The Double Moon by Amber Riel (fox in socks read aloud txt) 📕

Kat couldn't believe what Christina had told her. She walked to the cottage. She hoped that James wasn't there or that he didn't answer the door because he treated her worst than Millie did and she didn't want to deal with him.


Kat had arrived at the cottage and knocked on the door. She waited a few minutes before knocking again. She went to knock again when the door opened and James stood in front of her. “Oh crap,” she said to herself.
“It's okay,” James reassured Kat. “I don't believe that you and Champ should be dating, but I'll deal with it.... And as for spitting on you.... I won't do that again.”
Kat was shocked by James's attitude. One minute he hated her, the next her was showing her kindness.
“Champ's not here by the way. He went to the store. He'll be back later.”
“Okay, but I came here to warn you guys.”
“Well, tell them later. I've got something that I have to do.”
“Okay.”
Kat left the porch. James waited a little before he left the house.

                                            ******
Millie walked around the house. She was looking for someone. She went to every room, but didn't find who she was looking for. Her last stop was in the living room. Wagner and Kyle were sitting on the couch watching television. Shawn sat in a chair and Stina laid on the floor, looking up at the TV with her hands holding up her head. They were watching a show that had to deal with their wolf counterparts. Kyle and Shawn had turned their attention to Millie.
“What are you doing, Mill?” Kyle asked.
“I'm looking for James. I can't find that old wolf anywhere.”
“Why are you looking for him? You despise him anyways.”
“I have to talk to him about something.”
“Oh.”
“He didn't happen to tell you where he was going, did he?”
“Nope,” Kyle replied. He looked over at Shawn. “Did he tell you?”
“Nope. He didn't say anything to me,” Shawn answered.
“Okay.” Millie left the room. She had to talk to her no good uncle. She had to solve this problem, but she had to talk to him. It was funny how he was around when she didn't want him to be, but when she needed him he was nowhere to be found.
The phone rang.
Millie picked up the phone. “Hello.”


Kat was relieved to get an answer. “Millie.... Look, I'm trying to---”


“No. I don't care okay.”


“But, Millie....” Kat couldn't believe what just happened. “Hello.... Hello.... Hello....” She heard the dial tone. “Crap.”


Millie kept her hand on the phone. She was mad and she had to cool off. James had ticked her off by not being at the house.
Lacy walked into the hallway with a basket filled with dirty clothes. “Who was that?”
“One of those stupid credit card companies.”
“Oh.”
Millie removed her hand away from the phone and started heading for the door. “Do you know where James went?”
“No.”
Millie went toward the door.
“Why?”
“I have to talk to him about something.”
“About what?”
Millie stopped and turned her head toward a wall. “Nothing you need to worry about.”
“Okay.”
                                               ******
Champ walked out of the store, when Jean pulled up. “Hey, Champ. Do you need a ride?” Jean asked. She was leaving the plaza anyways and was heading home.
“Yea.”
“Okay. Let me park the car.” Jean pulled in and parked the car. She stepped out and unlocked the trunk. When the trunk was open, she helped Champ load the groceries into the car.
“Thanks, Jean.”
“Oh,” Jean said as she closed the trunk, “no problem. I was heading that way anyways and I haven't seen any of you wolves in a few weeks.”


Millie followed James's scent and she was shocked where his scent had led her. She looked around. James's scent had brought her to her parents' graves. She stopped by one of the trees. She didn't want to say anything, and even if she did, nothing would come out. That's how shocked she was.
James sat next to the graves. “I'm sorry, Charlie. I had no clue, no idea, that Vickey would do something like this.” He wanted to cry so bad, but he couldn't. He could feel Millie's presents. “You and Kelsey should of lived and I should have been the one who died. You two did nothing wrong....”
Millie heard everything that James was saying. She could tell that he met every word of it. She wanted to cry because James's words were sad and sweet.
“I'm sorry. I wish that I could have been able to tell that Vickey was evil. I was blinded. I was in love and I thought that she loved me, but I was wrong. I was so wrong. I was blinded by love.”
Millie had to hold back tears. She didn't realize that James wasn't as bad as she thought. The sight of James sitting next to his brother's grave was shocking to her. She wanted to cry but she didn't want her uncle to see that she was starting to feel bad for him and she regretted being rude to him.
“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You were my brother and we were close. We told each other everything. You weren't only my brother but one of my best friends. I feel guilty for what had happened. I blame myself. I feel like I could of stopped it. I couldn't come to your funeral because of how guilty I felt. I can't even look your children in the eyes and tell them. I messed up big time and now you're gone. It was my mistake and my younger brother had to suffer for it. I'm sorry.”
“That was good. You should've said that at the funeral,” Millie admitted. It was hard for her to admit but she did. “I also....” She looked over at her uncle. She watched him stand up, but he still kept his back to her. The words that she wanted to say were hard for her, but they had to come out. “Forgive you.... I've already forgave you deep down inside, but I didn't want to.”
“I understand.” James turned to face Millie.
“Why are you here?”
James took a breath. “I know that you don't think I come here, but I do. I always come here. I pay my respects to your parents. I've come here since the day of their funeral, but I couldn't go to the actual funerals, and I made up for it by coming here every night.”
Millie really wanted to cry, but she couldn't.

Millie sat on her bed, just thinking. All that time, she was blaming James for something that wasn't his fault. She had to get rid of all that anger she still had, even though, she had forgiven him already, but how?


Kat knocked on the cottage door. She had to tell the pack the news that she hadn't been able to. Stina had opened the door and let her into the cottage.
“Stina, where is everyone?” Kat asked as she closed the door.
“Oh.... The guys are watching TV in the living room. Millie's upstairs in her room. James is in the kitchen and Lacy went on a date with Lee.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, Kat, guess what?”
“What?”
“I'M BORED!”
Kat raised an eyebrow at Stina's excitement. She thought that Stina was the dumbest and craziest wolf in the entire pack, but she was also the funniest one. “Well, I need to talk to the older wolves....”
“Okay.” Stina walked into the living room, while Kat waited in the hallway.
Millie walked downstairs and didn't even notice that Kat was there. Once she was downstairs, she started heading toward the kitchen. There was a glassy look in her eyes as if she were in a daze. She ran into Kyle and snapped into reality.
“Oh sorry, Mill,” Kyle told her. “Hey, Kat needs to tell us something.”
“Okay.”
Kyle turned Millie to face the doorway where Kat stood.
Kyle, Millie, Champ, and Shawn all surrounded Kat. They were waiting for Kat to say something.
“What's going on, Kat?” Champ asked.
“Well, Christina has someone working with her to try and stop you all.... I was trying to tell you guys.....”
“Why didn't you tell us before?”
“Well, I tried calling and Millie hung up on me.”
Everyone looked at Millie. She didn't like the pack looking at her without her having a reason for them to look at her. “What?” she asked. So, she hung up on Kat, she didn't like talking to the cat shape-shifter. 
“Anyways, I think that you guys should stop her.”
“You think?” Millie asked. “We don't think, we know. That dog-witch needs to be stopped along with whoever she has working with her.”


Christina laid a calendar in front of Vickey. Vickey was confused. She never used a calendar in any of her evil plans, why should she use one now?
“Look, the half moon is tomorrow and that's what's going to get the wolves to start walking out from hiding....”
“I don't understand....”
“Of course, you humans never understand. If you want to stop a lycan, you need to go in the order of the moon's transformation....”
“Lycan?”
“A lycan is the scientific term of werewolf....”
“Oh.”
“Yea. Now, if you don't go by the transformation of the moon, then you'll get a bad effect....”
“Like what?”
“Well, for you humans, if you get bitten or scratched, then you'll become a lycan. That's something you don't want to do. You follow the transformations and you'll be able to stop the wolves. The one thing you want to do is to get the leader of the pack on your side and then you stop them. You take out one member at a time, but you need to use the leader to do that. The only thing is that Millie is a hard leader to control. She's so headstrong and wants to have freedom. She's not a person that you can trick very easy, so, you have to find her weakness and get her that way....”
“But how?”
“That's the only flaw in my plan.” Christina walked around Vickey and stopped. She turned and looked out of the window. She thought and thought, but she didn't know what they could do. The moon revealed that it was almost a half of the moon. “We'll wait until the double moon.”
“The what moon?” Vickey asked.