Chosen by the Beast Alpha

Chapter 68: Chapter 68

Lena’s POV

The fact that he refused to answer the call somehow made the steak taste even better.

Lena chewed slowly, enjoying every bite. Every few seconds, her eyes drifted back to Dominic on their own, and the corners of her mouth kept lifting no matter how hard she tried to hold them down.

"Are you out of your mind?" His voice was cold enough to frost glass.

She flashed him a grin. "Dominic, if we could just keep going like this, wouldn’t that actually be kind of perfect?"

He said nothing.

"Then why not end the agreement?" she asked anyway, unable to stop herself. "Before, I was the one who didn’t want it to end. Now it’s you. Why?"

"Eat." His tone was flat, sharp, like he was scolding a kid. "You talk too much."

She didn’t get mad. She just kept sneaking little looks at him. Whatever his reason was, having a man like him in her apartment, cooking for her, sitting right across from her under that soft warm light... it felt insanely good.

So good that she wanted this moment to last forever.

His phone rang again. She had seriously underestimated Eliza’s persistence.

Was she planning to call all night or what?

Dominic picked up the phone and went into the guest room. That move said everything. If she really had to go head-to-head with Eliza, she had zero chance of winning.

Lena lowered her eyes and kept eating in silence. A few minutes later, he came back out.

"Where are you going?" she asked before he could say a word.

He clearly hadn’t expected her to be that direct.

He glanced toward the front door. Then, instead of leaving, he sat back down, picked up his fork, and resumed eating.

She blinked.

He had obviously been about to go, but he stayed.

Just like that, she lost all interest in joking around.

Maybe the silence got under Dominic’s skin, because after a pause, he finally asked, "Where did you go today?"

"Lily’s place."

He searched the name in his head. Lena could tell he was really trying, and still coming up blank.

"You met her at Christmas," she said. "My father’s second partner’s daughter."

Realization hit him at once. "I thought you two didn’t get along."

"We don’t."

He didn’t get how women wolves dealt with each other. Anyway, he’d only been making small talk before, and now the conversation was fully dead.

His phone buzzed again. A text. He didn’t check it.

Then it buzzed twice more, and this time he finally glanced down.

Lena could guess Eliza was being insanely persistent, and obviously, he wasn’t all that great at shutting her out completely.

"If you want to leave, then go," she said, trying her best to sound generous, like it was no big deal. "It’s fine."

She knew he wanted to go. If she gave him a graceful exit, maybe he’d think she was handling this like an adult. Not that she actually needed his approval.

"It’s nothing." He typed a quick reply, fingers moving fast, then set the phone back down.

She didn’t mention Eliza. She finished eating and carried her plate into the kitchen.

His phone rang again. This time, he answered.

"Okay. Got it." He ended the call and looked at her. "Samuel needs me for something. I have to head out for a bit."

Lena didn’t care whether the person on the other end was Samuel or Eliza. Keeping her face flat, she said, "Okay. You don’t need to clear it with me. We should both be busy with our own lives anyway."

The second the words left her mouth, the vibe turned off. His gaze sharpened, cold and cutting, locked hard onto her face.

She turned back and looked at him. "What? Just go."

"It’s Samuel," he repeated, like saying it one more time would magically change anything.

She nodded. "Mm. Go."

Lena had no idea why he was so dead set on proving it, but Dominic still pulled out his phone, called Samuel Clarke, and switched on speaker.

"Something urgent?" Dominic asked.

"Yeah, kind of urgent." Samuel’s voice came through loud and clear. "You free?"

Dominic glanced at Lena. "Someone thinks I’m up to shady stuff behind her back."

Lena’s eyes widened on the spot. When had she ever said that?

"Lena?" Samuel let out a laugh. "She actually cares what you’re doing?"

Lena frowned. What kind of question was that supposed to be?

Dominic looked like he was about to laugh too. "Who knows."

"Put her on. I can vouch for you. I swear he’s not out there doing anything sketchy. Wait, hold on—you two seriously at the stage where you monitor each other now?"

Heat rushed straight to Lena’s ears. She shot Dominic a look, only to find him watching her with open amusement, like this was all weirdly entertaining to him.

"He wants to talk to you," Dominic said, handing her the phone even though she could hear perfectly well already.

"Lena, it’s me." Samuel sounded like he was grinning. "I’m dragging him out tonight. Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on him. He won’t do anything stupid. I’m fully responsible."

"That has nothing to do with me," Lena said coolly.

"How does it have nothing to do with you? He’s your partner. Of course it has something to do with you. I’m borrowing him, and I’ll return him in one piece."

Your partner.

Those two words sent a strange chill crawling up the back of Lena’s neck.

She flicked a glance at Dominic. He didn’t look all that comfortable either. That almost made her laugh. "Whatever."

She turned and walked off. Dominic took the phone off speaker and put it back to his ear. "I’ll wash the dishes first, then I’ll head out."

After Dominic left, Lena kept replaying that whole exchange in her head. She stood in the quiet, empty apartment, and before she knew it, a smile tugged at her lips.

There was no romance in it. No emotional drama, not really. But the way Dominic handled it—calling Samuel on speaker just to prove he wasn’t lying—still warmed something in her chest.

He really didn’t have to do that.

But he did anyway.

Her phone buzzed.

Lena picked it up, and the smile on her face dropped off a cliff.

Eliza Vane.

"Has he left yet?"

She had saved the woman under her full name on purpose. There was no way she was letting "Eliza" sit casually in her messages like they were buddies or something.

A provocation? Seriously?

Before Lena could even settle on how to answer, she saw the typing bubble pop up, vanish, then a notice appeared:

"Message deleted."

Right after that, another text came in:

"Sorry. Wrong person."

Lena stared at the screen, eyes cold.

Wrong person. Sure.

Eliza had obviously meant to send it to Dominic, asking whether he’d already left Lena’s apartment, then had "accidentally" sent it to her instead. And after that, she so thoughtfully "fixed" it.

Yeah, right.

Eliza had done it on purpose. Every single step of it.

"Were you trying to text Dominic? He’s in the shower."

Lena didn’t care whether the lie held up or not. She knew Eliza would read it and picture Dominic in her bathroom, soaked through, warm, comfortable, staying by her side. That image alone would be enough to make Eliza choke on her own jealousy.

The chat went silent.

Lena lifted a brow, a little smug. Serves you right.

A few minutes later, another message from Eliza came through. No words. Just a photo.

Dominic was sitting right across from the camera, phone pressed to his ear, clearly in the middle of a call. The shot was close, intimate, taken from directly in front of him, like whoever snapped it had been sitting with him face-to-face.

He had been at Eliza’s place.

The slap landed before the pain did.

And Samuel? That lying jerk. What kind of decent guy was he supposed to be?

Lena bit down hard on her back teeth, jaw tight enough to ache. This round, Eliza had won.

In her head, she cursed Dominic and Samuel over and over until she was fresh out of words.

The only thing that gave her even a shred of relief was this: she didn’t love Dominic. So technically, none of this should matter.

But she’d gotten dragged into a stupid competition, and her pride had blinded her.

Now she had to pay for it.

If she and Eliza ever went head-to-head for real, Lena knew she’d get wrecked. Dominic didn’t love her. That was the whole problem, the one point she couldn’t dodge.

She dropped onto the bed like all the air had gone out of her and deleted her Instagram post.

The second it was gone, regret hit.

Deleting it was basically waving a white flag. Eliza was probably somewhere smirking at her screen, feeling smug as hell.

Lena smacked a hand against her forehead, annoyed with herself. Great. She’d let anger run the show again.

"No. I need to get one back," she muttered under her breath. "Just one point. That’s enough."

She got up and changed into her favorite sleep camisole, the thin-strapped one that made her shoulders and collarbones look ridiculously good.

Then she settled back onto the bed and adjusted her pose a few times before taking a photo. The lighting was soft and warm, her hair loose and fluffy around her face, and her eyes carried that quiet look that said home without saying a word.

She didn’t overthink it.

She sent the picture straight to Dominic.

Nothing else mattered now. If he opened that photo, she won this round. Simple as that.

After that, she went online and ordered a matching pair of rings with rush delivery.

Eliza really had added a little spice to her life. Lena had to give her that.

She set her phone down and closed her eyes. Honestly, she wasn’t expecting Dominic to come back that night.

And of course he didn’t.

The next morning, the apartment looked exactly the same as it had when he left, cold and untouched, like he’d never planned on coming back at all.

Lena cursed him under her breath, grabbed a granola bar and a coffee, and headed to work.

Reed had stopped sending flowers and pastries. The office had gone back to normal, and so had she. Or at least, that was what it looked like on the surface.

That afternoon, she stayed an extra hour. When she finally leaned back in her chair, she rubbed her stiff neck, checked the time, and called Lily to ask if she wanted Lena to bring home some food.

Lily said no.

Lena was just about to insist when she heard a man’s voice on the other end asking who was calling.

She understood instantly.

Her fingers tightened slightly around the phone, but she didn’t press for details. She only said a few more casual words before ending the call.

Love really was a weird thing.

Some people could walk away clean, untouched, like nothing had happened. Others got dragged in so deep they couldn’t pull themselves back out.

Lena remembered telling Anna once, very firmly, "I would never get back with an ex. Never. I’d never give a man who hurt me a second chance, and I’d never believe a broken mirror could somehow piece itself back together."

Anna had laughed and said, "You only talk that big because you’ve never really had someone. Not like that. You’ve never been in the kind of love that gets into your bones. You just haven’t met the person you’d go all in for. If you did, trust me, you wouldn’t sound nearly this sure of yourself."

Back then, Lena hadn’t agreed with her at all.

Maybe Anna had been right about one thing, though. Maybe Lena really hadn’t met that person yet.

She grabbed a quick dinner by herself, barely tasting any of it, then headed home.

The moment she reached the entrance of the apartment building, Dominic’s car pulled up in front of her.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!