My Panther Mate & Our Little Cub novel Chapter 130

Chapter 130 Think About It

Finished

Zachary stared at the tawny–brown ceiling and lay there contemplating the direction of his life.

Then Matthew’s voice reached him. “You’re awake?”

Zachary didn’t move, only shifted his eyes sideways. “What time is it?”

His voice came out rough and dry, stripped of

Matthew walked over and bent down to help him up. “Midday.”

Zachary wasn’t surprised. He pressed his palms into the sleeping mat and pushed himself upright.

The beast hide covering slid from his chest, and the state of his skin beneath it was genuinely difficult to look at.

Matthew’s throat moved. He turned his gaze away and reached for Zachary’s clothes.

When Zachary stood, he couldn’t quite suppress a wince.

“Does it hurt?” Matthew asked.

Zachary looked down at his midsection, gave a nod, then shook his head.

Matthew understood immediately. “It’ll settle soon.”

Zachary was fairly certain he was being misled. He turned to look at him. “Didn’t you say it helps wounds heal?

“All of that, and it still hurts.”

“TH be gentler next time.” Matthew had said it with complete sincerity and offered a solution. “Tonight, things will heal faster.”

This was essentially the same logic as disinfecting a wound while continuing to inflict it. There was nothing to distinguish between the two.

Zachary declined without hesitation. He was confident in his body’s ability to heal on its own and had absolutely no need for the so–called remedy being offered.

Outside the wooden building, Taylor and Jaden crouched by the fire, reheating the morning’s soup.

Zachary walked out with a piece of fruit in his hand, and both cubs came forward to meet him immediately.

Jaden stared at the marks on Zachary’s neck with a peculiar expression.

Taylor noticed too, and blinked with wide, guileless eyes. “Matthew definitely bit you.”

“My Alpha is always biting my Sire.”

Jaden looked over at Matthew with the particular expression of someone considering whether a reprimand

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Chapter 130 Think About it

was warranted.

“It was an insect,” Zachary said, wanting nothing more than to find a crevice in the sand and disappear into it. He redirected urgently. “Is there anything to eat? I’m starving.”

“Yes.” Taylor sprinted to the pot and lifted the lid, releasing a rush of rich, fragrant seafood broth.

Zachary had been hungry for hours.

Matthew sat down right beside him and set about pan–searing fish and peeling prawns.

Kyle and the others drifted over with cheerful expressions, clearly hoping to claim a share. Matthew turned them away without ceremony.

Yael watched the two of them with an expression that carried a great deal of unspoken understanding.

It had taken a while. It really had.

Zachary wanted to minimize his own presence as much as possible and kept his head down over his food.

Once Zachary had finished, Matthew went with Donald to sort out what needed to be packed for the return journey.

Jaden came to Zachary’s side with a very serious expression. “Father, did Alpha do something wrong to you?”

“No.” Zachary rested a hand on the boy’s head. “Your Alpha treats me very well.”

Just before they set out, Red made a point of coming to see them off.

Matthew placed himself squarely in the way with an expression of complete indifference.

Red gave Matthew a sideways look and deliberately directed his words at Zachary. “If you ever have regrets, send someone to let me know. I’ll come get you.”

Matthew’s fingers curled into a fist, and the intent behind it was obvious.

Zachary stepped forward and took Matthew’s hand. “I won’t have any regrets,” he said simply.

“You stay by the sea where you belong. Stop wandering around, You’ll dry out in the sun.”

The cold set of Matthew’s face eased entirely.

Taylor’s and Jaden’s young merfolk companions were heartbroken to see them leave, especially the small, round, pale little ones, who pressed their lips together and let a few quiet tears fall.

There was nothing to be done. The two of them shifted into black panther form and let the cubs have one last chance to touch their fur.

Zachary wrapped everything Matthew had given him in multiple layers of leaves, handling each piece with the anxious care of someone transporting something irreplaceable.

The return load was considerably lighter than what they’d brought.

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Donald took the lead, and Matthew and Yacl covered the rear.

Finished

The black panther group headed back in the long, amber light of evening, moving in the direction of home with everything they’d come for.

When they passed back through the grassland, several grey falcons were still circling in the sky above.

Matthew let out a low, territorial sound and raked his claws against a nearby stone with deliberate, pointed

force.

That night during their rest, he carried Zachary up into a tree again. The journey kept things from going far, but it still left Zachary with a profound sense of being at the universe’s complete mercy.

The experience reinforced, once again, that a therian was still a beast at the core, and absolutely could not be measured by any ordinary human standard.

Zachary reflected with genuine gratitude that this body had been born into this world and could adapt. His original body would not have survived this. It simply wouldn’t.

Absolutely harrowing.

Past the grassland, the forest closed back around them.

Zachary noticed the temperature had dropped. Even in the midday sun, a persistent chill moved through the air.

Donald suddenly stopped, and a low, muffled rumble built in his chest.

The line of travelers collapsed into a cluster instantly. Yael immediately had Taylor and Jaden shift back to human form, and Kyle crouched to lift the cubs onto Ethan’s back.

Zachary felt the shift in the air, and his own body responded with tight, involuntary nerves.

The light in the forest had already dimmed toward evening.

Matthew’s ears pressed flat against his skull. Every muscle in his body went rigid, and his sharp fangs appeared as he exhaled a low, continuous warning sound.

In the dense thicket, Zachary picked out several pairs of pale green eyes watching from the dark.

The black panthers moved forward in a tight, close formation, step by deliberate step.

More pale green eyes appeared in the shadows.

Donald locked his focus on the area near a cave opening and immediately quickened the pace.

The cave wasn’t large, but it had clear space inside. The therians stacked the salt in the driest section at the back, and the beast hide bags of dried seafood went in after it.

Half the therians held their beast forms and settled at the entrance, pupils narrowing to vertical slits, eyes fixed and unblinking on the surrounding tree line.

Matthew kept Zachary pressed to the furthest point inside the cave, the two cubs right alongside him.

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