Becoming the Cheetah

10 - The truth

"A werewolf?" I questioned.

I stood in his bedroom, it all seemed so normal. Just simply a teenage boy's bedroom. Posters on the walls, an unmade bed and a computer sitting on a desk with many half-finished glasses of water. Yet Flame had just told me something so far from being normal, yet it as possessed it more it started to make more sense.

He nodded and asked "wanna see?"

Before I could answer he started transforming into a wolf. Orange fur covered his body and his bones snapped and adapted. His muscles grew and changed and before I knew it there was a wolf with a flame like coat in front of me. It was what I had seen at the fair, it was him. Any normal person would be terrified and run away but I didn't, I couldn't.

 I didn't find him scary at all; if anything I felt safer.

"You saved me?" I asked him.

He nodded.

I had no idea that the boy I was friends with was a real werewolf, but how could I? It was so much to take in, the transformation alone was mind bending and horrific. Or at least it should have been horrific but I didn't find think of it like that... all I could think was ... he saved me.

I looked down to hide the fact I was blushing. I felt so dense for not listening to him and staying away. If only he had explained this to me sooner but how could he have? When I looked back up at him he had changed back into his human form with his black leather jacket. He gave me a nervous and slightly guilty smile.

"Victoria those people that you keep seeing with red eyes, they are vampires," He explained, I gasped "They will kill you if they get the chance."

"Why are vampires here?" I asked feeling stupid the moment the moment the words left my mouth.

"I don't know but they all seem to be travelling south and there is a lot more than I've ever seen before," he explained, "I know it sounds crazy for me to be killing people like that but it's for the safety of everyone... I'm sure I don't need to explain vampires to you, they are dangerous to both werewolves and humans."

I nodded and thought for a while, "They were talking about being at the hotel by midnight, do you know where or what that is."

"Hotel..." he said to himself "no but my alpha might."

"Alpha?"

"Oh in this house we are all werewolves in the Red Sky Pack."

"So when you said father you meant your alpha and when you said family you meant pack right?" 

"Yes and I'm sorry for lying to you for so long. I just didn't want to draw you into this," he said sadly "but I guess you are now."

I nodded again and went silent trying to process all the information. There was no way I could blame him for lying even if it was hurtful and maddening not to know the truth. Of all the questions I had one trailed around my mind and lurked it's way into my mouth, "Out of all the people in that school why did you chose me to become friends with?"

He looked up at me and smiled, "There is something about you that is different and I like that."

"Yeah it's my eyes," I sighed.

"No it's more than that, inside you, you've got something special, I can tell you were made to do great things. Werewolves just have this kind of second sense you see."

I got a warm feeling that started in my chest and spread all over my body. I smiled. For the longest time the word special was so negative and I would cringe whenever I heard anyone say it. From him it meant so much more though. Like someone other than my family genuinely believed in me and that I could have a future rather than just judging me and avoiding me.

I looked up at him, "So what happens now?" 

His face suddenly became serious and he sat down beside me on the bed. Here comes the bad news, I held my breath.

"Victoria, I really like you but to protect you we are going to have to stay away from each other," he told me seriously I couldn't believe he was saying this again, "If I get attacked by the vampires and you are there I might not be able to protect you and if anything happened to you I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"What?" I exclaimed the breath I had been holding escaping from me.

"Look now that you know the vampires are out there you can know what to stay away from, I'm going to introduce you to the pack but after that I want you to go home and be safe there ok. I might still see you at school," He explained.

"Ok," I said shakily and a tear rolled down my face. How dare he say all of those nice things about me then just leave me alone to the mercy of the school again. I wanted to scream at him and say all of the horrible things Frank would do to me because of Flame putting him in his place. 

But I couldn't. I couldn't force Flame to spend time with me purely for my own protection. He was a werewolf and had his own battles. Literally. My petty high school bullying was nothing compared to what he was dealing with.

"Please don't cry," he told me and another tear fell from my purple eyes.

He hugged me and whispered in my ear, "it's going to be alright I will protect you nothing is going to hurt you. I promise."

I wrapped my arms around him too and enjoyed his warmth, werewolf are very warm. My tears were falling on to his jacket making a wet patch but he didn't seem to mind. He just kept hugging me.

After the tears stopped and a few deep breathesI let go of him and said "time to meet your pack."

"Sure," he said then smiled.

First published - 20/12/2013

Edited - 20/7/2020