"It’s high ti we start planning." Said María José.
I blinked at the ceiling. "Planning?"
She sat up and pulled the sheet around her in a warrior-queen style, like the softness of her bare skin didn’t undo . "Axel, we can’t keep pretending this will go away. Ignacio isn’t just so taphorical trauma we keep dragging around. He’s real. And worse, he’s watching. Probably laughing at us."
I didn’t know which made it harder to hear this; the fact that I knew damn well how right she was or that I had not the slightest clue how to take down a demon.
"Well," I muttered, rubbing my temples, "he’s got a terrible sense of humor."
María ignored my sarcasm and pinned with that expression; the one that said she was two seconds away from listing out an entire PowerPoint presentation in her head.
"So how do we take a demon down?"
Right. Just that.
I groaned and sat up too, grabbing the closest pair of pants and dragging them on like a wounded animal. "You’re really giving a full existential crisis and a war council in the sa hour?"
"Ti is a luxury we don’t have," she snapped and I totally understood her tension.
The way I see it, María José was the biggest victim here. Whatever Ignacio, the demon thought he was doing, he wasn’t doing them in her best interest. He was only hurting her... deeper and deeper all the ti.
"Besides, it’s not like I’m doing this for myself. Ignacio’s not just my demon anymore. He’s ours." She softened up and added.
"Our demon. Cute," I muttered. "Should we get matching T-shirts that say ’Possessed since Madrid’?"
She gave a look. The kind that could lt iron. Damn, I knew it wasn’t the ti to throw jokes around, but I just hated to see her so... scared and restless.
I sighed, tugging my fingers through my hair until it stuck up like a lunatic rooster. "Okay. Fine. Let’s do it. Let’s not just talk about taking him down. Let’s plan and make moves towards it. Where do we start?"
"Patterns," she said, all business now. "He mimics. He plays mind gas. He’s always gone for emotional sabotage over brute force."
"Yeah," I muttered. "He’s basically a supernatural gossip blog."
María shot a smirk. "We need to figure out where he’s hiding. Last ti he took your form. Then possibly mine. Which ans he could be anyone."
"Except ," I said. "Because there’s no way he’d want to live with this level of trauma and taxes."
She ignored that too. "Álvaro?"
I flinched. My stomach twisted like it had taken a punch. "Could be. I an, how else do you explain the creep fest he’s been running lately? Who walks around monologuing about seducing their brother’s wife with that much flair?"
"I don’t know," María said, biting her lip. "But if Ignacio’s in Álvaro, that ans this whole Alpha challenge could be manipulated."
"And if he’s not," I added grimly, "then your actual brother-in-law is just genuinely sli in designer suits."
We stared at each other in silence, letting the reality sink in.
"I hate this," I muttered.
"I know," she replied softly, tucking her knees to her chest. " too."
"Do we tell anyone?"
She hesitated. "Who’d believe us? ’Hey, guys, sorry we’ve been cold and distant for two months—turns out it might’ve been a demon possession. Anyway, coffee?’"
I laughed despite all the heaviness and tiredness. "Okay, fair. So, what then? We wait?"
"No." Her voice sharpened. "We trap him."
Nah, the last ti we attempted that, the outco soured our marriage.
I narrowed my eyes. "María..."
"Don’t look at like that. I’m not a fragile relic. I can bait him. He’s obsessed with , rember?"
"Yeah. That’s the problem." My jaw clenched. "That’s exactly the problem."
She reached over, took my hand. "I’ve trained for months. I know how to fight now. I’ll be careful."
"I don’t care how careful you are," I snapped. "This isn’t like fighting off a rogue wolf. This is a shape-shifting, mind-controlling, manipulative hellspawn who apparently moonlights as your evil twin. He’s not satisfied with taking my form. He had to manipulate the sa woman whom he claid to love!"
Her eyes softened. "Axel."
"No. Don’t ’Axel’ . I just got you back. I’m not sending you into the arms of a demon, bait or not."
She smiled, leaned forward, and kissed gently on the forehead like I was the one needing comfort now. Which... yeah. Fair.
"I’ll be okay," she whispered. "I have you."
And just like that, she ruined all my argunts.
I sighed into her shoulder. "I hate how good you are at that."
We spent the next hour sprawled on the floor with a notebook and started jotting down every strange thing since Madrid. Weird behavior. Missed ti. Álvaro’s weird hair flips. Carn’s sudden love for pumpkin spice.
"Could be anyone," I muttered again.
"Even the maids?" she asked.
"Especially the maids," I replied. "Carn’s been humming Gregorian chants in the pantry. That’s not normal."
She laughed, for real this ti. It made her cheeks pink and her eyes shine. God, I missed that laugh.
I was still basking in the etherealness of her sweet laugh when a thought hit .
"Hold on a second, María José. You know Álvaro is using taking the war to the witches and bringing victory ho as his Alpha campaign?" I sat upright, a finger in the air.
Her eyes thinned. "Yesss... what about it?"
"What if, María, what if I counter that? What if in contrast, I settle for peace instead? What if I got to them with the offer of a truce and save the lives of wolves that might be lost during Álvaro’s war?" I bead, feeling the train of ideas running through my mind.
My wife stared at dead in the eyes for one good minute before scoffing and folding her arms. "Seriously, Axel? We are discussing sothing so important and hurtful to our relationship and you want to talk politics?!"
Argh... she doesn’t get it!
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