When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 115

Chapter 115

Chapter 115

Alpha Emris.

Contd

As I’m holding her, her temperature is increasingly hot. Feverish. Her skin is burning against mine like she’s fighting something from the inside. Man, fuck these martinis. What did they do to her?

I signal the Deltas to pack up.

As we get to the closest exits, I see phones start to come out. People start to notice me as the Alpha of the Black Covenant Pack and since they’re notice me, then they’ll notice it’s

my Luna that’s with me. With Demetra looking the way she does, it’s gonna add to the damn news that’s already spreading about my family.

I catch the first phone I see and stomp on it.

“Hey, that’s my phone!”

The Deltas push back against the crowd before it closes in completely.

I take my jacket off and drape it over Demetra’s head, pulling it down around her face so there’s nothing to photograph. Then I pick her up, arms under her knees and behind her back. She tucks her face against my collarbone and I keep walking while the Deltas hold the crowd back and the noise around us becomes increasingly chaotic.

The crowd is tighter and for a moment the exit feels impossibly far. But the Deltas know their job and they do it well until the cool air of the parkway hits us.

I lower her into the seat and get in after her.

*****

“You’re hot, Demetra.”

Not a compliment. A diagnosis. I press the back of my hand against her forehead and confirm what I already suspected… her temperature is elevated in the way that happens when alcohol and emotion combine into something the body can’t regulate properly.

She’s sitting on the couch in the Luna chambers with her arms wrapped around herself, staring at her phone like it’s personally wronged her.

Rosie enters with some honey water to bring her back to sobriety. I mutter a thanks before looking at Demetra again. She hasn’t stopped apologizing since I brought her in here.

18

11

O

19:37 Mon, May 18

Chapter H3

“I’m going to leave you to take a shower, alright?”

“Emris, no.”

She’s on her feet before I finish the sentence, and the look on her face is so genuinely distressed that it stops me where I stand. Her eyes are still wet at the edges, her cheeks are still carrying the puffiness of the last hour, and she looks at me like my leaving the room would constitute some kind of additional loss she doesn’t have capacity for tonight.

“I swear I’m trying to understand you right now. You’re running hot… that’s the alcohol, it needs to come down. Take a cold shower, I’ll come back after, I’ll make sure you drink the honey water. I’ll even-“I almost laugh at myself. “I’ll tuck you in. Okay? I’m not going anywhere.”

“Please don’t go. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m-”

“Okay.” I say it simply. “Okay, I won’t go. But you still need the shower.”

She closes the distance between us and wraps her arms around me. There, her heartbeat is irregular against me and I realize that what I’m holding isn’t just someone who had too many martinis.

She is genuinely, deeply in her feelings.

So I run the bath with cold water and help her out of her clothes.

Demetra steps into the tub without argument. I position myself at the edge and keep my eyes somewhere else while she exhales under the water.

I move to have the robe ready for when she’s done. After doing that, I fold my hands and look at the glassed windows instead. At the pack sky. At the stars. At anything that’s not her freckled breasts.

Oh, how beautiful the pack house is.

But even there, I can see her reflection. Dipping her head into the tub and bringing it back

out…

The water does….it does exactly what water does and I am not a saint, I have never claimed to be a saint, so I look stare…I stare how she rubs her hand down both breasts sofly. Mmmh.

Oooh Neptune’s moon

“Emris?”

“Mm?”

“Why won’t you look at me? Are you disgusted by me? Because of what I did—”

18

O

T

III

O

19:37 Mon, May 18 M

Chapter 115

“Where did you get that from? Of course not!” I turn back and look at her directly, because this particular misunderstanding about what happened to Elena needs to be corrected immediately.

“Then why-”

23

“Stop it already. “I forgive you, okay? Alright? So can you….fucking please stop crying.” I curse and her face scrunches.

“I mean…the only reason I’m not looking is because… Demetra, moon sake, look at you. Your boobs are looking back at me. By tomorrow when you’re no longer drunk, you’re not even gonna to want me an inch closer to you… that’s why I’m staying away so you don’t slap me.”

“So, you don’t hate me?”

“How could I hate someone I love?”

I say it plainly and her eyes brighten at that.

Doesn’t she know? Maybe I haven’t mentioned it in so many words, but my actions are all because I love her. I love her too much to let Seth take her from me. I love her so much that I

used Amira to make her my

“I love you,” I say again.

Lun. B

Cause I want her to hear it twice, hoping she’ll remember it tomorrow.

“I love you too.”

Demetra says and it surprises me to the bone of my bone. She…she…loves me!?

After everything I’ve done.

To her pack. It’s only now that I’m trying to fix everything, now that I know the Lion Pride had nothing to do with my father’s death.

Fuck, if she knew what I did to Slade’s mate that year… would she even look at me the same? How many times does she have to get past what I’ve done to her family? And after abandoning her while she was pregnant with Amira–

“How can you love me?” I whisper. “Demetra… after everything… how?” I walk closer to her to the tub and takes my hand, brings it to her mouth and kisses my palm while looking at me.

Shivers feel my body. Bad idea. Because she’s drunk, and I don’t want her to wake up tomorrow asking me why I fucked her.

18