by Laura Wylde
“Well, you are welcome to stay as long as you like. I think I speak for everyone when I say it is good to see you again. The place isn't the same without you. You really left your mark here.”
Kayla looked too shy all of a sudden, and I wondered what was going on in her head. She was good at keeping it all to herself, but I could see that her mind was working, spinning away at what to do next. I hoped that her conclusion came to be her staying. That was what I wanted more than anything else.
“I would love to stay for a while, Javier. If you guys don't mind.”
“No, not at all. You can learn everything you want to learn about us and our civilization. We have been around for a while, and I know that Tyler would be interested in showing you what he’s come up with.”
That got a real smile on her face, and I wished that it was from something else. She still had this desire in her to learn everything about us, and I knew that he would make that happen. Kayla just wanted answers to questions that she didn’t even know to ask yet.
I took her back to the bedroom that I gave her before and asked her if she wanted to take a swim to relax.
“Are you talking about the stream a couple miles north of the temple?”
“No, we have one here. Would you like to get something to swim in and come down and see us?”
“I don't think I really have anything.”
“Your bra and panties will be fine, Kayla. There is no one else around, just us.
I could see her visibly trembling, and I knew that she was thinking along the same lines that I was. Ever since I had first met her and then kissing her for the first time, I knew that she was the one I wanted. It wasn't that hard to see that Kayla was exactly what we all needed. I wanted to do the ritual and make her ours for good. From there, I knew that I would feel a lot better about everything if I didn't have to think about her leaving all the time.
Kayla said that she would be out in a few minutes, and I waited by the door. I wasn't worried about swimming in anything, and I was hoping that Kayla would shed her clothes soon enough. We all had to get used to each other, all of us together. I still thought about the fact that Eben and Damien had gotten a taste of her already. It’s still bothered me, but I was trying to look on the bright side. She was here now.
When the door opened and Kayla came out, I could instantly see the bright side. The white underthings she was wearing were very quickly going to be see through. I wasn't going to point that out. I'm not sure that she knew, but if she didn't, I wasn't going to jinx it.
I knew that the other three were already in the bathroom, and I knew that this was a time that we'd been waiting for. It was time for her to make us her choice, so that we could live together like we were supposed to. It was just that simple.
I heard the woman next to me gasp a little bit, and I looked over at Kayla. It was clear that she had seen the rest of the guys in the bath, and she said she was a little surprised to see that it was so big.
“When you said swimming, this is not at all what I was thinking of.”
I could tell that it wasn't the size of the bath that was throwing her off. It was the fact that there was three partially naked men in front of her, and they all had a little lust in their face. I knew that I did, but I was trying my best to hide it. I knew that I wasn't going to do anything to scare her off now. We had to take things slowly or I was afraid we were just going to make her leave again. That was the last thing that I wanted to happen.
I coaxed her into the bath, and I could tell that she was nervous. I tried to calm her down, tell her that everything was going to be okay, but Kayla was not sure about it. I could see that she was taken aback and wondered what else we held in store for her. She had seen a couple of us turn, but I knew that she was still curious about it. Kayla was pretty easy to understand, she wanted to know everything.
Eben was the first to approach her, telling her that it was good to see her again.
“I hope you're going to stay around for a while, maybe we can watch movie on the couch?”
Her eyes got a little wide, and she bit her lower lip. She was thinking about what they had done when they were together with Damien, and while I told Eben to calm himself, I should have known that he was going to say something like that. The way she was reacting to it, it looked like she wasn't too worried about it at all.
“Maybe, Eben. Although I don't think that it's a movie that you want.”
His dark eyes smiled at her. “You would be right. That is the last thing I'm thinking about right now.”
He moved closer and leaned against the marble next to her. She didn't try to move away, so I was going to let it play out. It would be about right that Eben, the one who couldn't hold his tongue for anything, would be the one who could save the day. While the rest of us were too far in our heads, he didn’t know any better. He just wanted to be with the woman, and I couldn't blame him. I was feeling the exact same way.
Damien moved to the other side of her, and I saw them talking. I don't know what it was that they were talking about, but I could see her smiling and laughing at him. They had a bond, the three of them, that I didn't understand yet, but I wanted to be a part of it. I spent so much time trying to get everybody involved and on the same page that I was starting to think that I made a mistake. I should have taken Kayla to my bed when I had the chance.
I was the most surprised about Tyler. He had certainly warmed up to her rather quickly and even the shyest one of us all had her smiling and giggling. It was good to see her face so animated, and I finally moved towards her. I wanted us to finally all get along, and I knew that this moment was the best time to do it.
“I see that you are feeling better, Kayla.”
She smiled at me and agreed.
“It is hard to be any other way around you guys. I really have missed you. I feel like I belong here, and I really miss that feeling. It has been a long time since I felt like I belonged anywhere.”
I assured her that she did belong here. I know what I'd rather hear, but I knew that Kayla was here for a reason. I also knew that I had talked to Rudolph at just the right time. It was like he had known that we had a major decision to make and he was the one who made it easy. I never would have thought about being with a human before this. I don't know why, especially after all these years. Kayla had been the first I've even considered. And I still thought that she was the right answer.
“You do belong here, Kayla. You are one of us, all you have to do is agree.”
There was still something holding her back. I could see it on her face, and I wanted to know what it was. I was getting dirty looks from Eben, sure that I was ruining the mood, but I wanted to make it clear. I wanted her to know what was expected of her and when she agreed to be with us, I wanted it to last. The last thing I wanted to do was watch her walk away again. I just couldn't do it.
“Geez, Javier, good way to ruin the moment.”
I waved Eben off and told him that I wasn't trying to ruin anything. I just wanted to get everything out on the table, so that we all know where we stood with each other.
“I think that she will feel better if she comes out with it, and then we can help her through it. There is something holding you back, Kayla, and I want to know what it is.”
“I just don't know if I can handle this. I can barely handle you as men, but there is more to you. I don't know if I can handle your true form. As you guys call it.”
“Do you want to see it?”
That got her attention, and she had a smile on her face as she nodded her head up and down that she did. I should have known that what Kayla wanted was more answers. She hungered for them, and there was nothing else that we could do but give it to her.
“Well, all you had to do was ask, Kayla. If seeing us this way makes you feel better, I have no problem doing that.”
“You can just do it whenever?”
I told her that I could, and I switched to my true form rather quickly. I had to move closer to
the side, so that I wouldn’t have to wade in the water, as the bath was rather deep.
Kayla was more than a little rattled. I could see that her eyes had gotten big, and I hoped that it wasn't a mistake for me to do this. I wanted her to see that she was safe, no matter what form we were in. My panther mode was just as gentle as the human part could be.
To prove this, I moved closer to her and let her pet me. I reveled in the way that her fingertips touched my fur, as well as the sounds she made. She couldn't believe how soft I was, and before long, she was touching me all over.
Tyler, Eben, and Damien were quick to follow suit. It was clear that all of us were eager to make her happy, no matter what that took. If she wanted to see us this way, I would make sure that she did. There was nothing to be afraid of, and I needed her to understand that so that we could move forward.
“Wow, I can't believe how beautiful you all are. You guys have the softest pelts.”
I could have told her that it was a reason the poachers had been coming after us for hundreds of years, but I kept that to myself. That was something that I didn't want to think about right now at this moment.
I turned back into my human form and let her get to know the other three in their true form. I wanted to talk to her, and this was the best way to do it. I wasn't sure if she was ready to talk telepathically yet. She had already been through a lot and still needed to process so much more. That would be something for another day.
“As you can see, Kayla, we are safe. You will never have to worry about us hurting you, ever. We are all here to take care of you. All you have to do is agree.”
“You keep saying that I have to agree, what does that mean?”
“It means that you have to accept us, all of us. You have to accept our true form as well as our human form. Then, and only then, will you belong to us.”
“Belong to you?”
“In the same way that a wife belongs to her husband. You would, in a way, be married to all of us. We don't think of it that way, but you could. What we would think about it is something so much stronger and never to be broken. There is no divorce in Panthera. This would be for life, whether it be mine, ours, or yours.”
Kayla was quiet as she took my words to heart. The other three were still in panther form, and she was stroking Eben as she looked off a little bit. She had already become so accustomed to us.
“So, what do I have to do?”
I had never felt so relieved in my life.
Chapter 19
Kayla
I was surrounded in a pool of water with three panthers and a huge man who was now practically naked. It was a lot to take in, but no matter the internal struggle that was going on inside of me, I knew where I wanted to be. I wanted to be right here, with the four of them, and I knew that I was going to do what was necessary to make that happen.
There was no telling what he was going to tell me of what I had to do, but I had a few ideas.
“You have to accept us, that's it. We will come up to you and mark you with our scent. It has to be done freely on your part and on our part. All four of us have to accept you, but you already know that we all feel the same way about you.”
No matter how real the panthers in front of me were, rubbing up against me, letting me touch them on their face and neck, I knew that this shouldn't be real. It may be real, had to be, but it didn't feel like it should be. I didn't know what was going on, but whatever it was, I didn't want it to stop.
“Well, I have told you I agree. Come here and let's do this. I want to get to the next part.”
I shouldn’t have said that. I knew that as soon as I saw the flames leap into his eyes. Javier turned into his true form again and started to walk towards me. I was starting to wonder if what he meant and how I interpreted this all was completely different. He had that same hungry look in his eyes and it was hard for me not to back up. I knew that he wouldn't hurt me, somehow I knew that, but at the same time, I was sure that I was going to go crazy.
He stopped and then rubbed along the side of me. Our faces were right together, cheek to cheek, and then he kind of made a growling sound. I waited for more to happen, but he was done and let Tyler move forward. Tyler did the same thing, and it was strange that I knew who he was, even though he was a huge black panther at the time. Even in this state, they all had their own personalities, and I had fallen for each and every one of them. Together, they were the perfect man who a woman could only hope of getting.
Eben was the last one, and he went further by licking me on the face. I should have known that it would be him because he was the one who made the first move out of all of them. There was something special between me and Eben, even though I was still drawn to Javier in a way that I didn't understand. Each one of them was special to me.
Javier move back towards me, and for a moment, I thought he was going to change back into his human form, but then one of the other shifter men moved into the room and told Javier that they had to go. The women shifters had gotten into the temple, and were now trying to find me.
Javier was not happy, but they all took off, telling the other guy who had walked in that he was going to stay with me. I knew that he was left here to keep me safe. I don't know why, but I didn't feel very safe in his presence. I wanted to go with Javier and the others. I knew that I'd be safe with them.
It wasn't long after they left that the male shifter who had burst in the room came towards me.
“You have caused a lot of trouble, human. Too much drama for my race. Too much for this little human.”
I didn't know what the hell he was talking about, but his intentions became clear quite quickly when he pulled me out of the water. He was standing over me and then suddenly he was grabbing me, and I was unable to stop myself from being dragged out of the marble bathtub. He held on to me like a mother would hold on to a really unruly child, and then he started walking to another door as I tried to fight him. He was too strong, something I realized rather quickly, that there was nothing that could be done about it. I was not going to be able to fight him off, no matter how hard I tried now.
I yelled out for my pack. I hollered their names out, over and over again, trying to get someone to help me. There was no way that I was going to be able to do this on my own.
The man had a strong hold on me, and I knew that he wasn't going to let me go. He told me that he was taking me to the women shifters. He was hoping that they would be so happy that he had brought me, that they would give him a pass. Maybe take him in and then he would have all five of them.
“The whole paradigm is messed up. We should have multiple women to every man. Not humans, real shifters. Even if you have a kid, it will not be pure.”
He said the words with hate, and I knew that he was one of the people in Panthera who was not happy with the arrangement. I had never thought of myself as a lesser being though I did then. I knew then that Malik, the man who had me, hated me as much as the women did.
“I am not trying to ruin Panthera. I just want to help.”
“Well, you are going to get to help. But you are not going to help Javier and his pack, you're going to help me. You are going to get me back in with Simone and the rest of the women. Then we can split off and make our own clan and rebuild. It is better to have five women pregnant than one.”
I was pretty sure that if that could have already happened, it would have been done. Javier had told me that the women could not have children any longer, hadn't in several hundred years, so why would that change? I could have put a hole in his whole idea, but the last thing I wanted to do was make him any angrier. The guy was really scary, and it was different than with my pack. I knew that they would keep me safe, but Malik was different. He was trying to get rid of me.
“Aren’t you going to beg for your life?”
“No, I don't think there is anything I can say to you change your mind.”
“That's true, but if you would beg, it would be more entertaining for me.”
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br /> I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. I told myself that whatever happened, no matter how scary it was, I wasn't going to beg. I was going to let whatever was supposed to happen, happen. The idea of it worried me, I won't deny it, but at the end of the day, there was nothing I could do. I had been paying attention to my pack instead of what was going on around me. Javier would have never left me with him if he thought that I wouldn't be safe.
Malik dragged me down one dark corridor to another. I had lost my sense of where I was a while ago. I had never been down some of these hallways, I knew that for sure. When he pulled me into a room, I looked around and I was trying my best to figure out where I was. I had called out for Javier a couple of times, but after a while, I knew that it wasn't going to do me any good.
“Keep calling for them, and I'm going to have to shut you up.”
I stopped talking then, knowing that I was just going to make it harder on myself. He didn't care about me at all, and I knew that the women he was taking me to didn’t care either. I had to face the facts. I was most likely never going to get out of Panthera alive.
It was in those moments of despair that I heard my pack coming towards me. I heard Javier's voice, and I knew that they were coming to help me. I looked back once before I was pushed into another room that was adjacent to the one I was in and locked in. I banged on the door hard, trying to find out what was going on in the other room.
I could hear struggling and yelling from the other side of the door, and I wanted to see what was happening. I wanted to help if I could, not sure if I could, but I wanted to try. They had saved me time and time again, and I wanted it to be my turn.
Looking around behind me, I could see several things that I could use as a weapon. I didn't know if the person who opened the door was going to be on my side or not, there was no telling.
Finally, I picked up a lamp and raised it high over my head. I was psyching myself up, telling myself that I was going to have to hit whoever came through that door. I was only going to get one chance, and I didn't know what kind of a chance I was going to get. This was all more than I had bargained for.
