Crucible of Fate

by Mary Calmes

  All my men, even Kabore, were frozen. It was overwhelming, the power rolling off Logan Church. And it should have mattered, it was chemical, my body should have responded, but it didn’t. I was a semel, and so I was as strong as he was. Logan and I were different on the outside, but inside, where it counted, we were the same.

  “What the hell is that?” someone gasped.

  “Shit.” Koren caught his breath, and his hands, clutching at me, hurt. “Domin, watch out.”

  I glanced up in time to see Jin’s body contort, lift, and bow into a semicircle before snapping in half the other way.

  Scrambling to my feet, I dragged Koren back, then grabbed Kabore’s arm and yanked him after me. I didn’t want to be close.

  There was a fine mist of blood, then a hotter spray as Jin screamed, and wings—huge giant dragon wings—erupted from his back.

  My men were smart and fell to the ground, faces down in the dirt, so no one was disemboweled by the force of the appendages as they cut through the air.

  “Oh Logan,” I moaned, terrified for him.

  The creature that rose was not Jin. All I saw were the huge green eyes of a bird, almost a hawk’s head, something resembling a beak, reptilian black skin, and claws, but longer and hooked, like talons. I should have been horrified. Everyone else was except Logan, who was rising slowly and holding out his hand.

  There was something… familiar.

  “Come to me,” Logan said, and his voice was like honey.

  But I needed help, and I was afraid that if Jin succumbed, if he changed back, I wouldn’t get it.

  “Yuri!” I screamed.

  “No,” Logan cried out as the creature Jin was now disappeared from in front of him and reappeared, towering over me. I understood that he had actually just leaped or flown, but it was too fast to track with the naked eye; it seemed like magic.

  “Oh dear God,” Kabore moaned, and I could tell how truly frightened he was.

  The head of the beast moved just like a bird, almost robotic, and when he bumped my chin, I tilted my head back, baring my throat. If he wanted to kill me, I was dead.

  “Jesus, Domin,” Logan said under his breath, easing closer.

  I closed my eyes, trying not to shake as the beak slid slowly up the side of my neck.

  “Don’t move don’t move don’t move,” Koren chanted at a whisper, his breathing shallow as I felt his hand close around my bicep.

  He was trying to offer me his strength, but I was afraid that if he tugged on me, if he jostled or stirred me in any way, Jin would startle and kill me.

  “Domin, you stupid fuck,” Logan exhaled.

  The talons closed on my shoulders, and I felt the ends like nails pressing through my shirt but not breaking skin, closing but not tightening.

  “Domin,” Logan pleaded. “Please don’t send him into that cave after—”

  “Yuri,” I said, going for broke. I leaning my head forward and slid my palm flat up the curve of the beak. I quivered as he inhaled my scent but also Yuri’s, the sweat from his skin, the musk from him marking me, and whatever lingered from us being in bed together. I watched the nekhene and I understood where the term hawk-cat had come from, and maybe even, possibly, stories about Horus.

  The eye flicked everywhere but he saw me clearly, and when he tipped his head, like he was listening, I grabbed hold of his shoulder. He reacted and the talons closed instinctively.

  Razor sharp claws met through my body, through skin and muscle, and then bone. The cracking made me scream.

  “Domin!”

  A rush of air and then I was fifty feet off the ground, dangling from what was left of my collar bone and shoulder.

  “Jin!” Logan roared below us, and I saw him start to run.

  Why doesn’t he shift so he can keep up? I wondered vaguely as my head whipped back when we moved from gentle lift to flight.

  It was probably what it was like to be carried off by a bird of prey. I couldn’t even fathom the speed as we blasted through the dark night toward the rock. At the last second, he dipped, and rock formations, huge stalactites and vugs were a blur as we passed them. A miscalculation, a wrong turn, and at the speed we were going, we’d be dead. It would be an instant death to be shattered on one of the walls of the enormous cave.

  I heard gunfire, but it was ricocheting off rock and not hitting us. They couldn’t see us, it was too dark, and we were moving too fast, only the roar of the nekhene cat giving us away.

  He released me when he dropped to the floor of the cavern, and the wings did what they had not done to my men—when he whirled around, he beheaded two of the men before the others hurled themselves into the dirt.

  “Defend me!” Hanif Tarek screamed, and I saw him then—the new semel.

  I stumbled forward with my ruined left arm and saw one of the men rise, rifle in hand, and aim for Jin.

  Kicking hard, I caught him in the side of the head. He went down fast and I stumbled forward to reach Tarek.

  “No!” he screamed, and I saw that it wasn’t Jin he was terrified of, but me, bleeding and broken, lurching toward him.

  He lifted a pistol.

  “Where is my mate?” I yelled.

  “I’m going to kill him. You’re vile and unclean, and it’s a desecration that you are the semel-aten.”

  I didn’t stop moving forward. “I’ll trade you your father for my mate,” I lied, because he wasn’t going to live to see the dawn. “Tell me where he is!”

  “Stop walking before I shoot you!”

  “Where is my mate?” I thundered as I heard wailing behind us. His men, except for the one I had kicked unconscious, were being eviscerated.

  “I’m going—”

  “Your father for my—”

  “Fool!” he rasped as he fired.

  Same shoulder, which was actually kind of lucky.

  “Blow it up!” he shrieked into a walkie-talkie I hadn’t realized he had.

  We were in further than I thought, so I heard the explosion, but there was no blowback.

  I slammed him up against the huge rock he stood in front of and closed my hand around his throat as I felt his gun press against my cheek.

  “The priest ordered me to kill your mate, semel-aten, and that I will do.”

  “Why?” I trembled with pain.

  “Only the priest had honor; he was all I could believe in. It was all a nightmare, my father, the things he let his sheseru do to me—all of it. But when I told the priest, he said once I killed your sekhem, once Yuri Kosa was dead, that it would all end… everything would end… all the horror… just end.”

  “Oh, it’s going to end,” I promised, and I shifted to my werepanther form, crushing his throat, his windpipe, in my grip.

  Everyone always forgot I was a semel. But no matter what they said, no matter how many times they all said kadish, impure, I wasn’t. My blood was of the line of Menhit, and I was a werepanther.

  Hanif Tarek had been surprised, and his last expression conveyed that. The priest had lied, convinced him I was not a true semel. But I was, and he paid for his mistake with his life. I had a moment of regret that the priest had known about the horrors at Ipis and had done nothing to stop them, but the semel’s son had chosen to put this faith in the wrong man.

  Releasing his body, I stumbled back and fell down, dropping to my knees in the dirt. Unable to hold onto my half-man/half-panther form, I cried out for Yuri before I stared at the nekhene cat.

  “Please,” I begged.

  He shuddered, and I saw that he, too, was losing strength. I had no idea what kind of wounds he’d sustained before Logan’s pheromones forced the change, and I was suddenly panicked even as I shivered.

  I was getting cold.

  “Jin,” I said, my voice cracking. “Yuri.”

  He was gone like he’d never been there. He left no trace of sound, nothing. And it struck me then why Logan hadn’t shifted earlier, because if he needed to bring Jin back, he had to be himself to do it. I envied
him his reason in the midst of a nightmare.

  It was all my fault.

  Jin, forced into a new and frightening nekhene form, that was on me. Logan, outside, probably hoarse from yelling, petrified of losing his mate, that too was my fault. No one would be in Ipis if they hadn’t followed me. I was to blame for all of it. I had led Rahim and Taj and everyone else to their deaths. I was a horror.

  A gust of air, and then the creature was back, coming toward me.

  My knees weak, my throat dry, and my chest tight, I felt his eyes fix on me. I wondered if this was how I was going to die.

  “Jin.”

  He inhaled, and I was suddenly seeing a bruised and bloody Jin Church.

  “Oh God.”

  That was worse. If I had to choose, I’d rather die myself than watch him succumb. I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to get him out of the cave. If he was shifted, he could fly out, but reverted now back to just Jin, what was I supposed to do?

  He crumpled to the ground, and I was running before I even realized I was moving.

  I went to my knees beside him, pulled him into my lap, and curled around him, trying to give him any body warmth I had left.

  “Domin.” Jin’s voice, which I had always teased him about, was now the sweetest sound I had ever heard. “Don’t cry.”

  I couldn’t even speak.

  “I searched and I saw no trace of Yuri, and I don’t sense him in here at all.”

  I searched his face.

  “I swear to you, he’s not in here.”

  There was no way he could know that.

  “Please keep your eyes open,” he pleaded. “Please, Domin.”

  But there were spots in front of my eyes.

  He twisted around in my lap and put his hands on my face. “You’re ice cold.”

  But he was the one, naked, who was shivering. “You’re so strong now. That dragon thing was new.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not, did it once before. Logan hates it.”

  “I can understand why.” I coughed and my whole body hurt. “There’s a walkie-talkie back over there by Hanif. If you get it, we can at least see who might answer.”

  “You should shift to panther, you’ll be warmer.”

  “But I’m not like you,” I said softly. “I’m not me when I’m a panther.”

  He didn’t argue, simply rose and shifted, rolling into his panther form in midstride. It was really something to see and never failed to amaze me.

  I couldn’t keep from sighing. He retrieved the walkie-talkie and dropped it onto my stomach, then nuzzled against my side, head down on my chest.

  Pressing a button on the device, I gathered myself and then said, “Is there anyone there? Please. Anyone.”

  Nothing.

  “Yuri.” My heart was breaking.

  Dead air.

  I gazed at Jin. “In case I… so you know, I killed your father, not Yuri. I mean, I know Crane probably let you know, but he wasn’t in there and he doesn’t know what I did and what Yuri did. We never said. I didn’t even tell Logan. But for the record, so you know, it was me.”

  He lifted his head and gazed down at me.

  “I wanted to bring him back and kill him again, Jin. I hated him. You deserved so much fuckin’ better. I wish it was different, and I wish he had been different, and I wish I could tell you that at the end he recanted it all and realized what he’d done.”

  He nuzzled under my chin.

  “You’re a gift, Jin, so please run out of here to Logan.”

  He just cuddled tighter against me.

  “Nobody fuckin’ listens to me,” I grumbled. “Some akhen-aten I am.”

  “Domin!”

  I was wrong. The voice of my mate was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.

  “Domin Thorne!”

  I lifted the walkie-talkie.

  “Domin, goddamnit! Please!”

  Pressing the button, I choked out, “Yuri.”

  “Oh, thank you, God,” he gasped on the other end.

  Even over a crackly connection, he sounded so good I was ready to bawl.

  “Where are you?” he wanted to know.

  “With Jin.”

  “With Jin? Jin’s okay?”

  “No, we’re not okay. Are you bleeding?”

  “No, baby, not my blood. Not Jin’s blood. I was the sheseru of my tribe, remember?”

  I forgot sometimes. “You’re not bleeding?”

  “I’ll be okay,” he comforted me. “Don’t you worry.”

  And everything went dark, my vision going out on me, but it was fine. I didn’t need to be able to see to work the buttons. “Hanif’s dead. There’s only one guy alive in here with us, but he’s out cold right now.”

  “Okay, we’re coming in, we just have to get people up here and more men and some bulldozers. It’s just a small cave-in, but enough to slow us down. You’re all right, though, aren’t you? You’re not hurt, are you?”

  “Come get Jin.”

  “We’re coming for both of you.”

  “I might not… Jin’s cold,” I said, and then I heard a low whine from the panther purring on my chest.

  There was nothing else.

  Chapter 12

  I HEARD my mate. He sounded hysterical.

  “He has to shift.”

  “If I drag him through it, he could die.”

  “He’ll die if he doesn’t!” Logan yelled.

  “Yuri.” I heard Jin’s gentle, patient tone. “What do you want me to do? It’s up to you.”

  “Try,” Yuri heaved out the word, and I could hear the tears in his voice.

  “Move,” Jin ordered, and I heard scrambling. “Domin Thorne, you will shift for me.”

  But I wouldn’t, because Jin had no power over me anymore, and more than that, he wasn’t my mate. I’d never had anyone who wanted just me before Yuri Kosa. Everyone else let me go. Yuri was holding on.

  I felt Jin’s power run over me, wash hot and scalding over my skin, and then sink into my bones, chasing away the chill. I took it in, absorbed it, and tried to pull more.

  “Oh shit.” Jin sounded surprised.

  “Love,” Logan sounded scared.

  “I need—you.”

  “Here, I’m yours.”

  I wanted to see the big, strong semel holding his mate, but more than that, I wanted to see Yuri’s beautiful blue eyes.

  “I can’t make him shift anymore—he’s like Crane now. My power recognizes him. It runs through my beset, but Domin just absorbs it.” His voice sounded shaky. “Oh, Yuri, I’m so sorry, I can’t make Domin do anything. He’s too strong.”

  Yuri moaned softly, and his voice was thick with tears when he spoke. “I need him.”

  Jin was crying, and I wanted to tell him it would be okay, but I was so tired. I’d tell him later.

  IT WAS quiet, but there was something tickling my nose. A smell I knew, a smell I liked. The breath on my ear made me shiver, and I felt goose bumps on my skin.

  “Domin.” My mate’s voice was a rumbling purr. “You need to shift so you can heal, because I have things I want to tell you and more you should see.”

  I felt like I was underwater and needed to swim up to the surface so I could talk to him. And I desperately wanted to talk to him.

  “We’re back home, and everyone’s here.”

  I was home.

  “I have to tell you what Logan did,” he said, like it was a secret. The conspiratorial tone rolled right through me. “You’ll like it.”

  I burned with curiosity.

  “I’ve brought everyone in here, I even had Koren come to talk to you, and it did nothing,” he said, his voice husky and low.

  I wanted to touch him so badly.

  “And then Jin pointed out that I haven’t once been in here all alone,” he said, and I felt him slide the palm of his hand over my stomach. “I have to wonder at my own lack of self-confidence. Jin simply knows he’s what Logan needs, but it’s not just them. Every mated couple
, just like regular married couples, assumes that the husband or the wife, or the mate, is the one the other craves. So I thought, what if I am simply missing the obvious?”

  He slid his hand up to my chest as he pressed his lips down into my abdomen. It felt so good, and I made a noise in the back of my throat.

  “Oh, I like that sound,” he growled, and it was low and dark and full of decadent ache.

  My cock twitched and my breath caught.

  “I had no idea,” he said, his voice thick with hunger. “I mean, I knew you enjoyed being in bed with me—you can’t fake what we’ve been doing—but I didn’t know that the sex was wrapped up in so much more. Forgive me for doubting. I knew you loved me, knew you almost died getting to me, but I didn’t know when you were saying the word ‘mate’ that it was truly what I was. I’m an idiot, and I can only say in my own defense that you’re all I ever wanted, so it’s been Christmas for me for the past six months already. I keep thinkin’ I’m gonna wake up.”

  The hot hand closing around my cock made me gasp.

  “Doc says that your brain isn’t making a connection to your body, and if it did, you could wake up.”

  Instinctively, I bucked up into his hand.

  “Do you want me?” he whispered, and it was sultry and hot and he stroked me until I was throbbing and hard. “Do you love me?”

  I wanted to answer.

  “I’m leaving if you don’t open your eyes and tell me.”

  It was like rising through layers of thick, heavy fog.

  “Okay,” he said, and his hand was gone. “I’ll be back.”

  “No.” My voice was raspy and full of gravel, and when my eyes fluttered open, I closed them again quickly because it was so bright.

  “Oh baby.” His hands were back, on my face, and he kissed everywhere he could reach, small, light, soft kisses that felt warm on my cold skin.

  I smiled because I could feel it in his clutching hands, taste it on his lips when they grazed mine, and hear it in his halting breath: he loved me.

  “Domin?”

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  “Promise,” he insisted.

  “I swear,” I said, opening my eyes again, and I saw how pleased he was, and how tired.

  “Why are you scowling at me?” he asked as tears ran down his cheeks.