The Secrets of the Panther

IZZY

Michael stares at me with the evil smile that he owns.

Puna growls loudly in my head, but I know I can’t use any of our power. I want to know some things. I need answers, but I’m not that fifteen-year-old girl; I’m twenty and have learned a lot over the last five years, ever since I was on the run.

“I want to kill him,” Puna says in my head. “He deserves death.”

“Puna, keep calm. Don’t let any power out,” I said. “We need to keep calm. We must work out what’s going on and what he knows.” Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the FɪndNøvel.ɴᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Puna huffs out but looks through my eyes. “Allie looks nothing like him and Izzy,” she says with a smirk. “I think we can find out more. Something tells me there is more than meets the eye about why he wants us here.”

I control Puna but keep her close by. Michael cocks his head to the side. “You must be talking to that pathetic panther of yours,” he said, looking me over with every inch of skin and fabric I have on. Michael licks his lips but shakes his head and smirks. “Ah, remembering about the good old days I had with you,” he says as he walks up to me. He places a chair he held a few yards in front of me and sits while his eyes never leave mine.

I could feel other people around, watching on.

I know Helga is watching as her eyes stare back at Michael’s head, but it’s the anger roaring off her; I can; she hates him with every fiber of her being.

“As much as I want to talk about the good old days,” I said, trying to sound confident. Being close by, Puna was helping me, but there was a slight fear of what I knew he was capable of, but he was human back then. Now he is a vampire known for being lethal and blood-thirsty beings. I stared at him but sighed.

“What is it you want?” I ask.

Michael chuckles. “Well, Izzy has some backbone for once in her pathetic life,” he says. “Straight to the point, well, if you must know, I want to have you. I want revenge on the people who killed me.”

He stares back at me. “I sent all our followers, werewolves, and vampires to attack the pack,” he says with a smirk. “They are going to bring me that brat that is our child to me with a few other people.”

My stomach drops at the mention of Allie. I need to be strong enough not to let him see that Allie is my weakness.

He stares at me and cocks his head to one side. “You don’t believe me, don’t you?” he says, and his eye goes blood red quickly; his hand is around my throat, and his face is right in front of mine.

I could feel his breath on my cheek as he sniffed my scent. After a few seconds, his mouth moves closer to my ear. “I want you, Izzy. You were mine for the taking, and now you are mine completely.”

He never leaves his hand on my neck but moves back and stares back at me. “Everyone leave us,” he says as a smirk slowly spreads across his face. “I want to have some fun.”

I could hear footsteps, and Helga was being dragged away. “GET OFF ME!” she shouts, but her words fade in the background. My eyes never leave his.

Once the door is closed, Michael moves back and removes his hand around my neck. He stands up. Suddenly, out of nowhere, his foot connects with my face as he kicks me hard.

I couldn’t help but grunt out in pain.

Puna growled at the contact. I need to keep her calm, only for a few moments.

Blood comes from my lip, and his eye looks at it as he licks his lips. “I will drain your blood after I have my way with you first.”

He walks back to the chair, but I suddenly want to talk. “You know I will never be yours. I have a mate who cares about me.”

Michael stops in his tracks and slowly turns around and laughs. “You think that pathetic cousin of mine will kill me?” he says, which makes him laugh even louder. “You are pathetic.”

Michael doesn’t move but stares back at me. “I want my child. Once she is here, I will have you and her. We will leave,” he says. “We will be one big, happy family.”

He slowly moves closer but stops again. “Blake is a worthless piece of crap who can’t even protect anyone,” he says with a smirk.

“What do you mean by that?” I ask as I stare back at him. “He cares for my daughter and me.”

Michael hisses, “He will be nothing to you both. I will kill him in front of you both. I will take you again as I did before and make sure you submit to me.”

Michael is one sociopath, evil to the bone.

Michael looks at me. “I know Blake can’t protect what’s mine, as he never protected Drake’s mate,” he says.

I stare back at him, but his face changes with an evil smile plastered on his face. “Drake was like Blake,” he says as he pulls his chair closer to me and places it not too far in front. He sits and sighs. “I have seen the photos of Blake, especially when you are close to him. He looks like a lovesick puppy wanting you,” he says, making a gagging noise. “Drake was like that with Ana. He never left her side. They were always together, which always sickened me.”

He hissed as if he remembered something. “I turned into a vampire and moved back in with him so that I could get a handle on things, but it was hard as I wanted blood all the time,” he says, looking back at me. “The Elder sent Drake away, and I had to look after Ana, but Blake visited. No one knew I was alive. Drake and the Elder made sure no one knew except Ana. They made me stick to the shadows.”

He places his leg over his other leg. “I followed Ana when she was introduced to Blake as Drake’s cousin. We all had to be nice. Elder Johnson wasn’t around, so he sent another council member to visit while he was on business,” he says. “When the council member introduced them, they talked for another hour. I took photos of them bothering together. I confronted Ana about the meeting, which was news that it was classed as a meeting to anyone as she had only just met him. Ana was a cat shifter like yourself, but the Elder never liked your kind, so I knew I had to do something about Ana.”

My stomach turns. What the hell did he do to her?

Michael smiles at me. “Oh, you’re wondering what I did to her,” he says and moves quickly again and is in front of me, his hand around my neck once more. I could feel his cold scaly hands digging into my throat, but his lips go to my ear. “I drained her blood and killed her.”

Puna is quiet in my head. I know she hears and feels everything that is going on.

He moves back slowly. “Drake thinks Blake killed her; there was not much of her body left, so he wouldn’t have known what I did,” he says.

I gulp. “Why would you...” I say, but he squeezes my neck tighter, which causes Puna to growl out. “I needed to do it because my brother was a lovesick fool, and we both hated Blake.”

“He had everything that he ever wanted. He had loving parents and the woman of his dreams, but not us. We had a father who sent me off to school, as he wanted nothing to do with me when my mother died. He thought I was a pathetic human boy. When Drake’s mother passed, and his father realized he had my mother as a second chance mate, he was disgusted with it all,” he says with a hiss.

I gritted my teeth and felt blood trickle out of my neck as his fingers squeezed slightly more as his nail prod my skin.

I try to gasp, but Puna has trouble controlling our power. She reins it in more, well, as best as she can.

Michael lets go and notices the blood on his fingers. He licks it off, making his eyes bright red with a need for it.

“I think I should have some fun now, my dear, as I want to hear you scream,” he says with a snarl.

He kicks me straight in the stomach as soon as he says that. I grunt out, but I can’t show how much pain.

“Let me out,” shouts Puna through my head, but I can’t. I need him to think he has me in submission. I need him to think he has been where he wants me. I need him to believe that he has me completely under his control.

His fist comes straight toward my face, and he repeats.

I block Puna out. I can’t let her take over; she needs to build our power up.

The power will not only kill him but the sire bond too.

I’m not helping Helga. I’m doing this for an innocent child, her son.

I cough up blood as he walks away. But he comes straight at me again, but I don’t see it coming, something shiny, but as soon as it hits my chest.

“AHH…” I scream out in pain.

The bastard just stuck a knife into my chest.