Page 22 of Broken Rejected Mate

I bought the house after finishing up a two-year degree at the local community college, with my own savings for the down payment. Really, I just wanted to get out of my parents’ house. My mom was excited about me buying my own house, thought it meant I would settle down soon, find a nice girl and start making grandchildren for her.

What she didn’t know was that I’ve been hung up on one woman, and unable to really look at others. Makes it pretty hard to start a family.

“Your house is really nice,” Sarina says when I open the door and let them both step inside. It lights something up inside me, and I resist the urge to say something stupid, like,it could be your house, too.

Instead, I thank her, then clear my throat and climb the stairs, showing them to the first guest room.

“There are two,” I say, “so you could each have one, if you want, but this one has the attached bathroom—”

“We’ll stay together,” Veva says, putting her hands on Sarina’s shoulders and tugging her backward into the room. “If you don’t mind, we’re both very tired.”

Just before she closes the door, she catches my eye.

She may think we don’t know each other anymore, but I know her. I know that look in her eye, know exactly what she’s doing.

Veva might be tired, but she’s closing this door right now because she’sscared. She’s scared that if we talk to each other, she might accidentally let her guard down. Let me in. I open my mouth, but before I can say anything to stop her, she’s already shut and locked the door, effectively keeping me out.

***

“Emin,” Kira says, the moment she answers the phone. “Dorian said Veva and Sarina are staying with you—I can’t believe she agreed to that.”

“She barely did,” I say. I’m on the couch, hand over my eyes, feet over the arm. “And the second we got here, she marched right into the bedroom and closed the door on me.”

Kira is quiet for a long moment; then, finally, she says, “There’s something between you two, isn’t there?”

I want to tell her the truth. I want to say,Veva is my mate.

But I don’t. For some reason, it’s impossible for me to scoop the words up, to push them through this phone line andback toward my sister. It feels like they’re buried inside me, half under the space between the Veva in my guest room and the Veva of ten years ago.

I know it was callous of me to break things off with her the way I did, so suddenly, but when she came to our house, I was afraid like I had never been before. I’m not sure what my father would have done if he’d found her in that closet, and for the first time during our affair, I thought about Veva, instead of thinking about myself.

Too long has gone by since Kira asked the question, but she is nothing if not patient.

Finally, I say, “Yes. There is something.”

“Were you mean to her in high school?” Kira asks, voice quiet. “Like how you were mean to me?”

I could never be mean to someone else like I was with Kira—it was a million times worse with her, because she was my sister. I was supposed to protect her, but my parents’ fucked up view of the world made me think it was better to shut her out, make sure I wasn’t attached to her, than to stand by her side.

“Something like that,” I manage, throat getting clogged up when I even think about trying to explain what’s happened between Veva and me. I only managed to get Kira to forgive me last year, when Dorian brought her back home. The last thing I want to do is remind her of how much I sucked. “And now she won’t come out of that guest room. I tried asking if they wanted to order a pizza or something, but there was nothing. No response. They should eat, but I don’t even know how to get them out of there.”

“You know what?” Kira says, sounding suddenly giddy. “Give me an hour. I know exactly what will get them out of that room.”

She gives me a set of instructions, and when I hang up, I follow them, moving through the house and getting things ready. I’d do anything to get Veva out of that room, anything to open her up to the idea of talking to me again.

Chapter 13 - Veva

“What do you think it is? It kind of smells like spaghetti.”

Sarina has her face near the door and is inhaling deeply. I didn’t know Emin could cook, but whatever he’s making smells good enough that even I’m getting whiffs of it through my broken nose.

I sit on the bed, legs crossed, going through the gems I had left in my jacket from the dark market. I line them up, touch my fingers to them, try to estimate what I can get for them.

Part of my deal with Dorian was that he would contact Willow discretely, offer her safety here, and ask her to get my bundle of money from under my mattress. My chest pinches when I think of Willow, hope that she’s okay.

She’s a strong woman, been taking care of herself for a long time. But I have no idea if Jerrod will send people after her. If they’ll discover the connection between us and try to extort it to find us.

“Mom,” Sarina says again, eyes flicking to mine. “Maybe we could just go and see—”

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