TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 203

Two hundred and three

Lisa

“What’s wrong with him?” I whispered to my mom as we watched Alpha Kieran stare into the distance from the

terrace.

“I don’t know. He’s been this way since he returned. Perhaps he received bad news.”

My heart skipped. “You know you don’t have to hide anything from me. If this is about Cameron, tell me.”

“I truly don’t know everything,” she said carefully. “And you shouldn’t panic before we understand what’s happening.”

She ushered me away as we walked downstairs into the living room, passing Harry at the dining table with his laptop open, working on something. A spreadsheet of dates and numbers filled the screen.

Alpha Kieran had walked in about four hours earlier without speaking much. He had dropped his car keys into the ceramic dish by the door with a loud clatter and gone straight upstairs. Even though he was trying to act like everything was fine, it was obvious it wasn’t.

We were watching TV, catching up on the sitcoms we used to enjoy as a family and the recorded laughter from the speakers filled the house. There was something bittersweet about it now, with only my mom and me watching while my dad was absent and James was mostly out, claiming he couldn’t stay caged inside all day.

At first, my mom had tried to stop him, but eventually she decided it was better to let him leave the house, as long as he returned before 6:30p.m

Alpha Kieran joined us later after changing into house clothes; a faded grey sweatshirt and cotton trousers. I overheard part of his conversation with my mom while she set ceramic mugs on the coffee table.

“Is this about the woman you went to see?” my mom asked as she sat beside him and held his hand.

“She refused to help,” he said, trying to keep his voice light even though I could hear the hoarseness in it.

“Who is she?” I asked.

Alpha Kieran looked up. “Nobody you need to worry about.”

“If she’s not important, then why have you been gloomy since you returned?” I pressed, with my mother supporting me.

“Yes,” my mom added. “What does this woman do?”

He stayed silent, hesitating over whether to answer us, his fingers tracing the rim of his mug, but eventually he did.

“She used to be a friend. She helped me after I survived Meridian exposure.”

“Used to?” I asked.

He nodded. “She wants nothing to do with me anymore.”

The bitterness behind the statement surprised me. Alpha Kieran was usually someone everyone wanted to associate with.

“Is she part of the cult?” I asked.

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He looked at me and chuckled. “Meridian is far worse than a cult. But no, she’s not part of them. She belongs to another group that opposes Meridian.”

My mom and I exchanged glances.

“That sounds cultish too,” I said.

“It probably is,” he replied.

“So this is it? Using one dangerous group to stop another?” Harry asked, and I hadn’t even realized he had joined

“What else can we do?” Alpha Kieran asked. He leaned back against the sofa. “Things are getting worse, and I’m done pretending otherwise.”

It felt like they weren’t telling me everything, especially Alpha Kieran.

Then Harry spoke.

“Based on the patterns, and the fact that the fetus’s ultrasound seemed to calm Cameron, we think the pregnancy may have become important to Meridian too. That’s why Kieran went looking for extra help.’

My heart skipped. “What?”

It was obvious they dreaded telling me this. Harry sef his pen down on the table.

“And what does that mean?” I asked. “That they’ll attack me again?”

“We don’t know that yet,” Alpha Kieran replied. “But we need to prepare for the possibility that you’re no longer incidental to this situation.”

“Franklin reviewed the internal security footage from Cameron’s study,” Harry said, turning the laptop screen toward the center of the room. “Evangeline took the ultrasound recorder and destroyed it. Cameron had been listening to it repeatedly before his condition worsened, and it appeared to calm him.”

Fear wrapped around me, as though I was carrying something capable of putting a target on my back. My hand pressed against the denim of my jeans, right over my lower stomach.

Alpha Kieran looked at me. “He deteriorated badly after she removed it.”

“You’re serious?” I asked.

He nodded, then connected a black flash drive to Harry’s laptop and played a grainy black-and-white video on the

screen.

The footage showed Evangeline entering the room and searching through the desk drawers, sliding them out one by one until she pulled out the plastic recorder. She listened to it for a few seconds, then smashed it against the edge of the mahogany desk, making sure it was destroyed before placing the shattered pieces into her coat pocket.

The video ended, and we all sat there, seeing in real time how far Evangeline would go to remove every form of stabilization from Cameron.

Alpha Kieran looked at me. “The child’s presence is affecting Cameron strongly enough to complicate Dominion progression.”

“And there’s more,” Harry added, his fingers scrolling down a page of text files.

“What is it?” my mother asked. “Please tell me this isn’t worse news.”

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“Well…” Harry hesitated. “Based on what Franklin recovered and what we already know about mate-bond behavior, Cameron and Lisa may need a compatibility verification.”

I burst out laughing, the sound dry in the quiet room. “How is that even possible? He’s obviously bonded to Evangeline.”

“Bond manipulation exists,” Harry said. “Especially inside systems like Meridian.”

I fell silent while my mom urged him to explain further, her eyes filled with worry.

“I don’t fully understand it myself,” Harry admitted, “but this goes beyond emotional attachment. Cameron’s responses around Lisa and the baby are abnormal even under Dominion interference. If the bond theory is correct, then Meridian may see Lisa as a threat to the bond they built around Evangeline.”

My mouth fell open as understanding hit me all at once.

“Breathe, Lisa,” my mom said as she moved toward me, her palms resting on my shoulders. “Please breathe.”

I shook my head, pulling away from her touch. “That’s not possible. I can’t be his mate. My wolf doesn’t recognize him that way.

“We don’t know for certain,” Alpha Kieran said, “but the signs are serious enough that we can’t ignore them anymore. Cameron should not be emotionally stabilizing around another woman to this extent if his bond with Evangeline is natural and complete.”

The words kept circling in my head.

“So you’re saying not only would they want the baby, but they’d also want me gone too?”

“Calm down,” Alpha Kieran said.

“I can’t calm down!” I screamed, pushing back from the table. My knees hit the edge of the wood, rattling the empty mugs. “This is not what I signed up for. I agreed to be a surrogate, not to get dragged into whatever this is. They already tried to kill me before, and now you’re saying I could become Cameron’s mate? Do you hear how insane that sounds?”

“Lisa, lower your voice,” Alpha Kieran snapped, standing up so fast his chair slid back across the carpet. “Nobody is saying this is confirmed. That’s exactly why we need proper testing.”

“No,” I said. “This is enough. This is completely insane, and I’m not doing this.”

I turned, took the stairs two at a time, and ran upstairs, slamming my bedroom door. I turned the lock until it clicked into place.

I lowered myself onto the floor, my back against the wood panels, and started crying into my knees. It was too much. I never could have imagined my life would become this complicated within months.

How could I be Cameron’s mate?

It wasn’t possible. I refused to believe in a coincidence that felt so unreal.

Yes, what I felt for him went beyond the relationship between a client and a surrogate. Yes, I had confessed that I loved him. And yes, the signs were becoming more obvious that this was more than sex.

But I still refused to believe it, and I wasn’t going to let anyone convince me otherwise.

I stayed in my room, trying not to go downstairs and ask more questions, trying to keep myself under control.

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I heard my mom knock several times before she finally gave up and her footsteps faded down the hallway.

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If Meridian truly wanted the pregnancy for something bigger, then everything around me had already become dangerous.

I didn’t know how long I stayed there because I eventually fell asleep, my cheek resting on my arm. I woke to the sound of tires crunching over the gravel driveway outside.

I sat up, wiping my face with the back of my hand, and looked through the window.

It was Cameron’s unmistakable black jeep, its engine idling with a heavy vibration.

The driver’s door opened, and he stepped out into the driveway light.

My heartbeat stumbled.

He looked terrible.

His white shirt hung half-buttoned beneath a dark coat, the collar crooked. His hair looked like he had been dragging his hands through it repeatedly, sticking up in uneven tufts.

He stood beside the car door, staring up at the porch light as though confused, then slowly walked inside, leaving the car door unlatched.

Without thinking, I unlocked my door, hurried down the corridor, and went downstairs.

He was standing at the foyer, talking to my mom, and when he saw me at the bottom of the stairs, he smiled. It was a tired but relieved one. Then he walked toward me. I didn’t know whether to embrace him or run away.

How could something feel so comforting and terrifying at the same time?

“Lisa,” he whispered as he pulled me into a hug. His familiar cologne wrapped around me.

His movements seemed slower, his arms wrapping around my shoulders with a heavy weight.

Alpha Kieran and Harry walked into the hallway, but Cameron barely acknowledged anyone. His attention remained fixed on me.

His eyes lowered to my stomach. I held my breath as he dropped to his knees on the carpet, his fingers gripping my hips, and wrapped his arms around me.

“I couldn’t breathe properly,” he admitted as he pressed kisses against my shirt over my stomach, resting his forehead there before closing his eyes.

His shoulders loosened beneath the dark coat, the tension leaving his frame. Nobody interrupted him, not even me, despite the fear filling my chest.

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