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

Champ, Millie, Kyle, and Lacy were sitting at the table in the dinning room. Millie was kind of slouching down in her chair. She didn’t want to be there. She would rather be back at the burnt up cottage than here. She had her left arm laying on the table, tapping her fingers. Her right arm was hanging over the chair.
“The fact that Christina’s here now, we have to be extra careful when we walk into town,” Champ said. “We’ve been walking around and didn’t think about it but we have to be careful. She uses that dog whistle and....”
“We already know how to stop her,” Millie interrupted. “I’m the leader and I say that we attack.”
“Now, we both know why we can’t do that.”
“Oh, come on, Champ. All we have to do is take that stupid whistle away from her.”
“But we don’t know if she still has the other one or if she found her victim already. We’re in trouble either way.”
Champ was right but Millie just wanted to attack anyways. She hated dealing with other non-humans, especially with Christmas a week away. “That don’t mean anything and besides we already know who she chose or will choose to help her.” She didn’t have to say anything, they all knew who Christina would choose to help.
“But, Millie, we have to think about those humans.... We don’t need any of them around.... I think that we should wait until the full moon.”
Millie didn’t want to argue with Champ. She leaned forward in the chair, placing her arm on the table. She clasped her hands together. She looked at each one of her pack members. “Who agrees with Champ that we should wait until the next full moon to attack Christina?”
Kyle and Lacy raised their hands.
“Okay. You win, Champ. We’ll wait for the full moon.”
“Okay.”
“Kyle, when you get a chance, tell the other two. I don’t want Young Wagner to know.”
Kyle nodded at Millie’s words.


Lee knocked on the door. He was dressed nicely. His hair was combed back with an exception for a few strains which hung off of his forehead. He looked really cute. He waited for someone to answer the door. He didn’t want to stay out in the cold on Jean’s porch for long.
The door opened and he blushed at the sight of Lacy. She was wearing a beautiful, blue dress which brought out the blue in her hazel eyes. The dress was Jean’s, but it was too small for Jean, so she gave it to Lacy.
Lacy couldn’t help, but check out Lee. He was always cute, but there was something about him which was different.
Lee felt a warm feeling from Lacy. He wasn’t cold anymore.
“Hi.... Lee,” Lacy said, shyly.
“Hi, Lacy.”
Champ was walking down the stairs. “HEY, LEE!” he called. “Lacy, invite him in. I’m sure he doesn’t want to stand out in the cold all night,” he whispered as he walked past her and made his way into the living room. The guys had decided that they were going to have an action movie marathon and the first movie was Rush Hour, and he didn’t want to miss the beginning.
“Oh, where are my manners? I’m sorry. Come in.” Lacy was embarrassed.
“That’s okay.” Lee smiled as he walked into the house. He went to close the door, but Lacy had already closed it. “How are you enjoying staying here?”
“I like it here.” Lacy thought about something. “Do you want to go sit at the dinning room table?”
“Sure.”
They walked into the dinning room and sat down. Stina walked into the room, wearing an apron and holding a little notepad and pen. She noticed that Lee was there. “LEE!” she shouted, excitedly and gave him a hug. She backed away. “So?”
“So?”
“You’re on a date with Lacy?”
“That’s right.”
“Does that mean that you’re going to be my cousin-in-law?”
Lacy’s eyes grew wide. She couldn’t believe that Stina would ask that question. “Stina? It’s a date, we’re not getting married.”
“Oh.... Okay.” Stina backed away from the table.  “JEAN! LEE’S HERE!” she called to the kitchen.
“You’re not cooking, are you?” Lee asked. He knew that Stina was the reason why the cottage had burnt down and didn’t want that to happen again.
“No. Jean’s cooking, I’m just taking the orders.”


Millie was in the little room which was hooked up to the kitchen. She was leaning on a window sill. She looked up at the night sky and wished that she was back at the cottage before it was destroyed by the fire.
“Do you want something to eat, Millie?” Jean asked, standing in the door way.
“I’m not hungry.”
“Oh.... Well, tell me whenever you do get hungry.” Jean walked back into the kitchen.
Millie didn’t want to move. She was thinking about that picture which she had seen in Tom and Jane’s house. The one of her parents. She couldn’t stop thinking about it. It almost made her cry just thinking about the memory, but she couldn’t help it. She missed her parents so much.


Lacy and Lee had just finished eating. Lacy picked up the dishes that they had used and brought them into the kitchen, Lee had followed her. She rinsed them in the split sink. She rinsed them in the one which was close to the restrainer and then started to fill the other one with hot water and dish soap.
Jean walked in from the computer room and Stina had followed. “Oh, you don’t have to do that, Lacy.... I could wash them.”
“I don’t mind.... Besides I’m use to doing the dishes.”
“Okay.” Jean went to a cabinet and opened the door. “Okay, Stina, you can choose what you want.”
Stina looked at all of the snacks which was in the cabinet and grabbed the mini powder doughnuts. She closed the door, and her and Jean walked back into the computer room as Shawn and Kyle walked into the kitchen. They both were holding two empty cups.
“Hey, Kyle, and Shawn. What’s up?” Lee asked.
“We’re taking an intermission....” Shawn started.
“Yea, Rush Hour had just ended and,” Kyle finished, “we’re going to watch Rush Hour Two....”
“Yea, Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan are awesome and we’re having an action movie marathon starting with all the Jackie Chan movies because....”
“JACKIE CHAN KICKS BUTT!” Kyle and Shawn exclaimed.
Millie had walked in at the time and just looked at them like they were crazy. She was standing behind them and walked back into the room that she was in. She didn’t want to know.
Lee and Lacy were laughing at how Kyle and Shawn were acting. They were acting like big kids.
“Man, we’re even going to watch Kong Foo Panda,” Kyle told them.
“Yea, because Jackie Chan plays the....”
“MONKEY!” they both exclaimed again.
That made Lee and Lacy laugh even harder.
“MONKEYS RULE!” Stina yelled from the other room.
Kyle and Shawn filled the cups up with more soda and left the room.

Kat looked up and Christina was standing in front of her. She didn’t know how to react. She hadn’t realized that Christina lied to her to join the dark side. Cat shape-shifters were known for switching sides. No one knew if they were good or if they were evil. What she had done was evil, but she would still try to help the wolves. “What do you want? I agreed to help you.... So, what do you want now?” she asked.
“Wait ‘til the next full moon.” Christina left without an explanation.
Kat knew that the next full moon was five days after Christmas and two days before New Years. She had to wait, but would she be able to use that whistle when the time came or would she destroy it? She was so confused and she couldn’t tell right from wrong.


It was Christmas week. Shawn and Kyle were at the toy store, they had just bought the red bike which Wagner had dreamed of since the first day that he locked eyes onto the beautiful, glaze red bike. The six older wolves had pitched in for the bike. Sadly, it was going to be the only thing that Wagner was going to get. It was the only thing any of them were going to get. They didn’t have much money and they felt that they needed to save some to give to Jean for letting them stay there, although she didn’t want to take their money, because she understood that the cottage had burnt down and they didn’t have much money anyways.
Shawn started to walk the bike, while Kyle walked next to him. “Hey, man,” Shawn said. “Do you think that we should take turns breaking in this bike?”
“Yea,” Kyle said, but then changed his mind, “no.... Wagner’s the one who should ride the bike first.... It is his Christmas present and besides, Millie’s at the bookstore with Lacy and Champ.... She’d be mad if we did that, especially if it broke.”
Shawn thought about it and he agreed with Kyle. They had to walk past the bookstore and Millie would not be happy. “That’s true.”


Millie’s snout was starting to grow. She had a hunched back along with Lacy. Champ was starting to look more like a wolf than human. Millie sat on top of the desk in the bookstore like a dog.
Someone walked into the bookstore. The person was wearing a long, pitch black coat. The hood of the coat was covering the person’s face. The sleeves were long enough that the person’s hands were covered. There was a reason for that.
The three wolves didn’t have to see the face of the person to know who it was. They could just sniff the air and his sent told them who he was.
“What do you want, Jock?” Millie asked.
He lifted up his head and there was a shadow which blocked his face. He reminded them of the Grim Reaper the way he was dressed. “I’m not this Jock that you speak of,” he replied, trying to disguise his accent.
Millie raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t in the mood for games.
“Hey, Jock,” Lacy said as she walked past him with a bunch of books in her hand.
“Crap.”
“What do you want, Jock?” Millie asked again.
“I came to see how the plan was coming along....”
“We’re going to wait ‘til the full