A "leap" is a group of leopards. There are two words in this chapter that aren't English because I decided I wanted them to know another language. The language is Estonian.

Chapter Two

Living in a village my whole life, the palace fascinated me. I didn't know a single place could hold so many halls, rooms, and decorations at once. Not just that, but there was a different person around each corner.

The room I was placed in was easily bigger than my house had been, although it was also much more empty. The only things it held were two cages, a wooden floor that smiled at me and a brightly painted wall. There wasn't a light anywhere to be seen except for the small rays that slipped past the door.

"Ivy?"

His eyes were watching me from his separate cage, but his fingers had threaded through the bars of mine. I reached for them, my pinkie snaking around his finger that radiated comfort.

"I'm fine, Kai. Maybe you should focus more on trying to escape than on my well-being," I said softly, but at the same time, I was inching closer to him.

"I won't let them hurt you," he replied, steel in his voice. I only frowned at him in the dark, not saying anything.

To him, that was what his job would always be. As the son of the leap's leader, he was going to take on the responsibility of protecting the few women from harm. What he didn't seem to grasp was that he no longer had that job when the leap no longer existed.

"If we shift we have a better chance," Kai said lowly but I shook my head in disagreement.

"Then who's going to speak and reason with them? They certainly won't reason with two snarling cats," I replied, knowing it would only make him angry at me.

I was proven right when he pulled his hand away and snapped, "This isn't the time for stubbornness, Ivy! They're going to kill us and you want to try reasoning? Do you think our leap would be proud to see us begging?"

"I know they wouldn't want us proving their theories about our kind right! They think we're traitorous monsters. Attacking them doesn't change that. We have a chance to do what the leap has always dreamed of," I tried, placing my forehead against the cage so that my nose was between the bars.

I could hear his frustrated sigh before he leaned forward his nose resting on mine. "You're all I have left," he whispered, nipping my nose before he pressed his lips to it, his hand finding mine once again.

"I'm not going anywhere. I wouldn't leave my imtleja," I replied watching the faint outline of a smile appear.

"I wouldn't allow my süda to escape me." With that, he pressed another light kiss to my nose before pulling away, but only a fraction.

I don't know how he did it, but once again I was calmed. The ocean of anxiety and fear had transfused into a tranquil one that gently lapped at the edge of my mind, all because of a single person.

"So we agree that it isn't okay to shift?" I questioned, watching him frown tightly in thought.

"I'll do the talking and you can shift. You'll be able to defend yourself if the situation goes bad," he explained and I huffed at him.

"I'm not the fragile girl you think I am. I can fend for myself," I tried, but the look on his face didn't sway.

"Ivy, it's for your own good! Why can't you just do as I say?" He said, beginning to grow frustrated once again.

I didn't give in to his antics but instead answered calmly. "You have the patience of a newborn cub. How is that going to help them see reason? Unlike you, I know I can last without showing my teeth during the first minute.

If you shift instead, it may be more valuable to us. They know we're a male and female pair, so they'll know it was me who shifted if I do so. They'll feel no reason to fear me, especially after my earlier behavior. But you, they already fear." I ended, thinking of the man who hesitated to turn his cage off.

I could see him thinking carefully about it, his face a blank slate as he did so.

"What happens when they open your cage? I can't save you from here," he asked after a moment, revealing his obvious reluctance to my plan.

"Kai, if they were going to kill us, they already would have. If they are, it's our time to pass through and join the rest of our leap," I concluded, my fingers reaching between the bars to brush against the tips of his hair.

"This better work Ivy. You're my only reason for remaining here," he muttered before he pulled away, his eyes closing.

Within a few seconds, his clothing exploded around him. Where there had once been a stubborn boy, there was now a large coated snow leopard, a gene he had inherited from his long deceased father.

His green-blue eyes stared at me with the old wisdom every cat seemed to have while his thick, spotted tail flicked once at me. The cage was still able to hold him, but only if he sat as he was doing, with his head lowered.

"Was listening to a female as hard as you thought it might be?" I teased, watching as his upper lip barely curled to show his elongated teeth before he stopped.

I knew it was a light warning, one I knew better than to ignore. Kai was a leader, and much higher in the leap hierarchy than I was. Ignoring him, even when we were trapped, seemed like an illogical thing to do in my mind.

It wasn't long after that before someone's footsteps slowed, stopping in front of the door and blocking out what little light we had. There were others with him, judging by the different sounds each of their treading made.

It took them a moment, but they opened the door, immediately turning on the lights after. A quick glance told me two of them were enforcers of some sort, just as I'd seen earlier. But the third, I didn't know what to make of him.

He was rather short for a human, but that didn't seem to stop him from going as he wanted. His face was a harsh mask that didn't bother to hide its disgust with Kai and I. Was he the Gordon prince, the one who would determine our fates?

"Take the two filths to the Master's room. Let them remain in the cages until Master Gordon decides what to do. With any luck and persuasion, they won't be around much longer," he instructed, receiving a nod before the other two men walked over with familiar chains.

They hesitated when the snow leopard beside me bared his teeth, snarling at them. I gave him a look, but of course, he was quick to ignore it without a second thought.

"He's secured in a cage," the man reminded them as if he was talking to a pair of mere toddlers.

They glanced at one another before they walked forward, attempting their best to ignore the snarls. The hooks were easily placed on my cage, something the enforcer gave me a relieved look for. But the other one was having some difficulty.

Each time he would get the clip close to the cage, Kai would snap his teeth close by, causing the enforcer to yank back. It took him a dozen times before he successfully put the hooks on.

The man had watched them the entire time, tapping his foot impatiently and sighing much louder than needed every minute. I was sure the enforcers weren't very fond of him.

As they dragged us out, they drilled heated looks into his back and muttered under their breaths, saying things like, "I hope he dies any second from now," and "You wouldn't be telling us to walk faster if it was you dragging them." The man obviously couldn't hear since he was too far ahead and human, but I could and the words were affecting me.

If the Gordon prince was anything like the man, Kai and I wouldn't be alive for much longer. If he was like most humans in general, we were dead. I could only hope that he wasn't and that he fell into that one percent.

We were dragged in the dirty cages through elaborate hallways until we eventually stopped in front of a pair of dark, wooden doors that had elegant designs carefully crafted into it.

"I believe he has a meeting at the moment, so place them in here until I have brought them to his attention," the man said before he walked away without waiting for either of their responses. The second he left, the human tradition of 'talking behind their back' began.

"Damn man acts as if he's the one running the palace!"

"Did you hear how the Prince's brother humiliated him when he tried claiming the Prince wasn't actually a Prince?"

"Yeah, I would've killed to be there!"

The small talk ended and transitioned into laughs as they opened the doors to place us in yet another room.

[Süda- Heart]

[Imtleja- Admirer]