Chosen by the Beast Alpha

Chapter 144: Chapter 144

Lena’s POV

"Today I met Aria’s boyfriend on a video call. Clean-cut, good-looking, totally put together. Honestly, those two look ridiculously perfect together." Lena kept her voice low, like she was sharing a secret, but just loud enough for someone in the kitchen to hear every word.

Samuel brought the knife down on the cutting board with a hard thud.

She went on like she hadn’t noticed. "They’ve been together for three years. Started dating back in school. From uniforms to the real world, they’ve basically never left each other’s side. You can’t fake something like that."

Dominic laughed. He took her hand, pressed a kiss to her knuckles, and murmured, "You’re evil. This payback for last night?"

Lena shot him a glare.

He just grinned back, shameless as ever.

She raised her voice a little. "Aria’s leaving in a few days!~~"

Samuel came out of the kitchen still holding the knife. Dominic’s arm tightened around Lena at once, his eyes fixed on Samuel.

"Can you control your woman?" Samuel snapped at Dominic, fury blazing all over his face. "She’s provoking me while I’ve got a knife in my hand!"

Dominic looked at him coolly. "And what exactly are you planning to do?"

Samuel gripped the doorframe so hard his knuckles looked ready to crack. His chest heaved up and down. "I came here to cook you a decent meal, and this is how you repay me?"

"You came here because you wanted to know what they talked about today." Dominic saw straight through him from the start.

Being called out like that crushed the last bit of Samuel’s composure. He leaned against the frame, mouth open, breathing rough and fast. "You two are seriously cruel."

Lena smiled, then her expression turned serious again. "I know you don’t want to hear it, but I’m telling the truth. Samuel, find someone else. Don’t wreck what they have."

"I never said I’d do that." He forced himself to take a deep breath. "She’s still young. Give her time. Reality has a way of teaching people that love alone doesn’t fix everything."

Lena caught the edge in his tone right away. There was definitely something buried in those words.

She turned to look at Dominic.

He only shrugged. "He’s just jealous."

Samuel’s POV

He had bought lobster and grouper, cooked everything himself, and didn’t take a single bite.

I had zero appetite.

My chest felt heavy, like someone had poured molten lead straight into it, and the taste in my mouth was even worse than all the cigarettes I’d been chain-smoking earlier.

He honestly couldn’t stand sitting there, watching Dominic Voss and Lena Foster curled up together on the couch. Every second they looked happy felt like a blade scraping over the raw, mangled wound buried deep inside him.

He got into the car and lit a cigarette. Lena’s voice kept looping in his head.

Clean-cut. Bright smile. Three years. College sweethearts.

He dragged in a hard breath of smoke and almost coughed his lungs out.

After taking a few sips of water and forcing himself to calm down, he called Garrett.

"Alpha Samuel." Garrett sounded way better than before, like his mood had finally picked up.

"Are you home?"

"Yeah. Just got back."

"Can I come over?"

"Of course. Come on over."

He drove straight to the Mercer house. The moment Garrett’s parents heard someone had come to help, they headed straight into the kitchen to start getting dinner ready. Aria went in to help too.

Garrett met him at the door, warm and obviously grateful.

"Sorry I got here so late." But Samuel’s eyes had already moved past him, searching.

He found her in the kitchen.

Her slim figure moved back and forth between the counter and the stove. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear while plating one of the dishes, and just like that, the storm in his chest eased a little.

"No need to apologize. Have you eaten yet? Come eat with us." Garrett led him toward the dining room.

The table was already full of food, untouched. He’d made it right on time.

"I’d be honored."

Aria came out carrying a plate, with her aunt right behind her holding another one. She didn’t look up. She simply set an extra plate and a pair of chopsticks in front of him.

"Thank you," he said.

She gave a small nod and sat down beside her aunt.

She kept a careful distance from Samuel. Polite, respectful... and still unmistakably distant.

The three men drank and talked, their voices rising and falling with the clink of glasses. The women stayed quieter, eating in silence.

Samuel stole every chance he could to look at Alia. She was calm the whole time, composed down to the smallest move, eating in neat little bites, her lips moving softly. Weirdly enough, just watching her eat settled something restless inside him.

"We owe all of this to you, Samuel." Garrett was already seriously drunk, loose-tongued now, none of his old restraint left. "Whatever you need from me, just say it. I’ll do it."

Samuel smiled a little. "I’m not doing this out of pure charity. I’ve got my own reasons."

Garrett laughed, clearly taking him seriously. "Name your price."

Samuel only lifted his glass and lightly clinked it against Garrett’s.

After dinner, they moved into the living room. Alia brought over a plate of fruit. Imported cherries, still beaded with moisture, dark red and glossy under the light.

"I heard Alia’s leaving again soon." Samuel picked up a cherry and rolled it slowly between his fingers.

Garrett glanced toward the kitchen. "Yeah. My aunt’s staying somewhere else to recover. Alia’s been her main caregiver for years. She only came back this time because of me."

"May I ask... what happened to her mother?"

"A car accident. A long time ago." Garrett let out a heavy sigh. "She survived, but she’s paralyzed. My uncle didn’t make it."

Samuel’s gaze shifted to Alia, and something in his chest seemed to split open. "Medicine’s advanced so much these days. There has to be some way."

"We tried everything. Specialists, experimental treatments, all of it." Garrett shook his head. "None of it worked. At this point, all we can do is make her as comfortable as possible."

Samuel understood.

If her mother couldn’t be moved, then Alia would have to stay there.

For who knew how long.

He got to his feet, ready to leave. The alcohol had built up in his system, slowing his reactions and making his head feel heavy.

He couldn’t drive, and Garrett’s driver had already gone home. That left only one person who could.

"Alia, can you drive Alpha Samuel home?" Garrett called out.

She agreed without even pausing. "Of course."

Samuel didn’t say no. He said goodbye to Garrett and his parents, then got into the car.

Arya sat in the driver’s seat, staring at the dashboard like it had personally offended her. Her eyes bounced from the controls to the gearshift, then back to the controls again.

She had absolutely no clue how to drive this car.

So Samuel walked her through it once. She started the engine and froze in place, sitting ramrod straight, both hands locked on the steering wheel so hard her knuckles turned white.

"Relax a little," he said.

"I... I can’t."

A small laugh slipped out of him, soft and brief, and then he left her alone. Talking to a nervous beginner behind the wheel only made things worse.

He kept his eyes on the road the whole time, checking the intersections, scanning the mirrors, watching everything.

It was late. The streets were dead quiet, not a soul in sight. She drove painfully slow, crazy careful, taking every turn like it was some life-or-death mission. She was scared, sure, but weirdly precise.

Samuel gave directions, and she followed them without a word.

When they pulled into the garage, he told her where his parking spot was.

It took her four tries to back the car in straight. Finally, she shifted into park, killed the engine, and let out a long breath. Her shoulders dropped a full three inches.

"Sorry for putting you through that." Samuel turned to look at her.

She was wiping her palms on her pants. While driving, she’d done that at least four times.

"It’s fine, really." She drew in another deep breath. "I should get going."

She pushed the door open, then stopped.

Then she looked back at him.

Samuel was leaning against the headrest, glasses off, eyes closed. The alcohol and the exhaustion were starting to hit at the same time, and he felt pretty awful.

"Samuel." Her voice was quiet. "Are you going to be okay here by yourself?"

He opened his eyes. The worry on her face made something inside him settle and stir all at once. "Have you decided what time you’re leaving?"

She blinked, clearly thrown off by the sudden switch in topic, then gave a small nod. "Tomorrow afternoon."

"That soon?"

"My mom’s home by herself. If I stay too long, it just doesn’t feel right."

His chest rose and fell hard. He put his glasses back on and said, "Can you help me upstairs?"

She hesitated for a second, then nodded.

He pushed the car door open. She quickly came around to support him.

As he stood, his body tipped to one side. She caught him at once, both hands holding his arm, her shoulder pressed against his.

"Careful," she said softly.

"Thanks."

She shut the door, adjusted the way she was holding him, then carefully helped him toward the elevator.

The second they stepped inside, the tight space seemed to shrink even more.

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