Page 4 of The Silent Mate

A low, rasping growl grumbled from my chest. Pain grated at my throat as a result, but I didn’t care. I needed to stop this.

My brother immediately responded to my raw warning, his fingers pausing mere centimeters from Aria Knox’s rosy cheeks. The muscles in his back went still, a predator that had been temporarily leashed.

I could scent little Aria’s relief. Saw her round, blue eyes wrench open to find me on the dais.

Yes. Search forme,little dove,I wanted to say. Wanted to beckon her to me, tuck her against my side and take her far,faraway from this place.

This innate urge to protect and possess her increased tenfold when her gaze finally found me, drinking in the sight of me from bottom to top. The world stood still as her eyes traveled up my legs, grazed the length of my torso and studied my shoulders, and finally…

She stiffened, fear pooling in her blue eyes and permeating off of her in waves.

I almost flinched.Almost.

I’d been a fool to believe that my fate-given mate would be unaffected by my scarred face. I’d seen enough disgust and alarm on the faces of those I crossed on a daily basis to know that most found my appearance repulsive.

A bitter smile twisted on my lips.If you think I’m so ugly now, little dove, you should’ve seen me when the attack first happened.

I looked like a fuckin’ prince by comparison. Twenty-four years prior, the right side of my head had been reduced to a mangled mess of skin and muscle and bone…

I shouldn’t have felt the impact of her revulsion so profoundly. Should’ve been accustomed to the effects I had onothers by now. Even so, my hands curled into fists, claws biting into the skin of my palms.

Malik?Roman’s voice filled my head through our mind-link—a bond shared between all werewolves of the same pack—demanding and impatient. The voice of an alpha who had been interrupted by a subordinate.

I fought the urge to growl again and instead willed a semblance of respect into my response.She’s mine.

Again, the muscles lining Roman’s back pulled taut, and he stood a bit straighter. My claim surprised him.

You’re certain?He challenged, apprehension lacing the words. At last, he turned his head to face me, as if he needed to see the truth in my eyes.A fate bond?

I nodded, just a subtle dip of my chin. I wouldn’t deign to clarify any further. To question my claim again would be seen as a sign of disrespect, punishable by death. Even analphawould bend to the will of Fate. Even the strongest answered to a higher power.

A muscle in Roman’s jaw twitched, the only sign of his anger.

He couldn’t have anticipated this. Desperate for an heir and without a fated mate himself, he’d been planning to take Mason Knox’s daughter to bed since the moment he learned that the old man possessed a breedable daughter.

Then, when Aria walked through the formal meeting hall’s doors and Roman laid eyes on her, she became far more than a vessel for a son. Her beauty and innocence made her a prize for my brother. His desire had been so palpable, I could still taste it in the air, heady and thick.

The thought had the primal, lupine force nestled deep in my body prowling to life, incensed by the very thought of my brother taking what belonged to me. Again.

I ground my teeth together in a painful exercise of control.

Like flipping a switch, Roman conjured an easy smile on hislips and turned back to Aria. He lifted his hand to her face again. I tensed.

“It seems that you belong to another,” he mused, tracing a knuckle across her cheekbone.

Another deep, gravelly warning rose within me, although the sound was too hoarse. Too easily ignored. My body began to tremble.

Roman did not cease his taunting, pinching Aria’s chin between his thumb and forefinger and forcing her to hold his gaze as he continued. “A beautiful golden flower, bound to my most prized monster.”

Monster.The nickname Roman had bestowed on me when I was seven and he was six. When it became clear that our father favored an heir who could speak instead of his firstborn son. When I was informed that my value now rested in my ability to kill for the sake of theIntonat NoctePack. ForRoman.

Aria’s eyes widened in alarm, but she daren’t jerk out of my brother’s hold.

I took a slow step forward, every muscle in my body humming with the urge to attack anything that threatened this female. As I moved, however, several of my brother’s guards shifted as well, prepared to intervene the moment my control snapped.

The energy in the room turned volatile, charged with a dangerous cocktail of pheromones and instinct that could ignite at any second.

Roman knew that he played a dangerous game, but he reveled in it. Hewantedme to attack but knew that I wouldn’t. I owed him too much.

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