When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 252

11:49 Wed, Jul 29

Chapter 252

Chapter 252

Luna Demetra.

Tyson steps into my office and I greet him with a handshake.

“Welcome to Metra Arts.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Demetra Pride.”

I smile at that. Tyson intentionally said Pride instead of Covenant. It has to do with whatever’s brooding between he and Emris. Honestly, I don’t mind it. I belong to both worlds anyway.

He takes a look at my office space, which I’ve missed, but I swear after working two hours in here with no break and back-to-back meetings with managers, I just miss the Luna chambers or the Alpha’s Groove. I mind anyone these days.

“Large. Very large office.”

“You know I keep the best for the CEO.” I wink and decide I should probably take him on a tour since we’v got a lot to cover, giving him something to look at while we make our way through the gallery.

“Would you like a walk? I promise when we get back, there’ll be a nice coffee waiting for you while you sign the papers.”

“I’ll take the bribe.” Tyson jokes, and we head out.

“You seem a bit more relaxed than you were at Slade’s wedding.”

I turn to face him, not entirely sure what he actually picked up on in that moment. It could’ve been the par where I spotted Janet across the lawn. It could’ve just as easily been the part where I hated Emris. Who know

“Care to pinpoint?” I play with my hands, and Tyson rolls his.

“I heard the guys talking – how you and Emris weren’t exactly on good terms – and then you asked me if I knew of any houses for sale in the exclusive areas. Why would a pregnant she-wolf be house hunting in the middle of all that?”

I don’t answer that.

“Unless she’s separating from her husband.” Tyson says it himself.

“Oh.” I clear my throat. “Well. How do I put this? You know… couples… fight sometimes, right?”

“And decide to buy another house over it?”

“Well, if she’s a pregnant she-wolf with hormones running the show.” I answer innocently enough, and he laughs.

“Got you.”

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11:49 Wed, Jul 29

Chapter 252

“Why do I feel like you’re disappointed?” I ask, genuinely curious, because I caught that look on his face.

“Because your husband is sort of my…” Tyson pauses. “Emris has got too many enemies and, too many problems trailing behind him wherever he goes. I have watched him toy with she-wolves in the past and I meet you, his mate.”

I listen.

“Demetra, you are unique. And no offense, I really thought you had the misfortune of having Emris as a I mean, when I heard the Black Covenant pack was under siege, the whole state heard about it, and I remember thinking, of course they are….it’s Emris Covenant, the damn trybrid doesn’t get a moment’s pe from his enemies because he’s a menace with a target on his back. I pitied whatever she-wolf had to live inside that chaos with him. Right up until I actually met you.”

“So…”

“So when I heard the two of you were maybe having problems in the bond, I thought good.” He shrugs. “Someone as special as you deserves to be saved from Emris and everything that comes attached to him.”

I smile and keep walking as we reach the first gallery, letting the silence stretch a beat too long before I respond.

What’s actually sitting heaviest on my mind, if I’m honest, is Janet… the way she confessed to climbing ever social ladder available to her because some Seer wolf told her she’d have a legacy inside the Black Covenant pack. And the thing is, it was never even about her to begin with. Even if I’d never once set foot in the Black Covenant pack house, I would’ve still fallen back into Emris’s orbit eventually, because I was always his mate

Because his father and mine were close enough to be brothers in every way that mattered.

Only if Janet let Ronin know that there was a possibility that I was his daughter. As an Alpha’s daughter, the mate bond would’ve found Emris and I anyway…through pack events, through crossed paths neither of us could’ve avoided. I would’ve still fallen in love with him, become his Luna and gotten impregnated with Amira.

Tyson wrong.

Because the love between Emris and I gave us Amira.

It ended the bloodshed between him and Slade. It closed the rift that split our families from his wide open for years. Our love is the reason the Barbarian threat doesn’t exist anymore. If I hadn’t been his Luna…if it had been Elena, Radius and Lake would have torn this pack apart from the inside out.

It needed to be me.

Being the Luna of the pack is a crown I wear in my soul. It’s my wolf’s origin story, it’s who I am in the making, and it was never something that could’ve gone any other way.

So no, Emris doesn’t drag me into things.

As Luna of the Black Covenant pack, this is my battle just as much as his, because my daughter is the next Alpha, which means none of this is simply “an Emris issue” I get to stand outside of. I’ve been angry about the

barbarian everything and there was

Wed, Jul 29

Chapter 252

life I never asked to inherit. But I know better now.

But if I never came in, my daughter’s rightful seat as future Trybrid would’ve been stripped from her entirety of everything, the whole tangled fate of it, was always resting in my hands, and Emris beat ev impossible odd stacked against us to bring me back to myself. And he keeps doing it. Every single tim odds try to close back in on us, he beats them again.

I used to think we could never actually be together, back when he was still married to Elena. Emris be odds.

I also thought after everything, the way we bonded, we would never be able to parent like a normal co That turned out to be about as far from the truth as it’s possible to get.

I thought that because of everything with his Elena Milo would never accept Amira or me. But now? N we’re both just exhausted from how much time our kids spend together, ganging up on us, running the ridiculous sibling schemes like we’re not two grown Luna and Alpha who could shut it down.

That, right there, is the evidence of my fated mate being someone I can hand everything and trust he’ll it without dropping it. Someone I know, down in my bones, is always going to come back for his family. Always.

“That’s not Emris.” I smile at Tyson.

“I knew him since high school-”

“I knew him since I was a kid.” I correct him because if we’re going to go back in time, let’s do it well. I was small back then that I thought Emris was a devil because he was so tall and was always arguing at the staff ABOUT ME.

I fold my arms.

“Also, every Alpha son was running the same playbook back then. Don’t sell me that bullshit story, Tyson. I Emris was a jerk and a playboy chasing she-wolves around, where exactly were you? Off ruling the library, reading books in a corner somewhere to become president?” I roll my eyes at him and keep walking throug the gallery, offering no further explanation about my mate. Some things aren’t for strangers to understand. no matter how well-meaning they think they’re being.

We finish signing the papers on the contract and stand up together.

“Thank you so much for choosing Metra Arts. I promise you won’t regret it.”

Tyson nods with a smile, and just like that, a solid two hours has evaporated. My phone starts buzzing before I’ve even managed to sit back down at my working desk. I’m already thinking about lunch cause I can feel the hunger creeping in from little grape.

She’s made it her personal mission to siphon every last nutrient out of my body.

“Yes, Wren?” I put the phone in my ear, taking off my heels for a moment at the table.

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