Page 94 of The Delta’s Rogue (Crescent Lake #4)

I sigh and cross my arms on the railing.

“She was. For a moment. When Sebastian marked me, I felt her waking up, so I took all of her energy, pushed her to the front of my mind, and marked him back. As soon as I did, she was gone again.” I shake my head.

“ I should have saved that energy, so I’d have her with me for the fight, instead of wasting it on marking him. ”

“It wasn’t a waste.”

“It was selfish. I was thinking only of myself and our bond, and not of everyone counting on us to be in top form tomorrow.”

“I don’t think it was selfish either,” she says. “He’s your mate. It’s…instinctive to want to mark and claim your mate. I’d mark Wesley in a heartbeat if I could.”

She takes a deep breath and stares back out at the forest and the night sky. The hand on her stomach strokes it absentmindedly, and she shifts her weight between her feet as she counts the stars.

“I…I have an idea,” she says between the deep breaths she takes. “I’ve had this idea for a while, actually. With how volatile my aura’s been, Wesley—and the others—feel it’s too risky for me to try while pregnant, but…”

“What’s the idea?”

“I think I can wake up your lycan.”

My eyes widen in realization. “With your aura?”

“I can’t help in the battle tomorrow”—she nods towards her pregnant stomach—“for obvious reasons beyond the fact that I’m just a human. But maybe I can help you. Maybe waking up your lycan can be my contribution to this mission.”

I glance at her stomach too, biting my lip, torn between what I want and what seems like an unnecessary risk.

“ No puedo pedirte que hagas eso .” I can’t ask her to do that. “I don’t want you to put your baby in danger.”

She waves my concern away. “The baby will be fine. My pack worries too much about me. Wesley’s overprotectiveness has rubbed off on all of them.”

Certainty and conviction lace every syllable she utters.

They’re etched in her features and they shine in her eyes.

She’s not worried about what this will do to her baby, and I shouldn’t be either.

Her strength radiates from her—an emotional strength that leaks into me.

It’s the caring, loving strength of a luna.

A strength that can’t be trained into someone and can only come from lived experiences.

If she’s certain, if she’s ready, then so am I.

“How should we do this? How does it work? ”

I remove the blanket from my shoulders and lay it over the railing. Then I face her, straightening my posture and readying myself for whatever she decides to try.

She shakes her head. “I have no idea. I didn’t ask for these abilities, and they didn’t come with an instruction manual. But I’m willing to try if you are.” Her head swivels as she glances around the deck and towards the trees. “Do you think you’ll shift into your lycan?” she asks.

“It wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Should we move closer to the forest?”

I shrug one shoulder. “It can’t hurt.”

She follows me as I walk to the steps that lead to the forest floor. She grabs my blanket off the railing as she does, her other hand supporting her stomach as she navigates the stairs.

She lifts the blanket slightly. “For when you shift back.”

I smile gratefully at her as she drapes it over her arm and exhales. Her stance widens as she continues her deep, rhythmic breathing. She grounds herself right at the foot of the stairs, and I stand at the edge of the forest, facing her.

The silver aura hovering above her and dancing around her lifts and expands. It wanders through the air towards me, thickening and brightening with each second that passes. Everything about it intensifies as it nears me, and within the sparkling mass, I hear the whisper of my name.

My eyes close as the aura reaches me. It wraps around me like a glittering, star-studded blanket. Like a hug from an old friend, it embraces me with its protective familiarity.

Earlier, her aura caught me off guard. But this time, I’m ready for it.

I relax into it while also searching within me for my lycan.

I picture her in my mind—the massive black beast with golden eyes.

I give in to the wild, primitive instincts that connect us.

Warmth, light, friendship, and love dance around me and within me as I reconnect to that most central part of my being.

I float through the galaxy as if detached from my body, as if I’m one of the stars Haven draws light from. I exist in a space beyond our world, and yet it’s part of our world too.

Morphing, shapeless forms flutter and flicker around me until they coalesce into images and memories bombard my mind.

Memories of every moment I’ve spent with Sebastian.

Our time together as kids when he came to the palace, the months we shared when I kept postponing the inevitable, and memories of the past week as we let our love bloom and our bond strengthen while we spent every moment possible in each other’s company.

The love I have for Sebastian, and he has for me, is amplified by Haven’s light as it dances around me. Energy and power zap through me…

And I shift.

An echoing howl of triumph flows out of my lycan’s mouth as she tilts her head towards the almost moonless sky. A deeper, darker howl answers it, starting almost immediately after mine finishes.

I lower my gaze and open my eyes to find Sebastian’s lycan staring back at me with eyes that are no longer the same rainstorm gray as his human ones, but a bright, shimmering gold that matches mine. The golden eyes that only the royal line and their mates—once marked—have.

His conscious brushes against mine like the softest caress of silk. “Welcome back, my queen,” he mindlinks me.

I sob with joy as I hear his voice in my mind for the first time, and I shift back into my human form.

I could easily spend the rest of the night as a lycan, running through the forest and howling at the vanishing moon after being unable to shift for so long.

But more than that, I need to exist with my mate.

I need his touch, his embrace, and his love.

Sebastian follows suit, shifting out of his lycan, taking me into his arms and holding me tight against him as my tears of relief soak his skin.

We’re both completely naked and out in the open, but neither of us cares.

This moment is too monumental for us to be bothered by something as trivial as nudity.

His love floods into me through the bond. He murmurs soothing words into my ear as he holds me and sways us side to side, but I’m too much of a blubbering mess to comprehend any of them.

Instead, I focus on our bond. I focus on the crackling passion that ignites between us from touching each other.

On his perfect scent as it fills my lungs and warms me from the inside.

On how I hear and feel and smell everything around us and between us as he takes my face in his hands and lowers his mouth to mine.

His fingertips dig into my cheekbones, and he kisses me slowly, reverently. It’s a tiny kiss, a sweet kiss, but so much is said with the small, intimate gesture .

Our celebratory kiss is cut short, however, by a gasp of surprise from Haven. Her eyes widen, and her chest heaves. She clutches at her stomach with one hand and the railing of the steps with the other, my blanket forgotten on the ground next to her.

“I’m fine,” she reassures us before we can say anything to her. She glances at her belly as she continues to breathe laboriously. “But my water just broke.”