Chapter 81
Alpha Emris.
Contd
“Did you say… Demetra?” I ask again.
“Yes, Alpha.
“Let them in. I move, taking the stairs two at a time down to the floor where Elena is still causing a scene.
“We’ll test them immediately-
“No, test Slade. Bring Demetra right in. At once!”
“Demetra?” Elena whispers, eyes tracking me like she’s trying to solve a puzzle.
“Demetra?” Elena whispers, and I hear the suspicion in her voice before I even look at her.
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I run a hand over the back of my neck and force myself not to start pacing. Waiting feels impossible. Even a few seconds stretch like punishment. What am I going to say to her? I don’t even realize the gammas are watching me lose my composure, because all I can think is that she’s here, and I need one chance to make her listen.
Once she’s in front of me, I’ll hold her. I’ll take her upstairs. I’ll explain everything. I’ll tell her the truth I should’ve given her from the start and pray to every moon goddess in the sky that she sees what I’m trying to do.
Because that bastard Slade saw us leave together. I know he did. He probably told her everything with all the subtlety of a hammer. He saw her in my car and it dragged him straight back to what I did to his mate. And yes, I did it. I did it because his pack kept me starved of answers, because I was angry and grieving and reckless enough to reach for the one thing I knew would hurt him.
I decided to shorten his chances of having a Luna when it was his time for rule. Now he’s going to deprive me of mine.
Now he’s trying to strip mine away from me.
But Demetra is not going to look at me and only see the worst thing I’ve ever done. She knows what my father’s death cost
So she won’t hate me. She’ll understand. Won’t she?
What is she doing here?” Regan demands.
I’m still trying to shove my thoughts into some kind of order. Knowing what to say, how to say it, how to stand in front of her. How to apologize. Just how to act right, in essence. I don’t have time to answer stupid questions. She’s going to walk in
iny moment now.
I just adjourned your meeting.” Silver appears behind me, and the elders who were in the office just a moment ago are filing
out too.
Ah, shit. It’s the whole pack at this point. I hope it doesn’t make her feel like she can’t breathe.
Then I smell her scent.
My hands tighten at my sides.
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Chapter Al
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Soon enough, I see her White hair twisted into a bun, two soft curls falling against her forehead. Dark eyes. Dark liner tracing the waterline and making her look even more devastating than she did yesterday on the yacht. For one insane second, I can’t even enjoy how beautiful she is, because all I can focus on is the harmful look on her face.
Full of edge. Devious to the core. She’s back to the girl I spoke to in her office.
“It’s it’s our fated Lama.”
The voices of the elders behind me start murmuring between themselves, but Demetra doesn’t even cut them a glance.
“Luna Demetra”
“The prophecy,” another whispers. “The white-haired Luna who will unite the bloodlines.”
“The Moon Goddess sent her to us-”
Enough!” I don’t look back at them to yell.
she parts her lips, looks at me, and keeps coming.
‘Shouldn’t you test me?” she says.
J…”
What is she doing in our pack?” Regan snaps. “Is she here to give us fucking answers!?”
Before I can react, Regan yanks Demetra by the arm.
She squeals in pain!
Something inside me cuts in half.
My hand connects with Regan’s chest and I push….not like a brother, not like a friend, but like an Alpha whose mate has been ouched. He flies backward through the glass doors behind him. They shatter. Shards explode outward like a bomb, raining cross the floor, catching the light in a million deadly sparks. Regan lands on his back amidst the wreckage, blood already eeping from cuts on his arms, his face, his neck.
The whole house goes silent for a beat too long.
My chest rises once, but the breath doesn’t come.
stare at the broken mess, my wolf surging hard and hot beneath my skin, then turn back to Demetra as if nothing else
*xists.
My mother is already rushing past us, shouting for someone to get Regan up. The elders are frozen. Someone mutters my name. I don’t care.
catch her hand before she can move away, and this time I don’t let go. I guide her toward the elevator, somewhere private that we could speak.
The elevator doors close behind us with a soft chime and the silence is loud enough to hear her breathing.
It’s fast but mine is faster.
As the doors open, I’m waiting for her to step out, but she just stands there….body against the wall, not moving, just looking at me with those dark-lined eyes. So I put a foot forward before the elevator can close, and I pull her against me. Until her
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Chapter 81
lips are inches from mine.
vane Tiere
“Demi. “I say her name softly, and her eyes….those eyes that came at me so deviously moments ago begin to water. They’re shiny, wet, but she’s not letting the tears fall. Soon enough, she snaps out of it and blinks it away.
“I didn’t do it to hurt you. I just want to know what happened to my father-
“I know,” she answers.
“Demi-
“I said, I know!” She repeats it like I don’t have the right to explain myself. Like my words don’t matter.
“What we came here for is simple. We were willing to pay you to let us use our land for a while until we gave you every single answer you wanted. Detailed answers for every question, evidence that our pack had nothing to do with it. The supermarkets are already running low. Our pack members will start talking. And with the Loo Fever spreading, the last thing anyone needs is panic. So I’m begging you, Emris Covenant. Give us access to our farmland, and you’ll get your answers. Can you do that, or do I have to get on my knees and beg you?”
‘I will
Thank you.” She turns away-
I catch her hand and stop her before she gets far.
We still haven’t said the thing that matters most. That this is not intentional and it doesn’t have to ruin anything between us.
We cannot be together, Emris.”
What?” I stare at her. “After everything we said to each other-”
‘I don’t know who you think you are, but you can’t hate my pack and expect me to love you anyway. Ever since we became nates, the world has been against us. That’s why you didn’t tell me in the first place, isn’t it? So just let it go. Reject me. Do it
how
For a second, I’m so angry I actually step back. Then I turn and walk off into my room with a sharp scoff, but she follows me
anyway.
Emris, reject me now! If you reject me, the feelings you have for me will die, and then you’ll be able to fight my pack with no feelings in between!”
‘Shut it!” I face her in my bedroom.
I see her look at me first…then around. Yeah. She needs to remember this place. What memories this place held. How she loved me so much. I am trying to fight for us now.
I’m doing it when everything else is saying no. The obstacles we faced years ago are so different from right now but I’m still trying to fix it.
And she just says… reject me.
“The way you speak of rejection so easily…is there nothing in your heart that’s hurting you when you speak about it?”
“The only thing that hurts me is watching us pretend we can be together, only for something to come back and rip the possibility out of my hands.”
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