Honored Vow

Ammon
    El Masry will be rescinded. Only if Ammon keeps his seat will they go
    unpunished. The other five challengers have already agreed.”
    “Okay.”
    “Your brother Kei has asked for and received permission to join the
    tribe of Mnevis.”
    It was hard to hear the word “brother” when it had not been the case
    since I was sixteen years old.
    “Your cousin Daniel, because he saved me, is no longer welcome
    with those of your old tribe. He’s here with me.”
    And in the midst of everything, amazingly, with all else that was
    going on, I was jealous. I remembered seeing Danny when he came to my
    home with my father, his delicate features, porcelain skin, huge liquid-
    brown eyes, thick-feathered lashes, and dark curls. “Doesn’t he have a
    family to return to?”
    “Apparently not.”
    I swallowed down my heart. “He’s beautiful.”
    “Who?”
    “Danny.”
    “I wouldn’t know—I see no other but my mate.”
    “Logan—”
    “Jin, Yuri and Domin are on their way to bring you home. Stay there
    in the hotel until they reach you. I suspect they’ll be there in another three
    hours. Justin is on his way to you now with his sheseru as well as two of
    his khatyu. Miguel Garza will have an entire entourage with him. Justin
    and Sean Li, his sheseru, are allowed in the room with you. Miguel can
    also be in the room with you along with either his sheseru or sylvan or his
    yareah, but no other. You know the law, I know I don’t need to tell you,
    but these are special circumstances.”
    “No, you don’t.”
    “I would come, but I have too many people here. Crane is hurt;
    Danny is here, and….” He trailed off, seemingly lost in thought.
    “Logan?”

    62

    Mary Calmes

    “Fuck it; I’ll be there to claim you.”
    “No,” I insisted. “I’ll be home this evening.”
    He took a breath. “You’re not hurt, are you?”
    “No, no one can seem to get close enough to me to even touch me.”
    There was a silence before: “I’m sorry, what?”
    “I’m the same as I was before you left.”
    “How do you mean?”
    “I mean I’m not—myself.”
    “But you were fine when I—”
    “And I was fine until I got here.”
    Long silence, and I knew he was working something out in his head.
    “Jin,” he said sharply.
    “Yeah?” He sounded scared, which was making me uneasy.
    “I thought it was on purpose.”
    “You thought what was on purpose?”
    “I—I thought you pulling the others through their shift was
    intentional!”
    “What?” I was hurt that he would even think such a thing. “Why
    would I do that?”
    “I thought you were angry with me and so you were trying out new
    power and—oh fuck!”
    “What’s wrong with you?” I asked irritably.
    “Love.” He took a breath. “Before I left, you were leaking
    pheromones. Everyone’s reaction to you, when they were in the house…
    that was not you making them want to be away from you, that was them
    all wanting you, wanting to have you.”
    “There’s no way.”
    “Jin, I asked the priest why you would be throbbing with
    pheromones and he said that nekhene cats, unlike reahs, when they build
    up power, they exude them to try and draw the strongest cat to their side to
    mate with. A reah seeks only their semel, but a nekhene, who does not
    normally have just one mate, sends out a siren call that is impossible to
    ignore.”
    “But I haven’t shifted into a nekhene form at all, not once.”

    Honored Vow

    63

    “You haven’t physically shifted, but the power is still growing and
    every time it makes a jump, every time you tap into it for protection, you
    radiate this primal call for a mate.”
    “I only want you,” I said, willing him to believe me.
    “I know that because the reah in you is comforting the nekhene, it’s
    reminding the wild creature of the bond with me. It’s why my scent,
    having me close to you, calms you down.”
    “I got that, but the pheromones thing is just—”
    “The strongest cats will fight for the chance to be the one who mates
    with the nekhene, while those unworthy of mating will be rendered unfit.
    Turning them into panthers, forcing the change so that they are panthers
    and not human, would definitely render them unsuitable for you to mate
    with.”
    “I wouldn’t do that to Delphine or—”
    “Jin wouldn’t, Jin the reah wouldn’t, but the nekhene has no family,
    no friends. The nekhene sees only potential mates or potential enemies.”
    “But I’m a panther, too, why would