Trusted Bond

Calmes

    Chapter 18

    I WAS having the best night. Crane had come back an hour and a half after
    Logan and had walked through the main room on his way to the shower,
    announcing that he was never having sex again.
    ―You?‖ Logan teased, calling after him. ―You‘re not gonna have
    sex?‖
    It seemed slightly inconceivable, like if he‘d said he wasn‘t going to
    breathe anymore.
    ―Nope,‖ he groaned, slamming the door behind him.
    When he joined us on the veranda, flopping down into the hammock,
    he had changed his mind. He maybe would have sex again. Possibly.
    I rolled my eyes, and Logan grinned at me.
    ―We need food,‖ he told me. ―Call room service and get some,
    okay?‖
    The villa was the semel-aten‘s home, but it was also run like a huge
    hotel during the feast. The phone rang from room-to-room and to the
    maids‘ quarters and the kitchen, but not out of the house. People were
    staffed in both places twenty-four hours a day during the feast, and there
    were hundreds of them.
    I called down and ordered up meat and cheese and whatever fruit
    they had. I also asked for mint iced tea and sparkling cider. When I walked
    back to the patio, I saw that Markel and Delphine were there. Markel
    looked much better, and Crane told him all about the heru-ur and how
    many women he‘d nailed.
    ―Nailed.‖ I winced, pained at his wording.
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    ―Charming.‖ Delphine rolled her eyes.
    Yuri walked in next, followed by Mikhail, who, unlike both Yuri and
    Crane, did not look mauled or debauched in any way. He wasn‘t even
    rumpled.
    ―What?‖ he asked me.
    ―You still look….‖ I looked over at Delphine for help.
    ―Pressed,‖ she supplied.
    ―Yeah? So?‖
    Logan chuckled, getting comfortable on the chaise so that his head
    was in my lap. He wanted attention, wanted my hands stroking his hair.
    We were joined shortly by Justin Cho, his sheseru and sylvan flanking him
    as he came into the room and joined us on the patio. I was surprised—all
    these men had more interest in sitting around talking, laughing, than being
    at a Roman orgy.
    ―I‘d rather see my friend,‖ Justin told me, tipping his head at Logan.
    ―And these two‖—he smiled, glancing at his crook and flail—―they‘re just
    not party animals.‖
    Desmond Kaufman, his sheseru, just glared at him, and his sylvan,
    Sean Li, scowled.
    I enjoyed listening to Logan and Justin swap stories about each other
    from college, which was apparently where they had met, and about their
    tribes. Justin had us all in stitches about two families that lived next door
    to each other in San Jose who were fighting over a peach tree. Apparently
    they felt that their semel was the one to decide what should be done. He
    just looked at us like it was the most ridiculous thing ever.
    ―Yeah, but that Mrs. Nguyen is scary as hell,‖ Desmond assured us.
    ―She‘s, like, ninety and just mean.‖
    ―Yeah, she is mean,‖ Sean agreed. ―And she has these little pinchy
    fingers.‖
    When he shivered, we all laughed.
    The night wore on, and when Crane got up to answer the door, he
    returned with Christophe Danvers and his sheseru, Avery Cadim.
    ―To what do we owe this pleasure?‖ Logan asked, standing, facing a
    battered-looking Christophe. He had met Kellen Grant in the pit the day
    before, and by all accounts it had been a pretty evenly matched fight until
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    the end. Christophe had won by decision of the priest; there had been no
    clear winner before he rendered his verdict. Logan and I had not attended.
    I was surprised when my mate turned to look at Avery, and he
    immediately went to his knees.
    ―Forgive me, semel-re, for granting sanctuary to the cats of the tribe
    of Selket. I truly did not know they were running from your land when
    they first spoke to me, and afterwards… when I called your reah and then
    when Domin came—‖
    ―Get up,‖ Logan ordered him.
    The second he did, Logan took a step forward into Avery‘s personal
    space, way in, so they were almost nose-to-nose. ―I expect you to respect
    the fact that my tribe and yours have a covenant bond at all times. The
    sister of your semel is the aset of my tribe. If Simone was here, she—‖
    ―I know.‖ He winced like Logan had hit him. ―She called and… I
    heard it.‖
    Logan moved back beside me, his hand sliding up under my T-shirt,
    his fingers splayed over the small of my back, stroking my bare skin. ―She
    wants us all to be one