Claimed by Panthers: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Panther Shifters of the Amazon Book 3)

by Laura Wylde

  Darla: Uh oh, does that mean you’re going to stay? Are you in love? Xx

  Tara: Nothing is set in stone yet. But maybe. I don’t want to leave yet anyway xx

  There was a beat of silence before anyone replied. I found my heart hammering so hard it was beating powerfully in my mouth making my throat run dry. I didn’t even see these girls anymore, but I didn’t want them to hate me for my choices. I needed some acceptance.

  Then finally I saw the little symbol, the three dots which meant that Maz was typing. I prayed to every God from every religion that I had ever come across that this was good news.

  Maz: That’s amazing, Tara. I’m so glad that you have found someone to make you happy. I really do hope it lasts because you deserve it. I will have to come and visit some time xx

  I breathed out with relief before firing off my reply.

  Tara: Thank you so much. That means so much to me xx

  Darla: I was worried that you would travel the planet forever. If you have found someone that makes you want to settle, then you cling on to him and never let him go xx

  Tara: I will! And of course, you can come and visit any time xx

  Maybe not Panthera, but the city. We could make it work… if this reunion was ever going to happen. We didn’t manage to make it in America, so chances were slim.

  Maz: We love you lots, I hope you know that xx

  This brought a tear to my eyes. I couldn’t help it.

  Tara: I love you both too xx

  Their words were wonderful, they made me so much happier about the decision that I already wanted to make. I really did want to stay here and live my life out in Panthera. I was pretty sure that choice had already been made long before I even set foot into the city. This was going to be my home, and I couldn’t wait to tell the guys that they got to keep me forever.

  But there was one thing that I needed to do first, for the safety of everyone. If I was going to remain here, then I didn’t need the pictures, did I? I didn’t need the constant reminder of a memory from long ago because I would be living it. Those photos had done nothing but cause me issues anyway, so there wasn’t any point in clinging on to them.

  I put all the books back, grinning to myself as I thought about what my future was going to look like now. Surrounded by four men that I was immensely attracted to, but that I also loved. Living the most wonderful life ever. Panthera already felt like my home more than anywhere else I had ever been before, and I had only been here for a couple of days.

  Once I was done in the library, I raced to my room with happiness bursting through me like an explosion. I couldn’t wait for the moment that all my men would return, and I could tell them what I’d done, what I’d decided… then it would be time practicing making more children for the race. And I sure as hell didn’t mind how many times it took to fall pregnant, how many hours we had to spend at it. Whatever it took… but first, they needed to get back to me safely.

  Jabari

  They knew this was going to happen. That was the only thing that I could think of as I saw the large numbers of jaguars coming at us just as hard as we were them. They knew and that was why we were immediately outnumbered two to one. Instantly, my eyes darted towards Seth, Ramon, and Tony. I was worried for them; they were my pack. I didn’t want anything to happen.

  But I wasn’t going to be able to watch them all the way through the fight. That just wasn’t possible. There were too many people here for me to see them all.

  “We are all here for one reason,” Javier commanded. He and the jag leader were in human form but no one else. “To end this fight. We can end it peacefully…”

  “We sure can,” the jaguar snarled back. “When you bend the knee and commit to us.”

  “You know that we don’t want that, and I don’t think that you do either.”

  “Oh, yeah?” He ran his nasty eyes up and down Javier like he was dirt on his shoes. “And what does the anomaly think that we want then? Since you seem to be such an expert.”

  “I think that we all just want to go our separate ways and go back to the way that things were.”

  “But things will never go back to the way they were before. Not when you have humans with you, threatening our secrecy. Ruining our way of life. We need to end that.”

  Javier spoke calmly and with precision. “But the humans that are involved with us want to protect our secret too. They are having children with us. Children they never want to risk. There is no chance they will ever let the rest of the world know about us.”

  “The new one isn’t pregnant,” he shot back, making my blood run ice cold. I bolted upright into a stiffer position, the mere mention of Tara too much to handle. “And she has taken photographs of all of us. Photographs that could make her very rich. She has threatened to do that, hasn’t she? We don’t even need to ask to know for sure. She wants to be wealthy, but she has pulled the wool over your eyes and made it seem like she actually likes you guys. All she wants to do is learn your secrets so that she can destroy you from the inside out. And you are too dumb to see it.”

  I had to hold my temper in check. Javier had already warned us before we came here to let him do the negotiation and not to rise to any of the bait that they threw our way. But how could I not when they were threatening Tara? I wasn’t made of fucking stone. This was so damn hard.

  “The girl is nothing to worry about,” Javier tried to reassure him. “She has mated, she is a part of us now. She wants to be a wife to the pack which means she will keep the secret as well.”

  Javier was bluffing, there was no way that he could be certain about any of that, but he was trying his best. I wished those words were true though. I so wanted that to be the case.

  “Has she got rid of the pictures yet?” The jag teased. “Or is she holding on to them just in case?”

  “Is this really about the pictures?” Javier shot back, quickly. “Or about us. About the way that our races have gotten along side by side for years and years, and that we could do again.”

  “We can’t. Not until you change your ways, not until you kill off the humans.”

  Those words created a tight knot of panic in my chest. I knew that the jags weren’t happy and that they had the tendency to be assholes, but kill the humans? People with lives that they knew nothing about? How could they be so freaking cruel for seemingly no reason?

  “And I want you to start with the new one,” the jaguar continued. “I want her gone first. She is the worst threat out of all of them and I want her out of the picture. I want her dead. You bring her head to me, and maybe we can talk then. What do you think about that?”

  A growl flew out of my mouth. I couldn’t stop it however hard I tried. I wanted to do what Javier requested of me because I knew it was rationally for the best but guttural instinct took over. My primal instinct to protect Tara over shadowed anything else.

  At the sound of my growl, Javier put his hand out behind himself to block me from doing anything crazy, but my paws clawed along the ground regardless. I was gearing myself up. If they wanted Tara’s head, then there was only one way that this would end and that was with a fight.

  “This is ridiculous,” Javier continued in an over the top calm manner. “There doesn’t need to be any deaths. No one needs to die to protect the secret that’s already protected.”

  “You just don’t get it, do you? Every human that you bring into our world is a risk. Humans aren’t like us, they have greed in their hearts, spite at their core. Look at how they treated us in the past. They practically destroyed us. You’re welcoming that again.”

  These jags didn’t get it. They didn’t understand the love felt between us and the human women. They couldn’t possibly know without experiencing it. None of the human women brought into our lives were that sort of person. None of them liked greed and spite. Particularly, not Tara. She was the most honest loving person I had ever met in my life. These jags had this idea that things were supposed to be a certain way and they wouldn’t
open their eyes…

  “We need to come up with an agreement. We can’t fight like this…”

  “Fight like what, huh…?”

  It was on. The head jaguar leapt in the air and shifted with his claws out, the asshole controlling every second of this. Just like me, he knew what way this was going to go, and he wanted to do it on his terms. I wanted to scream with frustration. We should have done that first.

  As quick as a flash, Javier changed too and the two of them started to fight hard. The rest of the jags charged at us like a fucking battalion. Instantly, my eyes darted around, and I tried to find my guys. I needed to check that everyone was alright.

  Seth was sneaking up on another. That was good, his quick and quiet feet were his best asset in battle. I didn’t really want him to make that leap, but if that was what he needed to do then be it. Then I needed to track down Ramon. His white albino fur made him easy for me to spot, but unfortunately it made him a big target for the jags as well. He had three on him, but thankfully, Jakar was by his side, helping him out. I knew that Jakar could handle it.

  Tony. Where the fuck was Tony? That was a massive worry for me. I couldn’t seem to see him anywhere. I raced forwards, desperately trying to spot him. My eyes were so busy all over the place that I didn’t notice a sharp set of claws piercing my skin until the blood gushed from me.

  Fuck. I started to attack, knowing that was the only way I could survive. I lashed out and used all my anger at every single one of the fucking jaguars in that moment. I went wild on this asshole until he backed away. He was forced to move away from me because I was going nuts. Lashing out like a mad man, acting like the primal bastard that I was. I didn’t have time for him, I wanted to know where Tony was. I needed to see him. This guy was fucking nothing to me.

  I breathed out with relief as I finally spotted Tony up high, teasing a couple of jags. Typical Tony. But at least he was alright. That was the most important thing. As long as all of them were fine, that was all that I cared about. But the fight was still brutal as fuck around me. Blood was everywhere and my incredible nose was breathing in the scent of death. I didn’t know which side the death was on, but I really didn’t like it. I didn’t want anyone to die. Not really…

  We need to end this, I thought desperately to myself. I can’t lose anyone like this.

  I tried to think of a way to make that happen, another way that Javier hadn’t tried. He was the leader of the panthers for a reason. He knew what was best, but maybe not this time…

  All of a sudden, I got a whiff of something unexpected. Something that really got to me. That changed everything. It was the scent of a jaguar that I knew. The one who had been in Tara’s room. He might not have done anything to her, but the fact that he dared to be anywhere near her destroyed me. He could have been the one to take her head off. There were so many things that he could have done. If he had even touched a hair on her head, it would fucking destroy me.

  I followed the scent and spotted the jag staring at me like he knew me. It seemed like he was teasing me, which caused a red mist of anger to descend over me. I barely even knew what was happening anymore. The more that I looked at him, the more rationality flew out the window and I became a slave to the animal instincts inside of me. I was about to fucking take him out. Anger flooded me. I didn’t like to kill, but I was prepared to for this asshole. It would be the first time that I personally had ever fought to the death, but for Tara it was worth it.

  I turned and faced him, snarling angrily. I bared my teeth just so he knew that I was coming for him. I didn’t want to kill… yet I wanted him to smell the scent of death before I took this fucker out. I narrowed my eyes at him, and scratched my feet along the floor, and I took flight. All thoughts melted away and any human part of me vanished. It was on.

  I glanced my eyes around this area of the jungle, sickness threatening to escape me. There was so much death, so many bodies around here, it was disgusting. I hated being a part of this. I couldn’t even remember a lot of it, once the animal side of me kicked in to get me through the fight, it hadn’t vanished until the end. Now that it was back, I was a fucking mess.

  Sure, there were more jaguar bodies than panther. I could only see a couple of panthers who hadn’t made it to the end, but it was still sad. Even knowing that we had won didn’t make it any better. I never wanted things to end like this. I just wanted it to stop.

  “We are okay,” Tony whispered to me, his human body a state. He was filled with scars, it made me sick. “We are all fine. You don’t need to worry too much.”

  Sure, my clan were okay. So were Jakar and Javier’s, but it was still impossible to wrap my head around. I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to get over what had happened.

  “This will be over soon,” Seth tried to reassure me as well. “It’ll be fine.”

  “Try to think about Tara,” Tony joined in. “Think about seeing her soon.”

  I slipped my eyes closed and thought about her face. Her beautiful face, her purple hair, that heart stopping smile of hers… God, I couldn’t wait to see her again. But would I be a broken man when that happened? Would I be a much less version of myself? I hated that.

  “You see?” All of a sudden, Javier’s voice burst through the jungle, grabbing everyone’s attention. “You see what your war has done? Death surrounds you. You caused this.”

  The leader of the jaguars rose to his feet. He tried to look powerful and still like he was in control, but it was easy to see that he was broken too. All of us were. The fact that this didn’t need to happen was probably killing every single one of us left alive.

  “This didn’t need to happen. We tried to deal with this peacefully and you preferred it this way. This is what you wanted. Are you happy now, huh? Are you fucking happy?”

  The jaguar leader said nothing. He just looked around like he couldn’t quite believe it. All the arrogance that he wore like a shield had long since fallen away. Could this actually be worth it?

  “You need to go,” Javier growled. “You need to get the hell out of here and never come back. Don’t interfere with our way of life ever again. We know what we’re doing. We know how to live our lives. We don’t need any advice from you, and we sure as shit don’t need to bow down to you.”

  I wanted to stiffen, to prepare myself for yet another fight, but I couldn’t. I didn’t have it left in me. I was a freaking mess, and this needed to be over here and now. I didn’t think any of us had the effort left. I hoped the asshole jaguar leader didn’t either. If he had another trick up his sleeve, then that would be the end of us. All of us, probably. There wouldn’t be any need to worry about the future and procreation because there would be none of us left.

  “I… I…” he gasped. “I don’t know what to say to you.”

  “Then just say that you’re going to leave,” Javier yelled. “Say that you’re leaving us. Say that you’re leaving us to live our lives and that you aren’t coming back again. Say that you will go back to wherever the hell you came from and you’ll never come back to us. We don’t ever want to see your faces, we don’t ever want to be in your presence, we just want our lives back.”

  The jaguar hung his head low. It almost looked like there were tears leaking out of his eyes. I didn’t want to get my hopes up but there was a chance that we would actually get what we wanted.

  “Yes,” he finally said quietly, sounding as defeated as I felt. “Yes, okay.”

  “How do we know that you are telling the truth?” Javier pushed, the anger in his voice scaring me a little. This wasn’t typical. “How do we know that this isn’t some other bullshit trick of yours?”

  “Because I have lost it all. You can see that.” The jaguar threw his hands in the air. “I don’t have anything left. You have destroyed us all. There is no going back from this.”

  “You destroyed yourself. You started this. It’s your fault.”

  “I know. That is something you are probably right about. My arrogance has destroyed
us.”

  “So, go home and leave us alone. Let this be the end of it all. This will be our territory from now on. You aren’t welcome here anymore. I don’t want any of you back or the same will happen. We have no desire to interrupt you and your lives, so you do the same.”

  “We won’t come here again,” he confirmed. “We will leave you alone.”

  Javier refused to move and the rest of us stood behind him to show our agreement with him. We needed to present a united front and to remind the jaguars that even though we started with much less of us, we were ending this with so much more.

  Finally, the jaguars left with their heads hung low. I guess we couldn’t be one hundred percent certain that this wouldn’t happen again, but we were as sure as we could be. My shoulders rolled forwards; relief flooded me. We could go back home to Tara.

  “We need to honor the dead,” Javier reminded us. “Before we go home, we need to bury those who lost their lives in this and to say a proper goodbye. It’s the only way.”

  Goodbyes were never easy, but this was going to be one of the hardest ones of all. I would have to face what we’d done and what we’d lost. But it was the only way that we could put this to bed forever.

  Tara

  “They’re back!” Someone yelled, shaking me from my stupor. Ever since I deleted all the pictures of the panthers and jaguars, I had been at a loss, just waiting for them to come back. I didn’t feel much, I was mostly numb, just sitting and waiting. “Come on.”

  I leapt up and raced to the tunnel, my heart pounding in my throat as I did. I knew that this moment would come eventually, I’d been waiting expectantly for it, but now that it was here, I wasn’t sure. What was I about to face? What if they didn’t all come back?

  “Fucking hell,” I muttered in a shaking voice. “Get it together, Tara. Be there for them.”

  I might have had a shitty day, but theirs was a lot worse. Their fight must have been brutal. And we didn’t even know if they had won or lost yet. If the jaguars won, then there was a chance that it didn’t matter what decision I had made, I would be out of here. Or dead. There was a little bit of me that wondered if I should have used the time to run… but I knew I couldn’t. These men were worth risking my life for. I loved them. They were worth it and I didn’t regret a thing.