Honored Vow

couldn’t turn to my own werepanther
    form and fight if I was cornered by anyone that wasn’t my semel. The
    only form that we, as mates, could take as monsters descended on us was
    human. To disregard any rule was instant death for the semel and his mate.
    I ran to the side and saw Yusuke do the same, putting a brazier
    between any werepanther and her. My brain screamed at me to shift, the
    nekhene sensing danger and flooding my senses with adrenaline, ready to
    attack. I looked for Logan and saw him running fast, sniffing the air,
    searching for me. He had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. He
    had been a panther for two months, living as an animal, eating as one,
    been caged, beaten, run, and hunted. He had been tortured by Amirah,
    tantalized with her closeness, and then, finally, minutes ago, had been
    ordered into his werepanther form and released into the arena. I had no
    idea if he was even sane. Only my faith in him as my mate, as a man, kept
    me on my feet.
    The first yareah killed was Juliet. She went to her knees, arms open
    to receive her mate, only to scream seconds later as his claws closed on
    her throat and punctured her jugular. I had never seen so much blood. Her
    mate, Wallace, drank some of it before running toward Amirah. She

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    Mary Calmes

    received him joyfully as he tore the robe from her body. I looked away
    before the final violation of faith and trust between him and his dead
    yareah was committed.
    Kushi Oyuun was next, her mate tackling her to the ground, shifting
    to panther as he mauled her. I looked away, her screams dying fast as she
    drowned in her own blood.
    Logan was circling Amirah and Wallace, not sure if he should fight
    the other semel for the reah or not. She called to him, arms out, but he
    stepped back, lifting his head, looking, inhaling deeply, unsure.
    Calling him would be a mistake, and I knew that. Words were
    meaningless, and adding my pheromones to the already saturated-with-
    adrenaline and sweat-scented arena would only confuse him. Running
    would draw others, so I waited and made myself small.
    Logan’s presence was too distracting for Wallace, and he turned
    from Amirah and launched himself at my mate in a frenzy of tooth and
    claw. The two semels went down in a tangle of snapping jaws and
    bloodlust, and I followed them before my attention was drawn to Katrina
    as she ran by them, sobbing.
    She flew toward Amirah, who had been shoved up against a wall by
    another semel who was preparing to bury his cock in her. When she
    reached him, she leaped, but he caught her in mid-arch, savagely grasping
    her face, twisting it sharply, snapping her neck like a doll’s. She was dead
    before she hit the floor.
    Another semel leaped at Katrina’s mate, hurling him to the ground
    before he lunged at Amirah, who was laughing.
    “No!” Yusuke yelled. “I forbid it! Narae Hiroshi, remember who you
    are!”
    His head turned, and he ran at her. I saw her change her stance,
    prepare to defend herself, but my vision was suddenly blocked by a huge
    werepanther towering over me.
    It was a dream. Everything had all happened so fast, the entire scene
    playing out in minutes; all the savagery and carnage had become a blur.
    As the clawed hand shoved me back, lifting at the same time, I found
    myself pinned against the wall, held immobile several feet off the ground.
    “No,” I growled, and the nekhene in me braced for battle.

    Honored Vow

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    There was a loud roar of warning, and before I could process the
    motion, I was on the ground, dropped hard, confused for a second as I was
    grabbed a second time and slammed into the stone wall, the impact
    rendering me breathless with pain.
    The rock cut into my back, and my vision swam as every gasp of air
    was torn from my chest. As I was still reeling from the first attack, I
    wasn’t able to respond like I wanted to the panther/man hybrid who held
    me immobile in his grip.
    “Come to me!” Amirah screamed at the semel who had released me
    as well as the one who was holding me now.
    But she wasn’t getting the one who was looking at me hungrily;
    never would she claim what was mine.
    I coughed, my lungs on fire, as I focused my eyes on the man I
    loved.
    In his werepanther form, Logan Church was still beautiful. He was
    covered from head to toe in fine gold fur. His face was larger; all of him
    was huge and massive, his head that of a panther, with ears flattened back,
    eyes, nose, and mouth transformed to