Page 21 of Sawyer

I grind my teeth and curl my fingers into my thighs to keep myself from snapping his thick neck. Sure, it might be a hassle, but it would be satisfying.

Also, I just learned this delta is in charge of the gammas found earlier. I should have known Bast had already called someone else in. He knew I’d fail and replaced me before ever talking to me.

Well, screw him. I won’t fail him. I just need to evade my new babysitter.

“Anything else?” the delta grits out, probably feeling the same way I am right now.

“No,” Tomi drawls, his lecherous eyes falling on Lotus, who’s finishing up her set. He’s also lying. Even if he won’t tell this delta, I know he’s holding back information.

I push back and move through the enthralled crowd, creeping into the hallway, where the bathrooms are. Piss permeates the air, and the stained carpet bunches every few feet. Overhead, the lights flicker.

I’m close to the dressing room when a hand twirls me around and I come face-to-face with my father. “What the fuck are you doing here?” He’s wearing his usual black, pin-striped suit and white button-down, though today, he looks more disheveled than usual.

A glass of amber liquid sloshes in his hand as he raises a brow. “I could ask you the same question, son.” He looks at the woman on the stage, and a fierce sense of possessiveness sweeps through me.

“Just coming out of a bender.” I give him my best fake smile, but he isn’t even looking at me.

In fact, he just nods as his eyes roll over the gamma with lust.

“Right, well…” He jerks his gaze back to me, and his eyes turn glassy as his alcohol hits him. He’s a bastard of a man, and I’m not surprised he’s here. “You smell like it.”

He’s taunting me. “What the fuck do you want, old man?” I cross my arms, feeling disgust roll through me as he looks at the gamma once more.

“Stick to the liquor, son.” He smirks his cruel, villainous smile. “Hunting the dead won’t bring her back.” The ass chuckles at me before turning around and setting his glass on the bar top before walking out.

He knows. That piece of shit knows, and he doesn’t want me to follow through on the task Bast gave me.

Fuck him.

With everyone captivated by the gamma dancing on stage, I sweep back around and enter the dressing room, putting my father out of my mind. A few voices whisper in hushed tones, and when I walk around a corner, I find two women sitting with their heads bent together.

Brown eyes peek at me, and I press a finger to my lips as I move through the room. Inhaling slowly, I filter through the scents of body odor and tears.

The reporter has a skeleton deep in her closet. Luckily for her, Tomi runs a scanner so no one can record her dance, but they will talk.

Doesn’t matter. She’ll only dance for me from here on out.

Wait. No. Thea. I shudder, wondering where those thoughts came from.

Maybe I just want to fuck Lotus until my dick burns and becomes raw. If I’m this hard, she can certainly get me off, and it’s been so long.

I need her scent first.

Crisp honey tingles my nose before it turns rotten, and I sneeze.

That’s been the problem for the last few years. Every female scent pales in comparison to Thea and the way she perfumed for me. Now, they all turn rotten in my nose.

I know what it means—I’ve found my mate. Every other female’s scent will turn rotten, and they have. While my body responds to the dancer named Lotus, it will mean nothing if her scent makes me want to vomit.

So here I am, creeping through a dressing room, seeking the scent of a gamma.

The last row comes into view, and I step in, inhaling slowly. I catch the faint whiff of something sweet, and it doesn’t turn rotten.

Like a berserker gone insane, I dash to the last chair in the row, grab the coat sitting on the back of a chair, and bring it to my nose.

Limes. Key lime pie, to be exact, short-circuits my brain. I inhale and inhale.

Custard, limes, and dough settle on the back of my tongue.

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