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

moon,” Champ told him.
“Oh.... You guys have to be careful because you’ll be in your wolf forms by then.”
“We know, but you don’t have to worry about us.”
“Okay.”
“Heck, you can help if you want....”
“NO!” Millie jumped off of the desk and stood kind of bent down. “I DON’T WANT TO WORK WITH A VAMPIRE!!!”
“Sorry, Millie, but we could use his help and you know it.”
Millie rolled her eyes. “Fine, but go back to Pennsylvania after that.”
Jock nodded. He knew that Millie wasn’t as cold hearted as she acted but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t try and harm him. Stina's Walking on Egg Shells

Christina marked the 22nd on the calendar. She noticed that the 25th was on that Friday. She counted five days after. She smiled because a week from Christmas would be a full moon. She couldn’t wait for the 30th. She turned to face her Great Dane with an evil smile. “A week from this Friday.... Those wolves won’t know what hit them.”
The Great Dane barked at Christina’s words as if he were protesting against her.
“You can’t do anything.... You’re chained up, boy.” She walked past the big, black dog and walked into another room.
The dog kept on barking. He didn’t stop. He wanted to be free, but Christina had placed the chain on him when he tried to bite her.


Champ could tell that something would happen if Christina controlled them, but they had a plan and Jock was going to help them, but he just wanted to think about Christmas. It was in two days and he just wanted to think about the good times, not the bad times. He walked into the vet’s office and walked over to Jean’s desk. “Jean?” he asked.
Jean was to busy with setting up appointments that she didn’t realize that Champ was trying to tell her something. She just thought that he was there to make another appointment. “Look.... I’m sorry, sir, but you’ll have to wait.” She was stressing over her work.
“Jean.... Stop working, you’re stressing and you need to relax.”
Jean looked up and was relieved to see Champ. She needed to relax but she had so much work to do. She didn’t want to make appointments for Christmas Eve or Christmas. She didn’t believe in working on the holidays. “I’m sorry, but I’m stressed.”
“I can see that.” Champ looked around. A couple months ago, Jack had most of the humans transformed into animals and sadly some of them were already dead. The lycans had saved them, but some of them didn’t thank them. They had told themselves that what had happened to them was all a dream. Champ had to shake his head at their arrogance. “Kyle and Shawn had went and bought a bike for Wagner.... We don’t know where to hide it until tomorrow night.... They had kept it at Lee’s over night, but we want to get it at your house and hide it.”
Jean had to think about it for a minute. She didn’t want them to put it in the attic because she had brought presents for them that she still had to wrap. They had told her that they weren’t expecting anything for Christmas, because they felt like they were intruding, but she didn’t mind and besides she felt like she had to do something for them because they freed her from working for Jack. “The basement.... The basement is good,” she answered.
“Okay. I’ll go tell them.” Champ walked out of the vet’s office.


Stina and Wagner had followed Millie to the bookstore. They had went to different sections of the store. Millie had walked behind the desk and turned the computer on. She walked into the room in the back of the store as she waited for the computer to come on.
Stina had grabbed a little kids’ book and dropped it on the floor after she read the back.
Wagner heard the book hit the floor and ran to pick it up. “Are you crazy? Millie will kill you if one of these books get ruined,” he whispered to Stina, worried. He didn’t like Millie’s temper.
Millie walked out of the room and walked over to the two younger wolves. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Stina lied.
“She dropped this book,” Wagner said as he put the book back where it belonged.
Millie eyed Stina. “I don’t want you to touch anything.” She was still mad at Stina for letting the cottage burn into flames.

Christmas Memories, Painful Time

Wagner was running all over the house, excited. He was knocking on the doors and he ran over to wake Kyle, who had been sleeping on the love seat, Champ, who had been sleeping on the couch, and Shawn, who was sleeping on the floor next to the heater.
Stina, Lacy, and Jean all walked out of their rooms to see what all the noise was about. Millie was the only one, who didn’t come out of her room.


Millie took a pillow and held it over her head to block out the noise. She didn’t want to wake up. She wanted to go back to bed, but she couldn’t. She could hear Wagner knocking on the other side of the door. He was calling her name.
“NO! I’M TRYING TO SLEEP!”
The knocking stopped. She could tell by the way Wagner was walking that he was disappointed. She could hear his disappointment in each step he took. She decided to get up.
She sat up on the bed and looked at the calendar which was hanging on the wall. She knew what day it was. Wagner was going to be getting that bike today. It was Christmas morning. Millie took a breath and felt the back of her head. She noticed that her bun had fallen down and she went a head and took out the hair tie which had kept her hair up. She slid her now forming back claws into two slippers.
She stood up and kind of rolled her shoulders. She looked around and noticed that Lacy had made her bed before she left the room. “Of course,” she told herself.


Kyle sat up and noticed that Champ and Shawn weren’t in the room. The sweet smell of pancakes, eggs, and bacon filled the air. He stood up and made his way into the kitchen.


“Did Wagner get the you know what yet?” Shawn asked.
“Not yet.... We still have it hiding,” Champ answered.
“Good, ‘cause I want to see his face.” Shawn took a bite of his pancakes. He could tell that Lacy had made the pancakes. All of the wolves loved Lacy’s cooking, but Shawn was the only one, who bragged.
Lacy was the only one, who thought that there was something wrong with her cooking, but everyone else would tell her not be harsh.


Lacy was flipping pancakes, while Jean was pouring a cup of coffee. Stina and Wagner were sitting at the little table waiting to eat. No one noticed that Kyle was standing in the door way. He leaned on the wall.
“Merry Christmas,” Kyle said as he smiled.
Everyone looked up at him.
“Merry Christmas,” Jean answered, returning a smile as well.
“Oh, good morning, Kyle,” Lacy said, looking over at him.
“Where’s my girlfriend?” he asked.
“She’s....”
“I smell breakfast,” Millie interrupted.
“Awake,” Lacy finished.
“So, when does Wagner get his present?”
“After we eat,” Lacy answered.


Everyone was in the computer room. Stina and Wagner were sitting at the small Christmas tree, which had presents placed under it. Jean stood up and moved next to the two young wolves. “Now, I know that you all said that I didn’t have to get you anything, but I couldn’t resist.” She picked up two presents and read the names.
“Kyle, Shawn,” she said, handing the presents to them. She grabbed two more. “Stina, Champ....” She handed them to Stina and Champ then picked up two more. “Lacy, Wagner....” She handed them to Lacy and Wagner. There was one more present under the tree. She picked it up and she didn’t have to read what was written to know who it was for. She stood up and brought it over to Millie. “And Millie.” She handed it to the girl.
Millie took the present. She didn’t say anything and she noticed how the others didn’t open theirs yet.
Champ set his present from Jean down. “Before we open these, I’ll be back.” He left the room. He walked back into the room a couple seconds later, holding a little rectangle shaped present and handed it to Jean. “This is for you from all of us.... Thanks for letting us stay here.”
Jean took the present and smiled. She kind of wanted to cry. She wasn’t expecting to get anything. “Thank you.... All of you.”
“Now, we can all open our presents....”
“WAIT!” Lacy cried. “Can we give Wagner his present from all of us first, because I just want to see his look and I’m pretty sure Millie would want to see.”
“Okay,” Champ agreed. “I’ll be right back.” He left the room, but this time, it took a little longer for him to walk back into the room.
Wagner’s eyes lit up as he seen Champ walk in with the red bike. It was the same bike that he seen in the toy store. He set the present down and ran over to the bike. “THANKS GUYS, I LOVE IT!” he exclaimed.
“Yea, but let’s see what Jean got for each of us now.”
Champ and Wagner grabbed their presents and sat down.
“Now we can,” Lacy said.
Everyone opened their presents. Lacy got a new outfit: dark blue jeans and a sky blue shirt which said angel in white letters. Stina got a license plate which said danger, she loved it. Champ got a book about different kinds of animals. Kyle got a hat which had Patriots in white letters. Shawn got a deck of playing cards. Wagner got a hot wheels set, he loved the set just as much as he loved the bike. Millie got a little, wooden jewelry box with wolves on it, one of the wolves was howling at the moon. That was what they had gotten from Jean.
Jean smiled as she read the title