Page 64 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

With a tree at my back and Aron close in front of me, I have no way of evading him when he lowers his face to mine.

I squeeze my eyes shut at the gentle kiss he presses against my lips, praying he won’t do more than that.

A second later, he lifts his head an inch. “Be careful, songbird,” he breathes against my lips, “or I will take that pretty voice away from you.”

As if I didn’t know what he meant, he drags his thumb across my throat.

When he steps away, I stand frozen in terror.

I’m almost relieved when he grabs my wrist, because at least he can’t kiss me while he’s dragging me through the forest.

But soon he won’t be. Soon we’ll stop, and then he’ll…

I stop feeling the cold after that. I stop feeling anything at all.

18

The moment we step into the cave, my eyes go to the furs piled up in the far corner.

All day I’ve been freezing. I’ve longed for heat, whether it was from a fire or a blanket. Anything that would warm me, even if it was for just five minutes. But now that I’m in a cave with a large fire burning, I want to run in the other direction.

My body continues to shake. This time, it isn’t because I’m cold.

Aron drags me toward the furs.

Screaming, I fight him with everything I have.

I kept believing we wouldn’t get to the cave, that something would happen—that Shay would save me—before things got this far. And now, seeing the furs, and knowing what’s coming next, means my time has run out.

I stop caring if Aron kills me. The alternative is much worse.

He shifts his grip to the back of my neck and shoves me harder.

Nothing I do even makes him slow.

My screams bounce against the walls and hurtle back into my face.

“Aron?”

Aron shoves me on top of the furs. “Not now.” He snarls at the man who called him, never taking his eyes off me.

I surge to my feet. He shoves me back down again, and I just miss cracking my head on the cave wall.

“Aron?”

“I said, not the fuck—”

A large white-gray wolf leaps on his back and takes him down to the ground.

I stare, disbelieving, because there was not a single hint that Shay was so close.

There’s no hesitation, no… anything. Just one minute Aron is throwing me on the fur, ready to rape me, and the next Shay is there, ripping his throat out.

Blood sprays me, the furs, and the walls but I barely feel it.

Is this a dream?

Shay releases Aron’s body and shifts before turning to me, his face granite-hard.

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