Panther

Chapter Three

Oh shit, oh shit. This is it. We're busted.

I hear my panther growl, and shove me down to the back of her mind. She wants to focus, wants full control. I'm okay with it, I wouldn't know what to do in this situation anyways.

Just as I'm wondering if they're normal wolves, or if they're like me, one of them begins to tremble. I feel my heart clenching as I realize he's changing. I had been hoping they were normal wolves.

Soon, the once medium sized, dirty blonde wolf is a naked man standing up from the forest floor. He's tall, well over six feet. He's definitely a pack warrior; he's thick in the arms and looks like he could take on a tank.

"Hello." He says. His voice is soft, but firm. Like he's trying not to scare us but seem dominant at the same time. It doesn't work. "You're not just a panther." He says it as a statement, as opposed to a question. They already know I'm not just a normal woodland creature.

My panther begins moving to stand in front of her kill. She knows they're probably not after her food but doesn't know what else to do. He's not quite presenting as a threat, but that definitely doesn't mean she's dropping her guard.

"Don't worry, we're not interested in your dinner." He says, chuckling. My panther's eyes move away from him then, over to the other who is still in their wolf form. Something is off. My panther can still smell that sweet, clean scent from before. But it doesn't belong to either of these wolves.

There's someone else, probably hiding in the trees, I think quickly, as if she didn't already know that. She growls in confirmation at me.

The still naked man cocks his head at us, his eyes thoughtful. "Why don't you change so we can actually talk to each other?" He says, holding his hands out as if to show he means no harm. If you mean no harm, naked man, why are you hiding one of your friends from us?

My panther dips low to the ground, a deep, raspy growl crawling through her throat. It even makes me shiver.

"Ah hah. We really don't mean any harm." Says the man, backing away. For the first time, he looks nervous. Not such a big, bad wolf, huh? Her voice was dripping with smugness.

My panther seems to think for a moment. I could tell she was debating if she was going to give up control or not. It's your call, I tell her. She's probably the smarter one between the two of us, and definitely the stronger. If she thinks we can trust this guy enough to be in our more vulnerable state, then so be it.

I begin to feel my heart race, and I know she's retracting back inside me.

Once I'm finished changing, I become painfully aware of the fact that I'm butt ass naked. But I ignore the burning embarrassment I feel in my chest as I stand up, eyeing the wolf that's still watching me carefully. I don't need to show my shame, not right now.

"Who do you have hiding in the woods?" I ask before he can say anything, flicking my vision towards the tree line. I look back to the naked man and can tell from the surprised look on his face he hadn't thought I knew there was someone else out there. "Oh, come on, they smell so strongly I think a regular human would know they were there."

"Sorry, but you have to understand. We don't know you." He shrugs, taking a step forward. "What's your name, Panther?" He asks, looking me up and down. I want to cover myself up so badly. It takes every ounce of will power I have to remain standing tall.

I watched him for a moment. "Cleo." I say. "What do you want? Why are you bothering me?" I was slightly irritated about the fact that the one time I've shifted in months, I run into a trio of wolves. Not my idea of a good change. I can feel my panther inside me nodding in agreement. She was upset at the thought of her food going to waste.

"Well. Cleo. I'm Matt. That's Greg. " He points to the other gray wolf, who simply squints his eyes and nods. I nod back, looking back to Matt. "We're both guards from the wolf pack whose land you're trespassing on right now." Guard, warrior, same thing, right? He raises his eyebrows at me, trying to emphasize his point. "We were kind of hoping you would just leave, to be honest. We're not interested in starting anything here." I stared at him for a moment before looking back to the tree line.

I ignore his statement, and instead ask again, "Who's in there?"

He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking at Greg. He shrugs. "That would be our Alpha, Ike."

"Why doesn't he want to talk?" I ask, still not looking at either of them. I wanted to see Ike. I liked having a face to put on a name. At least, that's what I told myself to justify being so curious about him. It definitely wasn't this nagging feeling deep in my gut telling me to keep pushing.

"Look, Cleo. We really don't want this to be harder than necessary."

"Sure doesn't seem that way to me." I say, taking a step away from him as he slowly tries to close the distance between us.

From his point of view, the situation isn't ideal. Were-panthers aren't super common as far as I can tell. so, there are a lot of people who have never come across one before. As we all know, most people don't take well to things they don't understand. Ironic, considering the most backlash I've ever gotten has been from people who change into big dogs.

But I get why these wolves in particular are being suspicious, I really do.

They don't know me, they don't know if I mean them harm, or if I really am just looking for dinner. They don't know how strong I am, they don't know jack shit.

Rationally, I should just smile, nod, and move along. Turn my back on this park and pretend this whole night never happened. What good would starting drama with a wolf pack bring me?
But I just can't ignore this feeling.

"Let me talk to your Alpha." I say, holding my chin up high to show dominance. I've never submitted to anyone, and I wasn't about to start now.

"I'm not-"
"It's fine, Matt. If she wants to talk to me so badly, then let her talk." My head turns to face the tree line to my right. The new man's voice makes my skin tingle and I feel almost embarrassed at how much I like the way it sounds.

Holy shit. I squint my eyes at my panther's exclamation. What? Danger? I tense up at once, ready for a fight. No, you dumb bitch!

And then Ike is standing in front of me.

Tall.

Calculating black eyes.

An ass I just wanted to sink my teeth into like a rabid dog.

That's our fucking mate!