The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 18

I don’t know what inflamed me more-his dismissiveness, or the fact that he was trying to dissuade me.

“Oh, of course I’m going to continue! Someone shot you, and they could very well be on their way here, following you. Someone tried to kill you, Alexander, and they might want to kill me too for giving you shelter. You hung rue on my doors and windows as if you were trying to ward someone off! Who is it? Why did they do this to you? Where is the mother of those children? Is she nearby? And most importantly-am I in danger?” I accused him, and I felt powerful when I saw his expression grow paler and paler, his eyes filling with uncertainty. “I’d rather you sit down right now and be honest with me. You already paid me eight million not to say anything, I know, but at least… I want to know what it is I’m supposed to keep quiet about. I need to know in order to know what to do. Because right now, I’m afraid of something that isn’t you, and I’d like you to answer my

questions.”

This time, he didn’t know what to say.

Had Alexander not considered the possibility that someone might be following him? No-it wasn’t

that. It was that perhaps he had built his entire plan without including me in it. He hadn’t thought

that they might come for me, knowing where he was. Maybe he had hung all those fragrant

bundles of rue around my house following some protocol burned into his subconscious, and only

then was he confronting the facts. I sensed it in the tension that seized his body, in the way he

clenched his fists, thick veins standing out beneath his human skin. Power. I swallowed, unable to

take my eyes off those large, heavy hands. He looked down at the tiled floor for a moment and

drew a deep breath.

“…All right. We’ll talk,” he agreed, irritated.

“Great! You can answer me while I make dinner-I’ve barely eaten anything all day and I’m starving,”

I told him, turning toward the fridge to pull out a few things. “Sit down, and tell me first thing why you disappeared eight years ago.”

To my surprise, he obeyed and sat at the round kitchen table.

“I didn’t leave my family because I became a werewolf,” he sighed, speaking as if he truly didn’t

want to tell me anything, resignation written all over his face. “No one infected me, because this

isn’t transmitted by any means other than from parents to children. It’s hereditary.”

I was pulling a bag of meat for grilling out of the refrigerator when I heard that, and I turned to look

at him after setting the heavy bundle on the counter. I must have looked very shaken.

“Wait-hereditary? You mean it’s a… genetic condition?”

“That’s exactly what it is. As far as we know, we have a defective gene that favors shapeshifting.

III

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It’s on the Y chromosome: your father gives it to you, you’re born with it, and you die with it. It’s not a curse or a disease, and it has no cure.” He raised his eyes to look at me, since I hadn’t said anything after that official confirmation. “I know what you’re thinking. My father is also a werewolf, and the same goes for Andre. We’re not infected. In our family, we all carry a ‘defective’ gene, but only the males have the ability to change shape. Our women have other small mutations, even though the same thing doesn’t happen to them. Don’t worry-we don’t develop ‘powers’ or anything like that. We still don’t know why we exist or where we come from; that’s something my father, and my grandfather before him, have been trying to decipher for years, studying everything related to our condition under the strictest secrecy

“And are you the only werewolves in the world?”

“You mean my family? Obviously not. There are others.”

“I truly am sorry,” he said again, respectfully.

“You don’t have to be-you didn’t know. And it’s not your fault. So-what about the other families

you mentioned? What are they called?”

Alexander sighed in a way that sounded more like a snort and pressed his lips together.

“I can’t tell you their names,” he warned.

“I don’t care about names. I just want to know more about what you are. How many chances am I going to get to be in a situation like this? Or anyone else in the world, for that matter? Please-just tell me more. I’ll remember this forever, Alexander. It’s incredible. It scares me, I won’t deny it-of course it scares me-but it’s also admirable, in a way. Millions of werewolves loose in the world-

damn. What people are missing…”

He cut me off with a harsher growl.

“No one is missing anything. If they knew we existed, probably-”

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