TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 265

Two hundred and sixty five

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Cameron POV

Cassidy excused herself and left with Evangeline, leaving me wondering what was supposed to happen next.

Franklin and Nadia tried to keep things normal. They kept me talking, as though conversation alone could stop my mind from running.

“Do you think she’s truly sorry?” Nadia asked.

Franklin scoffed. “She can be sorry, but we’re not buying it. We’re not encouraging any closeness after this. Too much has happened.”

“I still hope she finds some kind of meaning in her life,” Nadia said. “I can’t imagine living after killing my own mother.”

“Maybe living with it is punishment enough.”

The woman who had welcomed us into the building returned.

“We’re ready for you.”

Franklin took the lead while Nadia slipped her hand into mine and gave it a squeeze.

“I can’t wait to have you back.”

My throat tightened. I couldn’t answer.

The second floor looked disappointingly ordinary. It could have passed for any hospital. White walls. Closed doors. Nurses walked past without paying us any attention. Nothing about the place suggested rituals.

Cassidy was waiting with another woman. She looked unremarkable, but the way everyone glanced at her before speaking told me she was in charge.

“So this is your headquarters?” I asked.

Cassidy shook her head.

“Then what is this?”

“A workplace.”

“And what are you going to do to me?”

She only shrugged as the other woman stepped beside her.

Cassidy asked me to hand over my phone, watch, and anything made of metal. I passed everything to Franklin. Nadia did the same, while Franklin kept his belongings because he would be assisting during the procedure.

“So how is this going to work?” I asked, feeling my doubts creeping back in.

The woman smiled.

“Alpha, we’ve seen this before. Kieran thought we were part of Meridian when we treated him, and he was dying.”

Cassidy checked my blood pressure, pulse, pupils, and temperature while writing everything down.

The more she poked and prodded me, the less patient I became.

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“Why are you so involved in this?” I asked. “You were with Evangeline after… after she killed her mother. Now you’re here. Why?”

She finished writing before answering.

“I’m your girl’s sponsor. She wants you alive.”

“Sponsor?”

Cassidy glanced at the other woman.

“He asks a lot of questions, Joanna.”

Joanna didn’t seem bothered.

“This isn’t magic, Cameron. We’re trying to help you. You’re still attached to a body Dominion, and Meridian, still want. If we’re going to undo that, we need to understand exactly what we’re dealing with.”

Arguing wouldn’t get me anywhere, so I stayed quiet.

Joanna questioned me about the voices. When they became louder. Whether I’d ever lost time. Whether my dreams carried into waking. Whether Evangeline’s presence changed anything. What shifted after Lisa entered my life.

She asked every question without looking at her notes.

She knew Dominion far better than I’d expected.

Evangeline joined us a little later. She looked more alert than hollow, but the guilt hadn’t left her face.

I couldn’t stop wondering who these people really were.

If Evangeline belonged to Meridian, then who exactly were the people willing to save her?

Questions kept piling up, and nobody seemed interested in answering them.

“Before we prepare the room,” Joanna said, “I need to confirm when the bond ritual happened.”

“Our engagement night,” Evangeline answered quietly.

They asked who performed it, what was used, who witnessed it, and every detail she could remember.

Joanna let out a slow breath.

“We can remove it, but we can’t promise you’ll like who you are afterward.”

I frowned.

“What does that mean?”

“Some memories will return. You’ll grieve feelings that were never yours. You may question decisions you believed you made freely.”

She gestured toward Evangeline.

“You may hate her.”

Evangeline lowered her gaze.

“I just hope,” Joanna continued, “that somewhere inside that anger, you remember she chose to help undo it,

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even if she chose far too late.”

The three of them left to prepare the ritual room.

The silence became unbearable.

I got up and started pacing.

“There you are.”

The familiar voice came from the hallway.

“Still impatient.”

I turned.

Nadia wrapped Kieran in a hug. Franklin laughed as Kieran slapped him on the shoulder before stopping in front of me.

He looked me over, rested a hand on my shoulder, and smiled. It wasn’t a dramatic reunion. Just relief.

“So you never had the guts to tell me why Lisa was being hidden,” I said.

He laughed. “Aren’t you glad she’s safe?”

I held his gaze.

“Do you trust these people?”

He nodded without hesitation.

“They saved my life. I was worse than you, and you know it. I know Dominion. I know what it’s capable of. You’ve managed to hold it back far longer than I ever did.”

I let out a slow breath.

“So the thoughts that aren’t mine will stop?”

He nodded.

“You’re stronger than I was. I think it’ll be easier to bring you back.”

I slipped a hand into my pocket.

“How’s Lisa?”

A smile spread across his face.

“She’s good. She misses you. She’s also been dragging me halfway across town because she’ll only eat roasted chicken from one particular vendor.”

Nadia laughed and Franklin joined her. I couldn’t help smiling.

“Her mother says she’s in her crazy era. Apparently nothing else tastes right.”

For the first time in weeks, I could picture her without picturing danger.

Kieran’s expression turned serious again.

“If you’re doing this because you need something to hold on to, do it for your people. Your sister. Your best friend.

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Lisa. Your son.”

My chest tightened.

“I’m staying with you through all of it,” he said. “It’ll feel like they’re tearing your soul apart. You’ll want it to stop. You’ll beg them to stop. You might even accuse them of hurting you.”

His hand settled on my shoulder again.

“But those thoughts won’t be yours. Remember that.”

He gave my shoulder a firm squeeze.

“You’re stronger than you think, Cameron. Hold on.”

His smile returned.

“And when it’s over, you’ll finally get to meet yourself.”

Several hands moved over my skin, and every touch made it crawl.

The woman began to sing as she scrubbed me with rough leaves that released a bitter liquid. It ran over my chest and arms, leaving behind a foul smell that clung to my skin. Kieran stood on my left, Franklin on my right, while two other men held me down. The water beneath me darkened until I could no longer see the bottom of the tub.

My chest tightened.

Every part of me wanted off that table.

Stop them, the voice whispered.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

If they hadn’t tied me down, I would’ve covered my ears, climbed off the table, or done anything to escape it. The ropes dug into my wrists as I fought against them. I bit the inside of my lip until blood filled my mouth.

I was Alpha.

I would not break.

Stop them. They’re going to kill you.

The whisper brushed across my mind, so close it felt as though someone had leaned against my ear.

A scream tore out of me as more voices crashed in, piling over one another until I couldn’t separate one from the

next.

“Stop!” I screamed. “Stop!”

“We won’t.”

One voice rose above the others.

“Tell them we want you out of their hands.”

The pressure inside my head became unbearable. It felt as though unseen fingers were digging through my thoughts, pulling them apart and refusing to let go.

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I was still screaming when something cracked across my back.

Then another.

Then another.

Each strike from the leafy branch left my skin burning.

I couldn’t tell when my screaming stopped.

Everything dissolved into darkness.

“Keep your eyes open,” the woman ordered. “Don’t fall for it. Do not sleep.”

Air scraped into my lungs. Something inside me felt as though it were being torn loose.

I forced my eyes open.

Someone poured a circle of salt around the table. Hands lifted my head while Kieran pressed a bitter tonic against my lips.

The instant I swallowed, my stomach lurched.

I vomited over the side of the table.

Thick smoke from burning roots drifted through the room, coating my tongue with bitterness. I doubled over coughing until my ribs hurt.

“Cough it out,” the woman said. “Clear your lungs of Meridian’s toxins.”

She stepped closer.

My hands shook so violently they tied another rope around my wrists to stop me from reaching for my ears.

Blood dripped from my nose onto my chest.

My skin burned. My body shivered so hard my teeth slammed together until I tasted blood again.

I thought that would be the worst of it.

It wasn’t.

The hours lost their shape. One ritual blurred into another until I stopped knowing whether it was morning or night.

Whenever exhaustion pulled me under, nightmares ripped me awake before I could rest.

I never left that room.

The bitter leaves, smoke, chanting and tonic came again and again.

Sweat soaked through one sheet after another, carrying a sour metallic smell. Franklin said it was poison leaving my body.

My muscles jerked without warning, refusing to obey me. Kieran’s face blurred into a stranger’s. Franklin became someone else. Even Nadia’s voice changed until I no longer recognized it.

I fought them all and begged them not to touch me.

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Sometimes I felt invisible hands wrapped around my throat. Other times they gripped my shoulders and dragged me backward. I screamed until my voice disappeared, leaving only a raw rasp.

Franklin and Kieran washed me every day. They changed the bloodstained sheets. They forced water between my lips. Whenever another fit seized me, they held me down until it passed.

A single candle burned beside the wall. Each morning, someone replaced it with a shorter one. Only then did I realize they were counting the days.

By the sixth day, the room had changed. The doors were barred from the outside.

There were no chanting or healers. Even Franklin and Kieran stayed away. They left me alone with whatever was still fighting inside me.

I tried to sit up, but the room tilted. A cup of water sat on the table beside the bed. I reached for it, but my hands shook so badly it slipped from my fingers and shattered across the floor. I didn’t have the strength to pick it up.

Late that evening, Cassidy came in carrying a tray of food. I wanted to ask whether it was over, but nothing came out. She seemed to understand anyway.

She sat beside me, fed me a few small bites, then helped me lie back against the pillow.

“You’ll sleep tonight,” she said with a smile. “The fear won’t follow you.”

She was right.

For the first time in days, sleep came. No voices, nightmares or screaming.

When I opened my eyes again, sunlight filled the room. Kieran, Franklin, and Nadia stood beside the bed.

Kieran smiled.

“The worst is over.”

He reached over and squeezed my shoulder.

“Welcome back, champion.” 1

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