Chosen by the Beast Alpha

Chapter 69: Chapter 69

Lena’s POV

His car went straight down into the underground garage. I got to the door first, but I didn’t go in. I just stood there, eyes fixed on the elevator.

The floor numbers kept climbing until they stopped on my level.

The doors slid open, and Dominic stepped out.

He was holding a bouquet of red roses. He hadn’t even gotten close yet, and I could already smell them—that rich, sweet scent spreading through the hallway like it owned the place.

I really hadn’t expected him to come back with flowers.

"Why are you standing out here?" he asked.

"Waiting for you." My gaze dropped to the roses in his hand. "What’s with those?"

He held them out to me. "I was up late last night. Crashed at Samuel’s place, then had an early meeting with him this morning. Just got back."

If Eliza hadn’t sent me that photo, I probably would’ve bought every word.

But she had. And I knew.

I hadn’t even planned to call him out. What was the point?

"Okay." I took the flowers, opened the door, found a vase, and set the roses in water.

"Have you eaten?" he asked.

"Yeah." I headed toward the bathroom. "I’m gonna take a shower."

"Alright."

It felt like there was a huge rock pressing on my chest, and even the hot water couldn’t wash that feeling off. I kept telling myself not to care. We weren’t really a couple. There was no love story here. Not officially. Not anything I could name out loud.

If I started picking apart his lies, he’d think I cared. Think I had feelings for him.

I stood under the stream, arguing with myself in circles, and in the end, I forced one conclusion into my head: he was my roommate. Just my roommate. The second I started treating him like something more, I’d be the one getting burned.

I turned off the water, got dressed, and pulled open the bathroom door.

I jumped.

Dominic was standing across the hallway, leaning against the wall.

"What?" Lena asked.

Dominic pulled out his phone, opened his photo gallery, and turned the screen toward her.

It was the selfie she’d sent him last night. In the picture, she was wearing pajamas, one shoulder bare, staring straight into the camera with a look on her face that could short-circuit a man’s brain in two seconds flat.

"What’s this supposed to be?" His voice was low, edged with something dangerously close to accusation.

She hadn’t expected him to call her out like that to her face. Lena forced a fake smile. "Me trying to seduce you. Pretty obvious, right? Didn’t work, though."

"Why were you trying to seduce me?"

She looked straight at him. Was he seriously confused, or was he just playing dumb?

She let out a slow breath. "What do you think?"

He studied her for a few seconds, then put his phone away. "Don’t send me pictures like that again."

Lena held out her hand toward him.

He frowned. "What?"

"Give me your phone."

His brows pulled together. A phone was personal. Their relationship was nowhere near the stage where they handed over their devices like it was no big deal.

Even so, her hand stayed there, stubborn and unmoving. After a long pause, Dominic finally unlocked his phone and set it in her palm.

She opened his gallery.

There was only one photo in it.

Hers.

The one she had texted him. He had saved it. Not only that, it was the only picture in his entire gallery.

For a second, her mind went completely blank. Her heartbeat slammed against her ribs, wild and messy, and she had to force herself to stay focused.

So she did the thing she’d wanted the phone for in the first place.

She deleted it.

"What the hell are you doing?" He snatched the phone back at once.

Lena lifted one brow, her expression cool even though her pulse was still all over the place. "You said not to send pictures. Then don’t save them."

His face darkened, and when he looked at Lena, anger rolled in his eyes like a storm about to break.

"Don’t look at me like that." She threw the glare right back at him, even harder, refusing to blink first. "If you keep this up, I’m seriously gonna start thinking you actually want me. And if you don’t, then quit sending me these mixed signals."

She turned and headed for her bedroom.

In the next second, he caught her by the arm, yanked her back, and pinned her against the wall. His body pressed close, caging her in, both hands braced on either side of her head. His face was so near it almost brushed hers.

Her pupils tightened instantly. Her heartbeat went off the rails.

They stared at each other, neither one moving. In those gray eyes, she caught it for just a flash, hot desire, sharp and bright and dangerous, gone almost the second it appeared.

He was holding himself back. She could feel it in the rigid line of his arms, in the steady rhythm of his breathing, in the way his jaw locked so hard the muscle twitched.

"Now I’m back," Dominic said, his voice low and rough, scraped raw at the edges. "So why aren’t you seducing me?"

It felt like Lena’s lungs forgot how to work.

He had actually said it. Out loud. No filter, no take-back. And from that tiny shift in his expression, she could tell he regretted it the second the words left his mouth.

Like he’d been waiting for something this whole time.

Like he’d been expecting her to do something.

Like some part of him had wanted this moment for way too long.

"I’m not in the mood," she said, because she would rather die than let him control this moment.

He wanted it?

Too bad. She wasn’t giving it to him.

"Hm." His eyes narrowed. "So you’re only brave when there’s a screen between us?"

She didn’t bite. "Yep."

He clearly hadn’t expected her to fold that fast. After a beat, he let go of her, stepped back, then turned and walked toward his room. "You should be grateful I’m not the kind of guy who takes advantage."

"Really?" she muttered, staring at his back. "Maybe you just can’t."

He stopped cold.

Then he turned, his gaze turning dark in an instant. "What did you say?"

Getting hit with that fierce Alpha look, Lena suddenly didn’t feel nearly as bold as she had two seconds ago. She forced out a smile, stiff and fake. "Nothing. You’re such a gentleman, obviously. Good night, gentleman."

She bolted into her room and slammed the door shut.

Then she dropped onto the bed, one hand pressed hard to her chest while the other smacked herself on the head like, wow, nice job, genius.

If she hadn’t pulled back just now, then they would’ve—

One messy scene after another crashed through Lena’s head, and her cheeks went scorching hot. She buried her face in the pillow, kicked both feet against the mattress, then rolled onto her back and pressed both hands to her burning face, like that could cool anything down.

And once that moment was over, her brain started replaying it on a loop. I should’ve said this. I should’ve done that. Why did I run?

She grabbed her phone and started scrolling through Instagram, trying to calm herself down, trying to get her head straight.

Then she saw Eliza’s newest post, and every bit of warmth in her body vanished in a snap.

“Grand opening. Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate.”

“He said the shop name was beautiful.”

Three photos.

The first: the flower shop sign. Eternal Rose.

The second: a group photo, a little blurry, but she recognized him instantly—Dominic.

The third: red roses, identical to the ones sitting in the vase on her dining table.

So that was where the flowers came from. Not bought from the shop. Picked up from Eliza’s opening event.

Which meant he hadn’t been with Samuel at all. He’d gone with Samuel to Eliza’s flower shop opening, showed up to support her, then brought those roses home and handed them to Lena like they were some kind of gift.

Her chest turned heavy, like someone had poured wet cement straight into it.

She got out of bed, walked to the dining table, picked up the vase, carried it into the stairwell, and dumped everything inside straight into the trash.

When she came back in, Dominic was standing by the door, watching her.

She didn’t say a word. She brushed right past him and went back to her room.

She slammed the door hard enough to make the frame rattle.

A little while later, Dominic came over and knocked. Lena stared at the door and said nothing.

Two more knocks.

“Lena, talk to me.”

The anger was still boiling inside her. She yanked the door open. “What?”

"Why did you throw them out?"

"I don’t like them." Lena’s voice came out flat, almost too flat.

Dominic looked straight at her, his face unreadable. "If you’ve got a problem, just say it."

If he had let it go, she might’ve managed to swallow everything and leave it for the morning. But no—he had to push.

Lena clenched her fists. "We’re not close enough for me to make demands, okay? But I do think we should at least be honest with each other. If you went to see your ex, just say that. I don’t need some random excuse. Even if you slept with her, I could probably deal with it."

Her voice caught halfway through, rough and shaky. "But don’t make stuff up. Don’t lie to my face. What’s the point of that?"

She had been bottling this up for way too long. Saying it out loud loosened something tight in her chest, but only a little. It didn’t actually fix anything.

She didn’t care about Eliza.

What she cared about was the lie.

"That’s not a lie," Dominic said evenly, almost cold. "I just didn’t think you needed to know."

Lena’s fists tightened harder, her nails digging deep into her palms.

She took a slow breath, then nodded. "Right. Sure. I didn’t need to know. My bad. I took it too seriously. Forget it. I overstepped. Good night."

She shut the door and locked it.

But the anger she had thrown out with those words didn’t make her feel better. If anything, it sat even heavier inside her.

She lay in the dark, staring up at the ceiling, turning over and over under the covers, sleep nowhere in sight.

Why do I even care this much?

The question kept looping in her head like a glitch, spinning until her thoughts turned into a total mess. She grabbed her phone and scrolled through videos with no real focus, one after another, until sometime past three, when her eyes finally gave up and she had no choice but to put it down.

She slept horribly.

The dreams came in broken bits, scattered and disconnected, like shattered glass she couldn’t piece back together. The next morning, she dragged herself out of bed with puffy eyes and brutal dark circles, her head feeling stuffed with cotton.

The apartment was empty.

Dominic had already left.

She didn’t care. At least, that was what she told herself.

She splashed water on her face, brushed her teeth, and headed out.

The moment she reached the building entrance, Dominic’s car rolled slowly out of the garage and stopped right in front of her.

The window slid down. "Get in."

Lena acted like she hadn’t heard a thing.

"Lena." His voice came louder this time.

It felt like maybe only the second time he had ever said her name.

She ignored him completely, stepped toward the street, and raised a hand to flag down a cab.

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