Honored Vow

case. Her
    whole life ended today, everything about who she is, what she is, just done
    in the time it took her psychotic mate to maim her. I saw it, the way he just
    terrorized her and bit her, and she was struggling so hard, and even when
    it was done, she was just so shattered, so shocked that the man she loved
    would turn on her like that.”

    Honored Vow

    233

    “Yeah, but we’re panthers,” I told him. “We know that being
    scourged or marked or sent into exile or accepting a title is part of the
    duality of our nature. All these things are our reality. I’m not saying that
    the horrible things that happened to Crane or Yusuke or the yareahs that
    died in the pit or the semels that will never again be men, I’m not telling
    you that those things are okay, but for us… they’re part of being a panther.
    The betrayal of her semel may be hard for Yusuke to wrap her brain
    around, but the rest, his actions, I mean, she’s known all her life, we all
    have, that we live and die at the command of our semel.”
    He nodded.
    “I mean, a regular man does not in his life imagine himself in a large
    room with eight panthers trying to kill him. But you made the decision to
    step into the pit for Logan, to show others that he is strong because he has
    a strong sheseru. It’s fucked up, Yuri, and Russ is right, a lot of it is
    outdated barbaric crap.”
    He smiled at me. “It is, and it’s time for someone to change it.”
    “Which is what I told Logan,” I said, exhaling. “I think he’s
    supposed to be semel-aten because he won’t just be about the power, like
    they’ve all been for the last hundred years, but actually about bringing the
    laws into this century.”
    “That would be brilliant,” he agreed. “But Sobek?”
    Egypt. I felt the same way. “I know, I kinda just want to live in my
    town for the rest of my life.”
    “Me too,” he agreed.
    “Although,” I said, smiling at him, “wherever Domin is—”
    “Whatever he wants,” Yuri said hoarsely. “I’ll do whatever he wants
    if he’ll just keep me.”
    “You’re killing me with this, you know.”
    He smiled at me, and I saw the feeling there, what I meant to him.
    “You were amazing today, Jin. You controlled your power, you protected
    Logan, and you didn’t hurt anyone from your own tribe. I’m so proud to
    stand with you and my semel.”
    I felt my eyes swimming suddenly, and he leaned forward to hold
    me. All of us were overly tired, overly emotional, and just completely
    overwrought. Yuri normally never hugged me. He protected me, he was
    my champion, we sat together a lot and talked, but hugging was not an

    234

    Mary Calmes

    activity we participated in. But all of us were raw and vulnerable and
    needy. So he held me tight, and I let him.
    I woke up in the night to the beautiful sight of my sheseru smiling,
    eyes closed, head back, as Domin sat in his lap, kissing under his jaw and
    down his throat. Yuri was in heaven with Domin in his lap, straddling his
    thighs, and the soft whimpering moan made me sigh. When my maahes
    leaned back, looking into the face of my sheseru, Yuri’s eyes slowly
    drifted open.
    “What do you want?”
    “You know what I want,” Yuri told him, his voice husky and low. “I
    want you to keep me. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
    Domin’s dark-brown eyes looked black in the low light. He had
    shaved at some point during the day and the strong chiseled features were
    again visible, no longer hidden under a thick beard. Yuri was enjoying the
    feel of the smooth skin if his fingers continually grazing over the man’s
    face were any indication.
    “And I’d really like you to mark me,” Yuri confessed breathlessly.
    “You’re insane, you’d never survive it.”
    “I think I would.”
    Domin exhaled sharply. “Listen to me. Between a semel and his
    true-mate, the mark hurts but heals. Between two regular cats… the
    semel’s mark is never given, because you could bleed to death,” he
    finished, obviously shaken. “Besides, what makes you think I would even
    want to do such a thing?”
    Yuri’s dark eyes, not quite the cobalt Mikhail’s were, more a warm
    royal blue or sapphire, just melted. God, he was so gone it was painful to
    see all the need there on display. “Please.”
    “Fuck you, no,” Domin snapped, moving to get up, rolling off the
    bigger man’s lap.
    Yuri was strong, though, and he wanted Domin there, right there
    where he was. His fingers dug into Domin’s