Page 69 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

His hand briefly tightens around mine. “I thought I heard someone whistling.”

Although I think I’ve succeeded at keeping my face expressionless, Shay narrows his eyes. “What is it?”

I shake my head. “I’ll tell you after.”

After squeezing my hand, he continues. “The whistling stopped by the time you’d woken, and as you know, I left to find out what was going on. I didn’t have to wander far to find a body.”

Now it’s my turn to tighten my hold on him. “One of ours?”

“No.”

“But?”

“Whoever killed him did it somewhere else and planted him near our treehouse, since there wasn’t enough blood around him for it to have happened there.”

“And then what?”

“It felt like an ambush, but I couldn’t see anyone.”

“They were in the trees above you,” I tell him. “They must have covered their scents.”

Shay nods. “I realized that later. They probably waded through the stream and then rolled around in the mud after.” He frowns. “And then suddenly I felt like you were there.”

I tense, because we’re getting to the part of the story that I know Shay won’t want to hear. “You did?”

His gaze sharpens, revealing that he didn’t miss my reaction. “I did. But I couldn’t see you.”

“And then what happened?”

“I heard a whisper. It said—”

“Kill him,” I interrupt.

For several seconds, Shay doesn’t say a word. “You were there.”

I nod.

“What—”

“I’ll tell you after, but what happened to you?”

Shay releases my hand and shuffles closer so we’re pressed flush against each other, his arm wrapped around my back and mine over his hip.

“I shifted. It was a good thing I did because, by the time I had, shifters who seemed to come from nowhere had surrounded me.”

My hand tighten on his hip. “And then?” I breathe.

“I fought. I think I’d killed a couple before Ewan and some of my enforcers turned up. After that, it was easy, and once they were all dead, we shifted back. As we headed back to the treehouse, Ewan filled me in on what had happened back at the courtyard. But when we got to the treehouse—”

“I wasn’t there.”

“No,” he murmurs against my hair. “You weren’t. So we left to track you.”

I stare at the wall in silence, wanting to apologize but knowing I don’t regret it. That I would make the same choice over and over, no matter how bad things would’ve ended for me.

“I heard you sing.”

I jerk in surprise. Shay shifts us so I’m on my back and he’s braced on his arms over me. “You have the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard in my life, but I never want you to sing like that again.”

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