Santa Trouble #2
Jack hugged him tight. Papa hugs were special and always made him feel better.
Nana made them turkey pinwheels for lunch, which was one of Jack’s favorites. He had a hard time enjoying them, though, ‘cause Nana kept humming the song under her breath in the kitchen. Jack was getting more scared by the second.
You better not cry.
What did this Santa guy do that would make them cry? This was serious business.
He sees you when you’re sleeping.
Jack gulped. His siblings shared a look.
They’d have to start a watch like they used to.
One of them would stay awake all the time to make sure they weren’t taken by surprise.
Jack hated keeping watch. They hadn’t had to do it at all since they came to live with Daddy and Papa.
The Jerrick pack had grownups that kept watch, and they had a super strong ward that Aunt Zaire put up.
Nana got distracted by something in the kitchen and stopped singing, but not before she added the line about being good. Being good at what? Nana was definitely trying to give them clues about this.
She kept smiling at them and nodding her head like they were supposed to be getting her clues, too. The only thing Jack could figure out was that they had to keep this Santa guy away. And one of them had to stay awake the whole time or something.
Ben would probably have better ideas. And Natasha was super good at making plans.
“No one’s eating,” Nana said suddenly from beside them. Everyone looked around guiltily. They’d all been thinking about the clues she was giving them, trying to make sure they remembered all the words so they could work on their plan.
“Sorry, Nana,” Ben said with a small smile.
“We’re focused, Nana!” Ollie beamed up at her and she grinned back.
“That’s my good boy. Focus on your lunch for a while, okay? I made you some celery sticks with peanut butter.”
“I like peanut butter,” Ollie said. He grabbed one from the tray in the middle of the table and chomped down on it.
Ollie was excellent at distraction. Papa said so all the time.
They’d probably need to add that into their plan.
Jack looked at Natasha, who had that look in her eyes that said she was thinking about something important.
She’d probably figured it out too. Ollie would definitely be part of their plan.
After lunch, they went back to the schoolroom. Papa let them have some free time to work on their arts and crafts, but really they used it to start planning. Ben got out a clean notebook from the box Grammy had given to them.
“Okay, what do we know?”
“December twenty-fifth,” Ollie said loudly. “I remembered!”
“What?”
“I asked Nana when Santa came down the chimney. She said December twenty-fifth.”
“Good job, Ollie,” Natasha said. She went to the calendar and began counting days while Ben made a note. They added all the other clues they’d picked up from the song, too, writing down every word they remembered.
“Something suspicious is definitely going on,” Ben said after a long moment.
“We’ll figure it out, though. Dad doesn’t seem upset about it, so he must think we can handle it.
And I heard him talking to Uncle Sol yesterday, and they aren’t changing the guard schedule. They would if we were in danger.”
Natasha sat down beside him and did the thinking look again. “No, this isn’t danger. No way Daddy would allow it. He promised. But what if it’s a challenge like Nana said?”
“Challenge?” Ben said.
“I heard Papa say once that he’d won the lottery with Daddy and us.
I didn’t know what that meant so I asked Nana.
She said it was this game humans play where they buy a ticket and only one person wins.
So it’s really hard to win, but someone does.
That person is super lucky. That means Papa got really lucky when he got to be part of our pack, right? ”
“We’re the best,” Emily said. “Papa says so.”
“Exactly. But what if we have to prove it? I mean, if winning the lottery is really hard, don’t you think that getting to be part of our pack should be hard?”
Ben scowled. “That’s not right.”
She shrugged. “Well, I think we have to prove we’re good enough to be the alpha’s kids. Because Nana’s song was all about being naughty or nice. Nana’s always saying we have to be good.”
Jack nodded. “Nana does always say that.”
“And keeping us safe is top priority. Daddy says so all the time. But we have to make good choices too. Papa’s always saying that. Good choices means being where we’re supposed to be and doing what we’re supposed to do. Right?”
Jack nodded again. Tasha was really good at this stuff.
“We have to show them we can be really good and stay safe,” Emily said softly.
“It does sound like an important challenge to be an alpha’s kids, especially an alpha as important as our daddy.
I mean, shifters come from all over so he can take care of them when they’re sick.
Uncle Meshaq says our pack is really important. ”
Ben tapped his pencil against the notebook. “We need more information. I’m not sure this is right, but it does make sense. Daddy wouldn’t challenge us, though. I just know it.”
“Maybe he doesn’t have a choice. Like, there are rules we have to follow.
Remember how it’s important that we don’t tell humans about being a shifter?
Daddy doesn’t make that rule. The goddess does.
Maybe the goddess has to challenge us, and this Santa guy is one of her— what’s the word for what Uncle Meshaq is? ” Natasha asked.
“Champion,” Henry replied. “Uncle Meshaq is the champion of the fire goddess.”
Jack remembered hearing that too. “So Santa is one of the champions, maybe? But he has to make sure kids are good enough to be an alpha’s kids?”
Ben scrunched up his face like he did when he was working on a hard math problem. “Well, it is really important that we follow the rules. Grammy told Nana that we were special cases because we weren’t raised with our pack.”
“Yeah,” Ollie said. “Stinky Foote didn’t teach us the rules, so Daddy had to and sometimes we mess up but that’s okay he loves us all the same but we have to try super extra hard to be good and remember.”
Jack’s eyes got bigger. Ollie was right. He looked at Ben and Natasha, who had the same look on their faces.
“It’s definitely a challenge,” Natasha said. “But if anyone can beat it, we can. Daddy and Papa will make sure we know everything we need to. Papa says it’s important to listen and learn.”
“And Grammy and Pop-Pop will help too. No way they’re letting this Santa guy beat us. We just have to pay attention and they’ll help us.”
Jack grinned. “Even Grandpa William will help. He must have passed a challenge too since he’s human and is allowed to know about us too. Just like Papa. Do you think Papa got challenged too?”
“Probably,” Natasha said. “It’s probably a different challenge for grownups, though.”
It all made perfect sense. Jack sat down at their table and started back to work on the sarcophagus for his mummy.
It was going in his pyramid, and he wanted Papa to help him decorate it.
Maybe he’d be able to ask Papa some questions about his challenge when they worked on it. He wasn’t too worried, though.
With all of them working together, Santa was in big trouble. Jack grinned and grabbed the glue. Big, big, trouble.
The next set of clues came from Grammy. Henry had a very tiny accident while he was working on his magic with Zaire and might have accidentally caused a tree branch to fall. The branch kinda sorta hit him in the head, and he had a very small scratch.
It wasn’t a big deal.
Really.
Anyway, Zaire had taken him straight to the clinic and left Henry in Grammy’s capable hands.
Then she took off. Probably because she didn’t want to tell Daddy that he’d gotten hurt on her watch.
Or, and Henry probably should have thought of it first, she didn’t want Uncle Teague to tell Uncle Meshaq.
Teague was Henry’s hellhound guard that day. Henry always had to have a hellhound guard, especially when he practiced his magic. Daddy said it was better to be safe than sorry, and that the hellhounds could do the portal thing, which was important if they needed to get Henry away.
He didn’t want to go anywhere, though, but Papa explained that their job was to keep him safe. It was all pretty confusing. Especially since Teague didn’t seem to be upset that Henry’s head might be bleeding a little bit, but he was laughing pretty hard about how upset Zaire was.
Henry really didn’t understand grownups sometimes.
Grammy said head wounds bled like a bitch, even though he wasn’t allowed to say that word. She didn’t think his very tiny scratch was that big of a deal either. She had Henry holding a piece of gauze to his head while she got together some supplies to clean it out.
“It doesn’t even hurt, Grammy.”
“I know, kiddo. But it could still have dirt or something in it from the tree, so let’s clean it out. Besides, you have blood on your face and what do you think your Papa will do if he sees that?”
“Freak out?”
“Probably so.”
They shared a smile. Papa did not like it when one of them got hurt. Ollie fell and scraped his knee a few weeks back and Papa had carried him all the way to the clinic. Daddy had assured Papa that Ollie was fine, but Papa was a worrier.
Nana explained it while they waited for Daddy to put a Band-Aid on Ollie’s knee. Henry wasn’t really sure what being a first-time parent had to do with anything, but Nana seemed to think it was important for them to know. Anyway, Papa wouldn’t be happy at all to see blood on his face.
Grammy brushed his hair aside and wiped at the wound. “Okay?”
“Yep,” Henry said.
Grammy smiled and began to sing under her breath. “Silent night. Holy night.”
It took him a second to realize she was giving him a hint, but she gave him another look when he sucked in a breath after he figured it out. She smiled at him before turning her attention back to his head.