Chapter 5
Elena's POV
He appeared in the doorway holding a large shopping bag, his expression carefully blank again.
"It's cold out," he said, walking over to where I sat curled in the chair. "You'll need this before you leave."
I took the bag with shaking hands, opened it. Inside was a women's winter coat, sleek and expensive.
"Caleb, I can't—this is too much."
"No." The word was sharp, final. He looked away, staring at the wall over my shoulder. "Consider it an early birthday present."
I froze.
"How do you—" My voice came out strangled.
I hadn't mentioned it to anyone this year, hadn't planned any celebration. Damon always forgot, so it had felt easier to let it pass unnoticed.
But Caleb remembered.
"I don't know what to say," I whispered, clutching the coat.
"Then don't say anything." He took a step back, putting distance between us again.
"At least let me get you something," I insisted. "For your birthday. When is it? What do you want?"
Caleb went very still. Something flickered across his face, too fast to catch—pain, maybe, or the ghost of some old wound tearing open.
"My birthday already passed," he said finally, voice flat and distant. He paused, then added, so quietly I almost missed it, "I don't celebrate it anyway."
The words landed like stones.
I wanted to ask why. Wanted to reach out, to bridge whatever dark chasm had opened between us. But the look on his face stopped me cold.
---
I slipped into the deep gray coat Caleb had given me, and the effect was immediate. The chill seemed to evaporate, replaced by a warmth that felt almost foreign. The lining was impossibly soft, the fit perfect, like it had been tailored specifically for me.
Caleb stood by the door, shoulders tense. "I can drive you back."
"No." The word came out sharper than I intended. I softened my tone. "Thank you, but I'm fine. Really."
His jaw tightened, but he didn't argue. He simply opened the door, cold air rushing in to replace the warmth of his home.
I stepped out onto the porch, turned back. He was watching me with that same intensity from breakfast, like he was memorizing every detail.
My heart kicked against my ribs.
"I'll text you," I said. "About dinner."
He nodded once, said nothing.
I made myself walk away. Made myself not look back until I reached the tree line where the car service was waiting. When I finally turned, he was still there, standing perfectly still in the doorway.
Something twisted in my chest, sharp and urgent and completely unfamiliar.
---
The memory came to me on the drive back, unbidden and unwelcome.
"That mixed-blood kid doesn't even have a birthday on the family registry," one of the Vance house staff had whispered, years ago. I'd been maybe ten, lingering in the hallway during one of the formal dinners my parents dragged me to. "Poor thing."
"I heard he tried to run away once," another voice had chimed in. "Wanted to find his mother up north, in the wild territories."
"They caught him and locked him in the old bell tower for three days. On his birthday, no less."
I'd pressed myself against the wall, barely breathing, as the conversation continued.
"No one knows what happened to his mother. Some say her tribe came back for her. Others say she's dead."
The bitterness that had risen in my throat then returned now, sharper and more acidic. Caleb had grown up in that house, surrounded by family, and yet he'd been more alone than any of us. No birthday celebrations. No presents. No one to mark the day he'd been born.
No wonder he'd looked the way he had when I asked.
Next year, I promised myself, staring out the window at the snow-covered streets. Next year I'll make sure he has a real birthday.
---
"Well, well, well." Lila's voice hit me the second I pushed open the dorm room door. She was perched on her bed, textbook forgotten, eyes sparkling with mischief. "Look who finally decided to come home. Out all night, Elena? And here I thought you were the good girl."
I dropped my bag by my desk, suddenly exhausted. "It's not what you think."
"Really?" She sat up straighter, grinning. "Because it looks exactly like what I think. You and Damon finally took things to the next level?"
My stomach turned. "No. God, no."
"Come on, don't be shy." Lila was practically bouncing now. "He was here last week, remember? Took all of us to that fancy steakhouse, made a big show of asking me to 'take care of his Elena' while he was traveling. The man is obsessed with you."
The words landed like punches. I sank onto my own bed, suddenly unable to stand.
"Lila." I took a breath, forced myself to meet her eyes. "Damon and I aren't together. Not really."
Her smile faltered. "What do you mean, 'not really'? Aren't you two about to get engaged?"
Lila didn't know the whole picture. She was human. She didn't understand the shifter world.
I pulled my knees to my chest, wrapped my arms around them. "We're not—he's never actually asked me to be his girlfriend. He's never even said he loves me, not like that."
"But he visits you all the time, and he's always—"
"He has a girlfriend." The words tasted like ash. "I went to bail him out last night—he got into a fight defending her."
Lila's mouth fell open.
I continued, the story spilling out now that I'd started. "She was waiting for him when they let him out. They left together."
"He left you there?" Lila's voice had gone dangerously quiet. "In the middle of a blizzard?"
I nodded.
"That motherfucker." She was on her feet now, pacing. "So all those dinners, all those public displays of affection, all that 'my Elena' bullshit—he was what, keeping you on the hook? Making sure everyone thought you were his so you couldn't move on?"
The truth of it hit me like a physical blow. "I never thought about it that way."
"Of course you didn't, because you're too nice to see when people are using you." Lila stopped pacing, turned to face me. "Elena, do you even like him? Like, actually want to be with him?"
The question hung in the air.
Did I?
I thought about Damon's scent, that expensive musk and leather that everyone else seemed to find so appealing. I thought about the way my skin stayed cool when he touched me, the way my pulse never raced, the way I'd spent years waiting to feel something that never came.
"No," I whispered. "I don't think I ever did."
Lila sat down beside me, took my hand. "Then fuck the engagement. Fuck what your families want. You deserve better than being someone's placeholder."