by Mary Calmes
He ran his chin over the top of my head and down the back of my neck, rubbing and nuzzling until I rolled over, my back to his side, and wiggled around until I got comfortable. He licked the side of my head before gently biting my ear. The message was clear: I needed to settle, already. When he put his head down on his paws, he began to purr. We were a warm pile of fur, the three of us snuggled together, and I was glad that Logan could be there for Crane and that I could be there for him. I went to sleep content.
Chapter Nine
DANNY had saved Logan. He had warned him and Derek Jackson of the trap to kill both semels. He was a hero, he had risked his life, and everyone was treating him as such. I had been jealous because I loved my mate desperately, so when he had told me that Danny, my cousin, had come home with him, I had been unsure. The following morning, I understood everything.
I had woken to find Logan gone and Crane wrapped around me. Lifting my head, I shifted and smiled at him.
“I’ll take a shower. You take one, ’cause you stink, and come down and eat with me.”
His shift took longer, but he did it, for me, so we could talk.
I waited while his muscles elongated and reformed, twisted and pulled, and the feline gave way to the man.
“I wrecked the room,” he said quietly.
“We’ll fix it.”
He cleared his throat. “I can’t go back to that apartment in Vegas, Jin, I—”
“It’s gone, honey,” I told him gently and waited while understanding sank in.
“What’d they do?”
I cleared my throat. “They torched it.”
After a minute he nodded. “Okay, so, I need stuff.”
“A lot of stuff.”
He just looked at me.
“If you don’t want to leave the room, we can stay here.”
“It’s trashed; it looks like I had a killer party in here. I need to get out for a while.” He exhaled, and I got just a trace of warm eyes and a smile.
“I know Delphine packed whatever you had left here at the house for Logan to take you when he went to Chicago. Do you know where that is?”
“Yeah, it’s there”—he tipped his head toward the opposite side of the room—“in the bathroom. I have clothes I can change into.”
He sounded so good; he looked so good. My stomach flipped over. “Okay, so you shower and I’ll meet you downstairs.”
“Okay.”
Yes!
“But if I wanna go, then you need to go with me and not try and make me stay there.”
He wanted me with him. Was he kidding? I would do anything he wanted. “Absolutely.”
There was a quick nod, and he rose off the bed in a fluid movement that I was thrilled to see. The back and forth shifting was healing his body.
“And put on some damn clothes,” he teased me. “No one wants to see your bare ass ’cept Logan.”
I smiled as I watched him cross to the bathroom. I was pulling on my clothes, underwear, jeans, when I happened to look up at him again. It was then that I saw the marks on his back.
It took everything in me not to be sick.
He had been flogged, and the man wielding the whip had missed no part of the broad expanse of skin. The welts, and there were many, were angry; the cuts, crusted but still oozing, spoke to how deep—bone deep—they had been. My best friend had been set upon by vicious men; it was a wonder he was alive. Violence even I could not conceive of had been done to him. It was monstrous.
“My hair looks like shit.”
He had been mutilated, but he was grieving his hair at the moment. Jesus.
“Doesn’t it?”
They had cut his thick waves of blond hair to tufts; even his scalp was covered with scabs.
“I’ll get you a hat,” I said instead of crying.
“Excellent idea,” he called back, turning to look at me. “Would it be too weird if you came over here and held me as tight as you can?”
I ran.
I hit him hard, harder than I should have, but he whimpered deep in his chest and clutched me tight. We stayed like that until he could breathe without me.
Logan was in the kitchen with the others and Danny when I finally came down.
“Good morning, Jin.” Danny beamed at me the second he saw me. “Thank you for giving me sanctuary in your tribe. I am very grateful.”
He was smaller than I remembered, slighter, his features delicate and fragile. Compared to him, I was a damn Viking. He was easily the prettiest man I had ever seen in my life with his big almond-shaped brown eyes, short, straight nose, long, thick lashes and porcelain skin. His hair fell to his shoulders and was the same color as mine, jet black. Looking at him, I felt my power rise with the need to crush him.
Logan’s warm laughter turned my head.
“Come here.”
I crossed the room to him, and when I was close enough, he reached for me, drawing me close, and kissed me breathless, until my skin was on fire and I had a steady pulse of need surging through my body. When I broke the kiss, we were both panting.
“What was that for?”
The noise he made was all male as he dipped his head forward, his lips against my ear. “So you know that there’s only one man I ever want in my bed,” he told me, his tongue licking down my collarbone, nibbling at the base of my throat. “You are my miracle, Jin Rayne; do you think I don’t know that? Do you think you’re the only one who feels lucky?”
Logan always knew what to say.
The beast in me stilled, quieted, and forgot about doing violence to young Danny as my hair was nuzzled and my earlobe sucked inside a hot, wet mouth.
My mate.
“Would you do something for me?” I asked him, looking up into the honey-colored eyes. “Or lots of things?”
“Whatever you want.”
So I explained about redoing Crane’s room.
“Take him into Reno today, get him whatever he needs or wants, and I’ll have his room done by the time you guys get back.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
I stood there close to my mate and just breathed.
“Hey.”
My eyes returned to Logan’s topaz ones.
“What about both of your jobs? You guys work for the same man, and now….” He sighed deeply. “Jin, with the sepat and Crane and…. I mean, is it fair to Ray to ask him to continue to keep you employed when he really needs someone there full time? How are you supposed to manage his restaurant when you have so much going on here? And if I fail in—”
“You will not fail,” I cut him off sharply. “I need you.”
He nodded. “Just talk to Ray, tell him that Crane had an accident and that you’re not sure when either of you will be back. Put the ball in his court. Sometime soon your life will balance out, but right now your tribe has to come before your work.”
I opened my mouth to speak.
“Don’t tell me about being a burden and not pulling your own weight financially,” he told me. “Since you’ve been here helping me with distribution and marketing, business has gone through the roof. I had to hire two new managers and brought Delphine on full time. Because of you, I am making more money than I ever have before. You don’t have to work, and neither does Crane until he’s ready to.”
“And I appreciate that, but it’s not your place to—”
“Of course it is, who else’s but mine? You belong to me; I want your focus on me, your family, and the tribe. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. When I get home and you’re closing the restaurant and you’re not home until two….” He sighed. “I climb the walls, Jin.”
And I knew that. Male panthers, all of them, were a very Neanderthalish lot. They liked their mates at home when they were, around, underfoot, close enough to touch at all times. Semels were twice as possessive, twice as protective, and three times as caveman-inclined. Logan wanted me there where he could see me, eat with me, talk to me, and touch me at all times. Me working had
always been a source of contention that it looked as though I was about to finally lose.
“I’ll talk to Ray,” I told him, because it was time and it was fair. My boss was a good man; I did not want to take advantage of him.
“Really?”
The light that infused my mate’s eyes was something to see.
“Yes.”
His hand went to my throat, and his thumb tipped my chin up as he bent and brushed his lips over mine. He was very pleased.
“Morning.”
The whole room turned to look at Crane, who had just walked in.
“Hey,” Danny greeted him, crossing the kitchen fast to reach him. “How are you this morning?”
“Better.” Crane forced a smile.
“Oh,” I said softly, turning to look at my mate. “Danny didn’t just save you, he saved Crane.”
Logan shook his head. “I don’t think so. He feels sorry for Crane and he wants to help Crane, but it’s not what you think.”
But I knew interest when I saw it. My semel had no idea what he was talking about. “Logan, I—”
“Listen,” he began as the door opened again.
“Good morning,” Logan’s sylvan said as he came into the room.
“Mikhail.” Danny swallowed hard. “Come eat, I’ll make you a plate. What do you like?”
I watched Mikhail, my reserved sylvan, as he thanked Danny but told him he could get his own food. Danny flushed and stammered, taking a step back, lacing his fingers together so those restless hands would not flutter around like frightened birds. He very badly wanted to touch Mikhail, it was so very obvious, and just standing there breathing in his scent was making the younger man breathless with anticipation.
I coughed softly. “Oh.”
“Take back what you were thinking about me.”
“What was I thinking?” I teased him.
“That your mate was clueless.”
And that had been my conclusion, but I saw the truth very clearly. “Danny saved Mikhail.”
“And the rest of us,” Logan said, smiling warmly, “but yeah, first on his mind was Mikhail.”
“Interesting.”
“Apparently,” Logan coughed, “he remembered him from when he was here with your father.”
“Really?”
Logan nodded.
“That’s very interesting.”
“I thought so.”
“Did anyone happen to mention to him that Mikhail’s straight?”
Logan tipped his head, and I watched my sylvan reach out and curl a long piece of hair around Danny’s right ear. He then squeezed his shoulder and smiled. And when you got the real deal from reticent, aloof Mikhail Gorgerin, when you were gifted with a sparkle in the shining midnight-blue eyes and saw the wicked curling lip along with the arch of the dark-brown eyebrows… you were good and gobsmacked. The man glowed, and Danny nearly swooned as Mikhail brushed by him. I watched for a minute before I checked to see what Crane was doing.
He was smiling at everyone, and then he turned funny and winced.
“You okay?” I held my breath.
“I’m fine,” he sighed, stepping around Delphine to walk over to me. Without thinking about it, he rubbed his chin over my shoulder before he sat down at the table with a huge plate of eggs and steak and biscuits. “Is anyone gonna talk to me?”
They descended on him like locusts: Delphine and Markel and Yuri and Koren. When Mikhail sat down, he took a seat on Crane’s right and put a hand on his forearm as they spoke. The closeness soothed Crane; the sylvan touching him was good. They were friends, and I had no idea when they had become close. Koren stepped up behind him, hands on his shoulders, and Crane patted his hand as Delphine put a large glass of juice down in front of him and Markel followed with a steaming mug of coffee. Taj came in last, having been outside checking the grounds as was his routine.
His eyes lit up when he saw Crane. He pulled the beanie off his head, walked over to Crane, and put it on him, rolling it up so it fit, so all you saw was my best friend’s bruised face, not where the thick wavy mane used to be.
“Thanks, man.” He smiled up at one of the members of the Shu cats, the deadliest panthers in the world, those that reported directly to the priest of Chae Rophon.
Taj patted his back, and I realized that in a very short time we, the household of the semel-netjer, had mauled the distance out of him. He was no longer standoffish, no longer cold and quiet; he was a part of our tribe. I doubted that he would want to return to Egypt even if he were called.
Logan cleared his throat softly, so only I would turn and look at him.
“He can’t scent-mark you, I won’t allow it.”
He had noticed Crane scraping his chin over my shoulder.
“I’m his, too, Logan, we—”
“No.” He cut me off, kissing my forehead. “When cats catch your scent, after yours, they should only smell me.”
I watched as he slid his cheek over the same shoulder that Crane had marked. “Don’t pee on me, alright?”
He chuckled as he turned to leave the room.
My hand on his bicep stopped him.
“You gave me a task,” he reminded me.
“I wanna sit down with you and talk about the sepat. We have to make plans and strategies, and we have to start training and—”
“Love,” he said, smiling at me, hands sliding up my arms to rest on my shoulders, “you need to focus all your energy on Crane, because as your beset, he must accompany you. In two months you’re going to have to decide if it’s going to be him or if you’ll appoint another.”
I nodded quickly.
“Along with Domin, he’s going to be in the pit with you during the trial of the heart.”
“I know.”
“Come here.”
He slowly turned me around and walked me out of the kitchen and into the living room, where there was a fire blazing away, warming the large polished wood and leather furniture-filled space. When it had been his mother and father’s home, apparently the house had looked much different, but now there was a strong masculine feel to every part of Logan Church’s home. I loved that the man’s presence could be felt throughout the mansion.
“Look at me.”
Tipping my head back, I met the man’s amber-colored eyes.
“We’re all learning this as we go, Jin. I can’t remember even hearing of a sepat being called, can you?”
“No.”
“See, so, Ammon’s father was never challenged, or his grandfather, but now he is, and the priest is giving me these rules that are supposed to be finite but make no sense at all.”
He looked worried, and I put my hands on his chest, resting them there, to comfort him.
“I mean, there’s a law that no reah may ever fight in the pit, and yet the law of Bast, which you yourself have called, allows a mate to take the place of their semel during a challenge. And now the priest tells me that having a nekhene cat in the pit would be an unfair advantage, so he may need to blindfold you or—it’s a mess. And the sheseru is supposed to do the trial of the blood, but the law also states that no sheseru who is protector of a true mate will be placed in the path of danger. So that means Yuri can’t stand as my champion for the trial of blood, but—”
“You’re going in circles.”
“Yes, I am,” he sighed heavily. “It’s—I mean, sometimes I understand Russ’s old argument with me, because some of the rules are completely antiquated and barbaric, and someone does need to update them, and—”
“Did you ever think maybe that’s why all this?”
“What are you talking about?”
I shrugged. “Logan, maybe it’s you. Maybe you’re the man who’s supposed to bring the panthers that have been lost back into the fold by accepting that a semel could take, even as a yareah, a male for his mate.”
He squinted at me.
“Maybe you’re supposed to do that.”
“Jin—”
“And maybe pa
nthers who love people, regular human people—maybe they should be allowed to do that without fear of reprisal.”
“What’re you—”
“I’ve traveled all over the country, and I’ve met a lot of panthers who have left their tribes, run from them for one reason or another, but the one thing they all have in common is how much they miss being a part of a community. Panthers need other panthers, and maybe this is what you’re supposed to do.”
“Jin, honey, there’s no way that—”
“Maybe you’ll be the semel-aten who appoints a council to rewrite the law, making it, finally, understandable for everyone.”
“But I’m not anyone special.”
“You are, though, Logan; you have gifts that others don’t.”
“Oh yeah?” He leered at me. “I have gifts, do I?”
“Knock it off,” I snapped at him. “You’re the strongest panther I know, and I don’t mean physically, Logan, I mean your heart.”
The look I was getting was all love.
“You could be semel-aten.”
“I never wanted to be anything but yours.”
“I know.”
“I just want to be the semel who found his heart, Jin, that’s all. Just semel-re.”
I shook my head. “You’re supposed to be more.”
“Love, I am not the—”
“How do you know?” I cut him off, taking his face in my hands, staring into his gorgeous amber eyes. “Really, Logan? How do you know? The laws are ancient, they need changing, and who’s to say that you’re not the man to do it?”
He stared at me. “Do you realize what you’re talking about? You’re talking about me being semel-aten. Me. Do you have any idea what that means?”
“I think so, yeah. It means that you rule Sobek and the people who live there, and that you’re in charge of relationships with every tribe in the world, and that you and the priest of Chae Rophon are best buddies for life. You would be a king.”
“Which I don’t want to be.”
