The Secrets of the Panther
Chapter 150

BLAKE

There have been more rogue attacks lately, but now even vampires have appeared. It has been three days since I last saw Izzy. I have tried to contact Izzy, but we seem to miss each other.

I missed her like crazy. And Allie too.

Axel growls loudly in my head.

There was a breach in one fence on the far side; vampires and rogues roamed into the pack. Not as many as the war, but more than I cared to think about.

Pack members were ready to fight, and everyone wanted to protect the pack. Many even followed Drake, but we needed them to be prepared for anything. All enabled pack members were ready to fight, but Anita and Anya came as we planned to do a training technique when they turned up. We were outnumbered and surrounded.

I started to shift, but a scent ran into the middle of the field.

“MATE,” shouts Axel. He tried to take control, but I stopped in my tracks just a few feet away.

“STOP,” shouts Izzy.

I looked at her, and everyone who was following me came to a complete stop.

Pack members all look on, confused, but I can’t help but keep my eyes on Izzy.

What the hell was she doing here?

Izzy looks at me, but she glances back at the rogues and vampires. She turns her attention to them. “Why are you here?” she yells at them.

Vampires stare at her, but the rogues growl loudly.

I can’t help but growl louder.

“Why should we tell you?” one shouts. “They wanted you, and you killed our masters.”

I stare at them, stunned.

“Stay put,” I mutter to Alpha Dawson and Drake. I walked toward Izzy but stopped as I got close enough. “Izzy, what are you doing?” I asked her quietly.

Izzy glances up at me. “They are the ones who run away from the war,” she says quietly.

I frown. “They are cowards,” I say to her, but Izzy shakes her head. “Blake, remember what the vampires that brought Archer to me said? Most of the followers were forced into it. They had no choice in the matter.” I stared at her, but I remembered what she told me, what the woman told her.

I said nothing.

Axel is close to the surface, but he stares at Izzy. “Puna and mate,” he says quietly. He moves back slightly to look at me. “They want to try something,” he says. “We should let them help.”

I said nothing, but we had to come up with something.

Rogues have been coming in here, terrorizing the pack members. But it would be helpful if we knew why. If any of them try anything or even hurt Izzy, I will kill them.

I stepped back slightly but glanced at Drake. He looks at me and nods. I turn back at my mate, who has now walked closer to the rogues and vampires.

“I know I killed your masters, but why are you coming back here?” she yells at them. Rogues snigger and snarl at her, but I glanced toward the vampires. They looked at her, but something was written all over their faces. There was no hate in their eyes; they showed admiration toward her, Izzy.

Izzy looks between the rogues and vampires, but no one speaks.

Izzy takes a step closer and stops. “I killed them because they wanted something from me, and I would not let a power-hungry elder and an old witch and vampire take it. They would have brought death and destruction to the world; you all know it,” she yells. “I never meant to hurt your loved ones, but those you stood by targeted me. I needed to protect myself and to protect my family and pack.”

Axel was up on all fours. A sense of pride washed over him as he stared at Izzy. I couldn’t help the same feeling; she was showing what a true Luna should be.

Izzy looks over at me but turns back to them. “I’m a panther shifter,” she says. “I am the one with the power that can kill all. I will kill you if you hurt this pack, and I will die protecting them.”

I stood firm, but I could feel someone standing next to me. “She is one true Luna,” says Alpha Dawson as I turned to look at him.

I looked back.

Izzy paces back and forth, but her eyes never leave the rogues and vampires.

“What do you want?” she yells at them.

Silence fills the field, but a vampire and rogue step forward a few seconds later. I couldn’t help but feel guarded. If they hurt her, I will rip every single one of them apart, I thought. Axel agreed with me.

“We want what you have,” says a rogue.

I looked at him, confused.

“We want peace,” says the vampire. “Many of us followers had no option in following those against you. We never wanted a war, we wanted to live in peace, but now we have nowhere to live.”

“The elder master told us we could live here,” says the rogue. I could hear growls from behind me from pack members.

The rogues growl back, but the rogue in front holds his hand up, and all rogues quieten down.

“We know we hurt many people in this pack, but we were under orders from the elder,” he says.

I stare at Izzy as she watches and listens to what they say. “You believed an old man’s beliefs that he was brought up on. In his eyes, werewolves, vampires, and other shifters were never meant to live together or even mate,” she says. “I know that, as he was the one who killed my mother.”

I stare back at the vampires and rogues. All were listening to Izzy; they didn’t seem hostile anymore. They wanted someone to hear them, to listen to them. Something that none of us had done before, but the ones that were in here before have been brutal. We had to kill them to stop an attack.

“I come from a line of ancestors who have power,” Izzy shouts, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Rogues, vampires, and even hunters targeted me. They were to bring me back to the witch and vampire, and they even had an evil vampire who wanted me for his own gain.”

Vampires look at one another and then back to Izzy. “You were the girl we had to get for that devil,” shouted a woman vampire.

Izzy nods. “I was, but I killed him with my power,” she says.

Vampires and rogues muttered to one another, but the vampire and rogue in front brought them to a halt. “We don’t want to cause harm,” says the rogue. “Some wolves you see here before you were once noble men and women from packs that were destroyed over the years. Elder Johnson tormented the smaller packs to gain his followers; the ones that didn’t follow were given to the vampires to eat.”

“The vampires before you,” shouts the vampire in front. “Many of them had lost their loved ones, mates, especially when they didn’t want to follow Amir into battle. He even pretended to be mated to the dark witch so that she could do his bidding. The rogues and vampires before you don’t want to harm any of you,” yells the rogue. “We want to know if we could join the pack.”

I stare at them in disbelief. I could hear mummers from behind me; I knew the pack members were talking. I glanced over to the pack, and the man who stood before us was staring at the rogue in front. I looked back at the man in question. I couldn’t see his features, but something was telling me he knew the rogue somehow.

Alpha Dawson looks at the man and then at the rogue. “It seems they may be family,” he says. I look at him, and Alpha Dawson stares at me. “Remember what he said? Many pack members were forced into the war and never had an option,” he says. He looks over to the pack members and then back to the rogues. “Many pack members haven’t uttered a word; they know most of those rogues.”

I looked at Izzy, and she was staring at Alpha Dawson and me. I could feel someone behind me. “Izzy wants them to join the pack, doesn’t she?” Dale asks. I look at my best friend, and he smiles. “I wanted to bring you back, your mate has been pining for you, and I needed to get your arse back,” he says.

I glanced over to Izzy, who was staring at me, but she turned to the rogues and vampires. “Are any of you from the Red Moon pack?” she asks.

Some mummers come from both sides, and a few rogues step forward. There were gasps from behind us, and even someone was crying. “Dad,” a woman shouts.

Izzy looks to the pack members of the Red Moon and then back to the rogues. “I believe we can come to some understanding; if you want to join, you may. No one will hurt you if you want to join the pack. Not even the vampires,” she says. “Alpha Blake and I will accept any new members into our pack as well. We only live an hour away from here.”

The vampires and rogues talked over one another, but the man in front got them all to be quiet once again. “I think we should talk in private,” he yells. “The vampires and rogues will leave for now, but we can go back with a verdict for them when we come to an agreement.”

Izzy smiles, “that’s fair,” she says.

The two men turn to the vampires and rogues; after a moment, all of them turn around and head through the forest.

The two men walk toward Izzy.

Alpha Dawson and I walk toward her, and I glance back at Drake, who is walking behind us. Dale stays where he is, but Anya and Anita walk over to him. I step closer to Izzy, and her scent hits me hard.

Fuck, I missed her.

“I’m sorry,” she says quietly. I looked down at her, but she stared ahead. “We will talk after this meeting.”

Izzy was about to say something but closed her mouth as the rogue and vampire approached us.