Santa Trouble
Jack didn’t mean to listen to the grownup conversation going on in the office. He was supposed to find Papa since they were mostly done with their schoolwork for the day, and they really wanted to shift and play in the backyard.
Normally, they sent Ollie since everyone knew Papa didn’t like to tell Ollie no, but Ollie wasn’t done practicing his letters so Jack was supposed to ask instead.
Everyone also knew Papa didn’t like to tell any of them no— as long as they did their schoolwork— so Jack figured it didn’t matter who asked.
Besides, he was supposed to start speaking up and saying what he wanted instead of getting his brothers and sisters to ask for him. Daddy said so.
The only problem was that all the grownups were in Daddy’s office which Papa used mostly to keep track of all their lessons and books. They had a schoolroom upstairs where they all sat around a big table, but Papa liked to work with them one-on-one too.
Jack liked his special time with Papa. They learned about Ancient Egypt. It was his favorite. They were building a pyramid out of popsicle sticks which Daddy said was the coolest thing he’d ever seen.
“The kids don’t know anything about this,” Nana said from behind the closed office door. “It’s going to be a challenge explaining all the details.”
Jack froze, wondering what he was supposed to do. Papa said not to listen, but he couldn’t help it if he could hear. Could he?
“How are we supposed to explain Santa Claus to them?” Pop-Pop asked. Pop-Pop sounded very concerned.
“Do we have to explain it?” Daddy asked.
Jack heard multiple gasps in the room. It sounded serious. Who was this Santa Claus person? And why were they all so worried about him?
“Like I said,” Nana said— and she sounded super grumpy which made Jack even more worried— “it’s going to be a challenge.”
“Look,” Grandpa William said. “They’re smart kids. Just… tell ‘em. They’ll figure it out.”
Jack couldn’t help the little flutter of fear in his belly. Something strange was definitely going on. He didn’t like the sound of this. What exactly did they need to figure out about this Santa guy? Was he after them?
“We’ll ease them into it,” Grammy said. “They’ll be fine. We’ve got a few weeks. They’ll learn.”
“Weeks?” Nana said. “Goddess, I need to get busy. How does time always go so fast this time of year? We need to get the house prepared especially with the kids being here this year. They’re going to have a lot of work to do.”
What kind of work? Jack wondered. Did it have to do with the Santa challenge?
And then, the weirdest thing of all happened.
Daddy started singing. Jack had never, ever heard his alpha sing before. Worse yet, the words were terrifying.
“You better watch out. You better not cry.”
Daddy continued singing as Jack backed away.
He turned and ran upstairs, only stopping when he’d plastered himself against Ben’s side.
His big brother would know what to do. Ben was the smartest person Jack knew except for Daddy, and Papa, and all his grandparents.
But this sounded like a job for them. And they only had a few weeks to get ready.
“Jack?” Ben raised his head from his schoolbook and frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“I… think they were warning us. Daddy can hear us when we come close, right?”
“Yes,” Ben said. “He’s a good listener.”
“So he heard me go down the stairs? So he knew I was there and it was a clue?”
“What?”
Jack repeated what he’d heard, including the ominous words to the song. “Ben, who is Santa Claus? Is he going to hurt us?”
“No way,” Ben said. “Alpha wouldn’t let that happen. He promised and you know what he always says.” Ben sometimes still called Daddy alpha instead of Daddy. He told them it was because he’d always wanted an alpha more than a Daddy. Jack always wanted both. “Alpha’s don’t break their promises.”
Jack let out a little sigh. Ben was right.
Whoever this Santa guy was, he wasn’t going to hurt them.
‘Cause if Daddy didn’t get him, Uncle Meshaq would.
Their daddy might be the alpha of their pack, but their uncle was the alpha of all the hellhounds and no one was allowed to mess with them or he’d get real mad and get his flamey eyes.
And Aunt Calli had a sword. She was super scary too.
Natasha put aside the book she was reading and came closer. “But it does sound suspicious. They were all in the office with the door closed?”
“Yes,” Jack said. “Even Grandpa William.”
Grandpa William’s bad back meant he didn’t go up and down the stairs a lot. Only for meal times, or if something important was going on.
Jack gulped. This must be really important.
Henry closed the book of plants Zaire had asked him to study and came around the table to them. “This sounds serious.”
“What should we do?” Emily asked.
“I don’t know,” Ben said. “We need to talk to Alpha. That’s what he’d want. We’re supposed to talk to him and Papa when we’re worried about things.”
“But…” Jack hesitated, and all of his siblings looked at him. “Weren’t they trying to tell us it was secret? If Daddy knew I was there?”
“Maybe he didn’t?” Henry suggested. Since Henry was human, he really didn’t understand their senses all that well. He had other powers, though, and they didn’t understand them either. Papa said they were all unique and special.
Ollie snorted. “Daddy hears everything. He always knows when I want to come into his room in the mornings to snuggle. He wakes Papa up and tells him to put his pajamas on. Why doesn’t Papa sleep in his pajamas like we do?”
“He gets hot,” Emily said. “I asked him. He said Daddy is super hot.”
“Alphas do tend to run warm,” Ben said softly. “Pop-pop explained that to me when the lion alpha came in for his hurt arm. Remember?”
Jack nodded as did the others. It had been a super exciting day for them. They’d all heard about lions, and Ben had kinda hoped his lion friend had been rescued from the bad place but… well, Jack didn’t like to think about that.
“So what?” Natasha asked. “We just…”
“Investigate,” Henry said. “This is a mystery. Remember Papa talked about it in science class last week? We have to find clues and put them together like a puzzle. I bet Daddy and Papa were giving us clues to the Santa mystery. We’re probably supposed to do something, but we don’t know about it because we were in that place. ”
Jack shivered. None of them liked thinking about that place.
They didn’t really talk about it much anymore, outside of their counseling which Papa said they had to go to even if they didn’t really want to.
Jack usually just talked about how much he loved his new pack and how cool Ancient Egypt was because of mummies and pyramids.
“So we listen and take notes,” Natasha said.
“But I can’t write my letters!” Ollie didn’t seem happy at all.
Not that any of them were super great at writing yet, but Papa had them learning.
Another thing that had happened at the bad place.
They didn’t get to learn things that normal kids did.
Jack scowled. He wasn’t supposed to say they weren’t normal kids.
Papa said they were perfectly normal. He got really cranky when anyone said anything like that about them.
“You don’t have to write them,” Natasha explained. “You just have to remember them and tell us so we can all make a plan. This is important, Ollie.”
“I can remember!”
Jack could, too. He shared a look with Emily, who was only a year older than him. Ollie was only a year younger, but Jack was the big brother. He had an important job to look out for Ollie.
Emily nodded and turned to Henry. “We can do this.”
“Okay, what’s first?”
Ben tapped his fingers on the table. “We see if we can find out what else is going on. Everyone listen as much as you can and we’ll report back when we hear something.”
“We should have a code word,” Henry said. “So we know when one of us has something to report and we can come up here.”
“Octopus,” Emily said.
They’d done a really cool unit study on the ocean a couple weeks back, and Emily had decided that the octopus was her favorite animal.
Jack kinda didn’t get it because the tentacle things were creepy, but she liked them a lot.
He preferred crocodiles. They had those in Ancient Egypt, too.
Jack wondered if pharaohs kept crocodiles as pets. He’d have to ask Papa.
“Nice word, Emily,” Ben said with a smile. “That makes a perfect code word. Okay, if you need to talk to us about this, say octopus and we’ll come upstairs and meet here. Everyone agreed?”
Jack nodded as did the rest of them. He wasn’t quite as worried as he’d been moments before. His brothers and sisters were his pack, and they’d always looked out for each other no matter what.
“Hello? Anyone up there ready for lunch?”
Jack took a deep breath as Papa’s voice drifted up the stairs.
“Me!” Ollie darted for the door, and Jack listened to his footsteps tromping down the stairs while Papa fussed at him to slow down.
“Don’t worry,” Ben said quietly. He put his hand on Jack’s shoulder as Natasha took Henry’s hand. Emily leaned against him. “We’ll figure this out.”
“Santa Claus won’t know what hit him,” Henry said.
A slight breeze started in the room, and Jack couldn’t help but smile. Ever since Henry had begun learning to use his magic more, he’d been really working on ways to get better at it. Jack had even heard Zaire say that Henry was the strongest mage she’d ever seen.
“You guys coming?” Papa asked.
“On our way!” Natasha nodded and turned for the door. They all followed behind her, their missions in their heads. Jack hung close to Ben and his big brother kept a hand on his shoulder.
Papa noticed, because he always noticed little things like that.
“Okay, Jack?”
Jack shrugged. He wasn’t supposed to lie, but he didn’t want to talk about it either. Papa gave him a hug. “I’m here if you want to talk. Or if you just need a hug.”