Chapter 10

Sloane POV

The Den was a sensory nightmare. The moment Finn and I stepped inside, the heavy, suffocating air hit me like a physical blow. It was a dimly lit, smoke-filled underground market of primal instincts. The space reeked of cheap whiskey, stale sweat, and dozens of untamed werewolf pheromones-a chaotic cocktail of lust, desperation, and underlying violence.

We slid into a cracked, sticky red leather booth near the edge of the stage. I had agreed to come here as a final, desperate compromise to pull Finn out of his spiral, hoping to salvage whatever was left of our fractured friendship. But the moment we sat down, I realized I had made a terrible mistake.

Finn wasn't here to protect me or show me the dark side of his world. He was here to drown his Inner Wolf's agony.

His bloodshot eyes immediately locked onto a Rogue stripper writhing around a grease-stained pole. Even with my defective, *wolfless* senses, I could smell her. She radiated a thick, cloying scent of wild berries and musk. It was a scent designed to hook a vulnerable male, and Finn swallowed the bait whole.

"Finn," I said, my voice barely carrying over the heavy bass of the music. I bumped my knee against his under the table.

He didn't even blink. He blindly signaled a waitress for drinks, his gaze glued to the stage. His chest heaved as he inhaled the stripper's scent, his Inner Wolf silently begging for the raw, uncomplicated comfort of a willing female.

A sickening vine of jealousy wrapped around my heart. I hated myself for it. I was sitting in a room full of unpredictable predators, completely blind to their Mind-Links and defenseless without a wolf, and my only protector was drooling over a stranger. I let out a loud, frustrated sigh, but I might as well have been invisible.

Then, my phone buzzed against the sticky table.

I glanced down at the screen. It was a text from an unknown number.

*Hope you enjoy the distraction.*

My blood ran cold. I snapped my head up, my eyes scanning the chaotic club until they landed on the VIP section on the second floor. Behind a pane of dark, tinted glass, a massive silhouette sat in the shadows. I couldn't see his face, but the sheer, crushing weight of his Alpha presence bled through the glass. Knox. He was watching us like a king observing a pathetic circus.

Before I could process the panic rising in my throat, the wild berry and musk scent suddenly overwhelmed our booth.

The Rogue stripper had stepped off the stage and strutted directly over to us. She didn't even look at me. She leaned over Finn, pressing her bare chest against his shoulder.

"The Alpha upstairs bought you a lap dance, handsome," she purred, her eyes flashing with untamed hunger.

My stomach plummeted. I looked at Finn, expecting him to refuse, to remember that I was sitting right next to him. Instead, a reckless, desperate grin spread across his face. He looked at me, his eyes glazed over with lust and alcohol.

"You don't mind, right, Sloane? It's just a gift," Finn slurred, completely oblivious to the knife he was twisting in my chest.

"No," I whispered, my voice cracking. "I don't mind."

The stripper didn't wait for another invitation. She straddled Finn right there in the booth, grinding her hips against him. Finn's hands immediately went to her waist, his eyes closing as he buried his face in her neck, chasing the scent of another female to erase Delilah.

My world shattered. This wasn't just a dance. This was a public execution orchestrated by Knox Crawford. He was forcing me to watch the man I had loved for ten years engage in a primal, intimate act right in front of me, proving exactly how little I meant to him.

Shame and fury choked the air from my lungs. I shoved myself out of the booth. "I need to use the restroom," I choked out, though Finn didn't even hear me.

I practically ran through the crowd, dodging wandering hands and predatory stares, until I shoved open the door to the women's restroom.

It was a cramped, filthy space. The tiles were cracked, and the mirror was smeared with grime. The air smelled sharply of bleach and mildew. I gripped the edges of the cold porcelain sink, my knuckles turning white as I splashed freezing water onto my flushed face, trying to stop the tears from falling.

*Thud.*

The heavy bathroom door slammed shut behind me.

*Click.*

The unmistakable sound of the deadbolt sliding into place echoed in the small room.

I spun around, my heart leaping into my throat. The scent of bleach and mildew was instantly obliterated by a suffocating, intoxicating wave of a violent thunderstorm and spent gunpowder.

Knox Crawford stood leaning against the locked door. His arms were crossed over his broad chest, and his dark, merciless eyes pinned me to the sink. The predator had finally cornered his prey.