Page 76 of The Delta’s Rogue (Crescent Lake #4)

Sebastian’s response to my plea, to my use of our safe word, is just as immediate as it was last night in the room after the auction. He stops his unpacking of the bag and backs away from it. He glances at me, then back at the items he removed, and growls.

“Fuck.” His hands run through his hair before he whirls to face me, his brain already moving at one hundred miles an hour as he assesses the best way to pivot.

“Change of plans,” he barks, his voice raised for Dominic and Riven to hear.

“I need both of you to stay in my office with her. Lock the door. Don’t let anyone in. ”

“Yes, Your High—” Riven clears his throat as Sebastian slides a glare his way. “Yes,” Riven says, wisely choosing to leave a name or a title off of his statement.

Sebastian reaches into his suit pocket and tosses his keys to Dominic, who catches them with the hand that isn’t covering his mouth and hiding his laughter. Then Sebastian steps closer to me.

I don’t back away. This is my Sebastian. The one who takes care of me and respects me. The one who taught me how a true Dom should treat his sub.

The Sebastian in my mind, in my fake memories? He isn’t real and never was.

There is uncertainty between us. Any conversation regarding my true identity and his reaction to his future position was delayed by this unfortunately timed meeting with Amara.

But that uncertainty doesn’t change who he is and the dynamic between us when we’re within the walls of this building.

We both slip into our roles with the same ease we did that first night, when we convinced ourselves it was pretend, all for the sake of tracking down that bastard who attacked Haven.

Sebastian opened a door for me. He led me down a path that changed me, and I will never regret following him.

I’m broken and unable to be the girl I was that night four years ago, but the basis of our dynamic is still intact. He’s still my Sebby, my Sebastián , and I’m still his girl. His carino .

His Little Rogue.

His fingers weave into the hair behind my ears, and he tilts my face up towards his. The hint of the mate bond tingles across my skin as he touches me, though that’s all it is. A hint. A dash. There’s nothing else with it. No reaction from my lycan. No pulse of his emotions flooding my senses.

“You know I would never hurt you.” He lowers his voice, so quiet I can almost pretend it’s just us in his office.

I don’t respond.

I don’t know that. Even though I remember he didn’t hurt me that day, here in his office, I still can’t separate all the fabricated nightmares that plagued me while captive from the true memories of our days together.

His hands grip me tighter—not to hurt me but to reassure me. “Those cuffs are fake. Rune enchanted them to look exactly like the cuffs I removed from you last night. They’re not actually silver. I will never— never —put those horrible shackles on you again. Nunca .”

Tears flood my eyes—tears of relief and tears of embarrassment—and my lip trembles.

It doesn’t matter if those cuffs are fake.

I can’t do it. I can’t face her. Not when the memories are still fresh.

Not when my scars are still healing. The real and the imagined are still too similar, too enmeshed for me to separate.

Seeing her again so soon would set me further backwards on my path of healing, and I’d be a liability to Sebastian and his front.

“ No puedo hacerlo .” I shake my head. “I can’t do what you asked me to do. Please don’t make me. Please don’t make me go near her again right now.”

I grip his suit lapels as I beg him and press my body to his, seeking the comfort and safety he promises by just existing.

“I know, carino .” He rests his forehead on mine. “I’m not asking you to. Not anymore. I’m just letting you know they’re fake. ”

“I ruined your plan.”

“No.” His nose brushes mine. “It will be fine. You will be safe, and I will make sure this meeting is quick.”

He tugs me closer, wrapping himself around me and embracing me.

He holds me as tight as possible, nuzzling into the top of my head with his nose.

I slide my arms around his waist beneath his jacket and cling to him, returning the hug.

My nose buries into his chest just like his buries into my hair, but unlike him, I can’t detect his scent or use it to steady myself.

He backs away, releasing me from his grasp as quickly as he took me into it. His gaze lowers to my neck, to the silver burn scars wrapping around it from the collar I wore for so long.

His eyes simmer with rage and the promise of retribution. “The next time we see that bitch, we’re killing her.”

The computer keyboard clacks, and the mouse clicks as he leans over the desk and taps away, unlocking his desktop and opening a program.

A flicker of hope blooms within me.

We . We’re killing her, he said. Both of us. Together. As a team.

He wouldn’t say that if he didn’t plan to stay with me.

Would he?

He straightens and points at the screen. “You can watch us, if you’d like, so you know what she wants and what she says to me.”

I follow his finger. There, on the computer monitor, is the security camera feed of the main club room.

“ Gracias ,” I thank him.

He nods and shrugs off his heavy, gray suit jacket. It drapes over my shoulders, and he buttons the front. Only then do I realize I’m shivering.

I grab the fabric and pull it tighter around me as I sit in his giant, throne-like leather chair. He pushes it closer to the desk, then swipes everything off the surface and into the bag.

“Get rid of this,” he says, handing the bag to Dominic.

“Put it in Forrest’s office, or my truck or something.

Just keep it away from her.” Sebastian undoes his cuffs and rolls up his sleeves, pops open another button at his neck, musses up his hair, then exhales and exits the room.

“Wish me luck,” he throws over his shoulder as he walks out of the safe zone and onto the chessboard.

Dominic follows him. “I’ll be right back.” He claps Riven on the shoulder. “Don’t lose her again.”

Riven’s nostrils flare, but he rolls his eyes at Dominic’s teasing.

I turn my attention to the screen, and Riven joins me at the desk, sitting on top of it to watch the monitor.

Nolan and Cassandra sit at a table in the middle of the room. She’s on the flat surface, facing him, with her legs parted. His hand rests high on her thigh, and he sips a drink, leaning back in his chair with his feet planted on the floor.

Rune, Steele, and Landon sit at a corner booth, with Rune sandwiched between her two mates.

Her head arches up to the ceiling, blonde tresses sprawling across Landon’s chest. His narrow, dark brown eyes scan the room surreptitiously as he combs his fingers through Rune’s hair.

All that is visible of Steele are his coppery curls since his face is buried in Rune’s neck.

Dominic reenters the office, closing and locking the door behind him, right as Sebastian saunters into the club.

His confidence is unwavering as he crosses the room to the bar and orders a drink.

The swagger in his step, and the state of his hair and clothing, give the air of a Dom who just finished playing with his sub.

Smack dab in the middle of the room is Amara.

She must have arrived while Sebastian was talking to me.

A large glass of red wine rests on the table in front of her.

She rests one elbow on the chair’s back, and she spins the glass side to side with her other hand as she watches Sebastian.

She’s wearing gold tonight—a skintight, short number with a low neckline that shows off a deep line of cleavage.

When Sebastian finally approaches her with his drink in hand, the bitch leans forward and squeezes her breasts together and higher with the movement. Probably to entice my mate.

Puta.

Riven chuckles, and I glare at him.

“Your jealousy is showing.” He jerks his chin at my hands.

I glance down and, sure enough, I’m clutching the arms of the chair as tight as I can. If my lycan was awake, my claws would probably be out .

“You growled too,” Dominic adds from behind me. “But you don’t need to worry. Sebastian hates her.”

“That makes two of us,” I spit out between my teeth.

“I think we all feel the same,” Riven says. “We could probably start a club.”

I cling to the jealousy because if I don’t, all that will be left is the terror and the panic that seeing her face and hearing her voice awaken within me.

“Thank you for meeting with me on such short notice,” Amara says.

Sebastian deposits himself into the chair across from her without greeting her at all.

He only nods in response and slams back his entire drink in one gulp.

His hand combs through his already messy hair as he sets the glass on the table and swallows, gritting his teeth against the slight burn of the alcohol.

She sits straighter and glances around the room briefly. “Where is your sweet little pet?”

“I have her chained to a bed in the back.” The lie floats from his lips like the smoothest silk in existence. “She passed out in the middle of our last session.”

Amara’s eyes brighten with cruel delight at his lie. “May I see her?”

The hand resting on his thigh tenses, and through the bond I feel the slightest glimmer of pure savage wrath at her request.

I cower back into the leather chair, though, panic rising within me again.

“Breathe, Sarina.” Riven’s hands flex, but he crosses his arms instead of reaching for me like he would have before all this happened. “No one is going to let her near you.”

I swallow and pull my knees onto the chair, hugging them to my chest. A wisp of sweet lemon wafts into my nose from Sebastian’s jacket I’m wearing, and I close my eyes for a moment to enjoy the brief flash of our bond.