When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 108

Chapter 108

Demetra Pride Covenant.

“No, you did it!”

“No–YOU did it!”

I hear the kids fighting before I even get through the door.

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I’ve just come back from a full day at the office… back–to–back catch–up meetings for every single day I missed, enough paperwork to wallpaper a room, and a smile fixed to my face for so many hours that my cheeks genuinely ache. It is the absolute last thing I want to walk into, and I decide somewhere between the entrance and the living room that I am taking Amira to the Pride Pack this weekend. Just us. Maybe a few days. Maybe longer. I’ll figure it out when I get there.

Amira and Milo are squared off in the middle of the living room like two tiny generals who have both forgotten what the war was originally about.

“What is going on?”

“You are not my mommy!” Milo spins toward me, points one small finger directly at my face. He’s been doing this since Elena told him I tried to kill her. Every time I walk into a room. Every time I try to help him with anything. Every time I even breathe in his direction.

I swear the way he rejects me hurts me so much.

“Don’t TALK to my MOMMY!” Amira fires, planting herself slightly in front of me like she is personally going to handle this.

Then Emris walks in.

He comes through from the other hallway with a stack of files in his hand, and he’s wearing glasses. They are silver trames thin and expensive–looking on his nose.

Since when did he wear glasses? Well, I guess since he started working.

I’ve never actually watched him be an Alpha in the working sense of the word…sitting with documents, reviewing decisions, carrying the administrative weight of an entire pack. He looks different, corporate…somehow.

Oh, forget corporate Alpha. He was a murderous Alpha to me a few days ago, and we haven’t spoken since then. Well ! haven’t spoken to him.

Right.

This is actually the first time we’ve been in the same room since that moment I haven’t joined breaktasi haveat come fr dinner. I’ve been eating in the Luna room and I’ve been telling myself its dignity and nor avoidance

“Both of you are arguing again?” Emris says, pulling his glasses down slightly to look at the children over the runs

“She broke my car.” Milo shrieks.

Amira shakes her head so hard her ponytail whips

“Daddy, Daddy! I found it in her room-

“You put it there!” Amira rounds on him.

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Chapter 108

Oh, this is genuinely getting out of hand.

Let me see the toy.” I hold my hand out to Milo, who immediately folds his arms and looks away from me

Fine.

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“Show Emris, then.” I step back, and Milo promptly produces the toy car. Emris takes it, turns it over in his hand

“Of course it’s his favourite one,” Emris mutters under his breath. “Amira?”

‘Mama, I didn’t take it.” Amira looks at me when she says it, not Emris, who is technically the one addressing her She looks at me the way she always has, the way that means I need you to know this is the truth.

‘But it was in your Barbie castle!” Milo stomps one foot for emphasis.

‘Did anyone actually witness what happened?” Emris looks up at the room.

“Yes, Alpha.” One of the housekeepers says. “I was doing my afternoon clean of Miss Amira’s room and found it inside the barbie castle. It was already broken when I found it.”

Emris exhales through his nose. He crouches down to Amira’s level, bringing himself to her height the way he does when he’s trying to be fair about something.

‘Amira. Say sorry to Milo.”

“Mama!”

She stomps both feet this time and looks straight at me… bypassing Emris entirely again with the full expectation that I am going to fix this. And the thing is, I believe her. I genuinely do. Amira has never been the kind of child who takes things out of spite.

“She said she didn’t take it.” I say, and I don’t entirely mean to say it out loud until it’s already out there.

Emris looks up at me.

“So who did? A pack ghost?”

Something in my chest hardens.

“My daughter is not a liar.”

He rises up to his full height. “Kids lie all the time-”

I actually scoff before he finishes the sentence “Maybe you did When you were a kid

“Demetra.” He says my name the way people say calm down without using those words. You’re making this bugger than it needs to be. Amira needs to learn when to take accountability

“She said she didn’t do it. And I believe her

“I don’t want to be your friend anymore!” Milo announces to Amira

“I don’t want to be your friend anymore!” she announces too

“You are siblings.” Emris cuts across both of them, “which means friendship is not optional. No child of mine is going to stand in this house fighting with their own family He turns back to Amira agam

Chapter 108

“Amira. The car was found in your room, broken. Look at me.”

“I. Don’t. Play. With. Cars.” Amira says it one word at a time in a silly way.

“Amira-

“Emris. That’s enough.”

He goes quiet and looks at me for a moment.

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“No…what’s enough is you coddling her. She is an Alpha’s daughter, but that doesn’t mean she is not going to be a spoiled brat. So stop that.”

Something ignites behind my sternum.

‘I raised her by myself for five years without you And what you’re describing will never be my daughter, so you stop that.”

‘Fine. Since Amira won’t apologize, all her toys are confiscated for three days. She’s grounded.”

You cannot ground a five–year–old-”

I just did.”

I am two seconds away from saying something that cannot be unsaid when Derisha walks in from the hallway, reading the room in exactly one second.

‘I raised five children and I have never once found it this difficult to break up a simple argument.”

“That’s because you didn’t see me break Regan’s leg, so let’s not compare notes.” Emris hisses at her and the edge in his voice is the specific edge he’s had for days now.

It’s been like that since my dad came around. But at least I know why. The secrets. The lies. It’s crazy that something as horrible like that happened and we both haven’t even spoken about it. More than anyone else, I think I know how horrible the trauma Emris suffered as a kidnapped boy must have been. How sad he was about his father’s death.

Yet we are busy hating each other and haven’t spoken a single word about it.

Instead, we’ve been doing this….orbiting each other in the same house like two planets that have shifted out of alignment. close enough to feel the pull and too proud to close the distance. I’ve wanted to ask him if he’s okay. I’ve thought about it in the shower, rehearsed it on the walk back from the office…..

And then I think about the way he looked at me over Elena’s wounds. Like I was someone he didn’t recognize. Iške every good thing he’d decided about me had been crossed out in a single morning. He looked at me like I was capable of cruelty even when the worst thing I’ve ever truly done is love people recklessly and react when I’ve been pushed past what I can

carry.

Does he really think I’m capable of that? Of intentionally letting Elena go into those woods to get bitten by those animals when it was really just supposed to spook her?

I’ve been asking myself that but all I get is the memory of Emris’s hand clamped on my wrist as he made it clear to me that

the mother of his son came first.

“She’s not my sister and she’s not my mommy!”

Milo announces it one final time to the room at large…to me specifically, and then Amira, who has apparently decided she has heard enough for one day, turns on her heel and runs. Milo processes this for approximately one second before darting off in the completely opposite direction.

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Chapter 108

I wanted to let you both know that we’ll be hosting your bonding ceremony in two days.” Derisha says.

“What

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Emris and I say it at exactly the same time.

I immediately turn to glare at him for matching my energy, which is instinctive and probably childish, and then turn back to Derisha.

“We’re already bonded.” I say. “What bonding ceremony are you talking about? How many times can one person bond with a wolf? Is this a recurring event? Is there a schedule I should know about?”

“I mean the celebration of it.” Derisha gives me an immovable look. “You are the Luna of the Black Covenant Pack. Did you genuinely think a small, quiet ceremony in the pack house was going to be sufficient? For a true mate bonding?” She tilts her head. “Of course not. The pack deserves to witness it properly.”

I close my eyes for exactly one second.

I’m busy-”

‘I’m busy as well. I’ve got work at the office.” I say.

‘Oh, I’ve seen what you get up to in the office. Very creative work you did in the Alpha’s wing, wasn’t it? Very artistic. Very Luna of you,”

Emris says and I blink.

All of a sudden, I remember all the things I did in my rage. The squirrel–headed Alpha with the beady black eyes. The very small, very ridiculous drawing of his-

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