Change of Heart [03] - Honored Vow by Mary Calmes

Author:Mary Calmes [Calmes, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Gay, Romance, GLBT, Paranormal, Fantasy, m/m romance, dreamspinner press, mary calmes, Paperback, Novel, Change of Heart by Mary Calmes
ISBN: 9781613722176
Amazon: B006BC05R4
Goodreads: 12982059
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2011-11-20T00:00:00+00:00

THE drive down the endless two-lane highway did not have enough to look at to keep me awake. I dozed, fading in and out, listening in intervals to Crane talking to Yuri and Chuluun, Yuri and Chuluun talking, and Crane and Chuluun talking.

True to Mikhail’s word, Yuri and the maahes of the tribe of Khertet had been speaking privately out on a balcony and not having sex in the bathroom. Yuri’s scowl after Mikhail leaned close and whispered to him was blistering. Apparently that I had even entertained such a thought did not sit well with my sheseru. But I could tell from Chuluun’s actions, the way he crowded into my sheseru’s space, grazed his cheek over the back of his shoulder, and draped his arm across his seat that he was more than interested in getting Yuri in bed.

Chuluun drove and mentioned sights as we passed them in the dark: Ögii Lake, Tsenkher Hot Springs, Bulgan Uul Nature Preserve. He explained the history and the importance of each as we drove on. But I didn’t care. I was cold, so cold, and even though my blood ran hotter because I was a panther, it was still a frigid thirty-six degrees below zero outside.

“When does it warm up here?” Crane asked through chattering teeth.

“We’re in the second of the nine nines,” Chuluun explained. “Unfortunately you’ve come here during the coldest eighty-one days of winter that start right around the winter equinox.”

“Is that why you left the Jeeps running the entire time we were inside?” Yuri asked.

“Yes, it gets warmer after Tsagaan Sar.”

“That’s your New Year, in February, right?”

“Yes, reah,” he answered me indulgently.

“And the first day of the New Year festival is called Shiniin Negen.”

He smiled into the rearview mirror. “You’ve done some reading.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s frickin’ freezing out here.” Crane shivered again, crossing his arms tighter. “How do you guys even leave your homes?”

“With great effort,” he said, smiling at my best friend before turning to me. “Tell me, reah, who will fight in the pit with you?”

“My beset and me, along with Domin and—”

“No.”

“What?” Yuri was confused about why he had cut me off, and so was I.

Chuluun again met my eyes in the rearview mirror. “Jin, I mean no disrespect to your beset, Crane Adams, but unless I was misinformed by the priest as to the severity of your beset’s scourging at the hands of the disbanded tribe of Anuket, then he was gelded, was he not?”

“He was,” I said flatly, turning to look at Crane’s profile as he stared straight ahead, jaw clenched, not moving, barely breathing.

“Then he cannot fight in the sepat and may never step foot into another tribal arena. I understand that this is not the case, but by law, he is no longer fit and may not enter the fighting pit. He is not allowed to defend your tribe, as he is considered unclean and not even, as was done in ancient times after a challenge, fit for sacrifice.”

I heard Crane catch his breath.

“Take

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