Page 1 of Reveal Me
Prologue
Twenty Years Ago
Dion
I padded through the forest, my paws making barely a sound as they pressed into the soft soil. The trees whispered in the wind, likely carrying word back to the palace about my whereabouts. Even though I’d come out here alone, as the heir to the throne, I was never truly alone.
It was just the kind of day I liked: quiet, with no one to tell me what to do. The trees could whisper, but they had no power over me. It was my power that made my feet come to a stop. There was something in the air that made my fur stand up on end. I felt it in my bones. The picture in my head was fuzzy, slowly getting clearer.
Something big was about to happen.
Unlike most panthers, I have six senses. But I called the last one a sick-sense since it always made me dizzy. Like my mother, the things I saw in my head went beyond the normal things panthers saw. I always knew when someone was coming to seeme. I’d think about a tune, and it would pop into my head, only to turn the corner and hear someone humming it. Or I’d hunger for a particular dish only to see it on the tables when I walked into the dining hall. Those were the fun visions—the ones I liked.
My sixth sense wasn’t always pleasant. I didn’t tell anyone of the visions of destruction, of death, of gods bent on vengeance that I saw. My sick-sense showed me things a child should never see or hear. Like the visions of starving cubs and raging parents. The vision of a mad god inflicting his cruelty on the people of this planet. The visions would come to me in flashes, just like this uneasy feeling that crawled through my gut right now.
I probably should have gone back to the palace. But I was a curious panther by nature. My mother said I was born with a hero complex. Being that I was the prince of this realm, I thought I was invincible. Plus, I knew the trees were watching.
I stopped and sniffed the air, catching the familiar scent of another of my kind. My ears perked up. There was a young cub nearby, probably about my age—or younger. Was he one of the starving cubs I saw in my visions? If he was, I needed to get to him quickly. He would be weak, and there were monsters in the Forbidden Forest that would happily turn him into a snack.
I crept closer, my paws light, moving silently through the underbrush. My heart skipped a beat when I saw him. There, standing in the clearing, was a young panther. Unlike mine, his fur was dark. His eyes were wide, but not curious. He looked tired. Wary. Hungry. Just like one of the orphaned cubs in my vision.
I needed to get to him, get him out of the woods, and take him back to the palace where it was safe. It was my duty as the prince to protect every citizen of Panthera during the sickness that had claimed so many of my kind. Lifting my paw, I began to pad toward him when the dizziness claimed me.
My mind went fuzzy. It felt like someone was pulling the edges of my thoughts out of focus. The snap back into clarity made my teeth chatter. The forest around me had changed. I saw myself and the cub. We were running through the woods together, laughing, fighting, playing. He was going to be my best friend on the whole planet. We’d be unstoppable. We’d be the protectors of the jungle, the saviors of our people.
This was the kind of vision I liked. One that made my heart happy. One that was bright and not dark.
The vision shifted. Inside my mind, I saw us again. We were older—stronger, more mature. We had muscles on our arms, a bit of facial hair starting to grow in. The world around us had changed, too. We weren’t in the forest anymore. We were in a room filled with girls.
Girls everywhere.
All of them were looking at us, their eyes fixed on us like we were the meal that they were going to consume. The attention was intoxicating. I grinned, soaking it all in. I’ve always loved having girls’ attention on me. Girls were soft. Unlike boys, they always smelled good.
One girl moved toward us. When she reached me, she didn’t stop coming. Her lips brushed mine in a kiss that was slow, deliberate, and filled with the heat. I’d kissed a girl before. I’d kissed a few. When I did, my pants always got tight. They were getting tight in this vision as the girl’s fingers roamed down to loosen my pants. I knew what she was going to do with those fingers. I’d seen what happened when a guard took a girl in the stables and she’d put her hand inside his pants.
I hadn’t asked any of the girls back in reality to do that to me. Yet. Tricia Stormtail seemed like she was game. I was going to ask her to meet me in the stables during the next Full Moon Festival and see where things went.
The girl in my vision sure seemed to be headed in the right direction. I broke away from her lips, grinning as my pants became more and more uncomfortable. When her fingers went into my pants, I knew the last thing I’d be feeling was any unpleasantness.
I looked up, seeking my best friend. Another girl was kissing him. Same slow press of lips, same heated gazes, same roaming hands. Then the girls swapped places with each other.
I wasn’t always the best at sharing. Nanny would huff when I wouldn’t share my toys. But I didn’t mind sharing these girls with my best friend. It felt like the most natural thing in the world.
My mind’s eye blinked, and we were even older. But it wasn’t just the two of us any longer. My friend stood next to a woman. She was beautiful—like the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. She had hair like night and day. Blond and black clashed in the strands of her locks. Her figure was a handful, and my friend couldn’t stop touching her curves. The way she looked at him made my chest feel tight with happiness. She turned to me. She didn’t kiss me, and I didn’t mind that. She didn’t feel like other girls did to me. She felt like my friend did. She felt like she was my friend, too. And I felt grateful that they let me share in their happiness.
My friend’s woman beckoned someone forward. It was another girl. No—this was a woman. This woman smiled at me—no, not just smiled; she grinned at me. Like she knew a secret about me. No one knew secrets about me. It was usually me who knew secrets about them because of visions.
She reached a hand out to me. Manners dictated I take her fingers and kiss them like the nobleman of my lineage. Even before my lips touched her skin, even before my hand touched her flesh, I knew it.
I had been in this vision for seconds, a full minute at the most. In that space of a few breaths, I had lived my whole life. Girls, women, and even cougars had filled my timeline with pleasure. Their soft hands, sweet smells, and lush lips had caressed every part of my body, going deep inside my pants. They’d let me into their bodies. Some even made space for me in their hearts. I’d taken more than my share and had never once been satisfied.
Until the moment my fingers brushed hers. This woman—this beautiful woman with the golden brown skin and eyes that could capture a running panther—was for me.
Only me. She wasn’t going to share me with anyone. Because she was my fated mate.
The vision snapped and threw me back into the present. I slammed back into my body, panting as though I had run the length of the Forbidden Forest. I had lived my entire life in the blink of an eye, and it left me shaking.
Fate had decided. The universe had made its choice. Powers beyond my control were telling me what to do, and there was nothing I could do about it.
