“My daughter isn't for grabs,” Ryan hissed, and yet the disappointment on the old woman's face did needle him a little.He hated the pang of displeasure that he felt whenever he knew that he was disappointing someone, and at the end of the day, he did have to remind himself that if everything went right, she would be as much part of his Pride as she was part of her son’s.“… Fine, you may see her, but I will be keeping my eye on the two of you,” Ryan stated, much to both Luis and the old woman’s surprise.
For a moment, there was nothing more than the noise of the Pantera leader’s mother’s walker dragging across the floor as she approached Destiny, her face alight with something that could only be described as adoration.Evidently, Ryan had misjudged her.She had no ill intentions towards his daughter.Rather she was a sucker for babies, just as just about everyone was.
The way that she carefully removed Destiny from her carrier and cradled her in her arms, allowing her to nestle close to her chest, was endearing, though Ryan hated to admit it.The crone would probably do well in a collective pride nursery.He admitted to himself, one that would give members of the Pantera and pride the support they needed to deal with their beasts and fatherhood…
Given that their children didn’t happen to be the children of prophecy.
“It is a gift you have,” Luis said, looking upon his mother and Destiny with a sort of wistfulness as he very obviously yearned for a family of his own.“I see now why you are reluctant to give much up to me,” he murmured, and yet still, underneath it all, was the ache for more.Ryan could understand it now, looking at Luis’s mother as she held his child.
Luis wanted whatever he could for his family, for the Pantera, but the world had dealt them a cruel hand.Life had not been kind to them.They had been spat on and disrespected over and over again too often were they faced with the consequences of the individuality of their culture.And yet culture, after all of it, was all that they had left.It would be cruel for Ryan to ask them to abandon that, and yet it was cruel to force them to carry on the way that they were as well.Any fool with eyes could see that the Pantera compound was not doing well.That they hadn't been doing well for a long time.
“We need to talk about unity,” Ryan stated, willing the other man to understand.“I know that your people have done things a certain way for a long time, and I’m not asking to take away the opportunity of choice here.If anything, I, more than anyone, understand that having a choice in your life and in the path that you're going to take is important for someone.My own mother did not afford me that, so at the very least, I can give you some care and understanding and give your people some relief,” he stated, emphasizing the some.“But there has to be a line drawn.I cannot give you all that we have; we can distribute resources equally, but I cannot show favoritism to the Pantera.If I do, then I will lose the belief of my own people.I’ve spent my life building them up and giving them as much as possible.I can’t give it all away to a bunch of newcomers—but I can give your people a better life and a better chance,” Ryan stated, impassioned by the sight of his daughter.
It was for her, he reminded himself.It was all for her.She and her mother deserved a chance to know their own culture as much as anyone else, and there was a part of her that had been limited.A part of her that she had been forced to bury down inside of herself, just as her mother was currently being forced to.If he wanted the beast within his own daughter to be released and experience a natural life, then he needed to make this work.Hell, if he wanted his mate to be happy, he needed to make this work.He had all but promised her that he would make this work.
And so, Ryan sat across the table from Luis, his arms outspread and his hands extended wide if only to show his newfound friend that he had an open and pure heart.“I am giving you the opportunity to put aside generations of hatred to live a new life, to offer your people a better life.I highly suggest you take it,” Ryan said, willing Luis to really, truly try, even if the look in his eyes told him that Luis still had his reservations, that he was going to fire back with all of his fears about times long gone by.
Before the man could part his lips and let out a single protest, however, his mother interrupted him, obviously feeling like she had to for the sake of the small lump that sat in her arms, curiously grasping at the ends of her hair and cooing up at her.“We've not always been at war with the Pride,” his mother informed Luis, her elderly appearance obviously being one that had long since been gained by a long and well-fulfilled life of shifting.“Before you go complaining about traditions and stating that things need to remain the way that they've always been, you should know that what you've grown up knowing is a lie.There was a time when all big cat shifters were able to interact as one when we were a family.It's just that those days have long since passed us by, and some of us are more willing to forget times of peace for our own interest,” Luis’s mother spoke, obviously holding back an unspoken criticism for an invisible party, someone who she had long disagreed with.
With Ryan's luck, it was probably his mother, considering the fact that she seemed intent on getting in as much trouble as possible and ruining his good name left and right.
Still, the old woman kept speaking, slowly approaching Luis with Destiny in her arms, her hand outstretched as she reached for his shoulder, clasping it firmly.“Luis, you could be the first of our kind in many generations to heal the rift, our next great leader.Can you imagine?”She spoke, obviously knowing that there was little to be gained in warring with the Pride.
But as Luis’s cold, sharp eyes rose to meet Ryan’s, he knew that the chance was slim that he would accept their offer that day.Perhaps he would send him off, promising to think about doing so but to accept it?No, today, they wouldn't be so lucky.Today, they would continue to grovel and wish.
But another day, when his mother wasn't in the room to argue with him and talk sense, when it wouldn't be overly clear who it was that had influenced his opinion, that was when he would finally give in.The time was coming.Ryan just had to be patient.
The only question was whether he was capable of doing that.And what other roadblocks would arise in the meantime?
God knew he had gone more than a week without an emergency call to his cell phone.
He should have expected it four hours later when a text version of one from El arrived.
Chapter9
She wasn’t going to do it.
El had already made up her mind.She’d already locked her jaw and become dead set on it.She was not, under any circumstances, going to give in and spend another Mother’s Day with Annabel.
Not when the woman wasn't even her mother and had made it clear from the very beginning that she never cared to spend time with her.If she had genuinely loved her, then maybe things would be different, but spending as long as she had been detested by the woman that you had been taught to call your mother?She wasn't going to do it anymore.Now that she was the Luna, one of the heads of the pride and one of the few figures that everyone looked to, she had a certain self-confidence, and she wasn't going to give it up.
Or at least that’s what El kept telling herself as she occasionally glimpsed down at her phone, taking a break from running on the treadmills with Marcus every now and then to remember the fact that she had yet to respond to the woman.
There, in the back of her mind, she felt like she shouldn't.Like if she were to do that, it would be a great mistake.Call it a woman's intuition, or maybe it was just the two beasts inside of her battling for dominance, knowing that they could never give in to a human woman.Whatever the case, she was going to find a way out of the situation.Or at least she was convinced that she was going to find a way out of the situation—that was probably easier said than done.
Marcus had momentarily paused his workout to say hello to Persia and El’s dad in the vast gym as she stared down at her phone, knowing that if it were anyone else, it would have been as simple as sending a simple no-text.Hell, she was pretty sure that her brothers had done that in the past, and they had never been faulted for the action.But then again, at the end of the day, they were her brothers, not her.
El was pretty sure that Annabel would relinquish control of her when she was dead.Until then, inflicting pain on her adopted daughter was the only way that she could get back at her cheating husband for the lies that he had told her over the years and for the sudden, rather impromptu way that he had ended their marriage.
El had known that the announcement of the divorce had been bad, considering the fact that her father had yet to return home since doing so, having stated that Annabel had a legendry and lethal temper.It was just that, having known what she did about her mother and her small, petite form, it was hard for her to imagine the woman inflicting much damage or being much of an adversary in any situation in which she wasn't the mean girl somehow getting you kicked off of committees.
El wasn’t afraid of her, not anymore… not as much.
She would call her, El decided then, as Marcus and Persia began to run on the treadmills side by side, eager to show off their physical prowess and compare the strength of a panther versus a lion.If El were to call Annabel, at the very least, there was a far larger chance that her mother would be surrounded by companions and wouldn't want to deal with her.If that were the case, then she wouldn’t so much as bother to pick up her phone, in which case, she could hardly be blamed if her adoptive mother didn't end up getting the message that she wasn't coming to dinner.Then, the blame would lie with her mother, who would obviously call back at an unfortunate time.
Basically, El’s idea was to call her mother on the phone, let it ring for a matter of seconds, and then head up and turn off her phone as soon as possible, never so much as thinking twice about the action and then turning her phone on once again in a few days’ time, when all of her mother's threatening text messages would have come in, and she wouldn't have had to read them.She could just hit delete on them or preferably get someone else to hit delete on all of them.It was the perfect plan.
Save for the part where she was huddled in the corner and surprised that, on the first ring, Annabel's voice filled the other end of the line, making it so that she had no other option but to talk to her mother.“El?”Annabel spoke, her voice soft and sweet for once in her ungodly life, and it left El feeling somewhat disarmed as a result.“You’re calling?”Annabel asked, very obviously surprised by the fact that her daughter had so much as bothered to call in response to her demands.The last time El had actually called her so-called mother was… well, she was pretty sure it was when she was fresh off graduation, but maybe it was later than that.
