Page 98 of The Alpha's Protective Mate

Close. She’s so close, I can taste her.

The gasping sound, the crashing noise.

Something is wrong with Charlotte.

My wolf is seeing red.

She needs us. She’s in pain.

This foreign sensation is like a presence within me that feels right, feels warm. It’s like a flicker of light that I can’t quite catch. I’m no longer making rational decisions, my wolf overtaking me.

I know where she is. Even the rain can’t completely shroud her nearness.

The sound of her retching reaches my ears as I burst into the coffee shop. The vampire standing by the bathroom door tries to stop me, but I shove him aside without a thought. As he snarls, I put my hand on the door handle and yank it open, the smell of blood heavy in the air.

I don’t hear the sound of the lock breaking or see the terrified look on Charlotte’s face. All I see is the blood staining her mouth and hands, an unnatural color that frightens me to the core.

She takes one step toward me and I have her wrapped in my arms.

Her tense frame relaxes, and the panic of my wolf subsides for a moment. There are questions in my head, concerns about my wolf’s reaction, but now is not the time. My eyes barely glance at the broken marble of the sink, but I absorb this information in the back of my mind for later perusal.

“Why are you bleeding? Are you hurt?”

Her affect has changed slightly, and when she looks at me, there’s an amber tinge to her green eyes.

“I’m okay,” she tries to reassure me, but the way her hands are shaking tells me she’s lying. When I try to move her toward the doorway, she looks over her shoulder. “The bathroom…”

“I’ll have someone fix the damage,” I tell her comfortingly. “Let it be my problem.”

Charlotte doesn’t fight me on it. She just nods.

I help her out of the bathroom and close the door behind me, coming face to face with Terrence Balcom. My information about this man is limited. Since there is only one Terrence in the Nelo Clan, it wasn’t hard to look him up. His father is one of Beruth’s advisors. But aside from that and what Charlotte told me, I haven’t been able to find out much about him.

However, right now, in my eyes, he is the biggest threat there is.

“Get away from her!” Terrence says coldly, his eyes flashing.

I bare my teeth at him in a vicious smile. “And hand her over to you? Why, so you can take her back to your clan? Like leading a lamb to the slaughter?”

“You’re getting involved in things that have nothing to do with you,” Terrence snarls. “This is the Nelo Clan’s matter. If you get involved, we will not sit idly—”

“But Charlotte isn’t part of the Nelo Clan anymore, now, is she?” I pull her closer to me in a deliberate act. “She is, and has been, under the Montgomery Pack’s protection for months now. So if you try to stop her from leaving with me, I’ll be using that as an excuse to wipe out your little clan once and for all.”

“Charlotte!” Terrence suddenly seems to realize what is going on. “You’ve been—He’s the enemy!”

“To the clan, perhaps.” Charlotte pulls away from me, facing Terrence. “To me, Robert is someone who has protected me. He saved me when Arabella was about to kill me. I didn’t see you or anyone else from the clan coming to my rescue that night. My loyalties are no longer with the Nelo Clan.”

“So you’re siding against us?” Terrence says, hurt in his voice.

“No.” Her answer surprises me. “I’m siding with the person who’s protecting the life I’ve built. The clan wants me dead. I’d be a fool to return to them. I’m not going with you.” She takes a step forward. “You’ve been gone a long time, Terrence. We’re both different people. I’m sorry, but things have changed. I don’t belong in the Nelo Clan anymore, and I will never go back, no matter what you put on the table. I don’t know why I’m being stalked by them, but they clearly want to harm me. So, if you want to do anything for me, get them to leave me alone. Come on, Robert.”

Grabbing my hand, Charlotte pulls me out of the coffee shop before freezing in the doorway and glancing up at me, her voice a whisper. “My bag. All my stuff is in it. The gun!”

I want to laugh. “So much for your dramatic exit, huh?”

She gives me a sheepish grin.

I look at the trench coat and hold out my hand. “Give me that and wait here.”

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