Chosen by the Beast Alpha

Chapter 56: Chapter 56

Lena’s POV

The question hung there between them, heavy as hell. Lena’s heart slammed against her chest so hard it felt like it might punch straight through her cracked ribs, but she still held his gaze and waited.

Dominic looked at her. His gray eyes still carried that same soft warmth, like there was a smile hidden in them, but the words he said landed like ice.

"Yes," he said.

Her heart dropped so fast it was almost dizzying.

Celeste snapped her head toward him. "What?"

"I need to end the agreement, Mother."

"You cannot be serious!" Celeste’s voice went sharp in an instant. "After everything that just happened? She nearly died for you in that basement, and now you want to break—"

"I know exactly what she did." His low, steady voice cut through Celeste’s outrage without rising even once. "I need Lena. That has never changed. Because of her, for the first time in my life, the beast inside me went quiet. I’m not stupid enough to act like that means nothing."

Lena’s pulse hammered in her ears. If that was how he felt, then why was he doing this?

"But the agreement was never fair to her," he said to his mother, though his eyes never left Lena’s face. "She came to the Bloodmoon Pack because she was bound to it, not because she chose it. She stayed because she had nowhere else to go, and later because she was too stubborn to walk away. Every step of this has been her reacting to my situation, my curse, and the demands of the Bloodmoon Pack. She never got the chance to choose me because she wanted to. She chose me because every other option sucked more."

"That’s not true!" Lena shot back, her voice coming out stronger and rougher than she expected. "I stayed because I wanted to stay. Nobody forced me to drive out and find you, and nobody forced me to walk into that basement."

"You stayed because you’re brave, and because you’re kind, and because you can’t turn your back on someone who needs help." His voice was gentle, painfully gentle, and somehow that softness made her even angrier than his usual coldness ever had. "That is not the same as choosing me, Lena. That is choosing to do the right thing. I need to know the difference."

"I don’t care about the difference!"

"I do." He held her stare, steady and unshakable. "I never truly marked you. I want you to have the chance to live without the contract hanging over your head, without debt, without a curse pushing you toward me. If you choose me after that, then it’s real. And if you don’t—"

His jaw locked tight.

"Then at least I’ll know I gave you something no one else ever has. A fair choice."

The room felt suffocating, like the air had gone thick and dead. He was offering her the one thing she had spent her whole life wanting—freedom—and all she could feel was anger, because in her heart she had already chosen.

When her ribs were broken and she dragged herself across that blood-slick floor, she had chosen him. When she pressed her lips to the monster’s fangs, she had chosen him.

And now he was standing there telling her it didn’t count. That he needed her to do it again, this time with everything stripped clean, with no contract there to muddy it.

She understood him.

That was the worst part.

My eyes were burning like crazy. I swallowed hard and forced myself not to let it show.

"Fine." My voice came out quieter than I expected. "Tell Samuel to bring the papers. I’ll sign."

She dragged herself off the bed, snatched up her coat, and headed for the door. She could feel his eyes on her back, and Celeste’s too. The weight of both almost made her knees give out.

"Lena—!" As she passed Celeste, the older woman reached out and caught her arm. Lena saw the shock on her face, the confusion, and the plea that was just about to spill out.

"I need to go," she said, not stopping.

She had nowhere else to go, so she went to Anna’s apartment. Her ribs hurt so bad the whole way there that she could only breathe through her mouth. But she didn’t cry. She was done crying over Dominic Voss.

When Anna opened the apartment door, she took one look at Lena’s face and sighed. "Oh no," she said.

"Can you just hug me?" Lena asked.

Anna wrapped her up right away in warm arms, careful not to bump the bandaged side of her waist.

Lena buried her face in Anna’s shoulder and just stood there, breathing, letting the smell of coffee and clean laundry filling the apartment slowly calm her down.

Anna pulled back and held her at arm’s length, studying her face. "Okay. Talk."

Lena told Anna everything. The basement. The beast he turned into. Her broken ribs. Waking up in Dominic’s arms. His smile. And the way he said, "End the agreement."

As Anna listened, her eyebrows kept climbing higher and higher. By the time Lena finished, Anna was sitting cross-legged on the couch with both hands over her mouth.

"Oh my God, Lena! You literally crawled through your own blood to kiss a monster and brought him back from the edge of death! That is unhinged-level heroic. You’re like a gender-swapped Snow White prince-kisser, except way more hardcore. Snow White was just asleep. Your prince was a ten-foot beast who was also trying to kill you."

Lena laughed despite the sharp pain in her ribs.

"Your bravery deserves a full-on parade," Anna went on. She grabbed Lena’s hand. "Seriously! They should write a song about you. ’The Omega Who Kissed the Beast and Lived.’ Total bestseller."

"Funny, because my ending is the exact opposite of a fairy tale," Lena said, her smile fading. "I’m the girl who saved the prince, and the prince thanked me by canceling our bond and telling me to go figure out what I actually want."

Anna’s expression turned serious. She went quiet for a moment, turning it over in her head.

"He wants it to be fair," she said slowly. "He wants to know you’re choosing him because you love him, not because some paper says you have to."

"I know what he wants." Lena scrubbed both hands over her face. "I just hate that he’s right."

"He’s right, Lena," Anna said, giving her knee a light squeeze. "And you know he is. You’ve been telling yourself this whole time that you don’t love him, that you’re just doing what you have to do, and that if you really had the choice, you’d have walked away ages ago. Well, now you do have that choice. So what are you gonna do?"

Lena stared up at the ceiling, quiet.

"You should take it," Anna said. "Just this once, live the way you want to live. If you still want him after that, then go get him. But if you don’t, then date around, enjoy your life, be free." She flashed a grin. "You deserve that."

Lena turned to look at her. "Speaking of enjoying life, how are things going with your Beta?"

Anna’s smile softened at once, turning warm and sweet in that completely real way no one could fake. Almost without thinking, she reached up and brushed the silver scar on her neck, her fingers gliding over the mark Daniel had left there.

"Good," she said. "Really good. He’s overprotective, grumpy, and absolutely terrible at talking about his feelings, so... yeah, I’m pretty sure you get it." She laughed. "My parents never called. Not once after we left. I guess the name Bloodmoon scared them into shutting up for good. Or maybe those diamonds were enough of a goodbye present."

Her voice was light, but Lena still caught that faint sting underneath. Parents who could be bought off with a necklace were still parents who had chosen money over their daughter.

Anna shook it off and wrapped an arm around Lena’s shoulders. "I’ve got you, and I’ve got Daniel. That’s enough for me. I don’t need anything else."

Lena leaned into her, resting her head against Anna’s. "Anna."

"Hm?"

"I need to find an apartment. My own place. Do you and Daniel think you could help me?" Her ribs still hurt, and her chest felt like a complete mess, but underneath all that, something fierce and sudden rose up inside her. "I don’t want to keep living like a guest in someone else’s life. I want to figure out what I actually want when no one’s standing over me telling me what to do."

Anna studied her face carefully, then broke into a bright, proud smile. "Of course. Honestly, it’s about time. I’m so glad you’re finally choosing this."

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