TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 212

Two hundred and twelve

+15 Bchus

Two hundred and twelve

The room sank into silence, everyone likely overwhelmed by their own thoughts.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out. The number flashed across the screen.

Cameron’s name hit me like a shove. Heat climbed behind my eyes.

“Cameron is calling,” I said quietly.

My mom’s eyes snapped to Alpha Kieran, who nodded.

A knot twisted low in my stomach.

“I can’t pick it up.”

“You have to, Lisa. We need evidence. Answer it and record the call. Put it on speaker.”

“Kieran, she’s barely holding herself together,” my mother said.

“I know,” he replied, softer this time. “But this matters.”

Across the room, Cassidy lounged by the far window beside George. Her attention stayed on the driveway outside, but her shoulders held tight, every muscle braced around the conversation drifting through the room.

I answered just before the ringing stopped, my thumb sliding across the screen. Cameron’s breathing filled the speaker first.

“Lisa.”

My knees nearly gave out at the sound of his voice. He sounded ruined.

“I’m sorry. God, I’m so sorry.”

Tears flooded my eyes before I could stop them. Behind me, Alpha Kieran’s arm came around my shoulders, steadying me.

“I didn’t know,” Cameron continued, his voice cracking badly now. “I swear to you, Lisa, I didn’t know what I was doing.”

A sob tore out of me. I pressed a hand over my mouth. My mom and Harry said nothing. They just watched.

“I was so scared. You hurt me. You hurt the baby.”

Pain dragged through the line.

“I know,” he whispered. “I know, sweetheart.”

The endearment nearly broke me.

My stomach still carried the ghost of his hands slamming into it. Fear lived there, buried deep in the muscle and bone. But the crack in his voice dragged something else out of me, grief curling through the wreckage instead.

“There’s something wrong with me,” Cameron admitted. “I can feel it now. I’m losing time. I keep trying to remember things and… and pieces are missing.”

His breathing roughened.

“I’m scared of myself, Lisa.”

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Two hundred and twolve

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I wiped at my tears hard enough to sting my skin.

“I believe you,” I whispered helplessly. “I do believe you. But I’m scared too.”

The room stayed completely still around me.

“You need to fight,” I continued. “Whatever they’re doing to you, you need to fight it.”

I stopped when I heard movement in the background.

A door slammed somewhere near him.

Then footsteps.

“You’re talking to her again?”

Evangeline’s voice exploded through the speaker so suddenly that my mother flinched.

“You pathetic little whore,” she snapped. “You have the nerve to steal my child and still keep crawling around my mate?”

“Stop it, Evangeline,” Cameron said sharply, his voice muffled as though the phone was being pulled away from

him.

“You fool.”

I couldn’t even tell whether she meant him or me.

Then her voice sharpened directly toward the phone.

“You think you matter more than I do?” she hissed. “You’re just a womb. That’s all you’ve ever been.”

“Give me the phone back!” Cameron shouted.

Something crashed loudly in the background, but Evangeline kept going over him.

“You will regret crossing paths with me, Lisa. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll regret ever knowing Cameron. You’ll regret trying to turn him against me.”

“Eva, stop!”

“You already destroyed my home,” Evangeline screamed. “You don’t get to play victim now!”

The line cut dead and silence swallowed the room.

My hand shook around the phone.

“What an insane psychopath,” my mother muttered, lowering herself slowly into the nearest chair.

Alpha Kieran stepped forward and carefully took the phone from my hand to check the recording. His thumb moved across the screen while tension pulled hard across his face.

Across the room, Cassidy was watching me now. Her eyes flicked from my face to the phone in Kieran’s hand. Kieran looked at her too, gauging her reaction. Cassidy looked away first.

I wiped my face shakily.

“Cassidy,” Alpha Kieran said quietly, taking a step toward her. “You heard that. We cannot stand here doing nothing.”

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Two hundred and ther

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He gripped the back of a dining chair hard enough for the wood to creak.

“What about Nadia? She’s his twin. Maybe-”

“Impossible,” Cassidy cut in immediately.

Her boots clicked softly against the floorboards as she uncrossed one ankle from the other.

“A sibling bond isn’t enough,” she continued coldly. “Dominion rooted that deeply requires either a true mate connection or a child carrying the target’s bloodline.”

The room went still again.

Kieran’s eyes landed on me.

“Lisa,” he said carefully, “the Daughters are not trafficking women or sacrificing people in underground chambers. They protect women targeted by organizations like Meridian.”

Everything crashed together inside my head so violently it made me nauseous.

“I swear to you,” he continued, stepping closer, “I would never knowingly place you somewhere dangerous. They helped me survive this. They are the reason I am alive.”

Everyone kept looking at me afterward.

James near the doorway.

Harry staring at the floor.

My mother clutching her cardigan.

Even Cassidy watching silently from the window now.

“I’m tired!” I cried, jerking away from my mother’s hand as I stood. “Everyone keeps telling me what I should do because it makes sense to them, but none of you are the ones being asked to surrender yourselves to people you barely understand!”

“Well, if you don’t want protection, then terminate the pregnancy,” Cassidy said flatly.

The room froze.

I turned toward her so fast my chair legs scraped loudly against the floor.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do with my body,” I shot back, my voice shaking. “And besides, you saved Kieran, didn’t you? So why are you acting like helping me is some kind of punishment?”

Cassidy crossed her legs slowly, her heel tapping once against the baseboard.

“Because you still think this is about kindness,” she replied. “I’m not here to comfort you,” she continued. “I’m here because Kieran begged me to come. You’re running out of time, and whether you like it or not, fear isn’t going to stop Meridian from escalating.”

“Why is she so bitter?” my mother whispered under her breath, tugging lightly at Kieran’s vest.

Kieran stayed silent. His eyes remained fixed on the space between Cassidy and me, like he already knew the answer and wished he didn’t.

3/4

+16 8chus