The Full Moon by Amber Riel (books to read this summer TXT) 📕

He was trapped. He made a wrong turned and ran into a wall. He turned around and realized that somewhere down the path Millie’s other pack members had joined in. “This is unfair,” he said. As he spoke, he sounded like he had two voices. One was almost high. The other was almost low. They canceled each other out as if two people where singing. “I’ll only fight one of you.”

Millie walked closer to him. He didn’t look like he could do much damage, but Millie knew that goblins had tricks and he could try anything. He was smaller than any of the lycans, but she didn’t want to deal with him. She knew that she could tear him into pieces if she wanted two but she didn’t want to do anything drastic without her pack. “The cat doesn’t count.... If you fight one pack member, then you have to fight all of us.”

“I’ll fight the cat.... I’ll have a better chance.”

Millie moved back to join the others as Kat took her place. She knew that Kat wouldn’t be able to stand a chance against Jack. She wanted her two enemies to fight it out.

“Ready, Jack?” Kat asked, transforming back into a cat.

Jack didn’t answer. Instead, he jumped her. They started fighting. In the middle of the fight, Jack was winning. Champ couldn’t watch as his girlfriend was getting killed. He decided that he was going to jump in and help Kat.

“CHAMP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! LET HER DIE!” Millie cried.

Champ ignored her. He attacked Jack. Jack stopped fighting Kat and started fighting Champ.

Kat laid there panting for air. She transformed back into her human form. Her eyes were closed. She had cuts and bruises where Jack had dug his nails into her skin. She laid there dying.

By this time, the whole pack had jumped in, attacking Jack. He really didn’t have a chance against the whole pack. Maybe one or two but not all of them.

After it was all done, Jack was dead and all bloody.

“We have food.” Millie picked up the dead goblin using her mouth. “Come on. Let’s go home. Tomorrow, when we’re in our human forms, we can make a goblin stew.”

Everyone, but Champ, left. Before Shawn left, he noticed that Champ wasn’t leaving. “Are you coming?” he asked.

“Yea.” Champ walked over to Kat.

Shawn heard the sadness in his voice.

“I’ll be there later. Okay, Shawn?”

“Okay.” Shawn left.

Champ laid next to Kat. He hoped that she was okay. Something in his heart was telling him that everything was going to be alright.

He licked her face. She woke up. She tried to say something, but she was having a hard time speaking.

“You’re okay.... If you want, I can carry you home.”

Her strength came back really fast and she sat up. “Home?” She smiled. “I want to go to the river with you.”

“With me? Like this?” he asked. “Look like a monster.”

“No.”

“Well, I’m not human.”

“I know....” She couldn’t help but smile at his reaction. “You’re a very cute werewolf and I love you.”

He smiled, showing his sharp canine teeth. “I love you too. Hop on my back. I’ll carry you to the river.”

“I won’t hurt you?”

“No.... Believe me, I’m stronger than I look.”

“Okay.” Kat climbed onto Champ’s back. She was worried that she was going to hurt him or something.

“You might want to hang on.”

“Okay.” She hugged his neck like she would a horse.

When they were ready, Champ ran as fast as he could on all fours. Everything that they pasted looked like blurs.

As they neared the river, he slowed down. After he stopped, Kat climbed down off his back. He sat down on the ground and she sat next to him. They looked at the full moon.

“The moon’s lovely tonight. Don’t you think so?” Kat asked.

“Not as lovely as you.”

Kat blushed. She looked over at Champ and kissed his furry cheek.

The next day at the cottage, Wagner, Kyle, and Millie were in the living room. Wagner was sitting on the hard floor, while Kyle and Millie were sitting on the couch. Kyle’s arm was draped around Millie’s shoulder. “I think we need to talk to Jean. She’ll probably know why Jack wanted the humans to be turned into animals,” Millie said.

“Yea. Let’s go today,” Kyle agreed.

“Okay.”

Kyle and Millie went to leave.

Millie turned to face Wagner. “Wagner?”

“Yea, Millie.” The kid looked up at her.

“Can you tell Lacy that we’re going to talk to Jean?”

“Okay.”

Millie and Kyle left.

At the vet’s office, Jean was at her desk, freaking out. She rocked back and forth in her chair, kind of crying.

“What am I going to do?” she asked herself. “I lost my job.... My boss never came back last night.... What am I going to do?”

Millie and Kyle had walked in and walked over to her.

“Not good, not good,” she told herself.

“Jean,” Kyle said, softly, trying not to startle her.

“DON’T HURT ME!” She was really freaked out.

“Don’t worry.... We’re not here to hurt you.” Kyle was doing what he could to help Jean calm down. “Now breathe.... Just take a deep breath.”

Jean nodded and took some breaths.

“Look, we just want to ask you some questions.”

“Okay.” She was just starting to calm down.

“Why did Jack want to turn people into animals?”

“Well.... He said that.... He had to turn humans into animals because of the texture of the human blood would mix with the animal blood.”

“Okay. Um.... What did he use the blood for?”

“Oh. He had to drink it to keep him alive because he was dying and he needed to drink it to live longer.... He wanted Millie’s blood because the blood from the wolf pack leader would let him live longer than human/animal blood. He knew that it would kill werewolves faster anyways.”

That ticked Millie off. “Well, it’s a good thing that he can’t come back to life, because if he could, I’d kill him again.”

“Thank you for your time, Jean.” Kyle was kind of embarrassed by Millie’s out burst.

“You’re welcome.”

Kyle and Millie left the vet’s office. “Before we leave town, do you want to get something to eat?” Kyle asked.

“Okay. How ’bout? Let’s get cheeseburger grinders?”

“Okay, and a large Dr. Pepper to share?”

Millie smiled. “Okay.”

They went into the burger place. “Do you want to eat here or at the store?”

Millie smiled again. “How ’bout? Let’s make the human’s mad.”

“Okay. You can go sit down. I’ll get the food.”

Millie sat down, while Kyle went to order.

When Kyle got the food, he walked over to Millie and sat across from her. She set her hand on the table and he put his hand over her hand. They smiled as they looked each other in the eyes.

“I love you.... Always and forever,” Kyle said to Millie.

“I love you too.... Always and forever.”

They started eating.

Later they were heading to the store, when they ran into Champ, Stina, and Shawn.

“Where you three going?” Millie asked.

“Well,” Champ started, “us three and Lacy put our money together and we’re hoping you two would do the same so that way we can get Wagner that bike for Christmas.”

“You’ve seen it?” Kyle asked.

“Yea. It’s a nice bike. I’d get it.”

They all laughed.

“We have to get our money from the store first,” Millie replied.

“Okay.”

They went to the store. Kat was leaning on the lamp post in front of the store, waiting for them. “Just about the whole gang.... Huh?” she asked.

“Yea.” Millie didn’t bother to take her eyes off the cat.

“So, Millie,” Kat asked with angrier growing in her voice, “you were going to let me die?”

“Yea.”

“We were suppose to be a team.”

“Well, sorry but I don’t like working with cats.”

“Well, I don’t like working with wolves, but I didn’t let you die.”

“That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t let you die.”

“That would have been fair.”

Millie and Kat started fighting. Kyle and Champ tried to stop them but each time they would be two victims of the girls’ attacks. Lacy and Wagner walked out from the bookstore to see what was going on. Eventually, Millie pushed Kat into the road.

A semi-truck was about to hit Kat, but Champ jumped in and saved her. They rolled to the other side of the road as the truck passed by. Millie was ticked off at Champ.

When Champ stood up, he helped Kat to her feet. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yea. I’m fine.” She was about to cry and she hugged him. “Thank you.”

Millie stormed over to Champ and Kat. “Why did you just save her?”

Champ and Kat broke out of the hug. Champ turned to face Millie.

“Like all cats, she deserves to die. Now, why did you save her?” Millie was really ticked off at him.

He didn’t do anything wrong. To Millie what he did was wrong, but he knew better than that. “Because....”

Before he could go on he looked at Kat then back to Millie. She needed to know. It was time to tell her. She wasn’t going to like it, but she needed to know. “I love her,” he finally admitted.

Millie, Kyle, Stina, and Wagner were shocked by the news. Millie didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know how to react. Those words coming from Champ about a cat shape-shifter were.... Were surprising.... Shocking.

“You can banish me.... But let her live.”

“Sorry, Champ. Rules are rules. She has to die.”

“Rules are rules?” He couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Millie.... Those rules are really old. You and I both know that the rules should be changed.... You let Shawn get away with eating that bird.”

“But that was different.... He’s not dating a cat shape-shifter. How can you even like her kind? They mock us.”

“Millie, please.... Look into your heart. I know you have a heart.... Under all that anger, hatred, and pain that you have toward everyone else. I know it’s there somewhere. Let it go. Please.... Have it in your heart to change those rules.”

“But....”

“Millie, please?”

Man, Millie really hated when Kyle or Champ made her feel so bad about something. She thought about it and realized that he was right. “Fine.... But none of us other wolves have to like it.... We’ll get along with her.... But only because of you.”

Champ smiled. “Okay.”

Lacy walked over to them. “Oh yea. Me and Shawn already knew.”

That made Millie mad but she tried to act like it didn’t bother her. “Okay.” She couldn’t believe that in a month and a day would change everything for her.