Lahat ng Kabanata ng TEMPORARY MATES, PERMANENT CRAVINGS : Kabanata 201 - Kabanata 210

Nadia POV“I’m tired of hearing that Alpha Kieran is handling it,” I said. “Every day we wait, Cameron gets worse.”Franklin stood near the kitchen counter pouring oats into a bowl. The silence that followed irritated me more than if he had argued back.“Lucas searched everything he could,” he said.I folded my arms and huffed. Franklin set the spoon down.“Nadia, I’m terrified too. But fear is not the same thing as strategy.”“Well, Congratulations. You and the oracle should start a support group together, and maybe label me insane for overthinking”“You’re not insane,” he said. “I know something is wrong with Cameron. I felt it before any of you admitted it out loud.”That softened me, though not enough.“If Matthias noticed it too, then this isn’t paranoia anymore.”Franklin nodded.m“I know.”He moved around the counter and pulled me into a hug from behind.“I trust Cameron,” he murmured against my neck. “Even if something is happening to him, I still trust him to fight it.”I clos

Lisa“What’s wrong with him?” I whispered to my mom as we watched Alpha Kieran stare into the distance from the terrace.“I don’t know. He’s been this way since he returned. Perhaps he received bad news.”My heart skipped. “You know you don’t have to hide anything from me. If this is about Cameron, tell me.”“I truly don’t know everything,” she said carefully. “And you shouldn’t panic before we understand what’s happening.”She ushered me away as we walked downstairs into the living room, passing Harry at the dining table with his laptop open, working on something. A spreadsheet of dates and numbers filled the screen.Alpha Kieran had walked in about four hours earlier without speaking much. He had dropped his car keys into the ceramic dish by the door with a loud clatter and gone straight upstairs. Even though he was trying to act like everything was fine, it was obvious it wasn’t.We were watching TV, catching up on the sitcoms we used to enjoy as a family and the recorded laughter

Cameron POVI sucked air into my lungs in ragged pulls. The blood vessels behind my eyes throbbed in time with the rush in my ears.Everything in the room looked warped. Alpha Kieran and Harry stood in front of me. Their lips moved, but the words came too fast, blending into a flat drone my brain couldn’t piece together.Lisa stood near Kieran’s shoulder, her chin tucked into her chest as she sobbed. Every time my eyes drifted toward her, a knot tightened behind my breastbone. The sound of her crying scraped against the inside of my skull.I raised my right hand and wiped a smear of warm fluid from the groove above my lip. I looked down at my knuckles. The skin was split where I had driven my fist into Kieran’s jaw. I stared at the blood on my skin, the reason for the blow completely missing from my head. The room was just noise.“Look at me, Cameron.”Kieran’s palm struck my cheek lightly, pulling my focus back to him. I tried to hold his gaze, but Lisa’s mother wrapped an arm around

Lisa POVThe translucent gel Harry squeezed onto my stomach was cold, making the muscles across my abdomen tighten. He pressed the transducer against my skin, moving it in small circles over my lower belly. The monitor displayed gray, shifting shapes that blurred whenever I took a breath.After Cameron left, the crying clogged my throat until my mom turned from the window and snapped that I was going to make myself sick if I didn’t get a grip.“What if he had done worse?” I kept saying, my knuckles digging into the edge of the mattress. “What if he had a knife or something dangerous? What if he killed me?”“Well, he didn’t,” she said. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a tube of wintergreen ointment, and began rubbing the thick cream into my palms to warm them. Harry kept his eyes fixed on the gray screen, moving the probe without a word.I blinked, clearing the moisture from my eyelashes. “But why? Why would they send him to hurt me?”My mother stopped rubbing my hands. Her mout

Cassidy POVGeorge watched my hands through the rearview mirror as I kept them pinned flat against my knees. He had just cleared us through the checkpoint at the outer perimeter. The heavy gates took their time grinding along the track, and the delay made the air inside the sedan feel thick. I pushed the passenger door open, my boots hitting the gravel, and stood under the afternoon sun to look at Kieran's mansion.The building was massive, white stone pillars rising three stories to meet a flat tiled roof. Four armed guards in identical dark jackets stood by the main archway."All clear," a voice rasped from the radio on the lead guard's hip.George leaned across the console, motioning with a jerk of his chin for me to get back inside. I stayed on the gravel a little longer. My cousin knew as well as I did that this drive would either end with a clean conversation or a complete mess.Ever since Kieran had turned up on my porch, his presence had felt like an insult. It sat in my ches