The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 28

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He extended his hand reluctantly and took the gun by the barrel, looking at it as if he were studying a valuable jewel. He gripped it by the handle and removed the magazine from its place to check whether there were enough bullets, then pulled the slide back so that the round that was still in the chamber jumped into his hand. He put the lone bullet back into the magazine and reassembled the pistol, like a true professional. Fast, precise, confident. He had experience with weapons, without a doubt. He engaged the safety and tucked it into the waistband of his jeans, at kidney height, under his untucked shirt. After the little show, I had no doubt that at some point in his life he had received military training.

I don’t know which part of that made me more nervous, really.

Aguilera smiled then, barely curving his lips. I was left wanting to see whether he also had a set of sharp, animal fangs like Alexander’s, but I wasn’t that lucky. Maybe he kept them

trimmed.

“All right. Then I’ll come back at noon and bring you what you asked me for; I also have to make some calls,” he announced, and greeted his counterpart with a wrist clasp, which Alexander returned. That seemed to be their private greeting. “If anything happens, you have my number. Don’t hesitate to call; keep me informed.”

“I will, Rex. Are you forgetting who’s in charge?”

“No, I’m not forgetting that. It seems to me you’re the one forgetting that you’re no longer in any condition to fight. Are we clear now?”

A growl from the other wolf was all the approval the federal agent needed to leave.

Some time after the federal agent left, Andre started drawing on the coffee table in the living room, and I still had Sasha asleep on my shoulder. The truth is, I was so comfortable with the baby (and so at ease, so peaceful) that I didn’t want to take her upstairs and waited for Alexander to come back in. He stayed outside for a while-perhaps to make sure his counterpart had left, or to watch the surroundings of the house, or maybe simply to meditate.

When he returned, he calmly headed for the kitchen, where I was.

He took an old newspaper from the magazine rack, at least four days old, but didn’t open it. He sat down slowly at the table, obviously on purpose; I had the feeling that he knew what I

1 was thinking better than I did myself. I felt tempted to ask him if he read minds, but ended up smiling inwardly at the idea. All right, he didn’t read minds, but he undoubtedly had a great instinct-that much I realized from the very first moment.

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< Chapter 28-1

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I turned on the coffee maker, naively thinking I could offer him a coffee and blackmail him into satisfying my curiosity, when, once again, he got ahead of me:

“You look like you want to ask questions,” he said, after looking at me for a moment.

He placed the newspaper on the table, and I ventured:

“Just two. Why do you lie? You’re badly wounded, and you’re in pain.”

He snorted, but at least he answered:

“It’s not that serious. Trust me.”

“But your friend said it was infected and that he didn’t know how you were still standing. Is

that true? Is it that bad?”

“I thought you only had two questions, Johanna. And both are irrelevant, for now.”

Every time he said my name with that deep, rough voice, it sounded more and more intimidating. I felt that sting in my stomach again, that swirl that translated into an impatient knot. How was it that his voice did that to me? Did ordinary people also feel the effect of his alpha’ influence? Besides, with so much diplomacy and skill at always remaining neutral, it was hard for me to read him as well as Alexander seemed to read me. The next time, I tried not to let the growls coming from his throat get to me.

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Chapter 28-2

Chapter 28-2

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“Excuse me?”

He peered over the edge of the yellowed pages of the newspaper, his brow furrowed.

“So, you’re twenty-eight years old and already speak at least five languages, have one or two university degrees, and are something like… a prince of a race ignored by humanity. Wow. How is all that even possible together?” I asked, with irony.

The fact that he was a werewolf already mattered to me a little less; the rest…

Alexander lowered the newspaper completely, looking at me as if my question were utterly

absurd.

“…I suppose it’s what they call ‘being a child prodigy.’ I had my first shape-shift at ten years old, when the average age for that is between thirteen and fifteen. I’ve been in contact with the Seven Tongues since the moment I learned to walk and I have a predisposition for languages. The family business is one of those things that run in the blood, I suppose; I was born with a talent for it. Which part of all that sounds impossible?”

“Seven Tongues? So you speak seven languages?”

He fixed those intense blue eyes on me again, and I felt that he was exerting his ‘alpha’ power over me just with his gaze. A certain shiver of excitement ran up my spine, and I couldn’t help smiling at him by way of apology.

“…all right, all right; I didn’t say anything, anything.” I was quite impressed. “Seven families,

duh.”

“The family languages are six, if you take into account that in Argentina and Mexico the official language is Spanish, and in England and Australia it’s English. The seventh is Chinese, actually.”

“…it’s still more than I can speak.”

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