The Jaguar Versus the Wolf

Chapter 14 – The Chess Plan

Orbiting Satellites Book Two, Chapter 14 - College (and Trouble) Begins companion


Argh! It was even worse than I thought. Not only was Renesmee attending school full time, but all of her classes were with the dog. That meant I wouldn't even have time with her while he was in class and she wasn't, like I did last year. I could work around the Cullens. Getting past him would be harder, if not impossible.

Still, I had to try.

Each day I tried to talk to her, endear myself to her, but to get close enough was a weird game of cat and mouse. It required me to keep my distance, hide in the shadows; slink around corners, until the dog was out of sight… then I would pounce. My Aunt hadn't named me after a jungle cat for nothing. Stealth and prowlness were two of my strengths. Even so the most I got was an hour (tops) before her guard dog reappeared. And even when he left us, he never really left, only fading into the next room, just out of eyesight, but still within hearing range.

Had I really spent any time with Renesmee? No. Not anything that I would consider quality alone time; nothing that was just the two of us. She was either with that damn dog, or him AND one or more members of her family.

That was when she was not at school. When she was gone I had nothing but empty time on my hands.

It had been less than a week before I became completely bored. In that time my room had been repainted by Esme, the new furniture she ordered had been delivered and installed. I'd arranged, rearranged, and re-rearrange the furniture in my room multiple times. Bella had even taken me grocery shopping, with her, to better cook meals she thought I would like. Yet I found myself wanting.

I wanted… I needed her, but alas… Renesmee…

At this point I was so on edge I would even consider letting Alice take me shopping again.

A few days ago, even after knowing me these past few years, Alice had decided that she was finally beginning to understand my clothing style and had made me accompany her into the nearest town to buy me an entirely new wardrobe. Despite my best efforts to point out that she'd just bought me new clothes when I first returned, she insisted that they were all wrong for me and needed to make it right.

I'd put my foot down when she suggested doing it again a few days ago, but now I was so bored I was actually reconsidering.

I wanted to do something besides endlessly watching hour after hour of television. Esme had installed one of those devices in my bedroom soon after I first moved in this year, once she saw how… unoccupied my life currently was. She'd mentioned how she had Renesmee watch it last year to prepare her to be around humans in the real world, and safely observe normal human interactions. After a few days of binging I picked up some of the common phrases and sayings that seemed to be popular in the States, but I was also horrified to think that what I saw was how average Americans normally behaved.

I needed to quickly make Renesmee my mate so we could escape this craziness and return to the sanity of the Rainforest.

In the meantime I was still looking for something to do while Renesmee was at school. Something worthwhile, not just to occupy my time. Something that would grab Renesmee's attention and make her want to spend time with me. Music was an option. But I had already tried that with limited results. I thought about accompanying her while she hunted, but the dog would probably not relinquish her safety to me and insist on coming along. I needed something I could do with her, at her house that could potentially take multiple hours and would not activate her guard dog's protector instincts.

The last time I was here we had, on occasion played chess together. I admit I was not in any way good at the game. While I understood the rules and objective, long term strategy was definitely not a strength of mine.

Renesmee seemed to enjoy her misguided attempts to teach the dog how to play the guitar, perhaps she would also be willing to do the same with me and the chess board. I didn't want to embarrass myself though. She already knew, or thought she knew how bad I was at the game; while she was at school I would educate myself. When I'd gained the necessary skills I'd approach her about lessons then she would begin to see how right we were for each other.

I would need help. My Aunt Huilen had almost always been victorious whenever we would play. I'd only ever won a handful of matches in the one hundred and fifty years we'd first come into this existence.

"Emmett," I softly called when I saw him come home from class. "I was thinking of starting a game of chess and was wondering if you would join me?"

"I don't know, dude. Chess really isn't my game."

"But surely you know how to play?"

"Why this sudden need to play chess?" his mate… err wife, as they preferred in this family, asked me. Knowing how mates hate to be apart from each other, if Huilen and Roberto were any indication, I should have figured she'd follow him. Looking at the judgmental look on her face I could tell she'd guessed there was a specific reason behind my request other than enjoyment of the game, so I admitted how it was part of my ploy to spend time with Renesmee.

"Oh… too bad neither of us play," Rosalie quickly informed me, before dragging Emmett off with her to their house.

Liar! I had seen both of them play on multiple occasions in the past.

"Come on, Nahuel," Jasper sympathetically said to me. He had arrived back home from school at the same time as them, but had hung back, choosing to sit in his car until now. "I'll teach you to play," he lightly chuckled. "Though I'm not sure it'll do you any good."

Why did he laugh? Did he think I was incapable of learning to play better? Or win against him?

Well, I would show him.


No! No! No! How did I lose again?

"Don't feel so bad, Nahuel, it takes years to master the game," Jasper said, while at the same time using his gift to send calming waves my way. I instantly relaxed, but his gift did nothing to clear up my confusion. I thought I'd done everything right.

He disappeared and then a second later reappeared with a few books in his hand. "Here," he handed them to me. "These seemed to help Renesmee. Why don't you try reading them as well and see if they will do the same for you." Turning the first one over in my hands I saw that it was a book on chess strategies. The next was one that recounted master chess games by Bobby Fisher. His name wasn't familiar but the back cover seemed to proclaim him as some sort of chess prodigy. The third would have made me want to through it back at him if he weren't already manipulating my emotions. Chess for Dummies? Really?

"Just give it a try. It's more informative than you might think," he told me. "Once you have we can schedule a rematch." Then he left.

I guess that meant I either had to read the stupid books or find a new teacher.

Reluctantly I opened the first book.