Page 22

DEACON

If you had asked a few minutes ago whether I’d ever hurt and destroy my mate’s trust in me, I would have replied with a prideful no.

Right now? The tables have turned so grotesquely I could have never predicted this.

“I’m Alpha Deacon’s Luna, of course!”

Crystal’s words hang in the air with thick tension.

I wipe away the taste of Crystal’s lip gloss on my lips. I hardly make it past Crystal when she clings to my arm like a leech and adds another kiss to my neck.

“I know you said I should stay home and wait for you, but I missed you so much, baby. I couldn’t wait to get here and surprise you.”

Her lies act like a final nail to the coffin.

Prying her sharp nails from my arms and storming towards Winter doesn’t help my cause, not even when I open my mouth ready to end Crystal’s shenanigans.

“She’s fucking lying about—”

“Don’t do this. Not in front of the children.”

Winter places the tray of pancakes on my coffee table. Our boys hug her legs tighter, hiding from me as if I’m no longer the man they’d spent time with the last couple of days.

Seeing my boys slowly reject and disapprove of me splices my insides in half, but the look on their mother’s face completely and utterly wrecks me.

Confusion and betrayal etch her face. Those green eyes of hers that sheened with happiness, happiness she’s not allowed herself to have for a long time, have now reduced to twin pools of tears. My mate looks at Crystal and then back at me, and she tries so hard not to sob.

Goddess. What have I fucking done?

“Mommy, what’s Luna?” Adrian asks his mother, not even remotely looking in my direction.

The woman, whose perfume is reeking in my apartment like it doesn’t belong here, fails to read the room. Crystal steps forward, enough to be close to Winter and not enough to be near my boys.

“Aww, look at you two. You are both so adorable. A Luna is like the wife of an Alpha. In this case, I’m like—”

The floodgates of anger rippling inside me burst open, and I stop Crystal faster than she can finish her jabbering nonsense.

My hand wrapping around her wrist, I issue her a warning to back down, or I’ll shut her up myself. “That’s enough, Crystal.”

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean my boys haven’t already put two and two together.

“What about Mommy? Does Uncle Deacon not like Mommy anymore?” Ash asks, the tears in his eyes acting like tiny needles getting under my skin and puncturing my veins one by one.

I barely move to explain the situation when Winter drops the first tear on her cheek.

She wipes it fast, her chin quivering, but her strength keeps her from lashing out.

“Winter, if you could just give me a minute to explain—”

“We are leaving. I think my boys and I have overstayed our welcome here,” her voice is straight to the point but still quick and precise enough to cut deep.

She has my mark on her neck that’s still healing. Yesterday, on my damn bed, we solidified our bond. Crystal might have kissed me, and I might have failed to see it coming in time to stop her, but Winter is the woman I marked last night. The woman I crave.

Winter doesn’t give me a chance to explain.

She’s already moving faster than I can let words out.

She turns around and exits the living room with the boys following her.

I don’t get the luxury of following her because Crystal puts her sharp nails on my arm, clutching onto me like a pest, saying, “Let her go. Let her do what she likes best, which is running away whenever she feels like it.”

If I had the time and patience for Crystal Sanders, I’d knock some sense into her, but time is slipping from me, and so is everything I’ve built carefully for almost a week.

I can’t fucking lose them, not after I won them over. Not after I just earned their forgiveness and their affection.

Winter and the boys appear a few minutes later.

My mate has her hair tousled, her neck covered by a black turtleneck, and her phone in hand while wet tears clutch at the edges of her eyes.

My sons stick to Winter’s side like loyal soldiers, moving just as fast as their mother to escape me.

“Winter? Don’t do this, baby. Not after…after everything that happened last night. Let me explain.”

Me standing by the door makes Winter only angrier.

“There’s nothing to explain, Deacon,” a harsh laugh bubbles from her throat as green eyes veiled with more tears gaze at me and add, “We were here for your amusement until your mate showed up, weren’t we?”

“Winter—”

“Mommy, I want to go home.” This time it’s Adrian who breaks the spell.

I step forward. Trying to do what? Take her palm, put it on my chest and let her feel for herself that the beating organ inside of me belongs to her? That I mean what I said about loving her?

Adrian and Ash step backward as if they are irked by my presence.

Winter’s bottom lip quivers as she whispers harshly, “Get out of the way, Mr. Cross.”

I move away from the door, my molars grinding in my mouth, my displeasure about all this weaving around my neck like a talisman.

“This isn’t over, Winter. Not by a fucking longshot it isn’t. You took my mark. You are mine, now and forever, baby.”

I know she hears me, and I know she chooses to ignore my words.

The door slams in my face a minute later.

Then, they are gone.

“She was pregnant? That explains why she fled the pack. She claimed to be your mate, yet she was already pregnant with another man’s baby, wasn’t she!”

The sadness and emptiness of seeing Winter leave dissipate a little as I walk where Crystal is still running her mouth like she has an inkling of what’s fucking happening here.

Winter was her best friend, for Goddess' sake! She saw Winter after seven years, and she didn’t dignify her with a greeting.

“Get out.”

I have no time for her. If I leave now, I can catch up with Winter before she reaches her house.

Crystal doesn’t get the memo, though.

Her clingy hands are back on my arm, her nauseating perfume crowding my face at once.

“I should have told you I was coming, okay? And for that, I’m sorry, Deacon. I missed you. I couldn’t get a hold of you. Any woman in my position would—”

The chuckle that scratches my throat comes out in disbelief.

I wrench her hand from my arm, and then my hands wrap around her waist as I pull her body plush to mine.

She’s not Winter. She’ll never be Winter.

“Any woman in your position? Who do you think you are to me, Crystal?”

Frothing like a little pup after seeing a juicy bone, Crystal mistakes me touching her as some sort of endearment to me wanting her.

She’s always been bad after picking hints. Especially the major fucking hint that she’ll never mean anything to me.

“Your…mate. We are supposed to be together. The pack chose me as your Luna.”

Right.

Always the pack.

“And you think that’s reason enough for me to want you?”

“Yes,” her brown eyes misty with fake tears. “Deacon, Winter left, and I stayed. I stayed for you. I took care of the pack for you. We…”

“There’s no fucking “we,” Crystal. It’s always been Winter. It’ll always be Winter for me.”

Anger as black as her heart and envy as stained as she is swirl in her eyes. Crystal fists my shirt into her hands, her face close to mine. “The pack chose me. The pack will never let her be by your side.”

“I couldn’t care less about what the pack thinks, Crystal. I’m the fucking Alpha, and Winter’s my Luna. Now get out.”

“Deacon, please don’t do this. I love you. I love you so much.”

Her love is the last thing I want.

“Your love means nothing to me when Winter already has my mark on her neck. You saw it, didn’t you? Come on, Crystal, don’t pretend to be gullible. You saw the mark. That means Winter is mine. You saw the kids. They look like me. That means they are mine. Everything I have belongs to Winter, and everything she has belongs to me.”

My revelation has Crystal’s face morphing into surprise and pain.

A better man would feel shit for hurting her. I don't feel a thing for her. My feelings for Winter were the truth from the very beginning, and she chose not to believe it.

I pull her sharp nails from my shirt, I escort her amidst the dramatic tears and kicks she throws at me, I open the door for her, and I push her outside as gently as a man who’s too pissed off to see clearly, would.

“You’ll regret this…you’ll regret picking her over me. I promise you… I’ll show you. No one will ever love you like I do. No one.”

XXX

Thunder clouds roar from the skies above. The first drop of rain falls, and it acts as a trigger for the heavy downpour that follows.

I’d almost say this night is turning out to be the way my heart, my mind, and my wolf are feeling.

The rain drizzles down my window screen, blurring the sight in front of my car. I watch as the wipers clear the rain from the glass, slowly showing the unobscured view of Winter’s home from the other side of the road.

I’m parked across the street from Winter’s house.

I’m camouflaged between some of the cars owned by her neighbors. Truth be told, I want to park in Winter’s driveway, get out of my car, step inside that house, and take them back to mine, back to me where they rightfully belong.

“I’m sorry, Alpha. I should have done a lot of digging. Maybe if I knew she had your pups, you would have won her over sooner,” Martin, who’s been sitting in the passenger’s seat, guilty as fuck, speaks, breaking my wallowing.

“She did a great job at hiding them from me. It stings, but I understand her.”

She knew I’d hurt her. My baby knew I’d hurt her boys, too.

I’ll change that narrative, though.

“What do you want to do now, Alpha?”

I want to explain things.

“Did Crystal go back home?”

“Yes. I saw her getting on the plane.”

Good. I need Crystal as far away from me and Winter as possible. I’m not letting her ruin things. I’ll take care of her once I get back home with Winter and my boys.

“Good. I have an important job for you, kid.”

“Anything, Alpha.”

Looking at Winter’s house again, my heart tearing itself apart from the inside out, I turn to Martin, “I can't go to knock on her door because she's still mad at me. I'll give her tonight for her anger to clear before I approach her. That's where you come in, Martin. I want you to watch over her house.”

“Sure. You think she’ll flee again, Alpha?”

She might.

She’s marked, and she thinks I betrayed her again.

“Watch over them. Report to me anything that happens here.”

“I’ll do so, Alpha.”

I open the car and step out into the rain. I look at Winter's house, a lazy smile painted on my face.

“I'll be back, baby.”

Taking Martin's car and driving away from there feels like I'm turning my back on the three most important people in my life, but I do so anyway because Winter needs a few hours of space.

XXX

Having little to no sleep at all because of Winter’s fading scent on my pillows has me waking up the minute my phone rings.

Martin’s name shines on my phone’s screen, and I take the call fast.

“Alpha.”

“What happened? Winter and my kids, are they okay?”

“Yes, Alpha. A woman came by the house. I think it’s the pups’ babysitter. Winter left the house this morning, and I followed her.”

Panic overrides my senses as I stand up, running my hand in my hair.

“Where did she go?”

“She’s at your office, Alpha. I believe she came to work as usual?”

“Got it. I’ll take it from here, Martin.”

She came to work? Driving my way all the way there, that’s the same question I’ve been asking myself.

Is she not mad at me anymore? Is she too adamant on not letting what happened between us affect her job?

Stepping into the elevator that takes me up to my floor and office has my nerves jittery, but nothing can compare to actually wanting to see her.

I’ve missed her. I’ve missed my boys, and I’m ready to beg for her to listen to my side of the story.

The minute the elevator doors open, I rush down the hall to my office, oblivious to the fact that I can’t smell Winter’s scent on my floor.

Opening my door, the excitement of seeing Winter shatters on the floor.

I can’t see Winter in my office.

Her workstation doesn’t have her in it. In fact, it looks empty, and I don’t like it.

The only odd thing in my office is the white paper on my glass desk, the one that sticks out like a sore thumb.

I move towards my desk, with my brain ticking murderously.

I take the white paper, the words resignation letter and Winter’s name on it, churning my rage.

Am I losing her all over again?