Page 79 of The Alpha's Broken Oath

Winter’s questions are answered when the road we are on leads to a clearing.

Thunder lashes out in the skies like a scorned woman. Past my windshield, there’s an old cabin that’s barely hanging on to dear life, and just by the right side of the cabin, where there’s a cliff overlooking the sea that hollers against the jagged rocks below, are four people.

“Oh, Goddess!” Winter exclaims in shock, opening her door and stepping out.

I have no time to tell her to stay back, and I’ll handle everything because I’m already chasing after her.

Standing by the edge of the cliff, where the winds blow with a vengeance and death mystifies in the air, is Crystal with Asher and Adrian both gagged and their hands tied around with ropes. Crystal has her sharp nails digging into their shoulders, and the picture itself is enough to make me want to commit murder.

Correction: I’m ripping Crystal Sanders with my bare fangs when all is said and done.

The other person standing by Crystal, the one whose ire I see written on his face, is holding a gun aimed toward me and Winter. Judging by the exterior of the gun and its barrel, the bullets in it have to be made of silver. Jacob, as well as Crystal, knows if he fires that gun, he’ll be able to kill anyone here because silver is the only thing that can kill us werewolves.

How could Jacob Cavanaugh change this much?

“Crystal, please—” Winter is ready to breach the distance between us and where Crystal and Jacob are standing, but I hold her back.

“Stay the fuck away, Winter! Step the fuck back, or I’ll let them go, and you can watch as their little bodies crack on the rocks below. I’ll do it, don’t test me.”

Sobbing, and her shoulders rattling against my hands, my mate begs, “You don’t have to do this. Please don’t. Take me. You are upset with me, so take me, Crystal. Not them. They… they did nothing wrong! They did nothing to you!”

Her blonde hair is fluttering in the wind. Her eyes are bloodshot, and her dark mascara is lining her cheeks like she’s been crying for weeks. Crystal looks at Winter, but when she speaks, her venom is aimed at me.

“I told you that you would regret it, Deacon! I told you it’s you and me forever. I’m the one who’s always loved you. Not her!”

Crystal’s shouting has her shaking my little boys. From right where she’s standing, if she decided to take a miscalculated step back, then she would go down the cliff with the boys, and there would be nothing I could do.

I could shift and take down Jacob first, but Crystal could decide to jump and doom us all.

If I take down Crystal first, then Jacob could shoot at me, eventually shooting my kids, too.

There’s no way out of this.

Crystal knew this, and she banked on it.

“Let them go, Crystal. And you can have me,” I offer, standing protectively in front of Winter.

I can almost see the confusion in Winter’s eyes behind me.

My little boys are so scared and confused that it makes bitter bile rise up my throat.

When did we get to this? When did I let my issues with Crystal come in the way of their happiness?

I should have stayed back in Moon Stone. If I had, Winter would still be happy with the kids, and they wouldn’t be begging for their lives right now.

A cruel laugh ebbs from Crystal’s throat, “You think you’re so noble, don’t you? Standing there like a knight in shining armor? What about me, Deacon? What about everything I’ve done for you? All the desperate things I've done, I've done so because I love you!”

“And I'll love you too, Crystal. You let the kids go, and I'll have plenty of time to love you. They have nothing to do with this.”

Pacifying her is the only way I know how to win this.

Crystal weighs her options for a minute, and I somehow think I’ve gotten to her, but when her eyes stray from me, trying to find Winter behind me, I can almost read her like an open book.

“The only way we’ll ever be happy is for you to get rid of Winter.”

Apart from the silence that erupts, the wind whistles between us, and the water below bellows like a hungry beast, bringing with it the briny sea salt air that burns my nostrils.

Jacob is the first to drop the gun with a stupefied look on his face. “This isn’t the plan. Deacon is the one who’s dying not—”

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