When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 137

Chapter 137

Demetra Pride Covenant.

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I find Slade’s door and push it open with my whole hand and my whole chest and all of the energy I have been sitting on since that car ride. Slade is standing in the middle of his room shirtless, shirt halfway to his arms, and he turns around with the expression of someone who was not expecting company and is about to

say so.

I don’t let him.

“Riley is your goddess gifted?!”

“What the-”

He quickly looks behind me, and I follow his gaze, and my mouth opens and stays open because Sabrina is standing in her pyjamas with wet hair and a face that is doing several things at once. I did not see her, I genuinely did not register that she was in this room, and for approximately two seconds I stand there like a fish that has forgotten what water is.

“Wait.” Sabrina’s voice is very careful. “Did you just say his goddess gifted?”

She has a look on her face I have never seen before.

Slade moves toward her fast-

“Yes, he has one.” I walk further into the room because I am already in it and I have already said it. “He has one. When were you going to tell me that… that Emris and her-”

“Emris and Riley?!”

Sabrina steps sideways, past Slade’s outstretched hand, and crosses the room toward me instead.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Slade gets between us with his hands up. “Who told you this.”

“Emris told me.”

“EMRIS!?”

He yells, and I bite my lip, feeling my hand still itch from the slap I gave Emris on his hard face that didn’t even move. Such a jerk.

“Why the hell would he tell you that?” Slade drags one hand across the back of his neck. “He literally let me break him half to death so I wouldn’t tell you. Why would he….did the Lycan give him a concussion?”

“What are you talking about?” I stare at him. “He let you do what—”

I look at the alarm clock on his bedside table and I genuinely consider throwing it at Slade.

“Demetra.” Slade puts his hands in a prayer. “Why would Emris tell you that. The Emris I know in a thousand

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Chapter 137

years, in a million years….does not just say that to you.”

“Then spill it!”

“Yes, spill it!” Sabrina says right after me,

Slade looks between the two of us, evaluating which direction is less likely to destroy him.

“Okay.” He exhales. “Yes. I had a mate.”

“Of course you had a mate,”

“Sabrina-” He turns to her. “All I said was I wasn’t ready to tell you who she was-”

“And now I know it’s Riley!”

“Wait.” I swing to face Sabrina. “You know her?”

“We went to high school together.”

“Oh,” Slade says.

“1

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And he starts sweating. I can actually see it beginning at his temples and I would find it funny on any other day.

“Okay, you’re not in trouble with me,” I say to him, and I hear Sabrina make a sound behind me that suggests he may in fact be in trouble with someone.

“I need to understand… how are you this calm about it? I’m standing here and I’m furious on your behalf and you’re just―” I spread my hands. “I would’ve never pushed you to be cordial with Emris all this time if I’d known he slept with your goddess gifted, Slade. Your goddess gifted—”

“I’m with Sabrina now. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“I’m sorry, Sabrina. But can I talk to my brother for a moment? I don’t want you hearing things that may hurt you.”

She nods, understanding where I’m coming from, and leaves.

“Demetra…sis, I’m over it.”

“And that’s what I don’t understand. Why are you over it? I am literally giving you the right to run up against Emris right now. I’ll hold him down for you.”

Slade closes his eyes and puts his hand on his nose, pinching the bridge. “It isn’t like she was forced to be with him. She was with him because she wanted to be. If Riley were in love with me, it would have never happened. Plus, Emris only did it because it was his only way to hurt me for thinking our family had something to do with his dad’s death.” Slade folds his arms.

“It’s not like he wanted her. And it’s not like you were his mate back then. You were probably a teenager at that time so he didn’t betray you.”

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Chapter 137

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“But you…loved her, right?” I say quietly.

“Then I did. And I held on to the pain. I should have let go of it because she apparently wanted to fuck the dude everyone was scared of at that point in time.” Slade smiles at me.

“I have Sabrina now. My hurt heart has healed. I’m going to make her Luna, Demetra.” He smiles again…really smiles. “I’m in love with her.”

The last sentence lands in the room like sunrise.

He says it with this look on his face that’s slightly dopey, absolutely radiant look and I have seen my brother in a lot of states in my life but I have never seen this on him, these eyes that have actual stars in them, and something in my chest cracks open in the best possible way. I completely forget that I came in here furious.

I slap my hand over my mouth and stare really quick at the door to make sure Sabrina is nowhere there.

“Are you serious.” I close the space between us in three steps. “Are you actually, genuinely, for real—”

“Yeah. I hope she feels the same way—”

“SLADE.” I shove him backward with both hands and then immediately pull him back. “Sabrina does. She absolutely does, are you kidding me, she looks at you like-” I push him again. “You couldn’t have picked a better Luna. Sabrina is kind, she’s beautiful, she’s smart…and I love her. And of course, it’s important that you love her, but I’m just saying. I literally already love her.”

I throw my arms around his neck and he picks me up.

Slade’s shoulders are shaking too as we are laughing-

But then I remember a side part of what he said.

“Put me down.”

Something about breaking Emris.

The moment my feet touch the ground, I spin on him.

“What did Emris do so that you won’t have to tell me any of this?”

“It’s bro…uh code.”

“Bro code. Between you and Emris – since when?”

“Since now. We’re not enemies anymore, and… look, the thing with Riley. I’m not interested in her so there’s not going to be a problem.”

I walk in a slow circle. I don’t want to think about that part of the story but there’s a quiet little bird perched somewhere in the back of my mind, whispering things like “what does it mean for Riley to cross her own mate…just to have Emris.”

“Was it a one–night stand?”

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Chapter 137

Slade’s jaw tightens. “Yeah.”

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“How do you know that for certain?”

“Because your damn mate told me himself right after it happened. So I went to her, and she confirmed it. Some dingy club. That was it.”

I chew on that for a second. “And what you said before about Emris…being someone she was scared of?”

Slade watches me, reading the way I’m turning everything over in my mind. He lets out a slow breath before he answers.

“Everyone was scared of Emris. But that didn’t mean they weren’t drawn to him. What hurt was that Riley used to talk about how much she hated him. Constantly. Only for that to happen.” He exhales heavily. “So I recounted our steps and realized it was all attraction from her side. And why are we talking about her, huh? Emris is literally so obsessed with you that he’d let my gammas beat the shit out of him for days straight.”

“What.”

“Shit.” Slade’s hand flies to his mouth. “Scratch that. Forget I said it.”

“You–YOU WHAT?”

“We didn’t even hit him that hard-”

“That is an absolute lie! You must have done it well enough that you let your hate for him go. So that’s the suspicious stuff he and Silver have been hiding-”

“Sis, sis.” Slade grabs my shoulders. “Emris still has his arms and legs, so I didn’t do much. But the important thing is. He let my gammas, who he could easily kill, beat the shit out of him. So why would he just tell you about Riley? And this way too. It doesn’t sound like the Emris I know. Because he’s trying to be a perfect

mate.”

I don’t answer. Because if I tell Slade about the slits in Emris’s eyes, he’ll draw the worst possible conclusion and sprint toward it.

“Say it, Demetra.”

“I should get back. You need to talk to Sabrina, and I need to get to the pack house before-”

“Come here.” His voice has changed entirely. This is Slade, the older brother now.

“Are his eyes slitting?”

I press my lips together instead of answering but that’s all he needs.

He closes his eyes for exactly one second, and when they open again, something has shifted into decision.

“What is he doing right now?”

“Fighting. He’s fighting all of the Deltas and the Zetas at once.”

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Chapter 137

“Damn it. Then we have to go.”

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