All Chapters of TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS : Chapter 211 - Chapter 220

252 Chapters

Two hundred and twelve

The room sank into silence, everyone likely overwhelmed by their own thoughts. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out. The number flashed across the screen.Cameron’s name hit me like a shove. Heat climbed behind my eyes.“Cameron is calling,” I said quietly.My mom’s eyes snapped to Alpha Kieran, who nodded.A knot twisted low in my stomach.“I can't pick it up.”“You have to, Lisa. We need evidence. Answer it and record the call. Put it on speaker.”“Kieran, she's barely holding herself together,” my mother said.“I know,” he replied, softer this time. “But this matters.”Across the room, Cassidy lounged by the far window beside George. Her attention stayed on the driveway outside, but her shoulders held tight, every muscle braced around the conversation drifting through the room.I answered just before the ringing stopped, my thumb sliding across the screen. Cameron’s breathing filled the speaker first.“Lisa.”My knees nearly gave out at the sound of his voice. He sounded

Two hundred and thirteen

Cassidy POVThe silence in the driveway hung heavy. George's gaze bounced between Kieran and me. I looked past his car toward the edge of the property, where the scent of freshly cut grass drifted across the lawn from somewhere beyond the hedges. A lawnmower engine sputtered and died in the distance, leaving only the sound of wind rustling through the pine needles.“Cass, please stay,” George said, breaking the silence. He reached out to rub the sleeve of my leather jacket before dropping his hand back to his side. “You can see the girl is in danger. And Cameron's already deteriorating.”I let out a laugh that tightened my throat, my fingers gripping the leather strap of my duffel bag. “Interesting. So now I'm useful again.”George looked caught between a grimace and a deadpan smile. Kieran remained silent, his large frame cast in the long shadows of the late afternoon sun. One of the guards stood near the stone wall with a cigarette between his fingers, smoke curling past his face wh

Two hundred and fourteen

Cassidy's POVThirty years agoHot oil, chilli, and heat pressed against my skin as I stirred the pots of broth. Even knowing Kieran was coming to pick me up did nothing for my mood.My mom hunched over the counter, grating vegetables at machine speed, then snapped her fingers at me.“Why are you slacking, Cassidy? There are more people to feed at the counter.”“I’m trying, Mom,” I mumbled, rubbing my hands on my apron as I picked up a tray. She didn’t hear me over the hiss of meat frying in the giant pan beside her.Men called for more soup before finishing what they already had, and I moved between their tables balancing bowls against my wrists. Some of them, like the idiot who had just walked in, talked to me too much, asking when I planned to marry and pointing out that my hips were getting wider.“You’ll make some man very happy one day,” he said with a laugh thickened by alcohol.I smiled tightly, collected his empty plate and I moved past two men loudly discussing the upcoming i

Two hundred and fifteen

I woke up the next morning with nausea, and I first blamed the heavy dinner from the night before. But by midday on Sunday, my stomach twisted whenever I smelled food. Even my mother, who usually didn’t notice things, told me I looked pale.“I’m fine,” I said, but I wasn’t.I couldn’t even go welcome Vanessa properly when she arrived. She had to come meet me at the small restaurant near the market while I sat there trying not to throw up into my juice glass.“You look terrible,” she said, reaching across the table to wipe sweat from my forehead with her thumb.“I said I’m fine.”“You sure you’re not pregnant?”My heart skipped so hard it hurt.“I can’t be pregnant. Kieran and I use protection.”Vanessa gave me a look over the rim of her glass. “Cassidy, based on everything you’ve told me, you two climb all over each other whenever you get the chance. There had to be at least one time you got careless.”Heat rushed into my face as memory slammed into me.The backseat of Kieran’s car tw

Two hundred and sixteen

Cassidy POVKieran's silence had begun to eat away at me. At first, I told myself he was busy. His installation preparations swallowed most of his schedule, and people constantly needed something from him. Plus, there were meetings and training sessions to become Alpha, those dreadful strategy meetings with older Alphas who still spoke to him like he was a boy playing dress-up in his father's position.Still, after two days without properly hearing from him, the silence started pressing against my nerves.Kieran always showed up at the restaurant because he “missed my face,” and he would narrate his day like I had personally asked for every detail.Now everything felt strained.When he finally came around, he acted exactly the way he always had, which somehow made the distance feel worse.He still kissed me and held my hand while walking me through crowded streets, and wrapped an arm around my waist whenever other men looked too long in my direction. The gestures were all there, but s

Two hundred and seventeen

Cassidy POV“I didn’t ask for this, Cass.”Headlights drifted past the ice cream parlor window, smearing white and red across the glass. I kept my eyes on the street while Kieran’s words settled between us.His eyes darted over my face, searching. His hand hovered near mine, then dropped back to the table. He kept speaking, his voice rough and uneven in a way I had never heard before.“I didn't want any of this to happen right now?”I finally looked down at the pregnancy test sitting beside my napkin. I thought my life had changed because I was carrying his child.Now it felt like the entire future had cracked open underneath me.“You were never going to tell me,” I said.Kieran shook his head. “That’s not true.”“You only told me because I’m pregnant.”His eyes broke from mine and slid toward the window before returning.“I…I needed time.”My heart pounded.Time.Time to decide whether he still wanted me? Time to figure out how to leave me? Time to stand beside Vanessa long enough fo

Two hundred and eighteen

Lisa POVMy mother and I stood behind the beige floor-to-ceiling curtains upstairs. Through the narrow gap in the fabric, Kieran faced his visitors below. Nobody raised their voice, yet the air between them pulled tight enough to snap.Cassidy had left without another word to me, offering no alternative. She'd come all this way only to walk away.Had I driven her off? Was it my refusal?"Darling. Anyone in their right mind would have done what you did. You've already been through so much, and I wouldn't want you involved in any of this."We waited until Alpha Kieran came back upstairs.He lowered himself into a chair and dragged a hand through his silver-specked beard. My mother sat beside him on the edge of the seat and placed a hand on his shoulder."Did she come all this way just to tell us no?"Alpha Kieran shook his head."She didn't tell us no. That was Cassidy being helpful."I scoffed."If that was helpful, I'd hate to see the alternatives."A faint smile touched his face, the

Two hundred and nineteen

Franklin POV"The Alpha is having a hard time. He's not surrendering his throne."The roughness of my voice made Cameron, who was sitting across the room in a high-backed chair while the Oracle moved around him in slow circles, raise an eyebrow at me.I turned away to avoid making him uneasy and took several steps out of their hearing range."A hard time doesn't explain six missed appearances, Franklin. The council is hearing things. People don't invent rumors when an Alpha vanishes," Elder Robinson said.I blew out a breath that rattled my lips as his words droned on."Tell me honestly, Franklin. If Cameron walked into this room right now, would I find the same Alpha who led this pack six months ago?"A bark of laughter escaped me without warmth as the uncomfortable question settled in my stomach.Rumors had started as whispers among council members after Cameron missed several appearances. Every explanation bought us a little time but created more questions.Some elders were genuine

Two hundred and twenty

Franklin POVWe ended up in the library.Cameron had pulled a stack of council reports onto the table and was trying to read them. Every few minutes, his eyes stopped moving across the page. He'd go still, stare at the same paragraph, and start again.A leather folder sat open beside him.His will.I glanced at it and immediately wished I hadn't."Cameron. You're not dying. You're having a spectacularly bad month. Those are different things."He held on to it even as I tried to snatch the folder out of his hands."Franklin...""No."He rubbed his forehead."If something happens to me, I need to make sure she can't touch any of it. Not the businesses. Not the estate. Not the trust. Most of it goes to the child. The rest goes to Nadia and you."Under pack law, a mate inherited a significant share of an Alpha's estate. It was a system built around trust.Meridian had found a way to turn that trust into a weapon. They didn't need to seize territories by force when they could place someone

Two hundred and twenty one

Lisa POVThe closer we got to our destination, the worse the decision felt. Nobody spoke much. Unfortunately, the silence gave me too much room to think.Alpha Kieran, who trusted these people and owed them his life, didn't look relieved to be taking me there. He looked like a man delivering someone to a place he respected and feared in equal measure.Every few minutes, my hand drifted to my stomach. I kept asking myself the same question. If these women were truly safe, why did joining them feel so much like walking into danger?I sat in the back row of the jeep beside Cassidy. Harry had planned to come with us. Unfortunately, his grandmother had apparently spent days demanding answers about where he'd disappeared to and why he kept turning up in the middle of pack disasters.Alpha Kieran had compensated him generously for everything he'd been dragged into. Harry promised he'd come back.The driver and guard occupied the front seats, while Alpha Kieran and my mom sat in the middle ro

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