Page 65 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

I must be in shock because I can’t process the fact that he’s here. It doesn’t feel real until he crosses over to me.

His hand lightly grips my chin and turns my head to the left. Although his expression doesn’t change as he examines the bruise from Aron’s punch, his eyes are so cold that I know I’m seeing death in his eyes.

He doesn’t say a word, just gently returns my face to the front and draws a fur around my body. After helping me to my feet, he glances toward the cave entrance. “Ewan, take her outside.”

Ewan is here?

As I’m thinking it, Shay’s beta comes into my line of vision—and that’s when I realize it isn’t just Ewan who’s here. Three other shifters are just as bloody, just as grim-faced as Shay guard Aron’s men, who they’ve pushed to one side of the cave.

The men seem familiar enough that I know I must have seen them before, even if I can’t remember where. Maybe sitting in the courtyard, or maybe at the pack gatherings.

I wait for Ewan to ask him why, but Shay’s beta doesn’t say a word, just takes my arm and guides me out of the cave. As I turn to peer over my shoulder, the last thing I see is Shay stalking toward the men huddled on the floor, his hands clenched into tight fists.

From several feet away, I smell their terror.

* * *

Shay is silent as he swipes a damp cloth over my face.

His jaw is tight, and his eyes haven’t met mine since he found me in the cave and carried me to another of the cabins that the pack must use. This one is just as rustic as the first we stayed in, except it has a large metal bathtub sitting in front of the roaring fire.

With the rest of the men waiting outside, it’s just me and Shay. At first, my attention was on his bruised and bloody knuckles. It looked like he’d beaten the men to death, so I asked him as he carried me away from the cave why he didn’t rip out their throats.

He stopped long enough to stare into my face. Not my eyes, but the bruise on my jaw.

“They didn’t deserve a quick death.”

After that, he said nothing at all, and neither did I.

“Shay?” I whisper.

He doesn’t respond.

“Please don’t be angry with me.”

All movement stops. All except his eyes, which he jerks to my face. “You think I’m angry withyou?”

“You think I handed myself to them, that I did what you told me not to do, don’t you?”

He doesn’t deny it. “I can guess what happened.”

His voice is flat. Heisangry with me, even if he won’t admit it. His response, or lack of one, triggers my anger.

I push his hand away when he moves to clean the rest of the blood from my face and stand. “They were going to kill you.”

Shay follows me to his feet and tosses the cloth aside. “They wouldn’t have—”

Someone pushes the door open, but neither Shay nor I turn from each other. “Shay?” Ewan calls.

“You walked into an ambush,” I tell him.

Shay’s eyes narrow. “When?”

“I heard a whistle, and I knew what it meant. I knew you were in trouble, so I went after you.”

Anger flares in his eyes. “Lexa, I told you—”

“There were in the trees.”

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