Page 46 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

I lift my head to his. “After?”

He darts a glance down. “After.”

When I look down, I realize where he’s focused his attention. My flat stomach.

I’m smiling when I lift my head. “You mean a baby?”

A new light fills his eyes. “Yes, a baby.”

“What is there to talk about?”

“So, you like the idea of that?”

Already I can picture a little boy with Shay’s turquoise eyes and white-blond hair. “I’d like a boy like you.”

He snorts. “No, you don’t. I was a troublemaker who never sat still for a second. It has to be a girl like you.”

Terror stabs me in the heart.

A girl like me.

Suddenly I’m breathing too fast, and a sheen of sweat forms on my brow. I tear my hand from Shay’s and scramble for the edge of the bed.

“Lexa, what? What is it?”

I don’t make it off the bed. Moving fast, Shay tugs at my hand so I fall to my back. He braces his weight over me so I can’t get away again, his face creased with concern.

The air is rich with the scent of terror.

Mine.

“Lexa. Breathe.”

I can’t breathe. Air pants out of me with each hard gasp.

“Breathe, baby. Breathe.”

His words penetrate the thick fog of my fear enough that I drag in a deep breath.

“Good,” he murmurs. “And again.”

I drag in yet another delicious mouthful of air until I feel my lungs begin to work the way they should.

The next several minutes pass this way. Shay tells me to breathe, and I breathe, long past the point he could stop.

When my breathing is steady, he lowers his head so his brow is touching mine. “Now, what panicked you?”

His body pins me to the bed, and his hands grip my face. He’s too heavy to move, and there’s no way I can break his stare. With nowhere to escape, I close my eyes.

He’s silent for a beat. “Lexa?”

I don’t respond. I’ve gotten used to using silence to keep the world out, and I do that now.

“I know you’re afraid, and that’s okay. But I’m your mate. The other half of your soul. You never need to hide from me. I would never hurt you.”

“I know you won’t hurt me,” I whisper with my eyes still closed.

“Then let me in. What scared you?”

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