Page 60 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

“A lot of men have died.”

Aron’s words wrench my gaze from the ground to his face. “That wasn’t Shay’s fault.”

“The pack is his.”

I understand what he isn’t saying. The deaths are Shay’s fault. “So you’ll kill him.”

He’s alive. Please let him be alive.

Aron would be rubbing his death in my face if he were dead.

“You’ll perform for us tonight. A song.”

I yank my hand free from his and stop walking. He takes three more steps before he notices I’m no longer beside him. “Lexa.”

“No.”

More heads turn my way. I drop the skewer and wrap my arms around myself. “I won’t do it.”

Aron takes a step toward me. I take one back.

“Lexa…”

“I said no.” I’m breathing too fast, but nothing in the world could make me slow down.

The blow comes out of nowhere.

My right shoulder takes the brunt of my fall. A shooting pain runs down my arm and makes my wrist throb in time to my right cheek.

“You seem to think that you have a choice about any of this.” I feel Aron move closer. His gaze burns through the back of my head as I stare at a small gray stone an inch from my face. “Let me clear something up for you now before you force me to do more things that you won’t like. You don’t have a choice about anything.”

The pain releases its grip on me one slow beat at a time.

“Get up.”

I push myself to my feet and turn to face Aron, but not to look him in the eye. I keep my gaze on his chest. If he saw the hatred burning in my eyes, it would only invite another blow I won’t see coming.

He reaches a hand toward me, and I flinch. But this time he doesn’t hit me. What he does is a thousand times worse.

Gripping my chin so hard I know he’s leaving bruises behind, he jerks my head up to his.

For several seconds, he doesn’t say a word. “You will sing for the men tonight. You will do it as you are now, so the men can see the reward they and their sons will get when you produce the shifter daughters they deserve.”

I will myself not to feel, or to even think.

“Do you understand?” His voice is whisper-quiet, but it’s like a roar in my ear.

I nod.

“Good.”

Now that he’s finished with his threats, a wide smile stretches across his face, and his touch gentles. When he takes his hand from my chin and holds it palm up to me, I know what will happen if I don’t take it. So I do.

“You don’t smell any different, so it’s a good thing we got you when we did.”

What does he mean, I don’t—

The answer makes me recoil. I’m not pregnant with Shay’s baby. That’s what he means.

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