“Yes, I am a shapeshifter. An Iluma shapeshifter, in fact. We are animals that can shift into human form. I should have told you years ago, I just wasn’t sure how you would take all of this. But, now that the cat is out of the bag, pun intended, of course, I am quite relieved.”
Juanty shifted back to her human form, and Johnathon felt a sigh of relief, although she was standing there naked in front of his mother. Talk about awkward.
“This is insane, “he said, handing her the blanket he had snatched off the back of the sofa. The action made Melody smirk. “Son, animals have no concern with our bodies. We are beautiful in both forms. You will learn to enjoy the freedom your mate possesses, but for now, let me clear up a few things.”
Johnathon didn’t know if he wanted to know anything else. This was definitely a lot to take in for one day, but what the hell. His life was like a best-selling fiction novel, and he was the main character. He might as well get to the ending. His eyes moved to Juanty. She pulled up her jeans to fasten them.
He sat on the stool next to where he stood and motioned for his mother to continue. “As you know, when you were a child, you witnessed your mother and father’s brutal murder at the hands of two very evil people. Your father was just as evil. He abused your mother and was into some shady business with some dangerous people. The night your parents died, it was their anniversary, and he had planned something special for the two of them. I know this because your biological mother and I were best friends. I remember, she was happy that day, despite her circumstances, and asked me to come help her get ready. I lived nearby and decided the walk would be good.
“I had arrived, but just before I approached, I noticed two men who had been known to do business with your father, come out of the house, and leave the property. At the time, I did not know they had murdered your parents and left you for dead on the living room floor. I waited for them to leave before I continued toward the front door.
“After knocking several times, I decided to enter. What I found there was nothing short of a nightmare. Your mother and father were dead, brutally shot, and you laid there lifeless. I rushed away from the house, thinking you were dead, too. I sought out both men who were still on foot and followed them from the trees. I jumped on top of the first man, crushing his skull and biting into his brain, leaving him there to suffer while I chased down the second man. He tried to shoot one of his bullets at me, but I was on him before he could fire off the second round. I ate him alive. Literally. Once I was done, I went back to your home to call the authorities. I just could not walk away as if nothing had happened. I loved your mother. I loved you, too, sweetheart. You were laying there, so small and frail. You were shot in your neck. I knew your mother would not want you laying there alone, so I took you into my arms, and that is when I noticed your heartbeat. I was so distraught; I did not think to check before.
“You did not have much time, so I made a swift decision to save your life by using my gift. Son, my bite has healing properties that work very rapidly. Juanty, your sister Zaire has the same gift of healing.”
“You know my sister?”
“Yes, I do. We are old acquaintances, but that is all I can tell you concerning our relationship. She does not know I am here, and I would prefer to keep it that way for now. I do not mean either you or her any harm. I will tell her I am here when the time is right.”Juanty was fully dressed and walked over to Johnathon, who didn’t know whether to hug her or clean her a kitty litter.
“Really, Johnathon? Kitty litter? That is so not nice.”
Johnathon frowned. “We really have to do something about this mind reading thing, Jay.”
“Focus, you two. As I was saying, I held your body close to me and bit the wounded areas before licking them until they began to close. My preternatural DNA healed your body completely and left you with certain strengths other humans do not have. Haven’t you noticed you were always faster than others your age? Do you ever remember getting the chicken pox or even a cold?”
Thinking back as far as he could remember, he couldn’t think of one time he was home sick from school, and despite the massive wall unit that held his many football and track trophies, he had several boxes full of awards stored in his mom’s attic with no place to put them all.
Melody continued. “My saliva carries special properties that not only heal but give life to my DNA inside of their body. This is why you can pleasure your mate, and by the way she is staring at you right now, you are definitely pleasing her.” Juanty blushed. “Without this DNA, you would not be able to mate with her at all. You would become violently ill.”
Johnathon felt an array of emotions welling up inside, threatening to spill over. He was way past overwhelmed, and bordering rage. He thought about Juanty’s reservations the first time they slept together. Initially, he thought it was nerves, but now it was all making sense why she has been so hesitant about their relationship. He rubbed his hand across his hair and took a deep breath.
“Why is all of this coming out now, and why did you keep this away from me all these years?”
“Because I wanted you to live a normal life. I made sure I kept my identity a secret. I only hunted while you slept or went to school. I controlled my urges to shift and pretty much lived in seclusion, away from others like me so that you could just be a kid. I wanted you to go to prom, play sports, and give me beautiful grandbabies like Olivia. Once you met Juanty, I knew fate had taken over, and I no longer had to hide who I was. She is your mate. You can trust her.”
Johnathon raised his voice out of frustration. “What about what I want? I didn’t ask for this.”
“The ancestors do not make mistakes, sweetheart. Trust them. Trust her.” Melody kissed her son on the cheek and moved over to Juanty to give her a hug. “Take care of my son, and please do not tell your sisters about me. I need more time.”
Juanty pulled away from Melody but held onto her hands. “I owe Zaire a great debt. She saved my life, and I don’t like keeping secrets, but because I love your son, I will honor your request, for now.”
“Thank you, Juanty. Son, you picked a keeper.” She winked at him before walking out the door.
Johnathon stood up. “I can’t believe this is happening. All I wanted was to live a chaos-free life with my daughter. You’re a goddamn giant panther for Christ’s sake.” He started pacing back and forth, trying to make sense of what was happening. “This can’t be real. How am I supposed to have my daughter around a giant panther? What were you thinking? You should have been upfront with me. This ain’t the type of shit you keep from somebody you plan to have a relationship with! How can I trust anything you ever say?”
Juanty felt the sting in her eyes and a crushing sound where her heart was. The thought of him feeling this way almost killed her. This was all her fault, and she had to make amends before walking away for good. She could sacrifice her happiness. All she wanted at this point was to keep them both safe.
“Johnathon, please trust me. As much as I would love to sit and tell you everything, we don’t have much time.” She walked closer to him and put her hands in his. “I will take you and Livy somewhere safe until we can track down Sye and the woman who wants to destroy me. Her name is Elizabeth. I am not sure of the why or how, but I saw the two of them together today. Elizabeth gave her a small vile of some sort. I was close enough to hear the two of them talking in my head, and Elizabeth told her to continue to give the contents of the vile to the baby, and soon, she will be out of the way. I think Sye has been poisoning Livy. It’s why she has been so ill lately.”
“But why would this Elizabeth woman want to hurt my baby? Why would Sye want to hurt my baby?”
“It’s not you or Olivia she is after. Elizabeth wants to hurt me. She was my master’s wife during the eighteen hundreds. I was her slave.”
“Fuck, Juanty! How old are you?” He rubbed his hands through his hair and took a seat on the couch. Juanty sat beside him and put her hand on his thigh.
“She hated me then for giving birth to her husband’s baby. She killed my husband and took my baby from me. They dragged me to a tree, strung me up by my neck, and lynched me. If it were not for my sisters, I would have died. They saved my life by turning me into a shapeshifter. Once I had healed, I went back to the plantation to get Hope, my daughter, but I couldn’t find her. I found Elizabeth instead. When she told me my baby girl was dead, I attacked. I was a new shifter and didn’t know how to kill my prey. She somehow survived the attack. I turned her by mistake, and now she is out to get me by hurting you and Olivia. She is just using Sye to get what she wants.”
“I can’t believe this. I trusted Sye. I have got to get Livy to a hospital!”
Juanty squeezed his hands tighter. “We can’t go there. It is not safe. I don’t know what Elizabeth has planned, but she hates me and will stop at nothing to end my life, even if that means ending yours. We can take Livy to my sister. Hopefully, she can help.”
“Juanty, you are talking about my daughter’s life! Hopefully? Nah, fuck that. I’m taking my baby straight to Grady Hospital.” Juanty reached for him so she could explain that Sye had been turned as well, but he snatched away from her and marched down the hallway.
Juanty thought about her next move. She had always been at least two steps ahead of her prey outside in the woods, but with matters of the heart, she felt lost and helpless.
Instead of wallowing in self-pity, she was determined to talk some sense into this man. She walked down the hallway, approached the nursery, and froze. Sye.
“Welcome, bitch. I knew you would be over here, doting all over my man. I was just standing here, bonding with our baby. You know, the one you want to steal from us?” She clutched Olivia under her arm like a newspaper, without a care, as if she were old news, ready to be discarded.
“Sye, let’s talk about this. Why don’t you give her to me, then we can sit down and talk calmly about this.” Sye ignored Johnathon’s request, but instead turned to Juanty with a look of disdain on her face.
“You know you destroyed my life, don’t you? Johnathon and I were perfectly happy before you showed up. All this is your fault, but I definitely plan to make you pay for this. You won’t hurt us like you hurt your husband and baby. Elizabeth told me all about your trashy ass.”
“What did Elizabeth tell you, Sye?” Juanty asked.
“Let’s just say your past came looking for you and found me instead. She told me how you hurt her and her family, then she did this to me to get back at you. She turned me into this monster. I have nothing left to lose now. I will have my family. You won’t have them if I have anything to say about it, and since I am caught up in this now, it seems I have a lot to say in the matter.”
Juanty looked at how Sye was holding Olivia and got angrier, but managed to stay calm so she wouldn’t do anything rash. “She’s evil, Sye. She will hurt anyone to get what she wants. This is her evil talking through you. You have to fight it. You don’t want to hurt an innocent child. Olivia has nothing to do with this. Let her go, and we can figure this out together. You can still live a happy and complete life. I can show you how.”
Sye gave a sarcastic chuckle. “What the fuck do you think this is? This isn’t no sister wives reality show. John is mine. I will have him all to myself, and on top of that, I never wanted kids anyway. Olivia takes up too much of his time, and she’s not mine anyway. His lame-ass wife had her. I didn’t like her, either. I only hung around her to get close to John. Livy here is the bane of my existence.” She shook Olivia violently, causing her to wake up. “She’s all he thinks about. At least until you came along.” She turned her focus towards Johnathon. Her eyes were glazed over as if she were in a trance. “What does she have that I don’t have, John?”
He took a step towards Sye, thinking he may be able to get close enough to strike her and get the baby. Within a second of his first step, Sye extended her fangs and nails and pulled the young child toward her protruding teeth. He gasped and stopped in his tracks and almost fell to his knees. Juanty grabbed his arm and helped steady him.
“Isn’t that sweet, the beast helping her beauty. Olivia has always been your weakness, but I was willing to look past that because you have the money I want, and the dick I crave.”
Juanty growled and wanted to shift. She knew Sye would lose in a battle.She was just that angry, but she was afraid of hurting Olivia. Once she shifted, she wasn’t sure she could control what happened next. She didn’t know what to do. This was déjà vu, and Juanty felt impotent. Her palms began to sweat, and her mind raced. In just a few weeks, Johnathon and Olivia had become her family. She felt desperate to save them.
She and Johnathon watched as Olivia looked up at Sye, noticing her teeth. She shrieked and tried to squirm away, screaming at the top of her tiny lungs. Sye grabbed tighter. Her nails dug into Olivia’s soft flesh. She looked back at Johnathon and winked with a smirk. When Johnathon noticed blood flowing from his daughter’s side, he lost it.
He launched at Sye, but she was in mid-shift, strong and agile enough to move out of the way. She quickly pulled a knife from the waistband of her pants and stuck it through Johnathon’s abdomen as deep as it would go and twisted before removing it.
“NOOOOOO!” Juanty screamed and ran over to him. He reached for Olivia, but Sye dropped the knife and made her shift, completely taking Olivia into her mouth and busting through the bedroom window. Juanty was a complete mess. She knew if she did not go after Sye, the baby could be in worse danger. Johnathon would never forgive her if something happened to his little girl, but her heart would not allow her to leave him there to possibly die alone.
He fell to his knees, and she dropped down with him. He was falling face forward, but she caught him, turned him onto his back, and held him in her arms. He looked up at her. His eyes were wide as if he were trying to force them open, but he was calm. “Please go get my baby girl. I will be fine.”
She was almost frantic. Blood was everywhere, and she could not fix it. She didn’t possess Zaire’s gift of healing. Fear gripped her when she realized there was a good chance he could die because he was not like her. He was mortal. Human. She loved him with all her heart, and wouldn’t leave him there alone to die. She would never leave him again.
“Baby, please hang on.”She looked at the wound coming from his midsection and knew he was in trouble. She had inflicted the same type of wound on her enemies, and it never fared well for them, so she understood there was not much time. She grabbed a blanket from Olivia’s bed, covered the injured area, and applied pressure. She kissed his lips. “I’m right here, baby, and I won’t leave you. You just stay right here with me. Okay?”Johnathon was barely conscious but managed to nod.
She needed help. She reached into his back pocket in search of his phone. When she found it, she slid the bar, and the phone lit up to the home screen. She struggled to remember Zaire’s number but managed to key the proper combination of digits into the phone. When she answered, Juanty let out a frantic cry and Zaire was clear there was trouble.
“Where are you, Juanty?”
“I am at Johnathon’s house. He’s been hurt.”
Zaire sighed with relief. “That’s a good thing, Jay, because we are walking in the door now.”
“What?” Juanty was confused, but then heard the front door open. She screamed, “We are in here.”
The three sisters rushed into the nursery, and over to where Juanty held Johnathon.
“Jay, what happened?” Ayanna questioned.
“It was the nanny. She is working with Elizabeth to hurt me. She had the baby in her arms and Johnathon tried to save her. Sye was ready, and she stabbed him. Everything happened so fast! I failed again. I let her do this to me again.” Juanty’s voice became calm all of a sudden. She looked up at Ayanna. “I am going to kill her for hurting the ones I love. I missed the first time, but this time, she will suffer before I take her life.”
Ayanna looked at Juanty, who seemed exhausted
and weary. She squatted down next to her. “Jay, why don’t you let Zaire help Johnathon.” Ayanna reached in to help her sister lay him flat on the carpet, but Juanty hissed at her, causing her to pause.
“Jay, we can’t help him if you don’t let us near him.” Juanty clutched him tighter, and a gurgling sound came from his mouth. She looked down at her lover and saw that he was near his end. Her eyes glazed over and she began to rock him in her arms while tears streamed down her face.
Zaire gathered next to him on the other side and lifted the blanket to get a look at the wound. Juanty hissed again. When she was done, she placed her hand on top of Juanty’s.
Juanty looked up, although she wasn’t focused on anything in particular. “He’s going to die. I am his mate. I can feel it. He is going to die.”
“Juanty, look at me,” Zaire said calmly. Juanty didn’t take her eyes off her man. “Jay, there is still time, but not much. I can save him, but I have to turn him. Give me permission, and I will do it now. He won’t last much longer.” Juanty looked up with tears in her eyes.
“What if he won’t forgive me?” She looked down at Johnathon. His eyes were closed.
Ziare’s response was full of compassion. “Sweetie, that’s just a chance we have to take.”
Pearl was the last to squat next to her sister. She rubbed Juanty’s back.
“Jay, if you want him here with you for a long time to come, you have to let her turn him. He will forgive you. He’s your true mate, and he loves you. Plus, once he gets that bomb-ass pussy again, he will be eternally grateful.”
Juanty let out a nervous chuckle and wiped her nose with her arm. “Okay.”
She softened her grip and laid him back onto the floor. Zaire removed the cover that was failing to keep the blood at bay. She placed both hands over his wound and closed her eyes. She sang chants in Swahili that her mother had taught her when she was little. Her chants held the secrets, legends, and power of their species. It was rare to find Iluma women who possessed the gift of healing a human without turning them. Zaire had that gift. Only if the injury was beyond repair was the turning necessary. Today, she was met with the challenge of healing Johnathon just enough so that he could survive the turning. It was a formidable process, and he could die if his body was not strong enough to handle the brutal changes it would undergo while morphing into its new form.
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