The Secrets of the Panther

IZZY

I look at my daughter, a little shocked, but I don’t know if it is to do with the kiss from Blake or what she said.

Blake clears his throat, making me look back at him; he has a smile.

“I hope we weren’t interrupting anything,” says Kacey with the same smirk she had when she came in.

“I...” I say, but I shake my head to get my emotions in check.

But suddenly, all I could hear in my head was Puna laughing.

“Seriously, Puna,” I say to her. “Oh, did you forget we have a witch to kill?”

At the mention of the witch, Puna stops quickly and instantly growls.

I look back at everyone. “Look, I need to kill Helga,” I say to everyone.

Once the words leave my mouth, everyone looks back at me, confused, but Lena looks at me with scrunched-up eyebrows. “Izzy, why? She saved...” she says, but I cut her off with a low growl.

“She lied to all of us,” I said.

I explained everything in my dream of meeting the Moon Goddess, Clara, Hecate, and my mum. After I told them everything, Alice’s eyes grew at the mention of Clara and my mum. “Izzy, that’s crazy. Why would they tell you all this?” Alice says as she comes closer to me.

I am getting annoyed with her; she’s not listening to me.

“Alice, I need to know,” I said. “I need to know if she is telling us the truth, but I know I can figure it out. She wanted the bond removed so it didn’t kill her mate, which also gives her the option to live a life with him.”

She looks at me and sighs. “I will stay with peanut,” she says, looking at Allie.

But Allie shakes her head. “No, I want mummy,” she says, snuggling up closer to me.

I look down at her; Puna instantly purrs at the sight of her.

“Allie,” I say to her, “Look at me, baby.”

Allie shakes her head as she buries her head into me. Blake moves closer to the bed and picks up Allie in his arms. I can’t help but watch the scene before me.

Allie looks up at him, and she snuggles into him.

“Angel, Mummy, and I need to talk to the lady, that’s all,” he says, looking at me. “I will be with mummy while you stay with auntie Alice. We will be back as soon as we are done talking to her and Allie,” he says, his eyes leaving mine as I watch him and Allie. He lifts her chin for her to look up at him. “Angel, we will all have ice cream and snuggles.”

Allie smiles. “We will,” she says and moves slightly to her knees as she comes up to his chin and leans into his neck. She sniffs in his scent and places her head on his shoulder. “You promise you both will be back with me, and we can all have ice cream, even auntie Alice.”

A snort came from Alice, but my eyes never left Blake and Allie. My mother was right. He cares about her and me.

“I promise, Angel,” he says, moving with her in his arms and pulling her back slightly so she sits on his lap. Allie looks at me with a big smile on her face. “Mummy, be careful,” she says, and she leans over to Alice, who takes her from Blake.

Blake gets up and walks around to the other side of the bed; he places his hand out at me. I look at it and place mine in his. I crawl out of the hospital bed.

“Izzy, we going to need more power,” blurts Puna into my head.

I sit on the edge of the bed and close my eyes. “I know, we just need to get the witch talking about things, but we won’t wait so long as we did with Michael, but we have one element, Lena,” I say to her, and I open my eyes to find Blake crouched down, looking at me. “Are you okay, beautiful?” he says as he places his other hand on my knee, which sends tingles everywhere.

I look back at him. “Yeah, I am,” I say and slowly move. He moves up, placing his hands in front of me to take, which I do.

I stand, but my legs feel like jelly, instantly wanting to buckle underneath me. I slowly move, but I fall into Blake’s arms.

“Lean on me,” he says into my head.

I can tell he is breathing in my scent.

“Axel is close,” says Puna. “He wants to make sure you are okay.”

I smile.

Once I got my balance back, I looked straight at Lena. “I’m going to need your help,” I say to her.

She nods at me. “I will do whatever I can to help,” she says, looking at Dale. “I think both of our mates should be in there with us for the power, the magic that we will use won’t harm them, but I am more worried about her; her magic is causing her to die. We need to do it now.”

I nod to her. I look at Blake. “We need to do this,” I say, and he smiles. “We are ready”; Blake turns to Kacey, sitting on the bed near Alice and Allie.

“Kacey, you stay with Allie and Alice,” he says. “You can get to know your niece.”

Allie looks at Kacey with a smile. “I like you,” she says, which makes us all smile.

Kacey looks at her. “I would love to know, sweetheart,” she says, and she looks at me. “I got this, Izzy. She will be protected. I promise.”

I can’t help but smile at her.

Dale and Lena moved to the door, with Blake and me following. Blake said the room was close to mine. Next door, I think.

As we get closer to the room, I feel the dark energy coming from there. There were two guards outside. The power from the room was evil to the core, but something didn’t feel right. Lena looks at me with a frown. “You can feel what I can feel,” she whispers. I nod.

Our mates look at one another and then at us. “What are you both on about?” asks Dale.

“The energy coming from that room has more evil than I have ever felt,” I said.

I look up at Blake. “I need you to listen to whatever I say. I don’t want to hurt you,” I say with a slight blush on my cheek.

Blake smiles back. “I will, babe,” he says, leaning into my ear. “I am always here with you.”

I sigh and take the door handle as Lena follows inside with our mates in tow, but in front of us was Helga, standing with a black clock with an evil smirk on her face. “Ah, panther, you have got your rest,” she says. “I have to say thank you for taking care of that pathetic vampire; he needed to die.”

“You lied to me,” I say with a growl.

Puna was on fours, growling loudly. Our power flares up, and Puna comes forward to become one with me. “YOU ARE DEAD, WITCH,” we say, which takes her by surprise, but she quickly recovers with a smirk that slowly spreads across her face. “AH,” she says, “The panther herself.”

I can sense Lena walking to the side of me. Dale and Blake growl loudly at the sight of the witch, but they don’t move from behind us.

“What are you going to do now?” she says and laughs. “You both can’t kill me; I have more power than you combined,” but we growl loud, and I know our eyes are bright green as her face changes slightly.

“We got her,” says Puna quietly to me, which makes me smirk at her.

Dale pulls Lena and Blake to the wall on the far side as Helga grips me. I take a step forward, but she charges at me. The wind forces the door to close, leaving the guards on the outside growling loudly and snarling to get in with us.

I grip her arms tightly, and the power flows through me, but Helga leans forward. “He will come for you and that little brat,” she says, “The Elder and my mate work well together,” smiling, but the growling from the side of us catches her off guard. I know the growl.

Axel.

He wants her.

I smirk as my power makes her ignite into a green flame; she stares back in shock as I can feel her power drift through me. The darkness was pure evil. I can’t help but hiss at the pain, but her face goes white as I take power from her.

“How?” she says as she screams out.

Puna and I glare. “You need to die,” we say together. “No one hurts my family and pack.”

The green flame ignites more, but my hands placed on mine are still in Helga’s arms. The chanting starts.

Helga screams louder, but we need to do this. Puna and I know exactly what to do, but it will take more power.

We lean into her. “Say hello to Hecate for me,” I say to her as her eyes widen as the green flame turns into a normal fire.

“HIDE,” we shout to Dale and Blake.

The flames take hold, and we send the wicked witch to hell, where Hecate can do whatever she wants to her.

As the fire dies down, Lena and I close our eyes, taking deep breaths.

But I fall back, but I get caught by some strong arms again. The tingles that go through me send me into a frenzy, but I look at Blake. “I got you, baby,” he says as he picks me up bridal style. Dale does the same to Lena, completely drained, but when I look closer at her, there are burns on her arms.

I move slightly toward Blake. “Wait,” I say.

Blake looks at what I’m looking at. “Please, I need to help her,” I tell him.

Blake moves closer to Dale, who is worried, but I touch Lena’s arm. I close my eyes and heal the burns with my hand.

We send some power out as we touch the burns. They slowly disappear but appear on me.

I couldn’t help but hiss, but I lean into Blake, who looks down at me, shocked. “Izzy, you have the burns instead…” he says, but Lena opens her eyes and looks at me. “You know you should stop doing that,” she says.

Both of our mates look at each other stunned, but Lena looks between the both of them. “Izzy transferred the injuries to her,” she says but glares back at me slightly. “She thinks she can heal her because Puna is a panther.”

I couldn’t say anything, but the mate bond between Blake and me was working wonders. His scent is calming Puna from the power we used, but also, the wounds that I transferred are slumping.

“I think we need to get these two checked out,” says Dale.

No more words were said as Dale opens the door.

Blake walks out with me still in his arms. I keep my eyes closed as I know every person outside the room had some look on them.

Blake turns to the guards. “You both can leave, but make sure no one goes in there till someone opens the window and cleans the room.”

“Yes, young alpha,” they both say. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the FindNʘᴠᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Blake walks back to my room.

I open my eyes to see Alice and Kacey with Kat, Allie, and Luna Lauren as we enter.

With a look of shock, everyone steps away from the bed. Blake places me down on the bed.

“I need to sleep,” I say, sleepy at everyone.

I grab Blake’s hand. “Please stay,” I say to him.

I could see his smile on his face, but my eyes close as I need to rest.

Hopefully, I won’t be long waking up this time around.

I could sense Puna sleeping. The power we had in our system was evil, but we need to rest and make sure it didn’t control us as it did with Helga.

Rest is the key, but also, I know I need my mate more and Allie too.