TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 167

One hundred and sixty seven

Cameron POV

I woke at almost eight in the morning for the third time that week.

I got up and went to the sink to run cold water over my face, stood there with my hands on the edge of the basin and waited for my head to clear the way it always did in the mornings. The fog thinned but didn’t fully lift.

A knock came at the door before Istraightened.

“Enter.”

A maid stepped in with a tray. “Your tea, Alpha.”

She placed it on the table and left. I picked up my phone from the nightstand. The brightness hit me before my eyes had adjusted, and I had to lower it before unlocking the screen. Even that small adjustment took more effort than it should.

I read Franklin’s message twice before the words settled: Lisa cleared the first route. We’re moving her now. I held onto that and called him.

He picked up.

“Alpha. You’re awake.”

“Why wasn’t I woken up?”

There was a brief pause. “You needed rest.”

“That’s not your call.”

“Evangeline said—”

“I didn’t ask what she said,” I cut in. “I asked why you didn’t wake me.”

Silence stretched on the line. I tried to steady my thoughts before they scattered again.

“Something’s off,” I said, more controlled now. “I woke late. My head isn’t right.’

A pause. “Have you eaten?”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“You’ve been pushing,” Franklin replied. “Take something for it.”

“I don’t take medication.”

“You might need to.”

I frowned, searching for a memory of being sick other than having a headache. Nothing came up.

Then I asked about Lisa instead.

“Still moving,” he said. “I’ll update you when I have something solid.”

The call ended. I sat there, then picked up the tea and took a sip. It didn’t help.

Nothing did.

1/5

+15 Bchus

The gamma briefing was scheduled for mid-morning. I walked into the main hall, and Petra, one of my gammas who had been with the pack for twelve years, looked up at me and asked if I was all right. The question landed wrong. Not because it was rude, but because Petra did not ask questions like that unless my appearance had given hér a reason to.

Franklin stepped in before the question could stretch. “We’re behind on patrol updates. Let’s move.”

I took my seat and reached for the first report. The numbers made sense when I looked at them, but holding onto

them took effort.

“Border patrols will increase rotation,” I said. “Double the outer route checks. No gaps.”

They nodded, writing it down.

The discussion moved forward. I responded and gave direction where needed.

“Border patrols will increase rotation. Double the outer route checks. No gaps.”

Silence followed. I looked up. They were all looking at me.

Franklin leaned forward. “You already gave that order.”

“I did not.”

“You did,” he said carefully. “Word for word.”

“You gave that order a few minutes ago,” a gamma said.

Something in my head shifted, trying to reach back for the moment. There was nothing there. No memory of saying it.

“Do not treat me like a child,” I snapped.

No one answered.

The meeting continued, but the rhythm had changed. Responses came slower. Eyes stayed on me.

Franklin dismissed them, and the room cleared. I stood at the table after they left and pressed two fingers against the side of my head, where a dull pressure had been sitting since I woke up. I had no memory of giving the order the first time. I had only the vague sense that I had already said something, which I had attributed to pre-meeting mental rehearsal. Apparently, it had not been mental.

It was later, after another report, after another pause in my own thinking, that the voice came from the side.

“Unstable leadership doesn’t look good on anyone.”

I turned.

Matthias, my shithead cousin, stood near the entrance.

“Especially not an Alpha,” he continued. “I hear there’s a lot of moral corruption in your house. People are already talking.”

I ignored him.

“They say you’ve forgotten your place,” he went on. “Trading your mate for a surrogate. If you can’t honor your mate bond, then maybe you’re not fit to lead at all.”

He laughed.

2/5

and vity wayan

+15 Bchus

I did not respond. Not because he wasn’t worth responding to, but because I could feel the irritation building in me too fast and too hot, and I recognized that it was not the irritation of a man in control.

I knew exactly what to say, exactly how to shut him down in front of everyone. But I didn’t trust my own reaction.

By the time the meeting ended, the fog hadn’t lifted.

If anything, it had settled deeper.

I returned to my office and closed the door behind me. The silence helped.

Then it didn’t.

I reached for my phone again, intending to call Lisa this time, but something happened.

I lifted my gaze and saw her standing at the far end of the corridor, looking at me.

“You-“her voice came, then broke.

I stepped forward. “Lisa.”

“…stay-” the word fractured, slipping out of reach.

“I’m right here,” I said.

“…not-” she continued, her voice thinning.

The space between us stretched without moving.

“…mine-”

Something in my chest tightened.

“No,” I said. “That’s not-”

The room snapped back.

I was alone.

I put my hand against the nearest wall and stayed there, breathing hard.

What the hell was that?

Nadia sat at the far end of the room in one of the chairs near the window, and she had been there long enough to watch me struggle.

“How long have you been there?”

“Long enough,” she said, and Alpha Kieran stood behind her, his presence startling me.

“What is wrong with you, Cameron?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m tired, that’s all.”

I joined them on the sofa. Alpha Kieran helped himself to some wine, waved me off when I declined, and poured for Nadia instead.

3/5

the hunted and saty seven

+15 Bchus

“Desmond is pushing for a public trial,” Nadia said. “He wants to destroy me.”

Kieran didn’t argue.

“If there’s proof of your involvement with Franklin, the council will act.”

“They won’t get proof,” Nadia said.

“They might not need it,” he replied. “Perception is enough.”

He laid it out plainly: the trial was advancing, Desmond had requested it be public, and the exposure to both Nadia’s affair and the situation with Lisa was going to move from quiet gossip into documented record. The council could subpoena anyone connected to the Alpha house on grounds of moral conduct. Susan had already been made aware and was worried about Lisa.

“What does Lisa have to do with this?” I said.

“She’s the center of the secondary charge,” he said. “The Alpha and the surrogate. It will not stay private.”

Matthias’s voice echoed in my head.

“Was Matthias here today?” I asked.

Nadia frowned. “He’s been away for a month. He left before the festival season started.”

I rubbed the side of my face with my palm. I searched for the moment again. Him standing there, laughing and mocking. It had felt real. It had sounded real.

Did I see him, or did I think I did?

I didn’t like either answer.

Kieran watched me. “Tell me what you’ve been experiencing.”

“I’m fatigued,” I said. “It’s been a hard month.”

“Cameron.”

“I’m fine.”

I didn’t respond.

He didn’t push it. He moved back to the Desmond conversation, but his attention never fully left me.

“Franklin’s presence in the house isn’t helping matters. I believe he needs a holiday.”

“No,” I said, raising a hand to stop him. “I need him here.”

I couldn’t fully explain it. I just knew that the idea of Franklin not being within reach felt wrong.

My own thinking had become unreliable. I didn’t trust myself to catch things that Franklin would catch.

“Then control the damage,” he said instead. “Talk to Desmond. Limit what this becomes.”

“I’m not begging him.”

“I didn’t say beg. I said contain it. He’ll get it if you don’t act carefully,” Kieran replied.

Silence followed.

4/5

unded and nty seven

+15 Bchus

I stood up, needing movement more than anything else.

The room slanted, not enough to fall, but enough to notice. Kieran watched me closely now.

“This isn’t normal,” he said. “You need cleansing.”

“I don’t need anything.”

“You need to explain what you’re feeling.”

I turned away. “I need to see Lisa.”

“She doesn’t know about this, Cameron. And she shouldn’t. She’s already been through enough. She stays out of it until we fix this.”

I didn’t argue.

I slept badly.

In the morning, I found the rash.

It was on the side of my neck. The night before, I had registered it as dry skin and dismissed it. By morning, it had spread along my jawline, a cluster of raised marks with no reasonable explanation. I stood in front of the mirror and looked at it for a long time.

An Alpha did not get sick. I had not carried so much as a headache in my adult life.

I went downstairs with the intention of calling Kieran.

I was in the lower corridor when I heard something.

A voice that belonged to no one present. I turned toward it. My hand found a stick before I had decided to reach for it, and I moved toward the empty corner of the corridor and lunged.

The guards came from two directions. I saw them hesitate, that specific paralysis of men trained to respond to their Alpha’s commands and now watching their Alpha draw a stick in empty air.

One of them moved first, a hand on my arm. A second joined him. The weight of two people slowed me, and I stopped.

The corridor was quiet.

I lowered my arm and looked at the guards.

They moved when I told them to leave, but they moved slowly, and when they reached the end of the corridor, I heard one of them say something low to the other. Neither of them looked back.

I stood alone with my pulse too high and a stick in my hand and no memory of what I had thought I was reaching for.

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