Page 62 of Broken Rejected Mate

When Aidan answers, he sounds like I’ve pulled him from a centuries-long sleep.

“Sarina is missing,” I start without preamble, wanting to be as efficient as possible. “We need guys to look—”

“You got anyone on the border?” Aidan asks.

“I don’t think so.”

“I’ll go south, to the border.”

“Okay.”

Together, as we make our way down the street—Veva hollering for her daughter loudly and without shame—the neighborhood starts to wake up. People stand on their porches, peering out into the night, realizing it’s Veva Marone, walking through the town in the middle of the night, searching for her daughter.

I stand tall beside her. No. Searching forourdaughter.

Raising a hand to the onlookers, I signal to them that everything is okay. I expect them to go back inside their homes, get out of the rain, but we’re surprised when they only disappear briefly before re-emerging, coming to walk out our sides.

“Hey,” a man says, and I turn to see Brock, the general store owner, and his wife, Alecia. “What’s going on?”

“Sarina is missing,” Veva shouts, turning to him only for a moment, before facing the street again, cupping her hands around her mouth and calling into the rain, “Sarina!”

“Oh no,” Alecia says, shaking her head and pulling out her phone. “I’ll call my pickleball club. They’ll come out and help.”

“Let me get the small business association on the line,” Brock says, clapping his hand down on my shoulder. “We’ll fill the streets with people looking until we find your little girl.”

My throat swells, and I nod.

Within twenty minutes, the entire town is flooded with people looking. Every park bounces with flashlights, and shifters from the pack turn up in their rain coats, umbrellas held aloft, all of them calling out Sarina’s name again and again.

After an hour of searching, Beth appears, and Veva practically runs to her.

“Can you find her?” Veva asks, breathless.

“I can do my best,” Beth says. “Do you have something that belongs to her? Something I can touch.”

Veva starts to panic, sucking in a breath, but I reach into my pocket—I’m still wearing the dress pants from earlier—and pull out the little folded bunny she made for me.

“Will this work? She made it for me earlier.” I shield it from the rain, holding it up for Beth to see. Veva’s eyes skip from the bunny and back to me, and Beth nods, a strange look on her face as she takes it, cupping it in her hand like a precious thing.

“No promises,” Beth says, before meeting my gaze. “But let’s see what we can do with this little thing.”

“Veva!” Kira comes running down the street, looking like she’s just barely managed to throw something on, her hair tiedup. When she reaches Veva, my sister wraps her into a hug. I expect Veva to push her away, but, to my surprise, she melts into it.

Kira hugs her for a long moment, then pulls back, holding her at arms-length.

“We’ll fine her, love.” Kira says, sounding for all the world like that’s a promise she can make. “We’ll work together, and we’ll find her.”

Chapter 35 - Veva

My fear is all-consuming, and my body feels like it’s going to fly apart at the seams, my organs combusting from the nerves coursing through me.

For the past ten years, the only thing I’ve focused on is keeping Sarina safe. Building her future. Sleeping with one eye open.

And now, I’ve looked away from her—thought about myself—for just a minute, and she’s gone. My vision feels blurred with TV static, my heart beating so fast it’s blurred into just one long sound, convulsions.

Beth is still holding the little paper rabbit, and after a brief moment of silence, she looks up at us, eyes darting between Emin and me.

“Where was Sarina, before she disappeared?”

---