TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 363

Three hundred and sixty three

Barbara POV

Alpha Desmond insisted I stay the night because the train back was no longer an option. He gestured toward the guest rooms without leaving room for an argument. had planned to lodge at a hotel, but i didn’t want hire getting annoyed because I refused his hospitality, so I accepted.

When I got to the room, I shut the door and turned the key until it clicked, then dragged a wooden chair across the floor and blocked the door with it. I wasn’t taking chances with a pervert like Desmond.

The bedsheets felt like nails against my skin when I lay back. I sat instead, resting my back against the wall, and fixed my eyes on the ceiling.

My mouth twitched into a half smile.

The pieces were moving now.

I had tracked down Maverick’s father and handed him the spark he needed to turn his rage against the people standing between

him and his son.

Desmond didn’t care about Isabella. That was obvious. His eyes had darkened only when I mentioned Alpha Cameron and his son being interested in Maverick. He slammed his fist on the table, declaring that Maverick belonged to him and no one would stamp Cameron’s surname onto that child while he still breathed. He also said that if Isabella wanted to keep her son, she would have to choose between having the child and the family she had run to.

The mess was coming, and I could picture the chaos taking shape in my head.

My smile widened.

After throwing his tantrums, he asked why I cared.

My heart skipped, knowing I had to be careful with my response.

I looked at the floor and shrugged.

“I don’t. I just thought you should know.”

He rested his chin on his hands, his eyes fixed on mine.

“You came all this way to talk about a woman and her son, and you expect me to believe you? You get nothing out of this?”

I took a deep breath and went into pity-me mode.

“Wesley and I were supposed to get married.”

I squeezed tears out of my eyes and let them track down my cheeks. The action required no effort. Maybe it did. Maybe the tears also came from letting myself remember Wesley turning his back on me for Isabella.

“Oh, poor girl,” Desmond said.

He stood and wrapped his arms around my shoulders.

My skin crawled under the weight of his hands.

He told me I was too shaken to travel and would have to stay so that we could map out the next steps in the morning before 1 caught my train.

My restlessness came from needing to plant the rest of the idea in his head.

I eventually caught some sleep, and the next morning I was invited to breakfast.

+15 Bonus

The archway led into the farmily wing, where footsteps and voices ectreed off the walls. Children ran through the hallway, teenagers stroved past each other, while younger ones cried on the floor. Shouting from their mothers erupted down the corridor. Two women stood chest to chest, screaming insults.

This house had no walls thick enough for peace.

It reminded me of the previous afternoon when had seen those young girls sitting along the courtyard benches. Tee young, far too young to be in a place like this.

My stomach churned at the memory, but it wasn’t my concern. I hadn’t brought them here, and I didn’t run this place.

Desmond joined me and sat across from me. He wore a clean shirt, his hair brushed back, and tooked completely rested despite the chaos at the other end.

“How did you sleep?”

“Fine.”

He smiled, picked up his fork, and motioned to the food. Plates of scrambled eggs, sausage links, toast, sliced melons, and glass bowls of cereal covered the table.

I took a cluster of grapes from a bowl and poured water into a glass.

“I’m going into Cameron’s territory,” Desmond said, staring across the table.

I paused.

“I thought you said you couldn’t set foot across the border?”

A side of his mouth pulled up.

The previous day, he had told me he was banned, and it startled me because an Alpha getting banned from neighboring land meant old blood between him and Cameron. The grudge went deeper than I knew.

“I’ll cross anyway,” he said, stabbing a piece of sausage. “If his guards step in front of me, I’ll clear them out of the way.”

“You can’t do that,” I said. “That is the fastest way to lose Maverick.”

His brow rose.

“If your pack marches up to their border, Cameron will take the boy and lock him somewhere you won’t have access, you may never get near him. I suggest we get eyes inside first, find out which house the boy sleeps in, who watches him, and when he steps outside. Then we strike when he’s isolated.”

Desmond leaned back, frowning.

“You want me to sneak around?”

“I don’t hide in trees.”

“Alpha, this isn’t a test of pride,” I said, meeting his eyes. “It’s about winning and bringing your son home. It Alpha Cameron sees you coming, he prepares. Why give him the warning?”

He rubbed his chin, his fingernail scraping against his stubble.

“I guess you’re right,” he mumbled.

I smiled.

“Then let me handle the setup. Give me three of your people, and the rest is simple.”

He remained silent, then shrugged.

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+15 Bonus

“Fine. Your way.’

My smile bloomed.

He took a sip from his cup, and his eyes swept down my face, stopping at my mouth.

“How could Cameron’s boy leave a woman like you for her?” he said, his eyes moving over my neck and shoulders. “You’re beautiful. She’s just a scrawny little thing.”

I forced my face to stay calm while smiling. All I wanted was to leave this pervert’s presence and forget the smell of his house.

He was taking the bait. That was all I needed for now.

My mother stood at the foyer when I climbed the stairs, her arms akimbo.

“Where the hell have you been?”

I breezed past her into the living room as she followed me, her footsteps pattering against the tiles.

“I needed to get away.”

Her gaze traveled from my head to my toes and back to my face.

“From what?”

“Everything.”

“Barbara, don’t play games with me. Where were you?”

I slipped the leather bag off my shoulder and let it drop onto the cushion of the armchair.

“I needed to decompress, Mom. Since when did you start monitoring my movements?”

“Because I know you’re up to something.”

“I’m not.”

“Then tell me where you’ve been.”

I huffed. “If I were doing anything dangerous, you’d be the last person I’d want worrying about it.”

“Barbara, we’re already in trouble with the Luna. Don’t put yourself in more trouble. Whatever you’re planning, think before

you act.”

“I hear you, Mom,” I said in a sing-song voice.

I headed to the hall table, grabbed her keys from the dish, and walked past my own car to her gray hatchback instead. No one would pay attention to her beat-up car near the staff lodge.

The road was clear, and the tires hummed against the asphalt. By the time I pulled off the main road, night had swallowed the ground around the three-story concrete lodging units. Colored lights shone behind the curtains, throwing shadows of workers against the windowpanes.

I rolled into the shadow of an oak tree, turned off the headlights, and killed the engine.

Isabella lived somewhere inside that building.

I didn’t know her door number yet.

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