Change of Heart

anyone there besides me, and while he smiled when he saw Crane, his furrowed brows let me know that my father and my cousin were a concern.
    "Good morning," I greeted my mate's father, drawing his attention to me.
    "Jin," he said slowly, moving further into the room, putting a bag of green apples down on the counter. "These are for you and Eva to make the pies later. I'm sorry, who are these people?" He sounded irritated.
    All of a sudden, I was really glad to see him. I let out a breath and felt like me again. "This is my father and my cousin Danny from Chicago."
    He nodded slowly and then stepped closer to me, moving so that my vision filled with him, shielding me from the others. "Jin, you know them being in here is considered a grave insult to your semel, they should not be in your presence without—"
    "No, I know," I stopped him. "My dad just followed Danny in here. They were just leaving."
    "Good," he said, turning around to look over at my father.
    "This is extremely inappropriate behavior, sir, but as our reah is your son, I'm sure my son, our semel, will overlook the trespass."
    The warning was understood as the two men stared at each other.
    My father finally nodded as Peter extended his hand to him, walking across the room. "I'm Peter Church, Logan's 280
    Change of Heart
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    father. It's a pleasure to meet the man who sired my son's mate."
    "Mitchell Rayne," my father said, shaking his hand. "May I ask why you allowed your son to take a male mate? It's the end of your house."
    Peter nodded, releasing my father's hand. "I'll confess I was scared, very scared, at first, and then I realized that I'm not living a hundred years ago. I'm living in a time of adoption and surrogates, and more importantly, I am a man that has always wanted the very best for his children. My son has been blessed with a true mate, a reah, and in finding him has become semel-re. I have met only two other semels in my life that have found reahs, and both had the largest, strongest tribes I have ever seen. The semel who finds his reah is unlike one who does not. I had forgotten that for a brief moment."
    "So your son is a better semel than you were?"
    "Oh, yes, absolutely."
    "Better simply because he has a reah."
    "Yes."
    "But your son will not be a father."
    Peter chuckled. "That is not for you to say. No one can see the future."
    My father nodded. "I would like to meet your son."
    That meant that Logan had not been in the room before Danny took his stroll and forced my father to follow him right to me.
    "Let me show you to him," he said quickly, spreading his arms, herding both Danny and my father toward the door, 281
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    giving me a quick smile over his shoulder, the warmth radiating off the man just as it did his son.
    "Well, that was fun," Crane breathed, headed toward the door, following.
    "Where are you going?"
    "If your dad can forget about the rules and barge in, then so can I. I'll be right back."
    I was going to argue, but he was right. The day was getting weirder by the second. It took a turn for the worse when my father suddenly reappeared in the empty kitchen minutes later.
    "Well, you certainly have your semel's father confused about what's truly important," he snapped at me. "How did you manage to do that?"
    "What are you——"
    "Jin!"
    He wasn't treating me like a reah; he wasn't treating me like another semel's mate. He was still treating me like I was just his son, and not one he even liked much.
    "Answer me."
    The man would never change. I took a quick breath and tried to calm my racing heart. "How are Mom and Kei?"
    "They're both well. I asked them to come with me, but neither of them wanted to see you."
    One more dig for good measure. "Well, I'm sorry about that."
    "Are you?"
    "Yes," I sighed, and I realized, finally, that what I wanted and what would be were two totally different and separate 282
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    things. My biological family would never accept me; my new family was the one that counted. I was so lucky to have found them, so lucky to have found Logan most of all. My vision was suddenly blurred, and I looked down so my father would not see the tears that to him only ever signified weakness. I had never been so emotional in my life. It was almost funny.
    "Jin." My father's voice dropped low as he stepped in close to me. "Why do you persist in this perversion? You know that a male reah is not a blessing but an abomination, and when others