Chapter 1

I stepped outside quickly. I made sure the door slammed behind me, and took of running. There was no way they were going to send me to some boarding school. EVER! When I realized where I was I started crying in relief. I was at my best friend’s house. I stepped up the thick steps that led to her small concrete porch, and knocked. Her mom answered the door.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Can I talk to Lindsey?" She nodded and sent me up. I stepped into her room and sat on her bed. She was on her phone talking to her boyfriend, no doubt. Lindsey looked at me, mumbled a quick "Call you back later." and hung up the phone. Lindsey's long red-brown hair was tied up in a pony tail. Her pale arms hugged me.

"What's wrong?" She asked sitting next to me.

"They want to send me away to a boarding school." I sobbed into her shoulder. She knew that when I said 'they' that I meant my mom and step-dad, Matt.

"Why?"

"Because it's 'The best school in the nation.' Matt's going to help her pay for it. And I have to go!" I cried. She got up and led me outside. We started walking and I calmed down some. It was around midnight when we started home.

We took a short cut through a small forest. It was eerily dark and we heard a wolf howl close to us. We froze. Then a twig cracked behind us. My heart hammered in my chest. I could feel the adrenalin in my veins and the wind started to blow and chilled my slightly. We heard a bark behind us and I knew one of us would get hurt. I loved Lindsey like a sister, and I would make sure that she could get away. As soon as I thought that, I tried to smother a giggle that was dieing to burst from my chest. I was always the “mother hen”. I thought of others, mostly, before myself, trying to protect those younger than me or weaker than me. Lindsey was far from being weaker than me, because she was way stronger, but she was younger than me, if only by five months. And I found it ironic that that would be my last thought. I was absolutely sure I was going to die. I’ve seen wolf attacks on T.V. They weren’t pretty.

The wind whipped around me and I slight shiver ran down my spine. My hair whipped into my face and I shivered again.

“Why are you shivering?”

“The wind, it’s cold out here.”

“There’s no wind.” I didn’t have time to ponder over that because there were snarls all around us. We were surrounded. I gulped and the wind blew harder than ever. My heart pumped and I started to shiver uncontrollably.

“Are you okay?” I tried to nod but she couldn’t tell because of the darkness. Then I fell to the ground. I felt her drop down next to me. “Is! Is, are you okay? Listen to me! Is!” I could hardly hear her over the ferocious barking and growling that was going on around us. I could only make out her voice when she said my nick name, Is. My eyes rolled to the back of my head and I pictured a wolf that was beautiful. Tall, lean, and quick. When I opened my eyes again, I could see perfectly well in front of me. As if the sun came back up. I looked around and saw a dark form in the bushes behind Lindsey. I opened my mouth to tell her when a bark came out of my mouth. I tried again and the same thing happened. I looked down and saw two paws where my hands should have been. I turned my head to look at my body, but my body wasn't there. A wolf body was there. And a tail! What happened to me? I wanted to scream. But before I could the wolf lunged at Lindsey. I leapt at the same time and got the other wolf by the neck. More wolves, a total of six, started to attack me and I fought them off the best I could. I saw Lindsey run so I jumped into some bushes in the opposite direction so she could get a better head start.

The leader of the pack grabbed my neck. I growled and he bit a little harder. I looked around us and saw that there were only four wolves around us. Where did the other two go? I twisted to the left and jerked to the right and slipped out of his mouth. I jumped to the left and bit him in the neck. He turned belly up and I let go as he and his ‘posse’ ran, tail between their legs. I ran after Lindsey, smelling out her trail. I reached a small clearing and saw the other two wolves circling a tree. I looked up and saw Lindsey up in the branches, holding a bloody stick. And one of the wolves’ eye was bleeding.

I went over and snarled. The one with the bad eye, whimpered and backed off, but the other one stood its ground, showing his teeth. I growled and he lunged. We rolled around and I took a chunk out of its ear. After that he turned tail and ran.

"Isabelle is that you?" She asked. I opened my mouth to speak but thought better of it and nodded. "No, It can’t be you. That’s not possible. Is it?" I shrugged. I pulled her shirt with my teeth to signal that we should get going. We ran back to her house. We stepped in and her little sister, Sophie, ran up to me.

"Aww. Where did you find her? Momma can we keep her?" She asked in a rush. I sat obediently while she ran her fingers through my hair.

"Lindsey! Where have you been? We've been worried sick about you. You left your phone here!" Her mom yelled.

"Sorry Mom. I walked Is home. But this dog followed me home and she doesn't seem to have a home. Could we keep her till we find her family?" Her mom sighed and nodded.

"But you’re watching over her. She is rather pretty. It's a shame she's lost." I looked down at my fur and I was a dark brown with some light brown and black speckled spots. Lindsey walked up to her room and I followed. I saw myself in the mirror and around my eyes, where my glasses normally were, was a black outline of them around my eyes. My eyes were the same green like my dad's.

"Let's text your mom and tell her your staying with me tonight." I nodded and she typed, 'Hey Mom. I'm sleeping over at Lindsey's. Night.' My mom replied, 'Okay honey. I love you, I'm sorry you're upset. It's for your own good though. Just text me when you're coming home.' Lindsey got into her pajamas and hopped into bed. I jumped up to and circled the bottom of her bed.

"When you become human again," She yawned, "You're going to have to tell me why dogs do that." I snorted and knocked her feet of the bed. So she threw a pillow at me. I rolled my eyes and put my head on the pillow, falling asleep to the sound of her fish tank.