Page 52 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

Daniel snorts. A second later, he gasps in pain.

Hot blood soaks through the first cloth and onto my hand. I grab another and press down, but I know it won’t stop the bleeding.

I turn to Shay. “Do you have a needle and thread here?”

He gazes back at me without expression. “You want to sew the wound closed?”

“It’s the only way to stop the bleeding.”

As shifters, we heal faster than normal humans do—but if I can’t stop the bleeding, he will bleed out before his body has a chance to heal. And I have a feeling he’s lost too much blood already.

After a moment, Shay nods. “It’s in the—”

Daniel grips my wrist with an icy hand. “No need,” he interrupts.

When I turn back to him, it’s like he’s aged ten years. His skin now is almost bone-white, and the once healthy man in his twenties that I remember from the cabin is gone.

“It’s not just your stomach, is it?” I ask in a low voice.

“No. I don’t know why those men want you, but they want you too bad for it to be for anything good. I’m guessing that’s part of the reason you didn’t want to speak.”

“Yes.” I pause. When I think about what Daniel has done for me and Shay, I realize he deserves more of an answer than that. “I was born a shifter. Any girl I have will be the same as me and… well. You can probably guess why they’d want me.”

Aron would have already sold my first five children. It’s the only reason I can think he’d have convinced so many men to fight for him. I’d probably spend the rest of my life giving him more little girls he can sell until it killed me.

Daniel’s pain-filled eyes flash with determination before he shifts his gaze to Shay. “You can’t let them have her.”

Shay closes his hand around Daniel’s shoulder. “I don’t intend on it.”

“Good,” Daniel breathes, seeming to deflate. “If you have to go back, wait a couple more…” His words are so breathy, it’s as if he isn’t drawing enough air into his lungs. “…Days.”

My hands are slick with blood. As my eyes fill with tears, I grab another rag and press it against his belly.

“Thank you,” Shay murmurs. “For what you did.”

Daniel’s eyes settle on a point just over my shoulder, and the pain melts away from his face. I wait for another breath to pass his lips, but as the seconds tick by, it doesn’t happen.

A tear slides down my cheek and splashes onto my hand.

“Lexa?”

I lean toward Daniel and kiss his cheek. It’s even colder than his hand was. “Thank you, Daniel.”

When I get to my feet, Shay is there, his hands gripping the top of my arms. “This wasn’t your fault, Lexa.”

“I need to get a cloth and water. I’d like to clean the blood off him before we bury him.”

“Lexa?”

My gaze doesn’t move from his chest. When I don’t respond, Shay kisses my forehead before he releases me.

The moment he does, I slip past him and head for the kitchen for a bowl of water, so I can set to work cleaning the body of the man who gave his life for me.

Another life lost.

Because of me.

14

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