Page 63 of The Alpha's Broken Oath

Then she answers my son’s question, making sure she aims for my jugular.

“I’m Alpha Deacon’s Luna, of course!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

DEACON

If you had asked a few minutes ago whether I’d ever hurt and destroy my mate’s trust in me, I would have replied with a prideful no.

Right now? The tables have turned so grotesquely I could have never predicted this.

“I’m Alpha Deacon’s Luna, of course!”

Crystal’s words hang in the air with thick tension.

I wipe away the taste of Crystal’s lip gloss on my lips. I hardly make it past Crystal when she clings to my arm like a leech and adds another kiss to my neck.

“I know you said I should stay home and wait for you, but I missed you so much, baby. I couldn’t wait to get here and surprise you.”

Her lies act like a final nail to the coffin.

Prying her sharp nails from my arms and storming towards Winter doesn’t help my cause, not even when I open my mouth ready to end Crystal’s shenanigans.

“She’s fucking lying about—”

“Don’t do this. Not in front of the children.”

Winter places the tray of pancakes on my coffee table. Our boys hug her legs tighter, hiding from me as if I’m no longer the man they’d spent time with the last couple of days.

Seeing my boys slowly reject and disapprove of me splices my insides in half, but the look on their mother’s face completely and utterly wrecks me.

Confusion and betrayal etch her face. Those green eyes of hers that sheened with happiness, happiness she’s not allowed herself to have for a long time, have now reduced to twin pools of tears. My mate looks at Crystal and then back at me, and she tries so hard not to sob.

Goddess. What have I fucking done?

“Mommy, what’s Luna?” Adrian asks his mother, not even remotely looking in my direction.

The woman, whose perfume is reeking in my apartment like it doesn’t belong here, fails to read the room. Crystal steps forward, enough to be close to Winter and not enough to be near my boys.

“Aww, look at you two. You are both so adorable. A Luna is like the wife of an Alpha. In this case, I’m like—”

The floodgates of anger rippling inside me burst open, and I stop Crystal faster than she can finish her jabbering nonsense.

My hand wrapping around her wrist, I issue her a warning to back down, or I’ll shut her up myself. “That’s enough, Crystal.”

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean my boys haven’t already put two and two together.

“What about Mommy? Does Uncle Deacon not like Mommy anymore?” Ash asks, the tears in his eyes acting like tiny needles getting under my skin and puncturing my veins one by one.

I barely move to explain the situation when Winter drops the first tear on her cheek.

She wipes it fast, her chin quivering, but her strength keeps her from lashing out.

“Winter, if you could just give me a minute to explain—”

“We are leaving. I think my boys and I have overstayed our welcome here,” her voice is straight to the point but still quick and precise enough to cut deep.

She has my mark on her neck that’s still healing. Yesterday, on my damn bed, we solidified our bond. Crystal might have kissed me, and I might have failed to see it coming in time to stop her, but Winter is the woman I marked last night. The woman I crave.

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