Chosen by the Beast Alpha

Chapter 161: Chapter 161

Lena’s POV

Dominic stopped by a flower shop on the edge of town and bought a bunch of white lilies. Then the two of them drove to the cemetery together.

Lena hadn’t wanted to bring him here. Bringing him meant letting him see the part of her life she had buried the deepest.

The gravestone was plain and bare. Just her name, and two dates carved into the stone. In the photo was a she-wolf with soft features and kind eyes.

Her mother.

Dominic stood there for a long while, looking at the picture without saying a word.

"Mom, this is Dominic." Lena crouched down and brushed the fallen leaves off the base of the headstone.

"I’m Lena’s mate," Dominic added quietly, filling in the rest himself. He stood beside her with the flowers in his hand, his voice low but steady. "We never had a ceremony, but I should call you what she does. Mom."

Lena’s stomach twisted hard.

"I’m sorry I came so late." He set the flowers down gently. "I’ll take care of her."

Lena couldn’t even put what she was feeling into words. She only knew that bringing Dominic here had changed something between them. It was like their bond had been carved into the stone too, deep and permanent. Unless one of them broke it, it would stay there forever.

They walked out of the cemetery in silence. Her chest felt heavy, like something was pressing down on it.

"She was so young." Dominic laced his fingers with hers, his voice careful, almost afraid of pushing too hard. "What happened to her?"

He wanted to understand. He could’ve found out about her past some other way. He probably could’ve gotten every detail if he really wanted. But he asked her instead.

"My father cheated on her." Lena’s fingers curled tightly around his hand. "He chose another woman. My mother’s wolf... she couldn’t take it."

Dominic’s grip tightened at once.

"The first time she tried to kill herself, she went to the cliff near Heisonglin." Lena swallowed, her throat dry. "Right at the edge of your territory. Someone pulled her back."

Dominic didn’t say anything. He just listened, silent and still.

"But in the end, she still didn’t make it. The bond between them had already snapped, and her wolf was dying too. She held on for a while longer, but the pain ate up everything she had left. I was still just a kid then."

Dominic pulled her closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Lena drew in a deep breath. "I’m okay."

My eyes were stinging, but I could still look at him without completely falling apart.

"Do you remember what I told you before?" Lena said. "About how I owed you my life?"

Dominic nodded.

He remembered. Back then, when she said it, he’d looked at her like she’d lost it.

"I wasn’t joking." She held his gaze, not blinking. "The man who pulled my mother back from that cliff that night... was you."

Dominic’s expression changed right away, turning complicated in a split second.

"She still didn’t make it in the end," Lena said softly. "But I never forgot. You showed up. You dragged her away from the edge and told your guards to take her home."

She turned and started to walk away. Dominic stayed where he was.

Then she looked back. "What?"

"Was that eight years ago?"

She paused, counted it over in her head, then gave a small nod. "Around that, yeah."

He stared at her.

She stared right back.

And then her mind started spinning like crazy.

...He had said Gemma had been missing for eight years.

She couldn’t wrap her head around how her mother’s death could possibly connect to Gemma’s disappearance. They were two separate tragedies, from two totally different lives. But the way Dominic was looking at her made her stomach drop.

"The day you saved my mother," she said slowly, choosing every word with care, "was that also the day Gemma disappeared?"

It sounded insane even to her, like she was reaching way too hard, but his eyes gave her the answer before his mouth did.

"How did she disappear?"

Dominic took her hand and led her toward the car. "We had plans to have dinner that night. Gemma, Eliza, and me."

I frowned, a little thrown. "Gemma knew Eliza?"

He turned to look at her. "Morgan didn’t tell you Gemma’s last name."

Lena waited, barely breathing.

"It’s the same as Eliza’s."

Her lips parted on their own.

In an instant, everything clicked into place. Why Dominic had always put up with Eliza. Why, even after things had gone south between them, he still let her linger around him all these years. It had never really been about Eliza at all. It had always been about Gemma.

"They’re sisters?"

"Gemma was the younger one."

Lena honestly hadn’t seen that coming. Not even a little.

"What happened that night?"

"Gemma asked me to pick up Eliza and bring her to the restaurant. On the way, I passed the cliff near Heisonglin." His voice stayed level, almost too calm. "Your mother was standing right on the edge. I stopped, pulled her back, and called the patrol. By the time Eliza and I got to the restaurant, Gemma was already gone."

"The owner said she’d been there," he went on. "She sat down and waited for a while, then left. Eliza called her, but she didn’t answer. We searched the whole area and found nothing."

He kept his eyes fixed ahead. "That was the last time anyone saw her."

Lena’s heart slammed against her ribs.

"So... if you hadn’t stopped to save my mom, you would’ve made it to the restaurant on time. Gemma might still be here."

The second the words left her mouth, she felt like all the blood in her body had turned to ice. If the difference had only been a few minutes—just a few—and those minutes were what cost him the love of his life, then she and her mother were the reason.

He had saved them.

And they had taken everything from him.

Her stomach twisted hard. Guilt crashed over her like wildfire. Dominic closed his hand tightly around hers. "This has nothing to do with you."

She stared at him, stunned, unable to get a single word out.

"We didn’t even know each other back then. Saving your mother was my choice, and if I had to do it again, I’d make the same one." His grip stayed firm, steady, grounding her. "Some things happen because they’re meant to. You can’t cut every cause away from every consequence and pretend they stand alone."

Lena looked at Dominic, and for the first time, she felt like she truly got him.

Past the cold face. Past the sharp tongue. Past all the walls he’d stacked up around himself like he was trying to keep the whole world out.

Now she understood why, back when she had first arrived at Bloodmoon Pack, he had tried so hard to shove her away.

He had been protecting her all along.

Protecting her from himself. From a man who had already decided his own time was running out.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked, tapping the tip of her nose with one finger. "You look kind of spaced out."

She couldn’t find the right words. Honestly, nothing she said would come close to what she was feeling.

So instead, she turned and threw her arms around him, hugging him as tightly as she could.

Dominic froze for half a second, arms open, caught off guard. Then he felt the force of her embrace and let out a low chuckle. "What’s this? You finally figured out I’m not that terrible?"

"Yeah." Her cheek rested against his chest, and she could hear the steady beat of his heart. "You’re really not terrible at all."

His arms tightened around her again. "And yet you still kept me at arm’s length."

She blinked, not expecting that. "Wasn’t that you first? You’re the one who shut me out."

He leaned back just enough to look down at her. "You were the one who said no."

She pinched his waist. "Not here."

"Get in the car." He pulled the door open. "Let’s go home."

The front door had barely clicked shut behind them when Dominic’s mouth crashed down on hers.

He’d been holding himself back for weeks. She could feel it in the way he kissed her—hungry, rough, urgent. He yanked off her coat and let it fall to the floor.

There was nothing gentle about the kiss. His teeth caught her lower lip, and she sucked in a breath, only for him to swallow the sound right out of her.

She kissed him back just as fiercely. Her hands went to his shirt, fumbling with the buttons, but it was hopeless. Frustrated, she gave it a hard tug. Buttons flew everywhere, clattering across the hardwood floor.

Neither of them stopped.

His skin burned beneath her palms. His scent was thick and powerful, filling her lungs, making her head spin in the best, most dangerous way.

He drove her backward through the hallway without ever breaking the kiss, his hands locked around her waist as he hauled her tight against him.

They hadn’t even made it fully past the bedroom doorway before he pressed her against the wall. She ripped his shirt the rest of the way off, her nails dragging down his back. He drew in a sharp breath against her throat, his teeth grazing the skin just below her earlobe.

In the end, they still wound up in bed.

The whole afternoon slipped by without either of them noticing. Sunlight shifted across the ceiling little by little, changing color as the hours passed. They forgot lunch, forgot the time, forgot everything else. All that was left was the heat of each other’s bodies, pressed close, impossible to ignore.

At the peak of it, Lena’s nails dug deep into the muscles of Dominic Voss’s back. She dragged them down hard enough to break skin, hard enough for blood to bead up. She could feel it clearly, that sharp scrape beneath her nails, the moment his skin gave way.

Afterward, they stayed tangled together for a long while, neither of them moving. The room was quiet except for their breathing. Lena lifted her hand and slowly ran her fingertips over his back. Under her touch, she felt the raised marks her nails had left behind. Some spots were already red and swollen, looking pretty brutal.

"Does it hurt?" she asked softly, brushing one of the scratches with care.

His back tensed and gave a faint shiver under her hand. "A little."

"Then why didn’t you say anything?"

"I didn’t feel it at the time."

Lena leaned forward and bit down on his shoulder, hard, no warning at all. Dominic sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, a low hiss escaping him.

She stared at the bite mark left on his skin, her eyes dark and fixed.

"Dominic."

"Yeah?"

"You’re mine."

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