TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 117

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Her voice rose.

“You want me on a table in another territory while strangers decide whether I live or die.”

“They’re not strangers,” Nadia shot back. “They’re specialists.”

“No!” Evangeline cried. “Your brother is eager to send me away. Months of recovery in another territory.”

Her stare landed on me.

“With me gone, he won’t have to pretend he doesn’t care about Lisa. You’re helping him.

Nadia stiffened.

“What?”

“That’s enough,” I said.

“No, it isn’t,” Nadia snapped. “Why is she twisting this? When have I ever supported you being with Lisa?”

Then she faced Evangeline. “You were the one who suggested choosing a surrogate from your pack. Why are you turning a medical decision into this

“Because it is personal,” Evangeline shouted. Tears ran down her face.

“Cameron protects that girl. He loves her while I’m here falling apart. Now he wants to send me away to die.”

She wiped her face with the edge of the blanket. “And I won’t let you do it. If I’m dying, I’ll die in my own home.”

Nadia’s expression softened. She stepped closer and reached for Evangeline’s shoulder. Evangeline slapped her hand away.

“Don’t touch me.”

She pulled the blanket tighter around herself.

“I’m tired of this back and forth. Tired of hospitals. Tired of people pretending everything will be fine. Tired of doctors staring at me like I’m some puzzle they can’t solve.”

She sank back into the sofa.

“I won’t spend my last days trapped in a place full of strangers who don’t even know what’s wrong with me.”

She turned toward the window again.

“I won’t go North.”

Her voice softened.

“We love you,” Nadia said. “Whether you believe it or not. Your recovery would bring life back to this house. If you think we’re wrong for trying to keep you alive, then I don’t know

Nadia turned and walked out.

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One hundred and seventeen

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One hundred and seventeen

Franklin POV

Preparing the announcement that the woman I loved was marrying someone else soured my mood. Worse, I was the one announcing Nadia and Desmond’s wedding. Cameron gave me the task without a thought, the same way he handed me anything that required precision, especially security.

I reviewed every detail, every bastard on the guest list, treating it like a security operation instead of a wedding. I sealed the envelopes anyway. Each signature left a bitter taste.

Desmond was an overpampered bastard, but he had everything Nadia valued, money, territory, alliances, alpha

blood.

On paper they looked perfect. In reality he treated her like a trophy. I couldn’t tell if she ignored the way he chased women or chose wealth over real affection.

She’d heard the rumors. She wasn’t naive. Some of his lovers would even attend the wedding.

But why should I care? She wasn’t a child. She chose this. I refused to show it bothered me.

I picked her up from the central district after her first wedding-dress fitting. She stepped out of the building and I looked away as I opened the car door.

She wore tight leather jeans that traced every curve. I swallowed and focused on the car instead.

“You should have sent someone else to pick me up,” she said.

I stood several inches taller than her, yet she managed to make me feel cornered.

“I’m doing my job.”

She scoffed. “I figured you’d try to avoid me.”

“I don’t see why I would.”

She slid into the car. I shut the door, walked around, and drove off.

The car stayed quiet. I felt her watching me, but kept my eyes on the road.

If I needed a reason to hate her, this was it. She told me outright she would never be with a beggar. Pride hardened every word she spoke. She would rather cut you down than admit what she felt. She broke me. Anyone sensible would have walked away long ago.

I stayed because I knew the part of her no one else saw. The side that surfaced when the world quieted. The cracks behind the arrogance. The moments when pride fell away and the frightened girl beneath it showed.

That was the version of Nadia I loved. A stupid choice. Loving her meant spending half your time wanting to shake sense into her and the other half wanting to shield her from every disaster she walked toward.

“Are you planning to stay silent?” she asked. “I thought you’d update me on the wedding.”

“That’s what the planner is for,” I said, eyes still on the road.

She huffed and turned toward the window.

“This wedding will have everyone talking,” she said. “I guess that’s my future secured.”

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One hundred and seventeen

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I didn’t answer. I knew it irritated her. That was the point.

When we reached the house, she left her bag in the back seat on purpose. She walked ahead without a word, hips swaying as if she knew I watched.

The proud bitch.

I grabbed the bag and followed her upstairs.

Shouting echoed down the hallway as I reached the stairs. Evangeline cried while Cameron tried to control the situation. He sounded strained, though nowhere near as furious as she did.

Nadia stopped and signaled for me to stay back. I nodded. I had no intention of stepping in. The hallway carried every word.

The argument worsened when Evangeline refused the surgery. I couldn’t understand it. Why reject the only/ chance to survive? Evangeline sounded terrified. Cameron tried to calm them both, but Nadia’s anger came from fear. She looked like someone watching her sister slip away.

She stormed out of the room with Cameron close behind her, wiping her tears with sharp, angry movements.

“Tell me that wasn’t real,” she snapped.

Cameron glanced at me and leaned against the banister. “She’s scared.”

Nadia shook her head. “I understand fear, but refusing the only treatment that might save her is madness. It’s like she’s already accepted death.”

Evangeline’s refusal bothered me. Fear I understood. I had seen warriors freeze before battle and strong men hesitate when healers told them a blade was their only chance to live. Even then they fought for survival. They argued about the risks, asked questions, bargained for another chance.

Evangeline didn’t sound like that. She sounded like someone who had already closed the door on living and done it deliberately.

My suspicions kept building, but I had nothing solid to show Cameron. Saying it out loud would make me sound like a bastard. Evangeline was his mate, sick, worn down, trapped by an illness no doctor could even name. A cruel man would look at that situation and start imagining schemes, so I kept my mouth shut. 1

The feeling stayed. It wasn’t an accusation, only the sense that something didn’t fit. A woman facing death usually grabs every chance to survive. Evangeline kept stepping around those chances instead of reaching for them. Desperate people grab the strongest rope.

“I found out about the woman who visited her,” I said.

Cameron and Nadia both looked at me.

“Who is she?” Cameron asked.

“An herbalist who isn’t registered in this territory. She runs a stall near the eastern road and sells powders and tonics no healer would touch.”

Cameron sighed. “She’s scared. She’s probably looking for anything that might help.”

“Alternatives should lead her to better doctors, not powders in wooden bowls,” Nadia said.

“Seeing a herbalist isn’t a crime,” Cameron replied. “She thinks the surgery might kill her. She’s exhausted, and I won’t push her harder than she can handle.”

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One hundred and seventeen

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I nodded. “Maybe. But you’ll regret it if she keeps avoiding the one thing that might save her.”

Cameron fell quiet. Nadia’s loyalty burned through every word she spoke. For once we stood on the same side, both pushing Cameron to make Evangeline face the surgery.

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