Page 12 of The Silent Mate

And, like a fucking monster, I’d woken up with a raging hard-on.

As soon as I realized it, I shot out of bed, but guilt still gnawed at my gut. I’d always prided myself on my self-control, but with Aria, my fated mate… Well, I had to fuck my own hand in the showertwicebefore my cock calmed down.

With my jeans hanging unbuttoned on my hips, I rubbed at the ugly, jagged scar that tainted my neck from ear to ear and sighed.

I hated it.

If I didn’t have this scar, I could’ve walked out of the closet, sat on the edge of the bed, and spoken to Aria. Could’ve apologized for scaring her and promised not to do it again. I could’ve explained my plans to move her out of my brother’s pack house and intomyhome, where she’d be safe and free andmine.

Instead, I was hiding in the closet. Silent. Forced to communicate with her using a fucking notepad.

Clenching my jaw to the point of pain, I grabbed the first gray t-shirt from my meager stack and slid it over my torso. The fabric fit a bit too snug, unsurprising considering I hadn’t restocked this closet in the five years since I decided to keep a spare handful of clothing in it for scenarios like this. It seemed I’d grown in size and musculature since then.

Dressed, I pushed open the closet door once more and,despite the darkness shrouding the room, saw my little mate stiffen at my presence.

Swallowing my disappointment, I hardened myself against her disgust and walked toward the nightstand, where the notepad still waited from last night. Pen in hand, I flipped to the next open page and glared at the empty space.

For a moment, I contemplated scrawling another hasty message, demanding that Aria wait in the bedroom and not leave until I returned later. With the tip of my pen pressed to the yellow paper, the ink began to bleed onto the sheet, but I paused.

Cold, impersonal notes wouldn’t do anything to lessen Aria’s fear of me.

My throat bobbed as I glanced over at her still shape on the bed, then my hand started moving of its own accord.

Little dove,

Good morning. I hope you slept well. Again, I ask that you refrain from exiting this room alone today. I’ll ask a friend, Emerson, to wait outside the room at dawn. She will take you to have breakfast and help you settle into our home.

Stay with Emerson until I return tonight.

Yours,

Malik

I read and reread the note. My handwriting was piss poor, and I’d never cared enough to improve it during school. Mybrother needed my fighting ability, not my skills with a pen and paper. And Icertainlywas no poet.

Once or twice, I considered crumbling the note up and reverting to my hasty, impersonal scribblings. At leasttheywouldn’t make me feel like a besotted idiot.

I eyed the end of my note.‘Yours.’

Heat threatened to climb up my neck at the affection-laced farewell. Would the word upset Aria? Or would it offer a glimpse of the deep, all-consuming devotion that I’d felt for her the moment I laid eyes on her?

According to fate and the Moon Goddess and, frankly, every fiber in my body, Iwashers. And she was mine.

Eventually, I forced myself to put the notepad back on the nightstand, no longer willing to waste any more time pondering the note. Although my mind told me to make a swift exit to get an early start on my duties for the day, I found myself lingering by the edge of the bed.

Aria rested at the center of the mattress, her gold-spun hair cascading over her shoulder and across her pillow. Her breast rose and fell with each steady inhale. She was getting better at faking sleep already.

Despite myself, I reached over the mattress and brushed my knuckle against her brow where a tendril of blonde hair had fallen. The strand slipped between my index and middle finger, like silk against the calluses.

At my touch, Aria’s full dark lashes fluttered open. Eyes of vivid blue blinked up at me, and, to my surprise and confusion, there wasn’t a hint of fear in their depths.

“M-Malik?” she whispered, shifting to support her body on an elbow.

The sound of my name on her lips made my heart rate swell until it battered against my chest like a hammer.

She pushed further up on her elbow, and the sheets felldown her body to reveal her bra and cleavage. I forced my gaze back to her face, even as heat surged through my veins.Hell.

I quickly attempted to draw my hand back, away from her face, as if it could somehow harm her through sheer proximity. Before I could successfully bring it back to my side, however, her own fingers wrapped around my hand.

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