Chosen by the Beast Alpha

Chapter 149: Chapter 149

Lena’s POV

I knew Morgan wasn’t the type to show her hand that easily, but I had to find out what she had on Dominic, and just how serious it really was.

There was a mess of noise on the other end of the call. "Knew you’d call."

So yeah, she’d been waiting for this. I took a slow breath. "Are you going to tell me or not?"

"Why wouldn’t I?" Morgan’s voice stayed cool and steady. "Before Eliza, there was someone else. A girl he cared about a lot. I was close to her. He never knew she and I were connected."

I picked at the skin beside my thumbnail without even noticing.

Before Eliza... there was another girl?

Eliza’s name flashed through my mind first, but I shut that down almost immediately. If it had been Eliza, Morgan wouldn’t have needed to go to Dominic herself. Eliza could’ve handled her own history with him just fine.

So there was someone else.

But when? Before Eliza? After? The timeline was a total mess, and the more I tried to line it up, the less sense it made.

"Where is she now?" I asked.

Dominic having an ex wasn’t exactly shocking. A man with his face, his power, his status? No way he’d gone through life without women around him. That would’ve been the real plot twist.

"She disappeared." Morgan’s voice dropped, quieter this time. "Eight years ago. If she were alive, she would’ve reached out to me. But it’s been eight years. Nothing. You can figure out the rest."

I knew exactly what she wasn’t saying.

Eight years.

That long.

So the woman Dominic had truly loved was never Eliza. It was this girl. And now she was gone.

Then what had Eliza been?

A place to put all that grief? A substitute? Someone he tried to love because the one he really wanted was never coming back?

"I used my friendship with Gemma to get what I wanted," Morgan said bluntly, not even trying to dress it up. "I needed to survive. So I used her. I’m not proud of it."

And honestly... for a she-wolf trying to build a business from scratch in a blacklisted area, I got why she’d played that card. Survival made people do ugly things. Sometimes that was just the truth of it.

"Why tell me any of this?" I asked.

"We’re about to build ties with Bloodmoon Pack. I don’t want you thinking I got where I am by sleeping with your mate." Morgan’s tone stayed calm, almost flat. "The way I came at you in the office before—that was because of Gemma. I was angry for her. It was childish, and it solved nothing."

I wasn’t even sure whether to laugh or just stare at the wall. "Wow. You’re brutally honest."

"You’re with the strongest Alpha in this region, and he happens to be my biggest client." Morgan let out a quiet breath. "Being straight with you earns me points. If I ever need your help down the line, I’d rather you remember me as a woman who tells the truth, not one who plays games with people’s feelings."

"You really do have a head for business." Lena meant it.

Morgan gave a soft laugh. "I’m telling you all this because I don’t want Gemma to turn into a problem between you and Dominic. She’s been gone for eight years. She shouldn’t be the thing standing in the way of what you two have."

Lena felt her guard toward Morgan ease, just a little. Not much, but enough.

"I appreciate that." Compared to Eliza’s twisted little games, Morgan’s honesty felt almost refreshing.

If Morgan had really been close to Gemma, then Gemma was probably a lot like her too. Open. Straightforward. The kind of woman who didn’t mess with people’s feelings just for fun. Honestly, it made sense. Of course Dominic would fall for someone like that.

After ending the call, Lena stood in the stairwell for a long time, not moving.

His first love had vanished. He had to have looked for her. Had to have waited for her. And in the end, he must have forced himself to accept that she was never coming back, so he went back to Eliza.

But if the woman he had truly loved was Gemma, then what had Eliza been to him?

Comfort?

A backup plan?

Someone he settled for because the one he actually wanted was gone?

And if Eliza had never been the love of his life, then why couldn’t he let her go?

Her thoughts tangled tighter and tighter, like a knot she couldn’t undo. She tried to sort everything out, tried to line up every piece, but nothing fit cleanly. Something was off. The order of things felt wrong somehow.

In the end, she gave up.

She acted like she knew nothing.

Lena closed the door quietly and walked toward the guest room. Her hand lifted, ready to knock, but stopped halfway. After a moment, it dropped back to her side.

She didn’t go in to see him.

Instead, she stepped into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and stood under the spray. Morgan’s words kept looping in her head.

Eight years.

No sign of her.

Maybe dead.

She had been with Dominic for almost two years, and not once had she heard anyone mention Gemma. Not Dominic. Not his parents. Not Samuel Clarke. Not Daniel.

She had no idea how much space Gemma still took up in his heart.

Then again... did it even matter?

She wasn’t even sure she had a place there herself.

The smartest thing was to want nothing.

The second she started wanting more, wanting all of him, jealousy would eat her alive, and in the end, the only one wrecked by it would be her.

So as long as Dominic said nothing, she’d go along with it. No questions. No pushing.

She wasn’t about to compete with a she-wolf who had been missing for eight years.

That was the kind of fight nobody won.

Lena closed her eyes and let the water drown out the noise in her head.

That night, Lena lay alone in their bed. She turned onto her side and stared at the pillow Dominic usually slept on. Was he staying in the guest room because she’d pushed him away? Or because Morgan had dragged Gemma back out of the grave where he’d buried her in his heart?

She couldn’t stop thinking about it. Seriously, not for a second.

The next morning, Anna’s call yanked her out of sleep.

"Hello?" Lena mumbled, eyes barely open.

"Are you still sleeping?"

"Yeah. What is it?"

"I told Daniel we needed to keep things low-key for my grandfather’s birthday," Anna said, sounding totally drained. "He listened, nodded, said he got it. Then I found out he called and ordered some custom gift set. He says yes to everything I say, then turns around and does the exact opposite. Like... what even."

"He’s your partner. That’s kind of their thing." Lena was still half asleep, voice rough and slow.

"I told my mom I’d handle the gift myself. She said if Daniel doesn’t come in person and show proper respect to my grandfather, she’s going to think our relationship isn’t solid enough. That it’s not worthy of the family’s approval."

Anna’s parents had always been a lot. Even after she and Daniel were already together, they still kept testing boundaries, trying to control things, always asking for more.

"Just go. Bring Daniel. Let him buy whatever he wants. Dropping your pride for one weekend isn’t going to kill you."

"It might," Anna groaned. "My whole life rule is that I don’t depend on anyone. And now he just walks in with that calm face and that credit card and wrecks every wall I spent years building."

"That’s called being loved, Anna."

She went quiet for a moment.

"Deal with your grandfather’s birthday first. Your independence crisis can wait."

Anna let out a long sigh and hung up.

Lena was fully awake now. She stayed there, staring at the ceiling.

After her mother died, family stopped meaning much to her. Seeing other people with parents who loved them, parents who stood by each other, homes that felt warm the second you stepped inside... yeah, she envied them. She always had.

She’d trained herself to believe she just wasn’t one of the lucky ones. Some people got family. She got survival skills.

The apartment was dead quiet. The kitchen looked exactly the way she’d left it last night. The guest room door stood open.

He was gone.

My heart just dropped.

Two whole days had gone by. No texts. No calls. Dominic still hadn’t come home.

And yeah, I didn’t reach out first either.

The silence between us kept spreading, little by little, until I slipped back into living alone, like those past few months with him had never even happened.

On the third day, Lena went to a job interview. The hiring manager glanced at her résumé, then at her face, and casually suggested she try the PR department instead.

Why?

Because of her looks.

She could feel his eyes sliding over her body, and the second that happened, she got up and walked out.

Over the next two days, she went to two more interviews.

Both were a total mess.

On Saturday, she got a call from a number that hadn’t shown up in a long time. It was her father.

She didn’t pick up.

Around noon, the doorbell rang.

She went to open it.

Sylvain Foster stood in the hallway, looking at her with a soft, steady gaze, like a kind father looking at his own daughter.

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