When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 151

Chapter 151

Stealth and Focus.

That’s Emris’s rule for this moment.

Usually, he’s rash. He moves before he thinks, strikes before he plans, lets his fists do the talking while his brain catches up

five seconds too late.

Even right now….with Lake’s breath hitting his face and Flora laughing from the staircase.

Emris is refusing to hold onto any of the things he just heard. The thing said about Derisha and her fucking zeta gamma, Radu-

Lake stands face to face with him, and Emris remembers the last time they went at it. Lake showed him how good he could punch. And even better…how well he could take a punch. The bastard has a jaw like granite and knuckles like sledgehammers.

What makes a Lycan powerful isn’t just training. It’s not discipline or strategy or any of the things normal wolves have to claw their way toward. It’s biological. Fated. As the oldest breed of werewolf, Lake’s got that DNA in his veins, passed down from a time when monsters walked the earth without bothering to hide their shadows.

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But here’s the thing Lake doesn’t know. Emris may as well be the most equal werewolf he’s ever fought. Tied to three bloodlines and is not a simple equation either.

Three bloodlines ran in him at once. Although, the Lycan in him is small but the vampyr? That shows up to a fault. A thousand years back, vampyrs were immortal with rapid healing, regenerative abilities that made ordinary werewolves look like amateurs. Cut one, and the wound sealed before the blood hit the floor. Break a bone, and it knitted itself back together in the time it took to blink. Tear out a heart, and they’d still have enough strength to take you with them.

So yeah. Lake can throw a solid punch. A solid claw. He can tear into Emris with everything he’s got…every ounce of Lycan fury burning in his chest.

But Emris’s vampire bloodline is going to rewrite every wound Lake gives him. Make it like it never happened.

But

If Lake can throw claws from one part of Emris’s body to another….break and burst, dig and combust, shatter and wreck all in the space of time it takes for the trauma to play out behind Emris’s eyes? Emris won’t win cause a wolf’s regeneration required focus. Take the pilot out of the plane and the plane doesn’t fly itself.

Lake plans to compel him before regeneration can kick in, and the man left kneeling on the ground won’t be the Alpha of the Black Covenant Pack anymore.

He’ll be whatever Lake tells him he is.

A puppet. A ghost…whatever. He would be a vessel waiting to be told by Lake what he was and what he was for

Lake’s signal goes through and hundreds of barghests flare in perfect synchronization around them

Derisha’s scream at what looks like the downfall of her son! Whereas, Flora claps from the top of the house and perfect vantage point where she can see the bloody scene.

Emris sees the barghests.

And then he hears the whistle.

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It’s that same distinguishing sound he would hear morning and right in those cages as a crying. While his throat went raw from sc

hing to go home

It’s the same moike.

Every nerve in Emis body expects the paralytic mode. The shutdown and floating sensati into a comet and leaves his body to rot.

However, something happened on the last day of training Emris confessed to Honey about his trans with hangs and whistles. A tool that if the Lycan had in his hand would make him lose the contest before it even began

Honey took one look at Emris and stopped the training

She got Slade to bring in some barghests. He regretted telling Honey in that moment because it feh play with his life. She took his confession and turned it into a weaponi

The barghesis arrived an hour later and the whistles started at low frequency Emris felt the descent begin exartly as he’d described it, the paralytic rolling through him room by room, shutting things down in the systematu regardes strong he was or how much he had trained or how much was depending on him staying present

But Honey didn’t give him the chance to shut down.

She hit him with the bolt.

Pain flared through his back but the trauma was harder. He felt himself slippin away and then Honey starte

Tormenting him. She roared the words at him like she was trying to break him open.

“Remain in that paralytic state, and the next time you wake up, you’ll have been compelled by the Lycan to look into the face of your mate and tear out your own heart. Or better yet…if he has mercy on you–he’ll just take your mate for himself He’ll turn you into a gamma while you watch him share a bed with the woman you swore to protect.”

Emris felt those words cut into him. Not like blades. Like acid.

“Remain in that paralytic state, and Lake will raise your kids. They’ll watch their father become an object. A thing. A piece of furniture in their pack home. They’ll learn to call another man ‘Dad while you sit in the corner and drool?“*

Each wicked word Honey spat cut a clean wake through Emris’s fog. And it began to hurt.

That was the difference.

Usually, when he’s in a paralytic state, he can’t feel anything outside the trauma. The world goes gray. The sounds g muffled. His body becomes a prison he can’t escape. Then, he started feeling the hurt of what Honey was saying. They were going directly to people he loved. To what he was most unwilling to lose. And love, it turned out, had a frequency that the paralytic trauma hadn’t been built to block!

Emris snapped out of it

His eyes focused. His muscles unclenched. His wolf surged forward like a battering ram

Honey was still screaming at him. “Growl! Growl at the barghest! You are a fucking hybrid, and these are nothing but under your shoes! You are not that child. You are not in that dungeon. Growl at them, Alpha, and mean every syllable

And for the first time, Emris was in control of himself and he didn’t even growl

One look into the teeth gnashing barghests and they whumpered. One by one, each barghest fucked us tail between its They lay down on the cold ground, going from teeth–bared monsters to belly–up puppies waiting for a treat.

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10:25 am Pppp

Chapter 151

So now, Lake waits for it the paralysis and that’s exactly what happens.

It looks like Emris has entered into a paralytic state!

Honey shakes her head in the crowd. She thought they had dealt with the barghest trauma-

So, the Lycan moves.

His first blow is vicious…an inch from Emris’s face, close enough to stir his hair, fast enough to kill a lesser wolf. But Emris’s hand shoots up and catches Lake by the fist. Fingers wrap around knuckles. Bone meets bone with a sound like rocks grinding together.

Lake is shocked to the core and Emris uses that hand–the one he’s caught and flings Lake upward. The Lycan’s body sails through the air, twisting, reaching for something to grab, but before he can come down, Emris’s claws find him-

A slash. Deep. From rib to hip.

Blood sprays across the circle…painting the crowd, painting the floor, painting the white walls of Lake’s new home. People scream. Guests who thought they were safe in the audience suddenly remember that blood doesn’t care about invitations.

Emris smiles.