Runaway Wolf

Things have always been different when it came to me. I never understood why until I turned 17 and was ready to kill myself. When I was younger, probably about five or six, my parents disappeared and I found myself at the front door of an orphanage. Everyone always picked on me and told me, no matter what, none would ever adopt me because I was weird. I was taken in by several foster families before I turned 13. However, none of them ever wanted to officially adopt me. My last foster family was the worst. I didn't even know why they were allowed to foster me for as long as they did. The day they took me home, I was so excited that I was finally getting a loving home. Man, was I WRONG! My foster mother was either high on drugs or gone doing God only knew what. My foster dad was always drunk, would leave to go gamble, money they got every month for me, and depending on his mood, he would beat me or r**e me. Sometimes, both if he lost any money. The worst is when he would let his "buddies" have fun with me to erase debt from gambling. Most nights I would be left bruised, bloody and unconscious. I had a small bedroom, if you could call it that, probably more of a closet if anything. I had an old moldy matrices on the floor that was coming apart. Some days, if I was lucky I had a pillow and a blanket to keep warm. It honestly depended on how they felt, the same went for food. They would sometimes let me have stale bread and water, mainly to keep me alive. My small room had no windows and they would lock me in the house so I couldn't leave but still manage to 'clean' their house. Unfortunately, that was my longest and last foster home. I had just turned seventeen, and had decided that I was going to kill myself. That night, my foster dad decided my present was going to be him r****g me until I could't walk, but I did not pass out. That was when I gave up and knew I was never going to get out otherwise. Once he was gone, I dragged myself across the floor and grabbed the razor blade I had hidden to slit my wrists. My goal was to make sure I left them the biggest mess possible for them to clean up. I did not write a suicide note because it would not do me any good. I managed to sit up against the matrice and had the blade to my wrist when I heard a soft whimper. I looked around the room and realized I was alone and I must have made the noise involuntarily. I heard the whimper again and realized it was coming from my head. I must be going crazy! Right as I went to dig the razor into my skin I heard a whimper followed by a soft voice. "Please, don't kill yourself, Haley. I am with you now and you will never be alone again. My name is Amber, and I am your wolf. You are not going crazy, we are one in the same. Now that you have me I will help you get out of here." The voice said. "Just rest and by tomorrow morning you will have healed and we can run away and start new." The voice in my head sounded sad yet so sure of herself. While she was talking, I had dropped the razor and just shook my head. My foster father probably beat me so much that I was in shock and hearing 'Amber' was just a figment of my imagination. Something to hide everything that has happened. Maybe they will commit me to an asylum. Can't have a crazy foster daughter for your friends to r**e. "Haley, you are not going crazy. I can see why you might think you are though. But I promise you that I will never steer you wrong and I will do my best to protect you." Amber said sounding reassuring. "I really must be going crazy, especially because I do believe you. If you really think we can get out of this s**t hole, I will do anything." I replied. Yea, I am definitely going crazy. I am having a conversation with myself in my head. Yet, I feel calm and collected at the same time. I finally curled into a ball on my matrice, and realized how awful it smelled. I had never noticed that before but I was too tired to care at that point. I closed my eyes and fell asleep. When I opened my eyes, I was lying in a wide open field with wildflowers everywhere. In front of me was a beautiful black wolf with silver paws. This wolf was a lot bigger than a normal-sized timber wolf. She lowered her head and nudged my hand. I looked into her eyes and it was like I was staring back into my own eyes. They were the same emerald green eyes that I used to have before my current foster home. "Haley, you are not dreaming. I couldn't talk or help you before because you were not of age. I have always been there and seen your struggles. I am so sorry that I couldn't help you sooner." The wolf said while looking at me. As if feeling my panic and confusion, the wolf licked my hand and laid her head on my lap. Slowly, I lifted my hand to scratch her between her ears. I was still scared she might bite me, but instead she purred like a cat at my touch. "Tomorrow, we will leave this place and get as far away as we can, you will finally be safe." she said, licking my face, before she got up and started to walk away. "Get some sleep Haley, we have a long journey ahead of us and you need your rest." Laying back down in the field, I felt myself fall into a deep sleep. The next morning, I woke with a start, ready to get out of this house. Before I did anything, I had hoped that everything wasn't a dream and that I really was going to get out of here. I packed what small amount of clothes I had into a beat-up book bag and got dressed. I noticed that I didn't feel so empty and broken like I once had. "Haley, we will leave in a few minutes. None seems to be home at the moment and I will be able to break open the door if they locked it." Amber said. "Are you sure we are going to be able to get out of here? What if they come after us? I don't know if I am strong enough to fight them off if they catch us." I replied suddenly terrified. "We will get out even if I have to kill them! Haley, trust me, I will always be there to protect you. You are no longer alone. Now we are going to have to leave now and get to the woods for me to fully take over and put enough distance between them and us." Amber said. I grabbed my bag and, without even thinking about it, pulled the door off the hinges and walked right out of my room and out the back door. I looked to make sure there was no one outside who could rat me out to my foster family. Once I was sure none was around, I ran as fast as I could into the woods behind the house. "Okay Haley, the hard part is over now. I need you to put your clothes and shoes into your bag, and let me take over, you are going to shift from your human form into wolf. Once you are into wolf form, I will be fully in control and will be able to get us farther away. I am not going to lie, it will be painful, but I will try to take the pain away as best as I can. Just breathe through and picture yourself as a wolf." Amber said. I did what she said and took a deep breath. I instantly started feeling really hot and itchy, and heard bones cracking and popping. Damn, this s**t hurts! I wanted to scream but I have also been through worse pain. When I opened my eyes, I saw a snout and silver paws. Once I stood up, I let Amber take over and enjoyed the feeling of being free. At some point, I must have fallen asleep while Amber was in control, because when I woke up, I was back to my human self and naked in a cave. I was sore, but felt alive. Quickly, getting dressed so I could look outside, I felt Amber stirring in the back of my mind. "Good morning, Amber. Thank you so much for everything and getting us shelter." I said. "Good morning Haley, it was my pleasure. I ran as much as I could. It was at least 2 days with very limited stopping." she replied. I was in awe of her even more than before. She just helped get me away from my abusers. I grabbed my bag and started walking out of the cave. The sun was bright but the air was crisp and clean. The view was breathtaking. I made my way down the path and over to the closest creek. I needed to clean up if I was going to attempt to find a job and survive here. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to worry about how I looked too much. after a very cold yet relaxing soak in the creek, I got redressed and headed into the town. Walking down the main street, I noticed we were defiantly not in the same state and I was getting a lot of random looks from people. "My guess is because they can sense we are like them and are unsure of our being in their territory." Amber said, "I knew we were in a pack territory and hoped we could meet with the Alpha to explain our situation. Just act normal and they shouldn't feel threatened." We talked a few more blocks and found a small cafe. I walked inside and never felt so out of place before, but I guess that is what happens when you never go anywhere and are now in a different place. The waitress said to take a seat wherever and she would beover to take my order in a minute. I decided to sit in the back of the cafe, so that I didn't draw any more unwanted attention to myself. The waitress finally walked over but was accompanied by a middle-aged woman. "Hello, welcome to Moon Cafe. My name is Carol and this is Melanie. She is in training today, so she will be helping with taking orders. What can we get you darlin'?" she asked while taking out her order pad. "Oh.. Um.. just a water please. I don't really have any money for anything else right now. I was actually wondering if you knew of anywhere in town that was hiring?" I replied, feeling a little uneasy. I really have to figure something out. "Darlin', you look like you have not eaten in ages, breakfast is on me. Don't worry, I know the owner." She said, as if sensing my anxiety. She walked back into the kitchen, leaving behind Melanie. "You must be new here. What brings you to Moon Ridge? Any family or friends you're visiting?" Melanie asked. "Um... Yea, I just got into town late last night. I really don't know exactly where Moon Ridge is though." I replied suddenly, aware that I didn't have any reason to really be in this town. "Most people don't typically wander this far into our small town. So we are pretty shocked to have an outsider show up. You don't smell like a rouge, but you obviously don't belong to a pack." Melanie said questioningly. "Oh I don't know anything about packs or rouges.. I guess I was raised in what you call the human world. I just found out recently that I am a werewolf, and ran away from my abusive foster family." I told her trying not to give away too much of my life story, but maybe hoping she would understand why I was randomly there. Carol walked over and placed a giant breakfast in front of me. I have never seen so much food in my life, especially for just one person. They both looked sad after telling them the little I did about my life and I hoped they didn't show me any pity. I really wanted to be strong and be able to survive. I instantly felt ashamed of my lack of knowledge about werewolves and even just life in general. I looked at Carol, who looked like she had something to say but didn't know how to say it. She gave Melanie a look and as if she read her mind, Melanie started to talk. "So um... we don't know how to say this to you without you freaking out but our Alpha has been informed that you are here and he is sending his two head worriers to escort you back to the packhouse so he can meet you and determine what to do." she sounded sad and genuinely concerned about how I would react. I started to panic as her words sunk in and was about to stand up to leave when my vision got blurry and I felt light-headed. That was the last thing I remember before everything went black.