Newborn Regrets
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight characters.
The pack skids to a halt at Leah's thought – vampire – was it possible that a vampire had simply passed through the territory and could possibly be long gone or was a vampire placed inside of the arena? Jacob can sense the rest of the scouts now being a bit more cautious in their movements. The scouts were all spread out and if a vampire did catch someone aware the response time of the pack could be cutting it too close; especially if the vampire was aware of the danger it was in and had decided that a sneak attack would increase its chances of survival.
'You don't really think the High Council would throw a leech in here, do you?' Sam asks picking up on the collective musing of the pack.
'Well these collars were only meant to shock us but they did so much more than that, right?' Rachel growls out as she heads off towards Leah's location.
'But not to have told us that there,' Sam adds with a deep growl but is cut off by Jacob.
'Look, we all get it that you think the High Council is the shit, Sam.' Jacob snaps hating the idea that Sam's questioning has pulled his attention away from Leah. 'But right now let's not put anything past them.'
'If they did it would be nothing more than a test to see how well the pack adjusts. How alert we are to our surroundings in the midst of a battle.' Embry adds before breathing a sigh once he's close by Rebecca.
'Yea, we already saw how Leon and that other pack were taken out just by not paying attention to their surroundings. Leon's pack had clearly won but got caught up in the chase. And right now they're being carted back to the High Council smelling like fricasseed wolf.' Rachel adds as she skids to a halt besides Leah.
In a matter of minutes the entire pack is united, all ears alert, heads low and sniffing the surrounding area trying to figure out how fresh the scent is, how many and then plan out their next move.
The scents were erratic at best, the area around showed signs of a vampire moving through quickly and clumsily, obviously not worried about hiding the whereabouts of its movements. Then there were another set, the footprints larger then the first, that was following behind it; possibly a male and female. Tensions begin to grow as two more scents are picked up but higher off the ground showing that there were at least two more vampires moving up in the trees.
'So what do we do, boss?' Quil asks looking towards Jacob for the next move.
The pack had two options: (1) hunt down the leeches and eliminate the added threat or (2) hope for the best and focus on the primary task at hand – win the challenge.
'That's assuming the vampires stay away from us.' Leah state glaring down the path the vampires traveled. 'The first vampire isn't in her right mind. She's just tearing through the woods- a newborn.'
'And newborns aren't something to take lightly.' Mira says with a low whimper thinking back on a previous encounter with her first newborn. The boy was fast, insanely strong for a vampire of its size and the only thing that saved her was Kira's quick thinking. The newborn's inexperience in fighting and it being driven mad with thirst wound up being its downfall.
'Yea, but how often does a newborn run with a coven of older vampires?' Paul asks with a growl fighting the instinct to tear off into the forest after the bloodsuckers.
'Not often but it occurs when the other is a potential mate.' Jared mumbles softly with disgust.
'Alright, let's all keep close together for the time being. There are only about four leeches and we still outnumber them. Lance and William are still our biggest threats and if the lead leech is a crazed newborn then chances are she'll run towards the closest thing with a heartbeat thinking she's found a meal.' Jacob orders with a firm voice, his eyes lingering on Leah earning an eye roll.
'Has anyone else noticed that there haven't been any small animals around?' Collin comments with a small frown. His observation earns a few confused looks from their pack mates as they begin to pay a bit more attention.
'Now that you mention it I haven't seen or heard any but I just kind of figured that they were hiding from us. The animals back home are kind of use to us and can tell when we're on the hunt or just passing through.' Jared comments as he looks up in the trees for some possibly cowering squirrel.
'Let's get moving.' Jacob orders fighting to ignore the cold chill that shot up all of their spines at the realization that there weren't any animals – anywhere.
Jacob growls in frustration as he's tried to avoid the vampire but it seemed as if the vampires were guiding their direction just by their scent. If it hadn't been for Paul's observation they would've been moving in a circle trying to steer clear of the bloodsuckers. But they were going to be starting to lose daylight soon and the last thing they needed was to deal with a mountain lion at night. The wolves had decent night vision but when compared to that of a mountain lion there was no contest.
They had been in the woods for hours now without having run into Lance or William leaving them all to wonder how large the arena was. Had they eliminated one another? Were they dealing with the leeches?
Leah hadn't noticed Lance trying to pry into their minds and had stopped searching instead relying on the rest of the pack to alert her when something felt wrong.
To Jacob this whole thing just felt 'wrong' as if something bad was just waiting for the opportunity to rear its ugly head and send them all to Hell in a freaking hand basket.
'That's, uh – that's really inspiring, Jake.' Rachel grumbles with a sigh.
'Sorry but I just can't help this feeling.' Jacob apologizes stopping to shake out his fur as if that act alone will help remove the feeling.
'Lance can't affect us that way, can he?' Brady asks softly.
'Not that I'm aware of.' Leah breathes out with a deep sigh.
Jacob freezes as the fur on his hackles stand up, a cold shiver runs from the top of his spine down to the very end of his tail. His heart begins to race as his muscles tense and his ears begin to move trying to pinpoint the sign of the danger. There's a series of low growls as the rest of the pack follows behind their Alpha, a circle being formed preventing anyone from being attacked from behind.
In the distance he can hear it, the sound of feet moving, quickly; they barely touch the ground beneath them. The sound switches up and sounds grating.
'It's in the trees!' Seth declares, his head whipping to face the direction of the creature that is barreling towards them.
There is no heartbeat but the unnecessary breaths are now starting to sound loud and clear. The inhale and exhale of air becomes a heavy panting that sounds of desperation and…and thirst?
'Fuck, this leech is starving.' Paul growls out and the pack quickly breaks the circle and spaces themselves out ready to tear the leech apart from all sides.
Jacob can feel Leah ordering the pack to still stay alert; don't space out too far apart because if the leech was in the trees then it had the element of surprise.
His claws dig into the dirt and his lips curl back into a nasty snarl as the sound is louder and closer. In a flash, a blur of pale white springs from above the tree branches heading directly towards Jacob, the biggest prey and no doubt having the most blood. Jumping out the way Jacob finds himself struggling to get back to his feet as the force of the vampire's landing knocked him off balance and pushed him back further. Quickly jumping to his feet he growls and heads towards the leech, a female with dark brown hair, and her hand buried into the ground from the power behind her attempt to grab her prey. She's struggling to pull her hand free and the pack moves in; teeth bared, ready to tear into the monstrous creature.
Hearing the growl of the incoming wolf she raises her head and lets out a feral growl, her eyes are blazing red, teeth bared and Jacob's heart drops to his stomach as he immediately recognizes the face.
No, Bella? STOP!
A/N: Alright so here goes the next chapter. I'm hoping that my writing will pick back up again but between working, studying, family, my Facebook games, reading and trying my limited culinary skills it may take a while but I've got plenty of ideas. Just that when they hit me something else always comes up or that I'm nowhere near a computer or a notebook. I hate my Droid phone so much that if I try to type something else up in a note I may just chuck the damn thing and repeatedly run over it with my car. *growls and chokes phone* I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I! HATE! YOU!
Someone mentioned the story having a Hunger Games kind of feel to it which made Kei go…O_o? Huh-whut? LOL. Mainly because I was watching Gladiator at the time and just the whole setup of keeping combatants restrained within a fixed area…which would be similar to the Hunger Games. That would then just be like any sort of story where you have people fighting to the death and humans watching. It's in our nature to be drawn towards violence. We've had the gladiators, boxing, wrestling, MMA, death races…hockey! And as I'm sure majority of the world operates like my family then it means that anything can be bet on. For example, had I been a gambling woman I would've made some major bucks because I gave Kim Kardashian and her hubbie 79-days until they were divorced. But…oh…my money is so scared. So scared that every time I go by the mall or a bookstore it jumps out my purse and run away! I swear I don't know how those bags from NY&C, GameStop or Spencers wound up in my backseat. Honest!
Oh! And, damnit Bella! Why won't you just stay away? Don't you just hate her? I hate her. I hate her so much. Hahahaha.
But you all know what to do. Leave me a review and make my day…in a good way. I really appreciate all of them and most provide a laugh that I've needed all day.
Laurazuleta18 – Don't sleep on The Walking Dead. That show is the ish! And happy belated birthday! And kudos on the weight loss. I've driven by the park to see some of those hardcore…exercisers. I call them something else in my head but that's usually accompanied with a 'they are insane' look. LOL.