The Jaguar Versus the Wolf

Chapter 31 – Second Life

Orbiting Satellites Book Two, Chapter 31 - Renée's Call companion


Hmmm, I realized some things after Alice and Jasper told me about my father: the Rainforest was my home and Jennifer was my family. I didn't want him corrupting her like he did our two older sisters. When all of this was over I would need to seek her out and get her away from them, if the Cullens didn't take drastic action first.

I also realized I needed to start doing something with my life. I spent the first one hundred and fifty years of my existence feeding and screwing. I wanted to do something more substantial with the next few centuries, however many I may have.

The Cullen's had their various activities. Carlisle was the most altruistic, I guess you could say, him being a doctor and was doing something worthwhile with his eternal existence. The others were much less so. His mate had her decorating, and Alice I saw was just as vapid in her fashion obsessions. Her mate, Jasper's love of all things civil war related was understandable, since that's when he became immortal, but the fact that he hadn't moved on was somewhat strange; yet not as bad as Emmett's obsession with sports, betting, and video games. And his wife's fixation with cars and speed wasn't much better. Of course none of them were as bad as Edward's dreadful love of himself, and his music. And then Bella… I wasn't really sure what she did. She seemed to read a lot, but couldn't really figure out what she was passionate about, besides Edward and Renesmee I guess. Renesmee... No, I wasn't even going to go there.

While their pursuits might be superficial, at least they did something to occupy their time and make eternity more enjoyable. I think I needed something as well. But what?

As much of an enjoyment as taking care of my flowers was I needed something more.

Human food was something I could possibly see myself getting into. I was enjoying many of the unique flavors Esme and Bella cooked for me. If at some point I no longer lived with the Cullens it might be nice to be able to prepare a variety of things for myself.

Going into the kitchen and perusing my options I located some vegetables and raw meat of some sort then, after more searching, a knife, and I started chopping. I never really paid attention when Esme made me anything to eat in the past but it didn't seem too hard. I knew what the end product was supposed to look like. Surely cutting ingredients into smaller pieces than its original form and heating it up wouldn't be that difficult.

"Nahuel, you should have called me," Esme said, appearing next to me. "You know I'd be happy to make you something if you were hungry."

"No need." I told her as I continued to chop, while telling her about my new life plan.

"Oh!" she smiled, but could tell she was worried. "Let's just put this under those peppers to protect the counter," Esme said as she slipped a wooden slab under the food.

Huh? Oh right. I guess the knife was slicing into the countertop a little.

"You should try what we did, when we first cooked for Bella, when she was still human. Carlisle, Edward, and I found it immensely helpful to watch the Cooking Channel." She dashed away for a second and returned holding a small computer screen. "Here, I'm subscribing to America's Test Kitchen," she said while her fingers flittered over the surface. "It might be easier for you to follow them. They give step by step, exact directions, on how to prepare dishes. You can watch them on this tablet while you cook." She seemed so pleased with herself I couldn't say no.

As I moved on to cutting the meat, that Esme told me was chicken, she showed me a photograph. "I doubt she will show up here, but if you happen to see this women do not harm her in any way. Just notify any of us immediately. Understand?"

I nodded. "Is she a threat?" I asked. I couldn't see how. The woman was clearly human.

"No. Her name is Renée. She's Bella's mother. She doesn't know Bella is now Immortal, or anything about Vampires, for that matter. If she shows up and you talk to her be polite but make sure you deny any knowledge of Bella and Edward. In fact, don't tell her you know any of us."

It seemed a strange request but I agreed.

She then left on some design emergency, or something.

Wait! How do I get the video to go on this thing? Argh, I hated modern technology. Where is the…? Oh, I wasn't sure what I pressed, but the video started playing.

I don't know how Esme knew but the people on the screen started making the same thing I was trying to.

It seemed she was right, the instructions they gave were straightforward. But it was also a little unnerving. All of the measuring, and separating, and combining, and temperature controls, heat fluctuations, emulsifiers, leavening agents, and a host of other things... while I've never been in one of my father's laboratories the parallels were just a little too much.

I had to stop.

I don't think cooking was for me.

I would need something else to occupy my eternity.


A.N. Super short chapter I know, but it was only little more than a phone call in the other story, so I couldn't have much more going on with Nahuel.