Trusted Bond

mate. ―He‘s going to kill
    Laurent if they let him near him.‖
    ―Jin, could you just—‖
    ―Logan,‖ my voice cracked. ―Call him!‖
    He lifted his cheek from where it was pressed to mine, turned, and
    yelled for his sheseru.
    Yuri let out a roar of frustration before he was there beside his
    semel. I reached for him, grabbing hold of his shirt, tugging on him.
    ―I won‘t move,‖ he snapped at me.
    ―Yuri.‖ I whispered his name.
    He growled but stepped closer so my hand could fist on the collar
    and hold tight.
    I tugged on him, trying to get him closer, tightening my grip.
    ―I‘ll kill him!‖
    ―No,‖ my mate, my semel, said flatly. ― I will kill him.‖
    Held in Logan‘s arms with everyone else close and safe, I finally felt
    like I could breathe.
    ―That enough fuckin‘ closure for you?‖ Crane glowered at me.
    Leave it to my best friend to put everything in perspective.

    208

    Mary Calmes

    Chapter 15

    IT WAS huge. The pit in Sobek was built like a coliseum, as they all were
    to some extent, with terraced stone seating and steep stairs that went from
    the floor to the top tier. But whereas other fighting pits I had seen, even
    the one on Logan‘s land, were the size of a large amphitheater on a college
    campus somewhere, the one that sat on the land of the semel-aten
    reminded me more of a football stadium. The structure I was looking at
    could easily hold seventy thousand people. And while it was nowhere near
    as large as the Roman Coliseum, it was still the largest fighting arena I had
    ever been in.
    I was in awe. I had walked with Logan through the underground
    tunnels and the maze of rooms where the combatants were housed and so
    had emerged from the shaded exterior into the bright light of day. I had
    wanted to stay with him until he was called, but he had insisted that I be
    seated before the challenge began. He wanted me to watch. He needed to
    know that my eyes were on him.
    The feast had been going on for two full weeks while I had been
    taken, and as such, many of the challenges had already been fought and
    decided. Normally the challenges of semels would have been concluded
    by now, as they were the first ones to duel, but as my whereabouts could
    not be proven nor the responsible party confirmed, Logan‘s challenge, as
    well as those of his house, had to wait. But now, as I had finally been able
    to give my account, Logan‘s, as well as Yuri‘s and Crane‘s, were the first
    challenges of the day.
    Sitting with Delphine on my right and Mikhail on my left, I tried to
    keep breathing for their sake as the large wooden doors swung open to
    reveal my mate.
    Trusted Bond

    209

    Logan strode forward across the dirt floor to stand at the center of
    the fighting field. Laurent Bruyere had entered from the opposite
    direction. As the two panthers squared off, no one could miss the
    difference in their sizes.
    It was unlawful to fight in any form but panther in the pit. There
    were no weapons allowed, and sometimes, as semels had to face others
    who could not shift into the true werepanther form, half-man, half-beast,
    standing on two legs, only the shape that every cat had was allowed. When
    Domin had been fighting me in the pit and had shifted into his
    werepanther form, at that point the challenge would have been forfeit if
    his tribe had not cheated. In the pit, the only competitors anyone was ever
    supposed to see were panthers.
    Compared to Logan Church, Laurent Bruyere looked like a
    malnourished mountain lion. He was small; there was no breadth of
    shoulder or chest, no sleek bulging muscles rippling under golden fur. He
    was out-muscled, out-sized, and out-classed. He was dead, and everyone
    knew it. I had a moment of sympathy a second before the priest began
    reading the reasons for the menthuel, or honor challenge.
    I had been granted the choice of telling my story to the priest in
    private or to all the assembled spectators in the coliseum. I had chosen to
    list the grievances to just the priest, the two of us meeting in the roof
    garden alone with only a scribe there with us after I had finished seeing
    Laurent earlier in the day. I spoke flatly without any emotion, as it
    seemed, still, like it had almost happened to someone else. I knew I was in
    denial, knew that the trauma was going to visit me again, but at present, I
    was sort of numb to the entire horror. The priest‘s face showed that he was
    not. Now, under the scorching afternoon sun, as he recited