When You Were My Mate (Demetra and Emris) novel Chapter 5

5

Demetra.

“But you know I have only you.” I whisper. I need him to remember. I need him to remember that in this entire, cruel world, he’s the only one I have.

“What the hell do you mean by that!?” Elena inserts herself.

Emris eyes are empty. “You have ten minutes to leave the pack house. If she doesn’t, Radu makes sure she leaves with a claw mark as a souvenir.”

Then he walks away.

Susan is the first to reach me. “Come on, sweetheart, quickly!”

When we reach my room, she lets go so I can pack. I pull on a shirt with trembling hands. My fingers fumble with the zipper of an old bag I drag out from the closet. My chest hurts; my throat burns. I’m shaking so badly it’s hard to fold anything right.

I keep thinking: I’m pregnant. I’m pregnant, and I have nowhere to go. No one to call family. My mate, the only person I ever thought I had just destroyed me.

With five minutes left before Radu comes, I can’t breathe. That’s when I see the business card Alpha Ronni gave me, lying at the corner of my mirror table. His name, his number. I grab it.

When I step out, Summer, Susan, and the others are waiting in the hallway. One by one, they hug me quickly, whispering goodbyes. I don’t trust myself to speak so I just keep moving before I fall apart.

Downstairs, Luna Derisha is waiting. Silver and Regan step aside to let me through.

“Elena?” Luna says lightly, “just promise me that right after you and Emris are married, you’ll give me a grandchild.”

Elena smiles. “Of course, Mother-in-law.”

I press a trembling hand to my stomach and swallow the scream sitting in my throat.

Emris, I swear you’ll never know that I left with a part of you.

I leave the Black Covenant Pack house and I don’t look back.

Outside the gate, I just carry my light bag and think. Do I call? Do I not? Alpha Ronni barely knows me. No one outside this territory even knows me.

I check my wallet and there’s a few bucks at most. Luna Derisha always said food and a bed were my payment so I can’t even afford a motel.

I need help. I take out my phone, type in the number on the card, and call.

“Hello?”

I try not to cry.

“Yes… um, I’m Demetra.” I stammer into the phone. “We met — at the store. I was with Emris that day. You are Alpha Ronni—”

There’s a pause, then a deep, surprised voice. “Yes, you. I can’t believe you’re calling. Are you all right?”

“I…I’m sorry to bother you, Alpha. I just… I have nowhere else to go. That’s why I called.”

Silence. I hear my own heartbeat. My mind starts racing and I think what am I doing? He’s an Alpha. I shouldn’t even be calling him.

“Never mind. I shouldn’t be calling you. You’re—”

“Where are you right now?”

“I’m just outside the Black Covenant gates.”

I look around me.

“I’ll send an escort. A convoy of cars. You’ll be brought to safety at once. Don’t move. Do you understand me?”

“Yes…yes Alpha.”

The line goes dead, and I clutch the phone to my chest. I look down at my belly and make a promise that Emris will never get to know of my child. He will search for me but he will never find. This heart will never forgive him. This heart will never forgive everyone in the Black covenant pack.

**********

Five years later.

West Virginia Airport.

“Tired?”

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