Page 69 of Protected By Her Mate

Too dangerous. Too fragile. What if something happens to her?

“I trust you to protect me,” I tell him.

He’s silent, but there’s a war going on inside him. His wolf wants him to whisk me immediately off to Wolf-Haven castle and doesn’t understand why we’re still talking about it.

“What if she finds you?” he asks, anguish in his gaze.

“You’ll be with me.” There’s no chance I’m going anywhere without Lennox. If Edie can’t get to me, she may go after him directly. He’s not the only one terrified of losing a mate.

“I refuse to use you as bait.” He’s as unmovable as his wolf on this.

“You won’t need to,” Charlamagne says grimly. “I assume Edie Thornton is both intelligent and experienced?” At Lennox’s nod, he continues, “She’ll have the resources to track you. Take Charlie somewhere safe; the shifter woman will likely make her way to you.”

I feel Lennox’s wolf start to panic again, conjuring an image of Wolf-Haven, so I say, “We’ll go to your place.”

Lennox’s frown deepens. “She very likely knows where I live.”

I nod. “Which means we’ll capture her all the sooner, making the city safer for everyone else.” He shakes his head, but I push, “Listen, Lennox, your place is perfect. There’s only one entry into your apartment and no windows. If we set this up correctly, she won’t be able to escape.”

I feel his intention to kill her in his mind. He won’t let her escape a second time. He wants me safely out of the way while he does it, but he knows I won’t leave him. He could force me to, but he doesn’t want that. He wants to keep eyes on me at all times.

There’s only one answer. We have to lure Edie so he can kill her.

I’m surprised at the bloodthirstiness of my thought, but it makes sense. I feel sorry for Edie, don’t want to see her die, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. Her hatred of Lennox is too deep-seated. If she’s arrested, she’ll find a way to escape and threaten us again.

My eyes meet Lennox’s and though our thoughts aren’t organized in a conversation, we understand each other.

Lennox turns to Captain Charlamagne. “Since there doesn’t seem to be an alternative, I’ll take Charlie to my place. We’ll need plainclothes on three building entrances and on all floors. I’ll take six uniforms with me. I want them armed with high-powered rifles. Tell them they need to aim to kill.” He pulls his phone from his pocket. “I’ll get Duncan to send a couple of bear shifters.”

Captain Charlamagne looks like he wants to argue, but doesn’t, probably realizing his people are woefully inadequate against a raging wolf shifter. Instead, he says, “After this is over, see if any of Duncan Sharptooth’s people want to join the force. We can use that kind of muscle around here.”

We grab our things and as we head for the door, I grip Lennox’s arm, “What about Luke? He spent the night with my parents, but they’ll have dropped him off at school by now.”

Lennox nods and says to Charlamagne, “We’ll need to send a uniform to Charlie’s son’s school.” I supply the school and address while Charlamagne writes it down.

I think hard for a moment, then realize if Edie did her research she might know where my family lives. They likely aren’t targets in her crazy vengeance scheme, but she could go looking for me at their places.

Lennox picks up on my concern and tells the captain to send officers to my parent’s apartment too.

Placing his hand on my back, Lennox says, “Let’s go.” We’re surrounded by officers as we leave the building with more climbing into their vehicles all around us. The hunt for Edie has begun.

Chapter 26

Rabbit

EDIE

After crawling out of the East River near the airport, I make my way to my safehouse, an attic above a garage belonging to a family who rents it out for storage. In my current state, it’s not easy to make it to the Oakland Gardens home.

I choose to remain in my wolf form as I’ll heal faster and be less conspicuous. A naked, bleeding woman running through the streets is bound to draw attention. I’m drawing attention anyway. I’m twice the size of any normal dog. I’m limping and clearly injured.

Several people try to stop me as I lope toward my destination. I ignore all of them except one.

I’m a couple blocks away from the house when a human policewoman calls out to me, making kissy sounds and calling me ‘doggie’. I halt in my tracks and turn to watch her as she makes her way cautiously toward me. When I don’t move, she grows bolder, coming closer, allowing me to sniff her upturned hand.

Smiling, she kneels on the ground in front of me. “What a big boy you are!” She runs her hands through my fur, pausing as she reaches the bloody matting on my chest. “You’ve been hurt. We better get some help for you.” She stands, dusting the knees of her pants with her hands. “I might have some rope in my squad car I can use as a leash.”

She turns to stride across the street to her car, but I leap before she can take more than a step, sinking my teeth into the back of her neck and biting down. She dies instantly, her body collapsing to the pavement.

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