The Secrets of the Panther
Chapter 63

BLAKE

A nurse comes rushing out of the room. She looks around, and her eyes land on me. “Young Alpha, you need to come to the room,” she says in a rushed tone. “It’s your mate.”

I hand Allie over to Lena; the nurse looks at me; she nods at me to follow her, which I do.

Izzy’s room is close to the waiting room. The pack doctor examines her as we walk in. I can’t help the growl that slips past my mouth.

The pack doctor looks at me, startled. “Young alpha, sorry, but I was just checking her vitals,” he says and moves away.

“How is she?” I ask him as my eyes scan the bed and land on my unconscious mate.

I could feel the pack doctor’s eyes on me. “Physically, she is fine,” he says.

I look at him. “There is something you are not telling me,” I say to him—his face says much more.

Axel comes closer to see. “He doesn’t know what’s wrong with her,” he says.

The pack doctor clears his throat. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her, I have run some blood work on her which will help narrow anything I have missed, but I heard that your mate has power, but there is nothing in any books about such power,” he says.

I look back at my mate. “What do you mean?” I ask him as I walk closer to the bed; the nurse moves out of the way to get closer, but the nurse leaves as I hear the door close behind her. I take Izzy’s hand into mine and look back at the doctor.

The pack doctor walks close to the bed and places his hand on the bottom rail. “I have asked for history on cat shifters, but there are not around,” he says with a grim look but stares back. “It seems Elder Johnson had all the books about them removed when his daughter became Graham’s mate.”

I snarl.

The pack doctor looks back, a little afraid, but carries on. “I need to ask for access from a council member to see if they have any information about them or if they know of where I can replace anything about them,” he tells me.

“We have a council member on our side; she is trying to make sure Elder Johnson may not go near here but also where he can use his influence on anyone,” I say.

The pack doctor nods, but I carry on. “Tell my father what you told me; once he replaces out, he can contact our council member to let her know about the books that are missing,” I said.

“Thank you, young alpha,” he says. He turns to leave, he places his hand on the door handle, but before he goes, “Young alpha, does your mate know anything about her family legacy?” He asks.

I look at him and shake my head. “There are a few members here who are her family members; why do you ask?” I ask him.

“I want to know why your mate and her child look so much alike,” he says. “There must be something in the family heritage about it; it might be the best place to ask her family about it.”

I look back at him. “Why are you so hell-bent on replaceing out about my mate?” I ask.

Something is niggling me about this as Axel glares at the pack doctor too, as he wants some alone time with our mate.

The pack doctor takes his hand off the door handle and turns to look at me. “I wanted to give your mate my best care,” he says and looks at my mate, then back at me. “But not only that, I wanted to know because the pack needs to know what she is.”,

I growl. “You have no right to know anything, not until we know the whole story. You might be the pack doctor and looking after my mate but I will state this really nicely doc,” I snarl at him and move closer to him but stop just in front of him. “My mate is nothing but your concern medically; as for what she is and about, you will know when every other pack member does.”

The pack doctor stares back at me and gulps. “I am sorry, young alpha. I didn’t mean no disrespect,” he says, turning to open the door and leaving.

I let out a sigh and turn to walk back to the bed; I pull the chair from the corner. I sit and hold Izzy’s hand in mine. The mate bond shot through me like a lightning bolt, sending a shiver through me right down into the pit of my stomach.

“The doctor was right,” says Axel. “We need to replace out about mate.”

I grunt. “You taking his side, what about…” I say, but Axel shakes his head at me, “I think pack doctor is stupid, but we all need to know more about mate. We need to know what they found out about all this and how they figured it out. They must know about mate and her family.”

Axel is right. I open a mind link to my father. “Dad, can you send Kat and Alice in here?” I ask him, “I need to ask them questions about something.”

“I guess it is to do with Izzy, and you had a go at the pack doctor,” he says. “The poor man wanted to piss himself when he came out of the room.”

I smirk. “I know, but he has some information for you. You will need to have some people look into it, but I need to ask Alice and Kat something about their family side, something that he said is making me wonder something.”

There were a few moments of silence. “I will send them in. Lena is coming in too, but Allie is with your mother and aunt; they are taking her to watch some Disney movies.”

I smile at the thought. “Thank you, Dad. Can you stay with them too?” I ask him. “I want to make sure he is around family. Also, keep Graham, Kacey, Dale, and Todd there too. I need to replace it out from them all by myself, and we will have a meeting about it all later on.”

“Alright, son,” he says and shuts down the mind link to me.

I turn to look at Izzy; she looks so pale but peaceful.

Both Kat and Alice walk in a few moments later, with Lena following in after them, closing the door behind her.

All three of them stare at Izzy. “How is she?” asked Kat in a small voice.

“She’s ok physically, healing,” I say to her. “But the pack doctor was asking questions about her powers; where did they come from?”

Kat stares at me; Alice’s eyes go wide. “Why would he ask about that?” She asks.

I keep my eyes on Kat, but talk to Alice. “The pack doctor wanted some information about the cat shifters as there have been books on your kind; there are a lot of questions that we don’t know about,” I say.

Kat stares back at me, but stays quiet. I can tell everyone is looking at us, “What the hell, mum?” Says Alice, “Do you know something?”

Kat closes her eyes, but when she opens them, her panther comes forward. “You have some nerve talking to my human-like that,” she says but sighs; she looks towards Izzy.

I look towards Izzy, but back to her.

After a few moments, “We know little about the power of Puna and Izzy,” she says, “The only thing we know is it runs in our family blood.”

Kat’s panther looks at me. “There is a story that a family of panthers used to run with some witches. There was one in particular. Her name was Clara. The story goes she was born into a family of panther shifters but never looked like any of her family members. Hunters killed all of her family but left her as she was in human form; they never thought that she was one of them. Clara wanted to take revenge on the hunters,” she said and moved to the other side of the bed.

“Clara went to the witches for help, but soon found that one of them was in line with the hunters. The main witch was a warlock; Clara had built-up rage from the attack on her family. Her emotions became her key. Her panther was doormat till she was ready for attack, but when hers came through, they said that emotions of the panther are lethal if they don’t deal with their rage or whatever emotion,” she says.

“Clara and some witches worked together to save everyone in the coven and every shifter,” she says. “There were never any pictures of Clara back then, but some say that Lucy, Izzy, and Allie all look like her, but I can’t be too certain.”

I look at her. “What happened to Clara and the witches?” I asked.

Kat’s mouth turned in a wide grin. “Clara defeated all that wronged everyone, even lived a happy life,” she says, but she closes her eyes.

Kat sits on the bed and takes Izzy’s hand in hers. When she opens them backup, it is Kat now. “I knew little about what happened in the history, but my panther knew,” she says and looks at me. “When Izzy was on the run, I wanted to look up everything about our kind, but I found nothing. We moved around a lot, but there were few cat shifters around in the places where we ended up.”

“I remember you dragging us to libraries every time we went to a new place,” says Alice. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

Kat looks over her shoulder. “I was trying to make sure you had a life too,” she says and turns to look at Izzy. “Izzy wanted none of this. She wanted her family and to be loved, not all the heartache she has suffered.”

“Izzy didn’t want you involved in any of this, as she wanted you to have the best life,” she says, looking back at her daughter.

Someone clears their throat. I look to see Lena staring at Izzy. “I know little about Izzy or your kind, but I can tell you that my magic reacts to Izzy like it wants to help her in any way possible,” she says and looks at Kat. “Do you think my magic is of the old kind? I mean, back then, when Clara was alive.”

Kat stares off into the distance but comes back and looks at Lena. “My panther thinks it’s possible.”

Lena turns to me. “I think we should talk to that witch,” she says to me. “I think if both you and I go in, we can figure this out.”

I look towards Izzy, but Kat places her hand on mine, making me look up at her. “Go, Blake,” she says with a smile, “Alice and I will monitor Izzy. We need to know what is going on.”

“Blake,” says Alice, “I will let you know when she wakes.”

I smile and get out of the chair.

“Come on then,” I say to Lena, “We need to replace out whatever the witch knows.”