The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 29

Chapter 29-1

It must have been easy for someone like him to be so… impressive, in his own way. But that didn’t explain why he had been shot, or where the woman who had given birth to those two children was; and frankly, knowing more about that “secret society of werewolves” wasn’t helping me understand anything. He had already told me, besides, that the less I knew about the matter, the better it would be. Why not stay quiet? No-but I insisted. I always insisted.

For eight million dollars, of course I wanted more!

The idea of knowing more about that secret he had to guard so jealously seduced me, even if it were only for the satisfaction of being the only person on Earth who knew it.

“Andre, on the other hand, shifted for the first time at six years old. He is and will be an even greater ‘prodigy child’ than I am,” he added, once again with the newspaper acting as a screen that hid his face. “A true phenomenon of our race.”

“And now, what does that mean?”

He took a moment to answer me, as if he didn’t want to say it. But then again, if he hadn’t

wanted to talk about it, didn’t he simply have to ignore me?

No. A part of him, perhaps, trusted me enough.

“That I have to protect him. I distanced myself from all of them for a reason at first, but over time I realized that I had done the right thing in more than one sense, even though it hurt me more than I ever would have imagined. And inevitably, I’m going to need more resources than I have now to leave the country; I had to get in touch with a couple of specific people I trust.” He fell silent for a moment, and then added, “I suppose I should have waited to take command, and then change the laws.”

“Why? Why did you distance yourself from everyone, then?”

Oh, the moment of truth.

I instinctively stroked Sasha’s back when the little girl sighed and let out a tiny groan in her sleep. He looked at me once, his fists clenched over the newspaper; he looked at the baby and the way I was holding her-I don’t know what he was really thinking.

His eyes softened in a very curious way.

“My family… they didn’t take kindly to my relationship with Anya,” he finally said, and that threw me off at first. “She’s just a woman, like you. She doesn’t have ‘wolf blood, as we call our own. My father was convinced that what I had with her was fleeting, and that I would

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soon win the favor of another lady, let’s say, more ‘my equal.’ But then I turned twenty and they began to realize that I wasn’t going to stop seeing Anya… so my father arranged everything for me to marry a woman of our race, and I decided I wouldn’t allow such an outrage. I didn’t deserve it, and neither did the unfortunate woman who would have had to get engaged to me. Immediately, I moved all the money from my personal accounts to some random tax haven, and in less than six hours, I ran away with Anya. We got married in Vancouver, eight years ago. We’ve lived in Anchorage since then, in the mountains.”

“Anya-she’s Andre and Sasha’s mother.”

“Well, yes.”

“And you still don’t know where she is?”

Alexander glanced over his shoulder, toward the living room, for a moment.

“…I want to believe she went into hiding, when that happened,” he said, his tone increasingly vague and listless, reluctant to continue. “I still haven’t managed to contact her.”

“…Wait-do you mean to say you simply left her?”

The way those words came out of my mouth, perhaps with too much force, made me hug the baby tighter in an unconscious gesture. Alexander looked at me fiercely then, the bridge of his nose slightly furrowed, and made an attempt to lift the newspaper.

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white kitchen floor, his sudden reaction had frightened me. One of my hands moved on its own and went straight to the baby’s head, to protect her. He walked around the table to head toward the living room, and stopped in the doorway to growl at me again, heavily:

“I’m not going to keep talking about this with you, Johanna. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, I shouldn’t have… it was intrusive of me, forgive me.”

He turned back to look at me. I wasn’t looking at him, but I felt his eyes on me, icy. His presence was too evident, intense around me.

He was scenting me-or my insecurity and fear. I want to believe that having Sasha in my arms was enough to contain his anger a little. Even though his face was human and his appearance was too, in that moment I felt like I was once again facing the white beast; every fiber of my body reacted to his powerful image with a shiver.

But it wasn’t on purpose, it was just… I did it for the baby.

Seeing me and sensing me like that, smelling.my terror, definitely made him angry.

“Don’t be afraid, I’m not going to hurt you. Why are you always trembling? Don’t do that, please. A part of Andre and me is just as human as you are!” he reproached me, in a murmur, that voice that sounded like a growl. “That’s exactly what Anya did! I explained it to her; I thought she accepted it and that she still loved me, but… she just… was there, and at the same time, she wasn’t. She never looked at me the same way again, nor at Andre. I swear I don’t care if she fears me-but Andre, her son! She thinks we’re monsters.” He stopped and sighed. He brought a hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose with a hiss between his teeth. His tone softened as he went on, defeated. “I… forgive me, that was really very, very rude of me. I’m sorry. I’ll go see… excuse me, Johanna, please.”

And he left, though he hesitated when taking the first step. Seconds later, I heard the front door open and then close forcefully. Andre was in the living room, drawing, and his father had chosen to leave the house. The boy must surely have heard everything-didn’t he say, after all, that his son had very sharp hearing? And what then? Did Alexander feel ashamed of his reaction, or of something else? At that moment I didn’t know what else to think, except to stay very still where I was, making sure Sasha didn’t wake up.

There was nothing else I could do.

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