Trusted Bond

my side. My T-shirt was wet, and it was cold here.
    Colder than anywhere I was familiar with could have been in the middle
    of summer. The air smelled like dirt and fresh-cut flowers. My head was
    pounding, and when I went to touch it, there was a bump over my left
    eyebrow that hurt even when I merely brushed my fingers over it. I
    wondered how late it was even as I started to panic about Logan and
    where and how he was.
    ―Hello?‖ I called out, but my voice was gone. I cleared my throat
    and tried again, but still it was like I had laryngitis or something. ―Shit.‖
    I really wanted to get up, but when I tried to move, I could barely
    breathe. I lay back down and waited. I must have fallen asleep.
    When I woke up, I was really thirsty. My body was used to taking in
    a lot of water, and I never waited until I needed it, I just guzzled it all day
    long. That I felt like I had to drink was not a good sign. It was still pitch
    black wherever I was, and the weird smell was still there.
    ―Jin.‖
    I couldn‘t see him, but I knew the voice, remembered the voice. I sat
    up, wincing, and did my best not to make any more noise. ―Laurent.
    What‘s going on?‖
    ―What do you think?‖
    ―I dunno. You tell me.‖
    Trusted Bond

    79

    ―I took you from that semel.‖
    And I had my mouth open to scream back at him that he had taken
    me from my mate, had taken me from my home, when I hesitated. Even
    though the venom was roaring through me, I swallowed it down, the strain
    making my eyes water. ―Do you know Logan Church?‖ I rasped, my body
    trembling.
    ―No, I don‘t know him. He‘s just another in a long line of conquests,
    I‘m sure. Just another semel enamored with having a reah on his land.‖
    He had no clue that Logan Church was my mate, and if I told him…
    it would be a mistake. It was one thing to remove an unmated reah from
    another‘s territory; it was a death sentence to kidnap the mate of a semel.
    Laurent Bruyere had no idea what he‘d done, but he would if I made it out
    alive. When ….
    ―The point is that I found you,‖ he almost snarled at me. ―After
    searching for more than two years… I finally found you. That stupid aset
    of Logan Church‘s tribe… she was talking about some girl and Crane‖—
    he drew my best friend‘s name out—―Crane…. I knew if I found him I‘d
    find you, and I did… I so did.‖
    I had to be very careful. If he found out that Logan was my mate, I
    was done. No matter how far gone I thought he was, his survival instinct
    would kick in. He was an animal, after all. And I had no idea how he had
    missed my mark, the one that told every other werepanther that I was a
    mated reah, the scar at the top of my spine, but he had and I was thankful.
    My hair was thick and long and a lot of it had to be moved aside and it
    was dark and unless he was looking…but still it was there, Logan‘s brand
    on my flesh. If it stayed my secret I would be thankful.
    I cleared my throat. ―So what now?‖
    ―I think you know.‖
    ―No. If I did I wouldn‘t ask.‖
    ―I want you to come back.‖
    ―Oh.‖ I coughed because my throat really hurt. It felt bruised, like I
    had been choked. ―What about your yareah?‖
    ―She‘s gone.‖
    ―Okay. Where did she—‖
    ―There was an accident. She‘s dead.‖
    But how , was the question. Had he done it, killed his own yareah?
    80

    Mary Calmes

    ―I know she hurt you.‖
    He had hurt me with his betrayal. Her response was understandable.
    Once upon a time, I had thought, even though he was not my mate,
    that Laurent Bruyere, the semel of the tribe of Dendera, was the man I
    would spend my life with. But when his yareah had returned home from
    her summer away and I had learned that everything he had said to me was
    a lie, my vision of the future had changed.
    I had been in bed with the man one moment, flat on my back on the
    floor a second later. Having had no idea that he was mated, the sense of
    betrayal had been first, humiliation following, and finally terror as the
    punishment of the yareah was handed down. I had to prove my claim,
    confirm to her I was a reah, and she wanted me in werepanther form. She
    wanted to see what sort of pain could be inflicted on me in that state. And
    it was her right. I had violated her bond with her mate, and I was not his
    reah. If I was his true-mate, I would have taken her place at his side, and
    she would have become his second mate or taurth. But as I was not his
    mate, she