When You Were My Mate (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Emris.

Contd

“Emris!”

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I hear them screaming my name. All of them. My pack. My family. Strangers. Their voices echo from somewhere far away, like they’re calling through water.

I still can’t move.

Something has its teeth in my leg. I can feel the pressure, the puncture, the hot gush of blood soaking through my pants. Another one on my arm. Another on my back. They’re everywhere, their jaws clamped into my flesh, shaking their heads like I’m nothing but prey. I want to fight back. I want to rip their throats out. But my body won’t answer. I’m frozen, trapped in a nightmare that stopped being a memory and became reality again.

The pain is indescribable. It’s not just the bites….it’s the remembering. Every nerve in my body is firing at once, reliving every wound I ever received in that dungeon. The boy I was is screaming inside the man I am now. I can feel blood running from my nose. From my ears. From the corners of my eyes. Warm, thick, sliding down my face while the dogs tear into me like I’m made of paper.

I can’t breathe. My chest won’t expand. It’s like someone’s sitting on it, crushing me from the inside out.

The whistling continues and I’m back there. I’m chained. I’m alone. The faceless man is laughing while the barghests feast on my body.

Then…silence.

The whistling stops.

I gasp, air flooding my lungs for the first time in what feels like hours. My vision clears slowly, painfully, and I see them. The barghests are still there, still snarling, still covered in my blood. But they’re being pulled off. Beaten back.

Silver drives his fist into a barghest’s skull, throwing it aside like garbage. More of my gammas swarm the area with their claws extended, tearing into the beasts. One gamma grabs a barghest by the jaw and rips. Another gamma stomps a skull and blood sprays across the dirt. The barghests start whining and finally fall silent as my pack butchers every last one of them.

The crowd is chaos. People are screaming, running, watching bu my eyes aren’t on them.

They’re on Demetra who is standing right beside Slade, I look at her as the pieces click into place with fucking clarity.

“You’re going to get what’s coming.”

She knew. She fucking knew!?

Anger rises through the pain, through the trauma, through everything. It burns hot and clean, clearing the last of the fog from my mind. I stare at her…my mate…who is standing there wh the man who just destroyed me in front of the entire world.

“Are you okay?!” Silver yells as he reaches me. His hands are hovering and it’s because he’s afraid to touch.

I don’t answer, I’m watching the satisfied smirk on Slade’s face as he pulls Demetra so that they Lion Pride pack can leave. I watch them walk away and then I look down at myself.

My body is a mess. Bite wounds cover my shoulders, my neck, my arms. Some parts are bent at wrong angles and blood is soaking through what’s left of my clothes.

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Chapter 33

I take a breath.

Then I start putting myself back together.

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My shoulder pops as I roll it. The bone grinds back into place. My neck cracks as I straighten it. I feel my bones start knitting as my hybrid healing kicks in. I look at my fucked-up leg before bracing it with both hands and forcing it. Pain lances through me, but it’s good pain. Healing pain.

The crowd watches in stunned silence as I rise to my feet. My clothes hang in tatters but the wounds are already closing. I don’t look at anyone. I just start walking.

Through the muttering crowd. Past the slaughtered barghests, everyone who has sense and who doesn’t want to die tonight get off my way.

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Back at home, Elena’s heels click frantically behind me as I climb the stairs slowly. I’m trying to regulate my healing process cause my wolf is still knitting nerves together. I’m not rushing for that reason plus I have to think….no one else could have known.

About my fears….the whistles, the barghests! I’ve only ever spoke about them in my sleep. In the dark, when nightmares dragged me back to that place… the only person who’s ever been close enough to hear me whisper those terrors into the night is Demetra.

She knew. She told him. So she gave my weakness to her brother

That was his only chance to defeat me. His only weapon and she handed it to him like it was nothing. She hates me that much? Hates me enough to weaponize the trauma that’s haunted me since I was a kid? How can my mate let those memories be used against me in front of thousands?

This is the new Demetra I’m dealing with!!!!?

“Are you alright—”

“Stay back!”

My teeth bares as I growl from my throat! It’s at Elena and it’s because she dared to put a hand on my arm. My wolf is fully awake now and hypervigilant because it feels in danger. I’m seething. Red clouds my vision. Every nerve is firing, ready to uproot anything that even looks like a threat.

Elena’s face goes pale and she stumbles back, slipping on the stairs, back Regan catches her.

“Go.” Regan pushes her behind him. “Go back down.”

My vision is blurry…not from injury, but from my wolf trying to force its way out. It’s so protective and on adrenaline that it’s excreting the kind of hyperawareness that comes with the full moon. The ready to hunt and ready to kill awareness.

I look down and at the bottom of the stairs, my entire family is gathered. All of them staring up at me like they’ve forgotten the kind of monster I am.

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“Everyone just leave him.” Silver says as my Beta.

He ushers Elena and Regan back, and I continue up the stairs.

The moment my bedroom door shuts behind me, I tear off what’s left of my clothes. They fall in tattered strips around my feet as I turn the shower on…as hot as it will go. I step under the pray without waiting.

The water hits my skin like fire and it’s scalding. Burning. Steam rises in thick clouds, filling the room until I can barely see. I wipe the fog from the tiles and look at myself.

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T6.56 Sat, Apr 11 MO

Chapter 33

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