When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 87

Chapter 87

Demetra

“Ronin, let me explain everything.”

I hear Aunt Scotty trying to pull my dad away from the hallway. He’d arrived at the hospital after hearing what happened to Amira, but now he’s about to find out about the bonding ceremony too.

Just as Aunt Scotty takes him aside, Seth steps out of the ICU, and I push myself upright with my hand braced against the

wall.

We all crowd around him.

When Seth speaks, his voice is already soft with bad news.

“I’m so sorry…”

“Please. Just tell me. Is my daughter okay?”

“Demetra, she’s in the third stage of Loo Fever.”

“No.”

“There were no signs. Amira was fine just yesterday! She was playing. I even gave her a piggyback ride. She ate well last night

H

“Yes.” I nod, latching onto Slade’s words. Amira was normal yesterday. The day before that, too. How can she just be sick today?

“That’s what makes Loo fever so dangerous right now. The symptoms present differently in children…no rash, no fever spike until it’s already progressed. But it’s just as deadly. By the third stage, we have to remove the infected blood and replace it with blood from one of the parents if the right compatibility markers are present. The blood type has to be a specific positive marker…if it’s not the mother, it would be the father. If it’s not the father, it would be the mother.”

“Compatibility markers?” I repeat.

“Yes. We’ve already taken Amira’s blood, and the nurses have taken yours. Your blood won’t help her. Demetra. I’m sorry, but based on the test results we’ve seen so far, her father is the one most likely to match.” Seth says with pain. “I know her father is no longer alive so I’m sorry to break the news to you like this-”

Amira’s father is alive.

I just sent him away.

He was here an hour ago…standing in this same hallway, looking at me with those eyes that are too much like hers. And screamed at him. I told him he could never be her father and to leave!

Oh goddess.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to Amira, Seth continues but his voice sounds far away now like I nu bearing him from underwater. “But I want you all to prepare your hearts, because her body will stop responding to treatment.

“She has a living father.”

I look back, and there is dad, walking back into the ICU waiting area, and he’s the one who said.

10:21 am PPP

Chapter 87

“What?” Seth looks genuinely confused now. “But I thought-”

“Her father is Alpha Emris.”

“What?” Seth asks again.

I don’t answer anyone.

Not because I don’t want to but because there’s no time for lies anymore. Yes, it was supposed to stay a secret forever. I was supposed to hide it but not when Amira’s life is on the line.

“I’m going to get him.” I’m already pulling out my phone, fingers shaking so badly I can barely unlock it. It’s been almost an hour since I sent him away and every second matters now. My baby needs help. She needs blood. She needs her father.

But Dad lifts a hand and stops me.

“He never left the hospital. Emris is in the lobby. Robin, go bring him up.”

I freeze. Emris never left?

He stayed? After everything I said…after I threw every cruel word I could think of at his face–he stayed?

And now Dad is going to bring him here, and Emris is going to realize I’ve been nothing but a liar. All those times Amira called him ‘daddy” I didn’t tell him. Even now, I yelled it straight to his face. You can never be her father. I lied about who her father is. I was ready to give her to another man as a stepdaughter….a man who knows nothing about her regardless of Emris being alive. I wasn’t even going to let him see her in her worst state.

Emris is going to hate me now.

The thought sits in my chest like a stone. It’s terrifying to face. But Amira’s health is the only thing that matters right now.

“Robin, wait.”

Dad’s voice carries that authoritative edge. He’s been looking at me this whole time, and I realize he can probably see every ounce of misery on my face.

“I’ll go explain it to him first. Then I’ll bring him here.”

Dad walks away.

I turn back to the ICU window. My feet carry me forward until my forehead is almost touching the glass. Through the small opening, I can see Amira.

Her eyelids are half–open, but she’s not looking at anything. The harsh hospital lights bleach the color from her skin so she’s become so pale. A tube snakes out from her throat, taped to her cheek. There’s an IV in the back of her tiny hand, the skin around it is red and angry. Doctors hover around her bed, speaking in low voices, adjusting monitors that beep 100 slowly.

She’s just a baby. She doesn’t deserve this.

My heart is breaking. I can feel it cracking right down the middle, splintering as I watch. Her little body is so still amt it’s so unusual. Amira who is always jumping, wiggling reaching for me with grabby hands. Now she’s still, wept for the shallow

rise and fall of her chest.

Tears surge down my cheeks and I start crying again, pressing my palm against the cold glass

The next time I look up, it’s because I catch Emris’s scent in the hallway

2/4

10:22 am

Chapter 87

Ppp.

He’s here and I know without even turning. My fingers tighten on the hospital door, and I stay exactly where I am. I’m too much of a coward to look back at him.

Then Tiffany comes up behind me.

“Don’t look.”

“Does he look angry?” I whisper.

She hesitates.

“Yes. He looks…broken too.”

I swallow hard and force myself to stay still.

“Alpha Emris.” I hear Seth approach him. “We need to move quickly. The transfusion requires a direct donation….we’ll take roughly four hundred millilitres of your blood, filter it for the specific antigen markers, and introduce it to Amira’s system while simultaneously drawing out her contaminated blood. The good news is that because the genetic marker is a match, her body shouldn’t reject it. The bad news is that the procedure is delicate. She’s small, and her heart is already struggling. I need you to stay calm, Alpha. If your blood pressure spikes, it could affect the quality of the draw.”

Then I hear the two of them walk off, and only after that do I turn.

My dad’s eyes find mine first and the disappointment in his jaw is there.

“Dad, please-”

“Enough!” Dad’s growl at Slade. “If Demetra was going to make a stupid decision, I expected you as her brother to let me know. Marrying into the Irish pack? What made you think the pack I’ve taken care of my entire life was suddenly going to fail? That I couldn’t handle it this time?”

“The kids were—”

“Scotty, not you too.” Dad cuts her off. “It’s a good thing Emris came and destroyed that damn bond. For all I don’t agree with that wolf as an alpha, this has got to be the best thing he’s ever done.”

He exhales heavily, scrubbing a hand down his face. “We’ll end it here until Amira is better. You, come here.”

Dad opens his arms for me and I cry into his shoulder. For Amira. For Emris. For the mess I’ve made of everything

“She’s going to be fine.” Dad murmurs into my hair.

I close my eyes and hope–pray–that this is all just a bad nightmare. That I’ll wake up in my bed with Amira snoring beside me, her little foot kicked onto my face like usual.

But I don’t wake up.

Instead, we settle into the waiting room. The whole family crowds is there, I rest my head on Dad’s shoulder, and he holds my hand.

About an hour goes by and the doors open.

Alpha Seth walks through wearing his scrubs, and my heart stops because that nieans the test is alone.

Everyone stands at once.

10:22 am

Chapter 87

ppp.

“Was it a match?

“Yes.” Seth smiles….a real smile, the first one I’ve seen from him all day. “It was a match. We’ve already begun the transfusion on Amira. Her vitals stabilized immediately within the first two minutes. We’re confident it’s because her father is a Trybrid.”

When Seth says that part, he looks at me. Of course. Another man I lied to. “Essentially, his blood isn’t just replacing hers… it’s actively repairing the damaged tissue as it circulates. The antioxidant properties are neutralizing the fever’s progression at a molecular level.”

I press my hand to my forehead. “So she’ll be fine?”

“We’re confident she will be. Alpha Emris’s blood is remarkably strong. Honestly, it’s the fastest response we’ve seen in any of the children who contracted Loo fever. Most take hours to stabilize. Amira took minutes.”

I smile through my tears.

“Can I see her?”

“Of course, you can. She’s still sedated, but-”

Seth isn’t done talking when I leave, past the nurses‘ station, past the blinking monitors and the smell of antiseptic. I push through Amira’s door and I forget that Emris might be in here.

Because he is.

Seated in the chair beside her bed. His elbows are on his knees, his hands are clasped together like he’s praying but… he’s looking into Amira’s face.

4/4