The Anxiety of Kalix the Werewolf Read Online Free PDF Page B

had plans to expand.
    As the crowd thinned, Mr. Carmichael and his companions made their way to their vehicles. As a family friend, Mr. Carmichael had been invited to the post-funeral reception at the Countess’s town house in Chelsea. Carmichael was a little impatient at the thought of this. He had a hankering to be getting on with business. It wasn’t only financially that the Guild had suffered recently. The MacRinnalch werewolves, their eternal enemies, had bested them again. The Guild had lost some good hunters. Mr. Carmichael had come under pressure. His position as head of the Guild was again being questioned. Strong action was necessary, and with the arrival of the Countess’s money, action could now be taken.
    â€œI’ll be back later in the evening,” Mr. Carmichael told Mr. Eggers. “Make sure you have the final list drawn up by then. I want the new hunters in as soon as possible.”
    Mr. Eggers nodded. Although he would have been rather pleased to have been asked to the reception, he was as keen as Mr. Carmichael to press on with their mission. The werewolves may have scored some successes against them in recent months, but that was soon going to change.

CHAPTER 6
    Kalix wasn’t sure what to think about her upcoming birthday party. Left to herself, she’d have ignored the occasion. She hadn’t celebrated her birthday since leaving the castle, and those celebrations she remembered from her childhood weren’t especially happy. The idea of having a partymade her nervous. The flat would be full of people. She wondered if she might have to make a speech, or entertain them somehow, something she knew she was incapable of doing.
    Moonglow assured her that she wouldn’t have to make a speech, or do anything special at all, but Kalix still felt uncomfortable. She didn’t like being the focus of attention. Kalix’s chronic anxiety made her pessimistic. She had a fear of everything going wrong, and of being blamed for it. Kalix felt a brief surge of anger and briefly contemplated moving away from this house full of humans who gave her problems. She controlled the anger, with an effort, allowing it to fade, knowing that after it was gone she’d be able to look at things more rationally.
    â€œI suppose it’s nice of them to want to do something for me,” she muttered.
    Vex was bursting with excitement about their joint birthday. The young Fire Elemental had used her highlighting pens to mark off all the days on the calendar in the kitchen, putting huge crosses over every day that passed, and smiley faces on the days still to come, despite Moonglow’s protests that Vex’s marks covered up everything else on the calendar. Moonglow didn’t want Vex’s enthusiasm to overshadow Kalix’s part in the proceedings, but Kalix was grateful for it. It took the pressure off her. If Vex wanted to make a lot of noise and be the center of attention, Kalix didn’t mind.
    She took her journal from the locked box in her bedside cabinet. She’d bought the small container for her journal after realizing that nothing was safe from the prying eyes of Vex, who seemed not to understand the concept of privacy. All of Kalix’s deepest thoughts were contained in her journal and she refused to let anyone else read them. She carefully locked her bedroom door before opening the book and looking at her most recent entries. After a year at remedial college, her writing was still poor, but a little more legible.
    Werewolf Improvement Plan . She frowned and wondered if that was a stupid title. The young werewolf glanced at the door, as if fearing that someone might be spying on her.
    It had occurred to Kalix quite recently that perhaps, as she was often unhappy, she could do something to make her life better. The idea had come to her after she’d decided not to accept money from Dominil. Dominil had made an agreement with Thane Markus whereby he secretly