Page 26

DEACON

Cliffside Peak. That’s the location Crystal sent with an attachment of my boys staring at the camera with scared faces.

Yesterday, my biggest worry was getting Winter to listen to me and give me a chance.

Today, shit has hit the fan so much that everything I thought was under control is seeping through my fingers faster than I can stop it.

Martin told me that Crystal got on a plane and went back home almost a week ago. The kid was wrong, and if I had time, I would rip him a new one for the misinformation.

Crystal never went home because she has my kids, and she’s threatening to end them if Winter and I don’t get there in time.

On the other hand, Jacob is alive. My best friend, the man I’d considered my brother, thought I had betrayed him. The consequence of that is he took my kids to Crystal. How long have they been working together?

Did Crystal know Jake was alive all this time, and she didn’t say shit about it to me for all those years? What did she do to Jacob to make him betray his sister?

My head ticks with a headache. One of my hands tightens against the steering wheel, and the other hand squeezes Winter’s thigh.

The air between us hangs heavy with fear. It’s the kind of fear that invades your nostrils and makes its way to your lungs before wrenching all the air out of you.

The road in front of us that stretched like a long-winding snake with no end a few minutes ago has now been reduced to a thin pathway that gets narrower from the thick fog and the tall trees.

My mate has been quiet, never really speaking to me but never really letting go of my hand that’s on top of her thigh.

“We should have called the cops,” Winter finally speaks, her voice cracking.

In Bracken City, there are authorities who maintain peace and order and handle these types of things. In my pack and most packs, the Alpha takes charge of situations like this.

I’m the Alpha, and they are my kids, and there’s no way I’m leaving the fate of my sons’ lives in the hands of people I do not know nor trust.

“The cops being with us will complicate things. Crystal wants us both there. If we show up with someone else, she might snap and hurt Addie and Ash.”

Winter snorts back tear and holds onto my hand even tighter. With those green eyes of hers on me, she asks, “Do you think…he would hurt them? Jake was sweet and kind once. Tell me he would never hurt people he cares about. Tell me my brother's still in there somewhere, Deacon.”

Seeing her tears makes me want to rip myself from the inside out.

I should lie to her and put her at ease, but her brother took our kids, knowing full well that they’d be in danger in Crystal’s hands.

Winter’s questions are answered when the road we are on leads to a clearing.

Thunder lashes out in the skies like a scorned woman. Past my windshield, there’s an old cabin that’s barely hanging on to dear life, and just by the right side of the cabin, where there’s a cliff overlooking the sea that hollers against the jagged rocks below, are four people.

“Oh, Goddess!” Winter exclaims in shock, opening her door and stepping out.

I have no time to tell her to stay back, and I’ll handle everything because I’m already chasing after her.

Standing by the edge of the cliff, where the winds blow with a vengeance and death mystifies in the air, is Crystal with Asher and Adrian both gagged and their hands tied around with ropes. Crystal has her sharp nails digging into their shoulders, and the picture itself is enough to make me want to commit murder.

Correction: I’m ripping Crystal Sanders with my bare fangs when all is said and done.

The other person standing by Crystal, the one whose ire I see written on his face, is holding a gun aimed toward me and Winter. Judging by the exterior of the gun and its barrel, the bullets in it have to be made of silver. Jacob, as well as Crystal, knows if he fires that gun, he’ll be able to kill anyone here because silver is the only thing that can kill us werewolves.

How could Jacob Cavanaugh change this much?

“Crystal, please—” Winter is ready to breach the distance between us and where Crystal and Jacob are standing, but I hold her back.

“Stay the fuck away, Winter! Step the fuck back, or I’ll let them go, and you can watch as their little bodies crack on the rocks below. I’ll do it, don’t test me.”

Sobbing, and her shoulders rattling against my hands, my mate begs, “You don’t have to do this. Please don’t. Take me. You are upset with me, so take me, Crystal. Not them. They… they did nothing wrong! They did nothing to you!”

Her blonde hair is fluttering in the wind. Her eyes are bloodshot, and her dark mascara is lining her cheeks like she’s been crying for weeks. Crystal looks at Winter, but when she speaks, her venom is aimed at me.

“I told you that you would regret it, Deacon! I told you it’s you and me forever. I’m the one who’s always loved you. Not her!”

Crystal’s shouting has her shaking my little boys. From right where she’s standing, if she decided to take a miscalculated step back, then she would go down the cliff with the boys, and there would be nothing I could do.

I could shift and take down Jacob first, but Crystal could decide to jump and doom us all.

If I take down Crystal first, then Jacob could shoot at me, eventually shooting my kids, too.

There’s no way out of this.

Crystal knew this, and she banked on it.

“Let them go, Crystal. And you can have me,” I offer, standing protectively in front of Winter.

I can almost see the confusion in Winter’s eyes behind me.

My little boys are so scared and confused that it makes bitter bile rise up my throat.

When did we get to this? When did I let my issues with Crystal come in the way of their happiness?

I should have stayed back in Moon Stone. If I had, Winter would still be happy with the kids, and they wouldn’t be begging for their lives right now.

A cruel laugh ebbs from Crystal’s throat, “You think you’re so noble, don’t you? Standing there like a knight in shining armor? What about me, Deacon? What about everything I’ve done for you? All the desperate things I've done, I've done so because I love you!”

“And I'll love you too, Crystal. You let the kids go, and I'll have plenty of time to love you. They have nothing to do with this.”

Pacifying her is the only way I know how to win this.

Crystal weighs her options for a minute, and I somehow think I’ve gotten to her, but when her eyes stray from me, trying to find Winter behind me, I can almost read her like an open book.

“The only way we’ll ever be happy is for you to get rid of Winter.”

Apart from the silence that erupts, the wind whistles between us, and the water below bellows like a hungry beast, bringing with it the briny sea salt air that burns my nostrils.

Jacob is the first to drop the gun with a stupefied look on his face. “This isn’t the plan. Deacon is the one who’s dying not—”

“You are defending her, Jake? After she left you to die in that fire without a second thought?” Crystal lashes out, and Jacob withdraws in on himself as if he’s believing every word that comes out of the bitch’s mouth.

What really happened with Jake? Goddess, what did Crystal do to him?

“That’s not true,” Winter wrenches herself from behind me faster than I can stop her, “That is not true, Jacob. I…I mourned you. I tried to seek justice for you. I thought you were dead, Jake. I thought I would never see you again. I love you. Jake, I'm begging you, please stop—.”

“The cabin. If you want us to finally be together, take Winter and lock her inside the cabin, Deacon. There’s a match on the porch that will be waiting for you once you are done. I want you to set the cabin on fire, and we can all watch her burn and disappear once and for all.”

Like hell, I'm doing that.

“W-what did I ever do to you? I was your best friend, Crystal. What did I do to make you hate me so much?” Winter asks, and the question serves as a catalyst for Crystal because she holds Adrian and Asher closer, walking away from the ledge of the cliff with a scowl.

“What did you do? You stole my mate, that’s what you did, Winter! He was mine from the start because I saw him first, not you! You… you are to blame for everything because the man standing next to you was promised to me! Me!”

The more she speaks, the more she steps away from the ledge, and that’s good.

That gives me the vantage to grab the kids, give them to Winter, and push her down the cliff with ease.

“Crystal, you know that’s not true. You were never interested in Deacon when we were young. You—”

“You think I was fucking happy every time you drooled over Deacon? Do you think I shared in your happiness? You’ve always had your head in the clouds, Winter. You always put yourself first before everyone else. Maybe that’s the reason why you never noticed my love for him because you’ve always been a self-entitled bitch.”

“A love built on forcing yourself on him? A love built on kidnapping my kids to get what you want? This isn’t love, Crystal, this is obsession.”

“Shut up!” Crystal screams, “Shut up! You don’t know what I had to go through to get him. Foster promised me I would be Deacon’s Luna. It was my destiny. I set your parents’ house on fire when Foster asked me to because that’s what it takes when you love someone! I gave Jake a home when he didn’t die in that fire because I knew you would try to take what’s mine again. I knew Jake would come in handy because I knew your games, Winter. Don’t talk to me about love because you don’t know what I'm capable of to get Deacon.”

Crystal covers her mouth, the spooked pale expression on her face telling me she didn’t mean to spill the beans, not in front of Jacob anyway.

Even so, her words are like a stab to the hearts of everyone present.

Winter takes a step back, falling into my chest with a horrified gasp before more hot tears stream down her cheeks.

Jacob stills, the words like a low blow he never saw coming. He raises his head, and my chest aches when I recognize my best friend, the one who loved his sister more than anything in the world, staring back at me.

Tears well in his eyes as he smiles. Behind his smile, I see his pain. I see his regret, and I see guilt. Loads of it.

“You—You killed them?” Jake asks, long before Winter can release more sobs.

“No. No. I just…Jake, it’s me. It’s Crystal. I love you, remember? It’s me and you forever, remember?”

“I know, Crystal. You’ve told me that for seven years, so why don’t you step away from the kids, and we can be together just like always?” It’s not Jake’s robotic voice that gets to Crystal. It’s the gun he holds in his hand.

She knows if she says one wrong word, Jake might flip and shoot her instead.

“Jake—”

“Step away from the kids, Crystal!” Jacob roars.

She steps away from Adrian and Asher, and I beckon my boys to run to me.

Brave and still scared as fuck, Asher and Adrian run to me, and Winter breaks down, kneeling on the grass to hug our kids.

I watch as Jacob manipulates Crystal into getting into a hug with him.

I watch as he holds her tightly against his body while Crystal squirms to be let go.

Then… the same man who told me to stay away from his sister seven years ago smiles cockily at me and says, “Take care of them, Cross. You are all they’ve got.”

By the time Winter pulls her eyes away from the kids to Jacob, her brother is already stepping closer to the edge of the cliff with a shrieking Crystal in his arms.

“Jake? Let me go! Let me go now! Jake? Jake, you are hurting me!”

By the time my mate understands what’s going on, it’s already…

“Jake? Jake, no! Jake, please don’t… Please don’t leave me. I forgive you, okay? You are my brother, and I forgive you, so please…”

“I love you, kiddo. I’m so sorry. For everything.”

Jacob Cavanaugh jumps off the cliff, taking Crystal down with him.