Page 24 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

Something trips me and I fall, getting my hands beneath me before I smash my face against the ground. I don’t waste time checking to see what it was. I scramble to my feet and run…

Right into a door that wasn’t there before.

Behind me, I hear my name. “Lexa?”

Whimpering, my hands fumble for the handle. I tear it open and fling myself outside.

The sudden blast of icy rain shocks me, soaking my hair in seconds. It wasn’t raining before. Iknowit wasn’t.

A hand grips my arm. “Lexa?”

With a scream, I yank my shoulder free and take off.

Half-blinded by rain, my hair, and my fear, I run faster than I know I should in a storm.

I dart around trees and sprint through the forest with the utter certainty that he’s just a step behind me. That he’s so close, it’s only a matter of time before he catches me.

Run faster. You have to run faster.

It’s the fear that makes me miss the ditch until my ankle is already in it.

One sharp jerk and I’m falling.

Although I get my arms out in front of me, it doesn’t soften the impact when I crash to the ground.

My ankle screams in agony, but I bat my hair out of my face and push myself to my feet.

A hard body drops on top of me, pinning me to the ground. I scream and don’t stop screaming until I realize Aron isn’t killing me, but talking.

“Lexa, pup. It’s me. It’s Shay.”

Shay? How can…?

Lying with my face an inch from being mired in wet earth, I angle my head to the right, and my gaze collides with a man with blue-green eyes that are alive and not dead. That’s when I realize what must have happened.

A dream.

No. A nightmare.

One of the worst I’ve ever had in my life.

I sag, my body boneless with relief.

He’s okay. Shay is okay. I didn’t kill him.

It takes a long time for my breathing to return to normal. But when it does, Shay brushes wet hair from my face. “I’m going to get up now, okay?”

I nod.

He moves slowly, as if he doesn’t believe I won’t try to run again, but I keep still and he moves a little faster.

The shame of it hits me then. What I did. Running naked through the forest…

As soon as he’s shifted his weight off me, I roll on my side away from him and cover my face.

How could I not know it was him? My mate?

Shay moves around me. Even with my eyes closed, I know the moment he crouches beside me. “Lexa? Pup, it’s okay.”

---