When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 23

Demetra.

Moment I say that, the raw desire in his eyes shatters into shock. I was suffocating… his hand on my skin is too hot and it’s stirring memories I’ve spent years to forget.

Emris’s lips… they look so soft.

He’s the best kisser I’ve ever known…the only one I’ve ever had and that’s the cruellest part. He could kiss me into a frenzy, kiss me straight into an orgasm without ever touching me anywhere else. He’s that good.

And now, I’m just staring at him but with hands trembling on his shoulders because he’s the kind of man who breaks a woman. His scent…bergamot, rain, ice, and cold showers is too much for my wolf to bear. So I shatter the moment the only way I know how.

By talking about rejection.

The music ends, and everyone slowly stops dancing. I think we’re the last to let go of each other.

“We can all remove our masks now.” a voice announces.

Around us, people reach behind their heads. Emris simply rips his off, and I’m faced with those grey–silver, wicked eyes. That sharp jawline. The new scruff along his jaw that makes him look rougher, more dangerous than he already is.

I haven’t taken off my mask and it feels like everyone is waiting. Trying not to hesitate, I reach back and untie the lace. The commentator’s voice is alarmed through the murmur.

“Miss Pride is removing her mask now! Are we watching? We’re about to see the face of our diamond of the Fest!” The lace falls loose. I pull the mask away and stare directly at Emris.

All around, there’s a burst of applause, but I’m not looking at the crowd. I’m looking at Derisha, standing frozen behind him. I’m also looking at Elena, whose face has changed from normal to abnormal. At Emris’s brothers. They’ve just realized the pack’s charity case is standing in front of them.

While I can see the shock on their faces, I take a step back and offer a smile to the rest of the ballroom. Almost instantly, Alphas surge forward, introducing themselves but to me, their faces are blurring into one eager, indistinguishable mass. Moons, there are so many to take note of.

At some point, Tiffany rescues me from the crowd. Normal music has started playing again. As we walk out of the dance area, I realize Emris is no longer where I left him. Neither is his family.

But once we step into the other ballroom, the first person I see is Derisha.

Our eyes meet, and I know things are about to get worse. She’s wearing a severe red dress, and she looks like she hasn’t aged…mostly because the same arrogant, wicked expression she wore my entire life is still carved into her face. I lived with this woman for twenty years, since the day I was born, and I never once saw her smile at me.

Whore’s child. Charity case. White–haired wench. Weak omega.

The list of names she gave me runs through my mind. Now, she looks at me closely, blinks, looks again like she needs glasses.

“Hello, Derisha?” I say her name so she can stop denying what her eyes are seeing.

“Demetra.”

“You remember my name.” I smile, then look at Elena. I don’t think I have anything to say to her…dancing with her husband is enough for the night.

“How… how are you…her?” Derisha stammers.

I glance around again. No sign of Emris. Silver and Regan are here, among others. Did he leave because he can’t face the questions his family will ask him? After all, I was his maid. I was raised to serve him. If this is their reaction to finding out it‘ s me, I can only imagine how they’ll react when they learn I’m his mate.

Well. Not for long.

“You tossed her out of your pack, and she found her family.” Tiffany says with an eye roll. “I’ll summarize it for you like that.” Others in the ballroom pass by, still stealing glances at me. I meet Silver’s eyes but unlike Regan, he was always the most reasonable one.

“So your whore mother!” Derisha spits, a bitter chuckle escapes her as she points a trembling finger, “found her way into Alpha Ronin’s bed? I thought she only slept with omegas and zetas…”

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“Wherever she is, I must thank her, right?” I roll my eyes this time.

I don’t forgive my mother for leaving me in the Black Covenant Pack. I don’t know her, but anyone who left me with

someone like Derisha must be worse than she is.

“Shit.” Regan mutters under his breath.

“I cannot believe it!” Derisha is blinking rapidly, her hands are clenching and unclenching at her sides.

“You don’t? Imagine me, then. All my life you told me I had a nameless father. How does it feel knowing he had a name after all? And a powerful one, at that.” I exhale, ready to walk away, when Elena steps directly into my path.

“You… an Alpha’s daughter?” she asks with disbelief and something uglier.

“Yes, boo. But… a lot prettier, as you can tell.” I smile, and the jab lands exactly as I intended, souring her face like someone who swallowed a lime slice. “If that’s all the questions you lot have for me, then I guess that’s it. Tomorrow is day two of the Alpha Fest. I’ll see you then.”

“I’m not done speaking to you-”

“Fortunately, I am.”

I give a dismissive flick of my hand in Derisha’s direction and turn to Tiffany. We begin to walk away, but I can hear furious heels coming behind me. I don’t bother to look back. I’ve had enough of tonight. All I want is to go home, take off this dress!

“Dad is waiting for us outside. We’re leaving.” Tiffany says and I exhale in pure relief.

Just as we reach the top of the grand staircase leading down to the red carpet, a furious snarl comes from the murmuring crowd.

“I’m talking to you, you whore’s daughter!”

Derisha’s scream is so loud it. Others stops but I don’t stop walking. But then, suddenly, I feel her hand land a violent, shocking shove between my shoulder blades, delivered with a strength I didn’t know she had.

My balance vanishes. I feel myself pitching forward, flying down the remaining thirty marble steps. My mind goes blank with pure terror as all I can see is the hard floor rushing up to meet my face.

Until suddenly, Emris is there!

He moves like a shadow to catch me hard against his body before my face smashes the ground. My lips are plastered to his right cheek, my hand locks around the back of his neck and my chest is so glued to him that his heartbeat is lifting me in this moment.

Emris holds me then takes a few stumbling steps off the stairs to steady us both on the flat landing. Then, with a gentleness that feels completely alien coming from him, he sets me down on my feet.

I don’t let my heart rule me.

I can’t.

I was pushed and it was his mother. I turn away from him and face the top of the stairs, where Derisha is still standing. Her face is in a mask of vindictive triumph. When she thought I was Miss Pride, she didn’t dare touch me. Now that she knows I’m just Demetra… the pack’s charity case….she shoves me even when I could have easily caused serious injury to my head, my skull…or my neck. Just like she broke my spirit for twenty years.

“Demetra,” Tiffany says as I start walking back up the stairs.

I meet Derisha in the middle.

“N-”

I don’t let her speak. I slap…no…I smash her face so hard that it silences the gasp she was about to make. She bites her lip in the process because she was in the middle of talking. One isn’t enough. Not for a lifetime of her venom.

My open hand doesn’t just connect with her cheek; it caves the side of her face in. Her lips splits under my knuckles as I hit her by temple, then her jaw-

I put all my strength into it. Her sons aren’t close enough to the stairs to stop me, so I keep going with slaps until I hear Emris’s growl behind me.

His hand closes around my wrist but by then, I’ve already manufactured his mother’s face into something swollen and red. What a canvas but after all…I’m an artist. It is expected.

“Are you insane?!” Emris roars at me and his fingers dig into my skin.

My free hand flies out and I slap him across the face too just as hard as I’d hit his mother. But just one for him, because he‘

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s got that Alpha hard face that makes my palm sting.

“That’s for holding my hand.” I hiss at him with adrenaline.

When I turn, I see Slade and my father rushing forward, but it’s already over. I’ve handled it myself. I dust my hands off,

smooth my dress, and walk right between them.

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