Dark Panther (BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance) Read Online Free Page A

this?”
    He smiled and said, “Well, like I said, the bacon is wild boar bacon that I smoked myself. The eggs are crow’s eggs I found this morning. The pancakes are made from acorn flour. And the jam is made from wild blackberries.”
    She shook her head in disbelief, and as he placed a steaming cup of coffee beside her plate, she couldn’t help but smile back at him.
    “You are a wonder,” she commented, glancing up at him.
    She looked into his blue eyes and for a moment she could have sworn there was a familiarity. She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head slightly to one side, trying to figure out what made him seem so hauntingly familiar, but there was nothing but a faint echo in the depths of her mind.
    Lucy picked up a hand-carved fork and dove into the feast before her. The scent was utterly intoxicating, and she practically inhaled the meal in moments. The coffee burned her tongue, but it slid down her throat like ambrosia from Heaven.
    “If you’re finished, I’d like to show you something,” Logan said.
    “Alright,” she agreed, and she accepted his assistance in getting to her feet.
    Lucy followed Logan out of the cave and into the nippy morning air. He led her through the forest and down a bank, at the foot of which gurgled a small stream, cutting along the edge of a vast field.
    “Sit here,” he told her, nodding to a fallen log.
    She stepped over the log and sat down, thoroughly enraptured by the captivating beauty of their surroundings. The field was rippling with tall, lush grass that sparkled like a billion glittering diamonds with the early morning dew. Here and there, small groups of wildflowers peeked forth from the grass in a rainbow of hues. The little stream bubbled merrily near her feet.
    “It’s beautiful,” she sighed wistfully.
    “Shh,” he whispered. “Just wait.”
    Moments later, a doe stepped cautiously into the clearing from the forest on the other side. She was followed by a tiny fawn bounding merrily along behind her. The doe shot her fawn a stern warning glance, and the fawn responded by dropping its gait to a slow cantor.
    The majestic beauty lifted her head, and her ears twitched. She listened intently for any signs of danger, and then she slowly made her way into the field and began to nibble at choice weeds.
    “Oh, Logan,” Lucy breathed. “They’re beautiful!”
    Logan slipped quietly onto the log beside her and said, “Not as beautiful as you.”
    Lucy’s lips parted, and she sucked in a breath. Her eyes shifted toward her feet, and then nervously in his general direction without making eye contact.
    “Logan, I…”
    He pressed two fingers to her chin, interrupting her. He pulled her chin so that she faced him, but she averted her eyes away from his gaze.
    “Look at me,” he ordered.
    She shook her head.
    “Look at me,” he pleaded, and there was so much emotion in his voice she couldn’t help but turn her eyes toward his.
    “I never thought I would see you again,” he said.
    “Again?” she asked.
    “You don’t remember me,” he said, dropping his hand to his lap and turning his eyes downward. “I hoped you would in time.”
    “There is something familiar about you,” she admitted. “I just can’t place it.”
    “I couldn’t either, at first,” he said. “And when I remembered I debated even mentioning it. It was so very long ago.”
    “Tell me,” she pleaded.
    “It was so long ago I barely remember it myself,” he said. “We were just kids. You were camping with your family in these very woods.”
    “Oh, I remember that,” she said, her recollection slowly returning. “I got lost in the woods for a couple of days. I was so scared. I was only… four or five years old? It was before my parents started mistreating me… when things were still happy.”
    Lucy’s lip quivered faintly.
    “Do you remember who found you?” he asked.
    Her brow furrowed, and she squinted into the sun. She had been so young she’d almost forgotten