Page 68 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

Beside the bed, I look at the furs spread over the mattress and I don’t want to move. “I think I’d like to get in the bath.”

“Lexa?”

I can’t stop staring at the furs. I’m back at the cave, and I can feel Aron’s hands gripping my arms, shoving me down on the furs. Remembering the lust in his eyes, I take a step back.

“Lexa?”

It’s hot in the cabin from the fire, but I can’t understand why my body is trembling so hard.

“Pup?”

The word penetrates my horror because only one person in the world would call me that. I tear my eyes from the furs and meet Shay’s concerned gaze. “I’m not okay.”

He wraps his arms around me and draws me close, tucking me against his body, and pressing his mouth against my hair. “I know, baby.”

We stay that way for several minutes, just holding onto each other, until Shay releases me and takes a small step back.

“The pack will be okay for a while, so for now it’s just us. Instead of me deciding what you need, how about you tell me?” His lips twitch. “Since we alphas have big heads to go along with this belief that we know everything.”

I don’t even have to think about what I want. “I’d like to get in the tub, but with you.”

He nods. “And then?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Okay,” he murmurs, “the tub it is. While we soak, you can think about what you want next, and we’ll do it. Whatever you want, baby.”

19

Idon’t mean to fall asleep.

Yet somehow, between the soothing water warming my skin, the press of Shay’s body wrapped behind and around mine, and his hands gently stroking up and down my arms, I close my eyes.

When I open them again, my hair and body are dry, and I’m lying on my side in bed with Shay’s gaze on my face.

“I fell asleep,” I murmur.

His hand skims over my bare hip. “You weren’t the only one.”

“Oh.”

I must be half-sleep for me to be struggling to form coherent sentences, but talking in the dimly lit cabin with the fire still cheerfully burning doesn’t seem necessary.

We just study each other, neither saying a word.

Long minutes later, I clear my throat. “Are Ewan and the others still in a cabin nearby?”

Shay’s gaze sharpens. “Aron and his men are all dead, Lexa. You’re safe now.”

It isn’t the question I asked, but just like always, Shay read my heart without my needing to speak. “But how do you know?”

He lifts his hand from my hip to thread his fingers with mine. It’s the same way we lay after we made love in the treehouse.

Thinking about our time there is bittersweet. I can’t remember ever being as happy, as content in a place in all my life, but also so filled with anguish as I watched Daniel die after sacrificing himself to protect me and Shay.

“Because there were two groups of us who came after you. One group tracked you. The second group picked off as many of the men around you as they could before the first group could rescue you.”

I don’t have to ask which one he was in. “What happened, Shay? You said you heard a noise. What was it?”

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