“Here,” Valerie said as she handed me a small box wrapped. “Happy belated birthday. I hope you like it. Daniel and I chose it this morning.”

            We sent Jamie to Sam’s house and now we were at The Curve shopping complex. It felt weird when you remembered what happened here a month and a half ago. Jamie was human and we hung out here. Now it felt like it was ages ago. Jamie was now a werewolf and couldn’t be seen by humans especially her parents.

            I fed coins to a vending machine to buy myself a Coke. I sipped my Coke before tearing opening the present.

            I gasped. “Thanks, Val.” I hugged her. She bought me a camera lens. Camera lens were very expensive nowadays.

            “You’re welcome. What do you want to do? Other than sitting here and listen to the old woman giving a lecture about a lotion?” We looked at the lady who was advertising a lotion on stage and laughed.

            “I’m getting bored of her. Want to hang out at the arcade?”

            “Cool.”

            I didn’t know where was the arcade so I asked Val to show me where was the arcade. It wasn’t very crowded but it was very noisy. Val challenged me to car race. I have a better chance of beating her because I have a driving license so I accepted the challenge. She was so close to beating me but my car blocked her way.

            “That’s call cheating,” Val complained.

            “It’s a free world, Val.”

            I won the race in the end. We got free sweets and teddy bears. I tried out dancing but the steps were so quick and difficult as if it was the game ‘Twister’. Val was so much better at me at the dancing. While I was watching Val dance, I saw someone familiar watching us from a distance.

            “Henry,” I said.

            “Sophia,” he said.

            It was a weird start because I started the conversation by saying his name instead of a ‘hello’. I smiled casually like we were close but we weren’t in reality. We rarely talk to each other. “What are you doing around here?”

            He shrugged. “Just looking around. Is that your sister?” He nodded his head at Val.

            “No, she’s my cousin.” By the time I answered him, Val joined us. I introduced them by first name since I had forgotten Henry’s last name. Val offered to shake his hands but he just stared at her hand. I quickly told Val to play some other games. She flashed me a glance. I put a few tokens on her palm. She closed her fist with the coins in it and left us.

            “You two look very alike,” Henry said from what he observed.

            “That’s what I thought too but I’m the more responsible one.”

            He grinned and told me, “I want to tell you something.” He stepped closer to me that I could feel his warmth. I took a step back and waited for him to speak. “Like I said before, I will be there when you need me. I know who you are, Sophia Rhys-Deaux. I know what your family is capable of. I will be invisible but I’ll always be at your side. Always will.”

            I froze, not able to speak. What was he talking about? How did he know about me? What did he mean? About Hunters? Could he be a wolf himself? I want to kill him but we’re in public. I could go to prison for this if I was caught.

            “What did you mean by you’ll always be by my side?” I asked slowly and quietly so no one could hear us.

            He walked away and disappeared among the crowd. I quickly look for Val just in case he might be after her. She was playing a shooting game. She immediately stopped shooting when she saw me.

            “Who was that guy?” she asked me.

            “One of my classmate,” I replied. Should I tell her what happened? I didn’t want her to get stressed up. So I kept it to myself. Anyway, during Solstice, I will kill him if he was a wolf. I had to be patient. We have another two more months before ripping his throat out. I had to tell Sam no matter what.

            Val and I decided to go home after we had dinner at a restaurant. Jamie was in the house when we got back. So was Sam. Jamie and Pierre must have made up while we were gone because now they were so close. Or maybe they were in the same family. Wolves are a part of dogs. I told Sam to follow me to my room. I changed in the bathroom to long pajama pants and a T-shirt. It was getting cold nowadays. Winter was coming. Solstice was coming.

            “Was there something going on?” Sam read the expression on my face. I walked up and down in my room.

            He gently pulled me to sit on his lap like I was a child. “One of my classmates Henry was at The Curve just now. A few weeks ago, he told me that he will always be there when I needed him. I thought he was talking about homework or something related to school. I thought it was nothing. Just now, he said he knows who I am and what my family is capable of and he will always be there by my side. Could he be a wolf?”

            “Hmm . . . Did he hurt you? Or touch you?” Sam looked at me with a worried expression.

            “No, I’m perfectly fine.”

            He was in deep thought for a moment. “I don’t know. Does he smell like a wolf?”

            “He smelt like a human. Could humans know about us?”

            “Maybe. Daniel knew the existence of tigers when he was human. You should just convince him that you’re not more than a normal human.”

            I nodded. “Okay,” I paused to yawn hugely. I ran my fingers in his soft brownish blond hair. He smiled.

            “Sleep, little red riding hood. There’s nothing for you to worry about. I got new plans for Solstice.”

            I lay down on the bed. “Are you going to call the Bermudan Wolves?”

            “No, we’re going to make new tigers. I’ll see you in the morning.” Sam was going to stand up and leave but I caught his hand and tighten my grip on him.

            “Please stay, until I fall asleep,” I whispered, closing my eyes.

            “Okay,” he agreed and he sat next to the bed, waiting for me to fall asleep. He started to hum the classical music that we danced to on my birthday. I was able to sleep throughout the night and my nightmares disappeared.

            “Okay, Sophia, Jamie and I will check the forest out. Val and Daniel look for a possible hiding spot. Kevin and Nick secure the area. The rest plan on how to keep the wolves from trying to escape,” Sam ordered. We were outside of Sam’s house in the morning. Jamie was getting used to the eating animals tradition. She was also able to hunt werewolves. We hadn’t met Rick ever since Jamie was banished from the pack. They must have their own plans for Solstice. We had three weeks to Solstice 21st. Exactly twenty-one days to either victory or death.

            I was still worried about Henry’s situation. What if he wasn’t human as Sam thought? Even if he was, he should just keep his mouth shut.

            “Let’s go,” Sam said. Jamie, in her wolf form nudged me. I followed Sam and Jamie deeper into the forest. Sam wasn’t a tiger. I wanted to see him in his tiger form again. I remembered his orange fur and body so flexible. A stupid thought entered my head. What if I was a tiger? How will I look like? I slammed the thought away.

            “Where did the fight usually happen during Solstice?” I asked Sam.

            “It changes every year. Last year, it happened here.” He stopped walking and touched scratches on the bark of the tree. I could see a bit of dried blood on it. Whose blood was that? My head was spinning at the sight of blood. Jamie looked at me with her beautiful brown eyes.

            After nearly an hour in the forest, Jamie growled. She must have smelt a wolf.

            Jamie led us to the scent and found two wolves. Their eyes weren’t red. Both eyes were round and black. What did this mean?

            Jamie was about to attack them when Sam shouted, “No!” The wolves looked at us. Jamie whistled through her nose and I stared in disbelief at Sam, but I had a knife in my hands just in case. They were wolves. They deserved to die.

            “What’s wrong with you? They’re wolves,” I told Sam.

            He walked towards the wolves, without bothering to turn into a tiger. “They’re the Bermudan Wolves,” Sam told me and Jamie. I had never seen a Bermudan Wolf before so I didn’t know how they looked like. I took a mental picture so I would recognize them if we meet them again.

            The wolves shifted human, they smiled at Sam as if they knew Sam for a very long time. “Pierre, how are you? It’s been awhile,” one of the wolves said. He looked like he was in his early thirties. His face was pale but handsome. The other wolf had the same similarity but he looked younger. One of them had blond and the other was brunette hair. Their hairs were cropped too. They wore casual clothes but the wolf’s accent was old and grand like the Germanic language. I nearly wanted to ask Sam who was Pierre then I remembered it was Sam’s old name.

            “Indeed,” Sam agreed. “I am going to visit George by the end of this year.”

            “After Solstice, of course,” the other wolf joined in. His accent was more modern. “It looks like you made an interesting discovery.” He eyed Jamie, who was growling at him. The wolves laughed as if Jamie was the joke. Sam let himself a smile but I remained unmoved.

            “We found her wandering. We didn’t know how . . .” Sam trailed off, unsure of how to continue.

            “God works in mysterious ways. We’re going to find out soon enough. And a Hunter. She looks beautiful.” He turned to me. “How rude of me to not introduce myself. My name is Edmund.” He kissed my hand like a gentleman.

            The wolf with a grander accent rolled his eyes at Edmund. “I’m James. Don’t mind him, he’s been around with women most his existence.” He shook hands with me. I felt their skins that were almost like human. Almost but not quite human.

            “Anyway, we’re just passing by. It was a coincidence to meet each other this way. We were on our way to New Zealand. I heard there were many wolves there so George sent us there. How is John? I began to miss him already.”

            “He’s fine. Are you two best friends already?” Sam said.

            “Maybe. Grey is a good companion for George, from my point of view. I guess we will just be on our way,” Edmund said, punching lightly at James’s shoulder like they were brothers.

            “Tell George about my visit on Christmas,” Sam hurriedly told them.

            “I guess this is a farewell then. Goodbye, Pierre,” James said. He looked at me and whispered, “We’ll meet again, Hunter.” He was near enough for me to hear him. They disappeared as wolves.

            That was strange. Edmund and James were nice but I still didn’t trust them. They’re wolves. Was it me or James’s breath smelt like blood? Was it human blood? I hoped it was animal blood. The thought made me remembered the dried blood on the tree. Jamie looked at me.

            “What’s wrong?” Sam held my hand.

            “They are scary,” I lied. I shuddered away from the thought of blood.

            Jamie was by my side, nudging me at my shoulders with hers.

            “I’m okay,” I assured her. “Just freaked out, I guess.”

            “Hey, so far we didn’t see any wolves other than the Bermudan Wolves. Let’s go home,” Sam suggested.

            Jamie nodded in agreement. She shifted to human form. I followed them home as I was the slowest of all. This was a disadvantage of being human. We went to Sam’s house to meet the rest of the tigers and Val. John, Christopher, Kevin and Nick were in the kitchen. Daniel and Val were back the same time as we did.

            John showed us a map of the forest. I noticed the meadow in the map. There were red dots and lines scribbled on the map. He cleared his throat to get our attention before speaking. Then, I realized for the first time, I had never heard him speak before.

            “Sophia and Valerie will drive the pack to us. There are six of us. Sam and I will make two more new tigers.” I looked at Sam. His face was expressionless as he listened to John. “Three of us will climb the tree. Daniel had to protect Valerie as Sam had to take protect Sophia. Your safety is our priority,” he told me and Val. “Three more will guard the back just in case any of them will try to escape. This plan is more difficult but it was very different from last year’s plans. What do you think?”

            The group mumbled in agreements.

            “What about Jamie?” I asked.

            John looked at me. “She can guard the back.”

            Jamie nodded with a serious expression.

            “Everything’s in place then. Now all that’s left is the new tigers . . .” Sam said.

            Sam and John left the kitchen to discuss. I imagined it was hard for Sam to bite a human for the first time. I wanted to say sorry to Sam for doing this to him but I knew this for our own good. I’d rather trust the new tigers than the Bermudan Wolves.

            Val and I decided to go home. Jamie wanted to hunt. We walked home along the road. “Is there something going on between you and Daniel?” I asked Val.

            John paired them up and paired me with Sam for Solstice. Sam was my best friend so I trust my safety on him. Daniel just knew Val and who knows he might kill Val. I saw the way they looked at each other. They were beyond the friend zone. They were more like best friends like Sam and I.

            “If I tell you a secret, can you please don’t tell anyone else?”

            “Is it a huge secret?”

            She bit her lips nervously. If it had something to do with Daniel, I’ll rip his head off. I walked faster and stopped in front of her so she stopped too. She was avoiding my gaze. This must have been very bad.

            “Your lips are white. Valerie, tell me what’s going on? Are you okay?”

            She started to cry. “What if we don’t survive after Solstice? Mum will be alone. Your mother will blame mum because of this. Even if your brother is a Hunter, I don’t think your mum will let him hunt after our deaths.”

            I hugged her tightly. I was crying too. I wanted to live and forget about this but we didn’t have a choice. We are who we are. Unless if I could let Val out of action. She didn’t need to grab the wolves’ attention with me, I could do it myself. “If you want, you don’t have to do it.”

            She stopped crying, she wasn’t sad anymore, she was shocked. “And let you handle this yourself? Why do you risk your life for me and mum? If you do, I will never able to owe you and I will regret for being a coward and let you handle this on your own. No, I’m going with you.”

            “Are you sure?” I demanded. Even if she changed her mind, it won’t make a difference to our plans.

            “Yes, I’m very sure. Let’s go.”

            She was right about one thing though. Mum will blame Alice for our deaths because Alice didn’t follow mum’s condition. Alice told me about the legend and Hunters. She had no choice. It’s the only way to continue the line. Alice did what she could, for everyone’s sake. What surprised me was that mum did the exact opposite of what Alice did. She did it for her own purpose. That was to have a normal family.