Wolf Girl (Excerpt)

Chapter 2

Author's Note: Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed the previous chapter. I will be updating this book every Sunday. With that being said, here is chapter 2.

Chapter 2

I woke up to the bright morning sun and yawned. It was time to start moving again. After a quick stretch, I walked through the forest, taking in every detail of the land. It was slightly warmer today as the season began to move closer and closer to the end of spring. A few more flowers had popped up, and the trees were beginning to regrow their bright green leaves.

Birds perched on tree branches, chirping cheerfully as they greeted the new day. The forest seemed to move in a bustle with small and large animals alike; but as the hours passed I realized that something was wrong, that the forest had grown silent. I stopped, cocking my head to the side to listen.

I heard movement, but it soon stopped, aware that it had alerted the many animals to its presence. There was only silence, and then-boom! I turned to look in the direction of the gunshot.

As wolves, we are taught not to trust humans. Humans killed for no reason, but simply for the sake of killing. They often took from the earth without giving back. They littered, polluting our homes. They chopped down too many trees, leaving many creatures homeless.

That put me in a difficult position, as I am half human, but the wolves told me that so long as I remained in my wolf form, I would be treated as one. I knew that there were truly some good people on this planet, but we were taught to keep our guard up. Only the wolves are our family, our brothers, our sisters, and we'd never kill our own kind.

I listened closely to the sound of the hunter's footsteps. He was getting closer. The air grew tenser as the other animals hid in the undergrowth or crouched in their burrows. I peeked out from behind a slender tree, and we saw each other at the same time. The hunter raised his rifle from his side and I realized that previous gunshot had been meant for me. I took off running further as he fired his rifle again.

I stopped behind a large Sitka spruce, hoping that I had lost the man, but soon I could hear his footsteps again-no, there were multiple sets of feet moving through the forest. The pair of feet that I could hear approaching were from a different human, a male by the sound of the heavy pounding of his feet. A female's footstep would be lighter. I began to panic as he got closer, but then it occurred to me-the men were after the wolf, so all I had to do was change into my human form. How was I supposed to do that again? It had been so long.

The human male's footsteps grew louder. Think Rachel, think. I thought back to my blurry memories as a seven-year old child. How had I done it? I had to want it, I remembered. I pictured my wolf body turning into a silhouette of a human, as I did not know what my human face looked like any more. The transformation took longer than I remembered, most likely because I couldn't visualize myself as a human, and also because I was out of practice, but eventually it came.

I could see the bright, yellow flash of light through my eyelids and when I opened them, I saw my naked torso. Long straight black hair hung over my shoulders, stretching down about an inch past my hips.

My arms and legs were slender and fair, and my fingers and toes ended with translucent nails. I took note that the air was cooler in this body, as I did not have my fur. The man was right behind my tree now, though the sound seemed to be duller somehow. I guessed that my human ears weren't as sharp as a wolf 's. The hunter stepped out in front of me and gasped.

"Oh my! Here, put this on." The man spun around and took off his jacket, which he held out to me without looking back. I sniffed at it-the fabric reeked with the salty smell of sweat, mixed with cologne. I stared at it, unsure of what to do.