Change of Heart

right!"
    It hurt like a knife in my heart because they were the same words my father had hurled at me when he had driven me from my home—that I was a perversion.
    "I am semel. I am the law... only I say what's right,"
    Logan said softly, resolutely, returning my attention to him.
    "Logan, what will your sylvan or your sheseru say?"
    "They stand with me."
    "I think you overestimate them, Logan. They won't want you to disgrace yourself any more than I do."
    "Nothing I would ever do with my mate would be a disgrace."
    The tone was icy with a thread of warning in it, and everyone knew that Peter Church had said too much. No semel ever allowed anyone to question them, and especially not about their bond with their reah. That was sacred.
    "You would abandon me?" Simone gasped, drawing all the attention of the room.
    Logan turned to look at her. "No. There is Koren; he will be your mate."
    My eyes went to the brother whom he had so readily volunteered, saw his brows furrow in a scowl. There was no denying that the brothers Church were a beautiful lot, Logan with his gold eyes, Russ with the deep emerald, and Koren with the most gorgeous shade of olive I had ever seen, all with the same towering height, muscular frames, and chiseled 109
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    features. And it had all been inherited from their father, Peter Church, a magnificent-looking man, as tall and strong as any of his sons, with hazel eyes that were now trained on Logan.
    "I am not a reah," Simone said, bringing my attention back to her. "But I will only be yareah and so cannot, will not, mate with anyone who is not a semel. If not you, Logan, there is only Domin for me."
    "You can mate with whoever you want, Simone. You want to be a yareah, but the truth is your choices are open. There is no law to say who you must take, because you have no birthright."
    "Logan, I'm supposed to be your yareah."
    "Because we agreed you would be, but you don't have to be."
    Her eyes were pained. "I thought you loved me."
    "Why?"
    She flinched like he'd hit her. "I had no idea you were this cold."
    "How can I be cold when I never told you I loved you, never said that our mating was anything but an arrangement that would be mutually beneficial? You would be the yareah of my tribe, the mate of the semel, and I would have children. If there was more, if I led you on or said anything different, please tell me."
    There was a long silence as she deflated. It was obvious that the man had been brutally honest with her, and still she had changed it into a romance in her head.
    "If you only want to mate with a semel and you don't want to leave home, then there's only Domin left. But there's a big 110
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    world out there filled with other leaders and other tribes. Go find another semel if your heart is set on being a yareah."
    "Logan." Her voice trembled. "We sealed our hands, and now you—"
    He grabbed her hand and held it in both of his as he looked into her eyes. "You are not my mate, Simone. You never were, and this is the risk that any yareah who mates with a semel takes. If and when our reah crosses our path, there is no choice but to follow."
    "So you would deny your reah for me if you could?"
    "No," he said quickly, releasing her hand. "There is only my mate."
    "Logan." She took a breath. "Have him if you must, but do it in secret. Let me be the one at your side for the tribe to see."
    "My mate is the only one who will stand at my side."
    She took another breath. "It's written in the law that if the mate of a semel is barren then he may take a yareah to ensure the continuation of his bloodline. Your precious reah can't give you children, so you can still take me. You can have both of us."
    "Logan, that would solve everything," his father said quickly. "Simone is being so gracious and selfless and trying to save the tribe for you."
    "I know exactly where Simone's loyalties lie," he said, his eyes on his father. "And I will have no yareah. There will only be my reah. Anything else is sacrilege."
    "Logan, be reasonable," Simone snapped at him, the frustration thick in her voice.
    111
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    His scowl was dark as he turned to her. "Simone, we were going to have a ceremony to bring our tribes together. It seemed like a good idea for you to be my yareah because we get along, but I just found my reah," he said, lifting his eyes to all the men standing in the semi-circle around him, at his father, at Koren, at