LUCA

"So, let me get this straight, you want to break my mate up with her boyfriend by pretending that you've been sleeping with him?" I asked Ellie.

I know that she was only trying to help me but I didn't want her to ruin someone else's relationship just for the sake of my own happiness. She was my best friend and I know that she just wanted the best for me but I refused to let her do something she would live to regret in the end, especially when she came to live in the pack with me and Ellie had to face her every single day knowing what she had done.

"You got it," Ellie grinned proudly.

"Yeah. That's not going to happen," I told her without breaking eye contact and I noticed Blake nodding in agreement with me from the corner of my eye. I knew that he wasn't happy with the plan from the expression which he had been wearing and the look of murder which was in his eye as she spoke about another male like he wasn't in the room.

"Why?" Ellie's tone went right through me and I hated it when she did that. She would resort to acting like a child when she couldn't get her own way and she would whine non-stop until we agreed with what it was that she wanted to do.

"If you think I am letting anywhere near another male, you've got another thing coming," Blake's growl terrified even me but it didn't seem to faze Ellie as she turned to look at her mate. She put her hand on her hip and cocked her head slightly to the side with a knowing smirk on her face.

"I never said I was actually going to go near him, I just said that I was going tell her that he had been sleeping with me," Ellie chuckled.

"I'm still not going to let that happen, El. She is happy and I'm not going to ruin that just for my own happiness," I turned my back on her so that she couldn't see the tears which were building in my eyes. I didn't want my own best friend to see me at my weakest and that meant I couldn't allow her to see me cry because I didn't want her pity and I didn't want her to feel sorry for me either.

We had been at Ellie's cottage for four days now and all Ellie had talked about was the ways in which she was going to help me win my mate over. I could tell that Blake was getting annoyed with it and he wanted to actually spend time with her but she was oblivious to his annoyance and simply continued as her usual pace.

She had always wanted to help people before she helped herself or even those who were closest to her and that's why she was such a brilliant Alpha. But she needed to remember that she had a family and they needed her too, they needed her to put them first and they needed her to be there for them as a mate and as a mother.

Blake didn't her worrying about me and my situation. He had confronted me about it not two days ago and pretty much demanded that I leave Ellie alone so that he could have some time with her and the twins, but she was the one who wouldn't leave it alone and she was the one who was insistent on helping me with a situation I was never going to be able to solve.

"But—"

"Just leave it," I finally lost my temper with her and my fists instinctively clenched and unclenched at my side as I felt my anger rising. I could feel my wolf trying to push himself to the surface and he was practically begging me to allow him to attack Ellie but I knew that was more than my life was worth and I wasn't that stupid.

"Don't you speak to her like that," Blake stood defensively in front of Ellie. He was poised for attack and I knew he wouldn't have a problem making the first move if I didn't back the hell off.

"Then tell your mate to back the fuck off," I spat. I took a step towards Blake and was practically standing toe to toe with him and, given that he was slightly taller than me, it was rather intimidating the way in which I had to look up so I could speak with him but I wasn't going to let him get to me. I wasn't going to back down so if that's what he was going for then he was going to be shit out of luck.

"She is only trying to help you but you're too stupid to see that," Blake's anger was practically rolling off him and, each time Ellie tried to step out from behind him, he simply moved so that he was hidden behind him once again. I would have laughed if I wasn't so annoyed with the both of them right now.

I never asked for their help and I certainly didn't request that Ellie spend days planning how she was going to help me. I just wanted them to leave me the hell alone and leave me sort this out on my own but those boys came before anything else, they even came before thinking of a way to win over my second chance mate.

"I don't want her fucking help. I just wan—"

"Daddy?" Daniel walked into the room and stood behind me with a terrified look on his face. I caught the tears in his eyes and I wanted to hold him but I knew that now wasn't the time to do that, I was simply too angry and I would only end up doing something stupid which would hurt him; and that was the last thing I wanted to do.

"Come here baby," Ellie eased him with her hand extended and a gentle smile on her face. Blake remained in place and his eyes never left mine and I never moved my gaze from him either. I didn't want him to attack while I wasn't paying attention to him and I didn't want him to spot any of my weaknesses either.

"Why is daddy shouting at Uncle Blake?" Daniel's timid voice made me rethink what I was doing and I moved away from Blake as Blake did the same.

"It's nothing for you to worry about," Ellie said quietly. Daniel walked over to her and wrapped his arms tightly around her neck while Ellie did the same to him, she held him carefully and moved her hands up and down his back in a move to calm him down.

"I don't like it when daddy shouts," Daniel's muffled voice only just reached my ears and I felt like a prize idiot. I should have remembered that the boys were in the house and one of them were likely to come down here if they heard me shouting, I just wished that it was Michael rather than Daniel, at least I could deal with that.

But seeing Daniel practically in tears because of me broke my heart. I never wanted to be the reason for my son's tears and I never wanted to be the reason that he was terrified; I certainly didn't want him to be terrified of me because I was never going to hurt him and he should have realised that by now.

"Daddy is just having a bad day. He doesn't mean to shout," Ellie soothed him with a slight smile.

"Daddy has been having a bad day all week," I could smell Daniel's tears and I had to walk away. I hated myself for doing this to my son and I hated that he thought I was in a bad mood with him over something. I was such a fool and I should have been a whole lot more thoughtful before I went mental over something so ridiculous.

Ellie was only trying to be a friend to me and I lost my temper with her over that. She only wanted me to be happy and, after everything which had happened with Charlotte, she wanted me to find someone who deserved my love and would be a wonderful mother to the boys; I knew that Ellie cared deeply and that she would always be concerned about me.

She knew me better than anyone knew me. She was my best friend who had been there for me through thick and thin and, here I was, being an asshole to her just because I was too scared to take what belonged to me. I was putting my friendships at risk for something which wasn't really worth it because I was going to need to be around my mate sooner or later.

"I think daddy just needs to go for a run. I think there is somewhere he really needs to go," Ellie's attention was now on me and she stood up while holding Daniel close to her. His arms were wrapped around her neck and his head was on his shoulder as he continued to silently cry to himself.

"Do you want to make Maxwell something else for his room? I think he needs a new decoration," Blake held his arms out to Daniel with a grin covering his face. After the incident with Michael, Blake has been a whole lot more careful where his temper was concerned, and he had even been spending more time with Daniel over the last couple of days.

They had spent most of time building things out of Lego because Daniel thought that Maxwell needed something to brighten up his room when he was older so he was insistent on building things that he thought Maxwell might like when he was old enough to appreciate what Daniel had done.

Ellie had been spending time with Michael and Nicole. He had been practicing his reading with her and had even helped with putting the twins to bed by singing songs to the both of them until they fell asleep or by reading them a story until they were close to sleep; he was going to be one hell of a father when he was older. I just hoped that he could do a better job with his kids than I had done with my kids.

"Yeah," Daniel grumbled. He moved from Ellie's arms and into Blake's with a slight smile on his face. He held Daniel on his hip and moved his hand up and down his back until Daniel actually grinned at him, I wished he would look at me like that and that he didn't look at me like he thought I was about to lose my temper with him at any given moment.

"What do you want to make today?" Blake asked happily.

"I think w—" Daniel's voice trailed off as the two of them walked out of the room and headed into the dining room at the back of the house where Daniel's things were being kept so that they were out of the way. I was left there with Ellie and she looked just about ready to punch me, not that I blamed her, but I hoped that she would lose her shit with when the kids were asleep and not before that.

"You need to chill the fuck out, Luca. I can't keep covering for you every single time you feel a bit pissed off," Ellie didn't waste any time in telling me what she was thinking. She walked around the living room and picked up the toys which she used to calm the twins down when they woke up in the middle of the night and placed them on the table in the middle of the room.

"I'm so—"

"I don't need your apologises. I was only trying to help you and you threw that back at me," Ellie interrupted me before I could even tell her just how sorry I actually was for what I had said to her.

"I just, you know, I don't want to be the reason—"

"—For another person's unhappiness, I know, you've told me countless times. But you can only last so long without having her around before you're driven to madness," I could tell that she was done messing around and that she was serious now. She was acting the same way she always did when I had pushed her too far and that meant I had to listen to her. "If you don't pursue her for yourself, then you should do it for those boys, they've been through more than enough already. They've already lost their mother, don't be the reason they lose their father too."

"And what if she thinks I'm some kind of freak?" I laughed humourlessly. I didn't want to get her alone and tell her what I was just for her to reject me anyway, I wouldn't be able to cope if my second chance at happiness rejected me too, I'd dealt with more than enough heartbreak to last me a life time.

"You're never going to know if you don't even bother trying," Ellie said. She turned to walk out of the room at the sound of Maxwell's crying coming through over the monitor though I am sure Michael will be there before Ellie even reaches the top of the stairs, that's how caring he was when it came to his cousins and it actually made my heart melt.

"Bu—"

"No, Luca, stop making excuses and get your ass out of this cottage now. And I don't want you back until you've sorted out both your mate and your anger issues," Ellie put her hand up to me and then walked out of the room without another word. I knew that she was trying not to pull her Alpha tone on me, especially since she was here to relax and get to know her family properly, but she had effectively gone into Alpha mode with her last words and set a challenge which I would do anything to complete.

I was so sick of putting other people's happiness before my own and I was so sick of always being the one who had nothing while I watched everyone else with everything they could ever want; it was time for me to be a little selfish and it was time for me to get something which would actually make me happy.

It was time for me to get my mate and it was time for me to make her mine. I was, for once, going to be happy with my life and I was going to whatever I needed to do to make sure that happened.