Page 7 of The Alpha's Broken Oath

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“Deacon, I think you should put me down now.”

My hands wrap around her thighs. I’ll not be putting her down anytime soon.

“You have no shoes, and I went pretty hard on you tonight. Carrying you is no trouble for me.”

Her wolf ran almost two miles into the woods. Another mile more, and she would have been lost, maybe even in the territory of our pack’s rivals in the south.

“Jake will overreact when he sees us. And the pack, my parents, Goddess, what will they all say?”

I kiss the top of her head. We are almost back home. Her brother will most definitely punch me and end our friendship. As for Mr. and Mrs. Cavanaugh, they’ve always liked me. They wouldn’t deny me the chance of making Winter my future Luna.

Any thoughts about me and Winter are put to a halt when the shrill sound of drums echoes all the way from our pack’s village.

Drums in the pack mean one thing. Death.

“Deacon,” Winter’s voice wobbles.

I kiss her on the lips.

“Everything is going to be okay.”

Nothing turns out to be okay when we reach Winter’s home. I don’t have to be told who died. The truth is in the smell and the dark smoke that hangs in the skies. The truth is in the people from our pack who start to give me and Winter way as soon as we arrive.

The truth is in my father’s eyes as he looks at me and nods his head sideways. The only person who doesn’t see the truth is…

“Winter.”

“Deacon…let me go. I have to go inside. Jake and my parents are worried sick about me.”

There is no house because said house has been burnt to ashes. Jake or her parents would be here somewhere if they were alive, and the acrid smell of flesh wouldn’t reek so much in the air.

“Winter.”

“Jacob said we would…we would get to talk once he came home. I’m home, and I want to see my brother. Mom is waiting for me, too. I have…I have to tell her I got my wolf. I have to tell Mom and Dad I got my wolf. I have to show them! Deacon, let me go!”

“Winter. “

“Why won’t you let me see my family? They are…they are waiting for me! They are worried sick about me, but I’m home. I’m here. I have to go to my family, Deacon.”

“Winter, they are dead. Your family is dead.”

CHAPTER THREE

WINTER

“Go home. We’ll talk about this when I get home.”

Jacob’s voice haunts me three weeks later.

I should have never gone to the training grounds. Maybe if I had stayed home, Mom and Dad would still be here. Maybe Jacob would be here, too, or maybe I would have done something. I would have saved them.

Jacob was one of the strongest betas in the pack, and my dad, even though a retired beta, had the power to shift. My parents would have escaped the fire by themselves, which leaves me with the only truth I know and believe in. My family was murdered.

“Here.”

I’m pulled out of grief by the man who took my virginity the night my parents were murdered and has been acting weird ever since that night.

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