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One hundred and sixty nine
publish date:
2026-04-22 22:33:05
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TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS One hundred and seventy three
The moment those words, “I love you,” left my mouth, it felt as though I had done something forbidden and something exhilarating at the same time. Even I didn’t know how or why I said it at that point, when it wasn’t as though we were having sex for the first time. We’ve had it countless times, but somehow I just felt like saying it then.His muscles locked under my touch, or perhaps it was just a fragment of my own imagination from the dread I felt after saying “I love you” to someone who was already mated to another woman. I bolted upright, dragging the blanket over my chest and sliding to the far edge of the mattress.“I didn’t, I didn’t mean it. I mean, you should ignore me. I wasn’t thinking straight.”His eyes remained on me, lids heavy and unfocused in the post-sex haze, or whatever it was that made him look more frail than usual.“You shouldn’t apologize,” he said, curling his fingers around my hand and tracing a slow circle over my knuckles with his thumb. “I don’t mind it.”
TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS One hundred and seventy two
Cameron POVEvangeline remained on the floorboards beside the window, her arms locked around her knees. I stood in the center of the rug and tried to find the energy to move toward her. Franklin reached down to grab her elbow, and she screamed. He snapped his hands up and backed into the doorframe.“You let her speak to me like that,” she said. She stared at me, blinking through the water in her eyes.“She’s under pressure,” I said.“And I’m not?” She pushed off the floor and marched at me. “You know me. I wouldn’t hurt you or Nadia. I love you both.”I dropped into the chair. “Nadia doesn’t hate you.”“But you spoke to Desmond.”“I told you I was upset,” she said. “I didn’t mean to give him the information he’s using. Everyone makes mistakes. Why is the whole house now full of people pointing at me for things they are doing themselves?”I didn’t answer. I didn’t have the breath for an argument. “Can we talk in the morning, when the sun is up?” I said.She wiped her face with the back
TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS One hundred and seventy one
NADIA POVThe pre-trial chamber was a long room with tables and walls that absorbed sound. The presiding elder sat at the head of it. She had been in the judicial seat longer than I had been alive.Franklin waited for me in the parking lot.“I’ll stay out here,” he said. “Let them think what they want for now.”I held his gaze. “If this goes wrong, you don’t stay outside.”“I won’t.”Elder Justine asked to speak to me alone before the session began. I followed her to the side, away from the center.“You understand the position you’re in,” she said. “You’ve been given room others wouldn’t have.”I let that sit. They gave grace because of what my brother represented.I folded my arms. “I didn’t come here to beg.”“I didn’t ask you to beg,” she said. “There is a path to resolution that does not require a full proceeding. If both parties can reach a private agreement—”“I won’t be apologizing to Desmond.”“Nadia, please listen. You and Desmond should speak. You reach an agreement. Somethi
TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS One hundred and seventy
NADIA POVI was on my fourth position when I stopped trying to sleep and just lay there, looking at the ceiling.The trial sat at the front of my mind no matter how I tried to push it back. Two days. That was all I had before everything moved from quiet talk to public judgment.I should not have been afraid.Desmond did not scare me. What scared me was how much he knew.He knew about me and Franklin. He knew about Cameron and Lisa. Those were not things people guessed. Those were things people were told.I sat up.There were only so many people who had access to that level of detail.I ran through them one by one.The household staff. Seven of them, all live-in, most of them long-term. The youngest had been with us for six years. They were paid well and understood what loyalty to an Alpha house meant in practical terms. That did not mean coercion or fear was impossible. A well-paid person could still be threatened. I noted it, but I set it low.Desmond had resources. He could have pai
TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS One hundred and sixty nine
LISA POVThe drive out of the pack wasn't exactly safe, but we found our way out.My father's pack clearance had given us a narrow window through the military-designated route, and the convoy moved fast through it. Two vehicles in front, one behind, all of them carrying Cameron's guards. My father sat in the lead car. I sat in the middle one with my mother and Dr. Harry, watching the trees change as we crossed into neutral land.I stopped counting the checkpoints after a while.It took three hours to reach the neighboring pack's transport hub, and every checkpoint we hit added time. The guards at the first gate looked at the documents twice before waving us through. At the second, they held us for nearly twenty minutes while someone on the other end of a radio confirmed our clearance.When we finally reached the neighboring pack’s airport, the weather had already turned.The airport was regional and small, with a low ceiling and a departures board cycling through three destinations. T
TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS One hundred and sixty eight
Evangeline POVShe was back.I stood at the upper landing window and watched the vehicles pull through the gates. I watched Franklin step out of the car with the guards who had traveled with Lisa.She was not supposed to be here.I turned away from the window before anyone came upstairs, went to sit on the bed, and made myself breathe at a normal pace. Then I called my mom. She picked up on the second ring.“Why did you let her leave?”There was a pause on her end.“She was let through.”“By who?”“Your brother.”I hissed out a curse.Kade had done this. Not a loophole. Not a miscommunication. My brother had physically overridden a border security protocol and cleared the road himself. He had invoked his authority as an Alpha’s son and put his name on the breach.“He overrode protocol and took responsibility for it,” she said.“Mom, you should have stopped him! Kade is getting on my last nerve, and I don’t know why you can’t punish him or bring him under subsection.”“Calm down, Eva,”
TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS Ninety-Eight
LisaA butterfly landed on the back of my hand. Its wings were dusty orange with thin black lines. The hedge blocked the outside noise, and insects buzzed around the flowers near my chair. Nurse Agatha sat across from me talking, but my attention had already drifted. I closed my hands around the b
TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS Ninety-Seven
Lisa“Honey, you have a visitor,” my mom called from downstairs, and I jumped off the bed, expecting Cameron.A nurse walked in instead, smiling.My heart sank. So stupid.I fixed my face before heading downstairs. The nurse set her bag on the chair. “Agatha.”Gray curls framed her face, deeper l
TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS Ninety-Six
CameronI avoided Evangeline for the rest of the evening, not out of pettiness, but because I dreaded saying something that would make things worse.I shut myself in the study and opened my laptop, stacking files across the desk so I had something to focus on. My coffee had gone cold beside the key
TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS 95
CameronThe papers on my desk stopped looking like words; they were blocks of ink and signatures that still needed to exist by morning. My coffee sat untouched beside the files, a thin skin forming on top. Ink stained the side of my finger where the pen kept slipping.Franklin yawned and dragged hi
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