Chosen by the Beast Alpha

Chapter 154: Chapter 154

Lena’s POV

He held my hand the whole way—through security, into the waiting hall, and all the way onto the train. The carriage was packed, but I didn’t make a fuss about it.

We sat down. Only then did he let go of my hand. He lifted my suitcase onto the rack, then dropped into the seat beside me.

She looked at him. He looked back at her.

“I barely slept. I’m gonna rest for a bit.”

He leaned back and shut his eyes. The exhaustion on his face was impossible to miss. The shadows under his eyes were darker than the last time she’d seen him.

She let him sleep and texted Anna back. [Yeah.]

[What does he want?]

[No idea.]

[Question him!!]

She smiled a little and put her phone away.

Question him? About what exactly? He was sleeping like someone who hadn’t properly rested in a week, and honestly, from the look of him, that was probably true.

Halfway through the trip, without even opening his eyes, he draped a blanket over her. She had no clue where he’d even gotten it from.

Three hours later, the announcement came on. She opened her eyes. Dominic was already standing there with the suitcase in hand, looking at her.

She got to her feet. He reached out, like he wanted to take her hand again.

She didn’t look at his face. She just walked straight ahead.

Outside the station, she was about to call a cab. Dominic had never been here before. He didn’t know where her grandmother had lived.

A car pulled over. Dominic loaded the suitcase into the trunk, and before she could even shut the door, he was already in the back seat beside her.

The car left the center of town and rolled into the countryside. Endless fields stretched out on both sides, the harvest painting everything in amber and gold. She gave the driver a landmark and told him to stop there.

The last part of the way to her grandmother’s house was a narrow dirt path running between two low hills. Dominic dragged the suitcase behind him and followed her without asking where they were going.

The village was almost empty now. Over the years, most of the houses had been torn down. Her grandmother’s house was gone too. All that remained was the stone foundation and a flat patch of ground, where the neighbors who were still around had planted vegetables.

Lena set her suitcase beside the old foundation and headed for the village shop. Dominic followed quietly behind her. She bought a bouquet, one candle, and a box of matches.

“Can you hold this for me?” she asked, passing him the flowers.

He took the bouquet without saying a word.

The path to the cemetery wound uphill through an old stretch of woods. It was overgrown, sure, but still walkable. Wildflowers pushed up between the tree roots. The air smelled like pine and wet earth, cool and heavy in her lungs.

Her grandmother’s grave was plain. Just a stone marker with her name carved into it, weather-beaten and faded, worn down by years of rain and sun. Weeds had crept all the way to the edges. Lena dropped to her knees, pulled them out one by one, and cleared the base until the stone showed fully again.

She laid the flowers beside the grave, lit the candle, and set it in front of the marker. Dominic crouched down next to her and started pulling the rest of the weeds, silent, steady.

“Hi, Grandma.” Lena leaned back slightly and looked at the name carved into the stone. “Sorry it took me so long to come see you.”

Dominic’s eyes shifted to her face.

“Are you doing okay over there? I hope Mom found you.” She closed her eyes, her voice even and soft. “I miss both of you.”

He said nothing. He kept working at the weeds, giving her space without actually leaving her alone.

The candle flame trembled, and she watched it burn.

“Grandma, I’m going now.” After a long while, she gave the stone a faint smile. “Next time, I’ll come sooner.”

On the way back down, Dominic reached for her hand.

“I’m okay.” She kept walking ahead.

He didn’t push.

The villagers they ran into recognized her. An elderly woman called out and invited her in for a meal. Lena smiled, thanked her, and turned her down gently.

“Heading back?” Dominic picked up the suitcase she had left there. There was nowhere to stay here.

“I don’t want to go back yet.”

“Then where?”

"To the nearest town. I need to find a hotel and stay a few nights."

"Okay."

They waited for a car by the roadside. Dominic kept glancing at Lena now and then, like he had something sitting on the tip of his tongue. She could feel it—he was waiting for her to ask where he had gone, why he had vanished, what had kept him there all that time.

She didn’t ask.

The car arrived. They got in. Lena booked a room on her phone. One bed. She knew that even if she booked two, he’d end up sleeping in hers anyway.

When they got to the hotel, she checked them in. They ate at a small diner on the street. She didn’t taste a thing.

Back in the room, she sat by the window with a glass of water in her hand, staring down at the little town below. She didn’t even know why she was still here. She just didn’t want to go home.

Dominic poured himself some water, then brought her glass over.

"Thanks." She took it from him.

"Your mother..." He stopped halfway, his voice catching. "She died?"

Lena looked up at him. "Yeah."

He frowned. She gave him a faint smile.

"I kind of thought you knew."

He didn’t.

He had never really known anything about her past. Other than what the agreement required, he had never asked about her family. Before she showed up at his door, he had never tried to know her in any real way.

She held the wineglass with both hands. The smile on her face turned stiff, then bitter.

He had saved her mother’s life, and he didn’t remember it. He had built something deep with Lena, and still never asked about her family. He didn’t know the woman he had pulled back from a cliff was already gone. He didn’t know Lena was sitting in this hotel room today with a ring on her finger because of something he had done as a boy—something he had forgotten that same day.

She had built all of this on a memory that existed only in her own head.

"I’m sorry," he said clearly. He knew he had fallen short. He knew it, no spin, no excuse.

"Don’t." She took a small sip. "If someone doesn’t matter to you, you don’t go digging into their life. That’s all. It’s pretty simple. I get it."

"It’s not like that. I just didn’t want to dig into your past without your permission."

“It’s okay. Really. None of that matters.”

Lena looked at him. He looked back at her. There was no anger in her eyes, no tears, no blame. Just calm. A calm so flat it almost made the room feel colder.

For the first time, Dominic looked a little unsettled. His fingers tightened slightly, like he was trying to hold on to the right words before they slipped away. “It all happened too fast. Before I left, I didn’t get the chance to tell you...”

“Dominic.” She slowly turned the wineglass in her hand, her voice soft but firm. “Don’t.”

He went quiet.

“I don’t want to hear your explanation. Whatever reason you have, it won’t change what that silence felt like. And I’m not going to sit here picking apart your excuses just to make myself feel even worse.”

She set the glass down with a light sound.

“No explanation needed.”

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