Page 36 of The Alpha's Broken Oath

Every muscle in Kieran’s body tells him to attack Deacon, too, I can see it in the way his hands fist, but instead, Kieran actually listens to me.

He steps away from Deacon.

I barely think for a second as I storm over to the man who’s having difficulty standing, let alone stringing a coherent word together.

“Win… Winter,” Deacon slurs with a shy smile.

Is he drunk right now?

“Get up,” my voice comes out wobbly, but I refuse to let an incident like this bring me down.

People are watching. I can also see the flashes of cameras being pointed at us. Tomorrow, everything that happened here will add to those malicious rumors I’m trying to fight. Deep down, I pray it ends up the opposite.

“Baby… I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? Sorry doesn’t begin to cover what you just did, Deacon. What the fuck are you doing here? How? Why would you do this?”

“Winter…”

“You need to leave Deacon. Right now.”

The wounded look in his eyes almost gets to me, but I can’t for the life of me understand why he did this as I watch him stand up and stagger backward a bit.

Standing so close to him means I can smell the rancid, alcoholic breath coming from his mouth, and it also means I can look at those dark eyes that are no longer enraged.

“I’ll leave,” a defeated sigh escapes his lips, but then he adds, “If you leave… with me.”

“Deacon.”

“Come… with me.”

Maybe it’s the plea in his eyes, or maybe it’s that wounded look on his face, the one he wears like a badge he wants me to see, all I know is, I can’t let this man go home in this state all by himself.

What if something happens to him?

What if he decides to do something crazy if I don’t leave with him?

I shouldn’t care about him right now after what he pulled, but my wolf? She cares a lot. She’s worried about him more than ever.

I turn to Kieran, the man I’d actually forgotten was here in the first place.

“I’ll just take him to his car and be right back. Wait for me?”

Kieran only nods, an unreadable expression on his face.

Getting Deacon to his car turns out to be a great feat because finding his car in the parking lot takes us at least five minutes. Getting Deacon to let go of my hand takes another six minutes, and finally, going to where I left Kieran standing takes at most three minutes.

Long gone is the man who gave me flowers almost half an hour ago. The Kieran Vega standing in front of me looks like he got run over by a car a few times and still managed to survive.

The awkwardness between us is as palpable as the tension in the air. I make an attempt to smooth over the events of what happened today, but Kieran offers me a smile before speaking first.

“I got punched in the face by your boss, and the first person you ran to was Deacon. If that isn’t indication enough that he’s the man you’ve been in love with for years, then I don’t know what is.”

I could correct Kieran that I’m not in love with Deacon, but instead, I settle for, “I’m sorry for everything. Starting with everything he did to you just now all the way to ruining whatever wonderful surprise you had prepared for me. I'm truly sorry, Kieran.”

Kieran’s golden eyes trace my face, and then, with a sigh, he asks me a question I don’t know the answer to.

“He’s the guy that snatched your heart, isn’t he?”

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