by Mary Calmes
“Yes, only another semel could hope to challenge Logan in the pit.”
“Sure, but what if another semel wanted you or Crane or Delphine or Danny? By law, they could challenge Logan until he acquired a new seat by challenging another semel of a menhed tribe.” He gently patted my hand on his arm. “I’m sorry Andrian’s dead. He was a good man, a good friend, and I will offer my protection to his mate, but Jin, I truly doubt that he would be any more alive if Logan had stepped down, and he had to wait.”
I knew that now. It was why Logan had told Domin to hurry.
“The law is antiquated in so many ways,” Yuri said, almost sadly. “But it provides great structure as well. At least that’s what you always told me.”
“Did I?”
He nodded. “Every time I railed against it.”
“You must have found me tedious.”
“Come on, Jin. You know I worship the ground you walk on. We all do.”
I snorted. “Maybe you do. Everyone else sees my faults before anything else.”
“Hardly.”
We walked some more, and then Yuri chuckled.
“What’s funny?”
“Christophe is back there finally getting to take members away from the tribe of Mafdet. He’s been waiting years for the opportunity to steal something from Logan.”
“No, they’re friends now.”
“Oh, they were always friends,” he professed, “just the competitive kind. You can’t help that with semels, and this being, simply by geography, one of those places with several tribes clustered together, territories overlapping, you have semels in constant competition with one another for resources.”
“Yeah, but, it’s not Logan’s tribe anymore.”
“I know, and that probably galls him a little, but not enough to not want to take people from the tribe.”
“It’s nice of Christophe to offer, though.”
Yuri nodded. “It is. I mean, not everyone wants to follow Logan to Sobek, but neither do they want to stay in a tribe that they’ll never know who’s running it.”
“Won’t that be the same for the tribe of Rahotep?”
“But it’s always been that way for them. It’s one of those ironic things, that the first tribe has never been a nebu tribe. They’ve always been ruled by the strongest semel.”
“Yeah.”
“But now it’s different. When Logan becomes semel-aten, who in their right mind would challenge him? He’s so strong, and then someday when Ilia’s ready to step into his father’s role, again, where will you find the werepanther to challenge the heir of the only semel-netjer and the only nekhene cat in existence?”
I smiled up at him. “So I guess it will be Logan’s tribe, truly, for the first time. His father will have had nothing to do with it at all.”
Yuri grunted. “And that’s sad in a way, because there’s tradition here, and all of that, but Jin, how much does that really matter? The entirety of the Church claim to the tribe of Mafdet is land on a mountain, a glassworks, and a big-ass house. It’s the people who you fight for and live with. It’s your family and friends who make your home.”
I squinted at him. “I’ve been told that a lot lately.”
He shrugged. “Maybe you should start listening, huh?”
Perhaps it was time.
YURI WAS cooking, well, grilling, and Eva was chatting with him about Sobek.
“When we found out that Logan was going to be in that first sepat, I was leery about moving to Egypt because I was certain he’d win,” she confessed as he cooked steaks and boneless chicken breasts on the enormous outdoor barbecue. “I was so relieved when I found out that Domin would be semel-aten instead.”
“And now?” Yuri asked, glancing at her over his shoulder.
“Now, with your mother there, and two of my children and my grandson and soon-to-be newest addition… I think I’m ready.”
His grin was warm. “I’m glad. Mikhail will be in heaven to have some of your cooking. You know him. He’s very… traditional… in his eating habits.”
“He’s picky, is what he is,” she said with a chuckle. “But I have missed cooking for both of you, as well as Domin. I can’t wait to do so again.”
She loved with food, so Yuri understood what she was saying.
“I wish you had been in time to save Andrian,” she finished quietly.
“I do too,” Yuri sighed. “We came as soon as we could.”
“Of course you did, you were coming for Logan and Jin, after all.”
She was right. My family had been broken up six, almost seven years ago now, when Domin became semel-aten, but the bonds remained just as tight.
“I can’t wait to see Mikhail and Samani’s children,” Eva sighed. “They’re so beautiful when we do the Skype thing.”
Yuri seemed very pleased. “I’m looking forward to having Ilia, and Crane and Yusuke’s girls, and now Dmitri all there, plus Mikhail’s twins. We’ll have children in the palace when we come home, and that will be wonderful.”
“Do you want your own, Yuri?”
He thought about the question a moment. “I would if Domin and I were at home, but not with the traveling we do. And I realize that while we’re flying all over the world, Domin needs me at his side completely focused on him.” His gaze met mine. “It’s a powerful thing to be so needed, and I find that it suits me.”
It always had.
Ilia wanted to help Yuri cook, and Yuri was more than happy to have his first minion. I excused myself and went upstairs and stopped outside the door of Danny and Justin’s room. Since I heard nothing, I poked my head in just to make sure they were both still breathing.
The room reeked of sex and pheromones, and Danny was on his side being spooned by the much bigger, more muscular semel of the tribe of Qebui. Not only was Justin hugging Danny to him, but his face was pressed into the back of Danny’s hair. When I saw my cousin’s big brown eyes flutter open, I waited.
When I first met him, I’d thought not only that he was a carbon copy of me, but also that our temperaments and knowledge were similar. What I’d missed was that my father had Danny dye his hair jet black like mine, and that the real color was a deep, dark brown like his eyes. My father had wanted a new me and had one for a little while. But in the end, Mitchell Rayne had been disappointed with us both. Even though Danny was much more logical and introverted than I was, he also could not let Logan Church be hurt and so had stepped in to see to his safety when saying nothing would have left him on solid ground with my father and his tribe. He’d leaped to help my mate, and from then on, I’d felt differently toward him, familial, warm.
And now he was the little spoon to one of Logan’s dearest friends, the closest after Domin Thorne, and from the sprinkling of blood I saw, and more drying on his shoulder, I knew that Danny had begged for and been given the semel’s bite. It was supposed to be reserved for semels and reahs—it was generally believed that only the strongest of normal cats could accept the mating bite of a semel, but as long as the semel was careful, it could still be given. The difference was that, from a semel to a reah, it scarred. Under layers of fur when I was an animal, on the back of my neck when I was human, the mark was there. Danny’s would scar eventually if given daily, as Yuri’s had, but it looked like a wound, not like the bite of the tribe leader. Still, though, seeing Danny smile as his eyes drifted closed, watching him nestle back against Justin, who curled his arm across Danny’s collarbone, let me know I was looking at a mated pair.
When I turned around after closing the door behind me, I was surprised to find Logan there.
“Hey.”
“Everything okay in there?”
“Fine.”
“I smell blood, though.”
“You smell more sex than blood.”
“Do I?” He stepped closer, and only then did I realize that he was trembling, pupils blown and breathing heavily.
“What’s wrong?”
“I renounced my place in th
e tribe I was born into.”
“Yes,” I agreed, exhaling, moving into his space, loving the smell of the wind on him, the sun, sweat, and soap, and underneath it all, me. He always smelled just a little like me because we shared a bed, and I was all over him every single day of his life. Oh, I needed to touch him.
“I feel—” he began, then stopped.
I put my hand on his chest and felt how hard his heart was pounding. “Close your eyes.”
He took a quick breath but did as I ordered.
If I lived a thousand years, there would never come a time when I didn’t appreciate the beauty of my mate. He was my golden man, and it was my responsibility to make sure he realized his value, inside and out. It fell to me, the telling, the assuring, because I was the only one he truly believed, down inside his soul where it mattered.
“You know when you told me years ago that all you ever wanted to do was to rule a small tribe and take care of people?”
“Yes,” he murmured.
“You’re finally getting your wish.”
He opened both his mouth to speak and his eyes to see me.
“No,” I directed, chuckling, hands on his hips, bumping him, rubbing my cheek and then chin over his hard pectorals, scent marking him, wanting everyone to know he was mine. “Listen to me, semel-netjer, semel-aten. This is all going to work out as it should, with you leading the tribe you were always destined for.”
“Destined?” he teased, his eyes narrowing to slits as he bent and kissed up from where my neck and shoulder met to my ear.
“Yes. And you’ll show your new tribe what it’s like to be loved by Logan Church, because for the first time in years, you’ll have no worries.”
“How’s that?” he asked absently, nibbling along my jaw.
I shivered under his hands, one sliding up under my shirt, rubbing slow circles on my skin, the other with gentle pressure on my chin, tipping it to bare my throat for him. “You’re the best man, Logan Church, and with me there, loving you, and everyone accepting your son and his gifts, I have no doubt that you’ll be all that they ever dreamed of in a semel-aten.”
“You have such faith,” he said, his voice hoarse as he bent and kissed me.
I opened for his tongue, wanting to taste him, and he wrapped me in his arms, clutching tight, the languorous mauling beginning a chain reaction of aching need that only he could sate.
He lifted me off my feet, and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he walked me down the hall to the bedroom I’d slept in the night before and closed the door behind us. I arched in his grip as he cupped my ass, and we tumbled together onto the bed.
I was on top, and when he tried to move, to roll me to my back, I leaned over and sealed my lips to his, kissing him deep, sucking on his tongue, wanting more.
“I need—Jin,” he growled.
Leaning sideways, I reached into the nightstand drawer and retrieved the small bottle of lube, dropped it onto the bed beside him, and then returned to my exploration of his mouth.
I couldn’t stop, he tasted so good, and the kisses, one after another, made me forget everything but him. When he rolled me to my back, I moved easily, pliant and willing, and when he told me to take my clothes off, I complied as fast as I could.
“Logan,” I gasped when he pinned me beneath his warm, naked body, his skin sleek and hot everywhere I touched.
“My beautiful mate,” he crooned, and I heard the snap of the bottle before his slippery fingers slid inside me.
I jolted in his arms, biting down on his bottom lip as he continued to plunder my mouth, all the while he scissored and rubbed, working my ass, opening me up, stretching me with slow, intimate circles that drove me wild.
“Come inside,” I begged, my moan sounding strangled as he rose over me, curled forward, and slid home.
“Fuck,” he moaned as I rolled to my side, straightened out my left leg and lifted it to his shoulder.
It was a favorite position because he could pump into me as I jerked myself off while he watched. He loved to watch.
“You’re so beautiful,” he told me before he grabbed under my thighs and spread me open wide. “My reah.”
What started out slow and sensual would end with him pounding me into the mattress, and I was more than ready.
“Hurry,” I demanded, and he began the relentless thrusting he knew I loved.
“God, I missed you,” he murmured, coming down on top of me, hands framing my face, staring at me, eyes soft as I was admired, adored, before he took my mouth.
Logan pushing deep, skin to skin with me, the fluid roll of his hips as he drove inside, kissing me all the while, was more than I could hope to resist. I came without warning, hard and blinding, arching beneath him.
“Fuck, Jin,” he roared, shivering in my arms with his climax, my muscles clenching around him as he fucked me through his orgasm and mine.
We stayed locked together for several long minutes after the orgasm faded, breathing hard and trembling. The knock on the door was a surprise, even more so that it opened. I was not surprised to be looking at Domin.
“You know, it’s not like we can’t hear you yell Jin’s name all the way downstairs.”
I groaned and buried my face in the hollow of my mate’s throat.
“And your kid is getting worried.”
“Fuck,” I mumbled.
“Yeah, speaking of, do you want me to explain that word to him?”
Logan grabbed a pillow and hurled it at him, but it was easy to sidestep.
“Is that a no?”
“That’s a no!” we both yelled at him.
“Well, then, maybe we can hold off on the rest of the screwing until we get to Sobek.”
Logan’s snarl was pretty cute.
“Speaking of, you know my staff isn’t used to lots of noise coming from the sack. It’s why Yuri and I have our bedroom on the roof. So you guys might need to get your room soundproofed.”
“Nope,” Logan told him, leaning on his elbow, still buried in my body. “They want me, they get to hear me being loud in bed.”
Domin grinned wide. “Okay, brother. Hey, it’s okay, you guys can do it again. I’ll just stand here.”
“Domin Thorne!” Yuri bellowed from downstairs, and he immediately slammed the door and was gone.
“I have never seen him jump for anyone.”
“Well, you do for your love,” Logan said, easing slowly from my body.
“Yes,” I agreed, reaching for him.
“Should we go downstairs?”
“In one more minute,” I sighed before I kissed him.
Chapter 16
IT WAS a solemn day. I knew that, but I could not for the life of me wipe the smile off my face. I was brimming over with happiness, and because I was a reah, everyone felt my sweeping, bubbling joy.
The tribe was there to watch us leave, to make sure we left—the ceremonial running them out of town. But I felt too good to let it hurt me anymore.
Domin insisted on suits for all of us, as was tradition, to leave with a show of respect. I suspected, however, it was so everyone could see how beautiful he looked. The man was now and had always been a showman.
The three-piece black Prada suit made Domin look like a prince, regal and stunning. He smiled wide, his pirate grin, all wicked, carnal heat before he put on his sunglasses. “I bid the tribe of Mafdet peace and prosperity here under heaven,” he said, his voice deep and resonant, carrying to every man, woman, and child standing there to see him off. It was an old blessing he had resurrected after the priest Hamid Shamon taught it to him before his passing.
The tribe cheered as he took hold of Yuri’s arm and steered him forward, like his mate didn’t know where he was going. I enjoyed seeing Yuri light up as he always did when Domin touched him, the pale gray suit he was wearing bringing out his deep-set blue eyes and showing off his massive frame.
Domin didn’t appear to notice Koren standing beside Peter when he passed, too busy saying somet
hing to Yuri, chuckling as he listened to the response before he did see Artem Varda, and then they both stopped to shake his hand and wish him well.
Crane and Yusuke had been asked if they wanted to walk in the procession or to go on ahead to Sobek on the first flight out. They had both jumped at the chance to leave.
“But the tribe will not be able to show you their respect,” Danny had argued.
Yusuke scoffed. “The tribe can keep their regard. I will prove my worth to another and stand again at my semel’s side.”
I was glad that Kabore had already told Domin that he wanted to step down, because I had no interest in watching Yusuke fillet anyone I liked. But really, any who came between her and her duty to Logan was simply morgue-bound.
So she and Crane, their girls, Markel and Delphine, Eva, Ivan and his parents, and Irina and her son, Dmitri, were already gone, having flown out of the Reno airport two hours prior, half of Domin’s khatyu and Wickham Morris and Dov Yadin convening with them there. Shahid Alon and more men were meeting them in New York to fly with them to France on a private jet, and then on to Cairo. I had no idea how Domin got passports and all the rest of the paperwork he needed for all of us so quickly, but I didn’t question him. I was just so relieved knowing the others were already completely safe that I started to feel like I was glowing.
Justin and Danny walked ahead of us, and several people stopped to wish Danny safe travels and to meet Justin, who was holding his hand. I was pleased to see that Danny didn’t appear to be ignoring Koren on purpose, just, like Domin, he didn’t notice him, too involved with his new mate. Domin had performed their handfasting before we left the guesthouse, the promise invoked until they reached Sobek, where their mating ceremony would take place. But first, Justin was taking Danny home with him to San Francisco to be introduced as his mate to the tribe. Then they would rendezvous with Domin in Sobek so they could be officially mated before traveling with him. Danny was gloriously happy; it was evident in his shining eyes, constant smile, and bubbling laughter. He didn’t leave Justin’s side, wouldn’t let go of his hand, and when Koren caught up with him before he got into the waiting SUV, Danny was, in his newly found happiness, kind when he didn’t have to be.