little rogue next to me makes when she comes, no matter how fucking sexy they are or she is.

Fuck.

I lift my head from the steering wheel. “Sarina—”

“We found Lennox’s trail again,” Levi mindlinks me.

It’s probably for the best. I don’t know what I wanted to say to Sarina. I doubt anything good would have come from it, though.

I straighten and grab the door handle, opening it before I hear what else he has to say. “Where?”

Sarina perks up at my reaction, opening her door as well and following me out of the vehicle.

“Haven and Maya’s apartment building,” he says. “The trail leads in but not out. I think he’s still in there.”

I growl as I slam the door shut behind me.

“What?” Sarina rushes around the hood of the vehicle to me. “What is it?”

“Levi found Lennox,” I grumble, moving to the back of the SUV. “He went into Haven’s apartment.”

Sarina laughs. “What a dumbass. ”

“A dumbass who will face my brother’s wrath,” I amend, grabbing the bag with silver handcuffs from its hiding place. “Do you have your transport stone?”

She pats the pocket of her leather pants. “Yes.”

“Good. I’ll need it to get back to the pack quickly after we get him. It’s too much of a risk to drive him back to Crescent Lake.”

We take off through the city, staying in the alleys, Sarina following along behind me. When we reach the building, Levi is there in wolf form, along with four other wolves I don’t recognize and assume are Sarina’s nomad pack mates.

The largest wolf from her pack approaches her, his nose nudging her hand and his eyes shining with concern.

“What’s wrong?” I ask her.

She shakes her head. “Nothing. He’s just making sure I’m okay.”

I whip my head away, nostrils flaring and lycan growling in my mind at the display of concern, affection, and familiarity between her and the male from her pack. But I shake it off and shove the irritation down.

This isn’t the time for that. We have a scumbag lycan to catch.

“Riven said they’ll stay down here, in the alley,” Sarina says from behind me, “in case Lennox jumps out the window or something.”

Levi’s dark brown wolf nods at me, agreeing with the plan.

“Don’t kill him unless you have to,” I remind them all. “My brother will want to question him, and he can’t give us any answers if he’s dead.” I glance over my shoulder at Sarina. “Are you ready?”

She nods, and I gesture her forward with my chin, walking towards the service entrance without checking to see if she’s following.

I know she is. I’m hyperaware of her at all times.

I flip the keypad open, punch in the passcode—59226, the same security code my dad uses for every building we own—and yank the door open, holding it so Sarina can walk in first.

“Does your pack own every business in town?”

I scoff. “No. I told you we don’t own The Black Door.”

“That’s one business,” she points out, chuckling .

I smirk at her. “We own a decent portion. Silver Ridge and Amber Forest own some as well. It’s a tourist area, so it’s quite lucrative.”

We’re both silent as we enter the stairwell, creeping up towards the floor Haven and Maya live on. I stay in the front, guarding Sarina. Even though she’s more than capable of guarding herself, my lycan—and I—need her safe.

Her fingers lace through mine as we climb. It’s the first actual physical contact we’ve made since we left The Black Door two nights ago, and I pause on the landing, gazing down at her.

I’m fine , she mouths, answering the question on the tip of my tongue before I can ask it. Her hand tightens around mine, sending another tiny jolt of reassurance through me, before she lets go.

I stare at the now empty space between us, where our hands were joined only moments ago, and I frown.

Something nags at the back of my head, a thought snagging and itching in my brain like a worm niggling and working its way through an apple to its core.

I tear my gaze away, ignoring the seed trying to take root in my thoughts, as I creep down the hall to Haven and Maya’s apartment.

The door is ajar, and I gesture for Sarina to wait. It could be a setup. He might be waiting right on the other side of the door for us to come flying in, and then he’ll attack.

I lean forward and sniff while listening for his breathing, staying on the outside of the apartment and not crossing over the threshold. I hear him inside but not near the door. No, the sound I hear, accompanied by the scent drifting towards us, has me fuming and holding in a roar.

I glance behind me. Sarina’s lip curls in a silent snarl, a sign that she’s come to the same conclusion I have: Lennox is jacking off in Haven’s apartment.

I press my finger to my lips, reminding her to stay quiet. She follows me into the apartment, both of us squeezing through the propped-open door.

“Can you get up the fire escape?” I ask Levi as I glance around the living area of the apartment.

“I’m way ahead of you, Seb,” he replies. “I grabbed some shorts from the back of the SUV, and I’m waiting out here in case he tries to bolt this way.”

The panting and groaning from what I assume must be Haven’s room grows louder. Sarina wrinkles her nose and gags, covering her mouth. My jaw clenches as I try not to do the same.

It’s disgusting, what he’s doing, but at least he’s too distracted to notice we’ve entered the apartment.

I nod at Sarina. She returns the gesture and then, as one, we burst into Haven’s room.

Lennox sits on her bed, a shirt in his hand held near his nose as he grips his cock in the other, stroking it as quickly as possible. But as soon as he hears us, he bolts off of the bed with a growl, yanking his pants up and dropping the shirt.

I growl back and launch myself towards him, but Sarina is already across the room, her arm drawn backwards to throw a punch at him.

He evades her swing then elbows her nose.

She grunts and blinks, her hand reaching for her injury automatically, as Lennox rams into her with his shoulder, slamming her onto the bed and leaping off of her just as quickly.

She somersaults backwards onto the floor while Lennox grabs the window, throwing it open.

But before he can get onto the fire escape outside, Levi jumps through, clocking him straight in the jaw.

Lennox’s teeth knock together with such force that I hear them from across the room.

I lunge for him, wrapping my arms around his neck and squeezing.

He flounders and jerks in my arms like a dying fish.

I grin as I watch his desperate gasping and flailing, until he’s nothing more than an unconscious body in my grasp.

I drop him unceremoniously and grab the bag with the handcuffs, wincing as I pull them out without gloves.

It stings, but it’s only for a split second, and then they’re on his wrists, cutting him off from his lycan.

He may be unconscious, but that’s only temporary, and we need to take every precaution we can until he’s locked in a cell and strapped to a chair, with wolfsbane pumping through his veins.

“Grab him,” I tell Levi, pointing at Lennox, as I cross the room to Sarina. Blood streams out of her nose and her eyes water, but she stands straight and tall, staring up at me with a brave face. “Are you all right?” I take her cheeks between my hands to examine her injury.

“I’ll heal,” she says as I test the sensitivity of her nose with my thumb. She winces but grits her teeth.

“That’s definitely broken.” Still cupping Sarina’s delicate face in my massive hands, I glance at Levi over my shoulder. He has Lennox in his grasp and slams his face into the door as he lifts him from the floor, acting as if it was an accident. “Can you reset her nose?” I ask him.

He slams Lennox’s unconscious face into the door again and glances at me, but Sarina answers my question first.

“Rune can do it,” she says. “You two need to get Lennox back to your pack.” She reaches into her pocket and holds the transport stone out to me. “You go ahead. We’ll drive your vehicle back.”

I run my thumb along her cheekbone, eyes darting down to her lips once, before I let go of her and take the stone, backing towards Levi, who continues to smack Lennox’s face into the door.

I hold Sarina’s gaze until the last possible second, then I clap Levi on the shoulder. “We need him alive,” I remind Levi.

He sighs. “Fine.” His nose wrinkles, and he looks at Lennox’s undone pants and Haven’s shirt discarded on the floor. “Was he jacking off?”

“He was,” I confirm, tossing the stone in the air and catching it.

The world swirls around us, like it did the night I brought Haven to the pack from Moonlighters, and when everything settles, we’re just to the left of Sarina’s campsite.

“Let’s maybe…not tell my brother about that specific detail of how we found Lennox. For now.”

Levi nods his agreement as we head towards the cells on the edge of the pack territory.

Once we’re inside, I mindlink Wesley.

“We found Lennox.”