TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 166

One hundred and sixty six

LISA POV

Day two of the festival opened to a sky that looked almost identical to the day before: clear at the edges, with clouds building toward the west.

The festival picked up speed. More people pushed into every open space.

I reached for my phone. The network had been unstable since the previous afternoon. My messages were spinning and not confirming delivery. That morning, it was gone entirely.

I turned the phone off, waited, turned it back on, and watched the signal bars stay empty.

“Seriously?” I muttered, tapping the screen again.

I tried Sasha. The call failed. I went to find my mother.

“Network is out,” I said, standing outside her door.

“Mine too,” she said. “I tried calling your brother and Kieran earlier.”

I headed back to my room and leaned against the headboard, annoyed more than worried. Sasha had said she was coming with strawberry cake, and knowing her, she would either show up late with it or forget entirely.

I had been looking at nothing in particular, just the grey-pink light of early morning falling across the compound wall, when I saw a flight of birds approaching.

All black.

I counted about ten of them. Crows settled along the window ledge and the wall below it, packed tightly together and facing the glass. They blocked most of the remaining light, and the room went dim in a way that had nothing to do with clouds.

My heart skipped.

“What the hell,” I whispered.

I watched them, waiting for them to scatter, but they didn’t.

Then something in me shifted. A wrongness. I stepped back from the window. A few seconds passed, then the movement came from inside me.

The baby.

“Okay,” I said, pressing my hand lightly against my stomach.

I looked back at the window again. The birds were still there. I turned away and rushed out.

“Mom?”

She answered from the kitchen. “I’m here.”

I walked in. “There are birds outside my window.”

“Honey, there are birds everywhere. It’s morning.”

“Not like this.”

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She wiped her hands and walked past me toward the stairs. We went back up together. I pulled the curtain.

The ledge was clear.

She looked at me, then at the empty space outside.

“You’re stressed,” she said. “You didn’t rest well.”

“I saw them.”

“I’m not saying you didn’t,” she replied. “I’m saying your body is doing a lot right now. Don’t let your head add to it. They’re just birds.”

I nodded, even though the feeling didn’t leave.

By mid-morning, the news of the road disruption had become concerning. I heard it first from two guards talking near the breakfast tables, something about rogues and a checkpoint. Then Sasha heard it from her mom. Then my mom confirmed reports of rogue movement near the eastern road, with border security on alert.

The day didn’t settle. I stayed within the compound, moving between rooms. The festival sounds still reached us, but they felt distant now.

Dr. Harry came by in the afternoon. He looked at me, taking in my expression.

“Something changed,” he said.

I shrugged. “The network is gone. People are talking in half sentences. It’s not exactly inviting.”

He nodded. “I’ve noticed the same pattern. But you’re under stress, and you don’t handle being cut off well.”

I huffed a quiet laugh. “That’s true.”

“We should be able to leave soon if things stabilize.”

“I don’t want to wait for ‘stabilize.’ I want to go.”

He smiled.

An hour later, a broadcast came through. Luna Catherine’s face appeared, composed as ever. She spoke about staying safe and the festival being paused. The broadcast cut twice during her address, long enough to lose the thread of several sentences before it resumed.

What came through clearly was this: visitors were asked to hold their positions for an additional forty-eight hours while security personnel cleared and assessed the roads. Vehicles not listed as emergency were not to attempt passage. Communications in the affected corridor were being filtered to avoid any signal that could alert hostile parties to pack positions.

Threat level orange.

The border gates were televised, shut, with over ten vehicles positioned across the entrance.

My father arrived in the late afternoon. He stood in the doorway with his jacket collar turned up and the same expression he had yesterday, that combination of guilt and effort that had replaced the carelessness he had when he cheated on my mom.

The guards let him through after checking him twice.

“I wanted to be sure you were safe,” he said. “I didn’t expect things to lock down this fast. All the bets have been

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alert after the signal of the rogues.”

I remembered my dad was naturally enlisted in pack security as a role. That made me sit up straighter.

“So what’s going on?”

“Something isn’t right along the routes. Reports aren’t lining up.’

“That’s vague.’

“It’s all I have,” he said.

“Can we leave?”

“I’ll try,” he said. “I can’t promise.”

We talked after that about everything else.

“What are you going to do now?” I asked him.

“Survive,” he said with a shaky laugh. “Figure out what’s left.”

Although my mom was with Alpha Kieran now, and I was happy for her and wouldn’t want it any other way, it was still sad to see my father, whom I had lived with all my life, and the marriage that meant a lot to my mom, go down the drain.

Sleep came late. When it did, it wasn’t quiet.

Cameron was there but at a distance, and when he looked at me, there was an uncertain expression I had never seen in his gaze.

He started to say something, and the words came through incomplete. The only thing I caught with any clarity

was my name.

I tried to speak, but nothing came out.

Then it shifted again. The space changed, yet the feeling stayed.

I woke up with my heart going too fast, and the morning light slanted through the window at an angle that told me I had been asleep for most of the morning.

The next morning, my father had made the arrangements. We loaded bags and went to the gate and the security escort he had organized. Cameron’s guards told us the road was still under restricted movement.

Later, we tried to leave. We didn’t get far. The checkpoint stopped us before we reached the outer road.

“No movement,” one of the officials said.

“We have clearance,” my father replied.

“Partial,” the man corrected. “Not enough for this.”

“Lisa is under medical observation,” Harry added. “She needs a controlled environment.”

“That applies to everyone right now.”

“This isn’t everyone,” my father snapped.

They refused, despite pleading and Cameron’s guards showing proof that a jet had been arranged to fly us to Silver

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Creek.

Kade walked over to me. Seeing him brought a familiar discomfort. He didn’t say hello. His eyes remained on my stomach longer than necessary, then moved to my face.

“Can you not stay here?”

“Kade.”

“Just for a few more days.” There was something in his voice I hadn’t expected. It was tight, like he was working, to keep it contained.

“Stay away from it.”

I let out a small laugh. “Is this because you still think you have a chance?”

“This isn’t about that.”

“It sounds like it.”

“It’s not.”

“You don’t understand what you’re walking into.”

“I know what this is about,” I said, not unkindly. “Kade, please don’t make this hard for us.”

He shook his head, almost like he was restraining himself from speaking.

“You’re in love with the wrong person.”

My heart thumped faster, expecting the judgment lecture about falling in love with his sister’s mate. But something crossed his face, and he stepped aside.

“Let them through.”

“Are you sure?” the official asked him.

“Yes,” Kade said. “I’ll take responsibility.” 1

That settled it, and the barrier lifted.

I stepped back.

“Thanks for letting us through.”

He turned and walked away.

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