The Panther's Surrogate: A Paranormal Pregnancy Romance

by Foxxe, Angela

  There were plenty of people, regardless of the violence and the danger they were in, who would gladly take up the chance to be able to be with someone close enough to call their soul mate. Josie would never give up on that. She would be with Kheem forever. She knew that in the depth of her heart and it wasn’t going to change. It didn’t matter how many people she had to fight through. She was committed forever.

  It was strange that the town looked exactly like it always did. There was nothing about it that would suggest to her that they were close to a battle that was going to kill dozens of people at any moment. She realized she was going to have to get over that feeling of peace and tranquility that was so heavy in the air. It was going to get very violent, very fast. Her breathing was picking up and her heart was beating faster and faster with each block they passed.

  How much longer until everything went to hell? She looked at Kheem, who was as calm as the sea. There was something in the air that made her think she was the only one who knew what was about to happen. Everything was about to go crazy and no one had the faintest idea.

  At least, until the explosion ripped through the air and the screaming started. Shielding her eyes, Josie felt Kheem slam into her as he took her to the ground, covering her from anything that might come raining down from the sky. She screamed, but she could hardly hear her own voice over the roar of the blast and the rush of the wind. The world was engulfed in dust, completely absorbed and blanketed by a thick color of rust.

  Her eyes burned against the dust as she blinked, looking around as she pushed Kheem off her. He was hesitant to get up, terrified they were too close to the heart of the action. At least the question of whether they were too late or not was answered sufficiently. It looked like the Shifters had made their play and that the Hunters were on the run.

  There were moans and screams from the direction of the blast, but it was too early for her to know who was screaming and dying and who was still alive. . Taking a step forward, she watched as shadowy figures, phantoms in the dark, rushed past her and Kheem, running for safety and sanctuary from the blast. There were people limping, coughing and staggering as they made their way to safety.

  She was afraid of them, wondering if any of them were killers, looking for Kheem and her. If they were caught by the wrong people, then they were dead. There wouldn’t be a way for them to escape and there wouldn’t be any place to run. It wasn’t like she could see anything after all. It was all veiled by the thick color of rust. She made her way forward and felt her stomach lurching with each step.

  “Are you okay?” Kheem asked her, shouting louder than he probably needed to, but it didn’t bother her. All she could think of was the fact that the ambush had gone off and that they were right in the middle of a war zone. It wasn’t long before the screams began to be their only source of information.

  She nodded to Kheem, who took that as a yes and made sure he was the one leading the way. Stepping in front of her, he shielded his eyes from the blazing light of a burning car that had been caught in the middle of the blast. Josie could barely make out where they were amidst all the chaos and insanity. They were somewhere near the Torch, but it was still a block away. They must have rigged the car to explode as well. There was no way the blast could have reached this far out. Even with gasoline, the blast should have only gone a little out of the windows and the doors. It wouldn’t have blown up a block.

  Granted, she wasn’t an expert in such things, but soon, there was something that made them all a little more nervous. The sounds of gunshots ripped through the air, loud cracks that split through the ringing in her ears that she was starting to get used to. It was an odd feeling, but she seemed to understand where the shots were coming from and the fact that they weren’t coming toward them.

  Someone was shooting and it was at a target in the opposite direction. They were behind them, for now. Josie wanted to keep it that way. If the Hunters were still active, then she was completely fine with helping them, but she wasn’t interested in helping out the wrong people. How did they know they weren’t the Jaguars or the Hyenas who had given up on the honor of their kinds and wanted to start killing people with human weapons? That was something that didn’t seem too far out of the realm of possibility as far as those monsters were concerned.

  “Who do you think is firing?” Josie asked Kheem, crouching down behind a taxi that had been abandoned in the middle of the chaos.

  There was no police on the island and there was no one to protect the people. The resort’s security was the closest thing that there was to protection on this island. If people weren’t out of the town by now, they were most likely taking shelter in the nearby buildings that might offer the best safety. It wasn’t the smartest move, but it was better than being in the heart of the town.

  There was another explosion that ripped through the air, causing both Josie and Kheem to duck and flinch at the sound. It was coming from the heart of the town, which confirmed Josie’s suspicion. They had rigged most of the town to explode if the Hunters got too close. The ambush was a whole lot bigger than Kheem had thought. If they were willing to kill all of these people just to get rid of the Hunters, it only encouraged Josie to kill the last of them.

  They needed to get rid of all of them. They needed to kill them and stop them from doing anything like this again. The people of Tarobi deserved better than this. They were caught up in the middle of something they didn’t ask for. They were getting the brunt of a war they didn’t ask for. Josie hated this. It made her feel like she was part of the problem. Why had they escalated it to this point? Why had they been so cruel to the world that had been so kind and welcoming to them?

  Heading toward the heart of the town, Josie saw the first figure on the ground as they get closer and closer. It was a Hunter. She looked at the body and was strangely glad to see something that was horrifying. The man was killed by a weapon that slashed him. He looked like he was killed after the bomb went off. If he was blown back by the bomb and killed by the Hyenas or the Jaguars, then that meant that the Hunters were the men using the guns in the distance. Sure, it was sad this man was dead, but at least the Shifters weren’t using guns now. That would have made things infinitely more difficult.

  Soon, the bodies began to show up more and more frequently. There was dust all over everything, but the street was littered with spent shell casings and the bodies of the fallen Hunters. The trap had been expertly executed and it looked like there was no getting out of it. It looked like the Hunters were completely caught up in the middle of all of it. They weren’t escaping this one.

  If the Shifters killed the Hunters, Josie wondered if there were any other Hunters left on Warco. Would there be anyone else out there to carry on the tradition of hunting down Shifters? Would they be free of the menace of Hunters for the rest of their days? Josie knew the Shifters would all turn to the Hyenas and the Jaguars if that were true. Getting out of the shadow of the Hunters was the dream of everyone living in the sanctuary of the resort. That boded ill for Josie and Kheem.

  The Torch was ablaze, completely consumed in fire and there were bodies scattered all around the street. They found a scene of something bizarre. Amidst the bodies of the dead Hunters, there was the body of Dubaku and Christoph. Both looked like they had been taken down by bullets. But it was the third body of Tomas that was the strangest sight in the middle of the carnage. His face was clawed and his body was torn open by slashes that were definitely given to him by the claws of something. As far as Josie could tell, it looked like this was the work of a Jaguar that had gotten very angry.

  There was a cough in the distance, hidden by the dust and the smoke that was settling in the area. Josie took a cautious step forward, making her way after Kheem, who was far more fearless in this situation than she was. He stopped for a moment, his back to Josie as he looked at the ground and stared at another corpse that had been dropped in the heat of the battle. This one was slashed and savaged as well, not by bullets, but by the claws
of a very angry animal. It wasn’t hard for Josie to figure out who it was.

  It was Sipho.

  “What the hell happened here?” Josie asked Kheem.

  “Bastards turned on us,” a cough and sputtering voice came from the side of a nearby car.

  Josie had thought it was a dead body when she was approaching Sipho, where Kheem was standing. She thought it had been just another Hunter who had gone down in the middle of all the action and was lying there, beaten and vanquished by the Shifters. As she blinked against the burn of the smoke, she realized that the bullet ridden figure was actually dangerously familiar. It was Faraji.

  “How did you get mixed up in all of this?” She asked him, taking a step toward him.

  Faraji coughed again, spitting a long ropy string of phlegm out as he wiped his mouth with his bloody sleeve. He looked up at Josie with his one good eye remaining and she could see that he was having a hard time keeping it together. He wasn’t long for this world and that made her feel like it was actually a mercy for Faraji.

  He was never a fighter and he was never the kind of person who should have been mixed up in all of this. He was just a stupid kid who wanted to get ahead without actually doing anything decent or noble with his life. He was a coward and a criminal, but he was dying like an animal in the middle of the street, his body ruined and blown to pieces.

  “Got the call,” Faraji coughed again. His voice was a raspy wheeze, like one of his lungs had collapsed in on him. “They said that they needed an extra body,that we were going to kill the Hunters and take over the island for ourselves. They said that there would be no stopping us this time. I thought that they were smarter than this. Never trust a Jaguar. Never should've trusted them.” His whole body shook as he coughed three times in a row, blood running from his dirty lips.

  “Jaguars turned on you?” Kheem asked, crouching down beside Faraji.

  Faraji’s one good eye followed Kheem, but his head didn’t move. It was too much work for him to move his head. All he cared about was getting out of this life without gathering any more pain. Josie supposed she understood that. He’d had a rough few days. He deserved a quick exit at this point. At least he was keeping them up to date on the current events of this hellish island.

  “Yeah, they turned on us,” Faraji said through a struggling voice. He winced against the pain and he didn’t even try to cover any of the bullet holes that marked his body. He was a dead man and there was nothing he could do to keep himself from dying at this point. “Bastards used us and then turned on us. Alizea made a break for it and I think a few of the Hunters were trying to get Kibwe and Tendai. There were just so many of them. I think they got freaked, just started turning on everyone and screwed everything up.”

  “You could've just left us alone,” Josie said to him, not feeling very forgiving at this point.

  “Could've done a lot of things,” Faraji said, his whole body beginning to shake and quiver from the shock. “Could have done lots of things differently.” He leaned his head back against the side of the car and just stared off into the fiery pyre of the Torch and didn’t say anything.

  It took Josie a while to realize he was dead. It wasn’t like in the movies where they shudder and sigh or their heads roll to the side. No, Faraji left this world silently and as she stood up, she looked at Kheem and knew that they were in luck. If the Hunters were still out there, then there was a chance the last of the Shifter renegades could be mopped up and put to rest once and for all. They could be free of this struggle, but they needed to make sure of it.

  If just one of them got away, then it would mean fighting for survival the rest of their days. Ony would never be safe and they would be stuck trying to build a life that was always on the brink of collapsing. No, they needed to do something about this and make sure it ended today. There was always a chance that the last one standing could slip away amidst the chaos. Without King Ronald and his lackeys around, they wouldn’t even have the Lions mobilized to find anyone who tried to escape the island. No, this was their fight and their job to make sure it ended today.

  They found a gateway leading to the town’s gardens where plenty of tourists decided to come and have their wedding while they were staying at the resort. It was a lovely rose garden and tropical paradise that was meticulously cared for and tended to by the locals. Now, it was a war zone. But stucco walls that surrounded the garden were covered in bullet holes and at the entry way to the island, there was a dead man leaning up against the wall.

  She recognized him as Auben with his facemask off and his eyes half closed. There was a slash across his throat and his arm looked horrifically mangled. He’d been killed by one of the Jaguars for sure. It was a grotesque sight and as she stood over him, she wondered who would take his place now.

  The treaty was built by King Ronald and Auben of the Hunters; without either of them, the treaty might dissolve completely. What were the odds that the next head of the Hunting Lodge in Warco was going to be as sympathetic or understanding of what the Shifters of Tarobi were trying to do here? What if they just wanted to exterminate everyone and let the bodies fall where they stood?

  Josie couldn’t think about that right now. She wouldn’t waste time worrying about the Hunters as well. Regardless of who took up Auben’s post, the Hunters had suffered so much today that there was no way they would be coming back for revenge from those who didn’t participate in the battle.

  “Whatever is happening on the other side of this gate,” Kheem stopped Josie for a moment and looked her in the eyes, “we have to survive. We promised each other, right? So, I don’t care about honor or the nobility of our people. We do anything to make sure that these bastards don’t get out of here alive and that we walk away from this. Do you understand?”

  “I understand,” Josie said. There was no doubt in her mind that she would do anything to save Kheem and herself. There was no longer a place for honor in their world and all that mattered was survival. “I love you, Kheem,” she said, touching his arm tenderly, trying her hardest to assure him that this wasn’t the end. God, she hoped that it wasn’t the end.

  Kicking open the wrought iron gate, they were forced to step through a veil of fire that was blowing across the entryway. It was thick, greasy smoke that had started from one of the explosions that caught a nearby building on fire, igniting it to add to the chaos. Without anyone around to put out the fire, it was very likely that it too would spread to the nearby buildings. This whole town could go up in flames if they weren’t careful.

  Stepping through the shadowy veil, Josie watched as a large golden and black cat landed on a Hunter. The Hunter was screaming at the top of his lungs and she instantly recognized him as Cardel. The Jaguar slashed at the man’s throat and all she could see was an arc or crimson that splattered across the manicured grass. The big cat, covered in blood and its eyes full of fire and rage, looked at them before slowly standing up on two hind legs. Josie watched as the cat transformed, turning into something that was a bit more familiar to the two of them.

  Kibwe took a step forward and chuckled. “I was hoping we would have the pleasure of killing you later.” Kibwe shrugged at the sudden turn of events. “It would have been glorious, cutting off your head before the Council, Kheem.”

  “You’re not walking away from this, Kibwe,” Kheem said, taking a step forward, ready for the challenge that was awaiting him. “Haven’t you killed enough people today? It’s time to stop.”

  “I heard them saying that King Ronald is dead,” Kibwe dragged the back of his hand across his face, smearing blood all across his cheek and lips. “It seems like the throne is ripe for the taking, wouldn’t you?”

  “You’ll never have that kind of power,” Josie snarled at him.

  “I hear huffing and puffing,” a familiar voice cackled out of the side of the garden.

  Josie watched as Tendai turned her head to the new comers. She had Alizea pinned up against the wall, strangling the life out of the harlot that h
ad tried to seduce Kheem a dozen times. Josie watched Alizea clawing at Tendai’s wrists and arms, trying her hardest to squirm free, but it was too late. She couldn’t breathe and the life was being suffocated out of her. When Tendai let go of Alizea and she crumpled to the ground, lifeless and motionless, it was the last of the Hyenas to be put down.

  Whether by the hands of the Hunters or the Jaguars, the Hyenas were all gone. They had fled Africa in hopes of starting a profitable life in the sanctuary of the Shifters on Tarobi, but now they were all gone. It was the fate that befitted the greedy and heartless Hyenas. They would get no sadness from Josie. She was glad to see them all gone. Now, they just needed to get rid of the Jaguars.

  Tendai stalked toward Josie with the kind of feral hunger Josie would expect a vampire to have. The look in her eyes was one of bloodlust that made Josie think that if Tendai won this little encounter, she would think of this as the best day of her life for the rest of her days. Josie wasn’t thrilled about the idea of fighting Tendai, but it was about time that one of them was put down once and for all.

  “I’m going to try not to enjoy this,” Josie told Tendai as they separated from Kheem and Kibwe.

  They were going to fight their own battle and Josie was horrified to leave Kheem alone. She trusted him, but Kibwe was larger and it looked like he was armed up to the fight. Kheem was still trying to recover from the last time he got into a fight with an enemy. Josie didn’t trust this was going to end well for Kheem, which meant she needed to put Tendai down as quickly as possible and head back to help Kheem.

  “Why not?” Tendai asked her. “Everyone should enjoy their death.”

  “Funny,” Josie said, nearly tripping over the body of Dutch. She looked down at the shotgun in Dutch’s hands and was sorry that the scattershot hadn’t found Tendai when he was alive. That would have made things so much easier for her.