Page 94 of The Chosen One Universe: Volume One

Grandpa William cackled. “My girl’s such a firecracker!”

“He’ll be fine. Humans work for me, ‘Tasha. I’ve told you this.”

Uncle Meshaq walked through the portal and Ollie stopped listening. He’d realized that if he asked Mr. Walt really nicely, he might make him extra nachos. If he ate enough, he’d be too full for his dinner. And then he didn’t have to eat asparagus.

Ben wasn’t at all surprised when Ollie woke him up on Christmas morning by climbing onto his bed. “Is it time?”

It wasn’t. Ben didn’t even have to open his eyes to know. “What are the numbers on the clock?”

Ollie grumbled but wiggled around so he could see them. Papa said he needed to practice and if it meant Ben could keep his eyes closed for another second, he’d take it.

“Five three seven,” Ollie whispered.

“Not time yet. Close, though.”

“Did Santa come?”

Ben didn’t answer but only because he heard movement from the room next door. Ollie turned to look that way as well and moments later their bedroom door opened. Henry and Jack stumbled in, both of them wearing the Christmas pajamas Nana had bought them all. Everybody matched. Even Papa and Daddy.

“Is everything okay?” Henry looked nervous. He’d put the ward on the fireplace anyway, even though Ben had promised him it would be okay. Daddy and Papa explained everything to him when Uncle Meshaq had taken Grandpa and his brothers and sisters to his bar.

“Everything’s fine. Let’s wait for Natasha and Emily. They’ll be here soon.”

Once one of them woke up, they all did. It had been that way for as long as Ben could remember. Even though Papa was being weird about this whole Santa business, Ben realized he had a way to finally explain it to his siblings that would actually make sense. He’d been trying to reassure them since he’d figured it out, but Papa really hadn’t wanted them in on the secret. He said Christmas was magical for little kids and he wanted them to experience it. Papa sometimes forgot that magical meant something different to them.

It wasn’t because Papa didn’t try, but he was human, after all. And Ben talked to Dad about it. Papa wanted them to have the best life he could give them, and that was enough for Ben. He wanted his brothers and sisters to be able to forget all the bad stuff they’d been through, too.

It only took another couple minutes before his sisters came into the room and curled up with the rest of them on Ben’s bed. He glanced at the clock and realized he only had a couple minutes left before they could go downstairs.

“You guys remember the stories I told you about Lion?” Ben said softly.

Natasha raised her head. She was next oldest and had the most memories of their time at the bad place. She looked a little worried about where Ben was going with his question, but he smiled at her and leaned his head down so it rested against Ollie.

“When things were bad, we’d make up stories about Lion and how he’d come and save us. Now, none of those stories were real but when we told them, we got really happy and excited. Remember?”

Emily nodded. “Lion was our hero.”

“Exactly. And Lion was real, but those stories weren’t. They still made us feel better, though.”

“We hoped Lion would come and save us,” Jack said. “But he didn’t.”

“No, he didn’t. But see, I talked to Dad and Papa about this Santa guy. He’s kinda like Lion. He’s real, but he doesn’t really come to everyone’s house in one night. It’s made up stories like Lion to make us feel better. Santa’s a good guy, just like Lion was.”

“Santa is like Lion,” Ollie said. “That means he’s nice.”

“Yeah,” Ben said. “He’s a good guy. And they tell stories about him this time of year to remember all the good things he did, just like I told you stories about Lion. It’s… I don’t know. A thing we do. We remember the people who are amazing and tell stories about them.”

“That makes sense. So Papa wants us to feel about Santa the way we feel about Lion,” Natasha said.

“Yep.”

“But he’s not Lion,” Jack said with a scowl. “Lion was special.”

“I know. And Santa is special to Papa and a lot of other people. So we just go along with it and let Papa have fun pretending its Santa bringing us presents. Because it’s like when we pretended Lion was coming.”

“Ohhhh.”

It took a second for them all to let it sink in, but Ben could feel a lot of the tension leave them. Even though all the grownups in their lives had said Santa wasn’t going to do anything bad, it was still hard to let go of their worry. Once Ben had figured it out and talked to Papa, he knew he’d have to find out a way to explain it.

Papa was really good to them. Ben couldn’t figure out why, exactly. He’d even talked to Pop-Pop about it. It didn’t make sense for them to all feel so safe with a human. But they did. Even Ben, and he was a lot bigger than Papa. But he knew Papa would keep him safe, just as much as their alpha would.

Being part of the Jerrick pack was everything Ben had ever dreamed of. This was their version of those picture cards Dad kept getting in the mail from all the shifter families he’d helped over the years. Everything was warm and happy and just… right.

“Can we go get Daddy and Papa now?” Ollie asked.

Ben glanced over at the clock. It wasn’t time, but Ben knew they’d love it. They’d all end up snuggled up together on Dad and Papa’s big bed and everything would be okay. More than okay. Good. Safe. Warm. Happy. And that was the best Christmas present of all.

“Let’s go get ‘em.”

The End.