Page 8

DEACON

Glancing outside the panoramic window of my penthouse to the city that stretches for miles and miles brings some sort of peace to my body.

While Bracken City offers what most people search for outside the confines of their packs, this metropolis is nowhere close to home. It’s nowhere close to how it feels to be an Alpha and be in control.

Moonstone was my turf, but Bracken? This city is Winter’s turf, and she didn’t hesitate to show me how.

She put me in my place as she should have.

Did the slap sting? It sure as fuck did. I can still feel it a few hours later. I can still feel those pretty fingers of hers and that immaculately soft palm of hers connect with my cheek in rage.

The man inside of me, who is head over heels in love with her, smiles. She might have tried to wipe away my kiss from her lips, but at least she slapped me. That meant I got under her skin. That meant she felt something for me, even if that something revolved around the word “hate.” I’ll take that instead of her ignoring me. I’m in her life again.

The man who kissed her and watched her dismiss it as nothing feels a little slice of pain cutting his chest.

Taking my eyes off the city lights, I swirl the drink in my glass, watching the ice cubes clink against each other. My other hand, which has an iPad resting on it, presses play on the video I got from the company’s surveillance footage.

Like a stalker, I watch the cameras show me every move my mate made when she stepped out of my office.

I watch as she steps out of my office with a calm and collected demeanor, and that has the alcohol burning my throat fiercely.

The kiss didn’t affect you, baby, but I’ve been thinking about it every second since you left my office.

I continue watching the footage, from her getting inside the elevator to her getting out of it, only to wind up being ambushed by her co-workers. Winter handles the three women like a pro, and I’m almost proud of her were it not for the fact she used the “he’s all yours” line to get them to back off.

I’m not just anyone’s. I’m hers.

She’ll understand that soon enough.

The footage continues to show Winter as she gets in her car, slams the door, and sits in the driver’s seat for hours. I can’t make out her face clearly, but the minute she lays her head against the steering wheel, seemingly falling asleep, I watch her through the screen, wishing we weren’t separated like this. Wishing I would be there to give her a shoulder to sleep on and assure her we will never be separated again.

I can almost see her lips in my head, moving as her chest puffs and huffs while she snores. I can see her luscious lips, looking delectable against the lighting in the dingy parking lot. I can see and feel so much, and yet I’m farther away from her than I’d like, and that only fuels the urge to be with her again. I have to get her back, or I’ll lose my mind.

I toss the iPad to the nearest couch before I finish my drink. I barely make it to the mini-bar for a refill when the sound of my doorbell buzzes and cuts the silence into two. I don’t move to open the door because the person knocking knows he’s allowed to show himself in.

His shaggy dark-brown hair is the first thing that comes to sight, followed by that tight-lipped smile he likes to give me when he thinks he’ll get into trouble. Martin is the newest addition to my pack. He’s a beta who’s come in handy more times than I can count, and he’s barely twenty-five years old.

“I got everything you asked for about Ms. Winter, Alpha. I thought about including her address in the file, but you said—”

I cut him off, urging him to sit down, “I said I didn’t want to know her address.”

Sitting down and getting comfortable, Martin levels me with curiosity before he hands me the file that contains everything about Winter since she left home.

I opened the file, and the first page contained a picture of her. Pretty, smiling, and older, my mate stares back at me.

“Can I ask the reason why, Alpha? You recruited me to search for her, and I’ve searched for her for more than five years. Why not get her home address? Would it not be easier to show up at her home and speak to her face to face?”

I chuckle, flicking my eyes through every tidbit of information written in the file about Winter. She worked a few jobs when she came to Bracken City. She was a dishwasher and waitress at some shitty bar in downtown Bracken before she landed the assistant job almost two years later.

“Did you know Winter when she lived back in Moonstone?” I ask.

“Not personally, no. I was eighteen when her family died. I heard a few rumors about her.”

They were the same rumors I couldn’t protect her from once upon a time. The same rumors about her that I have tried to eliminate since I became an Alpha.

“She was kind, too curious for her own good, and most importantly, the Winter from seven years ago loved me more than anything. The Winter Cavanaugh in this file, however, has endured shit because of me. She’s become tough because she had to, and trust me when I say, if I show up on her doorstep, she will punch me in the face for stalking her, quit her job forever, and disappear so I can’t find her. I can’t risk that, Martin.”

Martin looks at me, and he doesn’t hold back his words when he says,” What if she runs again, Alpha? What then?”

There’s a possibility of Winter trying to run so she can avoid me, I know.

There’s also the possibility of her rejecting my offer.

But the Winter Cavanaugh who I kissed in that office is a fighter. More than that, she hates me. She would never give me the satisfaction of winning, which is why I know Winter’s not going anywhere. I can bet my money and say she’ll take my offer.

“She won’t run. Her pride and her hate for me won’t let her run.”

Martin only nods at my words.

If my mate decides to run in the future, I’ll have to increase her salary to a substantial amount that would be too attractive for her to reject. If that fails to work, I’ll have to resort to measures like putting a tracker on her to make sure I don’t lose her again.

I sit there for almost an hour, learning new things about my mate every single second.

“That’s all I could gather from people around the office who seem to know her and from a few pictures in the system. There could be a few things I missed about her, so I’ll keep looking.”

I reach the end of the file, taking out every picture of Winter that was inside.

As if the kid can somehow read my mind on the most important thing I want to learn about Winter, he goes ahead to add,” She has not been dating anyone since she left Moonstone City, Alpha.”

I hiss out a breath of relief. The fact that she remained single only strengthened my resolve to win her back.

“Good because if she was dating anyone, I would have to either ship him off to another city or chop his hands off for touching what’s mine.”

My wolf agrees on the latter, and I definitely have no qualms about it. When it comes to Winter, killing is not beneath me.

“Of course, Alpha,” Martin fires back, but apart from the tremble in his voice, the poker face on the kid has me questioning whatever he’s keeping from me, especially if it concerns Winter.

“Anything else I need to know about Winter that you haven’t told me?”

I can practically smell the sweat rolling down his back. I can almost hear the hesitation biting his throat and the fear that comes with opening his mouth.

“I heard a rumor, so I am not too sure if it’s correct or—”

“What rumor?” I grit my teeth, almost feeling my molars grind in my mouth from the impatience.