TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 283

Two hundred and eighty three

Isabella POV

I jerked awake, my heart pounding so hard I had to press a hand against my chest.

My eyes flew to my son, and then to the bedroom door. I had locked it, but I still listened for footsteps or movement. There was no sound other than my uneven breathing.

I reached for my phone on the nightstand. 6:07 a.m.

The last time I checked the time, it was 4:35 a.m. I’d been lying awake, convinced Barbara wasn’t done

with me.

An hour and a half of sleep felt like five minutes.

I turned toward the other side of the bed. Maverick was still asleep, hugging his stuffed wolf beneath the blanket, oblivious to his crazy aunt’s attempt to sneak up on us.

A lock only worked against people who respected doors. Barbara didn’t.

The memory of her standing calmly at the foot of my bed made my stomach tighten all over again. She’d walked into a sleeping child’s room just to threaten his mother.

I didn’t even want to imagine what she would have done to us if I were a deep sleeper. Barbara could be vicious enough to take Maverick and use him as bait to force me out of here.

I had to tell someone, but who?

Going up to Luna Lisa to tell her that Barbara had sneaked into my room would only make me look stupid, especially because I knew Barbara would deny it. She’d smile politely and ask why she would ever do such a thing.

Then the only person who had helped me without asking for anything in return would start looking at me differently.

I was the single mother no one knew.

Barbara was practically family. She’d grown up with them and had been dating Wesley for years.

The answer felt obvious before I’d even finished asking myself the question.

No one would choose me.

I learned that lesson years ago. Barbara had been proving it long before today.

Eight months pregnant, I’d been walking down the back steps in my father’s house. My ankles were swollen, my back ached, and I hadn’t eaten all day.

Barbara had been waiting near the bottom of the stairs. She’d smiled and stepped aside as though making room for me, and then she’d nudged my shoulder. My foot had missed the next step. I still

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remembered the sickening rush of falling, the sharp crack of my hip against the edge of the stairs, and the blood soaking through my clothes afterward.

I’d spent two days convinced I’d lost Maverick.

Nobody questioned her. Why would they? She was Barbara. I was just another girl carrying an inconvenient child. People like Barbara didn’t need witnesses. They only needed everyone else to believe they were incapable of doing anything wrong.

Whatever reason Wesley had for pretending our bond didn’t exist, I wasn’t going to force the issue by announcing it myself. Maybe there was some political arrangement I didn’t understand. Alpha families rarely married for love alone. Maybe he intended to reject the bond. Maybe he simply wasn’t willing to fight for it.

If he wasn’t prepared to acknowledge me, then I wasn’t going to stand in front of his family claiming rights he refused to claim himself.

Not when I had a son depending on me.

I dressed quietly before waking Maverick. By the time I dropped him off with Grandma Cassidy and headed toward the staff shuttle, the sun was high in the sky, though my body still felt as heavy as it had the night I’d barely survived.

The shuttle wasn’t full yet. I chose a seat near the window and leaned my head against the glass. The drowsiness from not sleeping enough almost lulled me to sleep before someone stopped beside my row.

“Mind if I sit here?”

I looked up.

He was the man I’d queued up beside yesterday. We’d exchanged a brief greeting before going our

separate ways.

“Go ahead.”

“Thanks.”

He settled into the seat beside me with a smile.

“I’m Harrison.”

I nodded.

“Isabella.”

“I’m in Executive Accounting,” he continued. “You?”

“The Luna’s Office.”

He smiled.

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“Your face doesn’t look familiar. You must be new.”

I nodded. “I resumed this week.”

“How’s that going?”

I stifled a groan. Could he not leave me alone?

“Good.”

He glanced sideways at me.

“You don’t sound convinced.”

“I’m just tired.”

“I picked the wrong day to introduce myself, didn’t I?”

He said it with a smile that made me feel guilty for being rude. I must have looked as awful as I felt.

“I’m sorry. It’s just that I didn’t get enough sleep last night,” I said.

“You’ll get used to the pace around here,” he said. “The first week usually hits everyone like a truck.”

I made a quiet sound that could have passed for agreement.

He wasn’t doing anything wrong. If anything, he seemed genuinely kind. Under different circumstances, I might have welcomed the conversation. Today, every question felt like another demand on energy I no longer had.

“So…” Harrison said after another pause. “Would you like to have lunch together later?”

“No.”

His eyebrows lifted, more surprised than offended.

“I mean… just lunch. At the office. You don’t have to be so guarded.”

I sighed. “During onboarding, they made it clear that we were expected to remain professional.”

He laughed. “Isabella… I wasn’t proposing marriage.”

Heat crept into my cheeks.

“Just lunch, as friends.”

He still had a smile on his face.

“Sorry.”

“It’s all right.” He leaned back against his seat. “I moved here two years ago. I didn’t know anyone. I thought I’d save another newcomer the experience.”

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His explanation only made me feel worse.

“I’m just not very good at making friends.”

“Fair enough.”

Neither of us spoke again for the rest of the journey. I appreciated that he seemed content to leave the

conversation where it was.

When the shuttle pulled into the executive building, we stepped off with the rest of the staff.

“I’ll see you around, Isabella.”

I managed a smile.

“You too.”

By the time I reached Luna’s Office, the lack of sleep had settled behind my eyes like sand. I had barely been working thirty minutes before Emerald started issuing instructions.

“No, not there.” She clicked her tongue impatiently. “Honestly, do I have to explain everything twice?”

I looked at the folder in my hands.

“You asked me to organize these by department.”

“I meant alphabetically first.”

“You didn’t say that.”

“I shouldn’t have to.”

I swallowed the reply that immediately came to mind.

It continued like that all morning. Everything I did drew another criticism, and every question I asked earned an exaggerated sigh. Even the people who weren’t involved were somehow roped into her complaints, as she tried to convince them that I was slowing the department down simply by existing.

By the fourth interruption, I caught myself studying her instead of listening. She seemed to hold a personal grudge against me.

She snatched another file from my hands.

“No. Are you deliberately trying to make more work for me?”

“I can hear you,” I said. “You don’t have to raise your voice.”

Emerald stared at me as though I’d slapped her.

“What did you just say?”

Footsteps approached from the hallway. Emerald rushed to her seat. Luna Lisa walked into the outer

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office and glanced between us.

“I thought I heard shouting.”

Emerald’s expression transformed so quickly that it would have been impressive if I hadn’t been standing right in front of her.

“No shouting, Luna. We were just discussing filing procedures.”

Luna Lisa looked at us both for a brief moment.

“I wanted to check on preparations for the gala,” she said. “Are all the outfits ready?”

“Almost,” Emerald replied smoothly. “Everyone’s finished except Miss Anita’s. She rejected yesterday’s design. She wants embellishments instead, and she asked to change the style of the blouse.”

“Then give her the embellishments.”

Emerald hesitated. “We’ve already invested quite a bit of time in the original.”

“She’ll probably change her mind by tomorrow. Just make sure whatever you produce stays within the family’s lavender theme.”

Emerald placed the rejected design on the worktable for Lisa to inspect.

“I was thinking we should prepare a second option.”

“You probably should.”

I glanced at the sketch. Anita’s name was written neatly across the label.

It made me wonder. Maybe yesterday had simply been one of those unpredictable moods, and maybe today she’d walk past me without a second glance.

That would be a relief.

An idea formed almost before I realized it. Emerald clearly didn’t want my opinions, but Luna Lisa seemed to need a solution for her daughter’s indecisiveness.

“Luna, if we made the overskirt detachable, she could switch between two looks without us making two completely different dresses.”

My voice barely sounded like mine. Emerald let out a mocking laugh to cover her annoyance.

“That would only make things more complicated, Luna.”

Luna Lisa looked at me.

“Do you have a sketch?”

“I can draw one.”

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“Good. Bring it to me when you’re finished.”

P

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