Page 7

WINTER

Keep walking.

Keep walking.

Everything’s okay.

The five-inch heels adorning my feet are one step away from breaking and shoving me to the floor, but I hold my head high. I’ll be damned If I let a single kiss and a man who has no right being back in my life weigh me down.

Bitter memories from the past rattle my chest in discomfort, and angry tears sting my eyes as I make my way outside the new boss’ office, or should I say my ex’s office, or better yet, maybe I should add the word baby daddy in it too.

I’m going crazy. I can feel it in my bones. I can feel it in the way my wolf growls inside me with a temper.

Several questions rack my brain, and they are all directed at the Goddess.

Why now? Why would the Goddess bring him into my life when I’m happy, stronger, and better off than when I was back in Moonstone City, believing in naive things like fated mates and unbreakable mate bonds?

Getting into the elevator offers me some sort of relief that I’ve put enough distance between me and Deacon. Uttering his name in my mind when I haven’t done so for seven years leaves a subtle burn in my chest.

Getting out of the elevator, however, makes the relief bubbling in my chest frizzle out. The minute I step out, several pairs of eyes land on me, all of them questioning why I was the first employee to be called to the boss’ office. All of them were trying to connect the dots of whether the boss and I knew each other.

I hardly make it to my workstation, where Luka and Julie must be waiting for another scoop of gossip when Ashley and her minions block my path.

She flicks her blonde hair from her face, her eyes scrutinizing me from head to toe.

I dyed my blonde hair brown when I came to Bracken City, and seeing Ashley’s hair reminds me that I’m better off as a brunette than a blonde.

“I get that you are making hay while the sun shines, but fraternizing with the boss when he has hardly settled in is not a good look, Cavanaugh.”

Her minions laugh beside her. Classic bullying maneuver.

I shouldn’t engage her. Ashley is known as the meddling bitch in the company for a reason.

But the surprise from seeing Deacon, the rage and shock coalescing in my blood like acquaintances, the kiss, Goddess, that kiss that shouldn’t have happened, stirs up something ugly inside me.

“Some of us have better things to do than ogle the new boss, Ashley. If you are scared, I’ll seduce the boss before you get the chance to do so, don’t worry. He’s all yours,” I end my words with a forced smile moving around Ashley and her friends.

Murmurs, gasps, and a few chuckles beckon me from behind, but I don’t turn to stare at the surprise written on Ashley’s face. There are other pressing things on my mind besides putting a co-worker in her place.

As expected, Luka and Julie are waiting for me near my desk. Luka is seated on my desk with a curious look on his face, while Julie sits in my swivel chair, pretending to go through my notebook.

“Finally, someone put Ashley in her place, and I’m glad it’s you, girl, but… I’m just as curious as everyone here. The boss called you specifically. Is there any reason why he did so?” Luka asks.

I’m dying to get out of here.

The walls I’ve built for seven years threaten to crumble, and I have to ensure they don’t.

“Not that we are trying to meddle, but everyone’s worried whether they’ll be keeping their jobs or not,” Julie adds, her brown eyes prying me for answers.

I open my mouth, desperate to tell them that their new boss is worse than they ever imagined.

If he’s anything like I remember, he’ll betray them like he betrayed me. He’ll stab them in the back until they are nothing but shells barely hanging on to life.

But instead, all I have to say is, “I have to go.”

“What?” Julie enquires in surprise.

“I have to go. I don’t feel well. I’ll see you guys tomorrow, yeah?”

I don’t think I’ll ever step foot in this company ever again.

The guilt that lodges in my chest for keeping the truth from the friends who’ve stuck by me since I started working here follows me down the hallway, down the elevator, all the way to the parking lot, and inside my car.

Once I get inside my car, sheer panic and a pinch of pain radiates in my chest, bringing it with the dam of tears I couldn’t let Deacon Cross see.

I don’t just let my tears fall. I set them free. All of them.

We’ll leave and start over where he can’t find us this time around.

.

My wolf whispers what I want to hear, but I can also hear the little hesitation in her voice, like she doesn’t want to leave and like she believes our fates with Deacon are tied together even after everything he did to us. Her pain and sadness, coupled with the bitterness we felt seven years ago, draws out the memories of Deacon we’ve tried to bury.

I try to forget those memories. Goddess, do I try, but my wolf is hellbent on trying to prove that Deacon was good to us once upon a time. Fighting her proves difficult, so I let her bring out the most precious memory we had with Deacon, and I’m pulled back to that special night in the woods.

Deacon kissed me like he believed we would never be apart and that we were bound for eternity. He had held me in his arms, slamming inside me passionately like I was fragile glass he needed to protect from breaking.

I remember how his teeth left sweet bruises on my skin, and I shamelessly asked for more.

The feeling of loving him compared to soaring in the skies and never wanting to touch the ground.

I can also remember the monumental moment when he rejected me and my babies in front of the pack and in front of his father. Just like that, like I was nothing to him.

He came back for me? Well, he’s seven years too late!

He’ll never leave me? I’ll do the leaving.

Amidst the chaos swirling in my entire body, my trembling fingers reach the lips that are still throbbing from the kiss Deacon gave me in his office.

I slapped him, but that doesn’t erase the fact that he kissed me hard enough to leave a bruise or the fact that the taste of his kiss, the touch of his lips, and the dominance in the way his hands held me in place were more intoxicating than any drink I’ve ever had. If he wasn’t holding me up in that office, I would have fallen over. My knees would have given in for him. Curse him!

I don’t know how long I stay in that parking lot, debating whether I’m okay enough to drive home. Seconds turn into minutes, minutes turn into hours, and the only thing that breaks me from the spell is the sharp ringing of my phone somewhere in my purse.

Picking my phone and seeing Isabel’s name has me wiping my tears quickly.

“Winter?”

Isabel’s voice comes from the other end of the line.

The sound of my kids laughing in the background somehow injects strength into my system.

“Hey, Isabel. How was today?”

“Apart from Asher asking about you while I drove us home, everything has been okay. Sorry to disturb you at work like this, but the kids kind of want to know if you are coming home to make dinner tonight. Adrian and Asher made new friends today, and they can’t wait to tell you all about it.”

I smile, knowing how my boys will be when I get home.

“I can imagine their excitement. I’ll be home in thirty. Can you handle their chaos until then?” I joke.

Isabel laughs. ” I’ve handled their chaos since they were babies. I’ll tell them the good news. And, Winter?”

“Yes?”

“Did something happen at work today? You don’t sound like yourself.”

“I’m okay. See you in thirty.”

I’m far from okay.

xxx

Isabel left fifteen minutes ago.

When Adrian comes tugging at my skirt, I put down the carrots so that I can look at him while he speaks.

“And Devon and Abby said we can play with them at their house. They said they have a pool, Mommy!” Adrian claps, and I hold back a chuckle.

“Is that right?” I ask incredulously.

Asher comes to stand behind his brother with the same smile.

“They said they know how to swim, Mommy. Their daddy taught them, isn’t that cool?”

Pinpricks spear my heart at the mention of ‘daddy’ knowing that my sons’ daddy is in the same city we are, and sooner or later, my boys will meet him, and I can’t let that happen.

“So cool, baby.”

How do I tell my babies we might leave this city in the next week?

I can’t risk my babies getting rejected like I did.

“And… and Abby said their daddy can teach me and Asher to swim!”

“Adrian,” I ruffle his hair.

I’m not about to let some stranger teach my kids how to swim.

“Don’t worry, Mommy. Daddy won’t get jealous. He’ll watch over me and Asher from heaven.”

Goddess, bless his little heart.

Telling my babies their daddy was in heaven was the right call. I never thought I would see Deacon ever again or our lives would intertwine like this. Nor did I think I’d sacrifice the life I’d built for me and my family for Deacon. Again.

Putting the knife down, I kneel on my kitchen floor to face my babies.

“Abby and Devon, do you like them as your friends?”

“Yes! They are cool. Can they come to play with us tomorrow after school?”

I can’t do this to my children. I can’t flee the city. I just can’t start over.

I don’t have enough money. I have no plan, and moving would mean me searching for a new house and a new job.

“Instead of leaving, we can stay, Winter. Maybe we can listen to what he has to say,” my wolf advises.

I’ll stay not because my wolf sounds like she wants us to give Deacon a chance but because the triple salary Deacon offered me would change my life and my boys’ lives.

I’ll play along, I’ll take his offer, and I’ll reject him every single step of the way till he takes the hint and goes back to wherever he came from.

I’ll never let Deacon find out about my sons.

And this time around, I’m not falling for his words like a naive eighteen-year-old with a childish crush on him.