The Rise of an Alpha Were-Jaguar

Chapter 4

JAKE GROWLED LOUDLY. His hackles rose making him look bigger than he actually was. 

I don't think that it fooled the Vampires, though. Because they all sneered and laughed. 

“Do y’all perceive that?” The lead vampire asked his mates. They all sniffed and laughed again. They looked like something from a horror movie. “That’s the scent of an alpha blood, am I right?” They all nodded and cheered. 

“Stay back.” I commanded in what I hope was a strong voice. 

“Lee, Bruce and I on the wolf. Now.” 

Before I could blink, a vamp leapt at me. Jake barrelled it out of the way like an oncoming truck, just before it got to me. He took a large chunk off the vamp's throat. The vamp twitched once then lay still and desiccated. 

Three left. 

“Change of plans!” shouted the lead Vampire.

The vampire Lee slammed me into a tree. As I struggled to get up, I pulled out a knife from my ankle but still hid it from sight. Vampires are extremely hard to catch up with. I glanced around me. He was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, I felt the fangs sink into my neck from behind me. 

My will to fight flooded out of me. I relaxed and just wanted to collapse in his embrace. I closed my eyes and sighed.

What the hell are you doing?!

I snapped awake. It was the effect of the bite. I reached out to my back and stabbed the knife in his neck. Luckily it was silver. He let me go and stumbled back. Without hesitation, I plunged the knife and his heart. He screamed as the knife burned his skin and impaled his heart. He went down. Dead.

I ran up to see how Jake was faring. 

Not Good. 

They were taunting him and he was wearing out quickly. The lead Vampire ran him and lifted him by the ribcage and slammed him hard to the ground. He whimpered and struggled to get up. 

I noticed I left my knife in Lee’s chest so I grabbed a stick as I ran ahead and stepped in front of Jake. 

“I’ll stick this into your cold dead heart if you come any closer.” I held the stick in my front like a lance. 

The second vampire, Bruce, looked at me weirdly then he whispered, “Xavi, He was bitten but he’s not bleeding.” 

I noticed it too, the pain had receded too but I concluded it was the adrenaline. Jake was standing but his left fore limb was not on the ground. Dislocated, maybe. 

What do I do?

You want help? The voice was so loud, I turned to see if anyone else had heard it. But Dad said I must not shift. 

Except in Life or death situations. Do you want to die? The Jaguar shouted in my head.

No, but...

Then, let me...

Before I could say anything, everywhere became brighter and the hands holding the stick changed before my eyes. I didn’t recognise my arms again. Gild hair spurted out and sharp claws curved the tips of my finger.

Bill, the lead Vampire, yelled and ran at me, mouth wide and fangs extended. He didn’t seem so fast now. I dropped the stick, he collided heavily with me but my hands were stuck out and had sank into his chest. He had a dumb look on his face like he couldn’t believe it. Well, I couldn’t believe it either. 

God, I could feel the soft heart beating faster as blood dropped from his open mouth. 

I heard Bruce gasp loudly as I circled my fingers around the heart and pulled my hand out. Bill let out a small cough and lay dead. His eyes were open, unseeing. His skin was starting to desiccate. 

Jake shuffled back hesitantly behind me at the gore sight. 

“Oh shit.” Bruce muttered then ran away. He stumbled once before he disappeared into the woods. 

Let’s chase him.

A groan from Jake made me turn back. He had shifted back to human and was looking at me. Feat shone in his eyes as he darted glances at the heart in my hand and my face. 

I squeezed my face and tossed the heart away. Luckily, the cat had receded back into me. 

“What are you?” Jake asked, getting up slowly.

“I’m a cat. A were-jaguar to be precise.” There was no point denying or lying about it again. I was sure he knew what I was but was just asking to hear me say it.

I dipped my hands in my bag to bring out his clothes but he yelled, “Don’t come closer. Stay away from me.” He took a step back and winced. He was injured somewhere. 

“Come on Jake. Its still me. Jason. Your best friend.” I spread out my arms for him to see. When I saw he had calmed down, I handed over the clothes, he took it hesitantly, his eyes never left my face. 

All this was because of what was taught about werecats in school. I sighed and looked around as he wore his clothes. 

“Let’s go home. Who knows how many Vamps are lurking in this parts of the woods.” I told him. He nodded and led the way. I picked the vamps heart I had tossed away and stuffed it in my bag. We had only walked for 10 minutes when he stopped abruptly making me to bump into him.

“Wait. Do you hear that?” He asked.

I strained my ears but I couldn’t hear anything except the gush of a stream in the distance. 

“I can’t hear shit, Jake.” 

He giggled at my language. He still walked with a little limp and the tension that came with the massive surprise of me being a cat had reduced. 

“There’s definitely something up ahead. Let’s go around it.” 

I looked up at the moon and tried to tell the time. “it’s kinda late, you know.” 

“We’ll be home quickly.” 

“I hope so.” 

We left the thin trail and started out in the bush. I could tell Jake was bubbling with questions. 

“You can ask.” I said dryly. 

“Ask what? I don’t have any questions. Nope, I don’t.” He said it so quickly I knew he was lying. 

“Okay. We should find a secure place to sleep for the night to sleep. We’ll get home tomorrow. Its not a school night.” 

We looked around. I sighted some berries I recognised from our botany class. They were edible. I plucked some and headed back to where Jake was clearing out. We shared the berries and laid on our backs. Side by side and looked at the moon.

“Does it talk to you?” Jake whispered. 

“A lot. I thought I was running mad at first.” 

He laughed. “My wolf too. He talks and even sings.” He kept quiet for a while and asked again, “When did you know?” 

“Few years ago. My dad told me.”

He sat up and turned to look at me. “Your Dad knows? Why didn’t he tell anybody? Even the alpha?”

“Are you crazy? Didn’t you see the way you reacted? If the pack knew about me, I might have been sent off... or killed.” 

“They can’t kill you. You have alpha blood too.” He said, lying down again. “You might have just been sent away from the pack.”

“And you think that’s not a bad thing, huh? I wouldn’t survive a week.” I yawned. 

“Sure you would. You’re strong.” 

“Hey, take a look at this.” I brought out the heart of the Vampire from my bag. 

“Ewww, what is that?” Jake’s face scrunched up. 

“The heart of a Vampire. I’m pretty sure none of those guys back at school has ever seen anything like this.” He drew closer to take a better look. “We’ll tell them that you were the one that tore the heart from its chest. You’d regain your status as the bravest once more.” 

Jake’s face broke into a wide smile. “You’d let me take the glory?” 

“As long as you don’t tell anybody about me.”

“Deal.” He said happily “it’ll be our little secret.”

“You wanna shake on it?” I asked, stretching my right hand.

He batted the hand away. I snaked the arm around him and tickled his sides. He laughed and squirmed away. We had no idea when we both fell asleep.