TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 204

Two hundred and four

Lisa POV

Nobody interrupted Cameron as he remained on his knees. His palms stayed pressed against my hips, and the heat of his forehead soaked through the fabric straight to my skin.

My fingers twitched against his scalp. The fear from earlier remained; the possibility that he was my mate, and that I was now a target for whatever was tracking him.

Harry’s words about altered bonds drifted through my mind, but the steady rhythm of Cameron’s breathing against my belly drowned them out.

He lifted his head, his hands slipping down to rest on my knees. When our eyes met, he looked exactly like the man I knew, yet his gaze was flat, like a house with the lights turned off inside.

“It feels good to feel so light,” he said, the corners of his mouth lifting into a smile.

I looked past his shoulder, unable to keep staring at that expression.

Alpha Kieran stood behind us. He watched Cameron the way a man watches a dog off its leash.

“Did you drive here alone?”

Cameron didn’t turn his head. “I think so.”

“You think so?”

Cameron’s gaze drifted to the floor. He rubbed his thumb against the denim of my jeans.

“My hands and legs are functioning just fine.

Kieran stayed silent. My mom stepped forward.

“Cameron, sweetheart, when was the last time you slept?”

He blinked.

“I don’t know.”

Harry stood across the room. We looked at each other in silence.

Cameron pressed his mouth against my shirt.

“I can hear the baby,” he murmured. “My son.”

“All right, that’s enough for now,” Alpha Kieran said, his voice dropping into a forced roughness as he tried to smile. “Cameron, you need food and sleep. You and I have a lot to catch up on, and I’m honestly surprised you made it here alone.”

Cameron didn’t move until I pulled his hands off my hips. He stayed on his knees, staring at the empty space between us before pushing himself to his feet.

“I really do crave some Greek salad,” he said, turning toward my mom.

“Of course. We have plenty. It’s Lisa’s latest craving.”

Cameron turned back to me with a smile. An ache pulled at my chest. Seeing that spark in his eyes made the reality of what was happening to him feel even heavier.

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Kieran turned to Harry.

“Check his vitals.”

Cameron pulled his arms back, tucking his hands into his coat pockets.

“I’m not sick,” he said flatly. “Everyone keeps insisting on checking this or that. I feel fine. Better than fine, actually, now that Lisa is here.”

He reached out, his fingers sliding between mine.

“Let’s go upstairs,” he said.

“You just asked for a salad.”

“Oh.”

Kieran gave me a nod, jerking his chin toward the living room. I led Cameron over, and he sank down beside me. He raised his hands and cupped my jaw, his thumbs rough against my skin.

“Are you okay?” I asked, looking straight into his pupils, searching for any hint of the Meridian influence.

“I’m here now,” he said. “I’ve missed you so much. We don’t have to stay away from each other anymore.”

I let out a long breath, leaning forward until my forehead touched his chin.

“It’s all in your hands. You have to keep fighting this. You’re an Alpha.”

He let out a dry laugh. “I don’t care what people say anymore. They’re the least of my worries.”

He thought I was talking about the tabloids.

I rested my head against his shoulder, and he pulled his arm around my back, holding me against his side.

“Dinner’s on the table,” my mom called from the doorway.

We got up and walked into the dining room. As Cameron sat down and reached for the salad tongs, Kieran caught my eye and motioned toward the hallway. I stepped backward out of the room, and my mom followed me into the kitchen, shutting the door behind her.

“We need to watch him carefully, and he cannot stay in your room tonight,” Kieran said, leaning against the

counter.

“You think he’ll hurt me?”

Kieran looked at the floorboards. “I think he’s fighting for control, and I don’t know which side is going to win from one moment to the next. We need to make sure he’s even here because he wants to be here.”

“Of course,” I said.

Despite the danger, having him close made me want to go right back into the dining room.

“And about the mate compatibility test Harry proposed, I think we should go ahead with it,” Kieran added.

I shook my head, my hair brushing against my neck. “Cameron is not my mate. If he were, I would’ve known.”

“Not if something interfered with the bond early enough.”

“So what do I do then?”

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“We need a lock of his hair,” Kieran said, reaching into a drawer and pulling out a small bowl. “And we need saliva from both of you. That’s all.”

I took the bowl from his hand. “I know getting that will be easy, but you said we shouldn’t be alone.”

My mom and Kieran looked at each other.

“Well, you could wish him goodnight after dinner,” my mom said. “But you are not spending the night together.”

We headed back into the dining room. Cameron was clearing his plate, eating the olives and feta with a silver fork, his movements fast and uncoordinated like a starving man. When the plate was empty, he stood and took my hand again.

“You’re not sleeping in her room,” Kieran said from the threshold.

Cameron frowned.

“I didn’t ask.”

The sharpness in his voice made me pause. This wasn’t the way he spoke to people, not unless the fog in his head was taking over completely.

“Cameron, nobody is fighting you,” I whispered, touching his forearm with my free hand.

The muscle beneath his coat sleeve relaxed, and his grip on my hand loosened.

“Take him to the guest room, Lisa,” Kieran said.

Cameron’s fingers remained locked around mine as we walked up the carpeted stairs and down the narrow corridor.

Inside the guest room, the moment the door clicked shut behind us, he pulled me against his chest. His hands moved along my waist, shifting the fabric of my clothes.

I pressed my hands against his chest, creating a small space between us.

“You’re dehydrated. Drink some water.” I pointed to the glass on the nightstand.

“Everything feels loud,” he said. He didn’t seem to hear me at all.

“Do you still have blackouts?” I whispered, my thumb tracing his cheekbone.

He gave a slow nod.

“I forget where I am sometimes.”

A cold sensation settled in my gut. He was slipping right in front of me, and eventually the pull would drag him back to Evangeline.

He reached over, picked up the glass tumbler, and drank the water. Then he sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled me onto his lap, his mouth pressing hard against mine. His lips were hot, but when he pulled back to look at me, his eyes were wide and glassy, completely vacant.

“You’re staring at me too much,” he murmured, his voice lacking any real humor.

I dropped my gaze to his collar. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I want you now,” he said. “I want you now.”

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He pulled me down onto the sheets and unbuttoned my blouse, his fingers clumsy against the fasteners, while I reached up and tugged his shirt open.

“The baby’s growing so big,” he said, his bare palm resting against the skin of my lower stomach as he traced the

curve..

Warmth spread through me as his mouth moved to my left breast. My fingers slid into the hair at the back of his neck. I gripped a small cluster of dark strands and pulled firmly until they snapped free at the root, tucking them into my palm.

“Give me a minute,” I whispered.

I slid out from under him, walked into the adjoining bathroom, dropped the hair into the bowl on the sink, spat into it, and covered it with a hand towel.

When I walked back into the bedroom, the air felt different.

Cameron was sitting upright on the edge of the bed. The softness in his eyes was completely gone. His eyebrows were drawn together, and he was staring at the spot where I had just been lying, his pupils fully dilated.

I stopped near the footboard.

“Cameron.”

He didn’t move. Then his mouth stretched into a wide smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He raised his hand and jerked his chin, gesturing for me to come back to the mattress.

I climbed onto the sheets, keeping my knees tucked beneath me. His gaze never left my stomach. He reached out, both hands wrapping around the sides of my waist.

Then he squeezed hard.

Pain exploded through my abdomen. His fingers dug deeper into my pelvis. The sharp pain made my breath catch.

This wasn’t Cameron’s touch. It felt deliberate.

“You shouldn’t have this,” he whispered flatly.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

“Get off me,” I choked out, grabbing his wrists and twisting my body to break his grip. I scrambled backward, my bare feet slipping on the sheets.

“I don’t want this baby.”

I lunged forward, grabbing his right wrist with both hands to pull his fingers away from my skin.

“You’re hurting me!”

He lunged again, his arm swinging out to press down on my stomach a second time, but I shoved his elbow sideways and threw myself off the bed, landing hard on the carpet.

The stiffness vanished from his face. He stared down at his own palms like he didn’t understand what they had just done.

Then the darkness returned.

“You don’t understand,” he muttered, his voice rattling in his chest. “Everything gets worse because of that baby.”

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I backed away.

“Who told you that?” I whispered.

His eyes rolled upward slightly, losing focus on the room.

“She said… she said if the baby stays, everything breaks.”

The words cut off abruptly.

A loud roar tore from his throat.

I turned, grabbed the brass doorknob, and yanked the door open. I ran into the hallway, screaming for Kieran, my unbuttoned blouse flying open. Footsteps thundered up the stairs, and Harry and Alpha Kieran burst into the corridor.

“Come back here, Lisa,” Cameron bellowed, stepping out of the bedroom with his chest bare.

I dove behind Kieran, gripping the fabric of his gray sweatshirt.

“Come back here! You’re mine. Mine. I don’t want that baby. I don’t want that bastard.”

The words felt like a physical blow. Tears spilled over my eyelashes, blurring the hallway.

Kieran lunged forward, slamming his shoulder into Cameron’s chest and driving him back into the guest room. Harry grabbed Cameron’s left arm from behind, locking his elbow. The two men wrestled him against the dresser.

“He’s not himself,” Kieran shouted over the struggle, his grip tightening against Cameron’s throat to pin him down. “Cameron, fight this. You’re hurting Lisa, and you’ll never forgive yourself for it later.”

Cameron’s head thrashed against the dresser mirror, his eyes shifting between wild rage and total blankness.

“Go back to Evangeline,” Kieran ordered. “Tell her Lisa and the baby are not yours to destroy.”

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