Trusted Bond

you‘re making a mistake,‖ I said after we were all three
    walking again, Femi between us, holding onto both of our hands.
    ―What are you talking about?‖ she asked me.
    ―This kid of yours is pretty great, and she‘s warm and sweet. Your
    mother-in-law must be kinda great too. I don‘t think she wanted to keep
    your daughter from you; she just loves her and wants to be with her.
    Maybe you invite her here and see if she‘ll come. Then you‘ve got her
    here to babysit, and maybe she can thaw out your other kid.‖
    She tuned to look at me, scowling.
    I shrugged. ―It‘s just a thought.‖‘
    We were silent as we walked back to the semel‘s villa.

    THAT evening, I got to eat alone with Femi and her mother and her sister.
    It turned out that Catava was worried that I was her father‘s mate. She was
    scared of what that would mean for her mother, as well as for her and
    Femi. She and her mother‘s time spent with Amirah, even after the
    discovery that she was not Ammon‘s mate, had been hard. Apparently
    even though Amirah had been kind, Ammon‘s preferential treatment of his
    wosret had been hard to watch.
    Trusted Bond

    141

    Listening to Ebere, I realized that I had never given any thought to
    the children of a displaced yareah. I tended to look at the romantic side of
    a semel finding his true-mate and didn‘t consider the feelings of the yareah
    who had loved faithfully and long, only to be brushed aside at a moment‘s
    notice when eyes met eyes and given the new title of taurth, second-mate.
    After I explained to Catava about my semel, my true-mate, told her all
    about Logan Church, her relief was apparent. Ebere was shaken, having
    had no clue that her daughter harbored such concerns.
    When I was finally allowed to leave, to find my bed, I ran down the
    hall to my room and locked the door behind me. Not wanting to be
    disturbed, I stripped, shifted to panther form, and went outside through the
    gauzy curtain that led out onto the patio and beyond that to the yard. I
    slept on the grass beside the large acacia tree. It was dark there, and as I
    was black, it was impossible to see me. In the middle of the night, when I
    was awoken with noises coming from my room, I knew I had made the
    right choice.
    After several minutes, Ammon walked to the open doorway and
    stared out across the yard.
    ―Come, reah.‖
    Like I was a dog.
    He waited, and I just stared. Without a light, without being in his
    shifted form, there was no way for the man to see me.
    ―I sense your presence, reah.‖
    I was silent and still.
    ―You will answer for this disobedience, reah.‖
    But how could he make me? Would he report to the others that I had
    not been in my room when he snuck into it in the middle of the night to
    accost me? And what reason would he give for being there? I had him;
    there was nothing he could do.
    ―How long can you go without seeing your mate, reah? Even now
    your mind frays. I know it does, I feel it.‖
    I swallowed down the desire to streak across the lawn and eviscerate
    him, to gut him like a fish and watch his entrails spill out. The animal in
    me wanted that badly.
    ―I don‘t want your heart, reah; I simply want to taste you. I have
    never been with a man, though I have harbored the desire, but you… as
    you are a man but also a reah… you have only to submit, and your
    freedom is yours. You will be allowed to return to your mate. Is your body
    142

    Mary Calmes

    so sacred that one night would matter? Have there not been others but
    your mate?‖
    There had been others before Logan Church, but there would never
    be another after him. The man was my mate. I wanted only him.
    ―I don‘t want to claim you, reah. I will place no mark on you. I just
    want to fuck you,‖ he said, chuckling smugly. He got off on the idea of
    exercising his power over me, and I hated him for it. ―And I can keep you
    here behind these walls until you comply.‖
    He could keep me from Logan forever.
    I felt every beat of my heart.
    ―And don‘t think to speak to my sympathetic yareah or my children
    or my sheseru. They are all off-limits to you as of now. You will see only
    those I deem appropriate. You are mine to do with as I will, reah, until
    such time as you willingly submit.‖
    I heard his sharp exhale of breath.
    ―I will take you in your bed on your hands and knees.‖
    I shivered with revulsion.
    ―Think on your choices, reah, for they are few.‖
    He turned and walked back into the