Page 89 of Protected By Her Mate

Aman runs toward us waving his arms, his features twisted with alarm. “Hej! Bomben är här borta!”

Studying his animated features, I say to the rest of our impromptu bomb squad, “I don’t speak Swedish, but I’m pretty sure this man knows where to find the bomb.”

Lock is the last to come through my portal and I close it behind him. It’s good practice not to leave those swirly bits of fog lying around in case a stray cat wanders through and finds itself in another realm of existence. Cats don’t like that.

“Wow,” Charlie says, staring up at the majestic white columns of the Palace of Nations. “I can’t believe I’m actually standing here.” She grins at me. “Can we go to Tahiti after this is over?”

“If you stop a war, I’ll take you anywhere you want.” I wink at her, then glance at Lennox, who’s frowning at me. “Both of you,” I amend.

Realizing we speak English, the man who greeted us says, “Thank you for coming. Please follow me.” His hands are shaking and his features are twisted with fear.

Once more we’re led into a basement where our guide points to two rooms. “Two in there,” he says of the first room, “and one in there.” He points to another room close by. “The rest of the building has been carefully swept. There are no more bombs.”

At first, I’m confused by this. All the other buildings had two bombs, but Charlie explains that it makes sense for the shape of the building.

“Go,” Charlie tells the man as she crouches next to the first suitcase bomb. “Wait outside at a safe distance and when the bomb unit arrives, show them where to go.”

“Ja, I will!” He races away from us, clearly relieved to be free of his bomb-finding duties.

“There’s only nineteen minutes on this timer,” Charlie says, her voice strained. “I need to work quickly if I’m to disarm them all.” She falls silent, diligently diffusing the bomb before rushing to the next one, Lennox hot on her tail.

“They’re cute together,” I say to Lock as we follow them at a more leisurely pace.

“He won’t mate with her as long as the family curse is in play,” he replies.

“I’m working on it.”

“How?” he asks bluntly.

“I don’t know yet.”

“Then how are you working on a solution?”

Hands on hips, I turn to him. “How about I don’t tell you how to king, and you don’t tell me how to witch?”

He holds his hands up. “I’m sure you know what you’re doing.”

I burst out laughing. “We both know that’s not true.” Sobering, I add, “But I’m not willing to lose a single mate to this curse.” I feel responsible for the safety of the Wolven-North’s and their mates as it was my ancestor who cursed them in the first place.

He shakes his head. “It’s not your fault, Mags. You do what you can to compensate. Hell, you even managed to turn Vanessa into a shifter. I’m sure you’ll think of something to help Charlie and Lennox.”

“Yeah, not sure exactly how I managed that.”

“What?” he asks incredulously.

“What?” I say back.

Thankfully, Charlie interrupts us, shouting, “Second bomb diffused. The timer had fourteen minutes on it.” She rushes out of the room and down the hall to the third bomb, Lennox following her like she’s the messiah and he’s her most ardent follower.

“She can sure go fast in that puffy bomb suit,” I say with admiration. “She might become my favourite sister-in-law once this is all said and done. Maybe we can get another one of those outfits and pretend sumo wrestle in them.”

“What about Sarina?” Lock demands, offended on his wife’s behalf.

I love the beautiful white-haired shifter, but she can be extremely feral, giving us very little in common. She enjoys pursuits like hunting prey, chasing her tail, and *shudder* camping.

I’m a vegetarian who enjoys my witchly comforts. “She can sumo wrestle with us if she wants,” I tell him placatingly.

“Finished,” Lennox says as he and Charlie approach us, Charlie huffing and puffing like she ran a marathon, sweat streaking her face.

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