Trusted Bond

But in this case it
    would answer the question quite quickly. ―Are you kidding?‖
    ―Well I––‖
    ―It‘s just not done and besides there‘s so much blood that I just don‘t
    think we should move her at all.‖
    ―Yeah, sure but maybe we should tell—‖
    ―Boys!‖
    I tensed, the yell running through my body, shattering my frayed and
    raw nerves.
    ―We didn‘t touch her,‖ Hashim defended himself and his friend
    Christopher, and I heard him moving, felt the dust rise up and coat my fur
    as his change of position stirred the dirt. ―We just kept watch,‖ he
    stammered out.
    ―Oh crap, look,‖ Chris said shakily. ―That‘s your sheseru, right?‖
    ―Yes, I knew he was coming to see my father, I just didn‘t remember
    that he was visiting today.‖ Hashim took another shaky breath.
    Sheseru.
    ―He scares me.‖
    There was a sheseru close by.
    ―He scares everybody, it‘s not just you.‖
    I tried to open my eyes, but there was just no possible way.
    ―Shit.‖
    ―Dad, she‘s here! I—‖
    ―Don‘t yell,‖ another voice commanded softly. ―We do not want to
    scare the poor creature. If she is hurt enough to lie so still, we know her
    injuries are grave. Let‘s try not to frighten or disturb her in any way.‖
    Before anything else, a sheseru was the guardian of a reah. If the
    tribe had no reah, a sheseru would protect their yareah, but they would
    never feel truly fulfilled. All I had to do was let the approaching man
    know what I was, and he would be inexorably drawn to my side.
    Trusted Bond

    97

    ―Is that blood?‖
    Concentrating, I purged every thought in my head but one.
    Save me.
    I never used my pheromones to draw anyone but Logan. I never
    filled the air with my scent, never rippled the space around me with heat
    and need, and never, ever sent out a call for any but my mate. I had never
    needed to before. Even years ago, when I had been beaten and tortured by
    my own tribe, even then, as I had been too young, I had not used the
    power of a reah to serve my own desire. But I wanted to live. I wanted
    Logan. And that craven hunger translated into an aching, devouring
    appeal.
    His roar tore through me, and I heard everyone yelling at once.
    ―Roshan, what is it? What‘s—‖
    ―Silence!‖ he hissed, raw with anger.
    It felt as though booming thunder rolled through me, and I knew,
    without benefit of looking, that I was in the presence of the strongest
    sheseru I had ever met. I felt almost a caress of soothing power, the slide
    of another animal at my side, silky fur that I would have sworn I could feel
    under my own pelt, smoothing instead over my bare skin, a cool, gentle
    touch.
    ―How can this be?‖ His voice broke before he caught his breath, his
    hand running slowly down my back.
    I tensed under the tender pressure.
    ―Oh no,‖ he panted. ―No, no, no… I would never harm you. I would
    put out my own eyes before I ever caused you even a moment of pain.‖
    ―Bring a blanket!‖ someone else yelled.
    ―Hashim Ben-Yossef, you and your friend will be rewarded. You
    will appear before your semel at his villa in a week‘s time.‖ He took a
    deep breath. ―However did you find her?‖
    ―Who, my sheseru?‖ the boy asked reverently.
    ―The reah.‖
    Quick indrawn breaths from both boys. ―This cat is a reah?‖
    ―Indeed she is,‖ he said, and I heard the deep shiver in his voice.
    ―The second one I have been so blessed to see.‖
    98

    Mary Calmes

    Everything tilted suddenly, and I was aware of being lifted, wrapped
    up, and crushed against a wall of solid heat.
    ―I will never allow anyone to hurt you again, my reah.‖
    That fast, I was his reah.
    I had reached out to him and called. He had succumbed to his basest
    nature, to the tie that a sheseru and a reah shared, one of warmth and need
    on the reah‘s part, safety and protection on the part of the sheseru. First
    even before enforcer of his leader, it was a sheseru‘s place to be guardian
    of his lord and master‘s greatest prize… his mate. I had simply imbued his
    instinct with my need.
    I was carried in his arms, held close to his heart. ―I will find the men
    responsible for this ruin, my reah, and they will die howling in the pit.‖
    It was Yuri‘s place to punish, not his, but I could not correct him at
    that moment. I couldn‘t even speak.
    ―How were you allowed to be taken, my reah? Whose failing
    allowed you to be stolen from the side of your mate?‖
    I wanted to shift