When You Were My Mate (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 116

Chapter 116

Chapter 116

Demetra Pride Covenant.

The first thing I feel is sunlight on my face but it’s cool.

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And I smell Emris. Cedar and smoke, something that’s always felt like home even when I didn’t want it to. Which is a good plus from the nightmare that happened to me last night.

I open my eyes and he’s already looking at me.

“Do you remember saying you love me or are you about to take that back?” There’s a sly, slow smile pulling at the corner of his mouth means he really thinks the martinis did it last night. He doesn’t know I was apologizing for how I kissed a stranger last night. A man I didn’t intend to kiss.

I don’t know what happened or why I let it happen. Maybe it was the martinis at this point.

My memory of it is strange. Slow and underwater, like I was watching myself from somewhere far above. Like something else was pulling the strings while I just stood there behind my own eyes, confused and distant and not entirely present. I don’t know how to explain it, even to myself.

I inhale.

“No.”

He shifts against the pillows, propping himself up to look at me more carefully.

“You remember saying it?”

“Yes, Emris.”

He runs a hand over his face, almost laughing, almost not.

“I could have sworn you completely hated me. After everything. After the countless things that have happened between us.”

“Maybe I’m tired of arguing.” I say and that’s the entire truth.

Stupid of me to think that I wanted to mess with other men. I hated it. Every second of it. Trying to get the attention of anyone who is not my mate made my skin crawl. It felt wrong in the way that only things that go against your nature feel wrong. Bone-deep and disorienting. Like trying to write with the wrong hand. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell him about it.

Not yet. Maybe not ever.

“I feel the same way and I need to apologize. For a lot of things.”

I open my mouth but he shakes his head gently.

“… I want to apologize first for not letting you finish. That was low of me. Then, the Elena situation. I should

11:24 Fri, Apr 24

Chapter 116

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have told you she was staying in the back house. I let Regan convince me she needed to be close to Milo cause she was struggling and had never been away from him. I wasn’t gonna agree, but I saw how you practically bonded with me so you could be close to Amira, so I wanted to extend that same consideration to Elena. I just -“He exhales. “I should have told you. I’m sorry.”

The word sounds like it costs him something real.

“I’m sorry for how I looked at you. For holding your hand too tight.” His jaw tightens briefly. “For hating your pack all this time, when it was always supposed to be this pack. That was mine to own and I didn’t.”

He

puts his hand on my waist, and I feel it warm through the sheets.

“I’m sorry. I used Amira to get you to bond with me. I’ve made it hard for you to accept this bond when all I I’ve ever wanted was for you to feel like you chose it. Like you chose me. I want to make up for all of it. The love I didn’t show right. The home I didn’t make right.” He rises slightly, adjusting above me, and stops when he sees my face because I’m crying, just a little, just at the corners.

He sees it and something in him goes still. “I know you didn’t hurt Elena on purpose. That’s not who you are. I want you and Amira to feel at home here…..genuinely and completely. She’s my daughter and you are my mate, and this pack, this place… this pack belongs to both of you as much as anyone else. But the way I got you two makes it impossible.”

I reach up and cup his face with both hands. There’s regret written all over him in the set of his jaw, in the tension around his eyes and I hold it like I’m holding him responsible and forgiving him in the same motion. He leans into my palms and brings his lips to mine.

I kiss him fiercely and pull back just enough to breathe.

“Let’s forget.” I rest my forehead against his. “All of it. Let’s just forget.”

“Yeah?” His thumb traces my bottom lip.

“Yes.” I chuckle before he grabs me and flips me from where I’m lying to on top of him as he rolls over the bed with me on it. The sheets twist around us.

“Stop-” I’m laughing into his neck ridiculously, and I absolutely do not want him to stop.

Emris stops to just start looking at me so much that I feel shy under his stare. Which is absurd, honestly, because this man has seen me at every possible angle and still manages to make me feel like I’m being looked at for the first time.

With this stare, I know what comes next and I crave it-

The door explodes open and two small tornadoes come screaming through it at full volume before we even

see them.

“MORNING MOMMY! MORNING DADDY!”

The nanny appears two seconds behind them with the universal expression of someone who tried their best.

“I’m so sorry, Alpha and Luna….they were too fast, I couldn’t-”

11:25 Fri, Apr 24 ↑

Chapter 116

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I bite his bottom lip first and he inhales sharply against my mouth. I feel that little intake of air then I suck his tongue into my mouth, slow and deep, like I’m drinking him in. He makes this helpless moan that vibrates from his throat into my chest.

His hands find my waist but I don’t let him lead. I pull back just enough to look at him through my lashes, and then I kiss him again, taking his mouth like I own it.

And the whole time, my hand travels down under the sheet.

Past his stomach. Past the hard lines of his abs. Until I find the ropes of his grey joggers.

I pull the strings loose.

Emris’s lips tighten against mine. His teeth graze my mouth with a bite…could be a warning, or could be a plea as my hand proceeds around his groin area.

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