The Secrets of the Panther
Chapter 16

IZZY.

I slept for thirty hours.

I must have needed it.

It felt good. After everything I went through the other day and night, I needed it.

I looked over at the clock, it was eight am.

Kat did try to wake me up but I couldn’t get up, so she let me sleep. I only woke up a few times to go to the bathroom but I was so exhausted that I fell right back to sleep.

“You okay, Puna,” I asked as I lay on the bed looking at the ceiling.

After the whole day and night from hell, with our mate being with another woman, she was pacing in my head for a while but didn’t talk to me but soon drifted off to sleep.

“I’m okay, Izzy, just pissed off at him,” she said. “Can we ignore him for a while?”

I agreed with her.

“Yeah that would be fine with me but I am not giving him a chance,” I said.

She doesn’t say anything but she is close, looking at the ceiling with me. “Izzy” she said. “You are hiding something from me and I know you will tell me when you are ready but if it involves our mate we need to discuss it, okay."

I don’t say anything.

“You were talking in your sleep, you kept saying no, Michael,” Puna muttered.

I freeze.

I am not ready to open that bag of worms just yet for her to deal with. It happened when she went back into her slumber, but Puna was forced to come back out when I needed healing really quickly after that.

I sighed.

“We should get up and see Kat,” I murmured to Puna as she settles back down.

“If we see our mate, we will ignore him,” she grunted.

“I did say we would,” I gritted out feeling frustrated.

I get up and take a quick shower. I get dressed and head downstairs to replace Kat in the kitchen. She looks up at me and smiles. “Good Morning, sleeping beauty. How are you feeling now honey?” She asks as she comes over to give me a hug and a kiss on the forehead.

I hug her back and smile. “I’m okay, I think I needed the sleep.”

I take a seat by the counter while she hands me my breakfast and a mug of coffee. I noticed the time, it was half past eight. “Who has opened the cafe?” I asked as I place a mouthful of bacon into my mouth.

She smiled.

“Alice just opened up, you don’t have to come in till this evening,” she said. “That’s if you want to, we know that you have been through a lot.”

She gives me a small smile.

“How are you feeling about the whole thing?” She said as she takes a seat on the opposite side of me.

I finish my food quickly. I just remembered that I haven’t had much food to eat either. I take my mug in my hands and take a sip before I comment to her.

“I’m ok, I guess, I don’t want to see him though,” I muttered. “I also still don’t want to see Graham either.”

She looks at me and nodded.

“That’s understandable hunny, take your time. Get to know...” but before she could continue her sentence I cut her off. “Kat, I don’t want a mate, especially one who can’t keep it in his pants even if his beer was spiked.”

She looks taken aback.

“Not everyone is like...” but I growled, stopping her. I didn't want Puna hearing the conversation.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I grit out and drink the full mug.

Changing the subject quickly.

“If it is ok with you Kat, can I shift? Puna and I haven’t had a run in a while,” I asked.

I really needed to get out of here.

Kat looks at me, a little hurt but recovers and smiles. “Yeah, you go, come straight to the cafe. Do you want me to take some clothes just in case?”

I looked at her and nodded.

“Yes please,” I said. “I won’t be too long I promise.”

Kat walked over to me and hugs me once again.

I go straight to the back door and strip out of my clothes. I shift into Puna and run, leaving my clothes on the back doorstep with Kat.

Puna takes over and runs for miles; this feels so good. The wind between our fur, the mud in between our paws. It feels like heaven.

“You know what we haven’t done in a while," Puna said, "Is sleep in a tree.”

I laughed.

“Yeah that would be cool, it will be like we never left the last forest were in, staying away from hunters,” I said

She giggled.

We keep running until we come to a river. Puna drinks from it. It is so peaceful here.

Suddenly a branch snaps and Puna shot into action, ready to pounce on whatever or whoever is behind us.

A wolf.

The scent wafts over to me and growl.

I know that smell.

Dale.

I growl at him, making sure he doesn’t take another step closer to me as his wolf stares at us.

Suddenly Dale goes behind a tree and shifts back into his human form. He comes around and holds his hands up. “Izzy, please I got a T-shirt for you, please can we talk?” He asked.

Puna keeps growling.

“Can you smell anyone else?” I asked Puna and she sniffs the air, there is another scent with him, a female.

Puna growls louder.

“Hey, it’s our sister Kacey, we wanted to meet you but Kat told us that you were out for a run. We don’t want to hurt you. We want to get to know you,” he mumbles and looks behind him.

Puna is still growling loudly at the person behind him.

A woman, two or three years younger with red hair comes into view with her hands held up like she was going to get shot.

“Izzy, My name is Kacey.”

“What do you want to do Izzy?” Puna grits out.

I look through her eyes and I know it is just them, no one else. “I will take control of Puna but as soon as you sense they want to hurt me or I want to, we shift back.”

Puna smiled.

“Oh, trust me if they try anything, I am ripping their throats out if they do anything. But I will promise you I will take over,” she said.

Puna goes behind a tree for me to shift back and Dale tosses the T-shirt over to me, once it is on I step out to see my half-siblings.

I can't help but look at them.

Dale looks like Graham and Kacey looks like HER, I am assuming.

I look at them and they are both smiling at me.

“It is nice to meet you,” said Kacey as she takes a step toward me but I instantly take a step back. She stops and looks at her brother. “Trust me, Izzy, we won’t hurt you,” Dale said.

“I know you won’t as I will kill you before either of you can do anything,” I growled. “What do you want?”

They both look back at me.

“We wanted to meet you and get to know our older sister,” said Kacey. “Also you are Blakes’ mate.”

I growl loudly.

“He is not my mate.”

She looks startled.

“Why? He told us and Dale was there when he said it,” she murmured.

I huffed.

“Well for a mate, he is a dick to think he could go with another wolf while he found his mate. I felt everything he did with her,” I hissed.

They both look stunned.

“How is that even possible,” Dale whispered. “You both just met.”

I looked at them, they don’t know about my powers.

“You know nothing about me or what I am but he is an Alpha is he not, it must be due to that and the fact we are both different shifters,” I said.

They take in what I said. “Yeah that could be true,” Dale said, who looks hurt. “I am sorry, Izzy.”

“Why should you be sorry? You are not the stupid mate who did it,” I hissed at him.

“I mean, I am sorry that you went through that. Alice and Paul found him with Kelly,” he said.

I looked at them.

“They are trying Izzy,” Puna murmured. “They might be your father’s blood, but they seem not to be like him.”

I looked at them, I mean looked at them. They both followed me here. They want to get to know me.

“Alice told us, you moved around a lot,” Kacey said, trying to make conversation. She takes a seat on a log near to her brother, as he stood.

“Yeah, I did,” I said. “I had to...” but stopped. They don’t need to know about the hunters yet.

“We know about the hunters, Izzy,” Dales muttered.

I look at him, puzzled.

“How do you know about the hunters?” I asked.

Kacey looked at me. “Alice told us last night with us and her mate, Paul. Blake was given a sedative due to being spiked,” she said.

Alice told them about the hunters. Wait did she say Alice has a mate?

I growled.

“Alice doesn’t have a mate and I really don’t care about Blake,” I gritted. Puna comes close. She knows I am getting agitated. That normally sets my power off.

“Yeah, she does, she and Paul are mates,” she said, looking at me strangely.

“She hasn’t told you, has she?” Dale said suddenly putting the two and two together.

I looked at him. Why wouldn’t she have told me ? “She probably knows that you hate wolves,” Puna suddenly said in my head.

“You lie!” I shouted. “She would have told me.”

“Izzy, they are mates. Alice and Paul have been mates for the last few months,” Kacey said, getting up from the rock and steps closer to me.

I move away so I am nowhere near either of them.

Kacey looks hurt but I don't care.

I try to wrap my head around what they have just told me. My own cousin didn’t even tell me about her mate.

I know I don’t like the idea of mates but she could have told me, I would have supported her and also be happy for her.

I would never tell anyone not to be with their mates. I made my mind up a long time ago but I would never force anyone to believe what I do.

I am angry, and confused. My power is coming through.

Dale looks at me, startled.

“He can sense our power,” Puna shouted in my head and comes closer in my human form.

Both of them look stunned.

“Izzy, your eyes” Kacey whispered, who now moves quickly to Dale.

“You know what we have, don’t you,” Puna shouts in my voice. She lets off more of the power, both of them look like they want to be sick.

“Don’t mess with us,” she growls.

“We won’t tell anyonem” Kacey whispered but Puna growled.

“I don’t want that father of yours to know,” she shouted.

Kacey looks hurt but Dale takes a step closer.

“We won’t tell anyone, not even our father or mother,” he said. “We don’t know the full story about what happened between our father and your mother.”

Puna growls, cutting him off.

I step closer to make us both together.

I heard enough.

I look towards the clearing. “Puna, I want to go,” I said to her.

I let her take control, as she shreds the t-shirt and shifts back into her form.

Puna growls at them and heads into the clearing.

“Please Izzy, don’t be like this” Dale shouts but I have heard enough.

Puna runs as fast as she could, away from them.

We ran for a long time.

We needed to burn some steam off.

I am still angry.

I am angry at Alice for not telling me about her mate.

I am angry at our stupid mate.

I am angry at the hunters.

I am just angry about everything.

We come to the side clearing of the forest where the back of the cafe is but I don’t want to go in.

“How about that tree sleeping you mentioned earlier?” I asked Puna, looking at her. Her eyes met mine as she nodded. I can tell she knows how I am feeling about everything.

I needed to calm down.

I needed to make sure I am in a better head space for the cafe, to be around Kat and especially Alice.

Puna climbs up and settles on a branch a little higher from the ground, so we can see below and the cafe back door.

“You okay, Izzy?” Puna asked.

I stared through her eyes as I am collecting my emotions together. I know I have to tell her what happened to me but I don’t know how.

“Yeah, I am fine, Puna. Let’s sleep,” I said with a yawn.

Puna yawns and stretches out on the branch to sleep.

We both are in the land of nod within seconds as we let the darkness take over us.