TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 215

Two hundred and fifteen

I woke up the next morning with nausea, and I first blamed the heavy dinner from the night before. But by midday on Sunday, my stomach twisted whenever I smelled food. Even my mother, who usually didn’t notice things, told me I looked pale.

“I’m fine,” I said, but I wasn’t.

I couldn’t even go welcome Vanessa properly when she arrived. She had to come meet me at the small restaurant near the market while I sat there frying not to throw up into my juice glass.

“You look terrible,” she said, reaching across the table to wipe sweat from my forehead with her thumb.

“I said I’m fine.”

“You sure you’re not pregnant?”

My heart skipped so hard it hurt.

“I can’t be pregnant. Kieran and I use protection.”

Vanessa gave me a look over the rim of her glass. “Cassidy, based on everything you’ve told me, you two climb all over each other whenever you get the chance. There had to be at least one time you got careless.”

Heat rushed into my face as memory slammed into me.

The backseat of Kieran’s car two months ago. Rain against the windows. His summit trip the next morning. His mouth against my neck while he kept saying he’d miss me.

“Oh God,” I whispered.

“There it is,” Vanessa muttered.

I dropped my forehead into my palm.

“He was leaving for three days,” I said weakly. “We were in a hurry.”

Vanessa barked out a laugh loud enough to make an older couple glance at us. “That’s how half the pack ends up born.”

“This isn’t funny.”

“It is a little funny.”

I stared down at the untouched food between us while nausea rolled through me again.

Vanessa’s smile softened. She squeezed my hand across the table. “Hey. If you are pregnant, that’s not some disaster. You’re dating the future Alpha, not a random idiot sneaking through bedroom windows.”

I swallowed hard.

“You know his mother already loves you,” Vanessa continued. “Nobody’s going to treat his child like some shameful secret.”

That should have comforted me, but it didn’t.

I reluctantly bought a pregnancy kit afterward, and back home I locked myself inside the bathroom behind my mother’s sewing room. I stood there staring at the box for so long my legs started aching.

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A thin crack ran along the corner tile beside the sink, and the tap dripped steadily into the bucket tucked beneath the pipe to stop the leak from spreading across the floor.

I sighed, barefoot against the cold tile, and forced myself to do the test.

My stomach turned while I waited.

I shut my eyes, hoping this was just stress or sickness that would disappear after a few days. Even though I knew Luna Diana would probably celebrate if I was carrying Kieran’s child, something about it made panic crawl through me instead.

When I finally looked down at the result, my breath caught.

Positive.

I just stood there staring at it.

My fingers trembled around the edge of the sink, and I didn’t even realize how long I’d been frozen until Vanessa knocked against the bathroom door.

“Cass?” she called. “What happened?”

I unlocked the door slowly.

Her eyes dropped immediately to the test sitting near the sink.

“Oh my God.”

She grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into a tight hug before I could even process what was happening.

“Cassidy, congratulations.”

I let out a shaky breath against her shoulder, still feeling strangely numb.

“You’re going to be a Luna,” she whispered excitedly. “You’re carrying the future Alpha’s baby.”

The words sounded too large for the tiny bathroom.

“You should be happy,” Vanessa said, pulling back to look at me properly. “Nobody can take this away from you now.”

I looked down at the pregnancy test again.

“You should tell him.”

“I will,” I said quietly. “I’ll tell him the next time I see him.”

“There’s a party at the lake house tomorrow night,” Vanessa said immediately. “Perfect timing. I’ll go with you.”

She pointed at my face.

“And stop looking like somebody died. You’re pregnant, not cursed.”

The next evening, Vanessa and I drove out to the lake house party hosted by a group of Alpha boys who spent too much money trying to impress each other with alcohol and speakers big enough to shake the dock.

Music pounded across the wooden deck overlooking the lake while groups of young wolves crowded around patio heaters with drinks balanced in their hands. People shouted over each other near the railing, and somebody had already jumped into the water fully clothed.

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Vanessa grabbed two beers from a cooler near the entrance before I stopped her.

“Oops,” I said, pointing awkwardly toward my stomach. “Can’t have that anymore.”

She stared at the bottle in her hand, then burst out laughing. “I already forgot.”

“Imagine nine months without alcohol,” I muttered.

But Vanessa wasn’t listening anymore.

Her attention had shifted toward the far side of the deck where a crowd had gathered around Kieran.

He always stood out without trying to. Girls leaned too close when he talked to them, and guys laughed harder at his jokes than necessary because everyone already treated him like the future Alpha.

“You didn’t tell me he was this attractive,” Vanessa murmured.

I laughed immediately, hooking my arm through hers as we started toward him.

“Don’t inflate his ego more than it already is.”

Kieran spotted me halfway through the crowd and excused himself from the group immediately. His entire face changed when he saw me.

“There’s my girl,” he said, grinning as he reached me.

Before I could answer, he grabbed my waist and kissed me hard enough to make me laugh against his mouth.

“Missed you too,” I muttered.

“I always miss you.”

Heat climbed into my cheeks despite the crowd around us.

“Let me introduce you to Vanessa properly,” I said, tugging him toward her. “I’ve been talking about her for years.”

Kieran smiled easily at first, his arm still around my waist while I pulled him forward.

Then he looked at Vanessa.

The change in him happened so fast it barely looked real.

His body went still.

Not subtle surprise. Not polite confusion.

Shock.

Vanessa stopped moving too.

The noise from the party kept crashing around us while the three of us stood there awkwardly near the railing.

My smile faded.

“Kieran?”

He blinked hard like somebody had snapped him awake.

“No, sorry,” he said quickly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I just…’

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His eyes flicked toward Vanessa again before he looked away almost immediately.

Something twisted low in my stomach.

“Is something wrong?” I asked slowly.

“No,” Kieran said too fast. “Nothing’s wrong.”

Vanessa finally smiled, though it looked tighter than usual.

“Nice to finally meet you,” she said softly.

Kieran stared at her another second.

Then he stepped backward.

“Excuse me for a second, Cass.”

And he walked away.

I turned toward Vanessa in confusion.

“What was that?”

She only lifted one shoulder.

“I don’t know.”

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