Page 8 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

I widen my legs to make more room for him, and a hardness nudges between my thighs. My eyes fly to his, and I wait to see what he will do.

He regards me steadily as his hand curves along my nape. “Yes, I want you, but that doesn’t mean you have anything to fear from me.”

When my heart slows, I realize just how fast it must’ve been beating before.

What makes you so different from the others?

He seems to read the question in my eyes.

“The most important thing to me is your safety first.” One finger brushes the tiny hairs on the back of my neck, making my breath catch. “And then I need to know you have everything you need and want: food, water, clothes, and a warm place to sleep. Do you know what comes next?”

I shake my head no.

“Your happiness. I need you to have all of those things for my world to feel right.”

Oh.

“So,” he continues in that same easy tone, “when Ana tells me that you ran away, and I find one of my pack attacking you…” His voice trails off.

He doesn’t need to finish. The rage and the… pain in his eyes tell me everything I need to know.

I hurt him.

“Whatever reason you think you have to run away, you don’t have to. You’re safe here. I will deal with any threat. I will kill anyone who ever hurts you. Promise me you won’t run away again.”

I can’t.

And because I can’t, I do the only thing I can—I draw my arms around him and hide my face against his throat, my perfect place to hide.

His hand strokes up and down my back, and then combs through my hair. It never stops. It’s as if he has to reassure himself that I’m here. When he lowers his head and touches his lips to my forehead, soft and light, I sigh because it feels good. Too good.

I wish I could stay with you, Shay. I wish I didn’t have to leave.

3

“It’ll be over before you know it,” Shay murmurs from behind me.

I lift my head to glare at him through the mirror.

In a black shirt opened at the collar, and his white-blond hair falling like a mane around his face, his smile is contrite. “I know I said it before, but I mean it this time.”

After shaking my head, I return my attention to the makeup Ana laid out for me on the bathroom counter. I never had much interest in it before. Playing with the rest of my pack in the stream or running in the forest always appealed to me more.

But that was before Ana worked her magic on me, and Shay’s mouth dropped open when he stepped into my room.

I only poke myself in the eye once with the mascara wand, but I count my task as a success, since I’ve never used it before. After returning the tube to the counter, I’m reaching for the eyeshadow when I remember that Ana had done that first.Crap. Maybe I should’ve let her do it again.

“You don’t need to do that, pup,” Shay murmurs.

One glance in the bathroom mirror reveals him resting his head against the door, his eyes on me. “You’re beautiful without it.”

I shake my head and flip open the eye shadow palette. Men are supposed to say that.

Dad would say the same thing to Mom, but when she put on a pretty dress and did her makeup, he would spend the night so distracted that he would neglect everyone else. Shay did the same thing to me, and I want him to be so distracted again that he forgets to talk to anyone.

But first I have to remember how Ana did my makeup. I decide on a soft pastel blue to match the dress I’ll be wearing tonight at the pack gathering.

It feels so normal that it’s like Shay and I have done this a million times before, and not just once.

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