The Secrets of the Panther
Chapter 105

BLAKE

I stir, but I pull Izzy closer to me.

I open my eyes slowly and look straight at her face; I can’t help but smile.

We mated and marked one another last night.

I can feel everything she can. The only thing that I can’t feel is her power.

I watch her sleep for a few moments, listening to her silent snores.

Axel stirs in my head and opens his eyes with a smirk on his face. “Mate is pretty in the morning,” he says with a yawn.

I can’t help but agree with him.

“Stop looking at me,” says a soft but raspy voice.

Izzy was staring right back at me with a smile. “I don’t like anyone looking at me in the morning. I need to freshen up and also have coffee in my system.”

I can’t help but grin. “You can freshen up later,” I say as I pull her closer to me. “I want to kiss you.”

The smile on Izzy’s face goes wider as she moves her head closer to me. “I want you to,” she says as her mouth comes closer to mine.

I move the extra inch towards her and place my lips on hers. She moves hers with mine, but she pulls back with the same smile she had earlier.

“As much as I want to do more,” she says, but her face changes quickly. “We need to talk about what happened, and I don’t think we have enough time to go through it all.”

I look at her with a frown, feeling slightly defeated, but I know she’s right. We didn’t exactly do much talking at all last night.

I move up the bed and lean against the headboard; Izzy follows.

“I will start,” she says as she places her hand in my hand.

I can’t help but look at our hands connected; the tingles of the bond ignite within me.

“I still don’t get used to that,” says Izzy, which makes me look at her.

“I mean, I love how the bond makes me feel, and you’re amazing,” she says with a slight blush creeping on her cheeks, “I mean, I’m happy we mated and marked each other. Anya seems to think marking each other might help me with my power.”

I say nothing, but the conversation with Anya yesterday comes into my head. She was on about mating Izzy. I can’t remember if she mentioned the marking, but I want to know why she would say all this to Izzy.

“Why would she mention that to you?” I ask her.

Izzy doesn’t look at me, and her eyes are still on our joined hands. “I went to see her the other night, the night she came here. I needed to replace out what she knew,” she says. “She told me all that happened with the Elder and vampires. She was torture, but the Elder had all the books about my kind there with him. He made her read through them. She only told him what she wanted him to know, but in one book, she noticed that if the panther marked and mated with her mate. She could harness her mate’s emotions through the bond they have.”

Izzy looks up at me. “I want to end this all. I want to be happy for once and not look over my shoulder every time I’m with you and Allie or have someone trying to kill me,” she says and gently squeezes my hand.

“I never meant to hurt your feelings, Blake,” she said. “I wanted you to leave me alone, and I thought hurting you just by saying about Allie and I would make you leave. And it did, but I never meant to. I am so used to being on my own. I was free, but I have to admit I love being with family and mainly,” she says and moves her hand to my chin to make me look at her. “I love being here with you.”

I swear my heart went three times the size of love for this woman. I can feel Axel smirk, but he is happy to hear what Izzy has said.

I kiss her lips but move back. “I am so happy to hear that,” I say to her, making her smile.

“I have to tell you something, and I know you will not like this,” I said to her.

I need to tell her everything that the elder in the cell told me. I tell her everything, and her emotions hit me hard. The anger and rage hit me like a hurricane. But I could feel something else; something else was brewing within her.

Izzy lets go of my hand and moves out of the bed. She paces back and forth, muttering under her breath.

“I knew it,” she said.

“Izzy,” I say, but she doesn’t hear me. She carries on pacing back and forth, muttering.

“Izzy, please,” I say, and I move off the bed, placing my hand on hers. I pull her closer to me, where she has to look at me.

“Izzy, I won’t let that happen, I promise,” I tell her. “I will kill anyone who comes near Allie and that hybrid child.”

“Archer,” she says suddenly.

I stare at her blankly.

“The hybrid, his name is Archer,” she says with a small smile, but it fades again.

I smile.

“I know who can help us with him, but we need to keep both kids together,” she says. “Todd and Kat can look after them both. They had looked after Allie when I needed them too.”

I smile. “That’s a good idea.”

Izzy gives me a small smile, but she sighs, “Drake messaged me last night,” she said, which takes me by surprise.

“What do you mean, messaged you?” I asked, feeling slightly jealous.

“Hold on, Blake, there is no need to feel jealous,” she says, placing her hands on my face. She stares at me for a moment.

Axel moves in my head and sits up.

“You need to let mate explain,” he says as he looks at her, “Puna told me everything; you need to hear everything.”

I look back at Izzy, who has a smile on her face. “You were talking to Axel,” she said.

I nod, but I let out a sigh. “Tell me everything I need to know.”

Izzy looks at me for a few moments before she tells me everything Drake told her when they talked.

Drake and I were like brothers growing up, and he was over here more than in his pack. I would have done anything for him, even go to war with him, if it meant I saved him from his father’s horrible ways. Uncle Thomas was a cruel man, and he used Drake until Drake killed him.

Izzy tells me how the vampires came to her, asking to seek refuge within the pack, and was willing to fight against the lead vampire and witch. But hearing that, Archer witnessed the death of both his uncle and mother; even his father made my heartache for the child. My heart went out to him, and he needed to be protected and even be a child. It might come across that I’m not too fond of hybrids, but we were told at a young age that they were monsters. But what Izzy told me about the abuse that child suffered at the hands of the vampires? I think it all comes down to the upbringing they have.

After she finished telling me, I looked at her for a moment. “We will protect Archer and Allie,” I say as I pull her into my lap. She sat on my lap and placed her lips on mine for a moment, but there was some commotion coming from outside.

Izzy and I pulled back from each other and walked over to the window.

Outside, people were running towards the pack house.

Then it happened, the alarm that we use for rogue attacks.

It blares out.

I stare out, and I see that rogues and vampires surround us.

“The war is here,” says Izzy.

I turn to look at her, and her eyes are glowing green. She and Puna are as one.

“Blake, we need to finish this. We need to protect our pack,” she says and turns to look at the scene in front of us.

“Together,” she says.

I stare back. “Together, we do this together,” I say.

A mind link opens up, and it’s my father. “They are here,” he says, through the pack link that makes everyone hear what he says. “We fight, we fight till the death,” he says.

Axel is close and comes upfront with me as we become one. We roar loud, shattering the window in front of us.

We are ready.

We are ready to fight.