The Blood Moon by Amber Riel (reading strategies book .TXT) 📖

Lacy helped Wagner into a big winter coat. It was now snowing outside and with Christmas just around the corner it was a perfect time to get a Christmas tree. Stina was so excited to go out and play in the snow which she was trying to rush Lacy and Wagner out the door.

“Relax, Stina,” Lacy told her. “The snow is still going to be there okay.”

“But.... By the time you get done, it’ll be summer.”

Lacy shook her head and smiled at Stina’s answer. “You know.... You don’t have to wait for us.”

“Okay.” Stina ran out the door.

“Okay. You’re ready. Let’s go outside.” Lacy grabbed her gloves. She didn’t want her hands to freeze up.

Wagner was so bundled up that he could barely move. When he walked over to Lacy, they walked outside.

Stina hid behind a tree with a snowball in her hand. She waited for Lacy and Wagner to walk outside. She smiled, devilishly, as she watched the front door open and Lacy and Wagner step out, she aimed the snowball and threw it.

The snowball smacked Wagner’s face. Lacy had his face covered so he didn’t really feel the ice cold snowball hit. Wagner locked eyes with his attacker. He wasn’t going down that easy. He stepped off of the porch and picked up some snow and made a snowball. “IF IT’S A FIGHT YOU WANT, THEN IT’S A FIGHT YOU’LL GET!” he called to Stina.

Lacy sat on the porch and watched as the two younger werewolves had a snowball fight. She laughed as she watched.

A few hours later, Champ and Kyle arrived, carrying a tree. Kat followed them. This was going to be her first Christmas with her boyfriend.

Stina and Wagner were now sitting in the snow. They had called a truce to they’re snowball fight.

Lacy stood up and moved out of Champ and Kyle’s way.

“Well, everyone’s here, except Millie,” Kyle stated.

“Yea,” Champ agreed. He hadn’t realized that Millie wasn’t there until after Kyle had said something. “Where is Millie anyways?”

“She went to go visit Tom. You know him and his wife moved back into town last week,” Lacy answered.

Champ didn’t know that. He remembered Tom and he forgotten how much he was there for the pack when times were tough. He was a good guy.

Millie stood in front of the Baptist Church, debating if she should go in or not. She looked human, but she knew what the people would call her. She placed the hood of her sweater on to cover her face. She walked to the church and walked in. She heard the pastor preaching the gospel and she looked around at all of the people who were sitting in the benches. She wasn’t going to move. She locked eyes with the pastor. She recognized him, but he didn’t recognize her.

“You can come in, young lady,” he said with a welcoming voice and smile. “We don’t mind.”

Millie started walking down the isle, keeping the hood on her head. She glanced at the people on each side.
The humans watched her as she walked. They knew who she was. It was a small town and everyone knew everything about everyone who lived there. They decided that because they were in church to just let it go.

An overweight, thirty-five-year-old woman stood up. She was the only one who didn’t want Millie there. “Preacher, she is one of those monsters that we were talking about earlier.”

Millie stopped in her tracks and growled to herself. She turned to face the lady. “Will you, please, not try to start a fight a with me?” She was trying not to lose her temper. She didn’t want to get mad in church. It wasn’t the time or place.

The pastor looked at the lady. He was disappointed that someone would say something like that in church, in God’s house.

“I don’t want to come to a church that let’s demons walk around.... And I certainly don’t want my child around this creature.”

Millie didn’t care. She couldn’t hold in her anger. “Look, lady, now is not the time and this isn’t the place so maybe we can fight on a playground later. Okay.”

“I can’t believe that you have no respect for your elders.”

"Oh.” Millie smiled and looked the lady square in the eye. She didn’t want to explain to the arrogant woman that she was actually the elder. “If I had respect for my elders, then you, fat lady, would be my dinner and your little boy,” she replied, looking at the small, skinny, six-year-old boy, “would be my dessert. So you better be glad that I don’t respect my elders.”

The lady was discussed by Millie’s cruel words. She grabbed her little boy’s arm and left.

The pastor was disappointed by the seen. He wanted to talk about the birth of Christ, but was saddened by the seen. “Look,” he told everyone.

Millie turned to face the pastor. She removed the hood from her head.

“I had a good friend,” the pastor continued, “and he had a good out look on the world.” He had to pause. “I met him when we were eight. We were like brothers. I was there the day he excepted Christ into his life. He’s the one that helped me get the courage to ask my wife out on our first date....”

Millie knew this speech. She heard him give it before. She knew who he was talking about.

“Then almost eleven years ago, I got the call that him and his wife were beaten. I rushed over. I seen him laying on the floor next to his wife. His seven-year-old daughter at the time looked up at me. She had tears in her eyes....”

Millie hid the tears which were crawling down her cheek. She remembered that horrible day.

“A couple days later, he died.... I remember something that he always said. See people would call him a demon, a monster, and a creature.... He was different, but not any of those things.... He would always say that something good can come from something bad, and something bad can come from something evil.... I think he got it from a movie or something, but it can be true.”

Millie remembered those words. They were her dad’s words and the pastor had said that speech at her father and mother’s funerals. The pain came back and Millie did what she could to hide it.

Millie sat in the empty church, looking at the pictures of praying hands. The pastor had walked into his office but Millie wanted to talk to him. She had to talk to him. She needed to talk to the man who spoke so highly of her father. She stood up and started walking toward the office which was just to the left of the little stage.

The pastor sat at his desk. He was going over paper work. Someone knocked on the door. He looked up and seen a dark out line from the grain of glass on the door. “YOU CAN COME IN!”

Millie opened the door and looked at the wall. The wall was mixed with pictures of praying hands and crosses.

“May I help you?” the pastor asked.

Millie paused for a second before answering. She felt horrible for what had happened earlier. “I’m sorry about the scene that I caused when I came in, Pastor Tom....”

Tom looked at the girl. He kind of recognized her, but couldn’t figure out from where. She had one of those faces which was recognizable.

“That speech.... I remember it from my father’s funeral.”

Now he knew who he was talking to. He was surprised to see Millie. He was disappointed in the fact of how mean she had become, but he still remembered the sweet, innocent, little girl who she had been before her parents’ deaths. He figured that after her disagreement with the thirty-year-old woman. “You don’t like people anymore?”

“No....” Millie looked away from him. She didn’t want to make Tom feel more disappointed. This man helped out when her parents died. Him and his wife offered to take Millie and Shawn in as if they were their own. They didn’t care that Millie and Shawn were werewolves. They seen them as people. She didn’t want Tom and his wife to have to take care of her and her brother so she kindly told them no, but they still helped out when they seen them.

“I was afraid of that.” Tom stood up and walked over to a window. He turned to face Millie. He smiled, even though, he was disappointed. “Millie, your dad was a good person.... Even to his enemies. He was like a brother to me.... And him and your mother were good parents.... You know.... I’m the one who introduced your parents to each other. Your mother was from another pack from West Virginia.” His smile grew. “I remember that after their first date, he told me that she was the one. He said, ‘Tom, you know Kelsey?’”

Millie smiled.

“I said, ‘Of course.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m going to marry her.’ I was shocked. ‘But, you’ve two been on one date,’ I told him, confused. I mean how can you know that after one date that you’re with the one that you’re going to spend the rest of your life with. He told me, ‘I can tell, Tom. There’s just something about her and I just know.’ Well, they dated for three years, they were engaged for a year and got married. Then about three years later, you were born. Another year later, Shawn was born.”

“Wow.”

“Oh yea.... You’ve never heard that story.... Have you?”

“No.” Millie looked at the ground. She closed her eyes for about less than a second. “I don’t ever hear anything good about my father.... I never hear anything good about us werewolves.... They think that we’re monsters.”

Tom felt bad for Millie and the pack. “Look, Millie,” he said, smiling, “you guys aren’t monsters no matter what they say. Your father was a good man.... I don’t ever want you to forget that. Okay?”
Millie caught eye contact with Tom and she smiled. “Okay. You know.... You and your wife are the only two humans that I have respect for.”

“Well, I’m honored and I’m sure that Jane will be honored as well.”

A forty-year-old woman walked into the room, carrying a pocket purse. She didn’t realize that Millie was in the room at first. “Okay, honey....” she started to say as she noticed Millie. “Oh, I’m sorry.... Am I ruining something?” she asked.

“No,” Tom answered. “Jane, me and this nice young lady were having a talk about her father and my best friend.”

Jane started to say something, but she stopped when she realized that she didn’t quite understand what he said.

“You do remember Millie.... Don’t you, honey?”

“Millie?” Jane asked herself. She didn’t quite remember the name.  “OH MY GOSH! YOU’RE CHARLIE’S DAUGHTER MILLIE!”

Millie nodded.

“OH MY GOSH!” Jane rushed over and gave Millie a hug. “You’ve gotten so big.... It’s good to see you again.”

Millie almost cried. She didn’t remember what it was like to have people care. It was heartwarming to her. They were her and