Crucible of Fate

priest of Chae Rophon announced loudly to the assembled crowd. Even I could hear the regret in his voice. The man had wanted Crane dead and me in peril, but it was not to be. “What say you, semel-aten? Do you claim his rider as your own?”
    He posed the question out of ritual; he did not actually expect an answer.
    I glanced over at Shahid, shifted now back to human, and saw the terror on his face. “I claim him again for the Shu,” I said as I rose to my feet. “And if he’s mated, I claim his mate and any and all offspring of that union.”
    I was always thorough.
    The man closed his eyes, and I saw him breathing again.
    Son of a bitch.
    Shahid had left the Shu and married and sired a child. Of course he would do anything to protect that, and God only knew where Elham and Rahab were keeping his family. Perhaps Shahid had not sought them out, but instead, perhaps my enemies had gone hunting for him, searching for the ringer, a former member of the Shu to win with.
    Sometimes I missed things, but other times I had to go with my gut. I had thought, no matter what, that Shahid didn’t hate me, and lo and behold, I was right. He was protecting people I didn’t even know belonged to him.
    “You cannot!” Elham El Masry roared.
    “He can do as he pleases,” the priest spoke before I could. “He is the semel-aten.”
    I had never imagined hearing thousands of voices roaring my name at the same time. “Domin Thorne” sounded like thunder in the arena.
    When I noticed Elham, I saw him think about striking Shahid, the panther who had failed him only because there was no cat in the world faster than Jin Church. But then Jamal Hassan was there, the phocal of the priest, leader of the Shu, to step between the two men and deliver his threat.
    “As the semel-aten has demanded, I expect this man’s family here in no less than three days, and should any of them be harmed in any way, the Shu will come for your head.”
    It was never to be forgotten that while the Shu protected me, they were also assassins, the deadliest in the werepanther world.
    “I told you.” Crane smirked, and I flicked my eyes to his. “I always have an answer.”
    It took every shred of self-control I possessed not to walk over and throttle him. Instead, I patted Koren’s hand before rising and walking over to Jin.
    He was beautiful. I had noticed that the first time I ever laid eyes on him. From the blue-black hair that fell glossy and straight to the middle of his back, the large almond-shaped gray eyes, and his delicate, sharply angled features, he was simply breathtaking. But what made him exquisite to me, to everyone who knew him, was his heart. Jin was the embodiment of the reah—he nurtured, he counseled, and he stood devotedly beside his mate.
    He could also be absolutely terrifying .
    “My lord.” Jin bowed low, and I reached under his chin and lifted his gorgeous gaze to me. His eyes were so much like liquid jewels that sometimes, for a moment, I became lost in them.
    “He went to you when he should have come to me, talked to me.”
    Jin straightened and took a breath. “Yes. I made it clear that it was wrong. I yelled at him.”
    But even though he’d admonished Crane, telling him that it was indeed wrong, Jin had done his bidding in a heartbeat anyway. I wondered for a moment what that must feel like, that safety net, to know that the most powerful werepanther in the world would cross an ocean to stand at your side.
    “I, too, was a maahes,” I said softly but seriously. “And I never let my semel sweat, no matter how much I wanted to prove a point.”
    Jin’s power rose, and I felt it reach out, curl around me like a cat, rub against my skin, roll through me with a gentle vibration before it receded and there was only Jin once more. The reason was easy to understand.
    Yes, he was agreeing with me, and yes, Crane had been wrong, but still, deep down, Crane was first Jin’s beset, the companion of a reah, and I was taking him to task. Even more so, I had allowed Crane to be placed in danger.
    “Jin—”
    “I made a mistake,” he confessed, and there was a slight blush to his cheeks.
    We had both made one where Crane Adams was concerned.
    Wheeling around, I had the Shu arrest both Elham El Masry and Rahab Bahur. As they were led away, the cheers became deafening.
     
     
    R AHAB B AHUR wanted to kill me. It was there in his eyes though he gave no voice to it. He trembled with fury. To his right, shackled to a bar,