TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 55

Fifty-Five

Lisa

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I spent the day after the ball hiding from the remaining guests. The nursery became my refuge.

That morning I forced down the fertility herbs the herbalist prescribed. Maca, red clover, fenugreek blended into a smoothie that tasted like dirt. I gagged twice before finishing it, then brushed my teeth to kill the aftertaste.

This was my life now. Drinking foul herbs and studying charts about moon phases and positioning as if conception required ritual instead of biology.

The guidebook explaining the conception ritual sat in my nightstand drawer. I had read it twice, trying to make sense of the instructions.

The whole thing felt absurd. I would still follow it. The sooner I became pregnant, the sooner this arrangement

would end.

The nursery gave me a break from all of it. Inside those walls I could exist as a person instead of a contract.

The children did not care why I lived at Silver Creek. No one whispered about contracts or watched me with curiosity. They wanted stories, help with letters, someone to push them on the swings.

Benji wrapped himself around my leg and refused to leave for nearly twenty minutes. When he finally ran back to the coloring table, the warmth of that small trust stayed with me.

I was getting attached. To the children. To the routine. To the fragile idea that life here could be something more than a temporary obligation.

“You’re good with them,” Dorothy said as I helped two four-year-olds settle an argument over a toy truck.

“I like kids.”

“They like you too.” Dorothy nodded toward Benji. “He doesn’t usually warm up to people this quickly.”

I looked at the boy coloring at the table. Every few seconds he lifted his head to check whether I was still nearby.

Leaving was going to hurt.

Once the contract ended, once the child was born, I would leave Silver Creek and these children would eventually forget me.

The thought sat in my throat.

“Lisa?”

I turned. Cora watched me with concern.

“You alright?”

“Just tired.”

Cora studied me for a moment, then nodded toward the hallway. “Come on. Let’s grab some tea.”

We carried mugs into the small staff kitchen and sat at the table.

“Can I ask you something?” Cora said. “You can tell me to mind my business.”

“Go ahead.”

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“Why are you really here? At Silver Creek. Living in the Alpha house.”

I could have lied. Cora had been kind to me from the beginning.

“I’m a surrogate,” I said. “For Alpha Cameron and Lady Evangeline.”

Cora blinked. “Oh.”

“Evangeline is ill. They need an heir but she cannot carry a child. They hired me.”

“That’s a lot to carry.”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re comfortable with the arrangement?”

The question lingered between us.

“I needed the money,” I said. “My family was in trouble. This was the best option available.”

Cora reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “That doesn’t sound like much of a choice.”

“I still signed the contract.”

Dorothy entered the kitchen carrying a tray of sippy cups. She paused when she saw us sitting together.

“Everything alright?”

“Lisa was explaining why she’s staying at the main house,” Cora said. “She’s the Alpha’s surrogate.” 1

I braced for judgment.

Dorothy simply set the tray on the counter and poured herself tea.

“That explains a few things,” she said. “You always seem like someone trying to find her footing.”

“You’re not shocked?” I asked.

“I’ve worked for this pack for forty years. Very little surprises me anymore.” Dorothy sat down across from us. “I also used to be Cameron and Nadia’s nanny.”

I straightened. “You raised them?”

“From Cameron’s birth until he turned nine.” Her voice softened with memory. “I did what I could to look after those children.”

“Why did you leave the main house?”

Dorothy sighed. “Their stepmother dismissed me, Victoria said I undermined her authority. Claimed I was too protective of the children.”

The name Victoria carried weight.

“What was she like?” I asked.

Dorothy’s mouth tightened. “Cruel. She saw Cameron and Nadia as obstacles to her own daughters.”

My stomach twisted. “Did she hurt them?”

“Not with bruises. She was clever enough to avoid that. The damage came in other ways. Belittling. Isolation.

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Constant reminders that they were unwanted.”

Cora lowered her voice. “It lasted years.”

Dorothy nodded. “Until she died. By then the damage had already taken root.”

Silence settled around the table.

I thought about Cameron. The control he carried in everything he did. The careful distance he kept between himself and everyone else.

Nadia made more sense now too. The recklessness. The exhaustion.

“How did they survive that?” I asked.

“They survived,” Dorothy said. “Children are resilient. That doesn’t mean they walked away whole.”

I sat quietly, absorbing what I had just learned.

Cameron was not simply an Alpha making calculated decisions.

He was someone who grew up fighting to hold himself together.

Maybe that was why he clung so fiercely to the idea of a destined love with Evangeline.

Perhaps it was the only piece of happiness he trusted.

And somehow I had stepped directly into the middle of it.

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