Something about Florida made the hair on the back of my neck stand up in attention. I couldn't relax, I always had my guard up and it took a toll on me. After we moved Lexa helped me find good places where I could train to defend myself, we found good martial arts instructors, kraft maga and yoga. Yoga was for me to learn to control my pheromones and mask my scent so we can be protected. She had said I needed all the help I could get since she didn't trust any shifter.
I did as she asked every time, she's the only thing I got and I know without a doubt she wants to protect me. She felt guilty for letting her guard down with her last host. She didn't want us to be blindsided this time. We rented a little cabin deep in the woods in Georgia with lots of land and a couple of miles from a pack. Nahlexa loved the land and made sure to explore it until the littlest detail without the fear of a human catching us. Though being so close to a pack makes her nervous.
On my eighteenth birthday my grandmothers lawyer contacted me. My grandmother had left a trust fund under my name and it was to be given to me as soon as I turned eighteen. He explained that my grandmother had taken a life insurance out for herself and I before she got sick. She specified on her will that everything was to be given to me and no one else. That if by the time she passed away if she had estates in her name they were to be sold and the money be transferred to me.
When she passed, he explained she had fifty thousand saved for me before her death, she had taken that money out from the checks she received since I came to her care. When she died the insurance gave her the maximum they could, half a million, plus what they earned from selling my grandma's home ninety thousand. He flew out to meet me in the city one week later for me to sign the documents and have the money transferred to my account.
I had gotten an account opened under my name in Georgia after I got settled in the cabin and had everything transferred from my account in PR. He gave me a big picture frame with a photo my grandma had taken when I came to her care at one week old. He also gave me a photo album my grandma had asked him to hold for me. He hugged me goodbye after I signed the papers and he gave me the check to deposit. I drove to the bank and deposited it.
Amara didn't come around and Nahlexa lost any hope she had she would reach out. She felt responsible for Amairahs death though we both know it wasn't her fault. She showed me everything she had tried and did to find the true mate of the male Amairah had mated but everything turned back blank. She had an inkling that the male had her hidden, but he never gave anything away. He mourned Amairahs death and their child, he played the part so well that when she went sniffing around the people turned on her.
Six months into my training, I could fully control my pheromones and scent. That's why I didn't have a problem with going to meet my grandmas' lawyer. If anyone took a whiff, they would only smell a regular shifter and not a panther. When I got emancipated, I did my first tattoo to try and cover up the scars all over my body. My first one was a black and white 'The San Juan Morro' with a coquí in front and the Puerto Rican flag in the back, that is on my right upper back close to my right shoulder blade.
My second tattoo I got it when I turned seventeen and it's black and white roses reaching from under my right breast, it goes down my right waist and to my right hip. My third tattoo I got it when I turned eighteen, it's a beautiful black and white tattoo of a phenix bird going from between my right glute and right hip down my right thigh ending above my knee. I guess I got addicted to the pleasurable pain. Everything healed nicely and I'm looking forward to my next tattoo.
Working with the instructors have helped, now I don't panic so much when around men like I used to. I'm not as skittish because now I know I can defend myself and hold my own. I keep going to the gym to train with my instructors in private classes and use the machines after each session. I've become accustomed to the strain and soreness in my muscles from a good workout. I have lost what little baby fat and weight I had, now I look lean, toned and cut.
I don't look manly, but I don't look so delicate anymore either. After my workouts I get home to run in panther form. Lexa had said I needed to be able to shift between forms as if taking a breath of air. I couldn't force it and it needed to come naturally. Shifting between both forms wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, it drained my energy as if someone was drinking my life like a smoothie. Most times I feel like I'm going to pass out, but I pushed through.
I got a call a couple of days ago from the realtor agency that has my lease, the owner is looking to sell and wanted to know if I'm interested in buying before he posts it online. I'm heading out tomorrow to buy the house and all the land surrounding it. Lexa purrs in content, we will finally have something to call our own.