When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 122

Chapter 122

Demetra Pride Covenant.

Just as I step out of the shower after a full day at the office, my phone buzzes on the vanity table. I pick and have a sit on he cushioned stool when I see Lolly’s name lighting up the

screen.

“Lolly, I literally clocked off work two hours ago…what could possibly be so urgent?”

“You won’t believe it, Metra.”

“Well, if you don’t tell me, you’re right… I won’t.” I stand and tip my head sideways, shaking water from my curls while I study my reflection in the mirror. I reach for the eye cream on the corner of the table and dab it carefully beneath both eyes.

“Our last piece of the final adventure collection just sold!”

“What!?”

“Yup. We’re back in business, baby!”

“Um, w–who… who bought it?” I stop moving. “Lolly, that was the most expensive piece in the entire gallery.”

It was only just today we did a reassessment to put that task to the sales department. We wanted to sell every remaining piece in the gallery and prepare for our next project, wherever the inspiration took me. It could take weeks, months….as far as eight months but I’m prepared to take that much time for the next movement of our pieces. Because I’m confident that when it does arrive, it could so easily shatter the European competition entirely.

“The name on the bank account says Lake…but that’s not all, the surname is Covenant.” I can hear Lolly’s typing sounds in the background

“Okay, but watch this. We’re delivering the package to Black Covenant Pack tomorrow. I can literally see the address right now, and the map says it’s well in your territory. Whoever this is bought an entire estate in the covenant pack and…get this- they donated a significant amount of money to the coastal cleanup charity in your pack last year. I did a little digging.”

“Lolly, really?” I say, blow–drying my hair while I hear her giggle over the phone. “Are we searching our customers now?”

I shake my head, though I’m smiling despite myself. I think I can hear Emris in the Alpha’s Grove so I know he’s home already, which means I need to get off this call.

“And how do you even know about the donation?”

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“Well, a girl needs a boyfriend. And no offense, but our customers are rich. And a girl needs a rich boyfriend.”

“Right. What else?”

“Don’t been sitting on this the whole time. “If it’s a woman, even better…you need allies before the next Luna Chapel, someone already in your corner before those women have a chance to circle.”

you think you should invite them to your bonding gala?” she says, and I can tell she’s

“Oh MOONS. The Luna Chapel.”

I completely forgot about that.

“Yeah, I figured.” She sighs like she’s my personal assistant and I’m the world’s most exhausting client. “You need people on your side, Metra.”

“But isn’t the chapel by vote? I mean, I can’t just become the leader automatically. I don’t wanna become one-”

“Well, Elena’s tenure wasn’t over, so… you’ll still have to go to the meeting to find out. Anyway, if the customer turns out to be a male…well, then you introduce him to me and we all win-”

“I’ll think about it. Bye.”

“Demetra, just say yes-”

“Bye, Lolly. I’ll see you at work.” I end the call and look at myself one more time in the mirror, scrunching my hair with my fingers and leaning in to sniff my own shoulder- because I do have to check if that the lotion is actually doing what the bottle promised.

I pull on my silk short gown and its matching robe, slide my feet into my fuzzy slippers, and pad down the hall toward the Alpha Groove.

But the second I push the door open, Silver fills the entire frame.

“Sil- Silver?”

“Oh.” He props one hand casually on the doorframe, broad enough that I genuinely cannot see past him into the room. “Hey, gorgeous Luna.”

“What are you doing in here?”

“What do you mean?” He clears his throat. “I can be in my brother’s room.”

“I- yeah, obviously, I just “I try to peeund him and he shifts. I frown,

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252 At the

“Is Emris in?”

“He’s having his bath.” And then, before I can process what’s happening, Silver claps both hands together so loudly that I flinch, and breaks into the widest smile I’ve ever seen on his face. “You know what I just realized? I have never hugged you. Come here.”

“What no- Silver-”

He hugs me anyway and lifts me clean off my feet while I flail with all the dignity of a cat being picked up against its will.

“What are you doing-”

“Okay.” He sets me down. “I’m done. Emris is in the bath. Go on.”

I stare at him. He stares back like he didn’t just bodily launch me into the air for no reason.

“My goodness, what is wrong with you-”

I just stop talking and look into the room for a moment, wondering if Emris is hiding something. Because I swear I’ve never seen Silver this hysterical before, blocking the door like his life depends on it.

I push past Silver and step into the room.

Emris is taking a bath… apparently. Emris is taking a bath? Since when does Emris take baths? I go into the bathroom, cross the doorway and stop dead.

Alpha of the Black Covenant Pack, the most territorial, stone–faced wolf I have ever met in my life… submerged in a bathtub absolutely drowning in bubbles. And I mean drowning. The foam is piled so high I can only see his head floating above the white like some disgruntled island.

Since when does this wolf take bubble baths? Since when?

I glance back over my shoulder but Silver has already evaporated into thin air.

“Hey,” Emris says, like this is completely normal.

“You’re taking a…” I point slowly at the tub. “Bubble bath.”

“What. Do I not deserve some Alpha… self–care time?”

He grumbles it and I press my lips together.

“Emris.” I tilt my head and really look at him. Then at the tub. The tub that is, frankly, embarrassingly small for a man of his size… his knees are probably bent at a ninety–degree angle under all those bubbles.

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“That tub is tiny. You barely even fit. I bet the one in my suite is three times bigger.” I squint.

He doesn’t answer. Just stares at me with those dark eyes.

Hmm. Silver was literally stalling out there. Is Emris hiding something? And then it clicks to me that Emris said he was going to speak to my brother today and now here’s, sitting in a bath he would never voluntarily choose, in a tub he barely fits in, surrounded by enough bubbles to supply a spa –

“Emris.” I smile with my hand on my waist and it’s kind that says I already know, so you might as well tell me.

“Mmmh.”

“Get up.”

“…What?”

“Get up from the tub. If you actually wanted to relax, you’d have used the hot tub like you always do… the one that actually fits you. So get up, please.”

I let that sit sweetly for a second. Let him remember that I was once his charity case and I know his habits.

“You think I’m hiding something?” He gruffs.

“Less talking. More moving.”

“Are you… are you sure?”

“Why wouldn’t I be sure?!” I step closer. “You’re hiding something and I can practically smell it. So either you get out of that tub right now, or I go to the kitchen, get the hot sauce, and come back to season your bath water. Your choice.”

He swallows.

Then, slowly, Emris places both massive hands on the edges of the tub and pushes himself upright.

I’m fully prepared to catch him in whatever it is he’s concealing….some object, something stashed in the water, something but there is nothing except him. All of him. Standing at his full, unfair, ridiculous height with water sliding down every line of his body in no particular hurry.

Oh.

My throat burns cause between his thighs swings something heavy…glistening and thick, not fully soft, as if even at rest it refuses to be modest. It protrudes gauntly, curving slightly to the

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left so I can see the vein running along.

Giant. Jutting out so long that my thighs press together without permission.

Every time I see him like this it’s like he’s somehow grown another inch taller, another degree. broader.

“Like what you see, Luna?”

I become aware that I am fanning myself with my own hand. I stop immediately.

“Silver was acting weird,” I say, perhaps a little too quickly. “That’s why I asked you to get up. He was blocking the door and being completely hysterical and you spoke to my brother today so I had every right to think something happened and I just I wanted to make sure

I’m explaining myself like an absolute fool.

–

Emris says nothing. He simply turns toward the shower, pulls the head down, and rinses the soap

from his body with his back to me. I watch the water trace the lines of his shoulders and spine and tell myself I’m just standing here because I’m waiting for an answer.

“Have a nice shower.” I mutter, turning to leave.

Then Emris claps twice.

Every light in the bathroom cuts out at once.

I open my mouth to ask what just happened but then I feel him behind me. His wet body against my silk nightdress.

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