Page 88 of The Delta’s Rogue (Crescent Lake #4)

Punch right. Dodge left. Forward roll around their legs to kick out at their ankles, then grab their arms to pin them to the ground.

“Good. Again.” Sebastian nods at me with his arms crossed.

I hop off of Maddie. Sweat dampens my skin, and my breath is speedy, but I toss a smile in Sebastian’s direction as I help Maddie to her feet.

He wears a stony, serious expression—he’s in full head warrior mode—but he throws me a quick wink, and there is a glint of pride in his eyes as he watches me practice.

Maddie and I cross to our respective zones in the makeshift sparring ring at the center of my old clearing and crouch into a ready position.

“Go!”

Maddie lunges for me, but I back away, curving my body to avoid the swipe of her hand. She’s quick to recover and uppercuts with her other hand, and I spin out of reach, striking backwards with my elbow as I do. She expects it and grabs it, twisting and spinning me to face her again.

Her knee meets my stomach. The wind knocks out of me. I stumble backwards from the force of her hit, and she darts forward, landing two jabs to my stomach and one to my chin. My teeth knock together, but I shake it off and stay focused on the fight.

This isn’t the first hit I’ve taken while training with Maddie.

She launches into a fourth hit, but I’m ready for her. I grab her fist and wrench her arm around, twisting it as hard as I can. I spin under her arm to yank it from its socket, but before I can, I’m attacked from behind, laid out on the ground with my cheek pressed into the grass.

My surprise attacker grabs my wrists and tugs them behind my back, twisting them together with their hands like shackles.

The white-hot silver of metal cuffs burns into my skin, and the clanking of chains rings in my ears. The air, cold and unyielding, rakes across my naked skin. People jeer and laugh all around me.

“Show us how pretty you are, sweet girl.” Amara taunts me with her saccharine smile and her faux-motherly tone. She wraps her hands around the ends of my very short dutch braids and yanks my face from the floor. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

I shake my head and fight her hold on me, bucking myself from right to left to get her off.

“I’m so proud of you.”

Her voice is a whispered echo in my mind. It bounces off every surface of my brain and etches itself into my memories and my soul.

“Lemon!” I force the word out with every ounce of strength I have. “Lemon!”

“STOP!”

A powerful, compelling aura pulses across the clearing. The body on top of me leaps off with no hesitation.

Sebastian kneels next to me. I curl in on myself and hug my knees.

“Sarina?” His hand hovers over my body, but he doesn’t touch me. “You’re safe, remember?” he whispers. “Look at your wrists.”

Look at my wrists—the coping mechanism I created with my therapist during our virtual appointments this past week. If I see shackles, it’s a dream. If I see scars, it’s real.

I hold my breath, glance at my hands—at my shackle-free wrists and the scars wrapping around them—and then I exhale.

Sebastian helps me sit up, taking my hand in his. He keeps hold of it and places his other on my shoulder, leaning close to me. I rest my forehead on his as I catch my breath and calm my heart.

“I’ve got you,” he murmurs, cupping my cheek.

“I know. ”

“The traffickers won’t play by any rules, and there won’t be a safe word option. You need to find something else to keep you grounded in the present.”

I nod. I’m still too wound up to respond in any other way.

“You don’t have to fight. If it’s too much for you, if you don’t think you’ll be ready—”

“I’ll be okay,” I whisper. “I want to fight. I can fight.”

“No one judged you when you gave leadership of your mission away, and no one will judge you if you decide to pull out completely,” he continues.

“No. I can do this. I’ll be ready by Saturday.”

Sebastian’s hand drops from my face, and his jaw clenches.

“Sunday,” Maddie corrects me.

Sebastian exhales through his nose and drops his chin to his chest as I stare at him.

“Sunday?”

“Yes,” he admits.

“Why aren’t we attacking during the next auction?”

“We’d have to split our focus between their headquarters and their auction if we attack on Saturday,” he explains. “On Sunday, they’ll be tired.”

Everything in me deflates. “But then more girls will be auctioned off.”

“I know.”

A lump forms in my throat, and I grab my kneecaps, squeezing as tight as I can. “We’re supposed to save them, not sacrifice them.”

“I don’t like it either, carino .” His voice breaks as he covers my hands. “But this is what they agreed on. This is Micah’s plan.”

“When was this decided?” I ask.

“The day you stepped down.”

I glare at him. “Why didn’t anyone tell me? Why didn’t you tell me?”

I tear myself away from his touch, jump to my feet, and storm across the clearing with my back to everyone. Sebastian follows me, and I scan the treetops to keep my shimmering eyes away from him. A sob works its way up my chest, but I shove it down.

“I wasn’t trying to hide it from you. You stayed away from the meetings to protect yourself, and I wanted to help you keep your focus on your healing.”

I spin towards him and lean my face into his chest as he embraces me and kisses the top of my head. “ Se supone que las rescatemos . We’re supposed to save them,” I repeat through the choking sensation wrapping around my throat—a shadow of the silver collar that gave me my scars.

“We will save them,” he insists, hugging me tighter and rubbing my back. “When this is over, we will find everyone they ever sold, and we will rescue them.”

“We’ll have a kingdom to run,” I remind him.

“Then we’ll delegate. We’ll make teams like this one that are dedicated to rescuing those girls.”

I shake my head with a sigh. The face of every girl I encountered during my time there flashes through my mind.

Faces that went from hopeful to hopeless in a matter of days or sometimes hours.

Eyes that lost any hint of their sparkle with every foul training session Amara forced us to take part in.

Faces and eyes that match the ones I see in the mirror every morning and every night.

“They’ll need more than rescuing.” I lift my head to meet his gaze.

“Anything they need, we will give them. Te lo prometo .”

I grit my teeth and hold his stare with my shining, broken eyes, tying his words to our bond. He’s never broken a promise before, and I know he won’t break this one, but I wrap the promise around our souls for safekeeping.

“Do you want to do another round of sparring?” he asks in a whisper.

“No. I need a break from training.”

“We should probably head back, anyway.” He glances at Maddie. “Are you coming to Peter’s with us, or are you going to Crescent Lake?”

“I’ll come with you.” She tightens her ponytail. “I want to say hi to Cav and Sour Patch. I miss them,” she adds with a sigh.

“You miss the dog and the baby? What about me?” Sebastian asks.

“You haven’t moved away yet.” She shrugs. “Maybe I’ll miss you. Maybe I won’t.”

With that, she takes off in the direction of Peter’s house at a blazing sprint. Sebastian groans and rolls his eyes at her, following her path at an even faster pace than hers.

“Slow down!” he growls, pulsing his aura out of him.

It’s grown stronger with each day we’ve spent together, and it will continue to strengthen until we take over for my parents. Mine will be stronger than his eventually, but for now, the bond is compensating for my lack of a lycan and boosting his aura with unprecedented speed .

“For someone who didn’t want to be an alpha, you sure like to use that enhanced aura a lot.” Maddie laughs and speeds up instead, glancing behind her to stick her tongue out at him. “Good thing you’re not king yet, so I don’t have to listen to you!”

Cassandra—the one who attacked me while I was distracted—throws on a T-shirt over her outfit of a sports bra and leggings, and then we follow them at a much slower pace.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” she says.

“It’s not your fault,” I reply.

“Sebastian wanted it to be less like a training fight and more like an actual battle.”

“It definitely felt that way.”

She turns her attention forward, watching Sebastian and Maddie lead us. Her long, golden-brown ponytail dances with her bouncing jog. Her green eyes sparkle as she breathes in the mountain air, and she smiles as she glances at me again.

“You know, he asked me if I could use my abilities to find you.”

I raise a brow at her. “Sebastian did?”

“He didn’t mention you by name, obviously. But I realize now that he only asked because of you.”

“What did he say?”

“He wanted to know how my visions work. He asked if I could see whoever I wanted or if they were just random.”

A small smile forces its way to my lips. “Of course he did.”

“Pick up the pace, you two!” Sebastian yells at us, back in full head warrior mode. “I know I gave Maddie shit for going too fast, but this isn’t a warm-up run! This is a race!”

I laugh, and we both speed up, launching ourselves forward until we’re almost even with Sebastian. He senses our approach and speeds up too. I grit my teeth and push harder to catch him, but every time I get close, he darts forward, putting distance between us again.

Over and over, he eggs me on with his bursts of speed until the back deck of Peter and Imogen’s is in sight. I throw everything I have into my run, and we both leap over the railing at the same time, rolling into our landing and crashing into each other.

I shriek in surprise, and Sebastian catches me. His arms wrap around me, and he flips onto his back, taking the brunt of our impact. He rolls until we’re both on our sides again and smiles down at me as I continue to laugh .

“I’ve got you.”

“?Para siempre?” I ask.

“ Si. Forever, mi reina ,” he confirms.