The Alphas Daughter (WATTYS2018)

Chapter Ten*

Althea Williams POV

A week had past with no word from Jake, and I had begun to distance myself from Dante. Our mate bond was growing stronger and slowly starting to heal, and I hadn't come to a decision on whether I could forgive him. I didn't want to give either of us false hope, so I decided distancing myself would be a good idea to figure out what I really wanted.

Whether to forgive Dante and try to fix our sort of 'relationship/friendship' or completely cut him out of my life. They were questions that I had been battling with for days, and I was still trying to come to a conclusion.

During these thoughts, my mom's advise would play over and over.

'It doesn't matter who hurt you, or broke you down. What matters is who made you smile again.'

Dante hurt me, and he broke me. But he makes me smile when I don't feel like getting out of bed, especially on days like today. And then sometimes, he makes me so angry. I don't like how he pretends he never rejected me, that the past two years didn't happen.

But it did. And for two years I told myself that I hated him, I would never forgive him. All the hurt, anger and sadness I went through. But it was fucking difficult, because the more he smiled, the more I wanted to hate him, and yet it was the very thing that made hating him impossible.

Today, I was going to take things into my own hands.

~*~

I messaged Dante to meet me in the forest, where we would be alone and where I could (finally) yell at him without a hundred and more wolves listening in.

He arrived ten minutes after I messaged him, he was slightly panting and his hair was a mess. He didn't look all that great, especially with the bags under his eyes and the choice of his clothing, but somehow he took my breath away.

"What's happened Thea? Are you okay?" Dante asked with a worried look - furrowed eyebrows and eyes wide. In response I nodded my head.

"I just need to get something off of my chest." Dante nodded for me to continue, the worried look still evident on his face.

"We need to stop pretending," I took a deep breath, willing myself not to back out. "that the last two years didn't happen."

"Thea I-," Dante started but I cut him off.

"Just...let me finish," I replied. Dante nodded his head slowly.

"You rejected me, Dante. You didn't want me, you didn't care about my feelings. You absolutely ruined me and I had no clue to who I was anymore, or what my purpose in life is. My mom and brother comforted me as best as they could, and they provided me with the love that you and my sister should've given me,"

"I fell in love with somebody else, and he meant the world to me," I noticed how Dante eyes darkened and he looked away, jaw clenched. "He was kind, and generous. He made me feel whole again, he made me feel happy despite the sadness and hurt and anger I felt. And he reminded me of the person I was before you, before the bullying,"

"I was so fucking happy with Jake, and then all of a sudden he's gone. And you don't know how hard it was to realise that somebody who I believed was going to be there forever, suddenly wasn't. And have no doubt in my mind that a month ago I loved him, but I also realised that I was holding onto him and the dreams, decisions and promises we had made."

"Are you purposefully rubbing salt into the wound?" Dante asked with a bewildered expression. "Because you're standing there and telling me how much you love him and I can't stand the thought of you with another man,"