Kotza House - a butch/femme paranormal shifter tale

Kotza House - Part 3

When it was time for bed, Avery escorted a very tired Tara to her suite. Tara caught her breath on a small whimper of need as Avery pulled her into her strong arms, then kissed her forehead.

"Good night, lovely," Avery whispered, stroking the back of her head. "I'll be up to escort you to breakfast again. Someone will be in shortly with your tea and you can take your bath. Sweet dreams." She kissed Tara on the forehead one last time, then walked back down the hallway to the stairs.

Tara stared after her, feeling a throbbing, insistent beat between her legs, then drew in a deep breath and slowly went into her room. She leaned back against her door after she'd closed it, and tried to extinguish the fire Avery had created in her simply with her touch.

Tara knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she wanted Avery Kotza—probably more than she had ever before wanted any woman in her entire life.

She just didn't know what to do about it.

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The next several weeks flew by. Tara fell into a comfortable routine—she would get up, have breakfast, disappear into the library and read until lunch, take a short break and come into the dining room to eat, and then go back to her research until dinner time. Then she would have an excellent meal and a quiet evening talking with Avery, discussing her research, until bedtime.

Each night, Avery would escort her to her suite, then hold Tara in her arms, gently stroking the back of her head and her back, until she would finally kiss her forehead and quietly bid her a good night before starting down the hallway.

It was making Tara crazy. Her desire for Avery grew in leaps and bounds every day, until she felt as though she was on the verge of exploding from her want and her need.

She had been surprised to realize she didn't miss having a phone, and she really hadn't missed having access to the internet all that much either. She had quickly learned that much of what she had typically done was idle surfing out of sheer boredom, accomplishing nothing productive.

In contrast, Tara was finding her research in the Kotza library fascinating. More and more, she delved into recorded writings on Florida panther shifters and witches, unable to understand why she was so drawn to them. To hear these authors tell it, there was powerful magick in Big Cypress Swamp.

First of all... There was a huge difference, Tara realized, between the Florida panther population and the mythical Florida panther shifters. The fully animal Florida panthers were territorial and solitary, only socializing during mating season, and lived in the wetlands and swamps of southwestern Florida. They were endangered, and there were only about 120 to 130 of them remaining.

Florida panther shifters, however... Tara was surprised the library held any information and lore on them at all, because they apparently were never seen nor heard.

No one knew where they lived, or how many of them there actually were. They lived with each other in a pride, although no one knew where the exact location of their den was. From all reports, they also had an Alpha, although little was known about her.

Her. Tara was shocked.

The current Alpha was supposedly a rare Florida panther shifter/witch hybrid. There were no photographs of her in either her human form or in her cat form, although her cat was described as large and tan with a much lighter belly and chest, and deep yellow-gold eyes. She was cunning, intelligent, and unmated—so the speculation went anyway, as there had never been any rumors of a mate with her.

The lore also stated there was a large witch coven in Big Cypress Swamp, of which the Florida panther shifter Alpha was also a member. Her magick was reportedly powerful and could even be dark on occasion, although it wasn't black—a coven of local warlocks held that honor. From all reports, however, the warlocks' magick, even collectively, wasn't nearly as powerful as that of the Florida panther shifter Alpha.