When You Were My Mate

4

Demetra.

Five years later.

West Virginia Airport.

“Tired?”

My dad, Alpha Ronin, wraps his hand around mine in the first-class seat. It’s warm. Six hours from Manila and my butt is sore.

“I’m beyond tired.” I mumble through a yawn and glance sideways. “She’s still asleep?”

Amira, my daughter is hugging Grandpa’s arms with her mouth slightly open after being a menace the entire flight. The air hostess approaches, politely informing us that the path is clear for us to leave the plane. I start gathering my laptop, my sketchbook, pens—

“Mr. Pride, Miss. Pride, this way.”

We don’t lift a finger. Not for the bags, not for anything. The moment our feet touch the ground, a black car is already waiting to take us straight from the plane

One of the many, many perks of being the daughter of the Alpha of the Lion pack. It still feels a little like playing dress-up, like any minute someone’s going to tap me on the shoulder and say, “Okay, fun’s over. Back to being the Black covenant’s charity case.”

Five years ago, I called the number on that business card, not knowing I was dialing my own future.

Back then in that store, Alpha Ronin recognized me not because he knew me…but because he knew my mother. A one-night stand. A mistake. Or maybe fate being cruelly efficient.

White hair is pretty rare for wolves. Most people bleach or dye it, trying to look cool or intimidating. So it’s hard to spot a true one in the wild. But Alpha Ronin said he saw her in my face and the shape of my eyes.

He had to be sure if I was his.

When I called him, a fleet of cars arrived like and I was taken to the Lion Pack estate. They didn’t treat me like a stray. They treated me like a person. Like family, even before we knew for sure.

That was when I met Slade. My half-brother.

Then Alpha Ronin said my mother’s name and suddenly, everything clicked. The Black Covenant Pack had told me the history of my mother and since Alpha Ronin claimed he had a one-night stand with her, I agreed for a DNA test.

It proved that Alpha Ronin was my father. All that time, I’d been an Alpha’s daughter, living on my knees.

All those years I spent surviving as a charity case, I was the daughter of an Alpha.

I nursed my broken heart for a year straight. Some days it nearly kills me but I survived because I wasn’t not alone.

Then I give birth to Amira.

And somehow, I break all over again.

She has Emris’ hair. His eyebrows. His face hiding in hers so clearly it hurts to look at her for too long. Every time I hold her, the truth settles deeper into my bones that she is going to grow up without knowing her father. He doesn’t know she exists. And even if he did… I’m not sure he would care.

That thought almost destroyed me.

But Amira also saves me.

I find strength in her tiny hands, in the way she curls against my chest like I’m her entire world. My dad notices the way I’m fading so he makes the decision for me when I’m too weak to make it myself.

I need to leave the country so I choose Paris without really thinking. It sounds far away enough. I don’t realize what it will become until I’m standing inside the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen…flowers everywhere, gardens and that’s where I begin to paint.

I paint my pain.

I paint my past.

I paint my heartbreak.

I put every ounce of "him" and every ounce of onto those canvases. I shut out the entire world, focused only on my little girl and the colors on my palette.

I started going to art school, not to find myself, but to prove I could. And then I sold my first piece. The first bidder wanted it for hundreds of millions. Just like that, I wasn't just Demetra. I was Demetra Pride, the millionaire artist who came out of nowhere.

That sale did something more than fill my bank account. It gave me a new bone structure, one made of confidence. I believed I could do anything.

In Paris, dad retires from leading the pack just to be with me and his granddaughter. For a while, it’s just us but now… after five years, we are back. We’ve returned to support Slade as he fully takes the reins of the pack.

And Dad… he says it’s my duty, too. To help run it alongside my brother. He doesn’t want Amira growing up away from her entire family, from her legacy. I’m ready. I no longer nurse a broken heart. I have nothing to run from anymore.

When we arrive at the pack house, everyone is already waiting.

Dad squeezes my hand as we walk toward the entrance. "Ready, cub?"

That’s his nickname for me.

I squeeze back. "Born ready."

His sister, Aunt Rachel who visited us in Paris so often when Amira was a baby smiles widely. I see my uncles, my cousins—

And then Tiffany, Aunt Allison’s daughter breaks from the crowd to swallow me.

“Oh my goodness, Demetra!”

“Tiff.” I hug her fiercely and my voice is muffled against her shoulder.

When we pull apart, Slade is there. He wraps me in a bear hug. We stare at each other for a long moment.

“Craig. Timothy.” I call out my cousins’ names as I recognize them, hugging them before pulling the rest of the girls into quick embraces too. Eventually, we all move inside.

“I’m planning the biggest party you’ve ever seen—”

“A party?” I say to Tiff. She’s the one who flew to Paris and basically moved in during those hazy, difficult postpartum months.

“I feel like I’ve been through so many gallery openings and world events back in Paris that a party is just…”

“Don’t even say you’re overwhelmed.” She links her arm with mine and steering me toward the pack house. “You are the Alpha’s daughter, and the entire pack has been dying to formally meet you. This is your fate. Now, come see your room—”

She opens a set of double doors and I actually stop breathing for a second.

It’s…gorgeous. And insane. It looks like Barbie’s dream house decided to have a love child with a modern castle. A queen-sized bed on a raised platform with large pillars. A gorgeous rooftop balcony. Everything is marble. And the closet… the closet has its own large, spiral staircase. It’s less of a closet and more of a boutique.

“Slade went crazy with your room.” Tiffany says, watching my face as my mouth hangs open.

“Why does the closet look like a luxury boutique!?”

“Maybe because Slade got a boutique consultant to figure that out,” she says with a smirk.

“He did what?!” I gasp. This is the point where I stop admiring and need to go interrogate whatever is happening in my brother’s mind. As I whirl around to head back out, I nearly collide with Aunt Scotty.

“There you are, darling!” She pulls me into a hug, then holds my face at arm’s length. “You look so beautiful. Truly radiant.”

“Thank you, Auntie.”

“My friend has a son,” she continues. “He’s the Alpha of the Nightfall Pack, and he’s very single. And by how beautiful you are, I’m sure he wouldn’t care one bit that you have a kid already.”

I exhale and gently extract my face from her hand.

“I don’t come back to West Virginia to date—”

“That is not possible! You are the Alpha’s daughter, and there are many single Alphas who would be thrilled—”

“I won’t date someone who sees my daughter as a liability. If I marry one day, it will be to someone who loves my daughter with all their heart, Aunt. That’s non-negotiable. Anyway, can we talk about this later? I’m looking for Slade.”

“Demetra…” she sighs, but I squeeze her hand, blow a kiss into the air, and move quickly before she can launch into a full presentation on the pros and cons of marriage.

Ever since my last heartbreak, I haven’t even opened my heart enough to imagine another man in that space. And honestly, that might be how it stays.

I finally find Slade in his office, finishing a phone call. He sees me lingering in the doorway and his stern expression softens into a smile. He says a quick goodbye and hangs up.

“Hey, sis.”

“I just escaped Scotty.” I announce, collapsing into the chair opposite his desk. “She’s talking about setting me up on dates and I haven’t even unpacked my luggage’s frist.”

He chuckles. “She’s been talking about it. She’s got a long line for the both of us.”

I squint, then realize. “True. You don’t have a Luna yet.”

“I don’t need a Luna.” Slade says.

“Says no one… ever,” I counter with a soft chuckle.

“I’ll get a Luna when you get married.”

“I am not getting married, Slade.”

“And that,” he says lightly, “makes it clear what we both want.”

The joke hangs between us and we chuckle. He comes around the desk and pulls me into another hug. He rests his head on top of mine, and for a moment, we just stand there in the quiet of his office.

“How’s being an Alpha going?” I murmur into his chest.

His sigh is deep. “Hard. Without Dad. Hard, knowing the final decisions are mine to make. The weight of it… it’s different when you’re actually holding it.”

I pull back to look up at him. “I’m sorry he left. He left because he wasn’t sure I would find the will to move on. It’s my fault—”

“Don’t even,” Slade says quietly. “Dad wasn’t there for you during the years you needed him most, so he definitely wanted to be there for you and Amira this time. I’m just glad you’re both back now. We can do this together.”

I smile.

“So, what’s the recent gist?”

“Um…” Slade hesitates for a moment. “It’s the Black Covenant Pack. They’re trying to take over a territory that belongs to us.”

My brows lift. “What?”

“We’re separated by water, but there’s land before the shoreline that’s ours. They’re fighting for it. Their Alpha is claiming it belongs to them and he’s gone as far as calling the Council against us.”

I narrow my eyes. The Council of Wolves is an organization made up of representatives from different packs, meant to judge disputes like this fairly. Supposedly.

“If it’s ours, then it’s ours.” I say, carefully avoiding my mate’s name. “He has no right.”

“That’s the kind of person he is,” Slade replies darkly. “In the last five years, his pack has grown more vile. Greedy. They take and take, acting like they’re the greatest pack alive. He’s claiming the land originally belonged to his grandmother and that he has documents to prove it.”

“Documents?” I repeat.

“Yes. And because of this stupid territorial dispute, his wolves think they have the right to harass ours in public. They’ve been confronting them. Tackling them.”

My jaw tightens immediately. “So what…what are we supposed to do? Just let that slide? We can’t allow him to bully our pack. If the current documents show the land belongs to us, then it belongs to us.”

“I want to handle this without bloodshed but someone like the Black Covenant Alpha doesn’t care who bleeds. That’s why I’ve got a constant headache.”

I frown.

“Hey. Don’t grow wrinkles now. I’ll take care of it.” Slade says. “I’ve already registered Amira for school. I gave them all her information and they said she can start on Monday. She’ll adjust just fine, I promise. If you don’t believe me, you can go to the parent–teacher meeting, alright?”

“Alright.” I try to smile. “I’m going to take a shower. Then we can continue.”

He kisses my hand before I leave, and I smile…right up until I step out of his room.

The moment the door closes behind me, tears blur my eyes. My chest burns like something is ripping open again. Even my ears feel hot. After all these years, Emris is still the same kind of person.

The kind who takes.

The kind who breaks.

I wish I had rejected him before he ever had the chance to push me away. Maybe then I wouldn’t still feel this connection…this pull that refuses to die no matter how far I run.

I swipe at my eyes and keep walking. Because I don’t get to fall apart anymore.