The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 87

I screamed again beneath the hand that held me, and I tried to struggle. I caught the smell of leather in my nose. It was a worn glove, but the fingers it covered were anything but gentle.

Then, to my surprise, I heard Nika’s voice in my ear:

“If

you

don’t calm down, I won’t let you go,” she told me in a low but fierce whisper.

The relief that flooded me was immediate. My heart pounded painfully in my ears and temples, and her furious murmur caused another buzzing in my head. I was still sensitive from the explosion; the wound on my forehead began to hurt, hidden beneath my hair. I nodded silently and, at last, the woman released me. I turned to face her. Nika looked at me with a hardness that intimidated me. Impatience and annoyance were written all over her

face. And the dried marks of Richie’s blood on her cheeks…

“What are you doing here?” she asked, uncomfortable.

“What does it look like? I’m babysitting. The sheriff’s wife told us where you were when we realized you were missing. McCord himself insisted that we wouldn’t leave you alone, and it turns out I’m the only one who’s almost uninjured, for better or worse.”

I should have imagined Kaylee wouldn’t let me go into the woods alone-not without someone who could watch over me. If I had to be honest with myself, what the hell had I been thinking? What did I expect, throwing myself alone into an encounter with those beasts? The funniest thing was that I couldn’t answer any of those questions coherently. Alone, I couldn’t do anything-but the desire to do something was stronger than anything else. Surely my rushed decision had been the product of shock, fear, and how much that child

meant to me.

“…I thought you would go with your brother and the others,” I commented in a murmur, without ill intent.

“And leave Lai, or Rex, behind?” she shot back, still whispering. “This is my responsibility. And so are you. Lai ordered us to protect you. Let the sheriff take my brother and the others- they’re all injured, and I have work to do.”

“And you would do anything for Alexander, wouldn’t you?” I thought, suddenly jealous.

I blushed out of pure embarrassment and prayed Nika wouldn’t notice my pathetic burst of childish envy. It bothered me and shamed me to think that someone as impressive as her intimidated me and stirred jealousy in me. Ridiculous jealousy, because I knew I would never measure up to someone like Nika, who was so skilled, strong, and cunning in the art of war. Stupid jealousy, because I couldn’t be foolish enough to feel that way over a man (not entirely

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human, to make matters worse) who had just been widowed and who attracted me more than he should simply because we had a couple of things in common.

It was ridiculous. I had never felt jealous with Paul. Maybe because, although he was relatively attractive and always got along well with women, there had been a bond between us that reassured me on a very intimate level, and I never felt the need to “defend” what was mine.” When I thought of Alexander, however, I couldn’t stop the image of the proud Nika and her past “non-relationship” with him from coming to mind, and it made me feel in very particular ways. Things I had never felt before.

It was stupid, I’m quite sure. Stupid and trivial. Jealousy, really? Alexander was nothing of mine. Nothing. He was nothing, there was nothing. Only empathy.

I wondered what rank Nika held, because of course I realized that she, like her brother, came from the militia and carried herself with very professional manners at all times. Either she was military, or a professional hitwoman (as grotesque as that sounded), because she handled firearms as if they were extensions of her own body. Someone with her character wasn’t just a soldier. Was she a sergeant, a lieutenant? A captain?

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LUCK DRAW >

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Chapter 87-2

Obviously, she would do whatever it took to help Alexander. It showed.

“I understand,” I conceded, clearing my throat.

to offer.

She shot me a killing look and raised the rifle into position.

“Don’t let his death be in vain, will you?” she spat, and with her free hand she roughly crushed my injured shoulder so I would drop to the ground. “Get down-we’ve been in plain sight too long.”

She threw herself beside the base of the tree and braced the barrel of the weapon against the snow-covered roots, in total silence. I have to admit that all of it reminded me very much of a scene from one of my father’s favorite war films, Enemy at the Gates: when the boy who would become a magnificent sniper hunted wolves in the Russian steppe. A shiver ran through my body, and I remembered our wolves-the ones who had split up.

“It’s a trap,” I warned Nika in a low whisper. “The cats left Andre there, alone on purpose! They’re planning something! Alexander and Rex split up-I don’t know what they’re thinking, but-”

“Do you want to shut up? I can’t hear.”

I closed my mouth, but since I couldn’t just do nothing, I slid my good hand under my to find the handle of the massive knife, hoping I wouldn’t have to use it soon. I tried to

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position myself to figure out what Nika was searching for, her eye pressed to the scope. She was aiming at the trees, and although her finger rested on the trigger, it didn’t seem nervous.

How did someone handle tension like that?

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