TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 197

I frowned at the memory now.

Conflict used to energize me. Now every disagreement felt heavy before it even started.

I stood from the bed and walked out before the room buried me deeper inside my own head.

Franklin was waiting downstairs near the entrance hall when I grabbed my keys.

“You ignored my call.”

“I was busy.”

“You were in Lisa’s room.”

I looked toward him.

“Are you tracking my movements now?”

“No,” he replied. “You’re predictable lately.’

That irritated me.

“I’m going to the training grounds.”

He followed me outside anyway.

“You agreed with the council too easily today.”

“I agreed because they weren’t entirely wrong.”

“They practically told you to erase Lisa publicly.”

I unlocked the car.

“I’m trying to protect her from this mess.”

Franklin scoffed. I shut the driver’s door. The drive toward the training grounds stayed quiet except for the constant pressure building behind my eyes again.

By the time I arrived, the younger scouts were already midway through drills. The moment they noticed my car, several of them straightened.

“Alpha Cameron!”

I forced a nod and walked onto the field.

The instructors gathered near the center while the younger scouts continued sparring exercises nearby. Most of

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them were between eleven and fourteen.

One of the boys lost his footing during knife drills and cut his palm badly against the training blade.

He cried out instantly.

Usually, I would have already been moving before anybody else reacted.

Instead, I hesitated.

The medic team reached him first.

The boy looked terrified while blood dripped onto the dirt. He kept staring toward me while the medics crouched beside him.

I stood there trying to understand why my body had reacted too slowly.

Franklin’s voice came quietly from behind me.

“Go to him.”

I looked toward him.

“He’s fine. The medics already have him.”

“That never stopped you before.”

Something cold moved through me when I heard that.

I walked toward the boy afterward and crouched beside him while the medic wrapped his hand.

“You’ll survive,” I told him.

The boy laughed shakily despite the tears on his face.

“Thought I lost my hand.”

“You barely lost skin.”

The medic finished bandaging him while the boy calmed down properly.

“Are you still coming to the inspection trials next month?” the boy asked me.

“If your instructor stops letting you fight the ground first.”

Several of the younger scouts laughed nearby.

The tension eased, but Franklin kept watching me. That became irritating. The headache behind my eyes worsened again.

“You’re starting to annoy me lately.”

“That’s because you’re acting strange. You think too long before reacting now. During meetings too.”

“I’m tired.”

“You’ve been saying that for weeks.”

I looked back toward the scouts training across the field. Maybe exhaustion really was catching up to me. That explanation made the most sense.

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