Wolf Girl (Excerpt)

Chapter 1

Author's Note: Hi everyone! First, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read my book! However this is only a short excerpt and if you would like to read the rest, you can either visit my website or Amazon to purchase Wolf Girl. Thank you for your support and happy reading!

Chapter 1

It all started eleven years ago on a warm morning in June, when I was only seven. It was barely light outside, the sun a light glow against the blue curtains on my window. As I lay in bed, I was awakened by the sound of my mother calling my name.

"Mom?" I asked.

"Rachel, sweetie, get up. We have to go."

"Where are we going?" I asked. She ignored my question and told me to get dressed. Before I could make sense of what was happening, she had taken my hand and rushed us down the stairs and out into the morning air.

Once we were outside, my mother broke into a sprint. I had no choice but to be dragged along as she held my hand tight.

"Mom?" I asked again, as the trees whooshed by us in a blur.

"Rachel, honey, I'm going to leave you with Brian's pack for a couple of hours. I'll be back as soon as I can, okay?"

"Okay. But where are you going?"

"I can't tell you right now, but you'll understand soon."

"Please don't go," I begged.

"Honey, I have to. I have something very important to take care of, but I'll be back."

Without exchanging another word, we ran into the very middle of the forest. The canopy of leaves above almost entirely blocked out the rising morning sun, casting shadows among the damp earth. Then five dark figures emerged from the trees.

"Brian!" I exclaimed. He gave me a wolfish grin as I raced over to bury my face in his thick brindle fur.

Brian was the alpha of the pack, and also one of my favorites among the wolves, along with his mate, Kylia. He was a gray wolf with broad shoulders. He held both his head and tail much higher than the others, a sure symbol of his status. The only other wolf allowed to assume that stance was Kylia. She shared the responsibilities of pack leader, but Brian had an air about him, one that was particularly assertive. It was easy to see why he was the alpha.

Hello Rachel. Kylia, the alpha female, was smaller and more slender, with glossy black fur. She carried herself with the same assertiveness, but she was also very warm and caring, with a motherly vibe that made her easy to love. I smiled as she greeted me with a lick. The rest of the pack greeted us with a chorus of hellos.

"Please take good care of her," my mother said.

Of course, Brian replied. You two are practically family.

"Be good, Rachel." My mother kissed my cheek. "I'll back as soon as I can. I love you."

"I love you too, Mom." And she closed her eyes for a second, with a look of sheer concentration on her face. There was a bright golden flash that caused everyone to look away, and when it faded, she was a large black wolf. She looked me in the eyes with an emotion I did not understand, and then she turned and left.

After that, I never saw my mother again. I was raised by Brian, Kylia, and the rest of the pack, and they quickly became my family.

Kylia had always been my favorite. She was like a second mother to me, while Brian had become the father I never had. The wolves raised me for many years-eleven, to be exact. They taught me how to truly survive in the wilderness, a trait that I had not yet fully grasped. After all, I lived in a house. We got our food from a grocery store. There was no absolute need to hunt unless we wanted to. We were safe and well fed in our little home.

Everything in the wild was different. Living in the wilderness was about opportunity and survival. There was no more refusing to eat a certain food because I didn't like it. It was hunt and eat or starve. Living in the wild was all about survival of the fittest, and survive I did.

Being raised by the wolves was a unique learning experience that I will never forget. It became part of who I was. However, living in the wilderness has never erased my memories of my "human" life. Despite the years that have gone by, my mother's disappearance still continues to haunt me.

I asked the wolves about her, about what truly happened, but no one was ever able to provide me with the answers I needed, not even Brian, who had been the closest to my mother out of all the wolves. He said that the only thing that she had told him before she left was that I was in some sort of danger, and that she needed them to protect me at all costs.

What that danger was, he didn't know. Apparently my mother was always very secretive about her past. She'd moved to Alaska when she was just twenty, and he'd known her since he was a pup. In fact, she had been the one who had gifted him with the name Brian. Though she never went into her past or spoke much about her family, Brian had a feeling that something had happened, that the past she had run from so many years ago had finally caught up with her. That was all he could tell me.

Though I loved my pack, when my adoptive mother and father died, I saw no more reason to stay. I needed answers, answers that they could not give me. So I left my home, the wolves that I have come to know as my family, my teachers, everything that I knew. It was time to find out why my mother never returned to me like she had promised.