Chapter 1
Karen found herself in a thick forest. A cold wind chilled her to the very core. The noises of bugs were not present like it normally would have been. Instead, the sound of a creature’s breathing was heard. Karen looked around frantically. She was only five years old, and her deep dark brown eyes shined with fear.
The breathing got louder every second that passed. Soon a large black wolf emerged from the thickest trees. The fur was as dark as midnight in Alaska. The wolf’s eyes caught her instantly. Light amber brown eyes glinted even without light shining. The wolf stared intently at her. Karen began breathing frantically and scrambling away from the wolf. For all she knew, the wolf was hungry for its next meal. Instead of chasing after her the black wolf sat down and watched her. Karen knew that the wolf could tell she was frightened.
“I will not hurt you.” The wolf said softly.
Karen stopped moving and looked with disbelief. Did the wolf just talk to her?
“No.,” Karen thought to herself. “That is impossible.”
“It is not impossible Karen.” The wolf’s voice spoke in her head.
This only scared her more as she began to curl up and began to cry.
“Would you like me to speak instead, little one?” The wolf asked with a small smile on his face.
“Yes please.” Karen squeaked.
“You have nothing to fear child, I would never harm my human.”
Karen just looked at the wolf with a puzzled look on her face. The wolf chuckled to himself.
“My apologies. All you need to know right now is that your world is about to change.”
The scene began to fade away as Karen woke up with her heart beating. She began to breathe frantically once more. The dream was too vivid for her. She looked at her alarm clock and it was six in the morning. She sighed with relief as she got up and snuck downstairs to grab a quick snack. She knew that she was the only one up because it was dead quiet in the house.
Karen found a small bag of Cheetos and quietly ran back to her room. She felt safe there with the door locked. She looked at her alarm clock once more and saw it was only six-ten. She had many more hours until her mom woke up. She cuddled up and began to fell asleep again.
A loud crash startled Karen. She tensed up and looked around. In her throat, she made a low growling sound. Everything was quiet once more. It was most likely her sisters causing problems as usual. She settled back down and got comfortable once more. She heard another crash, but this one was closer. She just rolled her eyes and wished she was not home. She began to relax once more but then she heard her family screaming. This time it was not them yelling, they were in trouble.
Karen jumped out of bed and ran to her door. She swiftly opened the door and started to run towards the sounds of chaos. She soon came to the top of the stairs and froze with fear. There were four strangers with spines growing out of their necks, and they had her family tied up. Secretly her heart jumped with joy when she saw her mom and sisters tied up, but she was filled with too much fear to show it. She ran back to her room and locked the door. She panicked as she tried to find a hiding spot. She heard a strange noise from her door, but she did not have enough time to react.
The door was blown off of its hinges. The explosion blew her back a couple of feet. She laid on her back stunned. Everything around her slowed downed and her ears started to ring.
The strange people walked inside assessing the damage that was done. Karen tried to get up but had no feeling in her body. The people went over to her. Karen could tell that they were talking, but could not hear the words being exchanged. A strong, burly man towered over her and picked her up by the neck of her shirt with one hand. Once downstairs he threw her near her family. The last thing she remembered seeing was a dark shadow in the shape of a wolf on the wall next to her. The wolf’s words rang in her mind and she now understood what he meant.
