Page 61 of The Silent Mate

Pain erupted behind the eye socket of my good side. A single lamp illuminated the room, but it hurt like I stared directly into the sun.

Panic settled over my chest as I took in the unfamiliar surroundings.

I laid on a bed, my wrists bound to the mattress like a damned prisoner. Freshly changed bandages covered my bare arms, and needles inserted into the veins on the back of myhands. A clean bedsheet covered my abdomen. It eased the edge of my unease.

An old woman stood at the foot of the bed, a gentle smile gracing her wrinkled lips. “Praise the Moon Goddess,” she chuckled. “We weren’t sure you’d ever wake up.”

I stiffened, my lips cracking open to ask who she was, but no sound came out.Right.How could I have forgotten?

I narrowed my eyes at the graying woman and attempted to sit up in the bed, but any attempt at movement failed. My muscles were too weak.

“You are quite a fighter,” she cooed, stepping closer to my bed. “There were times when I thought you’d given up, but then something would change, and your heart would strengthen once more.”

In an instant, I knew the moments that she spoke of. The moments when Aria’s memory shattered the black night and rekindled my will to live and return to her.Aria.

My eyes flared wide. Aria. My little dove. My mate.

Where was she? I needed to find her. If Roman had indeed survived, she needed my protection more than ever. Did she think I was dead? Had he tried to kill her as well? Instinct had me diving into myself, searching for the bond we once shared. I found the tattered threads of our connection, but when I speared down the cord that bridged between us…Nothing.

Pain, more potent than any physical ailment, ripped through me like a blade. Panic flared anew, and, this time, it gave me the power to thrash against the bands that kept me tethered to the bed.

“Easy, alpha!” The old woman—Samah, I believed— cried, stretching her hands out to calm me. “You have been asleep for too many months. You will only hurt yourself…”

I stopped listening to her, dread curdling deep in my stomach.

Months?

29

ARIA

Four months later…

Sometimes, I thought I could feel him again.

Not physically—like when I closed my eyes and imagined his hands on my body, his teeth grazing his mark at the base of my neck—but in the depths of my being. It came as a phantom stirring in my soul, a barely-traceable caress deep on the far side of our bond. Our bond that remained, even in death.

At first, that ever-present bond tortured me. Too often, I found myself diving down the invisible tether that connected our souls and violently searching for some semblance oflifeon the other end. I never found anything.

Now, the tattered remnants of our bond served as a reminder that, one day, I’d be with Malik again. A reminder that even death could not separate us, and my soul would find his in the afterlife.

But, as I curled on my side in the bed I once shared with him and rubbed my swollen belly, IsworeI felt a gentle brush down the splintered cords ofus.

I stiffened, every muscle in my body locking up as I waited for another touch. Anotheranything.There was only a small kick against my ribcage that soothed a fraction of the disappointment and grief that threatened to shatter me every day.

Smiling, I rubbed the spot where Malik’s pup liked to nudge me a few times every hour. She’d grown so much in the last few months. It wouldn’t be long now. Werewolves experienced shorter pregnancies than humans, mainly due to their accelerated growth rates and longer bones.

A knock sounded at the bedroom door, and I slowly pushed up into a seated position. My legs hung over the side of the bed as I took a deep breath and mustered the courage to rise another day.

For her—for Malik’s pup—I would.

My visitor knocked again, louder this time.

“I’m coming,” I growled through gritted teeth. I knew who waited on the other side.

Roman received a missive from the alpha of a small nomadic pack yesterday. The pack, no more than thirty shifters strong and utterly incapable of defending themselves should Roman decide he wanted to destroy the competition, agreed to swear fealty to him. They’d promised to arrive by nightfall to swear fealty to him.

When I opened the door, Roman’s scowling face greeted me.

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