Page 2 of Fated to the Panther

To make sure, I inhaled deeply. Sulfur no longer scented the air and probably never had. Again, my imagination got the better of me. Adjusting my pack, I pushed forward. Determined to find Hector, I set aside my dream, at least for now, of discovering the elusive plant with miraculous properties that were whispered about by a local tribe. Finding it on my first day had been wishful thinking. I’d start again tomorrow.

Wait, was I going in circles?That grouping of trees looked familiar. I looked down, searching for signs of the trail we’d been following, when the jungle went suddenly and eerily silent.

The deafening quiet was my only warning before red eyes filled my vision. Too tall to be a four-legged animal, shock and fear filled me. When a second pair of eyes joined the first and the stench of rotten eggs returned, overwhelming me, I took it as my sign to run.

Chapter

Two

ROANE

The moment I stepped through the portal, I knew my mate was in danger. And not only from the various everyday dangers to be found in the Amazon such as uneven ground, poisonous snakes, or contaminated water.

The reek of demons scented the air. Demons sent by my family’s longtime adversary, no doubt.

The Duke of Hell had a hard-on to rule mankind and stand in the way of the prophecy my five brothers and I have lived under since not long after our birth almost a millennia ago. Dante was determined to capture our fated mates and recently almost succeeded with Mac’s mate, Sierra, but my grizzly shifter brother had thankfully rescued her in time.

And now it was my turn. The fifth brother to find his mate, to keep her out of the demon’s hands.

When we had all gathered at our Scotland headquarters to welcome our oldest brother Quinn’s firstborn into the world, our mother dropped the big bomb that she knew exactly where my mate was. But for how long she’d known, she’d refused to say.

Typical Athena. However, she did tell me that my mate’s name was Kara and that she was, as all of my brother’s mates were, a witch. Our Greek goddess mother further shared that my mate had somehow found her way into my territory in the Amazon.

Before I left, I did my duty and stayed until the birth of Quinn’s son.

I jumped through not one but two portals that my brothers and I have used for centuries to travel the world as we fulfilled one part of the prophecy, the mandate to protect humankind. But the back-to-back usage of two portals may now very well be my downfall.

One trip through the portal, no problem. Two portals in one day? Yeah, not recommended, even for immortals.

I was at least ten miles away from my mate and the stench of demons—at least three—hit me once again as I pushed back the first stirrings of portal sickness. Nothing was going to keep me from Kara. I did the only thing that would push the sickness back and I shifted.

With a thought, my feet and hands turned into four paws. My skin and bones morphing into my panther form. Racing through the jungle, I no longer cared that when I shifted back into a human, I’d be weaker than a toddler for at least half a day. She was all that mattered.

The cat’s superior hearing picked up the movements of the demons before the backs of the stinking creatures came into focus. Their prey, my mate, was losing ground. Terror whipped through me as I accelerated and attacked the demon closest to me. Ripping its jugular from its evil body had never been more satisfying. The evil creature’s final shriek filled the air, slowing the others.

“What the hell was that?” the demon in the lead spat out, his forward momentum now frozen.

It was all I needed to ensure Kara’s safety.

“Fuck, panther.” Those were the demon’s last words.

Killing demons mere feet away from my jungle home wasn’t an ideal plan, but the one I was handed. All that mattered was keeping my mate safe. I leapt at the last demon, wrestling him to the ground, and clamped my jaw over his jugular, breaking the skin before letting him loose. I wanted, needed, to know if others would be coming.

Shaking away the foul liquid staining my muzzle, I stalked the demon now aiming a gun in my direction. “I hate god damned cats,” it shouted.

But I continued forward. Not to get closer to him, but to ensure Kara’s retreat into the canopy wouldn’t be detected.

So close to being captured, I took my gaze off the demon and made eye contact with my mate as I pushed the command “climb” into her mind. My plan was to shift back after she was safe, then I’d interrogate the demon for information.

Fear glazed her wide brown eyes as our gazes locked, but instead of continuing her climb, she yelled, “Don’t shoot!”

A split second before the demon squeezed the trigger, Kara screamed again. The bullet struck my shoulder, but I kept pursuing the demon, even as it ran. Change of plans. I used the rest of my dwindling strength and leapt onto the demon’s back and did what I should have done in the first place.

Lying on the forest floor, I knew my only hope of surviving the bullet wound was to shift back into human form. The bullet would expel from my body, but unfortunately the portal sickness would return since I hadn’t spent enough time in my panther form to fully recover.

Shifting, I shouted, “Keep climbing!” and prayed that she wouldn’t faint thirty feet in the air.

As I looked up toward Kara, her eyes round in disbelief, she finally turned and made her way to my treetop home. Enjoyingthe view, I watched her climb farther up, admiring her curvy hips and lovely bottom as she disappeared through the invisible barrier that kept my home protected.

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