Crucible of Fate

and actually claiming the man for your mate.”
    How could I make him understand?
    “Here’s what happened,” he said, sliding his hand up over my left pectoral, across my collarbone to my throat. He was gentle as he traced his fingers over my skin, and my eyes drifted closed as he rubbed his thumb over my bottom lip. “I stepped out of the picture, and you finally saw him.”
    I made a noise of agreement.
    “Why do you think you never saw him before then?”
    Because I was stupid? Because I was blind? Because I was so infatuated with the idea of having Koren Church that I couldn’t at all see what was right in front of me?
    “You didn’t see him because you never even considered him.”
    Batting his hand away, I rolled over on my side. “You should go.”
    Immediately his hand was on my hip.
    “It was a brand-new thing, being semel-aten, and you didn’t want to start the adventure alone, so you took—”
    I cut him off. “No.” Because I had not loved Yuri when we arrived in Sobek, but it was so much more than that now.
    “Just—”
    “No!” I yelled.
    “Listen to me! He’s not the one for you. He’s not .”
    If I had my full strength, I would have thrown him out, but I was exhausted. That didn’t mean I was defenseless. I could wield my memories like a whip. “I came home with that piece of key lime pie because it’s your favorite,” I began. “And I—”
    “Oh, for shit’s sake, Domin, not this again!” he yelled, leaping off the bed to get away from me. “Why do you always—”
    “And I threw open the door, and there you were with Talon Danvers.”
    “I—”
    “You knew she was mated, she’s a goddamn yareah!” I exclaimed.
    “You know as well as I do that Christophe and Talon have an open—”
    “But that’s not the point,” I said, rolling over on my back. “The point was that I had pie in my hand and what did you say?”
    He shook his head.
    “Koren?”
    “I don’t remember.”
    But I did, and that was the problem.
    I had come in, flushed with excitement to see him since he had just returned from a business trip. But instead of coming home to me, waiting for me, he had gone immediately out to a club and picked up a woman. And not just any woman, but Talon Danvers, yareah of the tribe of Pakhet. My barging in had not even given him pause.
    “Room service!” Koren announced happily as he continued to pump in and out of the woman writhing below him. “Thank God. I’m starving!”
    It was hard to even pull oxygen into my lungs, but that was fine—the air in the room was thick with the scent of sex and sweat anyway.
    “Come here,” he demanded, his hot gaze raking over me. “Talon will suck your dick.”
    But unlike Koren, it mattered who touched me in bed, and I never wanted a woman to do it. For me it was not a preference, it was simply how I was made.
    I took a step back, and my face, I was sure, was his first indication that something was wrong. Instantly, he was defensive.
    “Like you haven’t fucked anyone since I’ve been gone,” he snarled, all the while still hammering into Talon. “It’s not like we’re mated, Domin.”
    And we weren’t. Just because I had thought it in my heart, carried myself as though I were special because Koren Church loved me, counted the days until he came home… didn’t make what I felt real. It didn’t make me matter to him. I was settled; he was still on the prowl. It was crystal clear as I fled the room, dropping the pie on the floor in the doorway.
    As I tore down the steps and out the front door, I heard a car. When I checked the driveway, I saw Logan get out of the passenger side of Jin’s Jeep Wrangler and Jin draped forward over the steering wheel. It took a second for me to realize he was laughing, not crying and that Logan was fuming.
    “You’re a maniac!” Logan roared as he stalked toward the house. “How did you even get a driver’s license?”
    It hurt to watch them because it was all so normal, Jin climbing out and then running after his mate, Logan yelling at him to stay away because he was mad.
    “Baby!” Jin called after him.
    “No!”
    When Jin finally ran, stepping around in front of him, barring his semel’s path, I saw Logan glower before he took Jin’s face in his hands.
    “Be more careful,” he demanded, growling at Jin. “If anything ever happened to you, what the hell am I supposed to do?”
    Jin tipped back his head, and Logan bent and kissed him, and it was sweet and hot