The Secrets of the Panther
Chapter 3

KAT

I can’t believe Izzy is here. I have missed her so much over the last two years. She wanted to travel. Who could blame her? She has been through so much over the last ten years.

I knew the lavender and sage in her room would knock her and Puna out cold. I need her rested but also safe.

He has been outside, lurking in the shadows, watching her coming back home.

I walk out the door and lock it. I know he is still watching. He wants to see her. But she hates him so much for leaving her and for what he did to her mum. I walk down the drive and I notice him standing to the right of me.

“She looks just like Lucy,” he says.

I look at him and give him a grim look. Although he is Izzy’s father, what he did was unforgivable. I don’t like him either after all the shit he put my sister through. “You shouldn’t be here, she doesn’t want to see you,” I say. “By the way, she met your son and he asked to come to the party tonight but she refused,” I snarl back.

“I heard, she follows Lucy with her feistiness,” he says.

“Stop saying my sister's name, you have no right to say it,” I snarl at him and walk around him.

He looks hurt. “Kat please, you know what happened?” He says with guilt all in his voice. “I had no choice in the matter.”

I quickly turn around to come face to face in front of him, and I growl, my panther is going to shred him with a new arsehole if he doesn’t shut up. “You have some nerve saying that. I won’t be surprised if Izzy knows more about what happened,” I say. “Also you need to back away, she really hates you, well more like loathes you. As for your son, she doesn’t know him or that daughter of yours so if I were you, keep them away from her for now.”

He looks down at me with a blank expression. “Kat please, I want to know my daughter,” he says.

“Graham,” I say with disgust in my voice like his name is poison to say, “back off, I am warning you now. You, that mate of yours, your children, and also that old Alpha you chose over your family better leave her be or you might be surprised at what she can do. She has been through more than any of you know,” I say, realizing that I have said too much.

“What do you mean? What has she been through?” He says, his face showing shock but he quickly recovers. Like hell am I telling him, that’s not my story to tell?

I turn and walk, the cafe is only around the corner from the house I live in.

“Kat tells me, please” he shouts and carries on following me. I open the door to the cafe, it’s closing time. Well, we are closing early as everyone is going to the ceremony.

Alice, standing behind the counter, has a smile on her face as I walk in but it soon disappears when she sees Graham. She hates him too.

“Kat,” he says. “You can’t keep those things from me. She is my daughter.”

I have had enough of this prick. He never bothered about Izzy for the last ten years. I am only back living here because I have to, for Alice.

I turn around and come face to face with him.

“Listen carefully, you piece of crap, you have never been in her life. I don’t have to tell you shit. You never came back for her, even those times I sent you messages. You are not and will never be her father” I say with a hiss. “I had to bring up her and Alice on my own jackass, with no support from you. You want to know Izzy, you come in here and talk to her or better yet wait till she wants to talk to you which I can tell you now it will never be.”

I can feel his shame running off him but before I can tell him more, his son Dale walks in with the new Alpha, Blake.

They both look at us, Dale realizing the tension and probably the situation that is in front of him. “Dad, why are you here?” He asks, looking between me and his father.

His father recovers and presses his lips into a hard line on his face.

“Kat, what is the meaning of this?” Says the young Alpha.

I look at them all, stupid wolves.

“She was just telling this jackoff where to go and not to come back,” says Alice as she comes and stands next to me.

There is a loud growl. “Don’t show disrespect in front of my cat, I will kill you” he says through gritted teeth.

Alice slips a growl through. “You might be Alpha. I might be part of the pack but you will not ask my mother anything that doesn’t regard you,” she says.

I don’t want her to get into trouble, but I stare at Blake, “I am asking Graham to leave, it is not the best time to be here, especially now,” I say.

Graham and Dale are standing on opposite sides to Blake but I have one more thing to say “Here are the cakes for the ceremony, leave now,” I say through gritted teeth. “And Alpha, you talk to my daughter like that again, you will see what a cat can do.”

He looks at me stunned for a moment. I never let my anger spill over this much and he knew me before he left to train the packs.

“Kat, I will be the new Alpha soon, please,” he says.

I look at Graham and Dale “You two are not coming in here when Izzy is here, you hear me!” I say but I couldn’t help the loud snarl my panther lets out “I mean it, I will tear you a new arsehole if you come in here and cause any trouble. She doesn’t want to know you.”

“You can’t stop me from seeing my daughter,” Graham grunts.

But the bell rings on the door to the cafe, I know who it is, her scent fills the cafe.

Graham tenses.

Oh crap, she is not happy.