Page 43 of The Alpha's Broken Oath

“D–Deacon?”

“Winter.”

The tremor in her voice weighs heavy on my chest. The sound of her sniffing back tears has me on alert, my grip on the phone tight and cold.

“I need… help. I need your help. Please…please don’t hang up. I can’t do this alone. Luka is not picking up. Julie…she is not picking up either. I called the ambulance. Why are they not here yet? Deacon, why are they not here?”

“Winter? You have to calm down. Can you do that for me?”

It takes three minutes for her to give me a solid answer that doesn’t constitute her sobbing and saying gibberish words.

“Winter? Baby, you’ve got to talk to me. You’ve got to let me help you.”

“He’s not moving. He was shaking earlier, but he’s not moving. I-I don’t think he’s breathing. What should I do?”

The sigh that escapes my lungs as I ride the elevator down to the parking lot makes me feel like a dick. But I’m thankful she’s not in danger. I can’t have her in danger. I can’t lose her.

“He who, Winter? Who’s not breathing?”

I make my way to my car as fast as I can.

“My son. My son’s not breathing.”

Six words and she say them in deep agony and devastation.

To me?

Those six words have me halting in my steps as they maim me right on the spot.

Son? Her son?

“He’s going to be fine, baby. I just need you to give me your address, stay on the phone, and keep your hand on his pulse. Can you do that?”

She has a son? Pins prick my chest, but I shove them down my gut. The last thing she needs is me asking questions.

“O-Okay.”

How old is her son?

Winter rattles off her home address to me, and I thank her for it.

Getting off the phone doesn’t sound like an option. She needs me more than she’s ever needed me in her entire life, and despite the sheer confusion blanketing me in a thick dark cloud, I don’t let her down.

“I’m on my way, and the ambulance is on its way. Winter, everything will be fine, you hear me?”

“H–hurry. Please, hurry.”

“Almost there. I’m almost there, baby.”

It takes almost another five minutes to get to Winter’s place. I hang up on her when I get there.

The night air has never felt as suffocating and stifling as it does now as I get out of my car, staring at the blue and white suburban house that must belong to Winter. Loud sirens beckon from behind my car, the ambulance having made its arrival after me.

Two employees I recognize as Winter’s friends, from my company no less, get out of the car that’s parked across the street. It’s a clear indication that they must have gotten Winter’s calls or texts.

It’s not the chilled air of the night, the one that’s capable of giving frostbite, that concerns me. It’s the looks on Luka’s and Julie’s faces when they see me that have me running up to Winter’s porch and almost breaking the door as I try to get to the woman who needs me.

Winter’s best friends looked at me like I wasn’t supposed to be here.

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