TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 236

Two hundred and thirty six

Lisa POV

Alpha Kieran opened the car door even before I reached it.

“What happened?” he asked. My mom’s posture perked up from the passenger seat as I climbed inside.

Did I even have a reasonable answer?

“They didn’t reject me. They didn’t accept me either.”

A frown appeared on my mom’s face, her eyes finding me through the rearview mirror.

“What does that mean?”

“It means she’s still in consideration,” Kieran said, pulling out into traffic. I stared at the road, my hand moving unconsciously to my stomach.

“They talked about my situation like it was an allocation problem,” I added quietly. “Like they’re trying to decide whether I’m worth investing in.”

“There was an older woman who barely spoke for most of the meeting,” I said later. “But when she did, it was clear she ran the place.”

“That’s Joanna,” Kieran said.

“You know her?”

“I know of her. She was a federal judge before her husband destroyed her with the Meridian. She got herself out thanks to the daughters, and she cast the deciding vote for me when I went through review.” He smiled, but there was nothing light in it. “She called me a recoverable liability.”

I looked out the window, watching the streetlights blur.

That night, I lay on my back and stared at the ceiling, unable to shake the thought that Joanna needed to gain something from me before she would offer protection.

What did I actually bring to the table?

I was carrying a high-value Meridian target’s child. I had survived an intervention that should have ended the pregnancy, and I had direct access to Cameron and the household the Meridian was actively operating from. Was that enough for them?

The next day, Kieran’s guard drove Cassidy and me to Joanna’s house, which sat about an hour down the coast. Looking through the windshield, I was struck by how ordinary the semi-detached building and its narrow rock garden looked. It was a perfectly average home on an ordinary street, entirely different from the fortress I had pictured.

A vehicle I recognized from the previous night’s meeting was already parked farther down the block. I followed Cassidy up the walkway and waited while she rang the bell.

A maid opened the door, exchanged a brief look of recognition with Cassidy, and ushered us inside.

“She’s finishing with someone,” the woman said.

We were left to wait in a small sitting room off the hallway. Cassidy checked her phone continuously, the tension thick between us. After fifteen minutes, the distant murmur of voices stopped. A door opened and closed

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somewhere in the house, and the maid returned.

“She’s ready.”

Joanna was seated behind a dark wood desk when we entered. She was scanning a document, waiting until she finished the page before looking up at us.

“Cassidy,” she said with a small smile, before her eyes shifted to me. “Sit down, both of you.”

We took our seats. Cassidy opened her mouth, clearly ready to launch back into pleading my case, but Joanna cut her off with a raised hand.

“Before we discuss the civilian,” Joanna said, “I want to address your recommendation directly.”

Cassidy nodded, leaning forward slightly.

“You’re sponsoring a woman whose case runs through Kieran. Isn’t she his mate’s daughter?”

Cassidy shifted, looking momentarily uncomfortable. “The connection is familial, Joanna, not operational.”

Joanna set down her pen. “I know what the connection is. My concern is with yours. Kieran was a Dominion case brought to this chapter over a decade ago. You nearly died getting him out, a choice that ultimately cost you your marriage and children. Now, a new case surfaces with his name attached, and here you are again.”

“He simply referred her,” Cassidy countered, her voice tightening. “That’s not the same thing as being personally attached to the outcome.”

Joanna regarded her with a cool stare. “If someone other than Kieran had brought a different woman to your doorstep, would you be sitting in that chair right now?”

Cassidy remained silent.

“Your judgment has a blind spot where he is concerned,” Joanna continued. “I’m not saying it disqualifies you. I’m saying I see it.”

“I am not governed by my past,” Cassidy said firmly. “This case has independent merit. The girl is not a side effect of my history with Kieran, and I am helping her because the situation itself warrants intervention.”

“You haven’t stopped loving him,” Joanna said dryly, as though she were merely assessing the weather.

“What I feel about Kieran has no bearing on whether Lisa deserves the chapter’s resources.”

“You believe that,” Joanna said with a soft snort.

She turned her gaze to me then. “My dear girl, the daughters don’t run on goodwill. We run on sound judgment. So tell me, what exactly are you asking us to protect?”

“The baby and me,” I said, holding her gaze. “And Cameron.”

“In that order?”

I nodded.

She made a note on her pad. “Why did you agree to become a surrogate in the first place?”

“Financial reasons.”

“And at the time you signed the contract, what was Cameron to you?”

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“A client.”

“When did that change?”

I thought about it honestly, trying to pinpoint the shift. “Gradually. I can’t give you a single moment.”

“Why are you still carrying the child? Why didn’t you terminate the pregnancy when you began to suspect something was wrong?”

Every breath felt like it was squeezing the air straight from my lungs. “Because by the time I suspected the truth already knew I couldn’t walk away. The baby was already real to me.”

Joanna looked up briefly, then back down at her page. “Then why didn’t you leave Cameron’s estate when you had legal grounds to do so?”

“Because by then I understood the trap he was in,” I said, the words spilling out. “They had poisoned my system with something the doctors couldn’t even identify. I nearly died, and I nearly lost the baby. When I finally accessed my own medical records, they had been altered. I can’t even return to my birth pack because the Luna there belongs to the Meridian. There is nowhere I can go that they don’t already control.”

Joanna linked her fingers on the desk. “The Meridian manufactures suffering every day. If trauma were the sole price of admission, this house wouldn’t be large enough to hold the applicants. What makes your case worth this chapter’s limited resources?”

I exchanged a glance with Cassidy. She nodded, signaling me to speak from the hip.

“I’m not asking for charity because I’ve suffered,” I said. “I’m asking because they are still actively moving against us. Cameron is still deteriorating, the pregnancy is still a target, and whatever they are trying to accomplish through his downfall hasn’t been stopped yet.”

The room went quiet as Joanna weighed my response. Then, she asked, “Why did you get involved with a man whose wolf couldn’t even confirm a bond with yours? Why let yourself fall for someone who was already attached to another?”

A knot formed in my chest, the judgment in her question stinging. “It wasn’t planned. And I never meant to cause him any harm.”

She watched me navigate the emotion without offering any comfort. “If we intervene and Cameron recovers, only for his wolf to choose another woman, what do you do then?”

The silence stretched. I couldn’t find a single word to answer that reality.

“Did you come to this chapter to save your relationship with him?” Joanna asked directly.

“I came here because they tried to kill my child,” I replied, finding my voice again. “His situation is tied to that, and I can’t separate the two. But no, I didn’t come just to save a relationship.”

Joanna looked at me for a long moment, reading whatever expression was left on my face. Then, she slid her pad into a drawer.

“Cassidy’s recommendation alone is not what brought you into this room,” she said. “The chapter will deliberate on the tactical value of your case. You’ll hear from Cassidy when a decision has been finalized.”

She looked back down at the paperwork on her desk, signaling the interview was over, but paused. “I sense a disconnect between the two of you. I need you to bond over the weekend, so you will be staying at her place. Spend time together. I’ll be watching.”1

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