Change of Heart 05 - Forging the Future by Mary Calmes Read Free Book Online Page B

life for him if he asked me.”
    Wick cleared his throat and put his hand on Nazar’s shoulder to stop his movement. “It’s a disease, this is, mate. You’re split right down the middle, you are, half of you wanting to give service to the reah, half knowing your duty is to your semel.”
    Nazar stared at him. “I have no—it physically hurts to have him turn away from me.”
    “He’s a reah, mate,” Wick said gently. “It’s just going to feel worse when he gets his scent back and the rest of his power.”
    Nazar sucked in a breath. “I want to go in there and talk to him.”
    “Not without his permission.”
    I put my head down on my paws and closed my eyes. It was too early for me to take a run, so I’d wait.
    Listening to the sounds around me, I heard the semel yelling, caught the sounds of his yareah crying, counted the times Nazar’s shoes scraped over the cobblestones of the courtyard, and kept track of the breathing of Wick, Dov, and the khatyu.
    Hours later, when the others had retired to the house, Luther brought a tray of food out to me. He stood there speaking to the door.
    “You should come out,” he said, his voice thick with desire I could hear. He wanted me, and it grated. How dare he want a mated reah? “You promised to have dinner with me, you remember.”
    I made no sound, and after what seemed like a long time, he finally put the tray down and returned to the main house. Twisting into a ball, I waited for it to get dark enough to hide a black panther in the shadows.

Chapter 5

     
    I FLEW over the rooftops of the city, listened to some jazz at Preservation Hall, drank rainwater down in Pirate’s Alley, ducked into a kitchen on Dauphine and Orleans and was fed by an old couple who was sure I was both tame and owned by a neighbor. It was the great thing about the city: nothing really surprised anyone. They expected to see things out of the ordinary. A black panther eating gumbo was normal.
    I returned before dawn to find Nazar and Luther keeping vigil on the benches in the courtyard in front of the garden house.
    Slipping inside the house, I immediately shifted back and walked to the kitchen for water. Once I gulped down quite a bit, I went to take a shower. My clothes, the few that I owned, were in a duffel bag on the bed, and after I got out, clean from my exploration of the city, I changed into a pair of chinos and a T-shirt and lay down on the bed. I didn’t think I could sleep at all, but I woke up to the gentle sound of knocking, and the room was full of natural light.
    Rolling out of bed, I stumbled to the door and opened it a crack.
    “Hey.”
    The blond man I found there had the warmest smile I’d ever seen in my life.
    Then, opening the door wider, I was stunned by the number of people clustered in the tiny courtyard. It was overwhelming.
    “Jin.”
    Turning back to the man in front of me, I was caught in his dark sapphire gaze.
    He took a step closer, putting his hand on the door. “I’m Crane Adams.”
    The name was said as though it were unneeded. “I’m supposed to know you, aren’t I.” It was a statement of fact.
    Quick shrug from him, and the ease, his calm, soothed me. “It would have been good,” he said with a smile. “But it’s okay that you don’t.”
    “You’re not pissed?”
    “At you? Never. I’ve never been mad at you.”
    “Have we known each other a long time?”
    He nodded. “Yep, we have, a really long time.”
    I continued to stare at him for a moment before I offered my hand.
    He enfolded it in his. “I’m your bah-set.”
    I breathed through my nose, trying to stay calm and steady. “I don’t know what that is.”
    “That’s okay,” he said affably, easing me outside onto the small porch. His hands holding mine seemed natural, not carnal in any way, simply comforting and kind. “It’s a fancy word for best friend, is all.”
    “How do you spell that?”
    “Just like ‘best’ except with an extra e after the s .”
    “So