Change of Heart

"A reah mates for life."
    "I know and that's why—"
    "Were you thrown out of your tribe for being gay?"
    Of course I was. My tribe thought I was an abomination. I was a reah, and reahs only mated with semels. Never had there been a female semel, so... it was wrong, I was wrong, and so I was cast out. Just looking at me made my mother sick; my brother thought I was a perversion. When I was sixteen, my tribe, all of them, stopped speaking to me, and my father, my sylvan, the teacher of our tribe—he wanted me dead. He said it was his duty to kill me, to make sure no other semel was tempted to give up his life, his family, and his bloodline just for me. It still hurt. Even after eight years, it still hurt.
    "Look at me."
    But I wouldn't, instead taking a breath and bending my head, my eyes open and staring at my shoes.
    "You're a gift, reah, and anyone who told you different was a liar. You need to learn your value."
    I swallowed hard but couldn't contain the moan as his hand slid around my throat, his thumb under my chin tipping my head up.
    "You are... precious." He took a quick breath before he smiled.
    99
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    I knew he meant it. The man didn't just want me in his bed; he wanted me in his arms, at his side, forever. "You're scared," I accused him.
    "Hell yeah, I'm scared." He took a breath, the muscles in his jaw cording. "You're my mate, so there's no hiding anything from you. Everyone knows pieces of me, but you...
    you're gonna know everything. That's scary as hell."
    I felt the same. "What if once you get to know me, you hate me?"
    "I don't think that's possible," he sighed, bending his head to kiss the side of my throat.
    I pressed my skin against his mouth, hoping to feel his teeth. His hands slid over me, one moving slowly down the groove of my spine to my lower back, the other pressing over the inseam of my jeans. I arched up into him, my breath catching in my throat.
    I wanted to be under him on the floor, wanted to slide my thighs over his hips, have him lift me up, put my knees over his arms and have him buried inside me deep and hard. The vision filled my mind as his hand cupped me through the denim.
    "I would like nothing more than to strip off all your clothes and be buried inside your warm, willing body," he said into my hair. "But you are my mate and precious to me. I will not have any say that I was seduced or lured away from my yareah. I will announce to everyone that I have found my reah and claim him for my mate."
    I just needed him. How it looked wasn't important to me.
    "I need you to listen to me now."
    100
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    I opened my eyes slowly to gaze into his, and the way the man was looking at me, full of desire and heat, made my blood race, even more so because of the longing. In his gaze, mixed with the passion and need, was tenderness.
    "I am the leader of my tribe, the semel, and I wasn't nominated or made. I was born to it, meant to lead, to take care of others, and—"
    "I know all—"
    "Stop," he chided gently. "Let me speak. A reah is born to your place in the tribe, same as me. You're born to only be the mate of the strongest, the other half of only a semel, the only one who can truly be. Without a reah, a semel can never have maat —balance, harmony. Reahs are so rare, no one I know has ever even met one, and then here you are. I waited for so long, but my family and my tribe all thought it was time I took a mate. I guess I thought so too, but... I almost made a mistake. What if I'd missed you?"
    The way he was looking at me—with wonder—no one had ever looked at me like that.
    "I waited all my life for you," he said, his hands sliding up under my sweater. The feel of his warm skin on my own chilled flesh was making me dizzy. "My mate, you are my mate. It was done the second I saw you... looked into your big, beautiful eyes."
    The tears came, and I felt stupid but it was too much. The emotion was overwhelming.
    "Your skin is like silk, warm silk... I want to feel it all."
    The man was the sexiest thing I'd ever seen in my life, and he was trying to kill me by talking like I was all he needed.
    101
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    "Stop fighting, reah." He smiled, sliding his hands up both sides of my neck, making sure I couldn't get away. "I want you."
    "It's a mistake. You should send me away... I'm bad for you."
    "Having my heart cannot be bad." He bent and kissed me hungrily, roughly, devouring my mouth. It was like being