Louisa's POV
"Do you need more charcoals?" Mick asked me, holding a bag of charcoals on his back.
"That will be more than enough. You can place them here." I smiled at him.
"What else do you need me to do?" Mick rubbed his hands together and asked.
He was a giant, sturdy man with a pair of fat palms.
"I need you to relax for a little bit. You can take your seat over there with your brothers. I'll prepare for the rest of it." I said.
"I'm afraid that's not possible, Miss Louisa." He scratched his head and said, "I want to help."
I sighed and said, "Maybe you can help me prepare these chickens. I'll boil some water and you can put them inside. Later, we'll get them out and pluck the hidden feather in their skin."
"Cool, Miss Louisa," Mick said and went to fetch some water from the well.
Then, I saw there was something in the surrounding bush.
Snow noticed it as well.
"What's that?!" she hissed next to my ear. "Is that a rat?!"
Before I could go there and check it out, she had already jumped off my shoulders and charged into the bush.
Then, I saw she bounced out of the bush with a little bat in her mouth.
"No!" I ran towards her and said, "Snow! Drop that bat! It's Will!"
"Oops!" Snow opened her mouth and dropped the bat on the ground.
The bat immediately transformed into a little boy.
He flipped around on the ground and rubbed his head.
"Ouch!" Will said. "I bumped my head and it hurts!"
I held him up in my arms and rubbed his head gently.
"Are you OK?" I asked concernedly.
"No... But if you kiss me on my head, it will get better." Will said with a glint in his eyes.
I quickly pecked his head. He looked up at me and smiled.
"Much better!" he claimed. He looked very happy, giggling and hugging me.
His innocent smile almost made me forget that I had wanted to tell him off.
"Bad Will, bad bad Will!" I tapped gently over his nose.
"Arrr! What's that for?" He covered his nose.
I said, "Why did you change into a little bat? You have to take care of Snow, you know. You can't let her run around everywhere in the camp. It's very dangerous. Those soldiers might hurt her."
"Sorry, Louisa. It's just because Snow was hungry. So I wanted to catch some rats for her to eat," Will rubbed his delicate nose and said.
Snow climbed up my body and got into Will's arms.
She said, "I'm sorry for biting that terrifying human woman! But I was playing around outside the tent with some butterflies and I saw that she was jumping at you. I thought she was about to kill you!"
I stroked my cheek against Will and Snow. As long as they were around me, I felt much relieved.
I don't have to go to a ball and dance with some horrible men. I thought to myself. If I want, I can dance right here, right now, with my friends, around the bonfire.
"You said that you wanted to get some rats for Snow. Did you find any?" I asked Will while disemboweling the chickens.
"Not really," Will said. He helped me by cutting the disemboweled chicken into several chunks.
"Why?" I frowned and asked.
"I couldn't find any alive ones. They were all dead." Will said.
"What?!" I felt confused. "You mean the mice were all dead on this camp?"
Will nodded and said, "Yeah. I don't know why, but this seems to be a surprisingly neat camp. Apparently, all the mice have been poisoned to death recently. Their bodies haven't decomposed yet."
I immediately thought of Lucian. He came across as a hygiene freak who might have systematically asked the soldiers to put out all the mice on the camp routinely.
But still, it sounded rather strange.
"Chicken! Chicken! I want chicken!" Snow smacked her mouth, jumping up and down on Will's shoulder.
"You can feed Snow with some chicken. Weasels like chicken," I said.
Will put a piece of chicken breast into Snow's mouth. She held it with both of her tiny hands and started to gorge.
"Snow is so cute!" Will snuggled her and said.
"Are you hungry? Do you want to drink something?" I asked Will.
Will shook his head and said, "Not really. I only consume blood when it's necessary. We live a very structured life and go out hunting about once a month. My father told me once that vampires have a very slow metabolism. We spend a whole month digesting the blood we take in on the Blood Moon Night. My father also told me that we're absolute predators, so we have to control ourselves to keep the balance of nature."
"Your father is a very wise man, Will," I said.
"I think so as well!" Will smiled at me and said. "He knows everything! He's like an encyclopedia! I wish I could know as many things as he does, but he said I had to read a lot of books. I hate reading books, you know. It's so boring."
"If you read with me, I guess it won't be boring." I winked at him.
"Really?! Are you going to read me bedtime stories every night like my mother used to do?" Will looked at me with sparks in his honey-colored eyes.
"Yes, I will," I nodded and said.
"I love you, Louisa! You're the best!" Will put down the knife, wiped his hands on his pants, and hugged me.
I melted. A stream of satisfaction and happiness invaded my heart.
Being loved by someone is the best thing in the world. I thought to myself proudly.
At that time, some patrolling soldiers walked towards us with Mick, who was trying to explain something to them.
"I'm sorry, but you're not allowed to do a barbeque on the camp," one of the soldiers said. He looked like a head soldier who was in charge.
"I know, but we will be very careful about the charcoal," Mick said.
"Sorry, the rule is the rule. No open fire on the camp," the head soldier said.
I walked towards them.
As soon as the soldiers saw me, they recognized me.
"Wait a moment, I recognize her! She's the she-wolf that cooked meatballs for us the other day!"
"The meatballs were so good! Way better than the lard tarts we eat every day."
I smiled at them and said, "I'm cooking barbeque chicken tonight and you're all welcome to join us after your shift. Soldiers from all packs are welcome to our party."