Page 154 of The Delta's Rogue
I shake my head. “They can’t have. Sebastian felt our bond as soon as he detected my scent on Brenna and saw me on the stage. He wouldn’t have felt it if I had the potion in my bloodstream.”
On the screen, Sebastian slips the vial and the card into his pocket.“Thank you. I’ve been wondering how to prevent that from happening. I plan to keep Anaís in my possession for…a long time…and her finding her fated mate would absolutely throw a wrench into my plans.”
“I’m always happy to help.”Amara’s smile widens, and the look she gives Sebastian sends a shiver down my spine and reawakens the bubbling nausea in my stomach.“In whatever way I can,”she adds.
Sebastian rises from his chair, signaling the end of their conversation and their meeting. He checks his rolled-up sleeves and moves away.
Amara’s voice stops him.“Are you sure I can’t see my sweet girl? Just a peek at her before I leave?”
He doesn’t bother turning around.“I’m sure. Thank you for the potion and the information, Amara. Enjoy your evening.”With that, he leaves the room.
Amara settles back into her chair with her wine, but I jump out of mine and bound to the door, anticipating Sebastian’s return.
“Wait.” Riven follows close behind me. He reaches for the handle, blocking me from grabbing it. “Wait until he’s outside the door.”
I bounce on my toes, the beat matching the pounding of my heart.
Two knocks sound on the door, followed by Sebastian’s voice. “It’s me.”
Riven unlocks the door. It flies open, and I rush into Sebastian’s chest.
My arms wrap around his middle, and he stumbles back a step, my affectionate attack surprising him. Once he regains his footing, he enters the room with me attached to his body and closes the door. I press my cheek harder into his torso, unable to get close enough to him, but he grips my shoulders and pushes my upper body back, so I’m forced to look up at him.
His expression is unreadable, but his body is as taut as a bowstring.
“I’m going to Crescent Lake,” he says. “There are some things I need to do there. You need to go back to Peter’s and rest.”
My heart plummets to my feet, but I remove my arms from his body and duck my head, letting my hair hide my face from him.
I don’t argue or ask questions. That’s not my place.
“We’ll make sure she gets there safely,” Dominic says.
They’re all quiet for a moment as I continue to stare at the floor and maintain my submissive demeanor.
Then the door opens and closes, and Sebastian leaves without me.
Trees fly by ina blur of green and brown as we head back to Peter’s from the club. Dominic drives, and Riven sits in the back with me, behind the safety of the tinted windows of the SUV. After getting an all-clear signal from everyone putting on a show for Amara in the club’s main room not long after Sebastian left, they ushered me out of the office and into the vehicle.
Sebastian’s absence creates a void within me, and it grows the further we drive up the mountain and into the forest. It’s not so different from the chasm created by our separation four years ago, but it’s fresher, and I don’t have my lycan to shoulder the burden with me.
My lycan. Goddess, I miss her constant presence in the back of my mind.
I know she’s not gone completely. According to what I learned during my school years, the pain from the complete loss of a wolf or lycan is akin to that of losing a mate. So my lycan isn’t gone. She can’t be gone. She’s just hiding or healing from the massive amounts of wolfsbane and silver exposure. But without her, and without Sebastian, I’m lost at sea with nothing to anchor me.
Dominic pulls around the circular driveway and up to the front of the house. The gravel crunches beneath my feet as I hop out of the vehicle and walk towards the front door, with my arms crossed to protect myself from the chill in the night air. My steps slow, however, and I glance towards the edge of the long dirt path leading to the house from the main road.
I wait for headlights, for the spinning of tires against the ground, or for the roar of an engine. But it’s dark, quiet, and empty.
“I’m sure he’ll be back soon,” Riven says.
I tuck my hair behind my ear and duck my head, my foot shuffling over the pebbles. “He didn’t say he would be.”
“Does he need to?”
My jaw tightens. Old me—the Sarina who tackled Sebastian in the middle of the forest without thinking through the consequences—would be able to answer that without hesitation.
I can’t, though.No soy ella. I’m not her.
