Page 65 of Broken Rejected Mate

“Sarina!” the scream that rips from Veva’s throat as she runs toward us is so full of emotion it mangles our daughter’s name, and she falls to her knees, hitting the ground so hard it makes me wince.

Veva has shifted back, and I move forward toward her, so we can hold Sarina between us.

“She’s alive,” I say, voice quiet, and I realize the rain is letting up, moving to a light drizzle. “She’s okay, Veva.”

“Oh,gods,” Veva gasps, clutching the little wolf to her chest. She buries her face in the wet copper fur and cries for a moment, and I realize it’s the first time I’ve ever seen Veva cry like this.

Dorian is still in his wolf form, and he crouches down in front of us, his eyes meeting mine. Blue and serious, I know what he’s saying.

“Come on,” I say, lifting Sarina, watching as Veva’s hands still grasp for her. “Let Dorian take her back, she’ll get to the healers sooner that way.”

Together, we work to secure Sarina to Dorian’s back, then he’s off, making his way back toward the town. Even with Sarina on his back, he can move faster than us.

Veva and I are about to shift back when Aidan makes a small noise, and I turn to him, catching the wound on his side.

“Oh,shit,” I hiss, and Veva turns, her mouth dropping open when she sees the large, basketball-sized chunk of flesh that’s missing from Aidan’s side, the puncture points of teeth clear as day with the way he’s lifted his arm.

He winces, drops his arm, shaking his head. “It’s…nothing.”

“You can’t shift back, can you?” I ask, when Aidan starts limping in the general direction of the town.

“It’s fine,” he grinds out. “I’ve been wanting a nice walk.”

“No way,” Veva reaches out, grabs my arm, gestures to him. We’re both thinking the same thing—Aidan might not even make it back to town, with how much he’s bleeding.

I catch Aidan by his healthy arm and keep him from walking away, and when he turns to me, I see just how pale his face is.

“Get him on the ground,” Veva says, rubbing her hands together. We’re still in the mud, but Aidan lowers to the ground with my help, not complaining about the suck of the mud against his back.

“I’m not a healer,” Veva says, shaking her head as she crouches down. “But I think I can patch this up…enough.”

“You don’t have to—”

Veva shakes her head, already raising her hands, and I feel the hum of magic in the air around us.

“Aidan,” she chokes, briefly lifting her eyes to the horizon. “You saved our daughter. I’m savingyou. Got it?”

He laughs, then winces, even more color draining from his face.

“Trust me,” I joke, “it’s not worth it to go up against her.”

“Okay,” Aidan laugh-sighs, letting his eyes drift to the sky. He smiles slightly, looking like he might fall asleep. “I won’t.”

***

“He’s going to be just fine,” the healer says, wiping her hands with a cloth as I walk into the room. “Nasty bite, but your mending saved him. Even if it wasn’t pretty.”

“Oh, thank the gods,” Veva sighs, dropping her head into her hands. She sitting at Sarina’s bedside, watching our daughter sleep.

Sarina shifted back when the healers got her, going through the excruciating pain of her first shift after the whole ordeal. According to the healers, she’s going to be just fine. One of them said she’ll have a pretty interesting story to tell.

When the healer leaves, I take a seat on the other side of Sarina’s bed, staring at her. At once, I’m hit with the grief of the years I’ve missed. Seeing her as a chubby toddler, watching her eat solid foods. Teaching her to read, seeing her climb and run.

“I’m sorry, Emin,” Veva says, surprising me by being the first to speak. When I meet her gaze, she’s staring at me intently. “I should have responded to you earlier, I was just so…”

I wave a hand, “It’s okay. It was a lot. It was just important to me that you knew.”

Veva nods, reaching out and taking one of Sarina’s hands in hers. She sucks in a breath, then meets my eyes.

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