I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. Where do I even begin? How do I explain that someone I thought I would never see again has just casually strolled into the building as our new head of security? How do I explain that the boy I fell in love with just told me he has never met me?
All that escapes my lips is air. It starts to come and go too fast, my chest heaving with the breaths. A sob threatens to break free.
“My goodness, Anne.” Sienna’s hand touches my arm. “You’re shaking.”
I look down at my hands; they’re vibrating with intense tremors that I can’t stop. A fragmented sound erupts from my throat.
Sienna moves fast, wrapping her arm around my shoulders to keep me steady. “Hey, hey…It’s okay. Come on.” Her voice lowers. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“I—” I try to talk, but words can’t form with the sobs lodged in my throat.
“Don’t worry about work,” she says gently, already guiding me away. “I’ll handle it. You need some air.”
I nod. It’s all I can manage. I don’t have the strength or capacity to do anything else. Sienna brings me down to the lobby and leads me out of the building, all of which I barely register. I just try to breathe. The world feels distant, like I’m moving through it underwater.
Sienna steers me across the street to a small café. She eases me into a chair and sits beside me, close enough that I can feel her presence anchoring me. Her hand comes up to my shoulder and begins to rub it in slow, steady circles.
Little by little, the shaking subsides. The tight band around my chest loosens just enough that my breaths stop hitching.
She waits for a while. Just stays there with me. Then, softly, carefully, she says, “Anne? What’s the matter? You can tell me.”
My entire body twitches at the mere thought of trying to explain. I take a moment to steady myself.
“You remember—” I manage to begin, but my voice cracks. I swallow hard. “You remember I told you that I’d had someone in my life once…that I’d found my fated mate…back when I was a teenager…and that I’d lost him?”
Sienna nods. Her hand continues its soothing motion on my shoulder. Her eyes are patient yet still urging me to continue.
The words stick in my throat. I have to force them out, and each one feels like it’s scraping past the constriction in my chest.
“Ten years ago, when the war started…After the Crimson Fang Pack attacked, he enlisted. He said he wanted to protect Moonvale.”
Sienna’s expression morphs slightly as she nods. It’s the same expression most people from Moonvale have whenever we remember the war. Trauma that hasn’t healed.
“After the war was over,” I continue, the words coming a bit more easily now, “he didn’t come back. They never found his body. The pack sent search parties, looking for anyone who was lost, anyone deceased whose bodies hadn’t been recovered. But he was never found. Nothing about him was. He was just…gone.”
My hands twist together in my lap.
“That man. The new head of security.” I force myself to look at Sienna now. “It’s him. It’s Kain.”
Sienna’s jaw drops. Her hand freezes on my shoulder. “What? Are you sure?”
“Of course I am, Sienna! I saw his face. I felt it the moment he walked in. My wolf is going crazy.”
She doesn’t say anything for a moment, seemingly flabbergasted. “Well? Have you talked to him? Where has he been? Why, after all this time—”
A sob escapes me, cutting Sienna off. “He said he doesn’t know who I am!”
Sienna blinks.
The words start tumbling out of me now. “I went to him. To his office after he left the conference room. And he looked at me like I was a stranger. He said he has no idea who I am.”
My friend stares at me. “What? Are you sure it’s him, Anne? I mean, it’s been ten years—”
“It’s him! How can I not recognize my own fated mate, Sienna!” I explode. “I felt it. And my wolf recognized him immediately!” Tears begin to flow. My vision blurs completely, and wetness tracks down my cheeks. “I just…I don’t understand.” The words break apart as sobs threaten to choke me again. “I don’t know what’s going on. I—”
Sienna pulls me close and holds me there. My chest feels tight again as I cry on her shoulder.
“It’s okay, Anne. We’ll figure this out,” she says.
