TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 46

+15 8chus

I caught her face and redirected the movement, pressing a kiss to her forehead instead.

“You should rest,” I said. “Save your energy for the ball. Whatever you choose will be perfect.”

Evangeline studied my face, searching it. For a moment I thought she might notice something was wrong, but she smiled and kissed my cheek.

“You’re right. I should finalize the arrangements with the caterers.”

I helped her stand and left the room before she could see the tension in my hands.

Nadia’s bedroom looked like a battlefield of silk and lace. Dresses lay across the bed, chairs, and floor. She looked up in surprise when I entered.

“Cameron?” She set a dress aside. “What are you doing here?”

I almost never went to Nadia’s room.

Not unless something was wrong.

“I need to talk to you.”

Her expression changed immediately. “What’s wrong?”

I closed the door and leaned against it, searching for words.

“Something’s happening with Evangeline. With the bond. I don’t know how to explain it.”

Nadia crossed her arms. “Try.”

“She smells wrong.”

The words felt like betrayal the moment they left my mouth.

“Rotten eggs. Sulfur. And it keeps getting stronger. Every time she gets close, every time she touches me, my wolf reacts.”

“How?”

“It rejects her.”

Nadia stared at me. “Could it be because you’re sleeping with another woman?”

“No.” I shook my head. “It isn’t that. Something about the bond itself feels wrong. Like it’s breaking. Or like it was never right in the first place.”

“Cameron.” Her voice sharpened. “Listen to yourself. You’re imagining problems because you’ve started enjoying sex with that girl.”

“I’m not imagining it.” The frustration pushed my voice higher. “I came to you because I need help, not because I need you telling me my instincts are wrong.”

She lifted her hands. “Alright. Sorry. Describe the smell again.”

“Sulfur. Rotting.”

Nadia frowned and thought for a moment.

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“It could be the illness,” she said. “Bodies breaking down sometimes produce strange odors. Medication can do it too.”

“Then why can’t anyone else smell it?”

“Maybe the mate bond makes you more sensitive.”

“Or maybe the mate bond is the problem.”

The words hung between us.

Nadia looked at me like I had suggested the sky was green.

“That’s impossible,” she said. “Mate bonds don’t break. The Moon Goddess chooses them. They’re permanent.”

“Are they?”

I moved toward the window and looked out over the estate grounds.

“Because mine feels like it’s dying. And I don’t know if it’s because of the Still Howl ritual, because of Lisa, or because something was wrong from the beginning.”

“Nothing was wrong from the beginning,” Nadia said firmly. “You and Evangeline have been together for years. This is stress. The arrangement with Lisa is messing with your head. Once she’s pregnant and gone, everything will go back to normal.”

I wanted to believe her.

God, I wanted to believe her.

“Lisa isn’t pregnant,” I said. “Her period started.”

Nadia’s face hardened.

“Of course it did. She’s probably dragging this out on purpose.”

“That’s not-”

“Isn’t it?” Nadia gestured sharply. “She’s been spending time with Franklin. Laughing with him. Wearing his totem. Maybe she’s trying to keep multiple options open.”

Anger flared through me.

“Lisa isn’t like that.”

“How do you know?” Nadia shot back. “You barely know her. She’s a desperate girl from a broken family who sold herself for money. Why wouldn’t she try to secure the best outcome possible?”

The words landed harder than I expected.

Because a small part of me wondered if she was right.

Lisa and Franklin had grown close.

Too close.

“Forget Lisa,” I said. “I want to fix whatever is wrong with me and Evangeline. I want to stop feeling like I’m betraying my mate every time I breathe. I want things to go back to how they were.”

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Nadia’s expression softened. She crossed the room and took my hands.

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“Then do that,” she said. “Focus on Evangeline. Remember why you chose her. Don’t let that girl get into your head. You’re stronger than this.”

She was right.

I had survived worse.

Our childhood. Our stepmother’s cruelty. Our father’s death. The Oracle’s choice. Matthias and his endless challenges.

I could survive this too.

“I know,” I said.

Nadia squeezed my hands and walked with me toward the staircase. I was about to head toward my office when movement below caught my eye.

Lisa stood near the garden entrance.

Franklin stood with her.

They were talking.

Franklin said something I couldn’t hear, and Lisa threw her head back laughing. The sound carried up the stairwell.

I had never heard her laugh like that around me.

She looked relaxed. Safe. Like she was with someone who didn’t treat her like a transaction.

Jealousy hit hard enough to make my hands curl.

I hated the feeling.

Hated that watching her smile at another man made me want to walk down there and drag her away.

Drag her away and what?

She wasn’t mine.

She was a contract.

Franklin was doing exactly what I should be doing. Treating her like a human being in a situation that was already difficult enough.

There was nothing wrong with that.

So why did it make me want to put my fist through the wall?

“You’re staring at them like you want to murder Franklin.”

I looked at Nadia.

“I’m not.”

“You are.” She touched my arm. “Get control of this before it destroys everything.”

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