The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 116

Kaylee was waiting for us in the police truck, behind the gate at the entrance to the sawmill. She received us with her pistol in her hand, but she had a pained smile on her face. Pained by everything that had happened, I wanted to suppose, because she still looked very agile for a woman in such an advanced state of pregnancy as hers. She helped me climb into the back seat of the vehicle and wrapped me in a thermal blanket, affectionately, while whispering kind words.

She traveled with me all the way back to the city, surrounding me with one arm, slowly rubbing one of my legs with her free hand and trying to comfort me. Luke, in the driver’s seat, every few minutes looked at us through the rearview mirror.

Once, when I met him through the mirror, I spoke:

“You called the lions,” I stated, almost in an accusing tone.

Luke looked at me and then looked away, focused on the steering wheel.

“Yes, I did. I knew they wouldn’t have time. I had been tracking those sons of bitches, I knew we would need help,” he explained, in a heavy, growling tone. “Only I didn’t think the help would take so long, I think I emphasized quite well the ‘urgent’ nature of this. And still I find it strange that they appeared almost at the same time as the wolves. I expected them earlier. I didn’t even know Alhasan was in the United States, it’s too much coincidence that he came in person… but it’s better that it turned out this way. He will take care of it.”

I also couldn’t help thinking that it was too much of a coincidence that Mikhail Valinchenko was also in the United States and had responded so quickly to Alexander’s team’s request, but I couldn’t make any judgment. I let Kaylee cradle me a little more and closed my eyes,

exhausted.

Soon, I began to cry.

Kaylee did nothing but swear and promise that everything would be fine from that moment

I wanted to believe her. More than anything in the world, I wanted to believe her.

I had just gone through the second most traumatic experience of my life, and all I wanted was to close my eyes and pretend that a good part of all that had never happened. I don’t know if I fell asleep, but I’m sure that in that constant half-sleep in which the return trip passed, at some point I imagined Andre’s happy smile, Sasha’s clear and sweet laughter, and the soft texture of Alexander’s fur. That repellent animal smell. The scent of his skin on my pillow. The warmth of the children close to my body when we slept in the same bed.

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Chapter 116 1

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And it hurt me. Ridiculously, it hurt me. So much that I started crying again. That time I cried like never before, pulling out of myself all the evil that prevented me from even breathing,

The first days afterward I was quite bad.

It was the second time I had gone through something like that, that I had danced dangerously next to the precipice of Death, and although that should have served to prepare me and face it better, it was not so easy. This time, everything was different.

I felt alone, more alone than ever. Even when solitude had been my only refuge when Paul and my son left.

I couldn’t shake off the fear and the feeling of unreality that surrounded me. Luke and Kaylee were very kind to ask me to stay with them until I could resolve the matter of my house, and I didn’t hesitate to accept. After all, with Sheriff McCord and his dear wife and assistant, where would I be safer? Their house was a two-bedroom cabin, like mine, on the outskirts of town with a large wooded yard in the back. According to Luke, that was good because of the simple need to go in and out of the forest to train every day, sometimes in his semi-animal form. There wasn’t a soul around. And the truth is that their house, although small and soon to be even smaller for a family of three, was very cozy; they didn’t have many things, nor many pieces of furniture, the newest thing was a plasma TV, Everything else, starting with their very comfortable three-seat sofa covered with green checkered fabric, had a charming. aftertaste of the fifties, even a record player that still worked and a small collection of old vinyl records from Luke. A national treasure, according to what Kaylee mentioned with a nostalgic smile on her lips.

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Chapter 116-2

Chapter 116-2

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I allowed myself to stay there, in that small house with two familiar people.

I intrinsically trusted that with them I would be safe from anything, and yet sometimes I found myself staring into the void beyond their lit fireplace, discovering myself trembling from head to toe. Everything, even the smallest shadow, startled me. Although upon returning from the sawmill I slept for twenty-seven straight hours, during the following two days I couldn’t sleep at all. I ate by inertia. I showered very quickly and spent dead hours in front of my laptop screen just watching the cursor blink in the word processor window (Luke had returned my suitcase to me, where the few things that had survived the explosion of my house were; the wolves had the good gesture of leaving my belongings there). I got lost in that infinite white, feeling empty. Doing nothing.

Something was missing. Many things were missing. I was not really comfortable, nor safe. And I remained like that, silent and thoughtful.

Simply trying not to forget.

“… then Álvaro started scratching the roof of the truck, he wanted to open it like a can of sardines to get to us. I shot him and it seems that when he tried to escape, he lost that claw. It stayed stuck in the torn metal. Alexander also suggested I keep it, but…”

“Are you sure you want to get rid of it?” Luke replied, immediately grasping what I meant. You earned this, you know?”

”

“Although, thinking about it, I think that after everything you did you deserved more the head of that bastard,” Kaylee commented, shrugging. “Stuffed, and with two glass eyes.”

“Guys, that’s really very flattering, but…”

“Look, I think I have an idea of what to do with this. Don’t take it the wrong way, Johanna.” Luke placed his free hand on my uninjured shoulder and shook his head. “You protected yourself and the children. I’ll take care of it: I’ll turn it into something you’ll enjoy keeping, trust me.”

And I trusted him. That same night, Luke presented me with a rustic necklace with small hand-carved beads, of an Indian appearance, in which the panther’s claw stood out in the center pierced by an enclosed and woven thread cord. Luke explained that he had met an old

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Indian who had taught him to make them when he was younger, and the truth is that I was delighted with the result. I was not afraid to look at the claw like that now, clean but still

sharp.

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