TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 141

One hundred and forty one

Excangelime POV

The bathroom mirror slid open with a dick when I pressed the hidden edge. The panel behind it stayed drill! keyed in the six-digit code and pressed my palm to the cold surface. The scanner read my print and unlocked the compartment.

Inside sat a small vial of clear liquid.

The pallor dose. That’s what they called it in the inner circles. Every drop was tracked because the materials were rare. No room for waste or mistakes.

I twisted the cap. The seal snapped, loud against the tile. My hands shook as I poured into the glass waiting on e counter. I was running out of it

“Damn it.”

The warning tone of the High Matron, Jada, echoed in my mind. She had looked at me like a failing student the last time I begged for this current bottle.

“This is the last extension,” she said. No softness in her eyes this time. “I vouched for you to the Assembly. And you’re still struggling with the basics of capturing a man.”

I bowed my head. I didn’t argue or explain why Cameron still wasn’t mine after all these years.

The warnings had been coming for weeks. To the Assembly, I looked careless. If a high-value Alpha slipped through for the first time since the last failure ten years ago, it would land on the high matron

I lifted the glass and swallowed it.

The reaction crept in. It never hits all at once. Cold spread from my stomach and lodged under my ribs. I pressed my palme to the counter and rode out the tremor.

I hated it. It tasted like piss. The compound didn’t cause pain, but it created an imbalance. It mimicked the symptoms of a body shutting down, giving the pack doctors plenty of things to observe without giving them a single toxin to trace.

It kept me useful and safe.

No form of modern medicine could trace what was happening to my blood. The compound came from human tissue, filtered and mixed with black vein root extract. It interfered with the nervous system, throwing off heart rate and body temperature.

Scand showed a failing heart or a collapsing immune system, never a cause. Too much would shut everything

down.

That’s why Lisa almost didn’t make it when they pushed a high dose.

I rinsed the glass, wiped the counter, and reached back into the compartment. I pulled out the slim panel used for logging

If I skipped a dose, they’d notice. Delay the entry, they’d notice. Lie about what was left, they’d catch it at the next

audit.

I set the device back, grabbed a bottle of mouthwash to cover the sour taste on my breath, and closed the panel. The mirror slid into place, the wall back to looking like any other luxury bathroom.

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I stayed there until the discomfort settled enough to move.

Being sick wasn’t the problem. It was the only thing holding my life together.

If I had stayed healthy, Cameron would’ve found a way out a long time ago. He would’ve fought the bond and walked. My sickness kept him at my bedside.

I wasn’t acting alone.

The people behind the Assembly operated like a machine. Everyone had a role, every action recorded, every placement deliberate. They didn’t chase power in public. They put themselves in thrones and bedrooms. By the time decisions were made, the Alphas were in their palms.

I was one of the chosen ones. My job was simple: get close to Cameron, make him obsessed, then take control.

Cameron was rare. His influence reached the whole kingdom. If he moved, his pack moved with him. It started years ago, befriending Nadia, slipping into his circle before he knew my name. After that, it was just pressure in the right places.

By the time the bond was announced, he thought it was love.

My illness kept him close, especially when he began to doubt the bond.

I had to stay the fragile, dying mate while still pushing him toward dominion. If I lost my place before it was done, the Assembly wouldn’t give me another chance. They don’t forgive failure.

I didn’t take this role to stay a servant of the Assembly. The ones who finished their assignments moved up, no more targets, no more lies. I wanted that life.

Securing Cameron meant I’d never be placed again. Stability. And I’d keep him.

In my own way, I loved him. I didn’t care if it came from conditioning. Didn’t care that I was taking his choices away. I wanted him, and I needed him to stay. I gave five years of my life to this. Out of all the men I’d dealt with, he was the only one I chose to keep. He stopped being a target a long time ago. And I wasn’t about to let a surrogate with a hired womb take that from me.

The pregnancy gave Cameron something outside my control. It anchored him, slowed everything down. That delay was dangerous. I was already past my deadline.

Dominion was the final stage. That’s where his autonomy ended. He’d still move and speak, but every real decision would bend where I pushed it.

He should’ve been there months ago. The pregnancy ruined the timeline.

I stepped into the bedroom. Cameron lay asleep, the duvet pushed aside. The headaches I gave him had been wearing him down, pulling him into heavy sleep.

I knelt beside the bed and uncapped the compliance oil, letting a drop settle on my fingertips. I pressed my fingers to his neck and worked it into his skin.

“You’re making this harder than it needs to be,” I whispered. “You should’ve settled by now.”

He didn’t move, but I felt the resistance under it. His wolf was still fighting, even like this.

I leaned close, my lips near his ear, and let my voice drop into a steady rhythm.

“I’m the only voice you follow. Everything else fades when I speak. You don’t question me. You don’t turn away. You stay where I put you. Your choices narrow until there’s only one left, and it comes from me. You don’t fight it.

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You stay here. You answer to me. Nothing else holds you. No one else reaches you. It’s just me.”

1 stood and returned the oil to its hiding place.

“You’re almost there,” I said, looking at him. “This ends soon.”

The oil had already settled in. It would hold for hours, leave gaps in his memory, make him accept whatever I told. him about the missing time.

I smiled.

Franklin was already pushed out. His access restricted, his contact with the Alpha delayed, all signed off by Cameron without him realizing it.

I was close. Once dominion settled, there would be no resistance left.

Lisa thought she had survived the poison. She thought the worst was over.

I let out a soft snort of laughter.

“Run while you still can,” I whispered toward the door.”

Because once the dominion was complete, I would crush her for daring to try and steal what belonged to me.

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