Page 62 of Protected By Her Mate

“Finally,” she says, a smile curving her lips.

Chapter 23

There’s fire

CHARLIE

Inarrow my eyes at Edie, hating everything about her triumphant smile. I train my gun on her face. “How are we going to do this, Edie?”

Though I try to keep my mind calm, Lennox knows something is wrong. My shock at Officer Bates’s death was broadcast to him. Now he’s banging around in my head, demanding I tell him what’s happening. I push him out as best I can so I can concentrate. I still have Roscoe to think about.

When Edie speaks, her voice is different from the other times I spoke with her. It’s richer, more vibrant, less dull. In fact, everything about her is vibrant from her hair to her toes. She’s almost shining with fervent energy. “I’ve waited so many years for this moment. I thought it would never come.” She’s speaking to herself more than to me, but her eyes are fixed on my face with the gaze of a hungry predator. “I didn’t believe my eyes when I first met you. Thought maybe my century-long wait for revenge was conjured up by my own imagination. But you’re here and you’re real. I can touch you.”

A shudder runs through me as she reaches out, her hand closing around nothing as she squeezes her fingers into a fist.

“I don’t understand,” I stammer. “Why do you hate me so much?”

“I don’t hate you,” she sneers. “I hate Lennox. He killed my mate 140 years ago. Your death will be my revenge.”

Everything becomes clear. She waited not for me, but for Lennox’s mate. She wants him to suffer the way she suffered after he killed her mate. In her mind, my death is justice. There’s no way to crack this kind of madness, but I have to try. “Edie, listen to me. Killing me won’t bring your mate back.”

“Obviously.” She makes a face as though lamenting how far beneath her I am. “But it might bring me peace. After all these years, don’t I deserve a little peace?”

“Yes, you do,” I say, trying to keep the tremble from my voice.

“Shut up, you stupid human bitch!” She spits each word like cracks of gunfire. “I don’t care what you think. You’re nothing to me, just a means to rip outhisheart.”

There’s nothing I can say to stop her. My thoughts go to Luke and I take solace in his image. It’ll destroy him to lose his mother, but he’ll have my parents, my siblings, his cousins. Eventually, he’ll be okay.

I’m coming!Lennox’s shout echoes through my mind and I feel him shift. He won’t make it in time.

I love you, I tell him as Edie leaps toward me.

Fear strangles me and I struggle to hold my ground as my legs tremble. All I want to do is turtle, but I tell myself I’ve never given up before and I’m not going to start now.

The pep talk clears my mind and I steady my gun, take aim and squeeze the trigger.

Edie shifts before the bullet can hit her. In the tiny basement hallway, she covers the distance in a split second. I face death wide-eyed but before she can deal the blow, Roscoe picks me up. “Sorry!” he mutters and flings me through a wall.

I go straight through the drywall, my vest and helmet taking the brunt of my fall as I hit the floor on the other side. I lay stunned for several seconds before a deep roar has me rolling onto my hands and knees.

Seconds later, what’s left of the drywall disintegrates as a wolf’s body is flung into the room.

I scramble backwards, huddling in a corner as a huge brown bear climbs through the hole, his head swinging from side to side as he searches for his prey.

I stare up at Roscoe, my mouth hanging open as I momentarily forget the woman trying to kill me. He is utterly monstrous, taller and wider by far than he was as a human. His thunderous roar shakes the room and he flings himself at the wolf who’s picking herself up off the floor.

He slams into her, shoving her into the wall behind them, this one made of concrete. Despite that, it shudders under the force and Edie’s wolf lets out a high-pitched yelp before she sinks her teeth into the bear’s shoulder.

Roscoe fights back, swiping a giant paw down her face, ripping it with his claws, but he’s still weak from his previous beating and slower than the wolf. Heedless of her injury, Edie attacks in a flurry of teeth and claws, slicing away at him a piece at a time.

“Stop!” I scream at her, searching the floor for my gun.

Roscoe swings his head around, pinning me with pain-filled golden eyes. I know what he’s telling me: Run!

I return his gaze with sorrow in my own, then crawl through the hole in the wall. I search the floor with my hands until my fingers touch the metal of the gun. I grab it just as Edie gains the upper hand, burying her teeth deep into Roscoe where his neck meets his shoulder.

She’s going to tear out his throat.

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