TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 80

Eighty

Cameron

The moment Lisa said she was pregnant, I thought I would feel relief. Instead, I stood there counting what this would change.

She stood in front of my desk with the test gripped in both hands. The council seal sat on my desk beside unsigned reports. The map of Silver Creek hung behind her, pins marking territory disputes I still had to solve.

Lisa did not smile. She waited for me to react.

“You’re going to be a father,” she said.

I nodded. I should have smiled. I should have thanked the Moon Goddess.

All I could think about was the council.

An heir meant stability. It meant the council would stop whispering about whether I was fit to lead without a child.

The pregnancy would silence those who questioned my legitimacy.

It should have felt straightforward. It did not.

I walked to the window and pressed my palm against the glass. The territory stretched beyond the trees. It was all mine to protect, and all of it expected results.

Behind me, she said quietly, “You don’t look happy.”

I turned back to her.

The contract was no longer theoretical. In a few months, she would hand me my child and walk away. She would be paid. The word sounded crude in my head. The agreement listed compensation schedules, medical obligations, custody transfer at birth, and a clause about no emotional interference.

She would receive the final payment once the child was legally recognized as mine and Evangeline’s.

After that, she would leave the territory.

Lisa watched me without speaking.

“You’re thinking about the contract.” She tried to smile, but it did not hold. “You didn’t force me.”

She came around the desk and stopped in front of me. “If you didn’t want a child, you would have fought it.”

I studied her. She looked the same, but she stood straighter, one hand resting low on her stomach without realizing it.

“It’s not about wanting,” I said. “It’s about responsibility. I don’t know what kind of father I’ll be.”

She went still.

“I don’t even know if I would care this much if it wasn’t required, if I wasn’t expected to produce an heir and satisfy the council.”

Lisa didn’t flinch. “So this baby is politics.”

“I’m saying this baby secures my rule.”

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‘And nothing else?”

I did not answer immediately.

“I’m grateful to you,” I said. “You’re doing something I can never repay.”

“You’re paying me.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Neither of us spoke for a moment. I poured water into a glass and handed it to her. Our fingers touched. She drank and gave it back. I drank from the same spot without thinking.

That small act felt more intimate than it should have.

Desire stirred low in my stomach. I ignored it.

“The payment will be processed this week,” I said.

She looked down and rubbed her thumb against her palm. “You don’t have to say it like that.”

“This is what we agreed to,” I reminded her.

“I know.” She laughed softly. “Evangeline had mentioned that if I don’t get pregnant in time, I would be replaced.”

“That’s not how this works.”

“Isn’t it?”

She crossed her arms. “When the baby is born, I leave. She keeps you. The pack gets an heir. Everyone wins.”

“You make it sound easy,” I said.

She met my eyes. “I won’t come between you and her.. That’s what matters.”

She said it like she had already accepted it.

Her calm frightened me more than tears would have.

“You talk like you’re already gone.”

I stepped closer. She did not step back.

“I don’t like how this feels,” I admitted.

“Which part?”

“The part where you carry my child and then leave.”

She looked away before answering. “That was the agreement.”

We stood there in my office, too close, neither of us stepping back. I had signed a contract, but this no longer felt like paper.

I watched her reach for the door.

“Stay,” I said.

I hadn’t planned to say it.

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Lisa paused with her hand on the handle. She looked over her shoulder at me. “That’s not a good idea.”

“We’re talking,” I said. “That’s all.”

She held my gaze for a few seconds, waiting to see if I meant it.

“Evangeline is upstairs.”

“I know.”

She hesitated long enough that I almost took it back. Then she closed the door and leaned against it.

Talking.

I told myself that was all I wanted.

All I wanted was to pull her across the room and forget every rule I had written for myself.

I turned and walked to the shelf by the window, running my fingers over the spine of a book I had already read

twice.

She crossed the room and looked at the books, reading the titles without pulling any out.

“You have more strategy manuals than novels,” she said.

“They’re useful.”

“So is fiction. It helps you forget.”

She ran her finger along the shelf and stopped at nothing.

“What happens after the baby?”

I didn’t answer right away.

“I leave,” she said.

“I know that part.” She kept looking at the shelf. “What will you do after that?”

“I’ll have financial security,” she said. “Maybe start a business. At least I won’t be counting every bill.”

“You plan to marry at all?”

She shook her head. “If love looks like this, then no.”

She turned toward me then. “I’d rather stay single than sign up for something that feels wrong.

I had no answer for that.

She moved to my desk and brushed her hand over the carved edge.

“The mate bond is supposed to be the best thing that happens to you,” I said. “It’s supposed to bring relief and certainty. It’s supposed to feel like home.”

I turned to face her. “Why does mine feel like punishment?”

She didn’t answer.

“The smell gets worse every week. My wolf pulls back instead of leaning in.”

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It wasn’t always like that.

I remembered the first months. I was certain. Proud. I walked through the territory with Evangeline at my side and felt untouchable.

Lisa studied me.

“What changed?”

I looked at my hands. –

“It faded.”

She nodded. “You think you were wrong about it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I convinced myself it was stronger than it was.”

She stepped closer until there was barely space between us.

“This didn’t start with you. The distance was there before you arrived.”

“You should try,” she said. “Show her you love her. She needs that.”

“I’m not avoiding her. Being near her feels suffocating.”

Lisa held my gaze. “Then maybe something is wrong with the bond.”

“Or with me.”

I gripped the edge of the desk. The clock on the wall ticked too loudly in the quiet.

Every option felt wrong. If I went to Evangeline, I would feel trapped. If I stayed with Lisa, I would feel guilty.

“I feel like a bad person for doubting my bond and bringing a child into this mess.”

“I feel like a bad person for doubting my bond. For bringing a child into this mess.”

She stepped in and placed her hand against my chest.

“You didn’t trick me. You followed the agreement. You’re trying to protect your pack and your sick mate. That doesn’t make you bad.”

Her hand stayed there. I covered it with mine.

Then I kissed her.

For a second she froze, as if giving me time to change my mind. I didn’t.

The guilt did not disappear. Neither did the fear or the questions about what kind of man I was trying to be.

But she kissed me back, and I stopped thinking for a while.

When I pulled away, my breathing was uneven.

“This is complicated,” I said.

“It always was,” she replied.

I stepped back before I could reach for her again.

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I did not know if what I felt was love. It felt like hunger and relief mixed with something I did not trust.

Evangeline was upstairs in our house while I stood here wanting someone else. I knew I would regret it tomorrow. That did not stop me tonight.

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