The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 21

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I woke up again because the sun was hitting me in the face. I hadn’t closed the curtains before. going to bed. But when I remembered what was happening, and where I was, I realized that I had been sleeping on the couch and the house felt very quiet, very empty. Something hit me in the chest, and I got up very quickly when I remembered my guests, especially because of the ghost of a baby’s laughter.

Had they left? Maybe, because of what we talked about regarding that cat…

“Alexander?” I asked, fearfully. “Andre!”

“Shh, don’t make any noise. My son has a very, very sensitive hearing. He’s still sleeping.”

“Sorry, I thought that…”

I turned around and discovered Alexander coming toward me. He looked as though he had showered very recently and had changed his shirt; the one he was wearing was blue with very subtle black stripes. It suited him well. He was carrying a steaming cup of coffee and a plate with two slices of toast spread with butter. I was stunned; I followed him with my eyes until he went around the couch and handed me the cup. He set the plate on my knees and sat on the small table in front of me. He looked at me for a moment and smiled crookedly. He was surely laughing inside at my hair all over the place and the bags I imagined I had under my eyes, or my swollen eyelids.

Movies always give a wrong image of that: nobody wakes up fresh as a lettuce, neatly groomed and with their makeup intact. In real life, people have bad breath and messy hair, and sometimes they’re in a bad mood.

I smoothed my hair a little when I saw that ironic smile.

air, and sometimes

I didn’t really know how to react. I mean, he was a complete stranger, but even so he had made me some coffee, toasted bread… that was a lot. He didn’t have to do any of that, and yet he did. I looked at the cup and the toast, and then I looked at him again. Alexander seemed calmer than the night before, in a much better mood; we had already passed the stage of insecurities-or at least he had. The serious expression on his face was different.

“Thank you,” I said, referring to breakfast. “But I don’t like bread with butter. Not by itself, at least; I usually put sugar on it, or jam of…” When I raised my eyes, I met Alexander’s gaze and shut my mouth. He made me food, for Heaven’s sake! And was complaining. “…forget it, I need carbohydrates and this is perfect for me.”

He answered with an “hmm” that almost sounded like a deep, guttural growl.

I realized that his closeness didn’t bother me, nor the smell of soap (my soap) coming from him. I didn’t feel intimidated at all by his size, or his gaze, or the fact that instinctively and unquestionably I knew he wasn’t human. I think that by then, a large part of me had already left behind the visceral

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terror regarding Alexander and his double nature, and I was more comfortable with the idea. At

last I accepted it, to a certain degree.

And then I remembered something else.

“Oh no; I slept on the couch. Where did you sleep?” asked, embarrassed.

“I didn’t sleep. I was outside the house all night, walking the property. I hope it’s not too much

trouble, but I put Andre and Sasha in your bed.” He paused, and then continued; apparently he had

to look for the appropriate words. “The scent of a female presence helps both of them stay calm

and sleep better. Sasha, especially. She needs it.”

I imagined that she did; the girl was small and surely missed her mother.

Her mother…

“No, don’t worry, it doesn’t bother me,” I cleared my throat. “Did you say all night, outside?”

“Yes, but it’s nothing. It’s… routine. I needed to make sure that my children and I are the only

hybrids in the surrounding area, and for now, it seems that we are. There are no signs of any

strangers; the panther hasn’t found us yet. Now, have your breakfast. Rex will arrive at any

moment; he’s told me he’s already in the city.”

I stopped in the act of bringing the cup to my mouth, and I had to ask:

“…you said it was a jaguar.”

“Excuse me?” He raised his eyebrows, confused.

“The animal… I mean, this creature that’s chasing you-you said it was a jaguar. Now you say it’s a

panther. It’s a ‘he, right? If he transforms like you, and according to what you told me, it’s a ‘he, not

a ‘she’…”

“The black melanistic jaguar is colloquially known as a ‘black panther.”

“…Jaguar what?”

I changed them myself. But thank you.”

“With the projectiles still inside your body? Are you sure that’s good?”

Alexander made a grimace of displeasure and frowned.

“It’s not like I can go to a hospital, Johanna,” he replied, and he was right; it wasn’t the best option. They would start asking questions, and it would be complicated. No, what I need is for the rest of my reinforcements to arrive, and I’ll get proper treatment. I’ll be fine; I promise that. I’ll be fine.”

I don’t really know why, but something didn’t sound very sincere in those words. Even if he was more than human, he had two bullets lodged in his flesh and we had no way of extracting them. And what if there were internal injuries? Because of the height, those shots could have even touched his lungs. I still seemed to hear the slight shoring of his breathing, a snoring that in an ordinary person wouldn’t be normal (but I didn’t know whether it was in them, either). He had already said that silver didn’t hurt him, nor lead nor anything else. I wondered whether “didn’t hurt him” meant that he was so strong that he didn’t even feel the pain of the wounds, or whether “ didn’t hurt him” meant that it wasn’t a bullet with something strange in it, as he told me the night

before. All of that worried me a little, honestly.

Let’s say I was “protecting my interests”; that man had paid me eight million dollars not only to take care of his children but to give the three of them shelter, and a part of me was thinking about making his money worth it, in a way,

“…What is this ‘Rex’ going to do when he arrives?”

“He’ll help me with some things. It’s necessary for me to gather my entire team before I can make any further moves. It’s not advisable to attempt anything if we’re not a solid group, and if this gets very dangerous, we’ll leave. All of us, including you. ‘Il place you in a safe location until we can

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carry out all the pertinent investigations. I’m not going to leave anything to chance, and much less with you; I’m in your debt.”

I smiled, stifling a little laugh, and hid my mouth behind my cup, uncomfortable.

“You talk as if this were a military operation, or something,” I said, nervously.

“…well, that’s what it is. Our people receive training similar to military training from a very young age; the foundation of our society is discipline. It’s necessary to learn how to work as a team and to plan in risk situations like this one. In this century things like this don’t happen often, but it’s still true that training fosters discipline, and that strengthens the chain of command. And we wolves are loyal to the chain of command; we obey our leaders and move in groups. It’s the first law: you’re never really alone.”

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