The Secrets of the Panther
Chapter 29

IZZY

My mate just ran and left me.

He left me in the pack house, on my own.

I knew it was too good to be true.

I knew he couldn’t accept what happened to me.

I knew he couldn’t accept that I had a daughter.

Puna is angry at him, she is growling loudly in my head.

We are standing in the doorway of the pack house, it feels empty.

I can feel my power surging inside me; I need to get out of here.

I am about to leave but something catches my eye.

On the side before you leave the pack house is a cabinet full of photos but there is one that I am drawn to.

One of Luna Lauren standing with a woman, I know her.

All of a sudden a piercing headache gripped me.

I had to shut my eyes due to the pain, but something like a homemade movie came flooding into my head.

****FLASHBACK****

“Please don’t kill me,” the voice shouts. It’s a woman’s voice. Her voice sounds familiar.

I looked around and I am in a cell. Well, more like a cage.

The woman looks at me. “You’re awake, you ok?” she said.

I looked down at my hands and the rest of me, I’m covered in blood.

I can’t tell if it’s mine or someone else.

****FLASHBACK END****

My eyes fly open.

The woman in my vision is the woman in the photo with Luna Lauren.

I go to open the cabinet to retrieve the photo but another photo stares back at me.

This one has Graham in it with his mate, but there’s an old man standing next to him with a woman with red hair.

It happens again.

I have a piercing headache, I have to shut my eyes again.

****FLASHBACK*****

“Get off me,” the woman screams.

I know that voice.

I hear her voice in my dreams.

It can’t be.

“You will die,” a man’s voice said, “We don’t want your kind with ours.”

There is another voice talking, saying the same words over and over.

“Father, I want him to be mine,” another voice said and I know this one.

“He will, he is coming to reject her and when he does, this one will die as a result,” he said with a snarl. “You gave him the potion, he won’t know what he did.”

“Please don’t do this!” screams the voice.

****END OF FLASHBACK*****

I opened my eyes again.

I can feel wet on my cheeks, I touch them.

I’m crying.

The voice I heard was my mother, my mother was begging for her life. The image was so real. It was like I was there.

I have to get out of there; I grab the two photos from the frames but the photo behind the two I pick up shocks me to the core.

There in the photo stood Alpha Drake with an older version of himself but they were not alone.

There on the other side of the older man was a boy.

A boy who I thought was human, but obviously knew about shifters.

There staring back at me was the one who made me broken.

Michael.

I couldn’t help but stare at the picture.

I grab the frames and break them, taking the photographs from each one out.

I need to figure this out.

“Izzy!" Puna shouted. “You ok?”

I didn’t realize that I was holding my breath.

Puna comes forward and stares at the photos.

She growls in my head.

I place the photos in my pocket.

I turn to leave and run out of the pack house.

I head straight for Kat’s house.

I don’t stop till I run inside.

I pant hard; she looks at me with a worried look.

“What the hell are these, Kat?” I asked with a bit of a shout.

I grabbed the photos from my pocket and threw them at her, my anger spilling over.

My headache comes again.

I don’t know what is happening to me.

Kat picks up the photos and looks at them with a shocked expression written on her face.

“Kat, please tell me” I shouted but the headache is too much for me to take.

I let out a loud scream and fall to my knees.

My head is pounding so hard that I don’t even feel the hand that comes on my shoulder.

Within seconds I fall on the floor screaming as a flow of memories comes.

Memory after memories come through me.

All the emotions that I felt at the time. Every pain I had, coming to the surface.

I scream out, as I see everything.

Everything that I went through, not just my mother, Michael, hunters, vampires, and more wolves than I dare to mention, but people who wanted me for my power.

Hunters tearing me apart with knives to Kat and Todd helping me but knew I was weak.

The tiny cage a vampire kept me in after he kidnapped me and kept me like a caged animal. The torture that came with it feeling every single piece of weapon he used on me.

The pain gets overwhelming again as Alpha Drake comes through and tortures me into submission to be his, he tortured me but I never give up. The room was dark. But I knew more people were there, there was a man in a rope, another vampire but there is someone else in the background looking on as if he knew me, wanted me but he has scars on his face as he was mauled by a big animal but he also only has one eye, a red one.

I can feel his hunger for blood, knowing he could feed off me. His eyes go black underneath with veins sticking out; the sight of a vampire wanting blood is the most shocking and disgusting thing to witness.

But this guy, he knows me but how!

I thought it was all over but suddenly, there was also another scream coming from me, another set of memories flowing into my mind… I am in a closet looking through a peephole of the slant.

My mother hid me as she opened the door and three of them came in. The red-haired woman and the older man, but it was the third person I saw, it was my father’s other mate. The red-haired woman was a witch; she poured a potion down my mother’s throat and chanted the same words over and over as the man held her in place.

Linda begged that the potion she gave Graham better work.

The man tells my mother that my father will reject her and she will soon die.

I scream some more as another image pops into my head…

My father is coming to reject my mother, she begs him not to do this. He looks completely out of it. He rejects her and leaves, I run to the door and start running after him.

I collapsed on the floor in the middle of the road, crying for the man who I wanted to make everything better.

I come out of retrieving my memories; the hand is still on my shoulder.

I am crying.

I can’t take anymore.

The person who had their hand on my shoulder comes in front of me and lifts my chin up, I look into her eyes. “Izzy,” she said in a soft voice. “It’s ok.”

I cry but look at her. “Lena, you’re here.”

Puna is struggling with all the memory flashbacks of everything that I just received.

The power rages deep inside like a fire ready to explode.

Puna is angry and needs out.

I start to shift, I can see Lena being pulled back and there are other people now in the house.

The power magnifies and I can’t help but shift.

Puna is in full form and growling loudly.

Everything is heightened.

We want to kill.

We want blood.

Puna growls louder and everyone is either scared or trying to stop whoever is trying to come to us, but it is the scent of strawberries that comes closer that starts to make us look.

I know that scent; I have missed it so much.

I come closer to see through Luna’s eyes, and I can see her.

Allie.

Allie is now staring at Puna, she is amazed and climbs out of someone’s arms. They try to grab her but someone stops them, shaking their head.

I don’t know who else is there but I know they all look on as the little girl takes a closer step towards the terrifying big black cat in front of her.

“Why is she coming close to me?” Puna panted.

Suddenly, I stared at Allie and a smile slips on my face.

“She wants you to stop, she loves us, and she wants us to be calm for her,” I said.

This is the first time I have ever seen Puna calmly changes her emotions as she stared at Allie.

Allie slowly sticks out her hand, but Puna moves her head to her hand for her to stroke her.

Puna starts purring into Allie.

“You won’t hurt us, mummy, you love us,” she said in her sweet little voice.

“I love you both,” she said as she wraps her arms around Puna’s neck which startles Puna for a moment but slowly calms instantly.

Allie’s scent calms Puna and me down straight away.

After a few moments, I slowly shift back into human form with Allie still holding onto me, she looks up and stares at me with her big blue eyes. “Mummy, I love you,” she said and hugs me again.

I put my head into her neck and sniffed her scent. Strawberries were my mother’s scent too but with Allie, it is pure bliss.

I know everyone is looking at us but I don’t care.

I am holding my daughter for the first time in weeks.

After a few moments, there is another intoxicating scent wafting toward me.

I know who it is.

He is here!