Page 8 of Protected By Her Mate

She’s my mate, and despite my resistance to the idea, I can feel the draw for her growing. She feels the same attraction to me that I have for her, but she won’t know what’s happening, why or what to do about it. At some point, if we continue our proximity to each other, we’ll be able to hear each other’s thoughts.

Which would be a disaster.

If I really want to keep her safe from the curse that haunts my family, I should leave now. Stop talking to her, stop learning about her, stop breathing her in with each inhale.

“What were the slogans painted everywhere?” she asks, drawing my attention back to the conversation.

“They were ASHRA slogans.”

She taps her keyboard, then reads from the screen, “ASHRA. The anti-shifter human rights association. Their mission is to disrupt any and all relations between humans and shifters in order to protect humanity from extinction.” She wrinkles her nose. “Ew. Gotta love the way they position themselves as the champions of all humans at the expense of all shifters. I mean, they don’t even define which shifters they’re against. Who could possibly hate the cute little bunny shifters? No thanks, you don’t speak for me, you speciesist assholes.”

I burst out laughing, surprising myself. I smile so rarely it feels strange to have this woman pulling one out of me.

“Good to know my new partner doesn’t hate my kind.”

“Of course not!” she says, offended, but then her dimple flashes. “Only you.”

“Hey!” I defend. “You don’t even know me.”

She grins. “You set me up, I’ll knock you down.”

“Noted.”

A moment passes before we both realize we’re grinning at each other like teenagers. She glances down at her screen and I clear my throat, saying, “ASHRA has been a thorn in the side of the wolf shifters for a few years now. They had a run-in with my brother’s wife.”

She taps the keyboard a few more times, then her eyes widen as she quickly reads. “Magdalene Rage-Witch-Wolven-North, formerly known as Magdalene Good Witch. Mated and married to Rush Wolven-North. She was arrested in the town of Pendle for using witchcraft against humans. In a fit of rage, she broke out of the prison where she was placed, killed several guards and set explosives off in the town of Pendle, injuring several humans.”

“A human wrote that,” I growl, not liking the description of what happened to Magdalene in that town.

“Obviously,” she says without looking up. “Doesn’t mean I won’t find valuable information. I’m capable of looking past the agenda when I read. I’m smarter than I look.”

“You look plenty smart to me,” I tell her.

“Exactly.” She frowns at me. “These assholes hate all non-human creatures, don’t they? From their website, they don’t seem to differentiate much between witches and wolves.”

I’m impressed with her quick and accurate assessment. “They don’t and they are extremely dangerous to all magical creatures, which is why my brothers and I are trying to stop them. We haven’t made much more progress than Pendle though, where we dismantled the part of their organization experimenting on us.”

She nods as she listens. “The so-called prison your sister-in-law was sent to?” At my affirmative nod, she says, “So I guess the big question is what does my fire have to do with your dead shifter?”

We stare at each other for a moment, both of us thinking over her question.

I state the obvious. “They used the fire to get rid of evidence.”

She shakes her head. “There was no accelerant on the floor where the body was placed. He was barely singed. They wanted the paint and some of the leaflets to survive too.” She squints at me and when she speaks, her voice is low as if she’s talking to herself. “That building was empty. There was a real estate sign on the front, which means it’s either up for sale or has recently sold.” She scrawls a note to herself to find out who owns the building. “I think the fire was set for attention. To draw us to the crime scene. There wasn’t much for furniture. The building was empty, and they didn’t want their message to go undiscovered.”

Her eyes flash to mine and for a moment the melted chocolate orbs capture me, holding me breathlessly still. It takes precious seconds before I can fill my lungs with enough air to speak. “I think you’re right.”

The distraction she’s causing me is starting to annoy. I’m off to a terrible start. I haven’t contributed anything meaningful to the investigation except for the name of the deceased. I need to up my game if I don’t want my new partner to do laps around me while I gape at her like a lovesick puppy.

“Here.” Charlie tears the paper from her notebook and hands it to me. It takes me a second to decipher her scrawls, but I realize she’s given me a to-do list.

It reads:

Detective Wolven-North:

1. Call Wolf-Haven - get info on deceased shifter

2. Collect CCTV footage from the area of the fire

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