When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 14

Chapter 141

Alpha Emris.

If I could explain what’s happening to me, I would have.

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“It’s called the Hunter State.” Silver taps the open page and Slade comes around, both of them leaning in over the diagram at the center of the text.

I get up to look at it.

Two wolf eyes. Both colored blue. That’s exactly what happened last night.

We’ve been in the pack library since seven this morning and this just happens to be the crew I trust the most. Crazy. I would have never thought Slade would be an addition to that circle. But here we are.

“You were born under a hunting moon?” Slade asks.

“Yeah.”

“So that’s why you cannot be compulsed. You are basically the Lycan’s weakness. Wow. Seems like the Moon Goddess just likes you that much.”

“I’m deeply honored.” I put my hand flat on my chest with zero sincerity.

We huddle around the text and I try to work through the passage below the diagram. Old Werewolf script of pre–modern syntax, the kind of language that requires you to understand not just the words but the era they were written in before the sentence makes sense. We’re going to need someone who can translate this properly.

“Emris.”

Slade folds his hands on the table and looks at me directly.

“Did my sister see it?”

I lift my brows as a yes. That’s exactly what I do not want to talk about.

Last night, I just couldn’t control it anymore. I barged out of the room right after Demetra pulled off my patch. I could feel the other one turning and I didn’t understand my wolf. Or the fucking bloodlines that were taking over, whether it was the werewolf or the Lycan or the vampyr which just happens to be the most vicious state I can be in, especially around the love of my life.

I rushed into the woods as quickly as I could just the same way I did on the night the Lycan appeared.

But somehow, she was able to find me.

I was in the middle of changing. Something Demetra has never seen before and I wish I could take it back.

Wolves change in front of their mates all the time. It’s natural. Intimate.

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Chapter 141

But a tribrid changing?

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That’s not something other wolves should even witness. Especially not my mate, who’s got an omega wolf and will bend at every slight hierarchy.

I already saw the fear when she saw my eyes were blue. Then I disappeared to another point in the woods and watched her from the shadows.

I waited for damn near forty minutes until she got up from the dry brush. I made sure she was out of the woods and in the pack house before I travelled back in distance to punch the trees in the forest until my knuckles were shredded.

All I felt was anger.

Anger and this hunger to make that Lycan bow his knees before me…so now it makes sense that I was in a Hunter state.

“How did she respond?”

“I’m not talking about it.” I tap the passage that cuts off mid–explanation. “This says it’s a state where the Hunter wolf has moved past the threshold of voluntary relaxation to an elevation that’s running hot indefinitely…can’t be self–regulated once it’s fully triggered.” I squint at the next line. “Unless—”

The sentence ends at that page but Silver turns it. The diagram on the facing page is a really good diagram of a she–wolf and a he–wolf in the act.

“Wow I guess… intercourse with our Luna is the solution-” Silver is in the middle of the joke when Slade’s canines extend approximately half an inch and the sentence ends abruptly.

“I’m guessing that’s the conclusion but as you know, the Luna hates my guts as we speak.”

“Well, get her to love your… guts…if you wanna stop running rogue at night uncontrollably. I mean, I think you’ve got a nice gut. So it shouldn’t be that h-hard.”

“Okay, are you crazy!?” Slade yells and Silver bursts out laughing.

I turn my face to the side so neither of them see me smile.

I go back to the table and sit down heavily. I still have one patch over my eye since the other decided to calm down this morning. But I swear, I can feel myself running rogue.

I need to get out of this state so I can think intelligently.

Not just… die, Lycan die a billion times on a loop in my head.

I need to be able to think in straight lines.

Die Lycan die is not a straight line.

A knock at the library door.

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Chapter 141

“Come in,” Silver says, because he is apparently the one receiving guests this morning.

Mom walks in but stops when she sees Slade.

“Alpha Slade,”

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“What do you want?” I ask directly, because it’s early and I have limited capacity for anything that isn’t immediately useful.

“I came to check on you. Demetra came into the pack house last night looking flustered. I could see something was wrong. Neither of you have told me anything.”

Mom moves further into the room, and her eyes go to the book, at the current diagram. Quickly, Slade turns it to the previous page of the Hunter State.

Mom looks at it.

Then she looks at me.

“Your eyes are they-”

“Blue.”

“It’s your vampyr bloodline that hates Lycans. I…I told Demetra the morning after the gala that something like this was coming because I could see you were hiding something.”

I stare at her.

“Your vampyr line is the one that carries the Hunter’s position…and makes your fang deliver such a bite that a Lycan’s regenerative strength cannot close. A bite from you, in hunting state, is permanent damage to a Lycan.

“Okay, Mom.” I say it with nothing.

“Emris, for goodness sake! I know you hate me, but I am part of this pack, alright? In case you have forgotten, I was a Luna. And even after you became Alpha, I was still Luna. So let me help–_”

“I think you’ve helped enough.” Silver folds his arms across his chest. “You got us hating a pack we should have never hated. And now you’re telling us you know the enemy? What do you know? No, seriously… what can you do? Cause I think you’ve done enough.”

“Done enough?” Mom scowls at him. “I know you all dislike me now, but with the invitation Lake sent to us, I want to go to the housewarming whatever it is and I’ll speak to Flora there.”

“Flora?” Slade’s head tilts. “Lake’s mother?”

“Yes.”

“The woman who already got your husband killed. The woman who kidnapped your son and managed to give him a nice trauma for two years. She got her revenge. What do you want to talk to her about? It’s all fight now. They want the seat of Alpha.”

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Chapter 141

Silver is saying but I don’t wait to hear the rest.

I get up and walk away, even though I hear her calling my name behind me.

I head straight to the kitchen and grab an energy drink from the fridge.

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I look toward the entry ways….watching, waiting. Seeing if I’m gonna see Demetra come in at any point. My chest feels tight just thinking about her. The way she looked at me last night. The way her voice shook when she said your eyes are blue.

I need to see her but the person I end up seeing instead is Riley.

She’s coming into the house with Creed by her side, both of them chuckling about something until they stop when they see me standing in front of them.

“Alpha.” Creed clears his throat, straightening his spine. “Morning.”

“What are you doing here?”

The question isn’t for Creed.

She’s in a jumpsuit. IN Delta training uniform, the standard issue with the mandatory high ponytail. Her face is open, surprised, like she genuinely didn’t expect to run into me.

“Uh, sir…She’s the new Delta trainer for the new students.”

“What?”

“The Luna ticked the box. Said we should hire her after taking a look at her resume.”

“Demetra did what? When was this?”

“Two weeks ago.”

I roll my eyes for a second. Oh.

Of course. Demetra at that point didn’t know that Riley was her brother’s ex–mate and the other stuff that I did. I don’t think Demetra even knows that she made the decision. She probably just saw a qualified candidate and approved it.

“Morning, Alpha Emris.” Riley says, with a breath. “I’m guessing the Luna didn’t know about me before she hired.”

“Your guess is right and my question is…why would you be job searching at my pack house? Give us a moment, Creed.”

“Yes, sir.”

Creed walks away quickly and Riley exhales. She shifts her weight, hands behind her back like a true Delta.

“Alpha, I swear…I’m not here to cause trouble. After working overseas, I looked around and realized the best

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Chapter 141

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place to make my career was here. I was already a part of the Delta force even before now, so I knew I would have an edge if I came back as a trainer. I didn’t think it would be a problem.”

“The problem is not because I had a one–night stand with you. The problem is you’re my mate’s brother’s…” I trail off, gesturing vaguely. “You get the shit of where this is going?”

“Yeah.” Riley closes her eyes for a moment. “I do. I don’t want to make the Luna uncomfortable, but my resume was accepted, so I really thought it was okay-”

While she’s talking, I hear it footsteps.

Multiple sets of those and I check.

Tiffany. Teddy. Sabrina.

And my mate.

They’re coming forward in a loose group and I watch Demetra’s eyes land on me. On Riley. On the space between us that looks smaller than it actually is.

Teddy had just put a flower in Demetra’s hair and I watch her reach up and take it out.

The smile drops from her face and they’re all silent, walking straight toward us, and I can’t breathe. I’m sweating. I’m dying. My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my throat. My covered eye is buzzing like it’s about to tear through the patch.

I take a big step away from Riley.

I….I swear I can’t even look Demetra in the eyes.

“I… um…” I clear my throat, my voice coming out too high and too guilty even though I didn’t do anything wrong. “Hello, ladies. We were just… we were… just…”

Teddy’s eyes narrow. Sabrina’s mouth presses into a thin line. Tiffany looks between me and Riley like she’s calculating something.

And Demetra?

Demetra is just staring.