Page 80 of The Alpha's Broken Oath

“You are defending her, Jake? After she left you to die in that fire without a second thought?” Crystal lashes out, and Jacob withdraws in on himself as if he’s believing every word that comes out of the bitch’s mouth.

What really happened with Jake? Goddess, what did Crystal do to him?

“That’s not true,” Winter wrenches herself from behind me faster than I can stop her, “That is not true, Jacob. I…I mourned you. I tried to seek justice for you. I thought you were dead, Jake. I thought I would never see you again. I love you. Jake, I'm begging you, please stop—.”

“The cabin. If you want us to finally be together, take Winter and lock her inside the cabin, Deacon. There’s a match on the porch that will be waiting for you once you are done. I want you to set the cabin on fire, and we can all watch her burn and disappear once and for all.”

Like hell, I'm doing that.

“W-what did I ever do to you? I was your best friend, Crystal. What did I do to make you hate me so much?” Winter asks, and the question serves as a catalyst for Crystal because she holds Adrian and Asher closer, walking away from the ledge of the cliff with a scowl.

“What did you do? You stole my mate, that’s what you did, Winter! He was mine from the start because I saw him first, not you! You… you are to blame for everything because the man standing next to you was promised to me! Me!”

The more she speaks, the more she steps away from the ledge, and that’s good.

That gives me the vantage to grab the kids, give them to Winter, and push her down the cliff with ease.

“Crystal, you know that’s not true. You were never interested in Deacon when we were young. You—”

“You think I was fucking happy every time you drooled over Deacon? Do you think I shared in your happiness? You’ve always had your head in the clouds, Winter. You always put yourself first before everyone else. Maybe that’s the reason why you never noticed my love for him because you’ve always been a self-entitled bitch.”

“A love built on forcing yourself on him? A love built on kidnapping my kids to get what you want? This isn’t love, Crystal, this is obsession.”

“Shut up!” Crystal screams, “Shut up! You don’t know what I had to go through to get him. Foster promised me I would be Deacon’s Luna. It was my destiny. I set your parents’ house on fire when Foster asked me to because that’s what it takes when you love someone! I gave Jake a home when he didn’t die in that fire because I knew you would try to take what’s mine again. I knew Jake would come in handy because I knew your games, Winter. Don’t talk to me about love because you don’t know what I'm capable of to get Deacon.”

Crystal covers her mouth, the spooked pale expression on her face telling me she didn’t mean to spill the beans, not in front of Jacob anyway.

Even so, her words are like a stab to the hearts of everyone present.

Winter takes a step back, falling into my chest with a horrified gasp before more hot tears stream down her cheeks.

Jacob stills, the words like a low blow he never saw coming. He raises his head, and my chest aches when I recognize my best friend, the one who loved his sister more than anything in the world, staring back at me.

Tears well in his eyes as he smiles. Behind his smile, I see his pain. I see his regret, and I see guilt. Loads of it.

“You—You killed them?” Jake asks, long before Winter can release more sobs.

“No. No. I just…Jake, it’s me. It’s Crystal. I love you, remember? It’s me and you forever, remember?”

“I know, Crystal. You’ve told me that for seven years, so why don’t you step away from the kids, and we can be together just like always?” It’s not Jake’s robotic voice that gets to Crystal. It’s the gun he holds in his hand.

She knows if she says one wrong word, Jake might flip and shoot her instead.

“Jake—”

“Step away from the kids, Crystal!” Jacob roars.

She steps away from Adrian and Asher, and I beckon my boys to run to me.

Brave and still scared as fuck, Asher and Adrian run to me, and Winter breaks down, kneeling on the grass to hug our kids.

I watch as Jacob manipulates Crystal into getting into a hug with him.

I watch as he holds her tightly against his body while Crystal squirms to be let go.

Then… the same man who told me to stay away from his sister seven years ago smiles cockily at me and says, “Take care of them, Cross. You are all they’ve got.”

By the time Winter pulls her eyes away from the kids to Jacob, her brother is already stepping closer to the edge of the cliff with a shrieking Crystal in his arms.

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