Honored Vow

no one
    else should or could know.

    Honored Vow

    191

    “Just wait,” Domin said, and we all heard the creak of the cell door
    as he came inside with my mate and me.
    Logan’s roar of outrage as he turned and charged his maahes was
    horrible.
    I yelled for Domin to run.
    The priest screamed.
    Hundreds of voices overlapped, and I caught Yuri’s in the mix, the
    terror hard to hear. But Domin only went to his knees and tipped his neck
    sideways, offering.
    Logan reached him, and there were screams from the assembled
    crowd, but he only grasped Domin’s shoulder hard, tight, put claws deep
    into it, embedded, and bent his mouth to the vulnerable flesh. I held my
    breath and then took one when everyone else did as only my mate’s nose
    grazed over Domin’s skin.
    He breathed in the scent of his maahes, and Domin lifted his hands
    and put them on Logan’s face.
    “Your control, semel-netjer, is greater than any of these people can
    even guess. You and I, how many times have we done this, practiced this,
    knowing as we did that this day would come?”
    They had? When had Logan and Domin become so close? How had
    I missed it? Maybe, just maybe, Domin leaving the house had hurt Logan
    more than he told anyone, even me. Maybe he was angrier at Koren than
    any of us knew for driving away not only his friend but the prince of his
    tribe.
    Logan turned his head and pressed his nose into Domin’s palm.
    “Go to Yuri, Jin.”
    I stood and moved toward them.
    “Don’t touch either of us,” he ordered me.
    And even though I wanted to, I knew that reaching for Logan would
    serve no one, especially not my mate. I needed to go.
    When I walked through the cell door, Yuri was there to receive me
    with a heavy wool blanket that he wrapped me up in from head to toe.
    “Fuck,” he groaned, rubbing my arms, my back, tightening the
    blanket around my neck. “You scared the shit outta me.”
    I turned to look back in the cell and saw Domin rise, leaving Logan
    on his knees, head lowered, in pain, I could tell.

    192

    Mary Calmes

    He wanted to be a man, not a beast, and it was slowly tearing his
    heart out of his chest.
    I felt tears well up hot behind my eyes as I took several deep breaths.
    Logan was on his feet fast, not chasing Domin but rushing to where I
    was. He thrust a clawed hand out toward me through the bars, reaching,
    grasping, and pressing as hard as he could, trying to get hold of me.
    I had to go.
    “No,” Crane warned me, barring my path as Logan screamed out his
    rage.
    The nekhene did not understand, and I felt my skin flush with heat as
    the power rose. I needed to get to my mate. Had to.
    Yuri’s hands tightened on me so I couldn’t move.
    “Listen to me.” Crane’s voice washed over me right before I started
    to shift.
    My head tipped up, and all I saw was blue.
    “Soothe him, he’s your mate, my reah. Give him solace, not pain.”
    Solace.
    Love.
    I stepped around him and looked into the tortured eyes of my mate.
    He looked wild and hurt and angry, in a frenzy now, bashing himself
    against the bars with his need to claim what was his, have what was his
    right beside him, wrapped around him.
    He would tear himself apart trying to shove flesh through metal.
    Reah.
    I belonged to my semel; I was his true-mate, and even as I let the
    love I felt for the man flow out of me, thought of how much he meant to
    me, my touchstone, I watched his struggle subside, saw the gentle calm
    creep over him, engulf him, and give him peace. His melted-gold eyes
    closed, and I could hear him take a last heaving breath before he took a
    step back from the bars, shivering hard.
    My mate was my other half, and while that was beautiful, it was also
    terrifying, because we had so much sway over each other that it bordered
    on a control that could be crippling if misused. He was strong and virile
    and proud, and I could reduce him to a shattered husk if I wanted.
    And he could do the same to me.
    “Jin.”

    Honored Vow

    193

    I turned my own wounded eyes to the priest as he closed in on me.
    “I apologize for insisting that you and your mate take part in the
    sepat, for to inflict a forced separation on true-mates is cruel. I forgot what
    enduring it looked like on both of you and had thought only to have the
    semel-netjer as semel-aten when I spoke Logan’s name to the council of
    Ennead. Forgive me.”
    But I couldn’t do it with my heart breaking. “You asked earlier for a
    name, and I tell you now that Taj