When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 2

2

Demetra.

Elena was a part-time cheerleading trainer at Magnus High for a year. It’s the high school I was able to attend because of Emris’s “charity.”

She’s at least four years older than me, and she was that impossibly cool adult all the younger girls, including me, desperately wanted to be. The boys were all secretly in love with her. She had perfect, bouncy blonde waves. Back when I was a gawky, puberty-stricken freshman, I’d daydream about looking like her one day. So yeah, I’m jealous.

Elena Orient comes from a rich family, a powerful pack, and everyone adores her. She’s everything I’m not.

I remember the first time she saw Emris. It was Guardians’ Day. I didn’t have anyone to come for me, but he showed up. He was there for his sister, Teddy but I’ll never forget the way everyone stared as he walked straight up to me in the crowded hallway.

The next day, Elena actually sought me out to ask me who he was. It was the first time our cheer instructor had ever spoken directly to me. I gave her his name, never imagining that simple answer would lead to them dating. Back then, I didn’t care. I wasn’t eighteen; the mate bond was silent, and Emris’s life was his own.

Now, everything is different.

“Morning.” I say.

Elena finally looks up from her phone. Even at 7 a.m., her blonde hair is bouncy and shiny. Makeup. She’s dressed in designer clothes plus perfumes. She’s obviously hoping to run into Emris, but he’s probably in the middle of his brutal gym session, followed by a wild run through the woods. He won’t be back for at least an hour.

“OMG! Demetra, right?”

“Yeah. I should take your bags up—” I reach for one of the bold pink suitcases, but when I try to lift it, it doesn’t even budge.

“Did Emris send you to help me?”

What does she think I am, his personal messenger?

“Does he know I’m here already?”

“No, Miss Elena.” I reposition myself to wrestle with the luggage again.

“Where is he? Still sleeping? Is he awake?”

I give the stubborn bag a hard yank.

“Can you give me an answer!?” There comes her irritation. I’d almost forgotten that behind that smile, she wears a lot of masks and her true personality is just plain evil.

“I’m not sure, Miss Elena—”

“Then, what use are you?”

I pull the bag with all my might, and this time, it sends me backward. I lose my balance and crash to the floor just as Luna Derisha walks in with another guest. Oh no.

“Elena, why are your luggage not taken yet!?” Luna Derisha’s asks.

I get up quickly.

“This weak omega—”

Luna Derisha’s eyes narrow on me but she forces a smile for the guest. Elena’s mother, who’s watching the entire scene.

“I’m sorry, Luna.” I step back. I know better than to be within arm’s reach when she’s like this; her slaps are swift.

“Wow, her hair is so beautiful. She is such a beautiful young woman.”

I see the muscle in Luna Derisha’s jaw twitch as the woman complements me. She hates any reminder of my mother, and my looks are the biggest reminder of all.

Thankfully, Luna Derisha’s drivers come in and effortlessly haul the luggage away.

“Luna, the tables are ready.” the head housekeeper announces.

The moment they’re out of earshot, Luna Derisha turns on me. “I don’t even know your use in this house. All you do is fatten yourself on our food, yet your strength stays the same.”

I stare at the ground. It’s better not to look at her.

“Because of us, the sickly thing your mother gave birth to is growing. Your cream-white hair is getting longer. Your uniform is getting tighter on your body. Your hips are fattening like a whore’s, your…” She shakes her head in disgust. “It’s those same things your mother used to attract the lowest of the lows. Tell me, are you heading down the same path?”

“No, Luna.” I answer quickly.

“Get out of my sight! And did I not ask you to dye that hair black?”

Someone calls Luna Derisha so her attention finally goes away from me. The moment she looks away. I feel a violent surge in my throat and I throw my hand against it.

I don’t know if it’s the humiliation, the stress of the morning, or something else entirely, but I don’t wait to find out. I turn and run across the marble floors until I burst into the empty staff bathroom. I barely make it to the stall before my insides seem to rupture. I vomit and vomit and vomit until my stomach is empty.

Tears are streaming down my face as I stare at myself in the mirror. Why am I vomiting? Is it the oats I ate last night?

And then my brain decides to gives me an answer.

“I’m fine, Pax! Really. Just a quick trip into town. I’ll be back soon.”

I hurry out to the gardens but a text lights up my phone from Emris. Just one word: Garage. I knew he wouldn’t let what he saw slide.

His private garage is dim and it’s the first time we’d met here. The car Emris is in is a black Bentley that cost more than my life. With blue interior lights that make him a villain of a sci-fi movie.

Emris unfolds himself from the seat.

“You’re gonna use that nobody to make me jealous!”

He has the most devastatingly handsome face I’ve ever seen. Skin like rich gold, messy black hair that looks better the more he runs his hands through it.

He’s taller and stronger than any man I’ve ever known. I’ve felt the raw power in his thighs when they move under me, I’ve listened to the steady beat of his heart against my chest. It’s the universe’s cruellest joke that a voice so rough and harsh comes attached to a mouth that gives the softest kisses.

“That’s not what I was doing.”

“What was he about to touch?”

“Emris, Paxton is just my friend. I’ve told you this over and over… he’s just looking out for me.”

He rises to his full, ridiculous height. A skyscraper of a jealous Alpha he will soon become. I am forced to step back until I bump into another of his cars. He’s jealous. And when he’s jealous, he’s less a man and more a walking, talking grenade with the pin already pulled.

“Looking out for you?” He tilts his neck in that specific way he does, a gesture that shows the tattoos on his throat and across his collarbones. I know they travel all the way down to his waist. I’ve traced them with my fingers before.

“Because I don’t do enough looking out for you already!?”

“Someone could see us. I should go—”

“Get in.”

I just stare at him in surprise. Emris has never, ever let me in the same car as him before, especially not while we’re on pack grounds. This is breaking like twelve of his own rules.

“If someone sees—”

He drags me to the passenger side and pushes me in.