Chapter 4 It Was a Mistake

Damian's POV

Morning light stabbed my eyes. The hangover made my head feel like it was splitting.

When I opened my eyes, I went still.

The room was a wreck — the expensive gown I'd torn apart, the tangled sheets, and Elena, lying beside me, naked.

What the hell had I done?

Last night pieced itself back together in my mind.

Vera had caught me in the corridor and slid her hand up my chest. "Damian, I've already comforted Elena. I had someone take her home."

Her voice was sugar-sweet, her lips at my ear. "Damian, shouldn't we take the next step too? You rejected her officially tonight. You're free now."

But I couldn't focus on any of it. I pulled her hand off me without ceremony, because I'd caught something in the air — faint, but unmistakably Elena's scent.

I dropped Vera at her door. She clung to my arm. "Damian, stay tonight?"

I didn't want to touch her. I turned and left.

Back home, I realized Elena wasn't there at all.

When I went back to the ball and saw Kyle skulking at the end of the second-floor corridor — when I caught that thick, sweet scent of Elena's leaking through the crack in the door — I lost it completely.

I threw myself at him and nearly beat him to death, then kicked the door open.

Elena grabbed onto me, shaking all over.

I couldn't resist her.

I breathed her scent in greedily. The alcohol, and that lethal, undeniable pull that still ran between fated mates, tore through the last of my control in an instant.

My wolf raged inside me, demanding I claim her.

Then came a whole night of madness and chaos.

I looked down at Elena, asleep, my gaze catching on the red marks across her pale skin — and my body reacted again, going hard so fast it hurt.

I cursed myself and forced my eyes shut, crushing the urge.

She's our mate! my wolf snarled in my head, fighting my grip with everything it had.

I ignored it. I warned myself, over and over: this was a mistake. I was supposed to hate Elena.

I reached out to wake her and found her forehead burning. She'd fevered straight into unconsciousness.

I opened a mind-link to my Beta, Jason. "Bring a clean set of women's clothes to the second-floor guest room. Now."

Jason left them at the door.

I didn't let him in. I wrapped Elena in a blanket myself and dressed her, clumsy but careful.

When I carried her out, Jason reached for her on instinct.

My eyes cut to him like a blade, and a low, crushing growl rolled out of my throat, stopping him cold.

I didn't want any man touching her.

Back at the estate, I didn't leave her side. I gave her the fever medicine myself, until her temperature finally started to drop.

The moment Elena's lashes fluttered, just before she opened her eyes, I shot to my feet.

I retreated to the couch a few steps away, forced down every ache of guilt and regret, and put the cold mask back on.

Elena opened her eyes and looked at me, lost.

"You've really outdone yourself, Elena." I stared at her, my voice without a trace of warmth. "I announce I'm rejecting you, and you turn around and crawl into my bed with a filthy little trick like this. You really will do anything to be my Luna, won't you?"

"I didn't…" She was ghost-white, her voice thin. "I don't know what happened either. Something's wrong with my wolf. Last night the pain nearly killed me."

"Enough!" I cut her off, forcing the ugliest sneer I could onto my face. "The fake-sick excuse again? Why aren't you in pain now? Don't tell me one night with me cured everything."

Her eyes went red. She shook her head frantically. "It was Vera! Vera pushed me into that room last night and locked it. Whatever's wrong with my body, she did it—"

"Shut up!" I stood abruptly, looming over her, faking rage. "You want to make sure Vera finds out we slept together, so you can drive a wedge between us? You know she has a heart condition. She can't take any shock. You're even more vicious than I thought."

Watching the light go out of Elena's eyes, my heart felt like an invisible hand was crushing it.

But I only ground my teeth harder and said the most heartless thing I could. "Last night didn't happen. You'd better keep your mouth shut too. I'll tell my father about ending the contract right away, and you'd better cooperate."

Then, without another look at her, I turned and strode out, slamming the door behind me.

Elena's POV

The sound of Damian slamming the door felt like it severed the last living thread of hope in me.

I lay on the cold bed, tears dropping soundlessly onto the pillow. The fever came and went, wringing every last bit of strength out of me. I was sick for a solid month before I could even sit up, my head fogged the whole time.

For that whole month I was shut in that room, listening every day to the maids whispering in the corridor. They talked about Damian — about how, this past month, he'd spoiled Vera rotten.

He'd brought in the best healers in the world to check her heart, bought her the most extravagant gowns, taken her to every pack dinner, treated her with a tenderness beyond anything, and granted her every wish.

I felt like a joke that had already died. My wolf was beyond feeling now, and Damian had thrown me away completely.

But what filled me with even deeper grief and dread was another change happening inside my body.

My period, later and later in coming — and the nausea every morning that I couldn't fight down no matter what.

I stared at the two lines slowly surfacing on the test and slid down onto the bathroom floor.

I was pregnant.