Change of Heart

dipped into liquid heat. I felt it rolling through my body, consuming me. When he leaned back, the whimper of need could not be helped. "There you go... need me more, reah.
    Want me more. Put your hands on me."
    I lifted up and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him back down into a scalding, claiming kiss with lots of tongue. I sucked and bit, the kiss hot and wet and deep.
    When he had to breathe, my name came out in a gasp. It was surprising to hear it from his lips, my plain, ordinary name spoken as it never had been before, with awe, like it was sacred, like treasure. Like I was a treasure.
    "Logan," I breathed. "You don't want—"
    "You?" He cut me off, his mouth hovering over mine. "I don't want you?"
    There had to be something I could say to make him stop, to make him go away. He was risking too much if he took me for his reah. Even in so short a time, the man's happiness was important to me. He was my mate, after all.
    "Oh, hell yeah, I want you." He smiled. "And I'm keeping you."
    Before I could answer, argue, protest, his mouth was back on mine. His tongue slid over the seam of my lips for a 102
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    second before I parted them. The reaction was instant. I felt a hand fisted in my hair so I couldn't move, an arm around my back holding me against him, his mouth grinding down over mine. His tongue swept inside, into the hollows of my cheeks, over my teeth. The kiss was hard and scalding, pulling whimpers and whines out of me that made the man in my arms shudder.
    "God, I could fuckin' eat you," he growled in my ear before pressing his face into my neck, breathing me in. "Where the hell have you been?"
    He sounded almost angry, and I loved that, loved that he was frustrated that he had only just found me.
    "Jin." His voice washed over me, low and seductive.
    "Please."
    I knew what he was asking for.
    "Please," he repeated, his voice cracking with the strain of waiting.
    "Yes," I whispered, leaning my head forward, stretching my neck out for him, inviting him.
    I heard his low, strangled moan a second before I felt first his hot breath on my skin and then a knife buried in the top of my spine. A shard of agony ripped through me, but I swallowed down my yell. I had been bitten playfully many times in my life, nipped and nibbled, but I had never been marked. Being marked was a world away from simply being bitten.
    His long fangs were thrust deep inside me, white-hot, razor-sharp skewers piercing, pushing though skin and muscle, tightening until the teeth met inside my body. The 103
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    pain was violent, excruciating, at the same time filling me with throbbing heat. I felt myself sinking only to be held tight in his arms. My head, neck and back felt like they were on fire, burning and consuming, receding only to build again and again, wave after wave of it drowning me. I was going to pass out, and I told him so even as my voice faltered and died in my throat. I was warm, warmer than I had ever been, and finally, after so long, I felt absolutely safe. When I tumbled into darkness, it didn't even matter.
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    104
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes

Chapter Six
    There had been yelling, I was sure of it, but when I opened my eyes, completely conscious, there was only silence. I had to get up and find Crane, but when I tried to move, I realized it was futile. My body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds; I couldn't even lift my head. Not that I wanted to—I was so tired, and the bed was soft and warm and smelled like clothes dried in the sun... and Logan. My body jerked with the knowledge that I was in the man's bed. From the faint shard of light coming into the bedroom from the outer room, I could see that the sheets were pale, as was the down comforter.
    But there was no blood. I expected there to be blood. I had been losing blood, I was sure, but now there was nothing.
    Maybe I was so weak because I had lost too much, but where was it? It should have been all over everything, and yet there was only the warmth of the bed, the smell of my mate, and the soothing darkness. I closed my eyes to go back to sleep.
    "What are you doing?" The yell came sharply from the outer room.
    I sat bolt upright and realized that my body was not as weak as I had thought. Who was shouting?
    "Besides claiming my mate, you mean?" Logan's deep, resonant voice answered.
    "Impossible."
    "What is?"
    "Logan, be reasonable. No matter what you feel, you