The Alpha and his Panther Mate Chapter 28

IZZY

The whole day went by in a blur in the café.

I only had to work till 6, and then Alice came to do the evening shift.

I went back to the house, feeling tired but also anxious about the next day.

Tomorrow I would be spending some time with Blake, or as Kat calls it a date.

This is not going to easy.

*********************************

I woke up with the sun blaring through my window straight onto my face. I scrunch up my face and look over to the clock.

9am.

I sigh.

I know Puna is sleeping as I can hear her light snores in my head.

I get up, get myself ready for the day and for Blake to arrive.

When I’m done, I walk downstairs to find Alice, Paul and Kat sitting around the counter “Morning all!” I say, sounding cheerful. The smirks and looks I have, I take no notice as I know where their heads are at.

I pour myself a mug of coffee and turn around to face everyone.

“You seem happy” says Alice with a smirk.

I don’t say anything.

“Well whatever it is. Blake was all smiles too this morning” says Paul but I couldn’t help the blush that crept on my cheeks which earned a laugh from everyone even from Puna who thought it was funny. Her laughter fills my head.

Once we all ate, everyone headed to the café for their shifts.

“Izzy” says Puna “I think you should tell Blake about Michael and Allie.”

Not this again

“I know you are scared, but mate will be fine with it. You see.” She says feeling confident.

I won’t hold my breath just yet but if this date, I mean walk, goes well then I maybe will but I have to be completely honest I am scared and I can feel the pain rush through at some of the thoughts that come swooping into my head.

“Stop overthinking Izzy” says Puna, purring in head.

Before I can comment, there is a knock at the door.

I sigh and go to open it, there standing as handsome as ever was Blake.

I have to admit he looked really good.

Blake was wearing jeans and t-shirt with sneakers, his hair looked good gelled back and his brown eyes were looking at me. Well, he looked me up and down which was a little freaky but also kind of nice.

Blake smirks, “You done checking me out.”

What? I wasn’t!

“Yes you were” say Puna, giggling loudly in my head.

I can’t help but blush. Why the hell am I blushing all the time? I never done that before.

Right on que “He’s our mate” says Puna “He’s checking you out now too” giggling once again.

“Can you stop looking at me please?” I say getting a little flustered “You are not helping the situation; Puna is a horny cat as it is without you giving her any ideas.”

I blush more but he smiles “Yeah I know the feeling Axel is the same.” He says laughing.

“Well let’s go then” he says holding out his hand to me. I look at it and take it.

He smiles. The tingles are there again but I don’t want to remove my hand from his.

We walk around and play twenty questions even though I haven’t said much about myself to him as I am trying to figure out what to say. But I did learn some interesting things about him, like how much he likes to play the guitar, working out and his favourite colour is orange.

Puna loves all the attention that Blake is giving us. She has been purring nonstop in my head ever since he turned up.

We walk around and I notice that we are not in the town. We are close to the pack house. I start to panic as I don’t want to run into anyone here especially Graham or his mate.

Blake looks at me “It’s okay, no one is here. Everyone has been told to leave and I believe Graham is with my father on pack business while my mother is out with Linda” he says and smiles.

“What about Dale and Kacey?” I ask “Where are they?”

“Kacey is at their house at the moment working on something for me and Dale is training with some new pack members” he says.

We only have to walk a few yards and I can see the pack house. It is a huge town house. It looks so out of place here but also it looks big enough to hold loads of people.

We head inside and I can’t get over it, there seems to be more rooms in here.

Blake chuckles at me “It is something” he says “Let’s go in here, this is the family room which we don't use not very often. I will go and get us some drinks” he says while guiding me through the door.

He leaves me be, I can’t help but look at some photos that have been placed around the room, I don’t know many of the people but Blake is in a few. He looked cute as a younger kid.

“Mate needs to know. I think you should tell him about Allie” says Puna softly “He won’t leave us.”

I want to believe her but I don’t know.

Who would want a broken mate who is scared of being with a guy and who has intimacy issues? I was broken to the bone after what Michael did to me. I don’t even know if I could be intimate with Blake, kissing was nice but I think that’s all I can do with him.

“Izzy, he wouldn’t push you into anything you don’t want to do” says Puna “If he does, I will hurt him myself.”

I can’t help the laugh I let slip past my mouth.

“You have a nice laugh” says Blake, I look over my shoulder and smile "Thank you”

He hands me a glass of water and nods to the couch for us to sit. I sit down a seat away from him.

I take a sip of water.

“Izzy, I want to know why you don’t want a mate.” He says, I nearly spat my water all over myself, so we going straight to the serious questions now.

I gulped “You really want to know” I say in a weak voice.

Blake moves closer to me. I look up to see Blake, sitting next to me. He places his hand on my knee sending tingles up my legs which is making Puna purr in my head.

I look ahead as I don’t want to look at him when I tell him.

“The reason why I don’t want a mate. You see when I was 15......I was........RAPED” I say.

I turn and can see the shock, horror, pity in his face. I also can see anger in his eyes but he quickly recovers when he realizes that I am looking at him. "When?" he says, he couldn't even finish the question.

“Well, when my mum passed away Kat decided we should leave and live in a human town. She placed me in a human school. I wasn’t popular at all but I did get noticed by this boy called Michael. He was a year older than me. I was 15 years old. Everything was ok at the start and he was nice” I said.

“You don’t have to tell me” he says but I shake my head “I need to tell you please, let me explain, just don’t stop me as this is the first time I have ever opened up about this to anyone else” I say.

I closed my eyes but continued “Well, I only kissed him, nothing else. He wanted to take my virginity but I wouldn’t allow him. He tried everything, but he soon got really angry. He started hurting me by hitting me. It started once every so often but only where people couldn't see the bruises. I had to be careful with who I spoke to, if he didn’t like them he would hurt me” I say. I can feel Blake’s anger but he doesn’t say anything, I try to hold his hand but he moves his to his knee.

“One night, I was in my room when I got a text from him to say we should meet up, this all happened in 6 months of being together. He picked me up from the house but as soon as I got into the car everything changed. He put something over my mouth and I woke up strapped to a chair. He took me to an abandoned warehouse and tortured me.”

I had tears flowing down my face and Blake was angry but he waited patiently for me to finish “Izzy, you don't.....” he started to say but I shook my head “No, I have to. You asked why I don’t want a mate. This is one of a few reasons; you know the other one is what my dad did to my mum.” Blake nods, placing his hand back on mine.

“He tortured me for hours, I was covered in bruises, blood” I said.

“He even stabbed me in the thigh.” I say, I stretched leg out and showed him my leg to reveal the thick long scar inside my leg. He stares at it.

"While I was being tortured I didn’t know Todd, Kat’s mate, was out looking for me with Kat, Michael told me that he sent a text saying goodbye to Kat telling her I didn’t want to live with them anymore. I was so afraid, I was weak due to the torture but he grabbed my throat hard and squeezed. He ripped my clothes off with the other hand, he raped me” I said.

Blake is tensed. I know this is making him worse but I need to finish this story.

“He raped me over and over again. He didn’t just do it once, he repeated it three times.” I say, thinking about how I was completely numb, his breath against my ear as he grunted, telling me how he wanted me. His moaning as he comes inside me.

“When he was finished, he kneels down by the side of me as says “That's all I ever wanted from you, you should have given it to me willingly and maybe we would have been better” I finish. Blake is still doesn’t move his hand.

I know I have to tell him.

I look over to him, his jaw is tight. But when he catches me looking at him, he looks into my eyes, they don’t say anything.

“There is also one more thing” I say quietly.

He just stares and me, I look at our hands being together, it felt so good.

“What?” He asks softly.

“I was pregnant with his child” I say, he stiffens “I have a 4 and half year old daughter”

I feel the urge to say more “You have to understand, I thought it was impossible for me to get pregnant by another person other than my mate” I say.

I look at our hands as I don’t want to look at him. I know this is going to cause more issues.

I look at him, he looks blank at me.

Suddenly he moves, stands up and starts running towards the front door.

I get up quickly and follow him, all I can see is Blake running stright to the forest running away from the pack.

Running away from me.

Puna is whimpering my head but I stare out.

I knew he wouldn't accept it. I can feel the tear slide down my cheek.