Page 63 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

Panic blinds me to everything but the need to escape.Now.

I fight to break out of Aron’s hold. I’m surrounded by his men, and I know I likely won’t get far, but now that I know what’s in store for me, I don’t care.

I have to get away.

This time it isn’t a palm that drives me off my feet, but a fist.

I sit stunned on the ground, one hand cupping my throbbing jaw and my eyes filled with tears.

“Try that again, and I’ll break your neck and leave your body for him to find. Do you understand?”

I know I’m valuable to him because I can give him something that no one else can. A born shifter girl. But right now, the coldness in his voice makes me believe he’ll do it. So I nod.

“Get up.”

The combination of the punch and a lack of food makes getting up a dizzying and slow task, but I push myself to my feet. The second I’m up, Aron grabs my arm and goes back to dragging me through the forest at a pace that’s fine for his long legs, but means I will continue to spend the rest of the day half-running to keep up.

As my legs burn with exertion, the same mantra runs over and over in my head.

Please don’t let there be a cave for a hundred miles. Please let Shay kill all of them before it’s night.

It’s all I think about, so I can almost ignore Aron’s grip on me and the slowly darkening sky, or that the last time I ate was back in the treehouse.

As night approaches, it gets colder and colder, until my teeth chatter and my feet feel like frozen blocks of ice.

I’ve just started worrying about frostbite when a man hurries toward us from the front. Aron slows.

My heart pounds harder with every step he approaches. I search the man’s expression so I can work out if it’s good news for me: more men are dead, or bad news: they’ve found a cave.

“Alpha?” The man stops a few feet away.

“You’ve found a place?”

I hold my breath.

The man nods. “About a mile east. We should reach it before it’s fully dark.”

My eyes close, and I release a slow breath.

“Good. Go back and secure it. Start a fire and send a couple of men to hunt some meat.” I feel Aron’s gaze on the side of my face. “Set up the bedding in a corner. I won’t be eating with the men.”

No. He’ll be busy doing something else.

Something that fills me with horror.

Footsteps move away, but I don’t open my eyes. “What’s the matter, Lexa?” Aron murmurs. He sounds like he’s smiling, pleased now that at least something is going his way. “I thought all women liked babies.”

“Some do. It’s the rape most would have a problem with.”

Silence follows words I’d only intended to say in my head. With my eyes closed, I feel more of the other men—the last surviving ones—that is, turn to me. When nothing immediately happens, I peel my eyelids open.

Although I brace myself for another slap or punch, it doesn’t come.

Aron releases my arm for a rare moment, but there’s no relief from freedom, because he stretches a hand toward my face.

I flinch.

His lips curve in a smile. Closing his fingers around my chin, he tilts my head up.

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