Change of Heart

cannot have a male mate."
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    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    The chuckle was deep but not amused, more cold and hard. "A semel and reah don't choose each other, father; they simply are or are not mates. If they are, the reah accepts the semel and takes the mark. I knew the second I saw Jin that he was mine. He took my mark... he belongs to me. It's done."
    "Logan, you—"
    "Reahs are very rare, so rare, in fact, that of all the semels I have met in my life, not one has—"
    "I know, but Logan, you must—"
    "I wanted my mate. I always have. I never wanted a mating ceremony. I never wanted to settle. I agreed because I felt it was time, you felt it was time, the tribe felt it was time, but I always just had a feeling... and now I've been rewarded."
    "Logan, you cannot take a—"
    "Do you really presume to tell me that, as the semel of my tribe, that I cannot claim my reah because he's a man?"
    "My son," he said, and I could hear the strain in his voice as he argued with Logan. "A male mate is——"
    "A waste, my darling."
    It was a woman's voice, and I had to see her. Surely she was the yareah, Simone, Christophe's sister. She had come to talk some sense into the semel of the tribe of Mafdet, her intended mate. I rose up off the bed, pleased that I still had everything on except my boots. I moved to peek through the crack of the door, lucky that it hadn't been completely closed.
    Once there, my eyes flicked to the woman, who slipped by Logan's father and moved to his son's side. Simone moved 106
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    like she was boneless, like a snake, and her hands curled around Logan's forearm.
    "Please," he sighed as he looked down at her. "Forgive me."
    "There's nothing to forgive, because I won't release you from your oath."
    "It doesn't matter," he told her. "A reah trumps a yareah, and you know it."
    "I repeat," she insisted, her voice with a trill of edge to it.
    "I will not release you. You cannot have a male mate. It's a waste of you, of your seed, of your house. You can't throw your life away because of some stupid chemical pull on your body. You can't just—"
    "I will do as I please."
    "No."
    "Watch me."
    "Logan, you can't stand there and tell me that you're going to mate with a man! It's ridiculous!"
    Her voice was luscious, deep and velvety, and she was flawless, creamy perfection. From her long blonde mane to her turquoise eyes, she was stunning. She and her brother could have been twins, ethereal beings descended from heaven. She was as captivatingly beautiful as he was. I watched her hand trail up Logan's arm to his shoulder, and higher, to the side of his neck, settling on his cheek.
    "He has no tribe, Logan!" his father shouted. "There is no alliance to be made! You have denied all the rules of ordination! This is not maat ."
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    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    I watched Logan shake his head and brush Simone's hand away.
    "No! He is trash! It is beneath you! You are to be mated with Simone! She is to be your yareah! The mating will unite your tribe with Christophe's, and you would think to throw her away to mate with an abomination!"
    "He's a reah," Logan said tightly, closing in on his father.
    "He's not chosen or picked for me, he's not a yareah, he's a true reah, and that cannot be denied. You say it's not maat , but it is—it's the only thing that is. You are not serving me or my tribe if you try and have me deny him."
    "Logan, you—"
    "He's my reah, and I acknowledge him."
    Simone laughed. "What would you even do with a male mate? You've never been with a man! Wherever would you get the idea that you would even enjoy—"
    "I marked him, he's mine, and that is all you need to know."
    I was going to be his first? I couldn't even imagine. I'd thought he was gay, the way he had accepted me so easily, but apparently there had been only women before me. How could he even want me?
    "Logan, you—"
    "He's my mate, born to be mine. He's all I want."
    "No!" the older man yelled. "You put us in peril with this whim! By right, Christophe must make the covenant bond with Domin now on behalf of his sister. You will bring two large tribes together! Think of your family, your tribe! You cannot throw away your future for a worthless stray bastard!
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    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    Logan Church, I did not raise you to act like this! You disgrace us all with this perversion! A semel must mate and breed! To lay with a male... to plant seed in an empty vessel... this is not your