The pair split apart and Elena gasped. Her wide eyes locked onto Caleb and Mary as they stood gawking at them. Lucas growled as Elena started to get up.
Her face was red as she fixed her hair, making herself more presentable before holding out a hand for him. Lucas stood and went to fetch the shorts he had discarded earlier before playing with the pup.
"What the fuck Lucas!" Caleb shouted.
Elena didn't know what to say. Caleb sounded so angry and she didn't know why. Lucas was equally confused. He came to stand next to Elena. When he reached for her hand she shied away.
Quickly, she headed inside without saying a word. Lucas watched her go, feeling heartbroken. She had walked away from him, refused his touch … was it because … Caleb was there?
His heart hurt as he stared at the door, ignoring his brother; who was still glaring and shouting at him.
'Come back! Come back!' he chanted, begging her in his head.
When the door remained shut he shifted and raced off into the woods. He heard his brother call for him but he ignored it. The pain was breaking him.
Inside the cabin, Elena was freaking out. She'd just been caught with Lucas and no one needed to guess as to what they were doing. Her body still burned from his touch.
'Wait ...' she paused. 'Lucas!'
An intense pain shot through her body and she called out. Caleb and Mary shot inside instantly. She clutched her heart and gasped.
"What is it?" Caleb asked.
"Lu … Lucas?" she questioned. "Where … where is … Lucas?"
"After you came inside he left. He looked really sad," Mary told her as she helped her up.
'Oh no! What have I done?' she thought.
"Go find him!" she told Caleb who scoffed and folded his arms.
"Why would I do that? He was just …"
"Just what Caleb? What was he doing?" Elena demanded sounding stronger than she felt.
Mary sighed, "Go and find your brother."
Caleb reluctantly did as he was told whilst Mary helped Elena sit down. As she did she noticed Elena's swollen stomach.
"Elena, are you …?" she started.
Elena nodded before another wave of pain pierced her heart. She clutched her chest and gasped, trying to breathe through the pain.
"Is it Lucas's?"
Elena nodded and stroked her stomach.
"He's my…"
"Mate." they both said in unison.
----
Caleb returned an hour later without Lucas. Elena was instantly worried. The pain in her chest had only intensified.
"Where is he?"
"He wouldn't come back here, instead he went home."
"I need to go there now!" she insisted.
"What? Why?" he asked.
Mary sighed and patted her arm.
"I'll go ahead and make sure he stays. I think you two need to talk."
She kissed Caleb on the cheek before leaving. Elena sighed as her body sagged back into the chair.
"What do you mean why, Caleb?" she asked.
"Why would you want to go and find him? I thought that …"
"Thought what Caleb? That I was in love with you? Is that it? I can't believe all this time, you've known how I felt towards you, but you've said nothing. You led me on, made me think that if I was patient if I stuck around, one day you would see me."
Elena made to stand but Caleb stopped her.
"I didn't lead you on Elena, or I didn't mean to. I thought I always made sure you knew how I felt about you," he told her.
"Yeah, you did … but then … you would become possessive over me if another wolf besides Lucas was around me. You might have just been protective but it looked like something else ... Then you almost kissed me."
Caleb froze, he had no way to respond to that. No reason he could give to make sense of why he did any of that.
"Caleb," she sighed. "If you'd just told me earlier that you knew what I felt and that you really only saw me as a sister, I could have moved on long before you found Mary. Do you have any idea how heartbroken I was when she came and how humiliated I felt when I learned everyone knew."
Caleb sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.
"I know, I'm sorry. I should have said something sooner but I … I …" he trailed off.
"You what Caleb? Liked the attention, didn't want me to be with anyone else? What?" she demanded.
He couldn't answer, he didn't have a clue why he hadn't. She eyed him for a moment before turning to him.
"Why did you tell me you'd been the one to save me that night?"
"What night?" he asked with his eyebrows crossed.
"The night I woke up here. You told me that you'd stopped my dad, brought me here and stayed by my side."
Once again, he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.
"It wasn't you was it? It was Lucas. It's been him all this time," she mused to herself as she stood.
"Well, I …" he stammered.
"My feelings for you developed because I thought you saved me, but it wasn't you. No wonder I never noticed who Lucas was to me."
"Elena! Where are you going?" he called after her as she left.
"I'm going to go find Lucas … my fated mate!"
"You're mate?" he gasped before following her.
Elena stopped just short of the tree line and turned back to him.
"Yes Caleb, my mate! Lucas is my mate!"
"What? How!"
"That's all you need to know. You don't need to know how, oh, and I'm carrying his child!"
Elena lovingly stroked her stomach and Caleb's eyes widened. He hadn't noticed it until now.
"But you've been around each other for years, how could you, all of a sudden, know your mates?"
Elena sighed and rubbed her temples.
"Lucas thinks that the Goddess gave me time to heal after what happened to me. After you broke my heart he was there for me. He was who I always needed, everytime you let me down, he was there. Now I know why."
"I was so hung up on my 'saviour' that I closed my heart off to anyone else. Maybe if you had been a man and talked to me I might have seen it sooner but I see it now."
Elena turned and headed off into the forest. Caleb followed behind her and tried to reach for her. She shrugged his grip and he huffed. Elena turned and glared.
"Don't!" she warned. "You have no say in this whatsoever, you have no right to be angry or hurt at all. You have Mary and I have Lucas, and I need to find him and make it right."