Page 32 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

No wonder Shay thought this would be the safest place for us.

“You ready to shift?” he asks.

Turning from the treehouse cabin, I nod.

He scratches the back of my neck before he drops his hand, but he doesn’t move away.

My shift is almost as fast as his. And in seconds I rise to my feet, but Shay’s hand on my arm stops me from heading toward the tree.

I angle my head toward him.

“You shift fast.” His expression is impossible to read. “As fast as I do.”

It’s the reason I never shifted around strangers. My speed leads to questions, and I’ve learned how dangerous answers can be.

“So?” I ask, trying to keep my face blank.

Shay studies me for another long moment, having forgotten his urgency to get inside the cabin. “And have you always?”

How can I answer without telling him something I shouldn’t?

Stick to one-word answers. Keep things vague.

“Yes.”

“And your parents? Did they—”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I interrupt.

Silence.

“Okay,” he murmurs. “Okay. We won’t talk about it. You need me to carry you?”

After shifting my focus from him, I examine the best route to scale the tree. The lowest branches are just low enough for me to reach, which is always the hardest part of climbing. “No,” I murmur, as I start toward it. “I can manage.”

But Shay closes his hands around my hips and lowers his mouth to my ear. “I was hoping the answer would be yes,” he murmurs.

I turn to meet his eye. “Why?”

His gaze dips to my lips. “Because it would be an excuse to hold you.”

A vivid image of my body wrapped tight around Shay as he climbs the tree flashes in my mind, and a hot flush sweeps over my body. “Oh.”

He lifts his gaze back to my eyes. “Yes, oh.”

I want to tell him I changed my mind, and for a second I almost do.

But then I remember what’s happening back in the courtyard.

Men went there looking for me, and they attacked women and children. They might again. Unless I do something about it.

So I tear my gaze from Shay’s and turn back to the tree. “Well, you don’t need to. I can climb it.”

Shay is silent, and I know he couldn’t have missed the coolness in my voice. He accused me of pulling away from him before, but now I let him hear it in my tone.

Maybe the reason he doesn’t say anything is because Daniel is still a silent presence at my back, but he releases my hips and takes a step away. “Okay, Lexa. I have a couple of things I have to talk about with Daniel, and then I’ll be right up.”

I make my way to the tree and reach for the first of the branches. As I pull myself up, I’m conscious his eyes are following my route up.

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