TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 218

Two hundred and seventeen

Cassidy POV

“I didn’t ask for this, Cass.”

Headlights drifted past the ice cream parlor window, smearing white and red across the glass. I kept my eyes on the street while Kieran’s words settled between us.

His eyes darted over my face, searching. His hand hovered near mine, then dropped back to the table. He kept speaking, his voice rough and uneven in a way I had never heard before.

“I didn’t want any of this to happen right now?”

I finally looked down at the pregnancy test sitting beside my napkin. I thought my life had changed because I was carrying his child.

Now it felt like the entire future had cracked open underneath me.

“You were never going to tell me,” I said.

Kieran shook his head. “That’s not true.”

“You only told me because I’m pregnant.”

His eyes broke from mine and slid toward the window before returning.

“I…I needed time.”

My heart pounded.

Time.

Time to decide whether he still wanted me? Time to figure out how to leave me? Time to stand beside Vanessa long enough for the bond to settle before telling the woman carrying his child that everything had changed?

“You needed time,” I repeated slowly.

“I was trying to figure things out before hurting you.”

I chuckled. The restraint it took to stay calm made me almost cry.

“You already hurt me.”

Kieran pushed his hands through his hair and leaned back against the booth. The exhaustion in his face made him look older than twenty. He looked trapped, frightened, and somehow hopeful all at once, which only made everything worse.

“I love you, Cassidy. I truly do.”

I stared at him.

That sentence made me feel sick because I believed him. I believed he loved me, and somehow that changed absolutely nothing.

“You Love me, yet you want my best friend.”

His eyes shut.

1/6

Two branded and inten

+15 Benus

“She’s my mate.”

The words sounded rehearsed now, as though he had been repeating them inside his head. I pushed my chair back and stood.

“Cassidy.”

“I need to go home.”

“I’ll drive you.”

“No.”

Several people nearby glanced toward us before looking away again.

Kieran stood. “You shouldn’t be walking around alone right now.”

“I said no.”

He stepped around the table anyway, reaching toward my elbow. I moved away from him before he could touch me, and the look on his face almost broke me.

That hesitation between us felt unbearable because some humiliating part of me still wanted him to pull me against his chest and tell me everything would somehow go back to normal.

I hated myself for that.

“Cassidy, please listen to me,” he said quietly as we stepped outside into the evening air. “The baby changes nothing.”

I turned toward him so fast he stopped talking.

“You keep talking like this is some arrangement you’re trying to manage.”

“I’m trying to be responsible.” Kieran lowered his voice. “I’m still going to take care of you.”

Earlier that week, I was his future wife. Now I was becoming something adjacent to his real life.

The mother of his child.

I folded my arms across my chest and stepped backward when he moved closer.

“You already chose her,” I said.

“That’s not fair.”

A short laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

“You’re right. None of this is fair.”

His face crumpled at that.

“I love you.”

“Does repeating that like a broken record make this easier for you? You want the baby. You want Vanessa. You want me to walk away and understand your predicament.”

“I want all of us to survive this.”

2/6

+15 Benus

Tears rose so fast I had to look away from him. He reached for me again. This time, his fingers brushed my wrist before I pulled back and walked away before he could stop me. I heard him say my name behind me, but I kept moving toward the main road until his voice disappeared under traffic and evening noise.

My hands shook the entire ride across town. By the time I reached Vanessa’s house, my stomach hurt so badly I thought I might throw up again.

The porch light was on when I climbed the steps. Vanessa opened the door, wearing loose shorts and a flannel shirt. The smell of cheese and butter drifted out from the kitchen behind her. Her face brightened when she saw

“Cass.”

The smile vanished the second she noticed my expression.

A pot sat on the stove behind her, steam curling from melted cheese while music played softly from a radio near the sink. The normalness of it felt grotesque. I stood there staring at her while she stared back at me with growing fear in her eyes.

“How did it go?” she asked carefully.

I kept looking at her and wondered how long she had been carrying this secret while sitting beside me pretending everything was fine.

“How long did you know?”

The color drained from her face.

She looked as though she might lie anyway. I saw the instinct cross her features before collapsing under guilt.

“Cassidy…”

“How long?”

She grimaced.

“At the lake house.”

I nodded.

“You knew I was pregnant.”

Tears gathered in her eyes.

“I didn’t know what to-”

“You said nothing.”

“I was trying to figure it out.”

“So both of you decided I needed time before finding out my life was falling apart?”

“That isn’t what happened.”

“It sounds exactly like what happened.”

she dragged her hand back through her hair.

“Kieran begged me not to say anything yet.”

3/6

whorized and antes

+15 Benus

The sentence settled heavily between us.

Kieran begged me.

The wording alone made me feel outnumbered and that decisions had already been made somewhere without me.

Vanessa looked miserable standing there in her kitchen, eyes swollen with guilt.

“I never wanted this,” she whispered.

I stared at her because she looked sincere. That sincerity made forgiveness impossible, Anger would have been easier if she looked selfish or triumphant. Instead she looked horrified.

“You sat with me while I talked about my baby. You let me stand there planning a future with him.”

Tears slid down her cheeks now, but she wiped them away.

“I was trying to leave before things got worse.”

My chest tightened.

“What?”

“I already planned to go back after the holidays. I don’t want to come between you and Kieran.”

The statement should have relieved me. Instead it humiliated me further because it sounded like pity.

I looked at her properly for the first time since arriving. Vanessa had always been beautiful in a way that drew attention effortlessly. People noticed her the second she entered rooms. I hated myself for comparing us. That part felt ugly and small and pathetic, but the thoughts came anyway.

She had a better bloodline. And now, a true mate bond.

I suddenly understood how other people would see this situation once it spread through the territory.

Gamma girl gets pregnant by future Alpha.

Future Alpha discovers real mate afterward.

Vanessa shook her head as if she could hear my thoughts.

“Cassidy, please don’t think I wanted him. I…I hate this.”

My throat burned.

“You still have it.”

Silence filled the kitchen except for the bubbling sound from the pot on the stove. Vanessa pressed both palms against the counter and lowered her head.

“I would leave tomorrow if it fixed this.”

“It won’t.”

She nodded.

“I know.”

By the time I got home that night, exhaustion sat so heavily inside me I could barely think straight. My mother

4/6

athundred and ventoury

+15 Benus

was counting money near the sitting room when I walked in. She looked up from the table.

“What happened?”

I stood there staring at her before the words finally came out.

“I’m pregnant. And Kieran found his mate.”

Her mouth gaped open.

The silence afterward felt strange. It made my chest tighten.

“You already knew this could happen.”

“Cass-”

“You warned me to be careful. Almost as though you could see my relationship with him was futile.”

“I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

She set her purse down and stood.

“Kieran is bound to Vanessa, my best friend.”

My mother cursed under her breath and rubbed at her forehead.

“The mate bond complicates things.”

“He’s choosing her!”

Her expression softened.

“Cass. Kieran is future Alpha. Rejecting a mate bond at his level would affect more than romance.

She stepped closer, lowering her voice.

“Cassidy, listen to me. You are carrying his child. Your position is still important.”

Position. That bloody word that made me feel reduced.

I wrapped my arms around myself and looked away and a tired sadness crossed her face.

“Women like us learn early that love and stability are rarely the same thing.”

The sentence landed hard. My father left before I was born. Every story I knew about him came through my mother’s voice, stripped clean of bitterness long ago.

I suddenly hated that calmness.

“Kieran may genuinely love you while still feeling pulled toward his mate.”

I laughed weakly through tears.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?.”

She had no answer for that.

I went to bed later with swollen eyes and a pounding headache, but sleep barely came. Every time I closed my

5/6

+15 Bonus

eyes, I kept imagining future ceremonies, future family dinners, future children between Kieran and Vanessa standing beside my own child.

The future stretched ahead of me in pieces I no longer recognized. Kieran loved me sincerely, yet he still could not choose me.

COIN BUNDLE: get more free bonus

P

Comments

Support

Share

GET IT

6/6