Page 14 of Protected By Artemis

“Well?” he groused. “What is it?”

Unfortunately, he wasn’t very good when it came to dealing with actual living beings.

“We need your help, H,” she said.

“We?” He glanced behind her. “Where the hell are we anyway?”

“H, may I present the Alpha of the Alaska wolf pack, Cade Andersen.” She gestured toward the desk, but to her surprise, he was already right behind her. “Wha—oh, there you are. Cade, this is Hephaestus, God of Fire and Forges.”

Cade said nothing as the two men sized up each other, their fierce gazes locked on each other as if in a silent battle of wills. Sensing the tension, Artemis cleared her throat. “Gentleman, we don’t have all day, can we get to business?”

“That’s what I’ve been waiting for,” Hephaestus said, his eyes never leaving Cade.

Artemis blew out a breath.Too much testosterone around here.“It’s simple, really, I need your help.” She quickly filled him in on what happened yesterday and their plans to find the suspect.

“You were nearly blown to bits, and you only called me now?” Hephaestus roared.

“Don’t you yell at her,” Cade warned, taking a step forward, effectively placing himself between Artemis and Hephaestus. “And why would she need to call you anyway?”

“Guys, please!” She sent Cade a warning look; she didn’t need him to fight her battles. Besides, Hephaestus wasn’t furious at her. He was like an older brother to her, after all, so she understood why he was upset when he heard she was in danger. “I’m fine, H, thanks to Cade, actually. But we really need your help. Are you still working on that app we talked about when I last came over to your place?”

Hephaestus snorted. “I’m done with the prototype, actually.”

“Great, then we can test it out for this trip.”

“Wait a second.” Cade waved a hand in the air. “What the hell are you talking about? What app?”

“Show him,” Artemis urged. “It’s phenomenal.”

“Here. I call it KLonos.” Hephaestus held up his phone, showing the Greek letters kappa and lambda on the screen. “All you have to do is place it near a phone or laptop, and it makes copies of any device and then stores it on my cloud server.”

“Isn’t it genius?” Artemis grinned. “Stick it next to our suspect’s device, and voilà! We’ll get to see what they’ve been up to.”

Cade glanced at it with a skeptical expression. “For how long does it need to be in contact with the other phone?”

“Depends on how much data it has to transfer and how fast your phone’s processor is. But even with older phones, it shouldn’t take more than five minutes.”

“See, Cade? We’ll have the evidence we need to identify the alpha threatening your pack in no time.”

Cade’s nostrils flared. “You keep saying ‘we’ like you think you’re coming with me.”

“Of course, I’m coming with you.” She planted her hands on her hips. “Who else is going to help you suss out our bomber.”

“Mybomber,” he said. “I told you; this is pack business.”

“And I toldyou”—she took a step toward him—“that I promised Geri I would see this through.”

“You promised to help,” he pointed out, his voice raising. “And you have, with this app.”

“Technically, it’s H’s app.”

“Why do we even need an app?” Cade scowled at Hephaestus. “Don’t you have magic? Why can’t you just…magic the data I need? Aren’t you a divine being?”

“Stupid mortal,” Hephaestus muttered. “It’s complicated.”

Cade flashed the god a menacing stare. “Try me.”

“Let me try to dumb it down for you, wolf.” Hephaestus put his phone away. “Computers and machines are complicated pieces of technology made by man. It existed after us gods, so we can’t just wave our hands and make it do our bidding.”

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