Wolf Bait (Perry and Jonas)

COMMENT

Chapter 212

Christmas is my favorite time of the year because I just love giving gifts and decorating. Annie is sitting in my study wearing y favorite Hello Kitty t–shirt and a pair of sweatpants. The decorations I got for this room are still sitting next to my desk waiting for me to put up. I haven’t been in here since we had to put Mack down the day before Thanksgiving. The door opens behind me and Natalia looks up at me innocently.

“Hey, Icrouch down to greet her. She runs into my arms and wraps them around my neck before looking over at Annie who is now crying.

“Why don’t we set up my Christmas tree and decorate for the season?” I ask them.

They both nod. I set Natalie down and she runs over to the couch next to Annie. She reaches up to wipe her face and pats her head. She is the cutest and the sweetest little girl ever. But that’s the thing about kids, isn’t it? They’re super cute when they’re small only to grow up and shatter not only your expectations of them but potentially become your worst nightmares. I wonder what Rain would have grown up to be.

A tyrant probably, Between Darren and me, the kid would have been as screwed as we were. I slide the boxes out and wave Natalie over.

You have to open all of these, 1 hand her a Labubu mystery boxes. “I need you to match the characters on the box and once we have all of them the rest will go on the Christmas tree. Yeah? She nods enthusiastically and then raises her hand. “What?”

-What is that?– she points at the brown box with the tree.

“It’s a Christmas tree. A fake one. The pokie thingies light up,”

-What is that?–

Right. She has no idea what the fuck anything is because she’s been in the compound her entire life.

“Christmas is the second bestest holiday ever. It’s a day when everyone you love spends time together doing fun stuff. But originally, during the winter solstice, witches would bring in evergreen trees from outside and decorate them as a symbol of nature and fertility. They would decorate them with the elements of their magic.

“So there are five kinds of witch magical elements and one of them was nature. It’s said that one nature witch wished for a son with all her love and she set up a tree as an offering to the moon goddess. She put the best of everything she could get her hands on and prayed with all her heart for a son.

“It’s said that the goddess was so moved by her offering and love that she had no other choice than to accept the offering. So when the little witch came down the next morning on December twenty–fifth under the tree was the most perfect baby boy to have ever been.

“That boy then grew up to be big and strong. Loved not only by his mommy but by the entire village and on his sixteenth birthday that love became so strong that the boy turned into a big beautiful silverback wolf. The very first alpha of his kind

“That boy went on to become the very first Alpha King and he freed the wolves from the evil Wraith King who tried to keep the wolves enslaved. We celebrate Christmas as a reminder of that. His name was Christian so, you know. Christmas,”

-You made that up- she signs.

“The name part. The rest is true,” I laugh. “I can’t pronounce his name. It’s too long.”

“I didn’t know that was why we celebrated Christmas,” Andromeda says and comes over with the box cutter 1 left on the table. “Ljust like that we get presents,

-We do!– Natalie signs.

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nods. “Good, so let’s hurry and open these up so you can

Tree. Yeah?”

down and looks the

my phone wanting to have a moment to ourselves, I know they’re both a

barges into the room and lets out a heavy sigh of relief. “You scared me.

points at the base Annie and Lare setting up Bunny shivers at the

to set up with us?” ask

“I got

bit a few

Oz told me

watch her,” I offer. Til

Perry.

-Of course

strand of hair behind her ear and it looks like she thinks twice about

going to keep her?” I

and Bunny aren’t legally allowed to have children until they’ve joined. They can’t adopt her either. It’s punishment for breaking the law of rebirth,

at Natalie to watch her open the boxes and match the little characters to the pictures on the box. I want the whole collection for Violetta. I even had a few other gifts for her. She always spent Christmas by herself ever since she was disowned by her family.

a fan of ignoring them or trying to find a loophole. James comes

stay?”

sure Natalie doesn’t

Beasty,” he says and sits next to her.

-Decorations- she signs.

Her little hands sign quickly for him and he laughs. “You made the Christian thing up he glares at me. “But

This is how the King finds us whear fie’s ready to head out for King shit. Natalie runs up to him and bows before holding up a

then goes back to him to hand him an outfit. She then points at me. “You’re right. It does look like her,” he laughs. “The clothes are perfect. Is this for me?” he crouches down for her. She nods and

when she jumps up and down excitedly

14:55 Sat, Jan

Chapter 212

“What are these