Page 72 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

“But they didn’t want help?”

“No. By the time I realized what they wanted, it was too late.”

Shay doesn’t ask what happened, but I read the question in his eyes. So I swallow my shame and my guilt, and I tell him. “I told Dad about the man I’d met in the forest, who I thought just needed help and a place to stay. He—Aron came with some of his men. He said he’d heard me sing and wanted to know if anyone else sang as beautifully as I did. Mom and Dad were surprised, because I never sang around anyone, and I think—”

My voice cracks and hot tears splash onto my cheeks. “They wanted me to be happy, and they thought he would do that for me. So when Aron said he would like to listen to me sing again, this time at a concert, I agreed.”

His fingers brush my tears away, but more continue to fall. “So you sang for your pack?”

“Before I did, something made me doubt Aron. I don’t know if it was a look or something he’d said. But I knew I couldn’t trust him. That I’d been wrong to trust him from the start, and that I needed to tell Dad about what I’d told Aron.” I stop to swallow hard. “I tried to talk before, but Aron was there, and I think Dad thought I was just nervous. He kissed my forehead and told me everything would be fine, that nothing bad would happen.”

“So you planned to speak to him after?” Shay guesses.

I squeeze my eyes shut as my mind takes me back to the pack gathered in a clearing near our homes, eating and laughing as they waited for me to sing. “I was going to take Dad to our house, where Aron couldn’t hear me, and tell him after my song. But when I finished singing, Aron had his men in the forest slaughter them.”

With my eyes still closed, I wait for Shay to blame me now that he knows what I did.

“They knew about you before they got there,” Shay murmurs in a low voice.

My eyes snap open. “What?”

He gazes down at me, his brow furrowed in concentration. “How many men were there?”

Swallowing hard, I try to think back. “I don’t know. A lot. There were fifty in my pack. But there had to be about the same in theirs. Maybe a little more. Dad—” I blink several times. “Mom and Dad got me away, but Aron and his men followed us, so we had to run again. Mom died trying to protect me, and Dad tried to make me run, but I couldn’t leave him. I think I passed out, so maybe they thought I was dead too. And then when I woke up, I knew everyone was dead. Everyone but me. I don’t know how he found out I wasn’t. Maybe he came back and followed your tracks.”

“I’m sorry, baby.” Shay presses a soft kiss on my brow. “But there’s no reason for a pack that large to travel unless they were going to fight. You said Aron asked if there were any other singers like you?”

“Yes,” I murmur. “What—”

“I don’t know whether someone said something, or he saw you shift and guessed there must be something different about you, but he brought those men with one goal. To take you, and others like you.”

“But how could he—”

Shay shakes his head, his eyes troubled. “I don’t know, pup. But his being there with that many men doesn’t make sense. Not at all.”

When he falls silent, I gaze up at him as his words whirl over and over in my head. It makes sense. I never wondered how so many of his men could be there, ready to attack.They couldn’t have just been passing through.There was nothing to see or do near us. Just us.

“Lexa?”

I blink. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

He sighs. “He got you to lower your guard, pup. You were a sheltered nineteen-year-old, and Aron took advantage of you. It wasn’t your fault. It was his.”

“But I convinced Dad that he wasn’t a threat,” I whisper, wanting to make him understand. “I told him what I was.”

Shay lowers his head so we’re sharing the same air. “Lexa, he wanted his daughter to be happy. Aron saw that vulnerability and exploited it. Baby, you didn’t kill your pack. Aron did.”

“But I—”

His kiss cuts me off. Soft and lingering, it’s so distracting that I lose myself in it.

When he lifts his head, my eyes flutter open.

“You did nothing wrong.” He gently shakes me. “You are not to blame for your pack’s death, and from now on, if I even think you’re blaming yourself for it, I will kiss you.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. How would you know what I was thinking?”

“I would know.”

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