Page 6 of The Delta’s Rogue (Crescent Lake #4)

“I have a question, if you don’t mind,” Sarina says.

I pause my perusal of the computer’s files and security footage, glancing at her with a raised brow. She doesn’t acknowledge me or look at me. She just continues searching through the filing cabinet next to the office door.

I shrug. “I don’t mind.” My lips twitch as I turn my focus back to the computer. “Although I get the feeling you’d ask me anyway, even if I did mind.”

She laughs softly. “Probably.”

The room grows quiet again, and I wait for her to ask me her question. The silence stretches, and I school my features as I browse the security footage feed, resisting the urge to clear my throat or prompt her to continue.

“You’re waiting for your mate?” she asks finally, her voice lacking her usual spirited sass.

I blink and snap my head towards her again. That’s not at all what I thought she’d ask me.

She stares at me with an expectant, wide-eyed gaze, her eyes tinted with an uncharacteristic vulnerability and curiosity.

I pause the footage and rest my elbows on the desk, glancing around the clean, organized office. Our contacts from law enforcement already took Lou’s body, and they’ll be back later—after I’m done searching for the original security footage file—to finish scrubbing the office of any evidence .

Nolan, the computer programming hacking genius that he is, would be better suited for this job. But he has his own concerns right now, guarding our future luna. I’ll ask him as a last resort.

“I am,” I say.

Her head tilts to the side, and she crosses her arms. “Why?”

“Because I want to?”

She laughs and shakes her head, shutting the cabinet drawer and plopping into the chair she occupied while I questioned Lou.

“But why?” she asks. “It’s very…unusual for us.

As shifters, we have a naturally higher sex drive.

It’s not like it’s frowned upon to have sex before we meet our mate and settle down.

The second the mate bond snaps into place, all previous relationships no longer matter.

They are little more than a distant memory. ”

I nod, chin in my hand and eyes on the computer.

“It’s not so much that I’m waiting for my mate.

Not specifically,” I amend as I lean back against the chair with a sigh.

“I want to be sure,” I tell her. “I want to know that the one I’m with is someone who truly understands me and my needs, who is my match and my equal in every way.

Whether that is my mate or someone else remains to be seen, but if our mates are meant to be our perfect match, the other half of our soul, then it would follow that my mate’s… desires…would align with mine.”

“So you just use your hand?”

I smirk at her but say nothing.

“And you’re a virgin?”

“I’m a virgin, but I’m not a saint.”

She huffs out a small laugh. “That’s all very un-alpha like.”

“I’m not an alpha,” I remind her, crossing my arms.

“You may not be the alpha or the future alpha, but you’re still an alpha. A lycan. You could take over a pack or start your own if you wanted.”

“No.”

“No?”

I shake my head, reaffirming my response.

“Why not?”

I grit my teeth and return my gaze to the security footage files.

“You’d be good at it,” she presses. “You have the instincts and the charisma. You—”

“No,” I say again, the hint of a growl behind my words.

She presses her lips together and drops her chin to her chest. “Sorry,” she whispers.

I nod. It’s the only reply I trust myself to give her right now. I’m not sure I can respond without snapping or figuratively biting her head off, so I keep my mouth shut and turn back to wading through the files.

We descend into silence once more. Her eyes scan the room, and I search for something to say to switch topics but come up short. Luckily, I don’t have to find a mundane subject to chat about because Levi mindlinks me.

“We found a fresh trail.”

I sit up straighter, and Sarina whips her head to me, eyes locking on my stiffened body.

“How fresh?”

“Maybe an hour?” Levi guesses.

“They found a trail,” I say out loud to Sarina, rising to my feet. “Where is the trail?” I ask Levi as Sarina and I leave the office and head down the stairs. The security footage search can wait.

“He went inside The Black Door.”

I freeze.

“I’m not sure if or when he left.”

“Thanks,” I say.

Fuck.

My hand rests on the door leading into the club, and I shut my eyes, wrestling with myself over this lead and my next steps. I need to go to The Black Door, to see if Lennox is still there and to question the owner, but Sarina…

“Why don’t you join your friends?” I glance at her, my hand still on the swinging door. “Help them and Levi with the tracking while I check out this lead.”

“Why?” She crosses her arms. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

I exhale through my nose and stare through the small window, watching the guests dancing and drinking. My hand curls into a fist.

“Oh my Goddess, you’re trying to get rid of me!” she exclaims with a dry laugh. “Why? What are you hiding?” She stalks closer to me and peers around my shoulder.

“Nothing.” I avoid her eyes, the denial leaving me way too fast.

She angles her head at me. “Where does the scent trail lead? ”

“Another club,” I grunt. “The Black Door.”

“And you don’t want me to go there with you because…”

I swallow and swing my head towards her, dropping my hand from the door. “Because it’s a sex club.”

She blinks at me, her eyes widening slightly.

“It’s an incredibly exclusive, very private sex club for shifters and other supernaturals with specific tastes.”

“Specific tastes?”

I shove my hands in my pockets, my body entirely too tense and on edge with the direction of this conversation. “Kinks. BDSM, exhibitionism, voyeurism…”

She nods, her gaze turning inward and her brow furrowing a little. “If it’s exclusive and private, how did Lennox get in there?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. That’s what I need to find out.”

“And how will you…” Her eyes widen again, going round and as big as they can be.

I grit my teeth as understanding flashes across her face.

“You’re a member.”

I don’t confirm or deny it, but my silence is enough of an answer for her.

“Mr. Waiting For His Mate is secretly a member of a sex club.” Sarina steps towards me, standing as close as we were on the dance floor. “Do you like to watch?” She licks her lips.

“Sarina…” I growl. My eyes involuntarily track the path of her tongue across the seam of her mouth.

“Is that one of your needs, your desires? To dominate your partner? To watch and be watched?” Her fingers walk up my chest.

I grab her hand, stopping her movements, as my eyes narrow. “Would that bother you?” I straighten myself to my full height, towering over her and cornering her.

Her breath catches as her back hits the wall, but she lifts her chin to hold eye contact with me. “No.”

I wait for the hesitation, for the flutter of her heart or the break in eye contact that shows she’s lying, but there is none.

“I’m a member”—I squeeze her hand tighter and brace myself on the wall near her head to resist the urge to wrap my other hand around her neck—“so I can learn the proper, safe way to play with and take care of my partner, whoever she may be. ”

“Lucky girl,” she mutters, neck arching and chest heaving. “Take me with you.”

“No.” My aura pulses from me.

Her eyelids shut for a second, but she doesn’t back down or submit. “Sebastian—”

“It’s not like a regular club, Little Rogue. I don’t own that club like I do this one. They don’t let just anyone in. There are rules and protocols.”

“Then teach me.”

Teach me. Fuck if that isn’t a tempting offer.

Once again, that explicit slideshow flashes in my mind, taunting me with its forbidden eroticism. The things I could teach her…

I shake my head. “There’s no time for that. The trail is already an hour old, and the clock is ticking.”

“Which is why I should just go with you,” she says. “You can teach me the protocols or whatever on our way there. I’m a fast learner.”

That, I know already. I saw and felt how she responded to my guidance on the dance floor. She’s fiery, but her instincts—at least with me—are to give in to my demands so we can both find pleasure. She may not realize it yet, but her body recognizes my dominance and submits to my power over her.

“Are you afraid of others wanting me? Will you be jealous? Overprotective? Possessive?”she asks.

The air presses in on me with each question from her.

Yes. I most definitely will be all those things if someone touches her.

My grip on her hand tightens. “No.”

Her eyes narrow, and she smirks. “Liar.”

“I’m not lying.”

“You are.” Her smirk turns into a smile.

“I’m not!” I insist, a growl rippling through me.

“Sebastian.” She wipes the amusement off her face and sets her jaw. “Take me with you. You need a partner, and we are a good team. We work well together.” She slides her free hand—the one I’m not clenching in my fist—up my chest to my neck and bats her lashes at me. “Please, Sebby?”

I drop my forehead to hers and groan .

Why does that name on her lips turn me into a puddle of molten silver at her feet? Goddess, what is this little rogue doing to me? How can she drive me so completely insane and yet lure me in at the same time?

If she were anyone else, I’d bite her head off for calling me that, for trying to manipulate me with her sweetness. But this female… There is something about her I can’t resist. I may deny it to my friends, but there’s no use denying it to myself.

I want her.

I know what will happen if I take her to The Black Door with me.

She’s a tempting little thing—pure sin with those wide brown eyes framed by thick dark lashes and plump lips accentuated by sharp, high cheekbones.

Her body will catch the eye of every member in there tonight.

Invitations to play will be extended to her from all corners of the club.

The idea of someone other than me touching her has my blood boiling and my lycan growling in my mind, both of us ready to tear out the throat of anyone who even thinks about doing so.

She’s nothing to me. She’s not mine. Sarina is old enough to make that choice for herself, to say no to any unwanted advances. But I don’t want there to be any advances.

There’s only one way I can bring her with me and ensure no one lays a hand on her unless I let them, which I won’t. Only one way to be the only one to touch her the entire time we’re there.

“Fine.” I lift my head and stare down at her authoritatively. “You can come with me, but on one condition.”

She blinks at me, her heart racing. “What?”

“You have to pretend to be my sub.”