Leopard series idea

Florida Panther; story characters from Christine Feehan's Leopard Series (Cin is mine)

"So what happened?" Drake settled deeper into the rocking chair, his infant daughter curled up against his chest.

Cin watched the scene for a minute, then swallowed and looked out over the bayou.

"I moved to Borneo when I was fifteen with my grandfather. My parents had died in a boating accident and I had no where else to go. Chris, my uncle, had gone missing on patrol with the Coastguard and Grandpa didn't want to live here anymore alone, so he picked me up in Florida and we left."

Gage placed a glass of strawberry lemonade on the coffee table before her, then settled in next to her on the love seat. Remy raised a brow at him, but he just shrugged and leaned back, his wide shoulders brushing hers. He felt the heat of her body and closed his eyes to slits, just taking in the way she spoke, the rolling lilt of her French accent. He barely caught the fainter one, the slight Southern twang he assumed was her real one.

"I met Drake then. Ronan and Maria too." She smiled softly at the memory. "They were thick as thieves, those three. Drake and Ronan were cousins, Maria a year younger and always with them. I think everyone knew they were destined to be together."

"Who was?" Saria asked from her spot on the floor my Drake's feet. Her blond hair framed her face in a pixiecut and was quite becoming on the new mother.

"Ronan and Maria. I think they all knew, but no one told me." She sighed and everyone felt the deep regret breathed through the room.

"I had a hell of a crush on that man. I didn't really understand the whole cat thing, Grandpa didn't want to talk about it and I wasn't comfortable asking anyone."

"You could have asked Maria or any of the women in the Village." Drake said.

Cin shrugged and Gage felt every movement as she took a shaky breath and turned back to them. She reached for the glass of lemonade and drew symbols in the condensation along the side of it as she cradled the cold beverage in her hands.

"Kinda hard to ask someone you're jealous of. Beside, I never saw it or felt like I had a cat. Not until that night."

Gage watched as Drake closed his eyes in pain. "We were attacked," he said, his voice low and sad, "Poachers."

"Traitors." Cin countered, her voice a lash of hate. "I was twenty-two. You all were three years older and Ronan and Maria had been mated and were expecting their first children. It was such a bittersweet time for me. Watching someone I thought I loved marry my closest friend...having babies together...It was all I could do not to run away and hide."

"Why didn't you?" Remy asked, his hand splayed across Bijou's belly.

Cin sighed and hunched her shoulders. "Two reasons, Grandpa had suffered a heart-attack and was weak and...well, it was kinda like watching a train wreck, I couldn't leave. Something kept me there. Considering what happened, I'm glad I suffered for all those years. It made me strong enough to do what needed to be done."

"Which was?" Remy's eyes were dark and thoughtful as he peered at the woman before him. She was not beautiful in the traditional sense. She was older than his sister or Bijou, three years younger than Drake she'd said, so thirty-one or maybe thirty-two. Her hair was a mix of blonds, browns, and reds, muted in the shade of the porch, her eyes a greenish-hazel and tilted slightly upwards like so many shifters. Her skin was a light hunny color and she was shorter than him, closer to five foot five or six and more compact than the other women. She had all the mannerisms of a cat: fierce, protective, independent. Cin stared into Remy's eyes and let her lip curl in a silent snarl exposing pointed canines and he realized not only could she rip apart anyone who threatened hers, she had, and she'd do it again if needed.

"Poachers shot Maria. She was dead before she hit the floor, there was nothing any of us could do about it. Ronan lost his mind to the bloodlust, shifting and racing after them into the forest with Drake and the others."

Drake nodded, taking up the story. "We came back to find Maria cut open and her babes in Cin's arms. She'd been crying and was covered in blood, but the babies were alive. Ronan had a broken leg, but he managed to go to them, to pull them into his arms and cry. His mate was dead, but his children were alive because of her."

"We left together. I knew he'd never look at me like he did her. That I was a surrogate, but it didn't matter. We moved to France and started over. Managed to make a life for ourselves. Those children were mine as much as his, as much as hers." She swallowed hard and moved to place the glass back on the table. Her hand shaking so bad she about spilled the drink.

Gage reached out and took the glass from her, putting it down and then turned slightly towards her and placed his large hand over hers to stop the trembling. She gave him a weak smile.

"We managed to become a family. Ten years I had them. Ronan...well, he wasn't my mate and he let me know that. He'd use me to mother his children, to warm his bed, but I wasn't to ever have his heart."

Her voice had dropped, the accent less as she mumbled, "I don't think he had one left after Maria's death." She glanced up at Drake, tears in eyes, "He wasn't the same. The man I loved. The man you knew, he was just as dead as she was. He drank too much and was cruel. If I hadn't been leopard I wouldn't have survived. I couldn't legally take the children from him, he married me but he wouldn't let me adopt them. He threw it in my face when he was drunk. I wasn't their real mother and I never would be. I was just the woman he was using so he didn't have to deal with them."

Gage couldn't take the pain and hurt in her voice. He looped an arm over her shoulders and pulled her in close against him. She fit under his shoulder like she was made for him and he felt his cat rise to the surface. No way, she couldn't be his. Could she?

"Ronan wasn't like that." Drake denied.

Cin grimaced at him, her head resting against Gage's chest. She listened to the steady beat of a strong heart under her ear and felt herself relax slightly. How odd.

"Not when you knew him. When we were kids, but after her death he wasn't the same. Eventually, I couldn't take it any. I had planned on taking the children and running..."

"But you didn't." Gage said from above her.

She rubbed her head back and forth against the cotton of his uniform shirt. "No. I had planned on taking them instead of school the next day. We'd go straight to a friend's house and from there drive across the border into Switzerland. I don't know if Ronan suspected or if he was just in a good mood for once, but he took us all out for a picnic. We were getting off the underground when there were a series of explosions."

Saria sucked in a quick breath. "Terrorists?"

Cin nodded. "Yes. Apparently they coordinated several metro bombings across France. We just happened to be in the wrong one at the wrong time. Ronan...I couldn't help him Drake, the railing had been twisted off and impaled him. It pierced his heart."

"The body?"

"Bodies. The kids had been crushed. I lost them all in one moment. One horrible moment that I see every time I close my eyes." Cin slumped against him and Gage wrapped his arm tighter around her shoulder, pulling her in close. She pressed her face against his side and he could feel the hot dampness of her tears soaking into his shirt.

"How'd you escape, cher?" Remy asked softly.

It took her a few moments to collect herself. Eventually she took a shuddering breath and pushed herself away from Gage's side enough to lock eyes with Remy. Gage found himself growling low at his brother who just shot him a look under half-closed eyes. Gage knew that tone. Remy sounded like he was just talking, but he was really interrogating her and it pissed Gage off. Couldn't he see, hell smell, how upset she was? There was no way she was faking it.

"I didn't. I was pinned beneath a bench. My left leg was shattered and I had two broken vertebrae. I was in the hospital for four months. Then had physical therapy for another six. It was hell. My cat constantly wanted out. I was locked up in a psych ward for a month because she was so out of control she'd gone after an orderly." She shook her head and didn't fight when Gage pulled her back against his side. He was finding it necessary to keep her close.

"Jesus." Drake breathed. He'd had a similar experience when a bullet had shattered his leg and he couldn't shift. "How did you get through it, Cin?"

"Val. Valentine Carmichael and his wife Carol. They are shifters but can't shift. They took care of everything for me." She chuckled softly. "We suddenly became Orthodox Jewish so the medical examiner couldn't do an autopsy. They had a cremation done and buried the ashes at their winery, then managed to have all my blood work 'lost'. The psych ward was a bit more difficult, but they finally got me moved to a private hospital and then to their place. If it wasn't for them I would be dead right now."

"What about your cat?" That was Remy again.

Cin grimaced. "She was a right freaking pain in the ass." Saria and Bijou laughed softly at the vehemence in her voice. "Ronan use to use her against me and to be honest, I let him." She blushed, then shrugged. They all knew what she meant, there cat's heat took precedence over the human's emotions. Even if it meant they slept with someone they couldn't stand.

"Most of the time I was able to sublimate by focusing on the kids, but when we were hurt, I had nothing but the pain. Val's step-father helped me learn to shift just parts of my body, my head, arms, torso...doing that allowed her to rise to the surface a bit, which helped. When I started being able to walk again I would work on shifting my leg, but not my body. It was not easy and exceptionally painful, but the pain helped me focus. It kept me angry, which kept me sane. Finally I got better. I traveled for a bit. Saw the world. Did all those things I had dreamed of doing, but after a while I just couldn't do it anymore. I needed to come home. Ralestone was the only home I had left. So I came here."

Drake sat quietly for several moments before speaking. "You could have gone to the Village."

Cin glanced up at him through lowered lashes. "You know I couldn't."

He frowned, but didn't speak.

"Are you planning on staying?" Remy asked.

"I've been here for a few weeks now. Fixing the place up and such. It's a good thing people thought the old place was haunted, the floors were full of dry rot and the roof had fallen in in a few places. It was a death trap." She shook her head again, then pulled herself out of Gage's arms to reach for her drink.

"I want to stay. For all intents and purposes this is my last stand. I'm a LaCroix and Ralestone is my birthright. Grandpa signed it over to me in his will. Even if Uncle Chris managed to come back from the dead the place is legally mine. I always loved the bayou and while the Louisiana swamp is hotter than the one's I knew in Florida, it's nothing compared to Borneo."

She gave a little lopsided smile to the girls and smoothed a hand over her hair. It was completely flat except for a light wave at the ends. "Still makes doing anything with my hair impossible though."

Bijou and Saria shared a commiserating smile with her. "Sucks when it's so thick, huh?" Saria said breezily.

"At least yours doesn't frizz up like mine. I'd kill to have my hair as straight as yours." Bijou laughed.

"Mine's not nearly as thick as yours. Probably because I'm not totally shifter. My Grandmere was human." She shrugged, twisting her hair into a loop around her wrist. She was right, her hair wasn't as thick as the others, but it wasn't too thin either. At the moment it hung loose down to her belt, but she'd had it tied up into some complicated twist at the nape of her neck in the restaurant when they'd first met. Gage was always amazed at the magic women could do with their hair, but now he had the mad desire to see just how soft and thick her hair really was.