Honored Vow

teacher. In Logan’s tribe, both places were held
    by men, as they were in Christophe’s. It had struck me as odd.
    Certainly Logan would have chosen the person most qualified, but I
    didn’t know about Christophe. I wasn’t sure how antiquated his ideas were
    about women. And he had a scary, jealous mate who probably wouldn’t
    have liked another woman living under her roof. Normally the sheseru and
    sylvan lived with their semel until they found mates of their own.
    “Jin.”
    I looked up at my mate. Usually I could find myself in his amber
    eyes, find any needed salvation right there in his loving gaze. “Tell me
    what happened.”
    “Calvin will tell you,” he said, gesturing back to the semel of Opet,
    who, having shown me the proper respect as befitted my station as the
    reah of my tribe, was now standing. All the others were still kneeling, as
    Domin had not given them permission to stand. Only Calvin didn’t have to
    wait.
    I lifted my eyes to his.
    “My reah,” he said, clearing his throat. “I’m so sorry that I let you
    walk into the morgue thinking that your friend was dead, but the men from
    the tribe of Anuket had my daughter up until an hour ago, when they
    released her for my compliance in this charade.”
    If Logan hadn’t grabbed me and tucked me under his arm, against
    his side, I would have dropped to the ground.
    “Anuket, that’s your old tribe, right?” Calvin asked.
    “You know it is,” Logan told him. “Finish so we can go.”

    Honored Vow

    7

    He let out a deep breath, took a step closer to me. “Jin, they
    kidnapped my baby and held her and threatened to rape and kill her if I
    didn’t let the whole thing play out. I’m so sorry, but we’re talking about
    my child.”
    I nodded fast, hating him and being completely sympathetic at the
    same time. I thought about his daughter Jacqueline: Jackie, Jack, J…. She
    was cute and adorable. She got straight As and was captain of her swim
    team. Since I had been the captain of mine back in the day, back in high
    school, we always had lots to talk about. I loved her sweet face, her huge
    chocolate-brown eyes, and her bubbly personality. With Crane living and
    working in her father’s territory, I had been seeing a lot of him, and her.
    She had confessed to me that she had it bad for a guy at school.
    “He’s a white boy, Jin; can you see me with a white boy?”
    I told her I could. White, black, any color, any flavor she wanted.
    “Your dad won’t care,” I told her, certain I was right. Calvin had every
    color of the rainbow in his tribe, just like Logan did, just like most did.
    What you were on the outside didn’t mean anything to him, to Logan, just
    as long as you were—
    “But he’s not a panther.”
    —a panther on the inside. “Oh crap,” I had breathed out.
    “Oh God,” she’d moaned, hurling herself back on her bed. At
    sixteen, it was the end of her world.
    “Jin?”
    I shook my head, clearing it. “I get it, Cal,” I assured him. “I do. Just
    tell me what they said.”
    He coughed softly. “You need to call, or I should say that Logan was
    directed to call Archer Pike as soon as you realized you weren’t looking at
    Crane Adams.”
    “Who—” I coughed. “Who was that at the morgue?”
    “I have no idea.”
    “Not one of your cats?”
    “No, I was told he was not a panther.”
    “He was a panther,” Logan told him. “I suspect you’re missing
    someone.”
    The look on his face was like Logan had hit him. I didn’t understand
    that. Whether the man was a panther or not, I didn’t care. Human life or

    8

    Mary Calmes

    panther life, both were precious and sacred to me. In my mind, and I knew
    in Logan’s, as well, there was no difference.
    “Jin.” Logan said my name, drawing my attention. “We have to call
    Archer Pike.”
    I nodded.
    Logan had to get on the Internet, which he did from his phone,
    access the secure database, and look for the number he needed. It took
    only moments.
    “Are you ready?” he asked me softly.
    My nod let him know that I was.
    Minutes later, we all sat around the phone in the living room
    listening to it ring. Logan had put it on speaker.
    “Hello?”
    “May I speak with Archer Pike?”
    “This is he.”
    “This is Logan Church,” my mate growled, his voice low, hard.
    “You have the beset of my reah; I want him returned now.”
    Heavy sigh. “I apologize for the ruse, semel-netjer, and I apologize
    to the semel of the tribe of Opet for