Honored Vow

their boxes.
    They did.
    When Dval Quach came for Logan, he placed iron shackles on his
    wrists and ankles. All his khatyu looked at me warily, feeling the hot,
    prickly power that swirled around me like stinging desert wind. Logan
    didn’t want to be restrained, but because I was calm, so was he. When
    they began leading him toward the grate, only then did he balk, struggling
    to see me, calling with a stuttering, whining purr. I moved forward and he
    stopped, and I saw the bullwhip then in the sheseru of Khertet’s hand.
    “No, please,” I begged him, moving between him and Logan.
    “He’s resisting, reah, he will be flogged.”
    “He just doesn’t understand,” I said, taking hold of the shackles,
    leading Logan toward the gate.
    Yusuke and Teresa both led their mates as well, and when we
    reached the open door, where I couldn’t go, I reached up and put my hands
    on Logan’s face.
    “I love you and I’ll see you in the morning, alright? You go eat
    something and sleep and wait to see me, okay?”

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    Mary Calmes

    He leaned forward and ran his chin over the top of my head, inhaling
    me deeply before he bent and licked up the side of my neck.
    Suddenly it was me who needed calming. I leaped at him, not caring
    that the robe fell away and I was naked, clutching at him, arms and legs
    holding tight.
    Claws dug into my buttocks; teeth grazed the cord in my throat as he
    purred loudly. I knew then that with each day, the parting would be worse,
    would get harder for both of us, and that that, too, was part of the test. It
    was a horrible thing, parting mates that mentally, physically, chemically,
    and emotionally were supposed to be together. Nothing intuitive about
    forced separation. It was obscene, and the nekhene in me didn’t like it.
    “Jin,” came Crane’s call.
    I lifted my head, and Logan snarled loudly.
    “No, no,” Crane soothed him, and I had no idea why he was in the
    pit. He went down on hands and knees and let his head drop down
    between his shoulder blades.
    Logan walked back over to him, knelt with my weight in his arms,
    and ran his nose up the back of Crane’s neck. And my best friend smelled
    like him, and me, and the others, and they were all scents Logan knew.
    When Crane sat up and then back on his knees, Logan knelt and put me in
    his arms. He then nuzzled my hair, gave me a low growl, rose quickly, and
    walked without a backward glance to the grate.
    After he was gone from sight, I turned to look at my friend’s face.
    “How did you know?”
    Crane took off his parka and wrapped me in it, since I was naked and
    starting to shiver. “He’s a semel, Jin, and since he claimed you, he’s not a
    wild creature anymore, he’s a werepanther. He gets that you’re his, and he
    wasn’t about to leave you in here unguarded.”
    “He could have killed you.”
    I got an indulgent smile. “I smell like you, Jin, and since he knows
    that you belong to him and that I belong to you—he’s okay with leaving
    you with me to care for.”
    “Shit, Crane, when did you start seeing things so different?” I said,
    slipping out of his arms to stand up.

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    He rose beside me. “When you took a chance on becoming a reah,”
    he told me, signaling for the others to come close.
    “Did you get permission to be down here?”
    “It’s over,” he told me, tipping his head at Yusuke and Teresa, who
    had both been engulfed by members of their entourage. “Now we gotta get
    you showered and warm.”
    “Yes, please,” I said as my legs went out from under me.
    And I didn’t want to lean on Crane, because he was still not 100
    percent healed himself.
    “Jin.”
    I turned to look at him.
    “I’m good,” he said, nodding.
    And all the emotion came flooding out of me as he shook his head
    before he grabbed me. As I felt the others around us, crushing us, pressing,
    holding tight, I gave up and let them care for me. For once.

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    Mary Calmes

    Chapter Fourteen

    IT WAS horrible. The tribe of Ariat, though very appreciative of my offer,
    wanted Amirah Fehr dead right then. It made sense that Orso Bataar
    owned an Iridium satellite phone, otherwise he would be truly out of touch
    with the rest of the werepanther world. His Internet connection was of
    similar origin but it hardly mattered to me. Only the judgment mattered.
    The tribe of Ariat didn’t want to see Amirah ever again, at least not alive.
    The semel, Terrance McCord’s brother, Angel McCord, wanted a