Change of Heart

"What'd you say?"
    184
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    He took my hand, leaned forward to look into my eyes.
    "He finally accepted my challenge."
    Even though I was frightened for him, I knew Logan could beat him. In that second, I was prepared to be supportive.
    "He had a stipulation, though."
    My heart stopped. "What stipulation?"
    "He asked me for the sons of something." He shrugged.
    "It's not important. The only thing that matters is that he accepted. I'll beat him, and then everything will be perfect."
    I could barely breathe.
    "He promised me, in front of witnesses, that if I win, that he will release those in his tribe that want to join mine, and he will pledge to never again attack any member of my family or my tribe. Everyone will be safe."
    He looked so pleased, completely ignorant of his own peril, his concern, as always, with others before himself.
    "Isn't that amazing?"
    I absorbed his words, and I knew that it was too late to safeguard myself from loving the man. The thought of losing him hurt worse than anything I could imagine. He was my mate, my other half, the only person I would ever, could ever share the bond I felt in my heart with. And he had just allowed himself to be killed because he had not spoken to me before he agreed to a deal with devil. He had no idea the advantage he had given Domin Thorne.
    "Logan." I breathed out his name. "Why didn't you talk to me first?"
    "Jin, I—"
    185
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    "You should have consulted me." My brain was whirling, trying to remember, as fast as I could, every law I had ever read and everything my father had ever taught me.
    "No," he said flatly, brows furrowing. "I shouldn't have. I will always do what I feel is in the best interest of the tribe, and those decisions do not concern you."
    "Everything about this tribe concerns me."
    "Jin—"
    "Especially anything you decide personally."
    "Baby—"
    "You have no idea what you've done," I said, feeling like there was cold wind blowing through me. "You've changed my path just as surely as you've changed your own."
    Instantly there was concern in his eyes. "What are you talking about?"
    "Do you know what the four Sons of Horus means?"
    "That's what it was." He smiled at me.
    "Do you know what it means?" I snapped at him.
    His smile faltered and then fell away as he looked at me. "I didn't even know what it... no, I—"
    "You agreed to let Domin Thorne bring four others with him into the pit. You won't be facing just Domin; it will be him and probably his sheseru and sylvan and another two of his khatyu."
    Logan absorbed what I'd told him. "Okay."
    "Okay?" I half-yelled. "That's all you have to say?"
    "He won't win."
    "He can't lose," I corrected him.
    186
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    Logan grabbed my hand and held it tight in his, his smile meant to be reassuring. "Baby, I'll win, I promise."
    But he couldn't. Against one, maybe even two, my mate would prevail, but one against five... he would be outnumbered, out-muscled; there would be too many sets of teeth and claws, too many ways for him to be cornered, pinned down, maneuvered around. He would be slaughtered.
    "And if he wins?"
    "He won't."
    "If he does," I repeated, yelling this time, standing up, looking down at him.
    You could hear a pin drop in the room.
    "He won't win!" he roared back, standing up in one fluid moment to tower over me. "Don't you have any faith at all?"
    "I have faith," I told him, and I heard my voice shake.
    "When it's fair."
    "Jin." He took a shallow breath, reaching for my hand.
    "Let's go talk about—"
    "By law, if he wins, he can cut out your heart," I said, taking a step away from him.
    "Yes, but—"
    "He can hold you down and use his claws and dig it out of your chest." The words were more for me than for him; hearing them spoken, they had weight and significance.
    Aloud, I understood the moment for what it was, life and death. My mate could be butchered alive if and when he lost to invincible odds. I couldn't even breathe.
    Logan grabbed my arms and yanked me up against him.
    "He won't win. If I die, we'll be parted, and I can't allow that."
    187
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    The words were confident, meant to express his feelings for me, but he was still talking like there would only be he and Domin in the pit; he didn't comprehend his peril. I did, though; I understood that the fight would be blood sport and nothing more, the torture and slaughter of my mate that I would never, could never,