The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 102

Chapter 102-1

:

+25 Points

The trek ended when we made a long detour through the interior of the silent factory in semi-darkness, and climbed a wide metal staircase until we entered the offices, leaving the huge circular saws, band saws, and debarking machines behind. Inside the warehouses it smelled deliciously of wood, engine oil, and diesel smoke soaked into the walls, but as we went deeper into the offices, a sweet lemon scent became more prominent.

I was definitely not prepared to see that.

Andre suddenly got agitated, and between tearful whimpers he tried to wriggle free from me. I managed to control him. Alexander-he was the first thing that came into my field of vision when we crossed the door into a spacious office decorated in brown tones and with warm wooden panels on the walls and ceiling. My first thought was with him when I saw him crouched there without explanation; and the second was with Rex, whom I didn’t see anywhere.

When he noticed us, Alexander lifted his wolfish head and let his ears fall, dismayed. He was crouched by a window with American blinds, with his hands bound by means of a not-too-thick chain to a radiator on the wall. At first I didn’t understand what was going on there. Someone with his tremendous strength could have broken those chains easily and fled. But I noticed his eyes were darkened and glassy, his pupils dilated, and that his whole body was trembling imperceptibly. There was blood on the floor, on his white fur, on his

muzzle.

“Dad!” Andre shouted, between yelps. “Dad! Are you okay?”

“…Andre,” he said slowly. He finally looked at me, and I finished confirming that something was wrong. “Johanna, I’m so sorry…”

I couldn’t answer him. My soul dropped to my feet.

Was he hurt? What had they done to him? Where was Rex? Andre struggled in my arms again, furious, and I realized too late that he wasn’t fighting to go to his father, but rather snarling fiercely, teeth bared, ears pinned to his head, his animal brow furrowed. He was snarling at a man who was to our right, sitting as if nothing were the matter on an old solid wood desk.

The air got stuck in my throat.

The first thing I saw in him were the two long scars over his right eye, cutting across a good part of his forehead, eyebrow, and cheek. His solemn, calm gaze was a very light, clear blue- the eyes of someone very sensitive to changes in light. He was white-skinned, not Arab as I

1/2

© Chapter 102-1

+25 Points

would have expected; and his hair was honey-blond, worn long down to his shoulders. I froze where I stood, holding Andre close. Fear turned me cold, and I suspect that was what unsettled the wolf-child and forced him to turn toward me and cling to me with fierce determination, while yelping softly. I crouched down to wrap my arms around him, still trembling. I know that at some point Andre pressed his muzzle to my cheek and I felt his cold, wet nose, and his velvety fur, but…

The child wanted to protect me. He was afraid something bad would happen to me. I could only stare, motionless, at that robust, tall man with the piercing gaze and thin lips.

You could say he had very delicate features, somewhat androgynous beyond his perfect square jaw, but his sky-blue stare framed by those fine, arched, blond eyebrows was almost seductive, as was the welcoming smile on his lips. At first glance, he seemed European. English? German? French? He was Caucasian and very tall, but he didn’t seem as tall as Alexander or Rex. Beneath the winter coat and ripped jeans, you could make out the figure of a strong person, difficult to take down. He had his fingers interlaced over his thighs- powerful, rustic fingers, with thick veins marked on the backs of his hands. He was young, I assumed. He didn’t look like he had reached thirty. Would he be Alexander’s age, perhaps? At that moment I couldn’t say exactly, but his soft, feline traits left me no doubt of his animal ancestry, even though he hadn’t shifted into his most savage form. He was simply there, waiting.

Comments

LUCK DRAW >

Vote

664

3:2

Chapter 102-2

:..

+25 Points

Chapter 102-2

The neutrality of his face only made me more afraid. What was he thinking? Luke’s words echoed in my head again. A complete psychopath.

Álvaro came in behind us and threw Nika down onto the floor near me. The she-wolf pushed herself up on her elbows until she was sitting sideways, and found the barrel of his reloaded pistol pointed at her forehead from the dark paw-hand of the panther. He didn’t remove the gag, but in Nika’s bloodshot green-blue eyes you could clearly see what she would have wanted to scream at him. The claw wound on her face, at least, had stopped bleeding, although…

As we were, I saw no possible escape. We looked doomed.

To my left, Alexander made his chains jingle, and when I thought he was going to say something (from the way he wrinkled his muzzle), a strong, deep voice-more velvety and very different from Álvaro’s-commented:

“Are we all here already? Perfect,” said the lion, with a revealing purr in his voice. He sounded calm, relaxed. His voice was wonderful; it sounded even sweeter and more pleasant than the panther’s, but I couldn’t stop a shiver of terror from running down my spine. “Magnificent. Well, I already let the farce go on for a good while, and I even put up with the red wolf getting his call… so figure we have, at most, half an hour to resolve this before reinforcements arrive and I have to finish you all off with gunfire,” he added, as if he were presenting a television show, “which isn’t what I’d prefer, of course. What do you say we settle this in, I don’t know, twenty minutes or so?”

I could hardly contain my shock, nor could I restrain the flood of questions in my head. So Rex had managed to talk on the phone? Had he done it before the cats discovered him, or had the cats allowed him to do it for fun? Álvaro and the lion seemed very calm, as if they had everything under control. Was it part of their plan?

The lion sighed and got down from the desk, sliding his hands into the pockets of his coat with a carefree gesture.

“First, you and I have to talk,” he announced seriously, and slightly furrowed his brow. “About what happened with your wife.”

Andre’s yelp forced me to look toward Alexander again, unable to speak or even breathe, almost. He was stunned too. And although a thick layer of fur covered his animal face- mostly expressionless-and you couldn’t say for sure, I am absolutely certain he went pale.

“What do you want to talk about?” the white wolf asked firmly.

“…there are some things I’d like to clarify. Formalities.”

“…not in front of my son,” Alexander asked, almost in a pleading tone.

The other seemed to think for a moment; his eyes settled on Andre and me. I saw him frown, as if people were speaking to him in an incomprehensible language.

For a moment, I thought he was going to refuse, but…

773

Chapter 102-2

+25 Points

“Fine.” The lion moved forward with his head, and then made a calm gesture with his hand toward the panther, calling him to his side. “Álvaro, take the child to the cage, with the red wolf. Better that he doesn’t hear any of this-we don’t want him to grow up damaged, do we?”

He laughed at the end of the sentence, and Álvaro joined him with the same kind of malice. For my part, my heart started pounding again at the implied mention of Rex. He was alive! A prisoner somewhere in the factory, maybe, but alive. Relief washed over me a little, but not enough. They were going to separate me from Andre, and that made me tremble again. Why the hell wasn’t there something I could do to help? I felt more useless than ever.

Álvaro didn’t like the arrangement, because he rebelled almost immediately:

“What are you talking about?” he growled, annoyed. “I want a piece of this runt-did you forget what he did to me?”

The lion looked at him with an almost deadly seriousness, and replied: