TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 189

One hundred and eighty nine

Lisa POV

The study door sat partly open when I walked past it. I stopped after hearing James complain from inside.

“I still don’t understand what I’m supposed to be looking for.”

“You’re looking for overlap,” Harry replied.

They didn’t notice me walking in. Papers covered the entire study table. Medical scans, prescription records, handwritten notes, and thick binders lay scattered everywhere.

Harry looked wrecked like he was surviving on caffeine and no sleep. He sat in the middle of the mess wearing thin glasses I had never seen before. James sat across from him with folders spread open and frustration written all over his face.

Harry tapped one of the papers with his pen.

“Look at the dates.”

James bent over the file.

“Now compare them to Kieran’s medication changes during the year before his wife died.”

James flipped through several pages and stopped. Harry reached across the table, grabbed another folder and pushed it toward him. James scanned the paperwork.

“Similar patterns.”

I stepped into the room and both of them looked up.

“You move around this house like a ghost.” James joked.

“I knocked earlier. Nobody answered.”

Harry removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand.

“You should probably not be standing this long.”

“I’m pregnant, not one hundred and two.”

James let out a chuckle. I walked farther inside and stared down at the papers covering the table.

“What are you doing exactly?”

Harry motioned toward the files.

“I’m comparing Cameron’s records to Kieran’s older files. Bless Kieran for documenting every irregularity and unexplained symptoms. He built a timeline.”

I looked down at one of the binders near my hand. Photographs sat tucked inside sleeves. Handwritten notes covered the margins beside several photographs.

“He was trying to understand what happened to his wife,” Harry said.

James picked up another paper and stared at it.

“This is insane. Somebody altering another person’s mind this quietly is terrifying. I can’t believe a powerful

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alpha as Cameron would be losing his mind”

I wrapped my arms around myself and looked back at Harry.

“No. He’s not losing his mind but somebody is gradually interfering with his cognitive function.”

“That sounds exactly like losing your mind.”

“It’s different.”

“How?”

Harry leaned back while papers shifted beneath his forearms.

“With most mental deterioration, doctors can usually trace where it started. Illness. Injury. Trauma. Something explains it. Cameron’s case feels different. It feels pushed. His symptoms match patterns that should not exjst naturally.”

James looked uncomfortable now. He stared down at the papers in front of him and rubbed the back of his neck.

“You’re saying somebody is basically rewriting him?” –

Harry nodded. I saw the confusion pass through James’s face.

“Lisa!”

Mom’s voice carried up from the foyer. I turned toward the door.

“There’s a call for you from Wildfangs.”

Everything inside me pulled tight.

Cameron.

It had to be Cameron.

I left the study fast enough for Harry to call after me about slowing down, though I barely registered the words. Mom stood beside the small phone table when I reached the bottom floor.

“It’s Nadia,” she said quietly.

My heart sank. I picked up the phone anyway.

“Hi, Lisa.”

“Hey.”

“How are you feeling?” she asked. “Have you been resting?”

“I guess.”

“And the baby?”

“Still active enough to destroy my spine.”

Nadia let out a laugh.

“That’s probably a good sign.”

I leaned against the wall near the staircase and pressed the receiver tighter against my ear.

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“How’s Cameron?”

Silence settled through the line.

“He’s… uh… difficult. Still functioning enough to argue with everybody trying to help him.”

I closed my eyes. That sounded exactly like Cameron. Nadia spoke after that.

“I owe you an apology.”

I frowned and stared at the rain sliding down the foyer windows.

“For what?”

“I wasn’t kind to you initially.”

“You barely knew me.”

“That’s not an excuse.”

I stayed quiet and listened to papers shifting somewhere near her phone.

“I thought the situation was simpler than it actually was.” Her voice grew softer. “Without thought, Evangeline truly loved Cameron.”

I looked toward the upstairs hallway leading back to the study.

“Cameron needs everybody right now,” she said. “People who knew him before things got worse.’

I gripped the phone tighter.

“Can I talk to him?”

Another stretch of silence.

“He’s being monitored heavily by Evangeline.”

“How is she controlling who speaks to him? He’s your brother.”

“It’s complicated.”

I pushed away from the wall and started pacing across the foyer rug.

“That’s a terrible explanation.”

“I know.”

“I thought maybe he asked about me.”

Nadia stayed quiet long enough for the silence to sting.

Then she spoke.

“He talks about you differently now.”

I frowned and pressed the phone tighter against my ear.

“What does that mean?”

“He gets agitated whenever your name comes up around certain people.”

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Something cold settled in my stomach.

“Agitated how?”

“Protective.”

The word stayed between us.

I stared through the rain at the locked front gates near the end of the driveway.

“I don’t understand any of this.”

“I know.”

I rubbed my hand across my forehead and closed my eyes.

“I still don’t understand why somebody would fall in love with a person and use that to destroy them.”

Nadia sighed.

“Neither do I.”

I thought about the binders upstairs filled with surveillance photographs. Kieran’s wife smiling beside people who probably watched her fall apart in pieces. And now, Evangeline sat beside Cameron while destroying him slowly. 1

Nadia spoke again before the silence stretched further.

“He’s still in there. We can’t give up on him yet.”

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