When We Were Mates (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 89

Chapter 89

Demetra.

I glance at Amira’s door one last time before Emris pulls me out of the hallway so roughly.

Somewhere in the hospital, my family has no idea what I’ve agreed to.

Probably back at the waiting room, happy that Amira is responding to treatments. Aunt Allison and Slade are filing the necessary papers, trying to get more information about aftercare. On the other hand, dad is making it clear to the Irish pack and Seth that I am in no way, shape, or space going to marry into their pack anymore.

He’s taking care of that aspect because everyone believes I’m somewhere getting a hold of myself now that Amira is getting better.

They don’t know that I’m being taken away by Emris.

Right now, nothing makes sense to me except one thing: Emris will win if I fight him.

He would take the crown because he is Emris, and just like he said, he takes whatever he wants.

He already took our territory. If I don’t cooperate with him for the custody, it will be a struggle for me to see her when he wins. Emris likes to punish and already, I’m on his blacklist.

He remembers and makes an example out of people. Unfortunately, he has a lot of things to punish me for. So fighting is suicide. It’s asking him to unleash all his rage on me. And this wouldn’t just teach me a lesson…it would fall on my pack because he understands what it means to hurt the ones someone loves in order to break them.

That knowledge sits in my chest like a stone, because it means Emris knows exactly where to press.

Now I’m becoming his wife.

The same thing I had once tried to save Amira from is now the only path left in front of me, and I hate how little choice I feel I have.

I can’t imagine Amira being in his pack without me. Or in this world without me at all.

I don’t trust Derisha. I don’t trust Regan. I don’t trust Elena, even if she isn’t Luna anymore. She still moves like someone who thinks the pack belongs to her bloodline, and Amira would never be safe standing alone in the middle of all that power.

My pack also needs someone who will speak Emris out of his anger before the inevitable happens.

“Emris, what was that order you gave on the pack intercom?”

Silver growls in the parking garage air. Then stops abruptly and looks his brother dead in the eye. He grabs Eiris by the arm and pulls him aside, away from me.

“What the hell–are you being serious right now—”

“I’m taking her to the pack. And there’s going to be a bonding ceremony.”

I stand there, fifteen feet away, and listen. There’s nothing in his tone like the guy who caressed me on the vaht the ARO could joke with, the one who made my stomach flip. I don’t think we can ever have that again. Because now all be sey is liar. A heartless person who did everything to take his daughter away from him.

“Are you fucking crazy?” Silver hisses at his brother. “She’s hysterical”

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I remember him being the only one who could speak to Emris like that back in the pack house and not get his head ripped

off.

Silver looks at me then, and his expression softens in that quiet way people get when they’re trying not to make things

worse.

Im so sorry about what happened to your daughter, this-”

“It’s alright. I’m coming with Emris.”

I have no fight left in me. I just want to get this done and over with so no one from my pack sees me.

Emris walks toward the car and opens it. Before I go in, I slow down just a little so he has to look at my face. He does. Then puts his arms on mine and pushes me into the car, shoving the shredded remains of my wedding dress in after me.

He slams the door roughly, the whole car jumps.

*********

Thirty–five minutes.

That’s how long it takes to get to the Black Covenant Pack house. Emris isn’t sitting in the back with me…he’s the one driving, and I stay quiet the whole time, watching how angrily his hands move the steering wheel across like the road owes him obedience.

He pulls into the parking lot and the car stops.

By the time the car stops, I already hear rushing footsteps coming toward us.

Emris opens my door so I step out, straightening my gown until I see a line of staff. All females.

They’re wearing matching black pants, black ties and white shirts. Their hair is pulled into severe burns and they stand at attention with their hands clasped in front of them.

Zelta Staffs.

I remember them like it was yesterday.

Watching them run toward Luna Derisha’s car every time she returned or every time something important happened. Back then, those moments belonged to her.

Now the important event is about to be me.

“Right here, Miss Demetra.”

I turn to look at Emris one more time….just one more because something tells me I won’t get another chance. My throat closes up, I don’t know what to say to him. It has to be an I’m sorry…or forgive me…I don’t think there’s a single word that can fix what this has turned into.

“Get her out of my sight and get her out of that fucking dress!”

He’s glaring at me so horribly that his canines actually push past his lips. hehe hates me enough tear through his own mouth just to prove it. I’ve never seen that before! Not directed at me. I stumble backward and end up following the statt across the lawn without another word. My legs feel like someone else’s.

Inside the covenant pack house, everything is marble. Floors you can see your own terrified reflection in Walks so pale they hurt to look at. I can almost see the staff in cream uniforms scrubbing every surface like their lives depend on

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like lemon polish and old money.

They lead me past the Grand Foyer, past the Hall of Tides (where the pack’s history is painted in gold leaf across a ceiling so high it disappears into shadow and finally to a small, private elevator at the end of a corridor. The Zeltas crowd around me and I’m trapped in the middle like a prisoner being transferred.

The numbers light up above the door. 1… 3… 5… 7…

When the doors open, the hallway is beautiful. Not in the cold, show–off way the rest of the house is but something else. The walls are soft coral…in pastels, like the inside of a seashell. Light bounces off cream–white trim and brushed gold sconces.

Oh, this is the Luna’s Chambers.

I know that much instantly.

It’s the section of the Black Covenant Pack house reserved for the Luna…it’s got an ancient name because it’s existed for hundreds of years, passed down during the time where pack was royalty. Every Luna who ever ruled here has left a piece of herself in these walls. And it connects directly to the Alpha’s Grove…which is just a fancy name for Emris’s bedroom now that he’s taken over his father’s wing. Two halves of a moon, connected by a private corridor.

But the last time I was here, he took me to his old room. Why? Does he not stay there…

“The bathtub is running, ma’am. We added essential oils to help you relax.”

“I’m just going to take a shower. I’ll be out in ten minutes.”

I look around the room while I speak, and It’s huge.

Not just large…massive in the kind of way that makes your body feel small the second you walk in.

They are on highest part of the pack house, with windows that stretch from floor to ceiling so I can see the entire landscape from here: rolling hills, dark trees, the distant glint of the pack’s border fence. Everything fades into a hazy silence.

It’s easy to tell apart from here where the Luna’s side is and where the Alpha Grove starts. It’s the end of colors….the Grove looks a gothic werewolf King moved in and decided he wanted privacy, power, and space to be alone with his violence.

It has its own wing and it’s just the entrance that I get that vibe from.

But if Emris stays in his old room… then he won’t be staying here. Right? I hope so.

“But it’s your bonding ceremony,” the bun girl tries again. “I think you’ll want to smell good. And it’ll make you feel good-” “My daughter is in a hospital bed as we speak. The last thing I want to do is feel good about perfumes.”

She nods quickly and stops asking questions.

Until someone enters with the loudest voice I’ve ever heard in my life.

“Future Luna”

1 turn around and see Arieth!

She stops dead when she sees me, like something’s hooked her throat

I remember Aneth. She used to be one of the housekeepers back when that meant scrubbing floors and pretending not to exist. Now she’s wearing a Zelta uniform. The Zeltas are the pack’s elite service staff. They tram for years, get degrees in

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household management and protocol. It’s a whole thing.

So why does Arieth…who didn’t even finish high school…get to wear that uniform?

“Demetra. I mean…” She blinks at me. “Wow. It’s really you.”

X

Arieth has brown eyes. Brown hair. I would say average in every way except for her ambition. She’s always hated being a maid. Used to sneak around Regan because she hoped one of the Alpha’s sons would upgrade her. I heard she got caught wearing Derisha’s clothes once. She’ll do anything to climb the social ladder. This? The Zelta uniform might just another one of her strategies.

AD