Chapter 10. Cooking Dinner for the Alpha

Elena’s POV

Alone in the unfamiliar room, I sat on the edge of the bed, the contract still in my hands. My eyes traced over the numbers, the clauses, the careful legal language designed to bind me to a man I barely knew. I read them once. Twice. Three times.

I closed the folder and exhaled slowly.

Accepting this meant staying close to Eric. Refusing meant stepping back into uncertainty. Neither option felt light.

I rose and walked to the window, letting the silence settle around me. I didn’t want pity. I didn’t want to trade my body or my dignity for survival. Mark had already taught me that selling yourself for comfort only ends one way—with nothing left to call your own.

But Eric was different. There was something in his honesty, in the way he’d laid himself bare, that tugged at something deeper than logic.

I returned to the bed and reopened the contract.

One thing I would protect at all costs.

I picked up the pen from the bed