When You Were My Mate (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 4

4

Demetra.

Slowly, I sink to my knees and weep from my lungs so deep it feels like it will break me. I am inconsolable, lost in a storm of tears when a timid voice speaks.

“Miss? The… the man said you are the one to clean up the mess he made.”

I look up at the mall owner and I frown into tears.

How can we be over when I carry a new life, a part of him, inside my belly?

********

I get back to the pack house a little past midnight. My body aches everywhere…. like even my bones are tired. I don’t bother turning on the light; I just crawl into bed and start crying all over again. The kind of crying that makes your throat hurt.

Slade. Of all people, it had to be him.

Emris hates Slade more than he hates any other enemy. He’s the son of Alpha Ronni from the Lion Pride Pack. The Lion Pride Pack and the Black Covenant share a territory….joined by waters, separated by Alphas. They’re rich, powerful but Emris would rather die than be in the same room as them. I didn’t even recognize them!

The older man just… he thought I was someone else.

My phone glows in the dark: 2:17 AM.

A part of me still wants to go to him, to tell him again that this is a mistake. Maybe if he just listens one more time, he’ll see it. Why does loving him make me feel like such an idiot? I know deep down he doesn’t deserve it. He doesn’t deserve me. And yet… I still do.

When I finally wake up, it’s because someone’s tapping my arm.

“Demetra!” It’s the head chef’s voice. “Goodness, child, I thought you were dead for a second. Do you realize you’ve slept two hours past your shift? Emris’ suite—”

Once I see it’s morning, I leap out of bed and dash into the bathroom. I’m so dead. I’m supposed to clean Emris’s room before he gets back from the gym. If even one of his stupid, expensive things is out of place, he throws a fit. Then he’s late for breakfast, and the whole pack knows it’s my fault.

I shower and throw on my uniform then take the elevator straight up to the penthouse level. I start planning my apology in my head as I move into Emris’ floor.

Suddenly, I stop because standing right in the middle of the living room are Elena and Luna Derisha. And Luna Derisha is holding something lacy and blue between her fingers.

My bra.

It’s the one Emris took yesterday. The one I told him, over and over, to give back.

I forget how to breathe but I have to say something.

“Lu… Luna.”

Luna Derisha’s violet eyes look almost black. “Who owns this?”

I rub my hands on my apron like that’ll make me look less guilty. “Um… I don’t know.” I lie.

The door behind me swings open and Radu fills the threshold like a dark mountain. He is the Luna’s gamma, the wolf everyone hushes for in the halls. He’s the one who rescued Emris after he was kidnapped and caged for two years as a kid.

Radu doesn’t waste words, he only growls and moves when the Luna says so. Seeing him here means this isn’t just a scolding; it’s an execution.

“You fucking slut! You’re trying to seduce my son. You put your bra in my son’s closet.”

Elena shakes her head. “How old are you to be acting so shameless? You’re at least seven years younger than Emris!?”

“Luna, it’s not… it’s not mine.”

“It smells like you. Filthy. My son, who is going to be Alpha, is the person you’re trying to seduce? You’re just like that maggot of a mother who gave birth to you! That bitch spread her legs for every man in the pack just to climb the ladder, and you ended up following the worst of her traits—”

Her hot hand snatches my hair!

Then, Luna Derisha uses it to bring to my knees. It’s so painful, so utterly painful and shocking that I taste metal and then white light. I see a bunch of my hair in her hands and then I feel blood coming from my scalp.

I look up in tears.

“It’s not yours. Fine. We’ll test it, then. Bring her downstairs where all the pack employees look. I will use this bitch as a lesson.”

“Luna, please! Luna, please!”

My screams are short as Radu’s massive hand closes around my ankle. He doesn’t even lift me; he just uses my own body to drag me across the floor. My uniform rides as I twist and kick, but it doesn’t matter.

By the time we reach the hall downstairs, every pack employee is there. Cooks, cleaners, security, everyone is looking at me at the centre. I’m trembling on my knees. I’ve always feared Luna Derisha, but never like this. Never when Emris isn’t here to stop her.

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