Elena rushed back as quickly as she could given her swollen stomach. She was desperate to see Lucas, to hold him. She could hear Caleb clomping behind her but she ignored him.
When she reached the packhouse, Helen and Liam met her. They immediately paused when they noticed her stomach.
"Elena? What's going on?" Helen asked.
"Where is Lucas?" Elena asked, ignoring Helen's question.
"He is at your house, why? What's wrong?" Liam answered.
Elena ignored them and hurried over to her house. He wasn't sitting on the porch as she expected, instead, he was inside, huddled in a ball on her bed. Her heart broke at the sight of him hugging her pillow.
"Lucas!" she spoke softly.
He moved slightly, signalling to Elena that he had heard her but he didn't move anymore than that. Slowly, she sat on the bed next to him and touched his arm. Knowing he was safe soothed the small pain in her chest.
"Lucas, look at me," she begged.
Slowly, Lucas turned and the pain returned in full force. His eyes were red and his face was wet.
"Oh Lucas!" she gasped before pulling his face in for a kiss.
He was still at first but she continued to press her lips to his. Eventually, he moved but he was still hesitant. Elena pulled back and smiled.
"I'm so sorry Lucas," she started. "I'm sorry I went inside, you have to know it wasn't because of any feelings I had for Caleb … I was just embarrassed."
"When you went inside I thought you were leaving me. I thought you would still choose Caleb over me," he spoke so weakly it broke Elena.
"No Lucas!" she called out. "That will never happen! I know now it's always been you. Despite what I thought I felt for Caleb, you were always the one I would go to, the one I felt safest with."
"I don't have any feelings for Caleb anymore, I don't think what I felt for him was real love anyway. He lied to me, he couldn't even give me a simple explanation when I confronted him about that day. My heart isn't closed off anymore, it wasn't the goddess's fault, she tried to get me to see sooner but I wouldn't let myself do that."
Lucas sat up and took her hands. His eyes still held a little pain but not as much.
"I'm just so scared …"
"Please don't be!" she interrupted him. "I promise you, I'm here with you because I want to be. When they interrupted us I was just really embarrassed it was as if we'd been caught by your parents. Can you imagine if Alpha Liam and Helen saw us instead?"
A small smile spread across Lucas's face before he let out a little chuckle.
"Yeah, that would be horrible," he agreed.
"It's mortifying!" she laughed. "Who would want to see their son having sex with the girl they have looked after?"
Elena suddenly became serious. She brought his hand up to her face and placed it on her cheek. She gave his wrist a small kiss.
"This is me choosing you over him. Caleb has been in the way all this time, but now it's you I see and I.."
He pulled her into him with a kiss, filled with everything he felt for her and she responded in kind.
---
The next morning, Elena couldn't help but smile as she awoke in his arms. They had talked all night about how they felt and what they wanted to do. They had made the decision to tell everyone they were mates.
"Come on beautiful, don't pretend to be asleep."
Elena smiled even wider as she felt the bed shift as Lucas detangled himself and kissed her cheek before nipping at her neck. Elena moaned.
"No, don't do that!" Lucas growled. "You moan like that and we'll never get out of bed."
"Doesn't sound like a bad idea,"
"Yeah I agree, but we can't today."
Lucas got up and pulled the reluctant Elena out of bed. They got ready and headed towards the alpha house. Alpha Liam and his mate Helen were sitting at the kitchen table eating their breakfast with Caleb and Mary.
Mary smiled at them whilst Caleb avoided their eyes. Helen and Liam looked at them curiously as they walked hand in hand.
"Good morning," Elena greeted as Lucas helped her to sit, before taking the seat next to her.
"Good morning indeed," greeted the alpha. "Do you have something to tell us?"
"Yes," Elena blushed.
Lucas took her hand and smiled at her before looking at his parents.
"Elena and I are fated mates," he beamed.
"What?" they both gasped.
"It's true and I am carrying Lucas's baby," Elena added with a huge smile on her face.
Helen rushed over hugging and gushing over them both as she and Liam congratulated them.
"How did you find out? I mean you've been around each other and close for years," Helen asked after they sat back down.
Elena eyed Mary and contemplated not saying anything. The other smiled at her.
"It's ok Elena, I already figured out you had feelings for Caleb. You were friendly towards me but you looked sad too. Then you disappeared so I knew. I never hated you or anything so it's ok."
Elena smiled gracefully at her before nodding.
"Yeah, well, after Lucas let slip about everyone knowing how I felt I was mortified. So I got drunk, Lucas came around and we ended up sleeping together."
"That's when I knew because I knotted her … but Elena didn't know anything about that so I went for a run to figure out what it all meant but then Elena left. Mary convinced me to go find her when I told her about Elena being my mate."
Lucas kissed Elena's hand and she blushed.
"We talked and realised that I've always been closer to Lucas. I never knew why but now it made sense. I then told him about the baby and here we are."
"But Lucas came back yesterday looking devastated," Helen added.
"Yeah he did and that was my fault. We were kissing outside the cabin and Caleb and Mary walked in on us…"
"You were doing more than kissing," Mary teased, causing Elena to blush even more.
"Yeah, well I got embarrassed and went inside. Lucas thought it was because of my feelings for Caleb but it wasn't … I would have done the same if you two had walked up."
Everyone but Caleb chuckled.
"I talked with Caleb, and realised that the reason I had been fixated on him was because I thought he'd been the one to save me and stay with me. I mixed everything up but now I realise where my heart lies."