The Alpha's Promise ✔️

C H A P T E R 43

Light of My Life

"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending." - C.S. Lewis

ZANE DE LUCA

"You're just going to let her speak to me that way?" Isabel blurts out. She looks at me with hope, like I'm her savior in this awkward as fuck situation. I don't waste my breath by responding. Alessandra has it handled.

"Leave Isabel," she speaks. It's quiet, but her tone is final.

Isabel backs away. Her eyes stare into mine with so much devotion that I almost feel bad for the girl. I disregard her, though. She's just a nuisance, a stain from my past that is always risking my future with the one person that matters.

Once she's left the room, Alessandra takes her parents' hands to show them the house. Valentina goes with her happily but I can feel Antonio's glare on me.

Every time I think Alessandra and I are moving forward something happens to set us back. I can't help but think about what our lives would be like if we were not burdened by the past of Lorenzo and Rosanna Moretti. Would our wolves had taken over the night of The Marking? Would I be mated to Isabel right now?

The idea of living a life without Alessandra sounds so miserable it nearly makes me collapse. I'm not sure how I made it this long without her but the impact is already obvious.

When I look in the mirror, my hair is fuller and the shadows beneath my eyes have disappeared. They emerged on my face when I started distancing myself from Alessandra and once she left for Italy they were permanent.

It's odd how nature depicts our relationship with our bodies. Alessandra doesn't need me. She looked as beautiful as ever when she was in Italy. She met people, made friends, and had a good time.

I just let myself drown. Once my duties as alpha were complete I would just seek the closest pleasure that was attainable at the moment. Then at night I would stare at my phone screen and look at all the pictures Vincenzo sent me of Alessandra.

She never needed me, not the way that I needed her.

From upstairs I can hear the Romanos laughing. For a short moment, I wonder what it would be like to have a family, a real family. It's rude to say that my father never made me feel like I had a family but it's the truth. He was so consumed in his own misery that he never noticed my own.

The urge to see my father hits me and I decide it's best to leave Alessandra alone with her parents so they can gossip about me in peace.

It's a relatively short trek to his house. He moved out of my childhood home once I left and now it sits by the lake like a ghost from our past. It's hard to walk by it at times because I swear I can hear her laugh.

The place my dad lives in now resembles a cottage. He spends most of his time in his garden and that's where he is when I get to the property.

"The garden is looking better," I tell him. My dad doesn't really have a green thumb but he's persistent about his hobby.

"Sure does, Alessia was helping me with it the other day," he fills me in. His words puzzle me. I didn't know Alessandra came out here to visit him.

"So you're going to continue this garden even though it's burning you out?"

Garden is a nice way to describe it. It's more like a jungle that has not seen rain in a while. My dad huffs and drops the little shovel he was messing around with. He stands to his full height which is equal to mine.