Page 82 of The Chosen One Universe: Volume One

“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.