TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 368

Three hundred and sixty-eight

Isabella POV

Emma wandered toward the windows and looked around the room. “So this is where the Daughters stay? It feels nothing like the parts of the estate I’d seen before.”

“Part of it,” Luna Lisa said.

Emina turned slowly, taking in the wooden panels and the women moving through the adjoining rooms. She was referring to the guards dragging injured wolves through corridors, or the rooms where Wesley had spent years being restrained while people tried to reach the part of him that kept slipping away. This side of the house felt lived in. Women moved between rooms, absorbed in ordinary tasks, and for a moment it was almost possible to forget what happened elsewhere on the estate.

My preparations were just as ordinary. There were no strange instructions or elaborate procedures. They wanted my body rested, my mind clear, and my wolf responsive before the marking. I had to eat properly, drink enough water, and sleep. More than anything, they wanted my wolf to meet Wesley without fear or resistance.

Anita and Emma had come with Luna Lisa, refusing to leave me alone with my thoughts. Their presence helped more than they probably realized. I had spent so much time worrying about Wesley that having people around who could talk about anything else felt like being given permission to breathe.

One of the Daughters adjusted the band around my wrist. She had introduced herself as Zuri, though there was something about the calm way she carried herself that made it difficult to guess her age. Anita watched her for another few seconds before curiosity finally got the better of her.

“You’re a seer, right?”

Zuri glanced at her. “That depends on what you want to know.”

“My future.”

Emma groaned. “Here we go.’

Anita ignored her. “People keep telling me I’m too chaotic to find love.”

A few women laughed, and even I couldn’t hold mine back. Anita seemed encouraged by that and leaned closer to Zuri.

“I’ve also noticed that I have terrible taste in women. I keep falling for the wrong ones. Sometimes they’re even my brother’s

mate.”

“Your love will find you in a chaotic place,” Zuri said.

Anita’s smile faded. “That’s not reassuring.”

Emma laughed, and Anita shot her a look before turning back to Zuri. “What about her?”

Emma immediately shook her head. “No Don’t involve me.”

Zuri studied Emma for a moment. “Your love will test you It will take you outside everything you know and turn your world around until you no longer recognize the life you thought you wanted. When it finally settles, you will understand why you had to lose your balance first.”

Emma stared at her. “That sounds terrible. What kind of prophecy is that?”

“It’s a very honest one,” Zuri said.

That earned another round of laughter, though Emma looked considerably less amused than everyone else. The tension in the room eased, but my attention stayed on Zuri. I had been trying not to think about Wesley, yet every thought seemed to circle back to him anyway. Maybe that was what happened when someone occupied too much of your heart. Even silence found a way

to lead back to them.

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Zur seemed to notice the change in ine

“You and Wesley will be all right.

My breath caught before I could stop it.

“But there is a storm ahead of you. You will have to walk through it before you see clear skies again.”

Luna Lisa shifted slightly, her discomfort obvious, but she said nothing. The seer hadn’t promised me an easy path. She had only told me there was a path, and right now I had to decide whether that was enough.

After Zuri left, Emma folded her arms and stared at the doorway. “Some answers are easier to want when they remain unanswered.”

Anita laughed. “Maybe she means Charlie will put you through hell before you get your happily ever after.”

Luna Lisa looked up sharply. “Wait. You love Charlie?”

Emma’s cheeks warmed, and Anita burst out laughing.

“Mom, have you been living under a rock? Emma and Charlie have had the most chaotic history.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Luna Lisa demanded, looking between them. “Those two could actually be good for each other. I could talk some sense into Charlie.”

Emma gave her an embarrassed smile. “You can’t force someone into loving you.”

“Charlie has made himself quite difficult to defend lately,” Anita said. “He had sex with Barbara.”

Luna Lisa stared at her. “What?”

“Barbara manipulated him.”

Three pairs of eyes turned toward me.

Anita raised an eyebrow. “And you know this because?”

“Because I know Barbara.” I looked down at my hands, suddenly aware of how tightly I had curled my fingers together. “She’s more dangerous than any of you realize. Charlie has already dug himself into a hole. He needs to find his way out before Barbara pulls him deeper. If he doesn’t, she’ll make sure he sinks with her.”

Luna Lisa’s face tightened. “Charlie of all people. I never thought I’d have to sit here and discuss something like this about

him.”

“We shouldn’t crucify him either,” Anita said. “Wesley never loved Barbara. Their relationship was fake.”

“That doesn’t make what Charlie did right,” Luna Lisa replied. “Wesley could have told him the truth. I don’t understand why you young people keep secrets until those secrets explode in your faces.”

My stomach tightened. I had done the same thing with Wesley. I had kept things from him because I was afraid of what the truth would do, and now I knew that fear could hurt just as badly as honesty.

“It goes both ways, Mom,” Anita said. “None of us knew Barbara could be this manipulative. You thought she was good enough for Wesley too. Sometimes people only learn after they walk through something themselves. You don’t always see the lesson before you’re standing in the mess.”

Lisa sighed and leaned back. “I know. I suppose I wanted to believe the best about her.”

“Same thing,” Anita said more quietly. “We keep giving people chances because we want the version of them we imagined to be

real.” 1

Emma scoffed. “That’s a very philosophical way of saying people are idiots.”

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A feluctant stile tugged at tay mouth.

Luna Lisa’s phone rang. She glanced at the screen, and something in her expression changed before she even answered. She pressed the phone to her ear

“Hello, my love.”

Her voice was warm at first, but it disappeared quickly as she listened.

“How is he doing? Is he talking to you?”

My heart tightened.

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