When You Were My Mate

2

Demetra.

Pregnant.

I change out of my uniform, into a pair of jeans and a top. I need a pregnancy test. Now. I've been sitting in front of the desk for the past three hours, trying to count days on a calendar, but it's useless.

The problem is Emris. Our schedule last month was basically, all s*x. In his room, in mine, sometimes in a skyscraper hotel suite when his late-night meetings with the jet company ran long. Today is the 20th. No sign of my period. That can only mean one thing.

We used protection… sometimes. When he remembered. Emris gets so lost in the claiming in a way that makes it impossible for either of us to think straight.

I go out through the back kitchen, hoping to go unnoticed.

"Where are you going?" Summer, my best friend blocks my path and shoves her hands into her flour-dusted apron, looking less like my ride-or-die and more like a very suspicious, pastry-based bouncer.

"Luna Derisha is on a warpath today. So lucky you only answer to Emris. What's going on with you?"

"Uh, I just have to run an errand—"

"Ugh, don't even get me started. That Elena is such a snob. She brought thirty boxes of Louboutin, Chanel and had the nerve to ask if we'd ever touched anything like that. Please tell me a b***h like that isn't going to be our next Luna."

"Summer, if anyone hears you, you're going to lose your job." Paxton warns, he’s the assistant chef.

"She's not wrong. Riley is arranging Elena’s closet right now. There are, like, a hundred pairs." Someone else says.

"Guys, I really have to go." I try to sidestep them.

But Paxton places a hand around my stomach region to stop me. He's always been overly concerned about me.

"Are you okay? You look a bit…pale."

Before I can answer, my eyes do a casual sweep past his shoulder to the kitchen's large glass windows.

And I freeze.

Emris is there, a million-foot tall on the gravel, making a phone call in his stuntman stature. He’s staring straight at us. Specifically, at Paxton’s hand, which is currently resting on the exact location of his potential future heir.

For his own safety, and to prevent a murder in the parking lot, I crank up a smile.

"I'm fine, Pax! Really. Just a quick trip into town. I’ll be back soon.”

I hurry out to the gardens but a text lights up my phone from Emris. Just one word: Garage. I knew he wouldn’t let what he saw slide.

His private garage is dim and it’s the first time we'd met here. The car Emris is in is a black Bentley that cost more than my life. With blue interior lights that make him a villain of a sci-fi movie.

Emris unfolds himself from the seat.

“You’re gonna use that nobody to make me jealous.” It’s not a question.

He has the most devastatingly handsome face I’ve ever seen. Skin like rich gold, messy black hair that looks better the more he runs his hands through it.

He’s taller and stronger than any man I’ve ever known. I’ve felt the raw power in his thighs when they move under me, I’ve listened to the steady beat of his heart against my chest. It’s the universe’s cruellest joke that a voice so rough and harsh comes attached to a mouth that gives the softest kisses.

“That’s not what I was doing.” I whisper.

“What was he about to touch?”

“Emris, Paxton is just my friend. I’ve told you this over and over… he’s just looking out for me.”

He rises to his full, ridiculous height. A skyscraper of a jealous Alpha he will soon become. I am forced to step back until I bump into another of his cars. He’s jealous. And when he’s jealous, he’s less a man and more a walking, talking grenade with the pin already pulled.

“Looking out for you?” He tilts his neck in that specific way he does, a gesture that shows the tattoos on his throat and across his collarbones. I know they travel all the way down to his waist. I’ve traced them with my fingers before.

“Because I don’t do enough looking out for you already!?”

“Someone could see us. I should go—”

“Get in.”

I just stare at him in surprise. Emris has never, ever let me in the same car as him before, especially not while we're on pack grounds. This is breaking like twelve of his own rules.

“If someone sees—”

He drags me to the passenger side and pushes me in.

A moment later, he’s driving us smoothly away from the pack house, and I melt into the leather chair.

“Where?”

“Huh?”

Emris hisses. “Where are you going? Don’t piss me off, Demetra.”

“The, um… to the store.”

“What could you possibly want from the store that you cannot get at the pack house!?”

“Some hygiene products.” I squeakily lie. “And a new bra.”

When we get to the shopping mall, his phone rings. Thank god, a distraction. He throws a black credit card at me without even looking, and I take it. I only accept because refusing would be a whole thing and I need him to be distracted.

I go straight to the pharmacy section. My hands are literally shaking as I grab the test. I pay with my own cash and buy two, just to be sure. I also snag a random, overpriced bra I don’t need as my decoy.

I lock myself in a bathroom stall and after ten minutes, my eyes instantly water when both tests show the result. Two pink lines. Two. I stare at myself in the mirror over the sink, looking again and again and again, as if my reflection will have a different answer.

I’m pregnant.

I’m pregnant with Emris’s child.

I wipe the tears away, only for more to fall. It’s positive. Both tests are undeniably, life-falteringly positive. I stumble out of the stall and mumble an apology to the annoyed women waiting in line.

I rush to the counter to pay for the bra, hastily wiping my cheeks and glancing out the mall to see if Emris is still in the car. My hands are shaking so badly I fumble the card, dropping it twice. As I turn from the counter, I bump hard into an older man and it sends my shopping bag and Emris's black credit card to the floor.

"I'm so sorry!" I get to my knees to gather my things.

The man bends down too and picks up the card. "Here you go—"

"Thanks. I am so sorry, sir!" I repeat until he doesn't let go. I look up and see him staring at me with an expression of shock, so intense that the card in his hand actually trembles.

"Sir…?" I try to pull it back.

"What is your name?" he asks. "You look familiar. What pack are you from?"

"Sir, please. I'm in a hurry." I finally manage to tug the card from his fingers but the encounter is far from over.

"Alpha?"

I look up to see a guy who must be a million inches tall, built like a valley, standing behind the older man. Did he just call him... Alpha?

The older man ignores his guard or is it his Beta to continue staring at me.

"You have white hair. You….you have white hair.”

Why’s he looking at me like he's seen a ghost. Yes, I have white hair and so? My mind is reeling from the pregnancy tests, and now this? Will Emris accept the pregnancy? Will Emris be happy when I tell him? Will Luna Derisha kill me when she finds out I’ve been sleeping with her son? The future heir of the pack.

The Beta speaks. "Alpha, you don't think she is—"

“Please, have my business card.” The older man presses an embossed card into my hand but I don’t take it.

“Sir, I don’t understand what you are saying or doing—”

“I am searching for my daughter. She has white hair, just like…”

“I am not your daughter!”

A father is the last thing I have or need on this earth.

“Dad?” Another young man, handsome and well-dressed, walks up, addressing the older man. The moment his eyes land on me, his jaw goes slack.

While I’m distracted by the son’s stunned reaction, the older man quickly slips his business card into the palm of my hand and closes my fingers around it. And at that exact moment, Emris enters.

One look at his eyes and I know I’m in deep, deep trouble.

“You.” Emris voice makes everyone look in our direction.

I rush to the side of the living temptress I call my mate, thinking he’s furious with me, but his eyes are on the group of men.

“Emris, son of Alpha Kael.” the older man says. “I heard about your father’s death. My condolences—”

“Don’t start with me, old foolish man!” My mate hisses.

The son of the older man comes close. “It’s me you hate, Emris. Leave my father out of it. After all, only one of us still has a father left.”

The male insults the devastating storm that is my Alpha and walks out the door. The older man follows, and the hefty Beta is the last to exit.

“Everyone. Leave.” Emris’s voice isn’t loud, but the store employees and customers run for the exits. Including the owner of the establishment. I don’t think there’s a soul in West Virginia who doesn’t know who Emris is, or the danger that radiates from him.

As soon as everyone leaves, I start to explain.

“I’m sorry I took so long. My… my stuff fell and—”

“First, you throw that puppy, Paxton, in my face. And now I find you cozying up to that dying old man Ronin and his waste-of-space son, Slade. Are you seriously this desperate for attention, or just profoundly stupid?”

My eyes widen in genuine shock. That was Slade? The rival Alpha Emris has hated since they were boys? The one from the Lion Pride pack?

“I swear, Emris, I didn’t know—”

I don’t get to finish when kicks a nearby display, sending a whole aisle of canned goods to the floor.

“Why are you doing this!?” I clamp my hands over my ears.

“Why am I doing this!?” He kicks another shelf which topples like dominoes, scattering products everywhere before he storms back to me.

“I saw him slip you his card. What’s your price, Demetra? Huh? Was my bed not enough of a platform for you to audition for your next role? Are you planning to be Slade’s new step-mom or Slade’s little w***e? After acting so damn pure with me, refusing the things I try to give you… you come here to meet with Slade? To become his w***e, just like you are to me?”

Emris’ words don’t just hurt. They dissolve me. The heat behind my eyes instantly melts into tears that stream down my face.

“W-w***e? You are the only person I have ever been with!”

“Then what do you call a person who is available for me to use morning and night? A convenience. You clean up my messes and warm my bed. I didn't call you anything you haven't proven yourself to be. Now, take whatever pathetic offer that old man gave you and get the hell out of my life forever.”

Emris turns to leave but I run after him, furious tears blinding me as I throw my arms around his back like an i***t.

“How can you call me that!?” I weep on his shirt.

Emris pries my hands off with cold strength. “I saw it with my own eyes. I saw the interaction—”

“I tried so hard! I refused your gifts, your money… I did everything I could so you would never, ever look at me that way! But at the end of the day, this is what you think of me? You have no heart, Emris. You are dark. You are…” I gasp for air as the insult dies on my tongue.

“I am Alpha! My father is dead and I will be Alpha soon. If you’re still in my territory when I formalize my title, I will personally escort you down the Walk of Judgment. I’ll make sure the entire pack knows exactly what you are.”

The Walk of Judgment is a nightmare. A walk of shame where the pack forces you out while throwing filth at you, sometimes tearing the clothes from your back. It’s the ultimate disgrace before being cast out to become a rogue.

And he just threatened me with it.

I force Emris to face me again. “It’s me, Demetra! Why are you acting this way? It was a misunderstanding! I didn’t know that was Slade! I didn’t know who they were!”

“And he gave you a card. You might be naive enough to believe that was a coincidence, but I’m not, Demetra. So much for loyalty. How long has this been going on? How long have you been spreading your legs for Slade? Or is the old man getting a turn, too?”

Emris insults are too much so I slap him! His head snaps to the side. Once I do that, there is only the sound of his breathing. His chest begins to rise, and rise, and rise so I move away.

“We’re done.” Emris storms out. I watch through the glassed door as he speaks to the mall owner before getting into his car and speeding away, leaving me in the wreckage.

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?