Trusted Bond

wave of crushing strength
    having driven even the semel-aten down to one knee.
    ―No,‖ Hamid cut him off. ―Your dominion over the reah ends now.
    He‘s mine.‖
    ―With your permission,‖ Roshan spoke up, he too on his knees on
    the cobblestones, ―this is a reah, and as such the semel-aten—‖
    ―First,‖ Hamid said, clipping his words, ―you forget yourself,
    sheseru. You do not speak to me. Only a semel may address me unless I
    invite otherwise.‖
    I watched Roshan swallow down the rebuke.
    ―Second,‖ Hamid almost hissed the word, ―this is not simply a reah,
    as his size alone gives testament to. We must ascertain his true nature, but
    it is certain that the semel-aten has no claim on him, as he is a mated reah.
    He should have been returned to his semel the moment it was learned to
    whom he belonged. You do not keep a mated reah from his mate! Look
    what you‘ve done with this decision!‖
    ―Your grace,‖ Ammon began, ―I—‖
    ―You have withheld the reah‘s mate, and see now what you have
    wrought in fear and desperation. Jin Rayne has changed in response to this
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    Mary Calmes

    forced separation, and we are now left with‖—he gestured at me—―a
    creature I will have to decide if I can allow to leave.‖
    Allow to leave? I felt a knot of fear twist in the pit of my stomach.
    ―No,‖ he said gently, warm brown eyes back on me. ―Wait, reah,
    wait and see before you grow cold with dread.‖
    But I was already terrified. This was it, this man—the end. If he said
    I was confined to Sobek, there was no one else to appeal to.
    ―Calm yourself, reah,‖ he soothed me, his hand on the back of my
    neck, his fingers digging into the muscles there, his scent, the strength that
    flowed off him, all of it blanketing me in peace. There was no confusing
    Ammon‘s power with Hamid‘s; the priest‘s power trumped all others. ―I
    mean you no harm.‖
    But he could take away everything from me.
    ―I will prove to you my word and take you now to your mate.‖
    Logan.
    ―If you change back for him, return to your true form, you are his to
    take from Sobek.‖
    Joy, hope, love… I was flooded with it and was undone. If I had
    been human I would have broken down sobbing, I was so happy. As it
    was, I stood in front of him trembling like a leaf in a stiff breeze.
    ―Oh, reah.‖ Hamid clutched at me, his knees buckling out from
    under him, only his hold on me keeping him upright.
    I was confused. Was my power a match for the priest of Chae
    Rophon? Was mine washing over him, driving through him, making him
    hold tight to me so he wouldn‘t drop to his knees? Surely not. There had to
    be some other explanation.
    ―I feel your joy.‖
    Everyone did, apparently.
    There were sounds from everywhere in the courtyard at once,
    laughing, giggling, gasps, squeals of delight, that welling up of feeling
    when your bottom lip quivers because you‘re filled with such trembling,
    overwhelming happiness. No one was unaffected.
    ―Reah,‖ the priest said as his eyes glistened with tears. ―You have no
    idea of your power, and I cannot say if you will ever return to your former
    self.‖
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    I had to, or I couldn‘t be with the man I loved.
    ―Now come, let us go and see Logan Church,‖ he announced
    shakily, dismissing everyone who stood near with a trembling wave of his
    hand. ―I find myself burning with curiosity to lay eyes on the man who has
    such a mate as you. Clear a path!‖
    The only men strong enough to walk with me were Hamid and
    Ammon, the priest and the semel.
    ―Come, Jin,‖ Hamid said, using my name, directing me.
    I wasn‘t fooled—I was a reah first and a man second, just as I was to
    Ammon. They both saw me as a thing, not a man, but for the priest, it was
    reverent. I was sacred.
    As we slowly made our way from the marketplace, he spoke gently,
    kindly, his voice low.
    ―You have shown yourself, by this transformation, to be more than a
    reah, Jin Rayne, and I do not believe that you will be able to change back
    into human form. This much power, I believe, would need to be burned
    off, used, before it could be directed, focused on bending to your will. You
    cannot channel it at the height it is now. You will have to calm before it‘s
    useful.‖
    He thought I was some mindless brute in the form I was now and
    that I would need to do something, fight, perform a task, to drain off the
    power so then, and only then, could I shift back to my true