Honored Vow

took a quivering breath before he came, splattering the blanket
    under him, convulsing with his orgasm.
    I shot hot cum deep inside his body, filling him until it dripped down
    the inside of his thighs, hammering him through his release and mine as he
    normally did to me. Nothing was so primal as coating my mate’s inner

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    Mary Calmes

    walls, branding him inside and out, and I felt the emotion rise up in me.
    The feeling had to be the same when the roles were reversed, Logan must
    have enjoyed possessing me just as much.
    When I collapsed on top of him, because he was bigger and stronger,
    he didn’t fold under me; instead, he held there until I eased from his body
    and sat back.
    He dropped down onto the blankets and rolled over on his back. The
    hooded eyes, flushed face, and sweat-covered skin were enough to make
    my mouth go dry. The man was a vision of sated passion.
    “Did I hurt you?”
    He shook his head.
    “I claimed you, you’re mine, and you belong only to me.”
    “Only to you,” he said hoarsely, reaching for me, catching my hair,
    and pulling me close enough so he could fist his hand in it. I was
    wrenched forward, and when our lips met, the kiss was scorching and
    devouring as the man mauled my mouth.
    He had submitted to me, trusted me, loved me enough to give
    himself to me, but there was also never to be a doubt of who was in
    control. Logan was power and strength and heat; I was his mate, his other
    half, and so returned softness and soothing calm. He took what he wanted,
    and I willingly gave, and that truth lived and breathed between us. I would
    treasure the moment for what it was, a gift, a time when Logan had wanted
    me to take and I had. We fit seamlessly, and as I was rolled to my back, I
    wrapped my arms around his neck and held tight.
    “I love you,” he rasped against my lips before the second round
    began, the blistering kiss, the grinding motion that made my skin so hot I
    thought it would simply brand him when we touched. “My mate, my
    reah.”
    I wanted to melt into him, so I tried.

    WE HAD remained alone for as long as we could, Mikhail finally coming
    to find Logan to have him return to the hall to attend the priest before the
    funeral rites were performed. I told Logan that I couldn’t go back inside,
    and he understood, making me promise to stay there and not leave our

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    quarters. I told him that I needed to go for a run, and even though he
    wasn’t thrilled with the prospect, he understood the need.
    Later that night, I had shifted and was watching from a safe distance
    as they all stood in a circle under the falling snow and watched as the
    pyres burned. Panthers were never buried, always cremated for safety and
    secrecy, but the pyres were an ancient practice that somehow, with all that
    had transpired, made sense.
    All the fallen were placed side by side: the yareahs, the semel of the
    tribe of Nebthet, his yareah, and his two men. Ammon El Masry was
    burned apart from the others, and only Amirah’s body was not present at
    all, having been burned and the ashes discarded two days prior. It turned
    out she had no family, so there was no one anywhere to mourn her. That
    was, for me, the saddest part of her story.
    Once the fire engulfed everything, I watched everyone retreat back
    inside except for my mate. From where I was, in a shallow cave barely big
    enough to shelter me, I could see him and the whole valley. It was quiet
    outside, and peaceful, but what was happening outside had nothing to do
    with the whirling emotions that were going on inside my head. I wanted to
    go home and be grounded. I was suddenly so thankful to Logan for
    making that possible. He’d known that he could kill Ammon in the pit, but
    more importantly, he also knew that Domin could. I suddenly wanted to
    know the entire story.
    I couldn’t hear him from where I was, but I could see him. And
    when he lifted his arms for me, I was on my feet in seconds.
    He had not seen me run up the side of the mountain days ago, so I
    made sure to show him. I pushed myself faster, leaped high, and
    performed the mid-air arc, the dive that turned to running across the new-
    fallen snow. When I reached him, still in panther form, and landed all over
    him, pinning him under me to the snow, he was laughing.
    “Holy shit,” he yelled, petting me hard, rubbing, the rumbling sound
    that came out of him making me purr as I licked the base of this throat.
    “How the hell did you do