The Panther's Rival Read online

  “I didn’t give it… Yet,” she answered, her voice was prickly with intrigue.

  They continued to look at each other. She had some strong juju coming from her. A forceful pulling, an intense allure that he couldn’t break from.

  “Kara,” she said. “Kara Daniels. And you?”

  Merk paused, a sly smile appearing on his face: “I didn’t give you mine yet either.”

  He then turned away from her and began working on the clock. They were at play. He heard her sigh and then let off a snicker. She was entertained. Even though he had just met Kara, Merk felt a jolt of electricity from teasing her. Still feeling the rush, he turned back around to face her once he had fixed her clock.

  “Done?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowed, her question more about him than the clock he suspected.

  “Done,” he said.

  He climbed back onto the chair to put the clock back on the wall.

  “Well, I would say thank you but I don’t know who I would be thanking…”

  It was Merk’s turn to snicker. He hung the clock back on the wall and stepped back down from the chair. Again, they were close.

  “Are you the new janitor – I’m sorry – custodial help?”

  Merk laughed out loud.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked, it was her turn to tease him.

  “It’s just that…” his voice trailed off.

  Merk found himself lost for words and adrift in her eyes again. He was a non-syllabic mess. And then there was that pulling again. It was an insatiable lure. He drew closer to her.

  “What? I mean is, that you’re quite handy…” she continued, drawing closer to him.

  “I can be,” he answered.

  Merk could tell that she was enjoying it as much as he was. Their flirting had become obvious. She made a slight movement that looked like she was about to reach out and touch him, like a playful brush against his chest or arm, but she caught herself. Instead, she scooted back, taking a couple of steps, and eased back on her desk, her hand pushing some graded papers to the side; her eyes never left his, piercing and full, the light bandied around inside of them giving her a shimmer of luminescence.

  “So… Who are you?” she asked.

  “Merk. Merk Castle. I’m the new football coach,” he said confidently.

  “Oh.”

  That was her response. Merk didn’t get much from it. He wanted her to be impressed. But he couldn’t tell if she was or not. It bothered him at first, but then looking at her and how amazing she looked (and he meant that in the most holistic way possible; everything about her, physical and more) that feeling didn’t stay long. Kara was special. That much he could tell already.

  “Hope you check out some of the games… Do you usually go?” asked Merk, hoping to spark some interest in her in an attempt to engage her in some way.

  “I definitely will,” she answered back. “I want to see what you will do with the team – football’s a pretty big thing around here so… Yea.”

  She slid off the edge of the desk. Her movements got to him. There was a graceful quality about her as if she floated at times, a sleek and silky element that made each motion fluid, even her gait. Kara moved towards the back of the room, turning completely away from him and not looking back. Merk needed to be closer to her. He had been feeling that way since he saw her. He took the necessary steps and rounded the desk to follow behind her. But Kara moved further away from him, steadily gliding across the room. He couldn’t believe how he was acting – he literally was following her around like some lost puppy that had found the master it wanted to go home with.

  Kara was now in the back of the room, paying him no mind; it was as if he was no longer in the room. But he knew better than that. Did she really want him to chase her like this? And why was he so drawn to her? Why was he so willing to follow her around her room? Kara busied herself with something over in the corner. Merk was crossing the classroom, moving halfway over to her, when he caught himself. Seriously. What was he doing? A relationship wasn’t what he was there for – he needed a job yes, to start over, but a relationship, given who he was, always became problematic and always brought in its own way, discord and then more problems. He needed to cut his losses right now, end whatever this was that he was going after with Kara, and hurry out the door that he had come through.

  “Well… I’m gonna go –” Merk started, turning back around to head for the door, his mind decided. “I hope to see you at the first game.”

  Cut your losses before it even starts, he thought.

  “Huh –? Wait,” she called out to him, her voice sounded higher, shock, an interest piqued to the point where she was willing and possibly ready to explore, even in a chance first meeting.

  Merk stopped. So many things ran through his mind in a matter of moments, seconds. Merk forced himself to remember where he had come from, the town and the people, the past that he had left behind. He had moved on. And he didn’t want to come to a new town and complicate things. He instinctively suspected Kara would lead to complications. Most dating experiences and relationships did just that. Her being a human and all, but then add a Panther Shifter, whoa, that’s a real hallmark set of problems. Merk knew for sure that he needed to take whatever it was that she was about to say and respond in the most respectful way, all the while ending any possible furthering of thoughts about hooking up with this gorgeous woman or whatever it was that was about to come from the song and dance that they were obviously doing. But to do that would take effort and a mass of resistance, both of which he wasn’t sure he had, not withstanding, her beauty and the insane attraction he felt. Merk turned back around. There was a good amount of distance between them but from that distance, he could see her perfectly, clearly, a portrait of her. She was like a woman stranded on an island, an ocean between them, a chasm that he had to cross. Again, he felt compelled. It felt like providence or destiny if you believed in such a thing. Merk went over to her. She seemed to have been waiting for him. Her face and demeanor so different from the voice he had just heard calling out to him. She looked more confident than she had sounded. He thought that he had turned the tables on her by abruptly walking away, attempting to leave, but suddenly it all felt like part of her game, a ruse that only drew him back to her, this time entangling him in her web with surety. Merk didn’t mind it though. He willingly went to her.

  “Look… I know we just met and all but…” Merk stopped, the words got caught in his throat, this was becoming a recurring problem when talking to her.

  She waited. She was patient. He could tell that she wanted him to ask her out.

  “Would you like to grab some coffee or something?” he pushed the query out of himself.

  Kara smiled. It was a devilish grin. Sexy. Luring. She had him. He was in her web.

  “How about dinner instead…? Tomorrow night. Are you free?” she asked.

  Merk was taken aback by her forwardness. Coffee seemed safer. But looking at her, he understood more so than when he had first seen her in the hallway that Kara wasn’t safe. And he liked that about her. It made her even more alluring. However, he no longer knew if it was him asking her out or if she was asking him. Didn’t matter.

  “It’s a date,” he said with finality.

  “It is,” she agreed.

  Merk backed away and spun slightly on his heels, moving towards the doorway to leave. As he got closer, he shot back at her, “You wanna meet here at the school and then go –? I assume you know all the best places around here.”

  “That sounds perfect – You don’t know if I’m a stalker or not yet, you can never be too safe,” she answered slyly and with a devilish snicker.

  Merk laughed out loud going through the door. He felt accomplished. A job and a date all in one day.

  Chapter Two

  Saturday mornings should be spent in one of two ways: either in bed or watching ol’ skool Saturday morning cartoons. But that’s only if you had the perfect life and if that life didn’t
cause you to get out of your bed on Saturday and go into a school building to finish decorating your classroom because the following workweek started the school year. That’s what Kara found herself doing. But she didn’t have any other choice. Her plan had been to finish it yesterday, but she got distracted for a few moments and then after that her focus was gone for the rest of the day. However, her distraction was a good thing. And her inability to let go of that distraction was even better. It all revolved around Merk Castle, the new football coach. Damn. He was handsome. Ruggedly handsome. He had darkness about him, scarred, layered but underneath those layers was something good and honest; she could literally feel it in him and on him. Before yesterday, before meeting Merk, Kara had no intensions of getting into another relationship, not after all that had gone on in her last one, but Merk... Well, he was something different that she couldn’t pass up.

  Going into the school, Kara felt energized. She was excited about her date with Merk later that day. Everything before then, the work she had to do in her classroom was just a way to pass the time until then.

  Kara looked up at the clock. Merk had fixed that for her. That was how they had met. She found herself staring helplessly at the clock, fawning over it as if it were some piece of sentimentality. This part of herself always scared her. She had felt this way before, maybe not as strongly, but she had felt drawn to someone before. In so many ways, she was a helpless romantic. The true testament to this was that despite how her relationships turned out, a mutual decision to end things amicably or a bad break up, she never lost faith in finding love or putting herself out there to find it. Kara could truly say that she loved the chase of love with all the emotions and feelings, simple and complex that it entailed.

  Her last relationship ended on not so good terms but she hadn’t sworn off men. Did she need some time to get perspective? Sure. But she had always been open to whoever was to come next for her. Kara believed Merk was that next.

  The long hand on the clock hadn’t moved that much. Kara was just standing around. She had a job to do, she still had to be ready for her students on Monday. Kara got down to work. Besides, her grandmother had always said, “a watched pot never boils”. There was no use just staring at the clock, waiting for time to move – it would always seem to move slower that way.

  ***

  The room was coming along fine. Kara had gotten quite a bit done in the last few hours. There had been no interruptions. It helped that she had purposely left her phone in the car. But also, very few teachers had come by to chat with her. Some had passed by, shouted some salutation from the doorway, and finally moving along – they had work to do too and surely didn’t want to spend their entire Saturday in the building scrambling to get ready for Monday. Kara didn’t. However, her undisturbed time changed when Principal Lightwood walked into the room.

  Kara sighed. She hoped he hadn’t seen it. He was going to hinder her efficiency; she was making good time preparing her classroom.

  “Miss Daniels…” he led in.

  Kara stopped what she was doing, putting blue tape up on the white boards. She looked over at her principal. He was a plain looking man, balding, thin, his clothes seemed to hang off of him slightly, too big and his choice of colors when it came to shirts seemed to never match the color of his suits. The man honestly seemed like he was always behind the eight ball, although he pretended to be in charge. Definitely not the most charming quality to have in a man.

  “The room is coming along just fine… Yes, just fine,” he said, obviously trying to make conversation.

  Kara was curious as to where he was going with this. She knew that he had something to say and as much like how she assumed his character to be wormy, it dictated his actions; he had a point that he wanted to make with her, something he wanted to slither in as if she wasn’t expecting it.

  “You know, Miss Daniels…” he started, his hands were in his pockets, his stance very languid, and coy, but there was just something hugely off about him. “We just hired a new coach. Nice man. Seems to have it together. He was quite the find.”

  Kara waited to see where the principal was going with these statements, she had an idea but didn’t want to jump to conclusions just yet, didn’t want to assume. Rather, she wanted to hear him say the actual words.

  “And with what happened to our last coach and –”

  Kara threw her hand up to stop him. He truly did blame her for what happened with Will. And maybe she did deserve some of the blame, but not all. What happened with Will was mainly because of this town and this school and how Principal Lightwood and the rest of the denizens in the back water town dealt with the disease that coursed its way through everything in the town – the Fairweather family

  “Mr. Lightwood, with all due respect, I know where you’re going with this and it’s incredibly unfair. Will left because there was just too much pressure here,” she said plainly, trying to turn the conversation away from the unpleasantness that it was careening towards.

  Principal Lightwood stepped forward. His gait was awkward and exuded painfulness, something hard and constricted, as if he was trying to break free from some manacle that was internally holding him back, restraining who he could really be.

  “I can’t afford to lose another coach, Miss Daniels, or a teacher… The fact of the matter is that your last two boyfriends both abruptly left – Mr. Will Raymond who was the coach and a few months before him Xavier Gregory, a very bright man, P.E. teacher, our resident trainer for the football team. I see a pattern here and you and I both know where that applies.”

  The man was dancing around what he really wanted to say. That made him a coward in her view and his sniveling actions summed it all up. She moved towards him. Where he seemed weak and awkward in his approach to her, the way he tried to slide in his point, she was more direct and definitely more confident and stronger than him.

  “Ratty and I have been over for years, Mr. Lightwood. I will not stop living my life just because Ratty and the rest of the Fairweathers exist – it’s your fault that they have a hold on this school and the mayor.”

  He changed his approach: “Please, Kara… You of all people know how this works and how much power he has over all of this. What am I supposed to do?”

  Kara moved closer to Mr. Lightwood. She played with the lapel on his suit some, a defiant gesture, inappropriate even, but one of assertion and intrigue, her movements were less seductive than authoritative although it was obvious that her sensuality and feminine wiles were on display. Mr. Lightwood’s demeanor changed. He was less tense. She saw it in his eyes. His body relaxed with her touch. Kara smiled. She knew this affect. Her power. A slight grin formed at the corners of her mouth.

  “Be strong,” Mr. Lightwood. “Stand your ground. Be inspiring. Don’t let Ratty or the Fairweathers control you anymore – this town, this school, this team. It’s not right.”

  She was direct with him. She hoped that he would hear her, really listen to her, take everything that she was saying as gospel. Kara pushed the words out of her and onto him. She made sure to layer each syllable with softness, a soothing melodic quality that made it more palpable, more alluring and enticing. She didn’t have the power to control him but she could be very persuasive. Kara could feel it leave her body. To the naked eye, it was invisible, unseen, but what she gave off was a misty energy that called forth the same sometimes dormant energies inside the other person causing a chemical reaction inside, one that made the inhibitions of others surrender to her will and her words. Then it would pull and compel them to be free and explore what they usually couldn’t bring to fruition themselves. This was who she was, what she could do. Only a few people knew this about her, and nobody in this town. Kara was a succubus.

  “Miss Daniels, but you know…” Mr. Lightwood started but trailed off.

  “Try, Mr. Lightwood,” she spoke softly. “Try.”

  Kara saw the fight within him, she could feel it. It was like she could feel the stirring inside of hi
m, everything that went on inside of a person making a decision. It was all about pathos, the emotional corners, centers, angles of the human being. What few understood about themselves was how their emotions ruled them. Human beings were emotional creatures – logos and ethos were just ideas and concepts, surface inlets about the psyche that were used to justify actions that were centrally emotional. A succubus was able to latch on to the emotional strand of most humans and inspire that strand. To the outside world, those that read fantasy books and all that sort, viewed Succubi as sexual predators in a way, manipulating and moving others in a way that was against their actual desires, a manner of control that mostly if not entirely dealt with sexuality. But this was not the case. Yes, there was an avenue of emotional inspiration that could affect sexuality but it wasn’t the point of her power as a succubus or the nucleus of it. It was all about emotional influence and inspiration, true sensuality, which touched on the senses of the persona, which were ultimately what guided a human being in this world.

  Mr. Lightwood nodded. He was calm. His eyes were clear. He felt at rest. Kara could feel him and see it on him. His breathing had even slowed. She pulled her hand away from his lapel and took a step back. The man’s eyes were softer and more caring.

  “It’s just that… My job, Kara, I can’t lose another faculty member. The district is watching us. Me. They know about Ratty and the rest of the Fairweathers but to them, it’s no excuse. They have to shift the blame from themselves… That blame will come to me and I will lose everything.”

  Mr. Lightwood turned and walked towards the doorway. He looked back over his shoulder, his eyes were hopeful but his smile, forced, giving away his worry. He disappeared through the doorway. Kara felt sorry for him. She understood him, the conundrum that he faced. She truly did. But there had to be a better way than just giving into the Fairweathers all the time. Someone needed to finally stop them, to wrestle control of this town and the school from their grasp. They had almost controlled her. They were such a strong pack, a family that moved and hunted and gained together. When you were with them, everything was yours. But when you weren’t, you felt the absence of their power. Kara knew it all too well. She had been one of the lucky ones, the only lucky one, to get out from under them after having dated the ring leader, the patriarch of the family, Ratcliff “Ratty” Fairweather. It had been a difficult break up, two forces going against each other, but she had escaped their clutches and she knew that it was only because of her being a succubus. Ratty, nor anyone in his family, knew that about her. Kara made sure to keep it a secret or else she was sure they would find a way to exploit that about her, that’s what Wolf Shifters did.