Page 15 of Fated to the Panther

“Vixen, huh? I think you may be right, but all I know is I have this unexplainable urge to make up for lost time. I can’t imagine if I’d been the one to have to wait centuries to experience thisbliss. Imagine if I hadn’t found you, I would have turned into a crabby old crone.”

I flipped her onto her back and settled my raging hard-on against her core. “Who are you calling old.” As I thrust my hips slowly, her knees fell open, accepting me as I rubbed her still swollen flesh with precision. Intent on driving her wild, I loved hearing her call out my name, whether it was on a sigh or a scream.

“But that’s all you get for now. We have the rest of our lives to explore each other and it’s time I told you more about our shared destiny.” The last round had been hard and fast at her urging, and I knew we had created a new life. How had I ever lived without this female? Reluctantly, I shifted my weight off her, then arranged her still flushed body so I could spoon her.

Kara needed further information, so she felt secure about her place in my life and the prophecy.

“Our story begins over eight millennia ago. Our father crash-landed in the desert of Africa and with no chance of repairing his craft. He used his powers and assumed the form of humans and became an Egyptian god.

Thoth, and alternately Hermes by the Greeks, was worshiped for many things: writing, divine order and justice. He’d brought with him from his home world, tablets inscribed with all the secrets of the universe. His world was ending, and he’d been sent to find a new home world. Still with me?”

Kara nodded.

“The tablets, which through history became the Emerald Tablets, although he claims there was no official name for them, they were supposed to be entrusted to myself and my brothers to guard. We were also tasked with overseeing the safety of humankind against the demon race who had ruled the underworld long before any other immortals walked the earth.”

“And your brothers, are they panther shifters as well?”

“No. They each take a different form. A dragon, a wolf, a phoenix, and a grizzly.”

“Wait, that’s only four. You and your panther make five,” Kara accused.

“Well, Gavin, he’s now the remaining unmated brother, his is…unique and a story for another time.”

This was harder than I thought it would be. Each revelation created more questions and none of us had ever had to share our backstory with anyone outside our family.

“Toward the end of my father’s rule, he and Zeus battled and that’s when he met Athena. Neither have shared the details of their explosive relationship, but for reasons we’re only now discovering, they hid us from the other gods, claiming we would have been murdered before we’d attained immortality. But you can’t hide from fate forever, especially from the Moirai, Athena’s sisters.

“The Moirai spun the Brethren’s Prophecy. Probably out of spite, but who really knows. Anyway, they decreed we would have a thousand years to find our fated mates and produce the next generation, ensuring the continued safety of the humans from demon rule.

“But should any of us fail to find our mate and produce a son, then the demons would be freed from the underworld. There’s plenty of conditions thrown in for the amusement of the Fates. But that’s the gist of it anyway.” One of us should really write this stuff down.

“So how were we chosen? Are the other women like me in any way?”

“The only connection we are certain of is that each of you are Wicca. It’s rumored that Tiegh made a deal with a goddess, Brigid of the Celts. Her daughters were promised to us. He wanted to jumpstart the prophecy, but then Dante heard of thedeal and he ended the lives of Brigid’s daughters before we even knew they were to be our brides, if not fated mates.

“Somehow, Brigid found out, almost too late, that Dante would arrive, and she sent her only son away to be hidden. He was cared for by a nonmagical family, but Athena has theorized that through him, you are a descendant of Brigid, thus carrying on her promise to Tiegh to provide his sons with our true fated mates.”

Clearing my throat, I swallowed the emotion that had snuck up on me, marveling at how lucky I was. So many things could have gone wrong, but thanks to a long-ago boy who escaped Dante’s vengeance, I was holding my mate.

“In the end, we are nothing more than broodmares then, right?” Kara’s indignancy pierced my heart.

“Oh, love, you, like the others, are so much more. Besides the mating bond, I see your strength, your intelligence and your beauty. It all calls to me and no matter how we met, know that you were made for me as surely as I was made for you.”

“Damn you, shifter. Your soft words along with that wicked tongue of yours should not sway me. But how can I deny that the only thing that really matters is what’s in my heart right now, and that no matter how all this began, I want my ending, no matter how it comes, to be spent with you.” From anger to acceptance within seconds, Kara’s words filled me with hope that she will not deny us. But I needed to hear more. My soul and panther were begging for it, her love spoken into existence.

Grasping my mate’s hand, I pulled it up to my chest and placed our joined flesh over my heart. “You feel that? My heart beats for you, Kara. Now and forever. As you said, time is overrated, unless I spend the rest of mine with you. I do not need any more of it to know I love you, Kara Wildwood, prophecy or no prophecy.”

Kara swung a leg over my hips, perching on top of my waist. With her hair in wild disarray and a naughty grin on her face, she lifted her hips, took my cock in hand, and impaled herself. This woman was determined to wear me out.

“I love you, Roane Smythe. Now, about that mating bond. I think we need to make sure it’s truly set.”

“Anything for you, mate. Anything.” I clasped her hips and watched my mate take her pleasure.

Epilogue

ROANE

Istared at my brother, Gavin as he stood off alone, watching from the shadows as me and the rest of our brothers kept watch over our mates. I’d updated him and our brothers about Dante’s demand for Gavin’s mate in exchange for one of the Emerald Tablets.

---