The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 78

Chapter 78-1

Rex had arrived shortly before five in the morning.

I know I heard the sound of his truck entering the driveway of the house, but I didn’t risk looking out the window. By the time I went downstairs it was a little after six; dawn was just breaking. The children were sleeping, but I didn’t want to leave them alone in my room, so I wrapped Sasha in her colorful blanket and woke Andre. It was a cruel move, but the unprotected window, no matter how many sensors it had, terrified me.

The three of us went down to the kitchen, only to find that there was another “summit meeting,” this time with Agent Aguilera.

Saturday morning was already looking pretty complicated: everyone was once again gathered around Ishida’s iPad screen. But what definitely caught my attention was Rex’s

voice:

“Son of a bitch.”

It sounded like a growl and, at the same time, a couple of words with too much Latin accent. That was joined by a guttural sound from Richie, and Nika’s sigh of frustration. I stayed in the doorway, watching them. Andre stopped beside me and rubbed his eyes with his fist, yawning and showing his well-developed fangs. The Hattai moved his fingers over the screen and apparently replayed what they were watching, so absorbed.

No one, except Alexander, looked back at us.

And what I saw on his face I didn’t like at all. His brow was deeply furrowed and the bridge of his nose tightly wrinkled, almost on the verge of baring his teeth-but when he saw us standing there, his expression changed completely. He stepped away from the group and, by the way he extended his hands, I understood that he wanted his daughter. I didn’t hesitate to give her to him.

I finished tying my ponytail, worried, and when I went to the refrigerator for milk…

I found it full again.

Ah. Right. So that’s what Nika meant when she said they had already taken care of the supplies with Rex during the night. Not only that-I noticed that in a bag near the laundry room door there were several packages of diapers, half hidden. Inside the fridge there was plenty of meat, eggs, milk, and above all, lots of packs of sausages. It seemed to me we could survive a few days with all that, but…

Not if Hans was so determined to enforce his plan of leaving immediately.

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“I just don’t believe it,” Rex said again, irritated.

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“Do you think this is funny to me? It was like he walked right past my fucking nose!” Ishida replied angrily. “I could go out right now and look for that bastard and slit his throat.”

Alexander was behind me, leaning against the counter. In one arm he held his daughter, and with his free hand he tried to smooth Andre’s messy, almost white hair. I took out an open carton of milk and turned toward him to whisper:

“What’s going on?”

Yes. Obviously. Six pairs of eyes fixed on me, besides Alexander’s.

But it was the leader who answered:

“Toshi figured out how the panther got into your basement,” he told me. At that moment Ishida stood up from his chair and came over with the device to show me. He handed it to me and pressed the large “play” sign on the screen. It was a somewhat blurry film in turquoise tones; I realized it was night-mode footage. “He slid down the side of the house. We assume he reached the roof through the pine trees in the backyard and from there rappelled down, climbing. He knew the skylight existed even before it started snowing and it got hidden. That means one of his comrades must have told him, if he didn’t see it himself, and that it’s very likely the house had been under surveillance from the very moment I set foot in it,” Alexander continued meanwhile.

That last sentence made my hair stand on end, and I leaned against the counter because I was afraid I’d collapse from losing my balance.

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Chapter 78-2

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Chapter 78-2

They watched us. All the time. Like rabbits inside their burrow, waiting patiently for us to come out so they could attack.

I looked at the rest of the group, and on everyone’s faces you could clearly see how furious they were at that absurd provocation.

It had been a massive mockery. The cats had everything studied, and they laughed in their faces.

The word “psychopath” crossed my mind again.

The video ended, and I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

But even though I hadn’t seen anything, it was already too late-I was paralyzed with fear again. Alexander stepped a little closer to me, perhaps expecting me to say something or seek him out for refuge. I think he already knew what to expect from me after something like this. But all I felt capable of saying was a single sentence:

The bastard had chosen the perfect moment to enter my house.

“He didn’t trigger the motion sensors because he never crossed the perimeter on foot,” Alexander said.

“Isn’t there another angle, from another camera?” I asked, breathless.

“Yes, but the shed roof blocks the skylight’s view,” Ishida explained nervously and embarrassed. I felt sorry seeing him so humiliated. “If I’d known that tiny window was there, I would’ve placed a camera between the other two. The panther found the blind spot and got in wherever it suited him best. Though, given the nature of his kamikaze attacks, I think that creature wouldn’t have cared whether he came in there or through the front door.”

“It’s a game to him,” Hans commented severely. “To all of them.”

Richie was leaning against the other counter, the expression on his face one of the darkest of all. Nika, beside him, had lightly leaned against one of his solid shoulders, as if silently accompanying him, and Christian was near them, sitting on the counter with one boot on the stone, his leg bent high enough to rest his chin on his knee.

Nika’s gesture unsettled me. I felt her being “condescending” toward Richie.

“Well,” Agent Aguilera said after a short silence. “I think there’s nothing left to say. You and I

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need to discuss something, Lai.”

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