The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 39

Chapter 39-1

I smiled inevitably. While I cleaned the bottle, I asked:

“Are you hungry, Andre?”

+25 Points

He stopped laughing and adjusted his sister in his arms. He noticed that I was by the sink

and came closer to where I was.

“A little, I could eat,” he answered, playing the role of the tough one.

“All right, right away,” I said, smiling inwardly at how much he resembled his father.

“Does your arm feel better now, Han? Does it hurt a lot?”

Not telling him the truth seemed ridiculous to me.

“No, sweetheart, it doesn’t hurt that much anymore; now I’m going to take care of it. Thanks to your dad. I feel a little discomfort when I move, but I’ll be fine-I was very lucky.”

It seemed that Andre liked that explanation, because he nodded and sighed, relieved. Poor thing. I understood him worrying about me; after all, didn’t I worry about him?

I prepared something quick for the two of them, and while I held Sasha on my lap until she fell asleep, we ate. The Hattai watched us dine, but although I offered him food, he didn’t want to accept it. Silence fell over the kitchen for a long while, as the boy and I did our thing and the other wolf did his-that is, simply watching us in silence. His attitude didn’t unsettle me; what unsettled me was not knowing what he was thinking as he observed us. What he thought of me. Every few seconds he glanced out the kitchen window, whose curtain was open, toward the dark yard. I think he didn’t move a single millimeter from his position, but when he turned his head back, I saw that he was wearing a communicator in his ear, like the ones used by the President’s bodyguards.

Although I didn’t let it show much, I liked this man better than Agent Aguilera. Hitoshi Ishida was in himself kinder, more open, and with a more peaceful face than his colleague. He didn’t look at me or treat me as if I were a threat or a problem, and he was quite diplomatic when he spoke. Or was it that I was getting used very quickly to being surrounded by non-human creatures? It had to be a residual effect of the sedatives; I couldn’t explain it any other way.

A while later, while I put the dishes to wash, he went into the living room. When I left the kitchen to take the children to sleep, I saw that the Hattai was sitting on my sofa, with his screens, and was watching them with great concentration, perhaps searching for something.

< Chapter 39-1

“… Is everything all right?” I asked him, a little nervous.

+25 Points

“Yes, don’t worry. We have it under control,” he answered, with great confidence. “Please, go rest. If anything happens, we’ll take care of it.”

He straightened up and typed something on one of the laptops, switching his cameras to night vision.

I could see several shapes walking in some of the angles. I recognized normal people, the shape of Nika and that of her father, and a couple of shadows that I figured were the other two Hans had mentioned earlier. The way their eyes shone as they looked toward the cameras made me shiver for a moment. It was the same kind of yellowish reflection that a cat’s eyes have at a distance.

It was like being more aware than ever that none of them was an ordinary person.

I took Andre and Sasha to my bedroom and, after supervising that the boy brushed his teeth and the baby’s diaper was clean, I put both of them to bed beside their father, so they would be together. The baby curled up next to Alexander’s arm and became very still, calm like a little angel; and Andre lay down behind her, to keep her warm. As a small precaution, I checked whether their father had a fever (and he was the same-he didn’t), and I put an extra blanket on them so they wouldn’t be cold.

I thought about staying there with them and not going back downstairs.

Comments

E

Vote

528

LUCK DRAW >

2/2

› Chapter 39-2

Chapter 39-2

+25 Points

the snow, and we lost it to the northwest. But it’s also very strange that it would have risked attacking.”

“… What’s strange about all that? They’re like wild beasts; they’re supposed to attack.”

He smiled, indulging my naïveté. I didn’t find it disrespectful.

“No, because generally cat-men avoid confronting our kind,” he explained calmly. “It’s ten to one more likely that a werewolf will attack a cat-man than the other way around, and in fact, I’ve seen it happen more often. Cats are more elusive; they tend to flee.”

“And then why would a panther attack you?”

He shrugged and stretched a little to set the half-empty bottle down on the nightstand. He made a grimace in which I could see his fangs.

“No idea,” he replied, a bit uncomfortable. “The only thing that occurs to me is that it might have had a family and seen me as a threat, but cats are mostly itinerant: they never stay in one place very long if they can avoid it. Not even those with small children; if they sense a threat, they simply take their things and leave.”

“You seem to know them very well.”

“Studying some and others has made it easier to understand certain things about everyone.”

I sighed and paused while I thought about that. In all the jumble of thoughts, the matter of the scarf, the boy on the road, and everything else came back to my mind again. Alexander apparently hadn’t told his companions anything about that detail-or had he? I suppose the others would have asked me something if it were within their knowledge. If it was because of me that that animal had found us all…

Comments

LUCK DRAW >

E