TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 366

Three hundred and sixty-six

Isabella POV

“So you’re really Barbara’s sister?”

Lexhaled. “Yes.”

“How did none of us know?”

I didn’t need to explain everything. Emma knew enough to understand why the truth had been kept from me.

“What are they doing about it now? Your father and his wife, I mean.”

“I haven’t thought much about them.”

That was true. Wesley had taken up so much space in my mind that there hadn’t been much room left for anyone else. But I remembered what had happened between Charlie and Barbara, and suddenly curiosity offered me a way to keep my thoughts away from Wesley for a little longer.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“What happened between you and Charlie?”

Emma sighed.

“Charlie and I were close. Very close. It was like the relationship Wesley has with Anita. We grew up around each other, went to the same school, and spent so much time together that I never questioned what he meant to me. Then I got older and realized I didn’t see him as my brother anymore. I started thinking I liked him.”

I listened without interrupting.

“Barbara was around too. When Beatrice was alive, the four of us were part of the same group. Barbara was closer to me, while Beatrice was Anita’s best friend. I trusted Barbara enough to tell her how I felt about Charlie.”

Emma gave a humorless laugh. “She encouraged me to tell him. He told me he saw me as his sister. He said being together would be wrong because we were family. I was embarrassed. I couldn’t stand being around him after that, so I changed schools.”

“Did you know about Barbara and Charlie?”

“Not really. I started noticing things between them, but I never stayed around long enough to find out what was happening. Maybe I didn’t want to know.”

“I’m sorry. You deserved better.”

A small smile entered her voice. “Maybe I did. At least I managed to get your mind off Wesley.”

I smiled despite myself. “You did.”

The call ended not long after that, leaving the room quiet again, but this time the silence didn’t feel quite as heavy.

Two days had passed without hearing from Wesley, not because we hadn’t tried, but because he had refused every attempt to reach him. Calls went unanswered, messages received no response, and whenever someone tried to visit him, he refused to see them. I had offered to go myself, but everyone had agreed it wasn’t a good idea. Wesley needed space, they said. He needed time to process everything without feeling cornered. I had tried to respect that, even when every part of me wanted to find him, drag him somewhere quiet, and make him listen to me for once.

Now I was sitting in the reception area of the chapter house, wondering why I was here when Wesley wasn’t even willing to

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speak to anyone Luna Lisa sat across from me, watching, my face with the kind of patient concern that was starting to feel suspiciously close to pity.

“Please, Isabella. Don’Tose hope.”

I looked down at my hands and rubbed my thumb over my palm. “I’m trying, but what exactly am I supposed to do? Wesley doesn’t want to see me. Why any I here?”

“Because we need you for the next stage,” Joanna said.

My heart skipped. I knew the marking mattered, but I still didn’t understand what they expected from me. “What happens during the marking?”

Joanna pulled out a chair and sat across from me. “Nothing complicated. We need to observe how Wesley’s wolf responds to you without the usual restraints or medication interfering with the process. You’ll be in your wolf form, and so will tre.”

I stared at her for a moment. “And you think that will help him?”

“We know your presence has already affected his condition,” she said. “His episodes stopped after you became part of his life. The marking gives us a chance to see whether that connection can help bring his human side and his wolf back into

communication.”

The idea made my stomach tighten. “What if he doesn’t want me there?”

“Then we don’t force anything. The process only works if he allows it.”

“So I’m supposed to wait for someone who won’t even speak to me, then stand in front of him in wolf form and hope he suddenly decides he wants me there?”

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