Honored Vow (10 page)

I sucked in my breath. “You make me sound like a monster.”

“You’re not a monster; you’re an animal looking for a mate.”

“I have a mate.” I said again.

“But the nekhene doesn’t know that, and I didn’t show that part of you my power the other day. I held you, made you stop, but I didn’t hold you down and make you mine.”

Thinking about Logan, imagining myself submitting to his will, made my heart leap, pulse race, and my skin heat.

“But I will,” he promised me, his voice dropping low and menacing, the power and strength and dominant male there, in the tone, making my knees weak.

“Logan—”

“That’s why Delphine’s so angry. She’s mad at her reaction to you and that you didn’t want her. It’s not logical, but that’s it. Russ must be feeling the same way, which is why he’s so scared of your power and doesn’t want to be around it, that’s why the knee-jerk reaction—son of a bitch!”

“Logan, I—”

“I’m so sorry,” he told me, and his voice was suddenly quiet, gentle as it had not been since he first got on the phone with me. “Oh baby, I didn’t know. I thought you were testing power, like I said—forgive me.”

“Of course.” I smiled through the tears now filling my eyes.

“Everything I said, forgive me. I’m an idiot.”

I took a breath.

“I’m still mad at you for leaving.”

“Yes.”

“You’re still in the wrong.”

He always had to remind me, which was Logan, the semel, the leader, explaining why he was mad, showing why it was fair. “I know.”

“Oh shit!” he gasped.

“What?”

“Don’t open the door for anyone but Yuri, do you hear me? No one.”

“Yes, my semel.”

He made a choked sound in the back of his throat. “I’m leaving now. Wait for me. I order you to wait.”

“Of course I’ll wait.”

“Stay in the hotel room and do not open the door.”

“But Logan, you really don’t have to—”

“Honey, you’re not getting out of the hotel without me. Literally, you won’t make it out in one piece.”

“What’re you—”

“I’ll be there soon, wait for me. Don’t run.”

“Why would I run?”

“Jin, wait. Please. Don’t run from me.”

“No, I would never.”

“I love you.”

I whimpered into the phone, and it was undignified and I wasn’t sure where it came from, but it was there, my sudden need. “I love you too.”

“I’m coming, sit down.” I heard the smile in his voice. “Watch TV.”

He hung up instead of saying goodbye, and I found that I could breathe better. The man really did have a very good influence on me.

I showered and changed, turned the TV on in the background as the sky opened up and dumped down rain. It was a gift because I loved it and it soothed me. Hours later, having done nothing but think—think about Crane and Logan and Delphine and the maahes and his mate and his men and all of it running around in my head, my phone rang. It was a number I didn’t know.

“Hello?”

“Jin?”

“Yes.”

“Jin, this is Justin, where are you?”

“In the hotel, waiting for you.”

“No, I mean—I know you’re at the hotel, where are you in the room? Are you standing by the front door?”

“No, I’m by the window.”

“Okay, hold on, I’ll call you right back.”

He hung up, which was weird. I looked down, out the window, and on both sides of the street there were cars, lots of them, parked up and down. It was like there was a party at the hotel that I didn’t know about. I went to the door but stopped before I opened it. Logan had told me to stay inside.

There was a knock on the door, and I called out to whoever it was.

“Jin, it’s me, Justin.”

“Okay, lemme—”

“Don’t come out; I’m on the phone with Logan, just wait.”

I moved close to the crack between the frame and the door and listened.

“Yeah, I’m here,” he said, and when the door bumped, I realized he was standing against it, leaning his back into it. “And Sean’s with me, and my other two men, along with Miguel Garza and his, but Logan, what the fuck? Was he like this when you left? Did you leave him like this?”

There was a silence, and I realized that he must have been listening to my mate.

“You don’t understand. I have never in my life felt like this, I want to be in that room so fuckin’ bad I’m choking on it. Miguel went back downstairs because he was that close to going through me.”

More quiet.

“Well, the good news is that you no longer have to make amends to the tribe of Deshret or its semel; he understands that Jin wasn’t doing it on purpose, you can feel it as soon as you get close—it’s raw animal power, there’s no gentle pull like it was when I first met him, this is furious and carnal and—God, what….” It was like he was searching for a word. “Throbbing need.”

It was quiet again for a moment.

“Yeah, well, the problem is now that there’s too many men here. I can’t calm Sean down without doing it physically. I will have to make him submit to me, but to do that, we’ve both got to be in our panther forms. I can’t shift in the middle of this fuckin’ hotel.”

I shivered at the man’s voice, the power of him, and the semel that he was called to me.

“You fuck! Why would you do this? Why would you let him out of your sight if he was like this?”

There was more silence, and I knew that Logan was telling him everything. It took long minutes during which I listened to Justin breathe on the other side of the door.

“Okay, okay, I get it, but right now, right this very second, I don’t see how I’m getting your mate out of this hotel in one piece unless I can get him to stop filling the air with his fucking scent. I mean you sent me here so I could put him on a plane back home to you but… Logan, do you have any idea what he smells like? What his skin must taste like?”

I wanted to smell Logan, see Logan, taste and touch him. I needed him.

“Oh fuck!” Justin yelled, startled. “Jin, get away from the goddamn door!”

I took several steps back as I heard something bang the wall outside in the hall. After a few minutes of silence, there was a sharp knock on the door.

I moved back close. “Hello?”

“Jin, it’s Yuri, open the door.”

He was the only person my semel had given permission to open the door for. When I cracked it the blue-eyed glare of my sheseru was the first thing I saw. “Hi.” I smiled at him, so happy to see him.

He growled at me, grabbed the door, and gestured for me to step back.

I walked away, across the room, to the window, and when I turned, he was following and several other men had come in.

Yuri stepped closer than he normally did, then turned and went down on one knee. He was so big that even when he was kneeling, the top of his head was at my waist. Instinctively, I put my hand on his shoulder. His deep breath turned my head.

“Okay.” He took a breath as Domin joined us, stepping in front of me, completely blocking my view of the room, hands on his hips and, from the tip of his head, seemingly bored, though I couldn’t see his face.

“I’m Domin Thorne, maahes of the tribe of Mafdet,” he announced loudly. “All of you, everyone in this room, speak your lineage to me now.”

“I’m Miguel Garza,” a voice answered, deep and husky, “semel of the tribe of Deshret; this is my sylvan, Adam Manuel, and my sheseru, Taylor Pang. I have many khatyu in the hall, as is my right.”

“I’m Justin Cho,” I heard Logan’s friend say, his voice resonant and smoky-sounding, “semel of the tribe of Qebui from San Francisco, and I have my sheseru, Sean Li, with me, and two of my khatyu. I am here at the request of your semel.”

Domin nodded and cleared his throat before he bowed and stepped sideways. I was suddenly facing the room. I looked over at the man I didn’t know, Miguel Garza. He was tall and handsome with dark-brown hair, broad shoulders, and warm eyes. I went down to one knee.

“I beg your forgiveness, semel; I did not mean to drag your people through the shift and meant no disrespect to them or you by my actions. I am not myself and apologize deeply.”

His jaw clenched as he took one step forward.

It happened fast: a hand fisted in my hair, and my head was yanked back sharply. I couldn’t stifle the gasp.

“Would you leverage your power against that of his semel?” Domin asked.

I realized that Domin held me, and even though I could shift and get free, it felt too good to fight. I could feel the heat rolling off of my maahes, and inhaled his delicious smell. I had no idea the man’s scent could become warm vanilla and salty sweat all at the same time. And he was so strong, I could feel it, not just physically but inside… he wouldn’t break; he would stay, he wouldn’t run. The man was powerful, and I needed my mate to be, or I could never submit.

“Domin,” I breathed out, wanting him to hold me tighter, hold me down. I wanted to feel the weight of him and the heat of his body…. I needed….

“Yuri,” was all he said.

Instantly, I was lifted and slammed hard into the cool glass of the window. The shock of the motion, the cold surface on my skin, cleared my head.

“If I can control my shift,” I heard Miguel say, “then I will be allowed to taste him. You have no say. There are two of you; if the semel of Qebui and his men join you, then six, but even now I see his resolve crumble.”

I leaned sideways around Yuri and saw Justin shivering with pain.

It was all my fault.

I was about to put Domin and Yuri in danger, and that could not happen. They would both sacrifice their lives to keep me safe, to honor me and Logan, and it was shaping up to be a very one-sided fight.

Shit.

Without a word, I stepped around Yuri. “Come, semel, I will let you feel my power, if that is what you would have me do, but bring your yareah so she might see.”

“You mistake my need as mine alone, reah. My yareah and I will devour you together.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, that is so. Show me your power and then I’ll show you mine. I will have you there on that bed, and your men will watch and do nothing.”

My stomach twisted into a knot of cold anger.

“I will call my yareah; she’ll be pleased. Normally we have other women in our bed; another man will be a nice change. She will take you inside of her while I bury myself in you,” he said as he leered at me. “I cannot wait to feel you wrapped around my cock.”

“My mate will kill you for this trespass.”

“He can try.”

Logan.

At the thought of his name, I was all reah again but with the nekhene’s simmering anger.

Where was the reah’s mate?

“You will be mine reah.”

No one would ever disrespect Logan Church. The rage that had been rising slowly boiled over in an instant, rolling over my skin and exploded out of me like a furnace blast, engulfing the entire room in heat.

Domin went to his knees; so did Justin and his sheseru, falling forward, hands on the carpet, bracing against the flash of scorching power. All the others were on the floor, writhing in pain, the semel, sylvan, and sheseru of the tribe of Deshret already beginning their inexorable shift to panther.

“How dare you think you can touch me? Only my mate touches me,” I roared at them all.

“Yes.” Miguel’s voice was garbled as he sought to control the shift by changing into his werepanther form, but I still understood him.

“Only my mate!”

His scream was horrible, his transformation freakish as his body contorted into an animal. He was not strong enough to hold onto his werepanther form.

“Yuri,” Domin cried.

“Jin.”

I turned to look at my sheseru when he spoke my name, and found him still on one knee, taking deep breaths in and out.

“I would allow no man to touch you, my reah.”

My breath caught with the sincerity of his promise.

“I will slaughter any that even reach a hand toward you.”

And I knew that, and so I instantly calmed.

“Oh thank God,” Domin gasped, sitting up, hands on his thighs, closing his eyes and breathing. “Please, Jin, calm down.”

“Yes,” Justin agreed, letting his head loll back as he, too, exhaled deeply.

I watched Sean, Justin’s sheseru, claw free of his clothes, roll to his paws, and take a seat behind his semel. He was a beautiful, sleek golden panther. There were many in the room. Years ago I had found that my black color was as rare as being born a reah. Every panther I had ever seen was gold.

“You trust me,” Yuri said.

I nodded.

He closed his eyes, and I saw the tremble run through his massive frame. My faith washed over him, and his certainty of his place as my guardian anchored me. We were bound together, the two of us, and every day the bond got deeper and stronger.

“Once everyone shifts back,” Justin said after long minutes, his eyes on me as he took long steadying breaths, “I think we will all wait here for Logan’s arrival.”

I nodded.

His smile wavered, but it was there. “You have to be a very strong panther to withstand your pheromones, Jin; I feel very privileged to have passed this test, though had it gone a second longer, I, too, would have succumbed.”

“No, you wouldn’t have.”

His eyes were locked on mine. “Oh yes, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything or anyone as badly as you.”

I looked away, unable to hold his gaze. My eyes found Domin.

“You are the mate of my semel, Jin,” he said tiredly. “I don’t think of you as a man but only as my reah.”

“Yes,” Yuri said, and when I looked at him, he nodded. “Your power is painful to bear, but I can withstand pain; I was made to stand between you and anything, even yourself.”

The tears came fast as I squeezed his shoulder.

“Imagine how strong Logan Church is to have such a mate.” Yuri smiled, and I saw him glow with pride.

“What now?” I asked Justin.

“Now we all wait for Logan.”

“I’ll order some food,” Domin suggested, climbing unsteadily to his feet. “I’m starving.”

I walked over to the window as Yuri rose to his towering height, positioning himself between me and everyone else.

“Tell me how Crane looks,” I asked him.

His eyes, when he looked at me, were slits. “He’s broken, Jin, he won’t shift back.”