The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 86

Chapter 86

I took a second to breathe deeply, and smooth my thick hair filled with tiny shards of glass, traces of pulverized wood and gravel…

Honestly? I didn’t know if my heart was beating so fast because of desperation or if it was excitement. But even today I am still grateful.

Slowly, I rested the door without closing it and through the windows stripped of glass, I saw that Nika and Richie were getting into the sheriff’s truck, she helped him get meters inside; he had not returned to his human form and that worried me. Was he badly injured? Luke was talking something with his wife while the two of them swept snow with their feet to cover the blood tracks, Sasha remained calm in the woman’s arms. Toshi and Christian had gotten into the cargo compartment a few seconds ago and the dull noise of the rear doors closing was

heard.

Richie spoke then, his voice was as hoarse as a roar from the underworld:

“Do you hear that? The firefighters!”

Nika pushed him again, and said:

“We have to get out of here, now! Right now you’re too weak to change fur…”

“I’m sorry, Nika.”

“STOP APOLOGIZING!” she barked furiously, and punched him on the shoulder, though perhaps without intention, because Richie didn’t even complain. “You’re an idiot, wasn’t it enough to protect me from the explosion, that you also had to put yourself in the path of that madman? Look how you ended up! And don’t say you’re sorry again! You fucking idiot, you saved my life again! I’m going to kick your ass from here to China when you’re healthy! And dad, he didn’t… God, what…? What is this, Richie? I can’t believe it, I…”

I bit my lower lip so as not to start sobbing again. Nika got rid of the proud soldier attitude and finally broke down; Richie hugged her and helped her climb with him into the back seat of the truck, cradling her on his lap like a little girl. She clung to him and hid her face in his blood-stained fur as if her life depended on It, to cry freely muffling the sobs in the broad chest of the black wolf. I tried not to think anymore about how much that whole circumstance broke my soul, I needed to concentrate.

So that was the right moment to get out of there, before someone noticed that I was not there. By the time Luke started shouting my name, I found myself running through the forest, in a southwest direction, following the tracks and the trail of clothes that Alexander and Rex left behind.

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Chapter 86

+25 Points

I don’t really know how long I had been walking (or running) through the forest, or how far I had gotten from the burned cabin. It could have been half an hour or two or three, a mile or ten, but I wasn’t hungry and I didn’t get tired, and I truly found that very peculiar. Maybe I was still disoriented from the explosion-I have no idea. I located all the clothes torn to shreds by Alexander’s claws and those of his comrade along the path, but I only picked up the winter jackets and hung them from my backpack; they were the only useful things from the selection. I suppose something like that might be needed at some point, even though the load on my back was already heavy enough to carry for the rest of the way. The column of smoke rising from the remains of my house was getting smaller, less dense, and the fire truck sirens could be heard far away.

A definite sign that we wouldn’t be able to return to the remains of my house for a couple of

hours.

I stopped for a moment at the foot of a huge dried ash tree to blow warm air onto my hands. I was so cold-I had forgotten my gloves. I checked once more that the handle of the gigantic knife (it wasn’t a machete, but it was at least twenty-five centimeters long and the silver blade was very hard) was within reach in case I had to pull it out in a maneuver that would cost me milliseconds. The footprints were still clear, but there were only two pairs of

feet.

Or should I say “paws”?

I figured those prints belonged to Alexander and Rex. Besides, they were a bit larger than the ones I had seen near the cabin. They had definitely changed shape, and now they were truly pissed off; the stomps were marked into the dense snow like bursts of fury. Pissed off, or running.

He was motionless, lying on his back in the snow in the center of the clearing. I recognized the electric-blue color of his winter coat. An uncontrollable urge to run toward him and get him out of there took over me completely, but I couldn’t make a single movement when I noticed again the werewolves’ tracks: they had split up. Because maybe they thought it was a trap? Well, to be honest, that Andre was there, alone, still, and unguarded certainly smelled like a trap.

I hid behind the black trunk, frightened.

At that moment, and without me being able to anticipate it in any way, someone very silent appeared out of nowhere behind me and grabbed me hard by my injured arm. I let out a groan of pain. The rough hand squeezed my flesh with a certain violence. Immediately I tried to struggle and turn around to discover my attacker, but he was stronger than I was. He pushed me face-first against the trunk and then covered my mouth so I couldn’t make

another sound…

The hand that prevented me from screaming was rough like sandpaper, strong and dark.

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