The Secrets of the Panther
Chapter 18

**TRIGGER WARNING**

IZZY

I woke up with a start.

Fear ran over me but I quickly realized I wasn't in Kat's house.

I glanced around and realized I was up high in a tree. I could feel Puna watching me.

“You were dreaming again?” Puna said. She stretches out but looks down and around to make sure no one is around.

I look through her eyes and don’t say anything.

“We should talk,” she said. “I want to know why I was brought back early from my slumber.”

I needed to tell her, this was going to be hard.

It is also the main reason for hating the idea of a mate, or more like why I didn’t want one.

I closed my eyes.

“Yeah, I think we need to talk about it, Puna. I know you can sense something is wrong with me,” I murmured. I know I have to tell her. “I don’t talk about it as it hurts so much.”

Puna looks ahead. “Please tell me, I have waited long enough, Izzy.”

I sighed and looked through her eyes so she could feel my presence. I need her to feel everything, all the emotions I have. She will know as I have a run-by-run play of everything that happened to go through my head, she will feel everything.

“Well, when you left, Kat decided we should leave and live in a human town. She placed me in a human school. I wasn’t popular at all but I did get noticed by this bad boy called Michael. He was a year older than me. I was fifteen years old at the time. Everything went ok at the start and he was nice,” I said.

“Why were you with a human?” she grunts. “You knew we had a mate waiting for us.”

I closed my eyes as I know all this is going to come at once as I tried to keep my emotions in check.

“Well, it’s not what you think. I only kissed him, nothing else. He wanted to take my virginity but I wouldn’t allow him as I wanted to wait for my mate," I said, trying to keep calm. "He tried everything, but he soon got really angry. He started hurting me, Puna. Hitting me. It started once every so often but only where no one couldn’t see the bruises. I had to be careful with who I spoke to, if he didn’t like them he would hurt me."

Puna growled.

“If I was there, I would have ripped his throat out,” she gritted out. I tried to calm down but suddenly she asked. “Where was Kat?” As she was getting really concerned and a little angry, she could tell I could feel her emotions and she calmed down as best she could. “I’m sorry Izzy, I don’t like hearing this.”

“There is more Puna, you need to calm down though as it gets worse,” I said. “Kat was with Todd. I always made sure I was out of their way as they were always at it like rabbits.”

Puna snorted and started to laugh.

Once she settles down, I carried on.

"Anyway, things were escalating badly. This all happened within six months, Puna," I said. "The night before I was mugged, someone took everything and even hit me. I was rushed to the hospital. A nurse called Kat. I was in the hospital for a few hours. I had to lie to them about my injuries as some were from Michael."

I took a deep breath and continued.

"Michael found out from Alice as she thought I would have told him about what happened. He was livid but didn’t say or show anything when he arrived, he made sure he was the best boyfriend in the world towards me," I said. "I didn’t think anything of it as he usually acted nice beforehand. The day came and he told Kat that he was going to pick me up from the hospital. I remember getting in the car and realizing that he wasn't taking me home. Out of nowhere, he stuck something over my mouth which made me pass out. He took me to an abandoned warehouse, where he tied me up and tortured me for hours.”

Tears escaped and Puna was angry but she was holding it together, even though our power was raging. She was waiting patiently for me to finish. “Izzy, you don’t...” she started to say but I shook my head “No, I have to. You asked why I don’t want a mate. This is one of many reasons, but this is the main one. You know the others as I let you roam in my head.”

Puna growled loudly knowing what I am on about.

“This one was hard to tell you as he hurt me Puna. He really hurt me,” I whispered.

I closed my eyes and continued.

“He tortured me for hours, I was covered in bruises and blood,” I murmured.

“That scar we got on our thigh, that’s from him, wasn’t it?” she blurts out, taking me a few seconds to what she was on about.

Puna looks at the scar in between her fur.

I nodded.

“Yeah but the worst came, I didn’t know Todd was out looking for me with Kat. Michael told me that he sent a text saying goodbye to Kat telling her I didn’t want to be here anymore, making out I wanted to end my life. I was afraid, Puna, I was weak due to the torture but he grabbed my throat hard and squeezed hard. He...”

I can't even finish what I wanted to say as I am a complete mess, I don’t know if I can tell her.

“Show me, Izzy,” She said.

I had no options. This was hard to talk about. I needed her to know.

I closed my eyes as we connect as one.

Our power morphs inside us, it connects us.

One thing about our power, it makes us become one. I can show Puna my memories. No one knows we have this power. I let her see it all. I show her the whole torture and finally the part that I can’t say.

The rape.

He raped me over and over again. He didn’t just do it once, he repeated it three times.

I was completely numb, his breath against my ear as he grunted, telling me how he wanted me, and to the moans, as he comes inside me.

When he was finished, he kneels down by my side and says, “That’s all I ever wanted from you, you should have given it to me willingly and maybe we would have been better.”

Once the images rushed through both of us.

Puna is heartbroken and crying.

“Izzy I am so sorry, I wish you told me. You didn’t say anything to me when I came through. I thought you were being silly and naive. I didn’t realize,” She cried.

I couldn’t help the sob that left me and let my tears and emotions take over me.

Tears flow freely now, between Puna and me.

She is in shock, anger, and rage.

Something clicked inside her head.

“Allie is his child,” she says in a whisper.

I can’t speak, all I could do was nod.

“That pure child has us, Puna. You have been around her. You have smelt her scent. She is ours. I had my reasons for not telling you who her father was at the start, I had to be a mother first but the way she was conceived was the worst way possible,” I said.

Allie’s image comes into my head, her sweet smile and her big blue eyes, staring back at me.

I miss my little girl so much.

Due to all the crying, we both fell asleep in the tree again, slipping into the darkness.

I needed to rest. But Puna’s love came through and it was like a warm blanket. It made me feel safe from everything.