The Rise of an Alpha Were-Jaguar

Chapter 15

Claude was welcomed by a hug and quick kiss from his wife. 

“Jake is gone. Missing again. How is Jason?” 

“He is well. He seemed a bit nervous yesterday while eating lunch.” 

“Where is he?” Claude asked.

“Probably with Charlotte’s kid. That would mean they’re both missing.” Lydia said. 

“Those boys.” Claude walked to a sofa and slumped there rubbing his temples. 

“Dad!” Harry bounded down the stairs to jump on his Dad’s lap. 

“My boy...” Claude opened his arms wide and crushed Harry in a tight bear hug. “Where’s your brother?” He asked Harry while balancing him on his lap. 

“He told me he was having his first fake date with Lily...” piped Harry. “He loves her, you know. Or so he says.” 

“You don’t believe him?” Claude asked gently.

“I think it’s gross. Yuck!” Harry squeezed his face up. That made Lydia and Claude to burst out laughing. 

Harry jumped down from his father’s lap and raced up the stairs. He took some of the stairs in wolf fashion, landing on his hands and leaping higher. 

“Such energy.” Claude smiled to himself. 

“How was the meeting?” Lydia asked, returning to the sitting room and handing a glass of water to her husband. 

“The Vamps want war.” Claude said wearily. 

“War?” 

“Yes. And it’s just because of Jason and Jake’s attack last week.” 

“But this is not the first time there’s a clash between Wolves and Vamps.” 

“I know. One of the Vampires killed this time was the favourite son of an Elder.” Claude answered.

“Oh my...” 

“I know. I know.” Claude rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hand. 

Lydia came to stand at his back and gently massaged his shoulders and neck. “What are you going to do now?”

“I really don’t know, honey. Rosetta us one hell of a bitch and she was the one that proposed the war.” 

“She would instruct a man hunt on the boys.” Lydia said, thoughtfully. 

“Yes. Yes and now the boys have gone off without knowing the danger they’re in.” 

“I’m sure they’ll be alright. Don’t bother yourself so much. Is the committee minds set on wolf attack?”

“I don’t really know, dear. I think so. They might be contemplating other creatures.” 

Claude saw the puzzled look on Lydia’s face and said, “Rosetta especially... she’s claiming a Were Cat did it.... That woman, she evil but smart bitch she is.” 

“Shh...” Lydia put her finger to her lip. “Don’t use foul words even Harry is nearby.” 

“I know. I know. I’m sorry.” Claude said, morosely. “I’m just stressed out.”

“That’s why you should just remove everything from your mind and go to bed.” Lydia suggested. 

“I can’t. I’ve got to go help Jamie. He’s running out of his mind. And Jaja is here too.”

There was genuine glee in Lydia’s eyes now. Jaja was also her friend from childhood. “I have to go see him. Harry should to. After all Jaja is like his god-uncle" she said, as if thinking out loud. 

“You should. But not now. Now, there is an intense man hunt for the kids. Let the heat reduce a bit.” 

“Okay. Sure. But I can’t help it if he comes knocking, you know. I was his favourite back then as kids.”

Claude smiled and kissed his wife tenderly. “I have to go.” 

He got to his feet and walked to the door. His wife blew him a kiss as she watched his figure walk into the darkness towards her brother’s house. 

She wasn’t a bit bothered about Jason. She knew he was alright, She felt a bit of fear from him but he was a brave one. Alpha blood flowed in her veins and with the blood comes an inner strength that separates an Alpha from his pack. Her Alpha strength wasn’t as strong as her brother’s who was the pack’s Alpha, but it was there. 

She sat on the couch that her husband had just left behind and took a deep breath. She imagined the air filling her lungs. Gold air rushing into her body to her toes and then going out in smoothly. She fell into a semi trance as she tapped into the strength and tried to find the Cat of her son. 

An extremely large brown wolf leapt out from her body. But it was not a physical wolf, it was more like a luminous ghost of her were wolf. It left her body and drifted out of the house. It wasn’t solid so it just passed through the wall and ran into the dark night. 

She had sent a message with her spirit wolf and she was sure the message would be delivered. With that, she went to check on her other son who was fast asleep and snoring loudly. She arranged his sheets and tucked him in properly, smoothing the hair on his head. She knew what was coming and she would miss this child so much. She kissed him lightly on his sleeping forehead and turned off the light and closed the door behind her. 

She made a pot of coffee and sat down to wait the long night for her husband. 

“CAN YOU TELL us where it is we’re going now, Arthur?” Matt whined. 

“I’ve been thinking about it, you see... and I realised that it all started from the morteaux flower. The origin of all these is the place where the flower is located...” He turned to his friends behind him and propped his hands on his hips and said, “so, that’s where we’ll start out investigation.” 

The four boys were lost. 

“Investigation? What are we investigating?” Jeff asked. 

“Don’t be dumb.” Arthur said and continued his walking into the woods. “We are investigating the missing boys – Jason and Jake”

When his four companions still looked at him, wide eyed , not saying a word and looking dumbfounded, He said, “Well, it’s not really an investigation... its more like going to look for clues that will lead us to where our friends are. We find them and we all go back home and we’ll be welcomed as heroes.”

They seemed to all agree with the plan. 

Then Billy asked, “What if we come across Vampires?”

“We fight! If Jake and Jason, who is a human by the way, could fight and hold off about 4 Vampires. Why should we fear? After all we are all werewolves.” Arthur replied in a confident voice. 

Jeff, Matt and Zach nodded their heads while Billy still looked skeptical. 

“Billy, are you scared? You’re being a wimp, you know.” Matt teased and pinched Bill on the arm.

“Bugger off!” 

They followed Arthur deeper into the woods, through shrubs and thorns until they came across the stream bordering the territory. 

“Ohhhhhh....” Zach cooed.

“I’ve never been to the part before...” Matt said in an awed filled voice

Jeff didn’t say a word, he used his hands to cup up the clear water and brought it back his lips and drank. 

“Come on.” Arthur said and splashed across. The others followed suit. 

They kept on running for close to 5 minutes with Arthur at the lead, until they came upon the rocky site where the morteaux flower was. 

“Is that it?” Billy asked. Now, he was amazed as the thrill of an adventure seeped through him. 

He walked forward, ahead of Arthur and knelt close to the flowers. 

“She’s beautiful... and smells pretty too.” He took a deep breath. 

“That flower isn’t a ‘she', Billy.” Matt laughed. 

“You sound so gay.” Jeff said, quietly. 

Arthur coughed and said, “Okay guys, time to search. We might see something that the Alpha and his men might not see... or smell. Use your sense of smell more than your sense of sight. Shift, if you have to. Don’t forget to take off your clothes first.” 

They all nodded and started taking off their clothes. The sounds of bones cracking and reforming filled the early morning air and then four not-so-big werewolves were walking about, sniffing at the air and at the grounds around. 

Billy stood as a human. He felt something was wrong, so he had resisted the urge to shift. He palmed the glock pistol he’d taken from his Dad’s study and hidden securely in an holster beneath his shirt. The gun filled with silver bullets. Just in case. 

He glanced around and saw the wolves of his friends. Arthur, the unofficial leader was a light grey wolf. He had a thin stripe of brown from his hackles to his forehead. 

Jeff was a total black wolf. He was big for his age but that size came with a disadvantage: He wasn’t so fast. Although what he didn’t have in speed, he made up for in strength and agility. 

Matt was a gold-brown wolf. He was a fast one with a longer than normal fang and claw. His wolf was extremely deadly when in a battle, he was sniffing and looked like he had picked up something because his ears perked up and his nose was now leading in a straight line, like following a trail. 

Zach, a tiny boy tiny boy he was human, was a massive wolf. His wolf size was almost the size of a adult full grown wolf and he was as fast as he was strong. He was a very formidable weapon as a wolf when in a battle. 

Billy glanced around him, it seemed like his wolf friends can’t sense anything wrong. Something was pricking his mind. He closed his eyes, inhaled deeply and followed his instinct. He walked for few feet with his eyes still closed then he stopped and opened his eyes. He sank his hands in his jacket pocket and bent down to inspect a dark speck that looked like blood. 

A drop plopped on his neck as he was bent, he glanced up and saw a man straddled to a tree, he neck was torn open. The man was very white and very dead too. He had lost most of his blood, it was the last few that were dropping down. 

Where was the rest of his blood? Not here, obviously. They’d have perceived it in a second. 

Why did they not perceive the corpse? That was weird. 

Then the realisation hit him like someone drove a big fist into his tummy. 

“Oh shit... We’re in trouble!” He whispered to himself