The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 61

Chapter 61-1

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Chapter 61-1

The strange thing is that after exchanging a few phrases, Alexander’s attitude changed.

He became very tense. I had already finished tending to him, and I bent down to get rid of what was no longer useful, but I didn’t leave right away. That gave me a bad feeling. I pretended I was going to put the coffee maker on, and I kept listening to them talk (Alexander’s Japanese was a bit rough compared to his companion’s way of speaking; it carried a lot of his Russian accent, but his fluency was good and he spoke quickly, with emphasis). The tone of the conversation became increasingly heated; the intention in their voices was very clear even though I didn’t understand what they were saying.

In the end, I started to get scared. It was obvious they were talking about something very serious. I imagined Ishida might not be very happy about Alexander speaking so freely with me about things related to his people, and I understood why that would bother him, but…

At a certain moment, Alexander stood up abruptly and his companion did the same. The sound of their chairs moving made me turn around and instinctively press myself against the counter, but they weren’t doing anything except staring at each other’s faces, both expressionless. Sasha, on the table, was still asleep and unaware of everything. They stayed like that for a couple of minutes, while Alexander decided whether or not to use his “alpha” influence over the Hattai (obviously that was what he couldn’t quite make up his mind about, because the look in his eyes was hard but uncertain).

Even Andre peeked out from the living room doorway, with a tense expression and a combative attitude. In the end, Ishida capitulated. He zipped up his sweatshirt and growled under his breath, now in English:

“I’m going to review the security footage. I want to find out how that panther got into the house,” he announced, and headed toward the living room, passing the tense Andre. “I’ll speak with Hans when he gets back, Lai, you can be sure of that. My apologies, Mrs. Grant.”

“Fine,” the other agreed, with the same kind of growl.

Alexander looked at me over his shoulder after Ishida left, and sighed. He gestured for Andre to come closer, and the boy ran to take shelter under his hand, hugging him from the side. Alexander said something to him in Russian and patiently stroked his hair.

“What was that?” I hurried to ask, in a whisper.

“…It’s nothing. Toshi has a foolish idea. Don’t worry about what just happened, just… forgive both of us.”

Thankfully, I thought it wise not to dig further and settled for that. I still wasn’t ready to bury

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Chapter 61-1

myself in (and understand) what had caused their argument.

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I spent a long while on the couch with Andre, looking at the television screen without really seeing it.

The boy didn’t want to eat much, and I understood his reluctance. The sadness showed on his face more than before. Sasha was with us; Alexander still thought it was good for me to have the girl, and he had retrieved the gun to return it to me. This time, he brought the one from the truck and handed it to me; it was a smaller caliber than the one Rex had given him, but we had no doubt it worked just the same.

I didn’t feel very comfortable with the gun, but… I wanted it. I wanted to have it, now that I knew for sure I was capable of using it.

Alexander took care of moving the damaged truck to the back of the house and covering the vehicle tracks so they wouldn’t draw attention. I wondered if something like that was really necessary. I mean… I didn’t have visitors. Ever. No one besides my parents. The few friends Paul and I had lived in another state and only called me occasionally or wrote emails. Almost no one in the valley knew me, and few knew I lived there apart from the authorities, some shopkeeper, and the FedEx guy who always brought my packages.

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X- Chapter 61-2

Chapter 61-2

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I was sleepy and felt tired and sore, but I didn’t want to sleep. My right shoulder felt like it was burning and the throbbing beneath the bandages was driving me crazy, but my eyes were wider open than ever. As if someone had injected three liters of coffee straight into my veins -or the equivalent in Red Bull cans. Oh, post-traumatic stress, I truly hadn’t missed you. It wasn’t that I hadn’t slept much in the last few days; it was that I’d slept very badly. Once. I had spent the previous night in the kitchen with the whole group, listening to the debate about the cats’ hideout. The team left to do their reconnaissance a couple of hours before dawn. Then I don’t clearly remember what happened, and later I decided to bathe Sasha, and then the sun came up and everything else happened…

Sitting beside me with his head resting on my injured arm, Andre also stared at the TV without paying attention; I realized because his eyes didn’t move at all. I started worrying even more about the boy’s health-not just physical, but mental. But that listlessness, that tiredness and the regretful tendency to sit so still… what if he had some internal injury from the blows he’d taken trying to defend me?

I suggested right away to Alexander that Hans examine the child, but then…

animals around.”

“Richie?”

Alexander’s commanding blue eyes went to the black wolf, whose light, cheerful gaze now looked shadowed beneath the brim of his hat. The leader was hoping for something- anything. I know, because I was hoping too. I think I would have been less afraid of something like this happening again if someone had given me a convincing explanation.

“I already went around the house, but if there were tracks, the snow covered them,” the Australian answered with a shrug. “I didn’t forget anything outside; in here it really stinks of that thing, it disorients me. It’s like he deliberately walked through every room on the ground floor before going upstairs. He rubbed himself on every damn place he could find. And it’s not something only I can sense, right? We all can at this point. The panther’s been in that form for a long time-it’s starting to smell strong. If it weren’t snowing so hard, I could follow him without any trouble.”

Hans finished checking the bandages Ishida had put on himself and closed his emergency kit with a troubled gesture. The Hattai buttoned his shirt again, visibly angry.

“What kind of cats are these?” the doctor said, irritated. “First, they work together. Then they’re all experts at evading security. What the hell do they want? They’re not only threatening the children, but also a human woman who has nothing to do with this. I don’t understand them.”

“They’re cats. They’re crazy. Nobody understands cats, Father,” Christian growled.

8. Chapter 61-2

I was thinking more about the possibility that they were professional hitmen, but…

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“They’re people like us,” Alexander cut in. Nika looked at him then, and he looked back at her, as if he had just emphasized something with deep meaning for the group. “Maybe they’re no longer the felines we’ve always talked about, and the stupid ones are us.”

“Be that as it may, we can’t go on like this. We have to leave this place. Every minute that passes, we’re putting everyone’s safety at risk.”

Hans looked at me too when he said that.

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