TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 183

One hundred and eighty three

Lisa POV

I sat at the dining table, picking at a knot in the wood, but my hearing was tuned to the next room. My mother had insisted I stay put until Alpha Kieran and Dr. Harry finished their talk. She didn’t want the stress of their conversation to weigh on me, but the silence was doing a better job of that.

Nadia paced the length of the kitchen floor, her boots thudding against the tile. She didn’t even look at the empty chairs. She raked her nails through her hair and spun on her heel, walking as if she were trying to qutrun a ghost

My mother hovered near her, reaching out but not quite touching her shoulder.

“Nothing is going to happen to your brother,” she said. “Alpha Kieran and the doctor are going to figure this out.”

“That’s the script everyone is reading from,” Nadia snapped. She stopped and looked at the wall. “Nothing will happen’ while he sits in that house, refusing to believe he’s drowning. Look where that lie has gotten us.”

I pressed my palm against the curve of my stomach under the table. The baby gave a small, solid kick against my hand, grounding me.

The rumble of voices drifted in from the living room. Franklin, Alpha Kieran, and Dr. Harry.

Nadia stopped.

“I can’t sit here while they talk about him like he’s already a corpse.’

She whirled around and marched out. I pushed back my chair and followed. My mother grabbed for my arm to stop me, but I stepped around her and entered the living room.

Dr. Harry stood by the mahogany table, holding a thick manila file and sliding it across the surface toward Alpha

Kieran.

“…it isn’t random,” Dr. Harry was saying.

The men looked up as we entered. Their gazes were heavy, shifting from Nadia to me.

“I don’t know what you want to call it,” Dr. Harry continued, his voice tight. “But something is sabotaging medical oversight. This isn’t a case of one patient falling through the cracks. This is a coordinated attack.”

“Coordinated how?” Nadia asked.

“I ran your tests and Cameron’s tests manually, completely outside the hospital system,” Harry said. He pointed to the papers. “What I found shouldn’t exist. It doesn’t match any known toxin, and it doesn’t follow any biological rules I can classify.”

Silence filled the room. Franklin was the first to break it.

“Even more suspicious that they ordered you to drop Lisa’s case,” he said.

“Exactly,” Harry said. “They called it a reassignment, but the timing is too perfect to be a fluke.”

Nadia let out a bitter laugh.

“It makes perfect sense. It’s the fucking Veiled Meridian.”

Alpha Kieran gave a ned. Dr. Harry watched him with wide eyes, nodding as if a puzzle piece had finally clicked into place.

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“No,” Nadia said, her voice shaking with despair. “Cameron isn’t gone. He can’t be.”

“He isn’t gone yet,” Franklin said.

“Then we force him to see it!” she snapped.

“You can’t force a blind man to see light,” Alpha Kieran replied. “He has to recognize the dark himself.” “That’s insane.”

Nadia turned away, dragging her palms down her face.

“Evangeline planned this from the second she crawled into our lives. Franklin has been tracking every inconsistency, every lie that didn’t add up. It all leads back to her. We have to use that. We have to open his eyes”

“Proof means nothing to a man who has decided not to look,” Franklin replied.

That hit me like a blow to the chest.

“Let’s be calm and get Lisa to safety first,” Kieran said.

My mother’s voice suddenly cut through the room. “You couldn’t save your own mate. Why should I trust you with my daughter?”

Kieran didn’t flinch or look away. He looked at her with a profound sadness.

“Because I know exactly what happens if we do nothing,” he said. He looked at every one of us in turn. “They don’t stop. They don’t hesitate. Anyone in their way is just a body on the ground.”

I moved my hand back to my stomach, protecting the life inside.

Dr. Harry closed his file with a final thud and looked at me.

“You need to leave,” he whispered. “That is the only thing I’m sure of. If you stay, they will harm you and this child.”

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