Chapter 1
I watched as the sun started going down. My mom told me that it was unsafe to be running during hunting season. I shouldn’t even be in the forest taking pictures right now. I wasn’t scared as one of the wolves came out of the trees and sat in front of me. I snapped a picture and smiled to myself. He wasn’t big enough to be a werewolf but no fear surged through me as he watched all my actions. His ears perked up and I froze to listen.
“Samantha!” I could hear my older sister Sarah calling out to me. She was the only person in my family that didn’t consider me a freak after we found out that I took after my father. I winked at the wolf standing in front of me and started running, still unafraid of the hidden dogs in the trees.
“I’m right here!” I stepped out of the trees and grinned at her. She grimaced at me after looking me up and down. My shirt had a tear, my jeans were caked with mud, and I’m pretty sure there were leaves and mud in my hair.
“You promised mom.”
“I wasn’t running Sarah,” My heart was still hitting my chest. “as a wolf anyway. I came running from my rock.”
“What were you doing, wrestling with the wolves?” She teased as we walked back to the house.
“No, there are a lot of loose roots in the forest right now. I tripped a few times.”
“You’re not a clumsy person Sam. You really need to watch where you’re going.”
“Yeah, I know.” I looked down at my feet and sighed loudly.
“Is everything okay Sam?”
“I want to run but mom is being a bully.”
“It’s for your safety Samantha.” We both stopped at the back door. She slid it waiting for me to step inside.
“Can I have just a few more minutes please?”
“You’d better not go back into the forest or I’ll tell mom.” She closed the door not waiting for my response. When she was no longer watching me from the window, I perched on the deck railing. I looked at the clouds forming around the setting sun. They weren’t just any clouds. They were almost black and very bubbly. Rain was coming soon. I was just hoping that there wouldn’t be a thunder storm, I am terrified of thunder. I hopped down from the railing and stepped into the overly warm house.
Sarah was sitting on one of the kitchen counters picking at something that looked like spaghetti. I stood across from her making a face.
“What?” Her mouth was full and she was nothing close to graceful.
“What are you eating?”
“Food, what does it look like?”
“I’m going to dad’s, okay?”
“Mom said that you weren’t allowed there.”
“She can get over it!” I closed my bedroom door behind me and locked the door. I grabbed my duffel bag from the corner and started stuffing whatever my hands touched in it.
“Sam, please come out. We can talk about this.” My sister had learned that she needed to be calm around me. I already had anger issues and now I had to work on them extra hard to make sure that I didn’t explode on someone. I could turn into a wolf on my own will, but when I was mad that’s all I wanted to do. When I was a wolf, I could run as far as I wanted and no one could stop me. My father was the alpha of the pack and my twin brother Luke was next. Luke was lucky enough to get to live with my father.
I thrust my door open and froze when Sarah was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. She wasn’t going to let me go without a fight. She should know by now that even as a human I was stronger than her.
