When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 148

Chapter 148

Alpha Emris.

Contd.

“Emris, you didn’t drink this.”

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We are approximately ten seconds from walking out the door. I look at the glass she’s holding out toward me.

“Is it beer?”

“It’s an electrolyte drink. It’ll keep you hydrated.”

“Demetra.” I look at her. “An electrolyte while I’m ready to fight a Lycan?”

I say it with a smirk, but she’s so cute so I take it anyway. It tastes like water with ambition.

“Come here.”

I pull her into me because I can and kiss her the way I’ve been kissing her all morning… in the shower, on the bed, while she was trying to get dressed and undressed… she makes the small sound against my mouth that she makes when she’s pretending she wants me to stop.

“You know what I need?” I growl underneath in mate language.

“You have had what you need.” She presses a hand to my chest, pushing me back an inch. “We’ve had sex twice, Emris-”

“We’re gonna pretend we didn’t just hear that.” Teddy and Silver come into the space, shaking their heads in unison like disappointed parents.

“Hi Daddy!” I hear a small voice from the phone Silver is holding. He hands it to me, and there they are…. Amira and Milo on the screen, squished together in their matching dinosaur pajamas, with faces lit up by whatever tablet they’re using at my Demetra’s pack house.

“Hi, my loves.” I feel my chest loosen. “How are you?”

“Fine, Daddy!”

“I miss you. Do you miss me and Mom?”

hey both shake their heads no–cheeky little monsters–and Demetra snickers beside me, her shoulder bumping mine.

Alpha Ronin and Slade walk in with some others from Demetra’s family–aunts, uncles, cousins I’m still learning the names of. It’s clear that it’s time to head to Lake’s housewarming. But there’s nothing going to be warm about what’s set to happen in a few hours.

“We’re here!” Tiffany announces, walking in with Sabrina, and I look at the whole family gathered in my foyer.

15:56 Tue, May 19

Chapter 148

They both shake their heads no…..cheeky little monsters and Demetra snickers beside me,

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Alpha Ronin and Slade walk in with some others from Demetra’s family…aunts and cousins I’m still learning the names of. It’s clear that it’s time to head to Lake’s housewarming. But there’s nothing going to be warm about what’s set to happen in a few hours.

“We’re here!” Tiffany announces, walking in with Sabrina, and I look at the whole family gathered in my foyer.

There was a time not long ago when I could count the people in my corner on one hand and have fingers left over. I lost Regan and losing him felt like losing the blueprint for what loyalty was supposed to look like. But here, right now, looking at this room: I lost one and somehow ended up with the entire herd.

“Are you ready?” Alpha Ronin says.

Two words. Simple. But the way he delivers them hits somewhere. It sounds fatherly and I think about my own father and the space he left behind.

Slade is standing somewhere across this room with no idea how lucky he is to still have a dad while he’s Alpha.

“I think I am,” I say.

“He absolutely is.” Mom says and Honey is right beside her.

I squint because I expected Honey to get the alert of three hundred thousand dollars in her account and jet. And yet here she is, in the pack house, very much not jetting anywhere.

“I want to watch. I’ve never seen a Lycan and a Trybrid go at it properly. Professional curiosity.” She says.

“Emris is going to win.”

“I believe that too” Teddy agrees with Silver.

“Now, can everyone give me twenty minutes with Demetra-”

“We’re leaving now.” She pushes my arm with her palm and the whole room laughs.

Everyone filters out ahead of us but Alpha Ronin hangs back. He puts his hand on my shoulder and the noise of everything else seems to step back.

“Emris, you look like your father this morning.”

I stop. He holds my gaze and doesn’t rush what he’s about to say next… which tells me he’s been carrying it for a while.

“Kael never meant to hurt Jacob, his brother. That contest is what started this whole mess. One fight and it became a generation of damage. Thing is…I have trust in you cause you have so much you are fighting for. Which tells me you’re gonna use all your strength. But… don’t kill him, Emris. If you can, try not to. This doesn’t have to end in death. If Lake is on his knees, then it’s defeat.”

I hear it.

15:56 Tue, May 19

Chapter 148

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But the words don’t click. Because I have trained to fuck up Lake. That’s what I’m going out there to do. Break him. Humiliate him. Make him wish he’d never stepped foot in my territory.

“Got it.” I say, because he’s looking at me like a father who needs to hear it.

I see Demetra waiting for me by the door. Ronin walks past her, and she smiles at him before looking back at

1. me.

“What did he tell you?”

“Nothing much.” I cross to her and pull her in, arms all the way around her, and I close my eyes and let myself have this for exactly as long as I can afford. She fits against me, I press my lips to her forehead and stay there.

“Emris, I-”

She stops.

I open my eyes and pull back enough to see her face.

“You what?”

She shakes her head once. Then she smiles.

“Never mind. When we get back. When it’s over and we’re home…I’ll tell you then.”

I decide to trust that.

“Let’s go then.”

******

The Lycan’s Housewarming,

Territory, Black Convenant.

Are you serious right now, Lake?”

Eva’s voice.

“You have an entire housewarming happening downstairs….a gala, Lake, with people who came specifically to be seen here and you’re standing up here alone with a champagne glass staring at a painting-”

“You’re making noise, Eva.”

“I’m talking-”

“Same thing.” She makes a sound that communicates several emotions simultaneously and none of them are particularly charitable toward him. Lake a slow sip from the glass and keep my eyes on the canvas he got from Metra Arts.

15:57 Tue, May 19

Chapter 149

Chapter 149