Page 4

DEACON

ONE YEAR LATER

The mid-winter air filters through my nostrils, resting heavily in my lungs and bringing with it the same hollowness I’ve been feeling for days. The last of the snow pours from the skies, and if you look up keenly, you can see the dark, heavy clouds settle in like a curse brought forth by the Goddess herself.

Some would say the weather matches the occasion. Me? I’d say the weather has been this way since the Cavanaugh’s’ house burnt down and destroyed everything good in my pack.

A subtle knock sounds against the wood of my door, and I pull myself from the window, settling down on the seat that felt like a throne to my father once upon a time. I take the bottle of scotch resting on my desk and pour myself a glass.

“Come in,” my voice comes out huskily.

I haven’t spoken for a while.

It takes a minute for my visitor to open the door and usher herself inside.

It takes another minute for me to drink the scotch from my glass, feeling it burn my throat but do nothing to soothe the burn in my chest that has continued growing bigger and bigger since my mate left.

I’ve been having tons of visitors since my father fell sick. Today, my visitor is none other than the last woman I want to see.

Crystal Sanders stands in my office. Her dark hair is up in a ponytail, her lips are smeared with red lipstick, and her body is in a tiny dress that hugs all of her curves.

She’s dressed to impress, for sure. Unfortunately for her, she could be standing naked in my office, and I would barely notice.

The only woman I would kill to see naked is gone. But I’ll find her. I’ll find my mate soon and bring her back. I’ll end this torment once and for all.

“Deacon,” Crystal purrs my name, her voice laced with the same sultry tone she’s been using on me since Winter disappeared and my father got ill.

If I cared enough about her and her actions, I’d dwell on the way her eyes buzz with excitement every time she steps into my office, how she takes every opportunity to put her hands on my shoulders, and how big of a smile she gives me when I speak to her. It doesn’t take a genius to see Crystal Sanders is shamelessly infatuated with me. I couldn’t care less about the whole thing.

“Crystal.” Her name flies out of my mouth dryly.

The only reason I’ve been entertaining the woman in my office is because she was Winter’s best friend once upon a time. Yet one question gnaws at my mind. If Crystal really was Winter’s best friend, why would she flirt with her best friend’s mate? Why would she go to the extent of trying to seduce her best friend’s mate with the short dresses she wears every time she comes to see me?

If anything, this woman was never Winter’s friend. Frankly speaking, I don’t think she understands how the concept of loyalty works.

“I just came from seeing Uncle Foster, and the doctor said he’s doing a bit better. You shouldn’t be worried. Your father is going to be okay.”

My father has been bedridden for six months. The healers have been trying all they can to nurse him back to health. The pack has been praying for him, but his state has only continued to worsen.

Foster Cross is not getting any better. His wolf is not healing him, either. If I’m being honest, my old man is one day away from kicking the bucket, and I don’t feel a morsel of pity about it.

“Thank you for the concern, Crystal. I appreciate it,” I repeat the same words I’ve been giving every member of the pack who comes to assure me that everything will be okay with the Alpha.

Crystal’s eyes light up as if my words have just handed her a bag of the most coveted candy.

“Of course. I’m here for you, Deacon. Always. I know you are still mourning Jake, and you are still dealing with what Winter did to you. But I’ll never leave you. I’m here to help.”

The scoff that leaves my throat almost engulfs the entire room in flames.

I haven’t heard my mate’s name since she disappeared.

“Pray tell, Crystal. What did my mate do to me?”

The ice in my tone and the tick in my jaw has the woman in front of me taking a step back.

“I just meant she left you. She just took off and left, but I won’t do that. I’ll be by your side as long as you need me.”

Winter didn’t just leave me with no explanation.

I failed her. I betrayed her. I rejected her. I’m the one who left her, not the other way around, and I regret every second of it.

I’m about to educate the woman who was once my mate’s best friend about that tiny detail when someone knocks on my door for the second time in the day.

This time around, I don’t have to shout “come in” to my visitor because she barges right in.

Tall and thin with graying hair and a pale look on her face, the pack’s healer looks at me and whispers the very thing I’ve been waiting for months.

“Deacon, your father… Alpha Foster wants to see you.”

xxx

Small shards of the sun’s light penetrate into the room and lie across the floorboards of my father’s bedroom. Many are the times I played in this room before my mother died when I was two, and my father took the role of being both mother and father to me.

Years later, the room has lost my mother’s smell as well as the best memories I shared with her.

If anything, it smells like death here.

“Deacon. Come…Come here,” my father’s groggy voice beckons me from where he’s sleeping on the bed.

His face is practically white. His once great body is reduced to nothing but a sack of bones. His hair, once the same color as mine, is now gray, and his lips are cracked like a man trying to hold his last breath.

Except today is the day my father dies. I can see it. I can feel it, and the healer said so, too.

I stand by his bedside, watching him try to speak.

“Dad.”

The air stirs around us, and the tension is so palpable I can taste it in my mouth.

“I’m dying. I’ve tried to hold on, son, but this? This seems like the end of the road for me. My pack, my family… I’m leaving them behind.”

The fake smile on my lips is enough to make my stomach churn as I assure him,” I’ll take care of everything, Dad. Our family and our pack—they are mine now.”

“Yes. Yes. You’ll be Alpha. You’ll make a good Alpha. Better… than I was. Stronger.”

Grabbing the headboard of his bed, I lean closer to him, right where he can hear me loud and clear as every breath escapes from his body.

“I’ll make a good Alpha, Dad. You know why? Because I intend to bring back the woman you forced me to reject a year ago.”

His bloodshot eyes go wide, and he uses the only remaining strength in his body to grab my shirt. I can only smirk at that.

“You were the Alpha then, and I couldn’t stop you from harming my mate, but the fucking minute you die, I’ll be the Alpha. I’ll protect her, and I’ll make her Luna and give you as many bouncing grandchildren as I can.”

I want him to roll in his grave as Winter and I have the happy ending we deserve.

“She was not…not worthy! She was a Cavanaugh! I did everything for you. I did it for you!”

This man, my father, had gone to extreme lengths a year ago to keep me away from Winter.

“You did it for me? You have never done anything for anyone. Everything you did, you did for yourself.”

Everything that happened to my mate has been on me, and I’ll live to ask for forgiveness from her.

My father’s teeth grind in his mouth, and the realization of what I’m about to do hits him hard.

“You think I don’t know you did it, Dad? That you killed Jacob and Winter’s parents? All for what? Huh? So, you could teach me a lesson? Separate me from her? Well, I’m swearing on your deathbed, Foster, that Winter Cavanaugh will be back in my arms soon, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

My words turn out to be the sharpest blades that have ever sliced his body. The horrific look on his face only makes his white skin turn paler, almost like how a wounded animal discovers there’s no way to escape the predator. And death? It might be the biggest predator of all.

His hands, which are now more boneless than anything, grip my shirt, but with the disease festering in his blood like poison, the almighty Foster can’t do the very thing his mind is telling him to.

He wants to punch me and put me in line. Joke’s on him because this is the last time we breathe the same air.

Bloodshot eyes, the color of a madman, lock in on me as he opens his mouth, trying to fight me. ” You are not going… to ruin your future. Over my dead body, you will not.”

I’m about to inform him he’s already going to be dead by sunset, but fate takes its natural course.

My father’s hands loosen against the collar of my shirt, and I take a step away, watching the Almighty Foster Cross break into a series of uncontrollable coughs. The coughs turn into him squelching blood from his mouth and nose.

Angling his head so our eyes can meet, his frail hand reaches out to me, seeking sympathy, but there is no sympathy for a wicked man like him.

“Deacon…help…me.”

I watch the once-great Alpha of Moonstone Pack choke on his own blood while he begs me to help him.

I don’t help him, of course, because death comes for him faster than the shock can do so. The beeping machines near his bed roar louder than my breathing.

The healer and her assistants run into the room, trying to revive my father, but I know the truth.

Foster Cross is dead, and I’m the new Alpha of the Moonstone Pack.

Two minutes later, I’m holding my little sister, Mia, in my arms as she sobs over our father’s death. I barely shed a tear as they announce that the Alpha is dead.

The mourning goes on for about three days. The burial preparations are held by the pack.

I stand in my office, the room that has been my friend for days, looking at the betas I hired to follow Winter when she left the town.

My heart pounds in my mouth. The thrill of finally being with my mate licks my veins and gives me life. I can almost hear my wolf growling in anticipation.

I’m coming for you, baby.

We are going to finally be together.

“Where is my mate?” I ask.

“Alpha Deacon, we tried to follow her just like you asked, but we lost track of her eight months ago.”