Chosen by the Beast Alpha

Chapter 148: Chapter 148

Lena’s POV

Okay, that excuse was decent enough. It passed.

"How much longer are you gonna be busy?" she asked.

He flicked his eyes to the screen. "A little while."

"I’ll wait." She didn’t press him again. Instead, she turned and went to sit on the sofa across the room.

He looked at her once, then dropped his gaze back to the screen.

She sat there quietly, watching him. But her mind kept looping back to the same thing like a stuck track: what on earth had Morgan said to make him agree to help her?

They weren’t close. He had told her three separate times that he didn’t know Morgan. So whatever Morgan had brought to that meeting had changed everything. No matter what it was, it had clearly caught him off guard.

Lena was still turning it over in her head when his voice suddenly broke in and made her jump.

"What are you thinking about?"

He was already standing right in front of her.

She flinched, then laughed it off. "Nothing. I just zoned out for a second. You done?"

"Yeah." He held out his hand.

She placed hers in it, and he pulled her smoothly to her feet.

His expression looked normal. His tone was even too. If something earlier had shaken him, he had already shoved it deep down where no one could touch it.

She didn’t ask about Morgan.

Sometimes, honestly, not knowing everything was better.

She started toward the door, but after only two steps, he caught her hand and held it tighter.

"What is it?"

Without answering, he led her to the floor-to-ceiling window. Below them, the lights of the territory stretched out in every direction, glittering, endless, like the night itself had spilled stars across the ground. They stood at the heart of it all, looking down at the world beneath their feet.

She had seen this view before.

It still hit hard every single time.

From that height, everything below looked almost within reach. And being high above it all did something to people. It made you feel untouchable. A little pride, a little vanity—everyone had it.

She did too.

I had a partner who was handsome, powerful, loaded, and stupidly good to me. And my face? Yeah, it made people look twice. I liked that jealous energy. If I said I didn’t, that would be a straight-up lie.

Standing here with Dominic, taking in everything in front of me, Lena knew one thing for sure—without him, she would never have seen any of this.

He pulled her back against him, wrapped both arms around her from behind, and laced their fingers together, his hands resting against her stomach. They just stood there in silence.

"Beautiful, right?" His voice dropped low, brushing against her ear.

She nodded. "Yeah."

His lips skimmed her earlobe, barely there. His breath drifted over her sensitive skin, and her neck tightened on instinct.

She remembered what he had tried to do the last time they stood here. The memory hit hard, and her stomach clenched.

"Let’s go. Home." She shifted in his arms, trying to slip free.

His hold only tightened. His chest pressed flat against her back without even the smallest gap between them, his body heat burning through both layers of clothing.

His mouth found the curve where her neck met her shoulder. He nipped at her lightly while his hands slid from her waist to her hips, his fingers catching the hem of her shirt.

Her breathing turned uneven. She grabbed his wrist. "Home."

He shook her off like it was nothing, his palm slipping beneath the fabric to the bare skin underneath.

"Here." His voice came out rough, almost wrecked.

"No."

He turned her around, and before she could get out another word, his mouth was on hers.

She pushed at his chest. He hauled her closer instead, one hand already at the clasp behind her back, the other spread over her spine, locking her tight against him.

He was moving too fast, wanting too much. Every touch was urgent, almost ruthless, that hunger in him impossible to mistake.

Her shirt was tugged off. Her bare back hit the glass, and cold shot through her whole body. She sucked in a breath, the shock snapping her mind clear.

"Dominic, not here." It didn’t even matter if no one could see. She just didn’t want this to happen here.

He stopped. His forehead pressed against hers, both of them breathing hard. "No one can see us."

"I don’t care. No!"

The air between them seemed to lock up on the spot. His shirt was still hanging open, his chest rising hard and fast, each breath showing the heat still burning off his skin.

He swallowed, throat moving once. The hunger in his eyes still hadn’t faded. "You sure?"

She shook her head.

So he stepped back, bent down, picked up her shirt from the floor, and draped it over her shoulders.

Then he buttoned his own shirt, straightened his collar, grabbed the car keys, and said, "Let’s go."

He walked ahead. She followed behind him.

He hadn’t forced her. He didn’t even look mad. But the silence in the elevator pressed in on her, making her chest feel tight.

"Dominic."

"Hm?" He turned to look at her.

"Are you angry?"

He looked away. "No."

She bit her lip. Turning a man down at a moment like that was basically like dumping ice water on a live flame. She had no clue whether his "no" was real or just something he said.

She didn’t ask again.

The car stayed dead quiet. He drove. She scrolled through her phone.

Anna had texted her. Her family wanted her to bring Daniel home for her grandfather’s birthday dinner.

"[The pack elders want to properly meet Daniel. Big family dinner. All the uncles, aunts, cousins, everybody’s coming.]"

"[He’s your mate. What’s the big deal?]"

"[The big deal is Daniel. Last time he came, he brought so many gifts and gave my parents money too. I still feel weird about it. If he pulls that again, my whole paycheck is gonna disappear on gift bags alone.]"

The real issue was Anna’s pride. She hated feeling like she owed anyone anything, even her own mate.

["Tell him to cut it out. Seriously. He does not need to buy out half the damn place just to win over your family."]

["I already tried. He hit me with, ’Your family is my family,’ and then went right back to scrolling. I’m literally watching him dump more stuff into the cart. I swear, I want to chuck his phone straight out the window!"]

Lena almost laughed.

["Let him do it. He’s your mate. He wants to take care of your family. Stop fighting it."]

["That’s exactly what freaks me out. I’ve spent my whole life making sure I never owed anybody anything. And now this man walks in and handles everything like it’s nothing, and I don’t even know how to loosen my grip and let him."]

She set her phone down. She had her own mess to deal with.

She flicked a glance at Dominic. His face was blank, hands locked steady on the wheel. She couldn’t read a thing there, and she had no clue what she could possibly say to make any of this easier for him.

The second they got home, he went straight to the bedroom, grabbed some clothes, and disappeared into the shower.

Lena reheated the food she’d made that afternoon. By the time he came out, everything was already on the table.

"Dinner’s ready."

"I’m not hungry." He didn’t even spare the table a look. He just walked to the guest room and shut the door behind him.

Lena stared at the closed door, lips parting a little in disbelief.

He was mad. Definitely mad. Over that? Seriously?

Heat flared in her chest too, sharp and fast. She wasn’t about to run after him.

She sat down alone and looked at the meal she’d spent hours making. Then she started eating slowly, a movie playing on her phone, the phone propped up against the salt shaker.

She’d made all of this herself. Letting it go to waste would be the real crime.

Her phone buzzed once. Morgan.

["Congratulate me. My company just officially signed a partnership deal with the Bloodmoon Pack’s business division."]

Lena had no idea why Morgan was telling her this. It had absolutely nothing to do with her.

She didn’t reply.

Then another message popped up.

"How’s Alpha Dominic feeling tonight?"

Lena held her chopsticks in one hand and stared at the screen with the other braced on the table.

Morgan was asking how he felt like she already knew something might be off.

But his mood hadn’t been bad at all in the beginning. A minute ago, he’d practically been ready to pin her against the window. That was not something a pissed-off man did.

"He’s in a good mood. Thanks for asking."

Whatever Morgan was fishing for, Lena wasn’t about to hand it over.

"That’s good. I was worried this might affect him."

Lena narrowed her eyes. Affect him how? What exactly had Morgan said to him?

"No."

"That’s a relief. No matter what happened in the past, it’s been years. Maybe he’s let it go by now. And what he felt in the beginning probably never changed."

Lena read the line twice.

What he felt in the beginning.

What beginning? Felt for who?

This did not sound like small talk between two people who barely knew each other.

"Lena, you’re luckier than you think. I used to believe the arrangement between you and Alpha Dominic was nothing but a business deal. Now I’m starting to think he might actually care about you."

With every word, Lena’s frown deepened.

Her appetite was gone, straight-up gone. She cleaned off the table, grabbed her coat, and headed into the stairwell.

Leaning against the wall, she called Morgan. The line connected fast.

Lena didn’t waste a second. "What did you trade to get Dominic to help you?"

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