Page 79 of Protected By Her Mate

We shouldn’t be in danger, Lennox answers.Edie was fixated on me and used the organization to set me up. Her power outside of the New York cell would be limited. But as a precaution, Captain Charlamagne thinks we should have a unit follow us until he’s sure there are no more ASHRA members looking for revenge.

I don’t like it, but I guess it’s better than having another psycho come after our family.

Lennox tenses.Am I part of the family?

Of course,I tell him, sliding my hand into his. He wraps his fingers around mine and warmth suffuses me.There’s no going back now. You save one of us, you automatically become a Lopez.

He cracks a smile, but it’s a sad smile.I want nothing more than to be part of this family, but the curse…

Can we not think about it, just for tonight?I beg him. I’ve said that to him before and his brain flicks to the night we had sex on the fire escape. He knows he shouldn’t, but the mating call is beating at him. At both of us. Luke’s kidnapping has united us, tightened the bonds that hold us together.

I don’t want to be alone. I know it’s not fair, but I can’t let him leave. The thought of not having him here when both Luke and I are hurting is too much. He’s necessary to our existence.

I’m not going anywhere, he says, settling against the couch cushions.

“Are you two talking to each other in your heads?” Luke asks, his sharp gaze going back and forth between us.

My mouth falls open. “What do you mean?”

He grins and bites into a cookie. “When we were talking about shifters in class, Mrs. Vingeland said that some shifters can talk to their mates tele… tele… in their heads.”

“Telepathically,” I supply the missing word automatically, still boggled over the idea that my son knew we were silently conversing.

“Yeah, that,” he says cheerfully. “You guys are always doing this weird thing where you go quiet but then you stare at each other. It’s a bit creepy.”

Lennox looks at him with a mixture of wonder and pride. “How do you feel about the idea of your mom and I being mates?”

I hold my breath. Will Luke hate the thought of having a father figure in his life again? After his ordeal today, no one could blame him if he didn’t want a wolf shifter near him.

A grin splits Luke’s lips. “I think it’s awesome!”

Chapter 30

My Duty is your protection

LENNOX

My wolf is vigilant, looking for anything that might threaten our mate. He’s a bundle of instinct who doesn’t seem to want to settle, despite the threat of Edie having been eliminated. His guardedness is making me restless, unable to sit down or relax.

Charlie said I was part of her family and for a brief glorious moment, I basked in the idea of it. To be considered a Lopez? It sounds like heaven. I love my brothers and find pride in being a Wolven-North, but if I had to choose between the warmth and love the Lopez clan show for each other and the distant, cold halls of Wolf-Haven castle, there would be no real choice. It will always be Charlie and Luke.

That moment on the balcony after I saved Luke, we bonded in an unexpected way. He relied on me to save him and the cloak of my protective wolf had fallen over him the same as it hovers over Charlie. They are a package deal and my wolf accepts that.

But there can be no future for us as a family.

A knock on the apartment door has me reaching for it before Charlie wakes up. I left her in Luke’s bed where they both fell asleep, Charlie’s arms wrapped around her son.

I open the door to Charlie’s mother, Annalisa, bundled in a heavy coat and holding a Tupperware container. She blinks at me uncertainly, then steps over the threshold. “Charlie told me to stay home, but I had to see for myself that they’re truly okay.”

Charlie told her parents everything that happened. There were enough witnesses to Edie’s escape from police custody and Luke’s kidnapping that it would’ve been impossible to keep it from the media. Charlie didn’t want her parents to see the shocking footage of Luke being thrown off a building before hearing what happened from her.

“She’s in Luke’s room,” I tell Annalisa, gesturing to the hallway. “They’re asleep.”

She nods and sets the Tupperware container on the coffee table. Her long dark hair is down, flowing around her shoulders. She looks like Charlie, but that’s where the similarities end. Annalisa is soft-spoken and shy compared to Charlie’s direct and uncompromising manner.

Annalisa’s gaze seeks mine and I see a quiet determination in it. Is she going to tell me to leave? Does she blame me for what happened to her daughter and grandson?

“I… I want to thank you for saving Luke today,” she says, tears filling her golden eyes. “After we lost Ramón … well I just can’t stand to see either of them hurt again.”

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