Page 63 of The Silent Mate

Did I not look like a Luna? Or, perhaps he could sense my pregnancy and the subsequentlackof Roman’s scent on my body? Regardless, I offered him a genuine smile and dipped my head in greeting. “Welcome, Alpha Amir. It’s a pleasure to?—”

He interrupted me with three croaked words. “You are pregnant?”

I froze, my hand instantly landing on the top of my bump. The pup within fluttered at my touch. Beside me, Roman shifted indiscernibly closer, and I was actuallygratefulfor his presence.

I didn’t like the way Amir watched me, like my next words might seal his opinion of me forever. I held his gaze, never balking, and cocked my head.

“Yes,” I answered, not bothering to offer any further explanation.

Amir hummed, contemplative, then nodded toward Roman. “And the pup… It is this male’s?”

My mouth cracked open, but I couldn’t force the lie off my tongue.

Hadn’t my deal with Roman been for this exact purpose? I agreed to be his Luna so he would claim Malik’s child as his own, protecting it from those who would rather see it dead. I should’ve answered automatically. Should’ve sought refuge closer to Roman’s side, like anyrealLuna would do when a rival alpha stared at her likeshewas a villain.

“Of course it’s mine,” Roman seethed, answering for me.

He wrapped an arm around my back and pulled me into his side, placing a protective hand on my belly. Regret twisted in my chest, but I managed to keep myself from shifting away.

I dropped my gaze from Amir’s, but not before I saw a flash of surprise and disappointment in his dark brown eyes.

The old alpha took a small step backward, clasping his hands neatly together. He eyed me warily, and the werewolves at his back shifted. “Is that thetruth,girl?”

He stared at me like he knew it wasn’t.

Fear skittered down my spine. Not for myself or the pack, but for the defenseless babe in my womb. For her, I’d swallow down this lie.

“Y-yes.”

And then I felt it.

Pain, unlike anything I’d ever felt before, shot through the center of my chest. It erupted from deep inside of me, like aknife had been plunged straight through my sternum and into my heart. It consumed me, enraged me,brokeme.

“Ah!”I fell to my knees, clutching at my heart like that might stop it from shattering into a million pieces.

No weapon protruded from my chest. My body remained intact.

This pain came from somewhere deep inside of me. From mysoul.And I knew, even as the depths of heartbreak rippled through me like the aftershocks of an earthquake, this pain wasn’t my own.

A low growl rumbled through the clearing. Death incarnate. Violence personified.

No—not through the clearing. It permeated through mymind.

My eyes flared wide as they searched the crowd of werewolves in front of me. Slowly, they parted, and a monstrous wolf emerged from the forest behind them.

My soul recognized itself and rejoiced.

Malik.

30

ARIA

The world descended into chaos around me, but I couldn’t rip my eyes away from the ghost in front of me. My mate.

My veryun-dead mate.

For a moment, I didn’t believe my eyes. Too many times over the past few months, my mind played cruel tricks on me. It conjured images and scents and sounds that played on my grief and tortured me.

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