Page 3 of The Delta's Rogue
Howls. Soulful, haunting howlsecho throughout the pack grounds. They ripple across the lake’s surface and cling to the redwood trees’ needles, eerie yet hopeful, as more and more wolves join in with their voice. It’s a bittersweet song of solidarity, a hymn of healing, sent with love to the one who needs it.
We can’t feel the pain of others unless they’re our mate, but by now the entire pack knows of the crime committed against our future luna.
The howls crash into my heart and send a wave of guilt washing over me.
I failed. My brother entrusted me with a task, and I let him down. Our future luna almost died, and I’m partially to blame.
I grit my teeth against the shame, though, and paint on the aloof expression I wore when I left Haven’s hospital room. This is not the time to wallow in misery and blame, to list all I did wrong and all I should have done differently. I need to act, and I need to act fast. That’s the only way I can make up for my mistakes.
A plan is already taking shape in my brain.
I speed walk towards our warrior headquarters. There is a room inside that building with surveillance feeds of the interior and exterior of every business our pack owns in the nearby city.
The grounds are dark. Only a sliver of the moon hangs in the sky, but the upcoming new moon is the furthest event from my mind. All that matters is hunting down the bastard lycan who dared attack my brother’s mate.
Lennox. A scumbag name for a scumbag male. I will track him down, and I will bring him here to serve justice.
My instincts scream at me to kill Lennox on sight. That way, he’ll never be a threat—to her or anyone else—ever again. But she’s my brother’s mate, and Wesley deserves his pound of flesh. I’ll leave the bastard’s impending demise to him. That doesn’t mean I can’t have some fun with the bastard before Wes gets his hands on him.
Goddess, I hope Wesley asks me to give him ideas—I’ve created a mental list of all the ways to deal with Lennox and tucked it away for when I need it—or, even better, I hope Wes lets me take a turn when I get Lennox back here.
The things I will do to Lennox if Wes lets me… I’ll take it slow, starting with his fingers. Rip his skin in tiny slivers, from his cuticles to his knuckles. Then I’ll tear his nails off and break each digit, one at a time. After that, I’ll move to his toes, and—
No. Wait.I have a better idea.
A cruel smile spreads across my face as I flick the lights on in the empty office of the training facility and boot up the surveillance systems and feeds. I know exactly what I’ll do to him.
All I will need is a silver knife dipped in wolfsbane. And then, slowly but surely, I’ll carve into his neck—one slice for each of the gashes he left behind on Haven’s neck when he attacked her in the alley behind the club. Maybe even a few extra slashes, for good measure, just so he can know the pain and humiliation he put her through. I’ll carve into him over and over until I’ve mangled his neck as badly as he mangled Haven’s.
Only, his wounds won’t ever heal. Of that, I am sure. Once we get the answers we need from him, I’m ending his life. Unless Wesley kills him first.
I chuckle to myself as I continue imagining all the things I will do to Lennox, or suggest to Wes, and cue up the security feed of when we were at Moonlighters, the club in town our pack owns. I frown as I watch it, though. The feed cuts off when the power went out—obviously—but that’s not what concerns me. I expected that to happen.
I lean forward as I rewind the feed again. Haven enters with her friends, and then…
“Motherfucker…” My brows furrow as I rewind it and replay it a third time.
Yes. Right there. Right after Haven enters… A splice. Imperceptible if you aren’t trained to notice them, like I am.
I rewind again, eyes glued to the screens as the video feed rolls in reverse, watching for the moment the feed was looped back to. I see Haven entering again, and Nolan and me entering…
There it is. That’s where they doubled the footage.
A bachelorette party. The feed was edited so it seems the party entered the club after Haven and her friends, but they actually arrived much earlier, before Nolan and I arrived at the club.
I growl and slam my fist on the desk. Now I not only need to hunt down that bastard lycan but also find out how he gained access to the security cameras. I bet he caused the power outage and tampered with the backup generators to ensure chaos and no eyes on him when he attacked Haven.
Shaking my head and clenching my jaw, I send the looped footage to my phone and then pull up the feeds from the other businesses near the club, hoping at least one caught Lennox as he took off. He likely stayed in the alleys since he was in his lycan form, which will make it harder to find him but not impossible.
With rapid eye movements, I scan the feeds. There’s no time to linger on them. The clock is ticking, and the longer I take here at the pack, the longer Lennox has to make a break for it.
Not that I think he will. If he went to the lengths of tampering with security feeds and footage, he must be pretty intent on getting to Haven.
No. He’ll stay in town and wait to make another move. But this time, he’ll have an entire pack to contend with. The Crescent Lake wolves won’t take kindly to someone who dared harm their future luna.
Least of all me. I let him get to her once. I won’t let it happen again.
“Found you,” I snarl when I spot his lycan racing behind Brewed Awakenings, the most popular coffee joint in town.
