Chapter 18

**Elena**

After a busy day, I walk Gemma home so she can get ready and I can pick up Jensen.

"I'm home!" She yells as she walks through the door.

"Hey hi girls! Did you have a good day?" Josh asks us before kissing his wife.

They may not be true mates, but these two are great together. Jensen quickly joins them.

"Hi Lena."

"Hi Jensen." I crouch down and he approaches. "How about a sleepover at my place?"

"Yeah so cool!" he yells before jumping into my arms.

"Start packing your stuff. I'll come check to make sure you haven't forgotten anything." Gemma tells him as he walks up the stairs.

Josh looks at her surprised, one eyebrow raised.

"Elena offered to take care of the cub tonight so we can have some time just the two of us." She explains to him.

"Well thank you very much. I would have had you come over earlier myself if I had known." He tells me with a wink.

Gemma goes upstairs to make sure Jensen takes what he needs with him.

Josh sits on a stool in the kitchen and scratches his blonde beard. "So you, Finn, Theo and Caleb are mates?"

"How..."

"I live with two gossips." He cuts me off with a laugh. "I suspected as much, but Caleb confirmed it to me this morning while Jensen and I were riding our bikes." I look at him with furrowed brows. "He pulled up in front on the street this morning. He looked miserable...if you ask me. He came in for a moment to get a coffee and told me all about it. Not all of it I'm sure, but in outline."

"He came to see me?" I ask baffled.

"Oh I don't know if he was going to knock on the door. Jensen told me he saw him yesterday already but he turned back." He clears his throat. "I think the connection opened his eyes. Compared to everything that may have happened in the past and he feels like crap. Honestly Elena if you decided to reject him and not talk to him again I would understand...but...maybe you should listen to what he has to say."

"I understand but it's up to him to make the first move. Given what happened the last time we saw each other..."

We are interrupted when I hear footsteps coming down the stairs. Jensen appears in the kitchen with a backpack on his back and a stuffed panda in his arms. "I'm ready."

I laugh at his enthusiasm. After a big hug to each of his parents, we cross the street to my house.

"I usually go to bed around 9pm but since it's a special day, I don't think we have to set a bedtime." He explains to me very seriously.

Gemma had warned me that he would say this but also that he would probably fall knocked out before 10pm. He is so adorable that he almost makes me want to have one of my own. Well, not right away, but in the near future I would like to have one. As we walk through the door, Jensen puts his bag on the floor but keeps the panda in his arms.

"Are the alphas Finn and Theo coming?" He asks me.

"They haven't told me but I think so."

With the stuffed animal still in his arms, he heads to the living room and looks at the family photos.

"Are those your parents there?"

"Yes." I swallow. "James and Moira. You know they were true mates."

"So they loved each other a lot." He frowns briefly. "You must be very sad that they're gone."

"Yes, but I'm trying to think about the good times we had instead." I blink a few times to keep my tears from flowing. "So Jensen, I suggest we go put your stuff in the guest room and then we can start making our dinner and snacks for our movie night."

"Yeah so cool!" He yells as he hops up and down. The diversion worked brilliantly.

Once his stuff is put away, we head to the kitchen and as I'm tying an apron around his waist, I hear the front door open.

"It's us!" Finn yells and he appears in the kitchen with Theo and Caleb.

The surprise must be on my face because he looks down. "I can come back at another time..."

"All the alphas are here. Cool!" Jensen exclaims excitedly.

Theo is the first to approach us. "So what were you guys about to do?"

"Lena was going to teach me how to make her mom's lasagna." He pauses. "You can help us, right Lena?"

"Yes they can." I answer with my eyes fixed on Caleb's.

Josh is right he does look miserable but that doesn't excuse the attitude he had last time. He came, got laid and left as if nothing had happened and since then there has been no sound or image.

I'm ready to hear what he has to say but that doesn't mean I'm ready to have the same relationship with him that I have with Finn and Theo.

Finn takes a seat next to Jensen while Caleb remains shyly on the other side of the center island.

I go get more aprons and give one to each of them.

"We are waiting for your instructions Chef!" Finn tells me and Jensen bursts out laughing.

As each of them gets down to a task, Finn clowns around and Jensen can't stop laughing. These two quickly abandon their mission to go play in the living room and leave the three of us in the kitchen to finish making our dinner.

"So did you have a good day with Gemma?" Theo asks me.

"Yes, it was nice to have a girls' day together. And we found a lot of cool stuff."

"Oh yeah?!" He says to me flirtatiously. "What kind of stuff?"

"The kind of stuff you won't get to see tonight because Jensen's sleeping over."

He grunts and I laugh. I meet Caleb's gaze and he clutches the countertop.

Theo clears his throat. "I'm going to see Finn and Jensen for a while."

After kissing me on the temple, he walks out of the kitchen leaving the two of us alone.