The Secrets of the Panther
Chapter 13

IZZY

I hear the door close again.

Tears start to run down my face.

So many emotions coming through, and it’s hard to handle.

I sit up in bed, leaning against the headboard.

I had to watch my mother endure the same pain every damn time when Graham was with his mate.

I now know how it felt, how she felt every time he did that.

The pain was excruciating. I thought my heart would come out of my chest. It was also like being dropped from a great height and being tortured.

“Puna,” I call out through our mind link. “You ok?”

Puna came closer, and we felt everything he did. My power magnifies all emotions but also every pain. “I’m ok,” she says. “I don’t want our mate”

I sigh.

“I know, we will sort something out,” I say. “Why do you think we could feel everything he did? We only saw him once, and that was our first meeting. We didn’t even touch him.”

Puna is quiet in my head for a moment, but she comes closest to joining me in my form. “I think it’s because of the power we have. We are still trying to figure out how powerful we are and what we can do,” she says.

All of a sudden, I can hear a moan coming from Kat’s room.

Puna giggles in my head. “She is having phone sex.”

“Please don’t put that image in my head,” I say with a grim look.

I got out of bed and headed to the window to look out. Everything has to change for us. We are missing so many memories lately, but we don’t know why.

I look out; it is dark. Only the streetlights are on.

I open the window, but before I walk back towards my bed, the scent that comes to me makes me growl.

It can’t be.

Why would he be here? He left us with them. He tricked us.

If he comes anywhere near me, I will kill him. He captured me, pretending to be a friend. He is in with them all.

Why would he be helping them all? Why me?

I look and search the street, but no one is there. I am about to turn, but I see him.

I look back at him.

He smirks as he notices that I am watching him.

I turn and grab my rope. I make sure that Kat is asleep.

Her door is closed, and I don’t really want to hear what is going on in there.

I head down the stairs to the front door. I open it quietly and look around. He is standing at the end of the drive.

I hate his guts.

Puna is up, and I know she can sense him. He sent us into a trap, and now I will kill him.

I walk closer to him but stop a few feet away.

“You came back,” he says with a glint of a smirk. “I thought my friends would teach you a lesson, but I was surprised to hear they were killed. I told you if I saw you again, I would make you my mate.”

I growl.

“Like hell are you making me do anything? You sent me into a trap. I’m going to kill you,” I snapped and lunged at him.

He catches me in mid-air, grabs me by the throat, and slams me on the bonnet of Kat’s car.

He leans into me and sniffs my neck. “Little girl, I am stronger than you. I will eat you alive, but I like you. I want you to be mine,” he says.

His scent hits my nose and makes me want to gag.

“Get the fuck off me, I will never be yours,” I snarled. “I am no one’s.”

His hand tightens around my neck tighter and stares at me. I can feel the anger rolling off him. “What about your alpha mate?”

I look at him. How would he know about my mate?

He laughs and lets me go.

“Wondering how I know about that,” he says. “I have my spies everywhere, and I know more about you than ever”

“He is lying,” says Puna, who has been standing up on all fours, growling at him, but we haven’t used our power. He doesn’t know about it.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, “You are not from this pack?”

He growls. “I would never be part of this pack; they are weak. I am an alpha, and my pack is stronger than this one.”

He’s an alpha. My suspicions were right.

I need to replace out more about him.

“Drake, I won’t be yours or anyone else’s,” I say in a growl, my claws coming out of my fingertips, but I make sure he can’t see. “If you ever come anywhere near me again, I will kill you.” as I finished that sentence, I lashed at him, catching his right eye.

Blood gushes out, and he snarls as his hand flies to his face. But before he can do anything, the lights in Kat’s house come on.

I looked towards the house, but when I turned back, he vanished.

She must have heard what was going on, surely?

I look around and try to replace Drake, but I hear the door open.

“Izzy, what the hell?” Kat shouts as she comes running towards me. She helps me down from the bonnet of the car.

“Who did this?” She says and looks between me and her car.

“A wolf that trapped me. He works with the hunters,” I say through gritted teeth.

“That’s what you were going to tell me tomorrow. Who is he?” She asks, leading me towards the house. She keeps looking over her shoulder to see if he has gone.

“He followed me, I thought I could trust him, but he took me straight to the hunters. He didn’t stay. He left,” I said as we walked through the door. Kat locks the door behind her and turns to me.

“I had to use my power to kill the hunters; there were a few of them,” I said. “They are working with someone. But I couldn’t make out who it was. They were in the shadows all the time.”

“Is the wolf from this pack?” She asks, but I shake my head. “No, his name is Drake, and he is from another pack.”

Kat looks like she wants to kill or is considering plotting his death.

“Kat, he is an alpha,” I say.

She looks at me with wide eyes.

“Alpha Drake? Are you certain?” She asks.

I nod, looking confused. “Yeah, you know who he is”

She looks at me blankly.

“Kat, tell me, please!” I shouted at her. “Who is he?”

Kat looks at me and sighs. “Izzy, he is Blake’s cousin. He is the alpha of the Red Moon pack.”

Oh, this keeps getting better.

Drake is Blake’s cousin.

I growled.

“Izzy, he is ruthless and cunning. He is known to kill people. What did he want with you?” She asked.

Puna magnifies the power. “He wanted me to be...he wanted me to be his mate,” I say through gritted teeth.

I can see Kat suffering under the power that we let off. Puna pulls back on it.

Kat looks at me. “Are you his mate?”

I shake my head and growl louder, “NO...”

“Izzy, we need to be careful,” she says. “We need to learn more about him, on the quiet obviously, but also judging on this, he must be working for someone.”

“Well, I can’t do that. I already clawed his face,” I say. “I want his blood.”

I can’t calm down.

Puna comes through, and we are as one. “We want him dead,” we growled.

Kat knows there is no way of talking to us when we are like this. She looks at us and smiles. “How about we try and calm down? What about if we talk to Allie.”

The name calms me slightly. Allie. I miss her so much.

I look back at Kat and nod. Talking to Allie always helps. We go to the kitchen, and Kat dials the number and hands me the phone.

I place the phone to my ear to hear her sweet voice.

“Hello, Mummy,” she says in her sweet voice.

Alpha Drake

STUPID BITCH!

I place my hand over my right eye, which hasn’t stopped bleeding.

I am still in the street. I want that bitch, and I want her to be mine.

I am back sitting in my car.

The back passenger side door opens. “What the hell happened? I thought you were going to leave to go to your own pack,” says the voice behind me.

I growl loudly.

I don’t care if he is an elder.

“She took my eye out, you piece of crap. You might be the elder of my uncle’s pack and in charge of them, but you are not in charge of me,” I snarled. “Anyway, why are you following me? you are risking a lot coming here to me. Someone may have seen you.”

He huffs out. “I am an elder of the pack, but you give me the respect I deserve. That panther needs to be dealt with. He wants her soon,” He says. “As for anyone seeing me leave, I am on the way back to the elders. No one knows about this.”

“Why does he want her anyway?” I asked.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. He is taking care of my problem. Blake needs to take a wolf, not that cat,” he says. “I took care of the mother with the help of Helga.”

I look at him in my mirror; the old man is nuts.

“What did that witch do?” I asked, but the smile that came across his face said it all.

“I made a deal with the devil, and she helped Linda and myself get what we want,” he says. He looks at me and grimaces at the sight of my eye. “That ain’t going to heal. You will have a scar. You need to go back to him,” he says.

He opens the car and is about to get out when he stops. “Oh yes, is the she-wolf dealt with?”

I look at him and grin. “Of course, she won’t be saying anything.”

“You need to leave. Everything is falling into place now,” he says as he exits the car and leans over the door to look at me.

“I would say it was a pleasure, but it wasn’t,” he says, slamming my car door.

I watch him climb into the SUV parked behind me and get in. Within seconds he drives past.

I look back at the house.

I growl.

I place a bandana over my eye. It will have to do till I get back to my pack.

I start the engine and pause. “I will have you, panther, I promise you that,” I say.

I turn the car around and head in the opposite direction.