Honored Vow

bond between—”
    “It’s supposed to be this beautiful thing, right? But what they don’t
    tell you is that the bond between true-mates is rough if they’re separated,
    if one of them dies…. Right now Logan is slowly going out of his mind.
    He can see Jin, smell him, even taste his scent, but he’s not allowed to
    touch him or talk to him. It’s like sensory deprivation.”
    “Oh.” Danny looked over at me sadly.
    “You don’t know, but Jin—he needs Logan too. His tension level is
    just rising every day, it’s continual, and pretty soon the running and all the
    things he’s doing to externally defuse it aren’t going to work. We need
    them back together before one of them caves.”
    Danny went very still. “Who do you think it will be? Jin or—”
    “Logan,” Mikhail assured him. “If this sepat goes on even one more
    day—he’s ready to break, and if he does, the tribe is done, but it won’t
    matter to him anymore, because for a moment, before he’s destroyed, he’ll
    have his mate.”
    “Shit, it’s cold,” Crane groused as he came in, the others trailing
    behind him.
    I watched them all shed their jackets and boots, watched Yuri feed
    the stove coal and Domin sit down, rubbing his hands together.
    “Come here,” he said, gesturing to me. “I wanna see you.”
    I stayed where I was, eyes narrowed.
    “Please, Jin.”
    But I couldn’t move. Everything hurt, inside and out. I was raw and
    vulnerable, and the only man in existence that I needed was my mate.
    “Jin,” Yuri said, soothing me with his voice, “you want to lie down
    by me?”
    I got to my feet and moved away, toward the door. My panic started
    to rise, flickering low but constant.
    “Shit,” Taj said under his breath, turning to Yuri. “Make him heed
    you, sheseru.”

    216

    Mary Calmes

    “Jin,” he called me. “Come.”
    Fuck. Him. I was not a dog.
    “Just… everybody,” Crane grumbled, clearly annoyed, flopping
    down, lying on his side, shivering hard. “Fuck, I’m freezing.”
    I was across the room to him so fast it could not be followed by the
    naked eye, and the catches of breath, gasps, and whispers told me that I
    was scaring the hell out of everybody. I didn’t belong with them inside.
    Nekhene cats belonged—
    “Oh, that’s better, huh?” Crane yawned, not touching me, just lying
    close, stretching languidly. “Hey, remember that time in Yuma when you
    fell out of that tree? Badass stealthy panther, my ass,” he scoffed,
    chuckling.
    What? Why was he—
    “Or when we were supposed to be all stalkery when we were
    working as detectives in Nashville, and you fell through the skylight into
    that guy’s apartment?” He was laughing now.
    I turned my head to look down at him, and he was smiling so big
    before he lifted his fingers to scratch under my chin.
    “Remember that time we were waiters in San Antonio and you
    tripped over the side down by the River Walk?” He was amusing the hell
    out of himself.
    Why were we taking a trip down memory lane? And the man was
    forgetting a lot of times when he had been the one… to….
    And then I understood, because I had been reminded, in a very
    roundabout way, that I was a man, apparently a very klutzy man on
    occasion, but a man nonetheless. I was not a wild panther. I was the best
    friend of the annoying ass lying beside me.
    He washed normal all over me. I put my head down on my paws and
    listened to the husky, deep sound of his voice.
    Yuri crawled across the floor and stretched out close, head propped
    up on his palm, looking at me. “Tell me the stupidest job you guys ever
    had,” he prodded Crane.
    “We tried to be ranch hands.”
    Yuri snorted out a laugh. “You and him?” He pointed at me. “The
    guy who has to ride with Logan because he falls off otherwise?”
    Crane snickered. “Yeah, just try and picture it.”

    Honored Vow

    217

    I growled, which sent Yuri into a fit of coughing, before I stood up,
    stepped over Crane, and lay down on the other side of my best friend,
    nuzzling my nose into the back of his hair.
    I was hiding, and I knew that, but I just needed quiet and alone but
    warmth too. I needed Logan. I craved the shelter he provided, the strength.
    I wanted my mate, and even though the following day was the trial of the
    heart, I couldn’t wait, because at least I would see him. As my eyes closed,
    I could still hear Yuri and Crane talking, as well as the others. They all
    wanted to be close to me, and while I