Page 123 of The Alpha's Fated Destiny

I give her a small smile. “For your sake, I hope you’re right.”

*****

We’re only staying in Alex’s hometown for a few days till my mother and father wake up. It’s been a week and there is no sign of them waking. Marlene is monitoring them and is hopeful that they will wake up soon.

Dorian offered to let us stay with him, but I could sense that Alex wanted to stay here. It wasn’t just Alex. His people had also expressed a desire to live in the home they once knew.

Alex has been spending a lot of time in his childhood home. He’s been clearing it out. I’ve tried to help him, but he knows I’m busy, so he always turns me down. At least, that’s the excuse he gives me.

The house is large and badly damaged. I understand that he has memories here, but fixing it doesn’t seem very feasible. But then, I’ve never really had an attachment to any particular place.

He’s refloored his parents' bedroom floor, fixed the broken bed, andtouched up the damaged furniture. He’s also been clearing up hisown childhood bedroom where I’ve been staying with him.

This is important to him. I can tell. I want to support him, but I wish I could understand his reasoning. But he doesn’t want to talk about it. He doesn’t want to talk about what Karina said to him or his time in the cage. It worries me seeing him holding everything inside.

I walk inside the house and realize that the door is swinging properly. Until last night, it would fall off its hinges. My parentsare in the guest bedroom on the first floor, but I can’t find Alex anywhere. It’s getting dark outside, and my heart feels a little uneasy. Ever since we were separated, I like to know where he’s at all times. I know this is going to become a problem later on, but for now, he doesn’t seem to mind and that makes me feel better.

“Alex?” I call out for him, but there’s no response. I walk to the back of the house where there’s a dead stretch of land. I want to call it a large yard, but I don’t know if that’s the right word for it. There are dead trees everywhere, and the back of the house is creepy beyond measure.

Alex spends a lot of time here and refuses to tell me why.

He’s not told me much about the house either. Patrick and the others have held their tongues as well. All Alex told me was that we could stay here and that he would fix up the house.

Walking out, I see him standing by a bench.

“Alex?”

He nearly jumps on hearing my voice.

“Is everything okay?” I ask upon seeing the lost look in his eyes.

“Yes,” he lies.

I come to stand beside him and look down at the bench. “Is there something special about this place?”

I finally decide to ask him without waiting for him to open up to me. “You’ve been spending a lot of time here.”

He sits down on the bench, looking around, and in this moment, he looks more like a young boy than he does an Alpha. “Do you know the garden I told you about, the one my parents planted when I was born? The one from my dream where I saw my parents?”

I nod.

“Well, this is what’s left of it.” He gestures around with his arms.

I look at the wasted land and regret fills me at having asked.

“Close your eyes,” Alex says, taking my hand and pulling me into his lap. When I do, he sighs. “Imagine this place filled with thick trees that provide shade, flowers blooming in every direction, a garden so well maintained that it was theenvy of all those who had the privilege of seeing it. My mother was always out here. Karina knew how much this place meant to her, though I don’t know how. Maybe my mother mentioned it on their first meeting. Maybe somebody else mentioned it. But she decided to destroy it all.”

His tone is dull, and my heart breaks.

“My uncle died there.” He points at a spot a few feet away from us. “He was trying to protect me.”

Alex has already told me about what Karina said to him about her revenge against his father.

“I feel sorry for her at times,” Alex murmurs. “And then there are times when I want to torture Karina, and I hate the fact that I killed her so painlessly.”

His words have me looking back at him.

“What was done to her was wrong,” I begin, leaning against him. “But she became a kind of monster similar to her stepfather. She chose a path of ugliness and hatred and blood. I can feel sorry for the girl she was, but I cannot feel sorry for the woman she became. In her greed to control everything, she ended up almost wiping out her everyone’s existence, and I will make sure she’s never remembered by name.”

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