Page 15 of The Alpha's Broken Oath

Dark hair, the same as my sons’, comes into sight. The same hair I ran my fingers in on that unforgettable night. The memory of that forbidden night churns my soul more than the scent that has rendered me immobile.

Sharp-muscled jaw, hardened by years of being apart, taunts me from a distance.

My wolf and I are taken back to the days when he and his calming presence were everything that mattered to us as our world came crumbling down.

Muscles not from a boy, but from a man who’s grown to be the Alpha he was always destined to be mock every female in the room. Every female but me.

I can taste the rush of the severed bond between us slowly flickering to a dulling pain in my chest, and I refuse to let it cripple me. I refuse to let the burn behind my eyes win, too.

When cold, dark eyes search the room, finding a throng of people, my throat closes in on itself. My heart, the one that this man left bleeding in chains, pounds against my chest cavity.

My first instinct urges me to escape and get out of here, take everything and run, because I have everything to lose.

My second instinct tells me that he’s not real, that he’s not here, but I know those eyes.

Seven years later, and I know the man looking at me like I wronged him is none other than Deacon freaking Cross, my new boss.

CHAPTER SIX

DEACON

All good things come to those who wait.

I haven’t waited seven years because I’m one patient man.

I have waited seven years because my mate has been that good and elusive at hiding.

Years of saying her name in dreams and nightmares, while at wars and under my shower, in almost everything I fucking saw, and finally, the wait is over. And this time, there’s no running from me, Winter Cavanaugh.

The many “congratulations for acquiring Bracken Holdings” slice the air around me. The welcome jubilee that’s headed by a few omegas and betas cocoons me with handshakes and all manner of greetings, but my eyes hone in on the woman who’s looking at me with such distaste I can almost sniff it in the air.

Hate me as much as your little heart desires, baby. Give me your hate. I can take it.

The same green eyes that bore into mine and that dilated with pleasure as I sucked her neck and pumped inside her, are no longer filled with the same desire or the same innocence from seven years ago.

If anything, those green eyes look different. More mature. More resilient.

That blonde hair I ran my hands through while I made love to her in those woods has now been dyed to brown. I’d say I prefer her hair blonde, but her brown hair makes my blood light aflame like gasoline to an inferno.

But most of all, as much as seven years have changed me, so have they changed my mate.

The age of twenty-five looks good on her. That professional getup she has on hugs her voluptuous curves—curves that have only grown bigger with time.

Jacob would be smiling if he saw her right about now. She survived for seven years, all on her own, and that takes strength. I’m prouder of her than she knows.

My eyes sweep another look on her face, committing every new feature to detail, locking everything new about her inside my mind because that’s where she has lived tormenting me.

Does she know how long I have been looking for her? How crazy and manic my wolf and I have been without her?

Does she know I found her a week ago and bought this bankrupt company she works at for twelve million dollars so I could become close to her without her running away from me?

“Boss? Your office is right this way. Let me show you around,” the middle-aged man, who smells like an omega, pats me on the shoulder like we are acquaintances.

For the sake of formality and trying not to breach the distance between me and my mate lest I scare her away and begin the whole “hide and seek” thing once again, I play along. ” Lead the way.”

For the next half an hour, I’m shown at least ten departments in Bracken Holdings, and in every department, I’m forced to act cordial by pretending that every handshake I initiate with my employees doesn’t make me pissed off. The only thing I’m interested in this building is the woman with five-inch red-bottom heels, a window-pane blue blouse, and a skirt that completes the whole thing by hugging her hips. Unfortunately for me, I don’t see Winter again.

Knowing her, she probably ran. But she’s the same woman who’s worked in this company and in the same city for seven years. That tells me she won’t run. She likes this city. She likes this company. That’s reason number one why I bought it for her.

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