Change of Heart

ask me if I was working or not. Since the alternative was going back upstairs to my jail cell and stare at the ceiling, I opted for working.
    When Mike showed up an hour later, he asked me where my shadow was, and I answered honestly. I had no idea where Crane Adams was.
    The nice thing about being busy is the way time passes. I was running, and that was good for me because there was no time to think. At the end of the night, as I was cleaning up, I 223
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    heard my name yelled across the room. I didn't look up; I just continued wiping down the tables until Crane reached me.
    "What the fuck are you doing here?"
    I just looked at him.
    "Jesus Christ, Jin, Logan is losing his mind, and you're working?"
    I moved to walk around him, but he stepped in front of me, blocking my path.
    "Jin, your semel needs you!"
    Shoving him sideways, I crossed to the bar. He was right behind me.
    "What are you going to do? Run again?"
    I didn't answer him. I was too angry. In a matter of days, his loyalty had completely shifted from me to Logan.
    "I'm gonna need to tell him where you are."
    "I doubt he doesn't know," I told him, not even looking at him anymore.
    "If he knew, he'd be here."
    "No," I said softly. "He's giving me time to think."
    "He's a mess, Jin. Look at me."
    I lifted my head and saw the muscles in his jaw flexing, the furrowed brows, and the hands fisted at his sides. "He hasn't slept yet, he won't shift and heal his wounds, he won't eat.... you need to come back to the house, or it won't matter that he won—there won't be anything left of him."
    I stared at him because I had never seen him so serious and earnest in my life.
    224
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    "Please, Jin, even if you're not gonna stay... make him eat and sleep. We both know that no one would ever force you to stay against your will."
    I cleared my throat. "Logan Church is a strong man and a leader first. He's probably eating now. Go home and see, Crane."
    "Jin—"
    "Go away, Crane."
    Since I didn't look up, I never saw his expression, but I heard the door slam shut when he left.
    An hour later, I was on the road, walking toward the diner for coffee and a piece of pie, when a car rolled up beside me.
    It slowed but didn't stop, and when the driver's side window came down, I was looking at Mikhail.
    "Hey," he said softly.
    "Crane's got a big mouth."
    "Yes," he agreed with no argument.
    I shoved my hands down into the pockets of my parka. It was cold outside, and even with the parka and my knit cap and my scarf, I was still frozen, my breath visible when I spoke. "Logan's a semel first before anything else. He knows his duty. He'll take care of himself."
    "But see, there's the thing. He did his duty, and he saved his tribe and his reah, and he even saved Domin," he said.
    "But he didn't save himself."
    "How did he save me, exactly?"
    "You'd be dead if you had gone into the pit with five panthers."
    225
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    I stopped walking and turned to face him. He slammed on the brakes and got out of the car faster than I would have thought such a big man could. "I was prepared to protect him!"
    "You would have been killed, plain and simple," he yelled back, poking me hard in the collarbone to drive home his point. "Logan was never gonna let those jackals have his mate, and you goddamn well know it! And now you're punishing him for saving your life the only fuckin' way he knew how!"
    "I saved him, not the other way around!"
    "He saved you!"
    "So I did nothing."
    He grabbed the lapel of my parka and yanked me close.
    "You saved his life, and by law, since you had already taken on the challenge, you were the only one of us who could have gotten into the pit with him and not caused him to forfeit."
    "Until the others cheated," I reminded him.
    "Yes," he sighed. "It could have been an all-out war at that point, but we all knew that Logan would rather die than have any more of us in the pit with you two."
    "I know."
    He let me go, and I took a step back from him.
    "Jin, you were amazing," he said, the awe clear in his voice. "You... I've never seen another cat like you. I have never seen anyone shift like that in my life. I had no idea that could even be done, but still... Logan sacrificed himself because he went into the pit first without you to face five 226
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    panthers because he would not allow them near his mate. Do you get that?"
    "Of course, but that's not the