Page 58 of The Silent Mate

The words hovered over me, not quite touching for several long moments. I took a small, unsteady step backward and shook my head. “N-No… No, there must be a mistake.”

“Aria,” a vaguely-familiar male voice called. One of the healers I’d worked with over the past few weeks placed a hand on my shoulder. “We need to treat Alpha Roman. Help or leave.”

I didn’t move, keeping my eyes on the alpha alone. “No.I don’t believe you. Roman, your brother—” Someone started to haul me backward. “Tell me it isn’t true! Malik isn’t—” I couldn’t speak the word. “I would know!”

My words became a garbled mess, desperation causing my voice to rise in pitch as they forced me away from our alpha. Another nurse immediately took my place, blocking Roman from view. My vision became hazy with tears, my head light as I lost the ability to breathe—to function.

“I’ll take her,” Estelle’s gentle voice echoed somewhere behind me.

“Get her out of here,” someone growled as I struggled against my captor. The pressure on my chest became unbearable, and I was certain I’d crack in half. Iwantedto crack in half.

Estelle’s comforting arms enveloped me, and I nearly crumbled to the floor. Somehow, she managed to pull me away from the chaos of the main room and into a private room they used for more intense procedures. As soon as the door shut behind us, she released her hold on me, and I fell into a heap on the floor. Curling in on myself, my body trembled as I clutched my stomach.

I didn’t believe it. Malik couldn’t be… Hewasn’t…

The bond remained. I couldfeelour bond. I just couldn’t feelhim.

“Be strong, Aria,” Estelle murmured, rubbing comforting circles on the center of my back. “Malik’s child will need you to remain strong.”

His child.A ragged sob ripped from my chest, and I shook my head again and again.

“Calm now,” she coached, a note of urgency in her tone. “This is not good for your health, my dear.”

Not good for my health?I wanted to scream at her that I didn’t care. That my health—my entirelife—was forfeit the moment Malik’s heart stopped beating.

Precious weeks. I’d been given preciousweekswith my fated mate, and I cursed the Moon Goddess for taking him from me. I’d damn her to the deepest ring of hell if I could, just so she might experience a fraction of the pain I felt in that moment.

When I failed to calm, Estelle stood, and I became faintly aware of her rummaging around in the drawers and cabinets behind me. I remained a trembling, sobbing lump on the cold hard floor. She returned to my side a moment later.

The resounding pain in the center of my body nearly blocked out the sharp pinch at my neck as Estelle injected me with some serum. When the darkness settled over me, I cried Malik’s name.

I wokein a vaguely familiar bed.

They’d taken me to Malik’s quarters in the pack house rather than the cottage. I knew because I’d already awoken thrice before, only to be injected with the sleep serum when the pain became too much to bear once more.

This time, a certain degree of numbness thrummed in mychest. I felt disconnected from myself, like my body remained in the physical realm while my soul floated a thousand miles away. With Malik, no doubt.

Dead.He was gone.

It was the only explanation for the utter absence on the other side of our mate bond. I’d come to the conclusion that the chord between us still existed for the sole purpose of guiding my soul back to his when I joined him in the afterlife.

Slowly, I pushed into a seated position. My eyes ached, swollen and red from endless grief. My limbs felt stiff and weak, scarcely capable of holding my torso upright in bed, and my throat scratched from nights spent mourning his loss.

A figure at the corner of the room shot up.Gio.“Miss Aria, you’re awake!”

Through the fog in my head, I recalled that the young man had been sitting in the same chair each time I woke up over the last few days. He was stoically devoted to his cause of protecting me—the last order that Malik gave him.

Malik.A fresh wave of misery washed over me, but my eyes were no longer capable of producing tears. I clutched at my stomach, at the baby that I prayed still grew there despite my neglect, and tried to speak.

“W-water,” I croaked, looking to the bedside table where an untouched glass waited for me. I extended a hand, but my fingers trembled and couldn’t grasp the cup.

“Of course.” Gio rushed over, taking the glass for me and bringing it to my lips. “Careful. Estelle said to begin slowly.”

The room-temperature liquid wet my lips, a single mouthful sliding down my throat and soothing the rawness. I tried to guzzle another gulp, but Gio gently pulled the glass away and set it on the side table once more.

“I’ll tell Estelle that you’re awake,” Gio reported. “She’ll want to come check you, then I will bring you a plate of food.”

The trembling threatened to pick up again, but my stomach groaned at the mention of food. That was a good sign, I supposed. “H-How long…?”

---