My Panther Mate & Our Little Cub novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Not Ila

I could have lied again.

I looked at his face, at the scar and the stillness and the hands that had shaken for his son, and I didn't.

"My name is Corina Reeve," I said. "I'm a nurse. I was working a night shift in a place that isn't here, and I closed my eyes and woke up in her bed."

Darek didn't move.

The fire popped.

"A nurse," he said at last.

"Someone who looks after sick people for a living. I'm not a healer like Corra. I just know how to keep a body going."

"And Ila?"

"I don't know." I said it carefully. "I didn't push her out. I woke up and she wasn't there. If she's coming back, I don't know how."

He looked down at his son's sleeping face for a long time.

"I knew the first morning," he said.

"How?"

"The way you stood at the window. The way you looked at him." His jaw worked. "Ila hasn't looked at him in three years. She looked through him."

I stayed quiet.

"I thought you might be sickness," he said. "Or a curse. Or the tea wearing off at last." He rubbed his face with one hand, and it came away looking older. "I didn't care which. You fed him."

"You're not going to throw me out?"

"The chief has a law that says the cub goes if the mother fails." His amber eyes lifted. "I didn't say I'd stop you passing it."

It was honest and it was a blade.

"Then why tell me you know?" I said.

"Because I won't be lied to in my own den."

← Chapter 4 · All chapters · Chapter 6 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend