The Secrets of the Panther

BLAKE

I slowly open my eyes; I blink a few times, but as soon as my eyes adjust to the light. I look straight in front of me. My mate was still sleeping.

I slowly get up and walk over to the couch behind us. I place Allie on the couch and place a blanket over her. I looked down at Allie, who was still sleeping. I couldn’t help but smile down at her.

Suddenly, movement on the bed caught my eye; Izzy was tossing and turning in her sleep. Making sure Allie was safe on the couch, I scampered over to Izzy and gently touched her on her arm.

Her eyes fly open, and they are bright green; she growls at us.

“Puna, Izzy, it’s me, Blake,” I say as I run my fingers over her skin, which sends tingles right through her; the mate bond calms her down. Izzy closes her eyes and scrunches up her nose, shaking her head.

“Mate seems to fight something,” blurts Axel.

“What do you mean?” I ask him.

Axel stares through my eyes as Izzy shakes her head, but it slows. “Izzy and Puna are fighting over something, but I can’t tell. I think it might have to do with that witch’s dark magic,” he says with a low growl.

I look back at Izzy as she slowly stops shaking her head. She opens her eyes to look at me.

She hurries up the bed. “Sorry about that,” she says as she sits up, but her eyes never leave mine.

“Izzy, what’s wrong?” I ask her.

Izzy says nothing but suddenly sighs. “I want to tell you, but...” she says, but the door opens, and Lena, Dale, Charley, Alice, Paul, and Kacey walk in.

“Hey, you are awake,” says Alice, but looks between us. “Did we interrupt something?”

I was about to say something, but Izzy spoke first. “No, you didn’t,” she says.

I look at her with a confused look, but she places her hand in mine and squeezes it.

I sigh. I know something is up, but I will wait till we are alone to find out.

“Well, how are you feeling?” Asked Lena, who came to the other side of me.

“Mummy,” yells a small voice before Izzy answers Lena’s question.

“Princess,” says Izzy.

Allie’s little face lights up like a Christmas tree; she climbs off the couch and runs straight to the bed. I picked her up, as she couldn’t get on bed. Allie leans into Izzy and sniffs in her scent. But she looks at Izzy with a confused look; she cocks her head to the side. “You smell funny,” she says.

I sniff in the scent, but Allie is right. Izzy’s scent is masked with an off smell.

Izzy looks at me and everyone else, but her eyes are back on me when she talks.

Izzy sighs. “I guess you can tell that I drained some of the dark magic from that witch Helga,” she says.

Lena grunts. “I felt the magic through your veins. What were you thinking?” She asks.

Izzy doesn’t look at her. She stares at me. “I was going to tell you before everyone walked in here, as I can’t explain it. I have some darkness inside me, but it’s not her magic,” she says.

I look at her, confused. “What do you mean?” I ask her.

Everyone is silent, but I can tell everyone wants to know the same as I do.

Izzy sighs and looks at our joining hands.

“It’s not magic. It’s what she felt during the times she was using it, I guess,” she says and looks up. But she closes her eyes and cocks her head to the side but opens her eyes—bright green ones staring back at us.

Puna was forward. I could also sense Izzy, but Puna was more there.

“Izzy can’t describe what it is, and neither can I, but we can feel everything that witch went through. She felt anger towards what she did to Izzy’s mum, but there was a lot of fear around her. She was constantly in fear. We don’t know exactly who she was frightened of. The feelings come in waves, and not all the time is effective. But there is one feeling that comes more: betrayal,” she says and looks at me with a grim look on her face. “Izzy and I can feel the betrayal of a mate. He is constantly with someone, but her mate is not hers. It feels like someone put a spell or something on her to make her feel everything a mate does.”

Everyone stares at her. We all try to let everything sink in.

Izzy comes forward more, but I can feel Puna there, too. Izzy looks at me. “I told you it was hard to explain; I don’t think it’s the actual dark magic, but her feelings as my powers are based on my emotions. I think I transferred her emotions onto mine, but there were some images too,” she says and gives me a small smile but looks towards Lena. “As for taking your pain away, I would do that again in a heartbeat.”

Lena glares at her. “You transferred my burns onto you,” she says but softens her facial expression when Allie looks at her.

“Mummy saved you,” she whispers.

Lena nods to her as Allie looks at Izzy with a warm smile. She leans onto her knees and wraps her arms around Izzy’s neck. She holds her tight.

I can’t help but smile at them both.

“Why did you do that?” Asks Dale suddenly as he walks over to Lena, wrapping his arm around her waist.

Izzy looks at him and smiles. “I learned long ago that I could do it,” she says. “I know Lena’s a witch. She doesn’t heal as fast we do.”

I look towards Dale, who smiles at her, but Izzy catches me off guard. “I would heal everyone here, anyone in the pack.”

Izzy giggles, but she leans forward with Allie still in her arms. I turn to look back at her with a stunned look. Izzy places her hand on my cheek, which sends a lightning bolt between us.

She smiles at me. “You are my mate; I want to be there for you and everyone, too. That’s if you have me,” she says.

I can’t help the giant smile on my face that appears; I nod to her. “Of course I want you; you are my mate, Izzy,” I tell her.

Her hand never leaves my cheek, but she smiles. “Then that’s good because I think we need a second date, don’t you?” she says.

I can’t help but chuckle. “Yeah, we sure do,” I say.

“I am so happy to hear all this, but we have a meeting to get to soon,” says Kacey. I moved slightly away, looked over my shoulder, and noticed her; she had a massive smirk.

“What meeting?” Asks Izzy.

“We have a meeting with Tilly and other pack members; we want to find out everything we can about Drake, the elder,” I say, but she looks at me blankly but comes back to me quickly. I look back at her. I sigh.

“Puna and I need to be there,” she says. She sighs. “This is all about me; I should be there, but we also need to make sure everyone is protected too,” she says.

I smile. “Izzy, you don’t...” I tell her, but her eyes go bright green, and a low growl escapes her lips. “Mate, we will be there too. We have rested a lot, and not only that, we need to explain to everyone about the emotion transfer,” she says. “Maybe that councilwoman can tell us more about it.”

Izzy pushes forward; she looks at me with a blank expression. “Blake,” she says, “Stop treating me like a pathetic person. I’m more powerful than everyone here, and they are after me. I am not weak, and I need to do this.”

My hand has been in hers since she woke up. I place my other hand on her chin to make her look at me. “Izzy, I told you before, we will do this together,” I say, leaning closer to her. I can see her lick her bottom lip and stare at me. I smirk. “I want to make sure you are rested as I know you will defeat them, but also, I would not let you in the meeting; I was going to state that you place Allie in the nursery, and I will mind link my father to see what time we should be there.”

Izzy gulps. She says nothing but nods. I can feel everyone’s eyes on us.

I move away slowly.

Izzy clears her throat. “Umm... Yeah, ok,” she says. I can hear some giggles from behind me, and I guess everyone is smirking.

I open a mind link to my father. “Dad, what time is the meeting?” I ask him.

“Blake, how is Izzy?” He says, “And the meeting is about noon today. Why do you ask?”

“Izzy is fine. She just woke up, and we both will be there,” I tell him.

“I think Izzy should...” he says, but I interrupt him. “Before you tell me to tell her she needs more rest, she won’t. I just had my head bitten off by her, and I believe everyone needs to hear what she has to say; it will come easy from here and Puna than out of my mouth.”

My father chuckles. “Your mate is one feisty lady,” he says, but as he calms down, he sighs. “We will meet you there soon; make sure the pack doctor clears her first,” he says. “We need answers, and also we need to plan; we need to figure out our next move.”

“I agree,” I say to him.

I close the mind link down but look at Izzy, who has her head cocked to one side. “What was said?” She asks.

I smile at her. “You need to get cleared by the pack doctor, and we can go to the meeting,” I say.

“We will meet you there,” says Alice with a smirk.

“I will get the pack doctor, as I bet Izzy will want to change and shower first,” says Paul.

I nod.

Everyone says their farewells; Kacey looks at Allie. “Hey, cutie, do you want to come with Auntie Kacey and Auntie Alice? We can get you ready for mummy to come home,” she asks.

Allie smiles brightly at her. “Yes, please, is it ok, mummy?” She asks Izzy.

Izzy smiles and nods.

“Yeah, it’s ok with me. You need to be ready for the nursery too, and also, I think you need some pancakes,” she says.

“Can we have pancakes?” Allie giggles and smiles.

“Mm... pancakes,” she says and looks at Kacey.

Kacey laughs. “Yeah, we can, cutie,” she says.

Allie moves and kisses both Izzy and me on our cheeks. She climbs over Izzy’s legs and runs straight into Kacey’s arms.

Kacey picks her up and carries her through the door, but she opens a mind link to me. “Please, Blake, kiss the girl,” she says. “She wants to be kissed.”

She closes the mind link.

I stare back at Izzy, who is looking at me.

I soon realized that we were just left in the room.