TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 345

Three hundred and forty five

word sat wrong in my mouth.

Fragmentation. I’d heard it for crayons and cheap pens, for things that snapped under Maverick’s hands and never fit back together. It didn’t belong on a person. It didn’t belong on Wesley, who stood like a wall and was going to be Alpha.

Grandma Cassidy watched me over the rim of her cup. Her smile softened the lines around her eyes,

“You have questions,” she said. “Ask me anything.”

“What does it mean? His wolf isn’t aligning with him?”

She nodded once.

“Since his first shift. He’s carried it for years. Longer than anyone should have to carry anything and keep standing.”

Heat shot up behind my eyes. My chest tightened. My wolf pushed under my skin, restless and sharp, as if she couldn’t stand hearing what our mate had lived through without us knowing.

He’d been hurting that long and I never saw it.

“Where do I come in?”

“A bond doesn’t make two people safe from each other,” she said. “Wesley’s wolf has been unstable for years. That instability can move through a bond. It can reach you.”

My lips parted.

“Reach me how?”

“He could lose control in a shift and hurt you. The man who loves you might not be strong enough to stop his own wolf.”

She said it plainly, the way someone states the time.

“I don’t have all the answers, Isabella. I speak from what we’ve seen and what we’re trying to prevent.”

I came to this house to hear yes or no. Yes, we’re mates. No, it isn’t one-sided. Now the answer felt heavier than the question. The yes might not be a gift.

I never understood mate bonds. I never understood the Moon Goddess either. My stepmother kept moon effigies on every shelf and never missed a cleansing rite and still had a heart like stone. If the Goddess watched the way people claimed, she wouldn’t have let me live the way I did.

I kept that to myself. Cassidy’s eyes said she heard it anyway.

“You aren’t obligated to do this,” she said. “You can walk out right now. No one will hold it against you. If you want to know what’s happening between you and Wesley, you have to let us look.”

She leaned forward.

“That choice is yours alone. Not even Wesley gets to make it for you.”

My stomach turned. I nodded.

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What followed felt aggressively normal after what she’d just told me.

Awoman brought folded clothes, a towel, and a clay cup that smelled of ginger and bitter roots. I drank while she watched. The taste matched the smell. It scraped my throat all the way down.

She pressed two fingers to my wrist and asked when I’d last eaten. She didn’t want me shifting on an empty stomach. Another woman gathered my hair and pulled it into one tight plait down my back.

Joanna returned with a clipboard and sat across from me.

“Has anyone ever marked you?” she asked. “Do you belong to any sect? Have you taken part in any ritual? Have you had visions or dreams you can’t explain? Has your wolf ever reacted strangely around a person? Have you had unusual symptoms during or after a shift?”

I said no to each one. My voice stayed even. The pen scratched.

She hit the question about my wolf reacting strangely around a person. My tongue stuck for half a second. My wolf did react around people. Barbara. Desmond. Gwen. My father. My shoulders tightened before I could stop them, my body remembering the cost of standing near them.

That had nothing to do with Wesley. That was history, not a bond.

I said no. It wasn’t exactly a lie. It wasn’t the truth they were looking for either.

Joanna kept writing. She didn’t look surprised. She didn’t look at me like I carried some secret supernatural history.

They led me down a hallway to a shed that faced the backyard. A shallow bowl of water sat on a table ringed with black candles. My blood sample waited in a small vial beside it. Two women bent over the bowl together, murmuring and writing.

Joanna and Cassidy took me outside.

The ground opened past the compound into a wide field. I could’ve run a long time without hitting a fence. Women stood at intervals along the edge, spaced like markers.

“Don’t perform for us,” Cassidy said. “Just shift.”

I nodded. She tapped my back and stepped away.

I drew air and shifted. The ground changed under me. Scent sharpened. Sound sharpened. My paws hit dirt and I

ran.

On my second lap, Joanna tossed something damp into my path.

I stopped. It was a shirt. I lowered my nose. Cologne and blood and Wesley’s skin filled my nose. I knew that scent

in my bones. I circled the shirt. I couldn’t make myself leave it. I nudged it with my nose and stayed there, breathing him in.

The women exchanged a look over my head.

Cassidy called my name and told me to shift back.

I did. They guided me inside and led me to the steps where the bowls and candles waited. I sat. Cassidy sat beside me and took my hand.

“What did you find?” I asked.

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“That you’re healthy,” she said.

Nrowned. She taughed.

“Nothing is confirmed yet. That takes days.” Her thumb brushed my knuckles. “But everything we’ve seen so far supports what you told us.”

Relief didn’t come.

“I still don’t understand what you meant about Wesley not accepting me,” I said.

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