Page 72 of Protected By Her Mate

I yank on my arm, but she refuses to let go, dragging me down the street at a pace that’s too fast. “Slow down,” I complain, and she turns to look at me, still walking too fast.

“If you say one more word, I’ll rip your arm off.”

I stare at her, shocked. My mom would never send someone like her to pick me up. I twist around to look at the school, hoping the security guard is watching us, but before I can shout for him, she shoves me into a dark alleyway.

Something’s wrong. There’s no police car here and she’s staring at me, her eyes gleaming with triumph. I back away, but she’s still holding my arm.

“You’re not the one that I wanted, but you’ll do. Killing you will destroy his mate. She’ll blame him, hate him until the day she dies. Maybe this is better. It’ll make him suffer longer. As long as she’s alive.” She’s talking to herself, but I’ve heard enough.

I open my mouth to scream for help, but she grips me by the neck and lifts me, choking me. A hideous grin stretches her lips and I know I’m about to die. Tears fill my eyes and I beg silently for my mom.

Chapter 27

Boys in blue

LENNOX

Something’s not right. Edie should be here by now. She’s too smart not to know where I live and if our positions were reversed, my apartment would be the first place I’d look.

“Stop pacing.” Charlie caresses my arm as I pass her and a wave of calm goes through me. She trusts me to take care of her.

“I need to do something,” I tell her. “The waiting is killing me.”

“You’re not very patient for a 700-hundred-year-old.”

I run my hands down her arms, savouring the silky warmth of her skin. “I’m usually the model of patience but when it’s my mate’s life on the line, patience doesn’t figure in.”

“We’ll protect her,” Officer Burton pipes up from the doorway where he’s stationed watching for Edie to make her appearance. “You have nothing to worry about.”

“Overconfidence won’t protect you,” I reply coldly. “Edie Thornton murdered an officer this morning with her bare hands. He didn’t know what hit him. Keep your eyes on that hallway and when she gets here, shoot her and run. The bullet won’t stop her, but it’ll slow her enough that you can get behind me. I’ll deal with her.”

We’ve gone over the plan half a dozen times, but I don’t trust the officers stationed around the building not to try to kill Edie themselves. They’re angry over the deaths of Officer Bates and their colleagues tasked to take her to Rikers and want to be the ones to bring her down. She’ll ignore them if they stay out of her way, but if they get too close to her, she’ll kill them too.

I’ve been an officer of the law for hundreds of years, working closely with humans. They can be astonishingly brave, but they can also be foolhardy and I don’t want to lose another one on my watch. Officer Bates’s death is on me. I was the one who sent Charlie to the basement without enough backup.

She picks up my thoughts. “We didn’t know there would be a shifter in the building.”

I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter now. Our only job is to take Edie down. We’ll sort out who’s to blame later.”

“It’s not you,” she says stubbornly and I smile at her fierce determination to protect me, even from my own thoughts.

“Can someone check on Luke?” she asks, her thoughts turning anxiously to her son. “Is he on his way to my parents yet?” She changed her mind about leaving him at school, worried Edie might go there if she knows about him. I couldn’t fault her logic and told the captain to have a unit pick Luke up and take him over to Charlie’s parents.

I call Captain Charlamagne, putting him on speaker so Charlie can hear.

“The school administrator just called. An officer picked him up five minutes ago.” Charlamagne pauses and then says to someone else, “Put her through on line 3,” then to us, “Hang on, she’s calling back.”

We’re on hold and Charlie looks at me, a worried frown marring her brows. “I hope everything is okay.”

Seconds later, Charlamagne is back on the line, his words rushed. “The officer we sent to pick Luke up just arrived at the school.”

“But you said he was already picked up.” Charlie grips my wrist bringing the phone closer to her mouth. “Where is he?”

“We’re doing our best to find out. It’s most likely a mix-up in messages and two officers were dispatched to the school instead of one. I’ll get it sorted out and call you right back.”

He hangs up and Charlie looks at me desperately. “What if Edie got to him?”

I pull her into my chest, cradling her head with my hand. I don’t tell her it’ll be alright. My senses are telling me something is wrong. If Edie can’t get to Charlie, or suspects an ambush, she might go after the thing Charlie loves most in the world: her son.

---