The Panther's Rival

by Emilia Hartley

  Merk already had two of the wolves on the ground, clawing and biting at each of them. RJ was on all fours to the outside of them, circling them, as he held off all the cousins, who had also shifted. Kara looked over her shoulder at the crowd on the bleachers. They were entranced by the whole ordeal, watching as if it was their favorite drama playing out in front of them or literally the Friday night football game that everyone in this town was obsessed about. Kara turned back to watch too, praying that Merk would pull through.

  The wolf used its paw to smack the panther off balance. The panther rolled on its back and then sprung back onto its paws. Almost immediately, the panther lunged forward, its front legs and paws stretched out, its mouth wide and teeth pearled and ready to bite into the wolf. Ratty dodged the lunge and countered with a bite to Merk’s neck. The wolf tried to latch on but Merk spun and shook the attack off. He and Ratty faced off, circling each other.

  Kara looked at Merk in awe. He was sublime, magnificent. She could still see a light scarring from earlier, now a part of his panther coat. He was a warrior cat, tried and battered, beaten, scarred but healing and still fighting. And RJ. He was fending off the rest of his entire family, to protect and help Merk, to give him a chance in the fight against his dad and brothers. Kara wanted to go to him, but her strength wasn’t coming back to her, at least not how it had been before with Ferdinando.

  This time was different and she could feel it. Her body felt depleted, void of any substance that animated her. Kara felt empty and hollow. She didn’t want to let them fight alone but despite regaining consciousness, there was something wrong, something that she couldn’t fix. She felt like she was fading away, too weak to really move or say anything. From the ground, her face planted to the side of the cool grassy mound, she watched as RJ threw his body on top of one of the wolves, clawing and biting at them. He wrestled the one down to the ground, it clawed him and bit him, but RJ kept fighting.

  The wolves were hard to pin down, there was constant snapping and spinning, but RJ somehow managed to wrap his legs around another one of the wolves, his cousin to handicap it and then sunk his teeth into its neck. Kara could see the anguish and pain on his face even as a wolf as he tore into his family, hating it but knowing that it had to be done – RJ twisted and then pulled. A loud snap sounded. The wolf’s neck was broke. And immediately, the pack stopped. Ratty and the rest of the pack turned to their fallen pack member.

  In unison, as if their bodies demanded it, every one of them, including RJ, lifted their head to the dark sky and moon and howled. When they had finished, Ratty’s eyes found his sons. He took one step forward and then shifted back to human form, his naked body marched towards RJ, riled, his eyes filled with hate. He lunged for him but just before he could get to RJ, Merk, in panther form, dove on to Ratty’s back, reared back, and then chomped down into Ratty’s flesh – Merk sunk his teeth into the bed of Ratty’s neck, near the shoulder; Merk had a huge chunk of Ratty’s flesh in his mouth He pulled back, ripping that chunk of flesh and tendon and bone from him, the force and momentum of it causing Merk to fall backwards off the human Ratty.

  Ratty stood there in shock, blood spat and sprayed from his open wound and then gushed out. He turned to his right to look at the missing chunk. Suddenly, his body began to convulse and the right side of his body seemed to just go dead, slumping downward. Ratty’s body fell over to the right, crashing down hard to the field. No one moved for several seconds. The rest of the Fairweather shifters, including RJ, stood frozen to the spot, staring at his dad’s seizing body. One by one the brothers and cousins eased closer to Ratty, each one sniffing to check him out, to see whether he was still alive. RJ didn’t move. It was hard to tell if it was shock that kept him in place or hatred. The rest of the Fairweather crew all seemed to be waiting for Ratty to stop seizing. After several minutes, he stopped.

  Merk, who was still in panther form, moved over to Kara. He nestled his head against hers and the purred, it was a loud one, full of bass. Kara wrapped her arms around him, pressing her body into him and pulling herself up to face him. She was weak. Dying. In order to save him, the man she loved, Kara had given him everything she had – all of her power and energy. Kara kissed him on the sides of his neck, light and faint, feeling as if it was about to be her last moments with him. She could feel it – death – coming, it was cold and separate, different from anything she had ever experienced; it was welcoming and made her feel like it was okay to leave, better maybe to go. Her eyes were closed now, and she kissed Merk one last time, woman to panther. She didn’t want to let go, but she did. The night was calling her, that inward darkness that was only in death.

  For a few moments, at least for Kara, it seemed like the world had stopped. Frozen. It was just her and Merk. The way it should be. She knew that she would never love another the way she loved him. He was a part of her and she was a part of him. She was sure of it. Somehow. Providence. Fate. They were linked. That was how she had been able to find him; she believed that. And she was satisfied with that. She nodded to herself, telling herself that it was okay to go now, that she was with him, Merk, even if he was still in panther form; they were together and somehow, despite him being in panther form, she heard his last words to her, “I love you.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was the hardest thing in the world to look at your own back. Merk chuckled to himself as he tried to look at the scar in the mirror. It was a crisp pink blotch on his lower back where Ratty had dug into him and literally snapped his vertebrae. Merk could still feel the pain, his memory of the feeling was just as vivid as when it happened, it made him cringe still. But beyond that was Kara’s amazing ability to heal. If it hadn’t been for her…

  Kara came into the room. Merk smiled. She was still the best part of everything that had happened – before he came to town and after. It was hard to believe that it had been six months already since what happened to them. So much had changed. However, for Merk, the biggest thing hadn’t been the revealing and the public response to the existence of shifters; rather, it had been his and Kara’s subsequent engagement. Things had moved fast. But they both were sure and inseparable. No one in the town was surprised, not after everything that had happened. Mostly everyone regarded them as some version of a super couple. And maybe they were, but he felt that way without the harrowing events that lead to the football field that fall night.

  “Are you ready?” Kara asked.

  Merk could see that she was. She was wearing a beautiful metallic colored dress that prominently showed her own scars and skinned over bite marks, including the clawing of her face by Ratty. She had been able to heal herself as well. But that took time and it was still going through a process. Those scars were faint now and in a matter of months, they would be totally gone, just in time for their wedding he was sure. But even with the faint lines, she was still gorgeous and irresistible. There was still so much that they didn’t know about her succubus abilities. Merk guessed that was part of their journey as husband and wife. But there was something more: they both had come to a place of acceptance. She had accepted what had happened to them and even more importantly, she had accepted who she was, who he was, better than that, who they were together. And that meant they could move forward. Let the past be what it was. That’s what this evening was supposed to be about – acceptance. Merk looked back in the mirror at his back. He ushered past his feelings and memories, shaking the residue of memory and resolved to accept.

  “Need some help with that? We have to get going? When the town is throwing you an engagement party, you should be on time,” she chimed in.

  “Right,” Merk answered.

  Kara came over and helped him with his bow tie. He hated bow ties but this was a formal affair. The Mayor had deemed it so – and it for them – go figure. Kara finished and went to do her lipstick in the mirror in front of her dresser (they had moved in together and her stuff was now all over the house – he wouldn’t want it any other way though, althoug
h it was kind of crowded because she had so much stuff). He liked it when she wore red lipstick. He didn’t know why.

  “Ready?” Merk added.

  Kara had just finished putting her lipstick on and was adding some eye shadow. Kara’s hand reached out for him. He slid his hand into hers and followed her out of their bedroom. They were on their way.

  ***

  They walked into a room full of people in full standing ovation. The entire town was out, well almost. There was still a small faction of townspeople that either supported the Fairweathers or felt that the family had been done wrong or the other group of people that were just plain mistrusting of shifters. RJ couldn’t have possibly known the ramifications of his revealing to the town and subsequently the world of the existence of shifters that night. The small Floridian town had in one night been put on the map and instantaneously made famous. This was all to Merk’s chagrin because he knew what that meant for him: that his past would be coming for him. But for now, he let that be. That hadn’t arrived yet and he was thankful. He wanted to get married and enjoy as much time with his wife as possible before more chaos came into their lives.

  “Merk!” exclaimed Mayor Leslie, a spry man, early fifties, as he came over to him.

  He extended a hand out to Merk. Merk took it. Nice firm handshake.

  “Good to see ya, man,” he said.

  He then turned to Kara. With a smile that could buy anything, he took her hand and bowed slightly.

  “Gorgeous as ever,” he added.

  “Thank you,” she replied.

  And behind him came everyone else. This was the new normal for them and had been so since that fall night. People were curious and they had become famous in a sense. Of course, no one else knew about her, Kara, being a succubus. For them, the town and the rest of the world, Kara was just a regular woman, brave (which was true) and fierce (another truism), that stood side by side with her shifter boyfriend/fiancé to help take down another group of shifters that had been terrorizing the town. That was the story that was spun, mostly led by Mayor Leslie, who upon hearing about it, became best friends with them and in his stealthy avarice used them for his own political platform and agenda. In addition to what the Mayor was already saying about them, Merk and her had even spun a story about her having plastic surgeries done to fix her face, all of which healed remarkably well and fast. This was their life now. And the one thing that Merk understood, it was all about acceptance.

  ***

  Merk couldn’t wait to get back home and away from all of the people and their clamoring, fame was going to be hard for him. Kara seemed to take it better; she handled it with far more flamboyance than him. That was good because he had no intentions of every indulging in it and the way things were going, someone had to – he was glad it was her, his perfect partner. His back was killing him. That still happened. That was the leftover from what Ratty had done – back pain. After being up for a while, doing things, his back would ache, terribly. He popped two pain pills into his mouth and chased them down with some brown liquor and lay back in the bed. There had to be some football news on ESPN, the offseason was always busy.

  Kara eased in. She stopped to pose at the door, a very seductive lean, her face arched against the frame. She eyed Merk just the way he liked it; so much for ESPN, but he loved to see her work, the way she seduced was a work of art. She seemed to never tire of it, always sensuous. He guessed that was part of her being a succubus, it was all a part of her nature.

  “Hey…” she said softly.

  “Hey,” he answered back.

  Kara slithered in. She was wearing something new.

  “Is that new?” he played along.

  Kara nodded as she climbed onto the bed. She did a playful cat crawl toward him. Merk chuckled some, not missing the irony. She was playing with him, teasing him with her version of a panther impression. She was now on top of him, looming over him, looking down, her eyes bright; seduction was on her face. She pressed her body down on his and moved her hand around his thigh… Then groin… And then…

  Merk moaned. She eased down, her face lowering down to his skin as she tugged at his boxers. She pulled them down and with them went her face…

  ***

  Kara hated leaving him. At all. Any point in time. But she especially hated leaving him late at night like this without his knowing. Especially after sex. Good sex at that. But she had to. There were things that she had to do – things that she had to stay on top of – for them, for their protection.

  Kara walked down the stairs as softly as possible. It was late, well after midnight. She went to grab the keys off the counter and started towards the door. Outside she continued to step lightly, although she knew that Merk couldn’t hear her from inside the house. She eased the key into the ignition, again, trying to be as quiet as possible, it was just a mental thing, she was so used to doing this now in secret and trying to be as quiet and discreet as possible. Everything was done in the closeness of a cone of silence or at least within the spectrum of quietness. Kara shifted into gear, eased her foot on the gas, and backed out of their driveway. And then she was gone.

  ***

  RJ opened the door for her, just like he usually did. They exchanged pleasantries, teacher to student, but they both knew that they were so much more than that now. RJ was a good kid and he was becoming a decent student. Merk and him had become close, in a way Merk had settled into a kind of surrogate father role. Kara was happy about that – Merk needed that in his life, something extra to hold onto, another meaningful relationship was good for him, especially this one with RJ given what had happened with the boy from his past (Merk had shared that with her and mostly all of his past during their recovery from their own tragic event). Kara followed RJ through the twisting hallway of the Fairweather house. Kara had been there so many times before, when she used to date Ratty but even more so now after their break up a little over two years ago. She had reason to.

  RJ opened the door to the basement. He stepped down and she followed. It was dark, as usual, and she figured he was asleep, but she still wanted to make sure that everything was still the way it should be.

  At the bottom, RJ reached over to the side and flicked a switch. A minimalist light went on in the far corner. And there he was. Alone. Lying on a cot, in a cage just like he should be, the fuckin’ animal that he was. Kara walked over to the cage. RJ stayed back. That was usual to. He didn’t like to see his father, and he did everything in his power not to ever have to. RJ hated him. What Ratty had done was unforgivable and RJ would spend the rest of his life either trying to forget it or trying to make up for it – to restore, in some way, the Fairweather name.

  But there he was – Ratcliff “Ratty” Fairweather. Caged. In human form. Deformed from the vicious bite that Merk had given him – to think that’s what he had wanted for her when he clawed her in the face. There had been no skin graph for him to help in his recovery. Doctors said that his damage was too severe. His nerve and tendons and bones had been ripped out and shredded past reconfiguration and reconstructing. That left Ratty horribly deformed on the right side and in constant pain. Merk had done that to him. And Kara was glad for it. It was the most secret and sadistic part of her that she allowed to exist when it came to Ratty – but she liked seeing him like this. Cowering, crazed with pain and drugs, body broken and beaten and mangled. In a cage in his own house. Legally they were calling it house arrest. For all that Ratty had done, this was justice, in the purest sense of the word.

  “Rot in hell, you son of bitch,” she said out loud to him.

  Ratty stirred some. He tried to open his eyes but he was too drugged. Kara turned from the cage. She walked back over to RJ.

  “How are you?” she asked.

  “Good.”

  “Reece?”

  “He’s fine. He’s out with some girl now. He’s not here much. But it was nice of him to sign the guardian papers for me.”

  Kara nodded.

  “Right. I
wish he was around more for you though – but I get it,” she said.

  “Yeah, me too. But I get it too. He never was about this life – being a Fairweather – and who could really blame him, ya know.”

  “Right.”

  Kara took one more look at the cage and then headed back up the steps. She was halfway up the steps when she realized that RJ wasn’t behind her. He was still at the bottom, staring at the cage. Her heart went out to the kid. He was so alone except for her and Merk. A part of her just wanted to take over the guardianship and have him live with them. Ratty could go to hell – or someone would find a place for him, a prison that had some kind of infirmary to take care of him, even though it would be a better use of time and a saving of resources and energy to just let him waste away. RJ didn’t deserve to be imprisoned with him in this house. That wasn’t fair.

  “RJ?” she called down to him.

  RJ hurried up the steps.

  Upstairs, RJ walked her to the door. Kara hated this part: leaving this kid in this house alone with Ratty. It wasn’t right. For a long time, she had told herself that she was coming over here to check on Ratty, to make sure that she kept her eye on him, to make sure that none of the Fairweathers that had escaped and had come back. But it was more than that – she came over for RJ too. She liked him a lot. Maybe even loved him. In a maternal way. Every time she looked at him, she thought about what Merk’s and her child would be like. She hoped one day to find out.

  “You okay?” she asked him just before going out the door.

  “I’m fine, Miss Daniels,” RJ answered.

  They exchanged smiles and then she went out the door. RJ shut the door and locked it behind her.

  ***