Page 72 of The Delta's Rogue
Haven tilts her head to the side, her hand absentmindedly rubbing her stomach as she thinks. “I don’t know. I can ask her, but—”
“It won’t work,” Rune says.
“Why not?” I ask.
“I already tried.”
I wrinkle my brow at her. “Youtried?”
“I’m a hybrid.”
I sit up straighter. My eyes flick between her and the males seated on either side of her, noting how Landon holds her hand in his but her body leans towards Steele, his arm wrapped around her shoulders. I kick myself for never noticing there was something more between the three of them.
“None of Sarina’s belongings hold any meaning to her,” Rune continues. “We destroy and replace everything every time we move to a new location, so she holds no attachmentto anything she left behind at our most recent campsite. We have nothing with sentimental value.”
“What about her parents? Surely, they have something? Have they been contacted? Do they know she’s missing?” Cassandra asks.
Rune’s eyes flick to Dominic and then over the back of the couch to Riven, who has silently observed our conversation this entire time, his body still tense and his brown eyes framed by dark circles.
“They are aware of Sarina’s situation”—Riven runs his hand through his blond hair and cracks his neck—“but they’re doing their own work for the royal pack. If we meet with them to receive something sentimental to Sarina, we risk drawing attention to our entire operation, and exposing and undoing years of work.”
My thoughts wander. I hear his words, but my mind is in the past. It’s in Sarina’s tent, with her kneeling in front of me, her hands tied behind her back with the strip of red fabric I brought with me that night. It’s in Sarina’s tent, blinking awake and finding her gone, with only that same piece of fabric and the blanket we slept under left behind.
I clear my throat. “I might have something.”
All the eyes in the room turn towards me, waiting for me to continue.
I rub my palms on my thighs. “When you all moved on four years ago, she left behind a blanket and a piece of a dress, and I kept both.” I swear Nolan snickers next to me, but when I glance at him, his face is blank. “I have them in my apartment in the packhouse. I know the blanket probably won’t be enough, but maybe the fabric from her dress would work.”
Rune groans and shakes her head in exasperation, leaning forward so her words are directed straight at me. “I already told you we don’t get sentimental about our belongings, and we destroy everything—”
“Why would she leave it behind then, if it wasn’t special to her?” I argue. “Maybe she didn’t take it with her because she didn’t want to destroy it.”
“Why would a scrap of fabric from a dress be so special to her?” she retorts.
“The why doesn’t really matter, does it? All that matters is that we try everything we possibly can—use every resource we possibly can—to find her and get her back.” Before it’s too late. Before they break her. “That’s all that matters, isn’t it?” I repeat.
Rune sighs. “I suppose it won’t hurt to try.” She stands and throws her long blonde hair into a ponytail, jerking her chin towards the front door. “Go get it. I’ll start setting everything up in here.”
I’m out of Wesley’s house as soon as she finishes speaking to me. Her voice follows me down the front steps as she directs the others to clear a space on the coffee table.
I race through the forest to the packhouse, barely aware of my surroundings and the path I take to get there. I have a one-track mind, a singular focus: Sarina.
I don’t pause to talk to anyone, mounting the stairs to my apartment two at a time and practically breaking down my door to get inside. Sprinting to my living room, I snatch the red strip of fabric out of my book—not caring that I’ll lose my place—before I head back out.
The door slams shut behind me with a resounding crack, and I wince as I glance over my shoulder. A small fissure in the wood extends from the top of the door towards the doorknob. I take a deep breath, to compose myself before I continue out of the house and back to Wesley’s, so I don’t destroy anything else.
I can’t help it, though. My lycan is vibrating with excitement at the prospect of finally finding Sarina, and his anticipation affects my actions too.
“How does this work?” I ask as I reenter Wesley’s living room.
Rune kneels in front of the coffee table, setting candles on the four corners of a map placed in the middle. “Do you have the fabric?” She holds her hand out and doesn’t answer my question.
I cross the room to her and pass her the red strip, hesitating for a moment before relinquishing my grip on it. I don’t know what she’ll do with it, if it will survive Rune’s spell, but it will be worth it to lose the fabric if it means finding and saving Sarina.
Rune sets one last candle at the top of the map. She pinches the wick of each candle to light them, then removes a small crystal pendant from around her neck.
Landon and Steele kneel on either side of her, offering her their silent support as her mates. Dominic is nowhere to be found—not surprising, considering the way his mother used witchcraft on him for so many years—but Riven, Nolan, Cassandra, Wes, and Haven all make their way over to me, standing near me in solidarity, all of us anxiously waiting for Rune to begin.
