Chapter 1

She wanted to be alone. That was the reason she was there; to be alone. She had rented the house from the owner for a year. It was up in the snowy mountains, only a small community lived a distance away from the house. Far enough no one would dare drive out to see her, but close enough for help if the need be.  She wanted to be close to nature, not the squirrel kind of nature either, she wanted to be by the wolves. She loved the way they ran, always in a pack. There were always the lone wolves, but the packs interested her more.

She was in the forest right now, hiking up to the spot she last saw the wolves. It was a decent way up the mountain, enough so she had to catch her breath a few times. It was cold, snowing lightly. She was wrapped in her warm winter clothes and was still a little cold. Worst of all no wolves in sight. She hadn't seen them from last night; they were probably gone already. They were headed west, so she went that way. The snow was half way to her knees deep and was hard to maneuver in, but she kept pushing. She wanted to find these wolves. Normally she would wait around to find a different pack, but this one was calling to her. The wolves in this pack were larger than other wolves that she has seen before. Maybe it was just distance that made them so, maybe it was a new species. She had to find out.

She walked for what seemed like hours. She started to smell something like a campfire, but wasn't sure. Smoke was barely visible poking out from over the trees from where she stood, but visible enough for her to follow the direction. As the smoke grew closer, so did the smell. She started to hear voices as she grew nearer but then they suddenly stopped. She got to a clearing, in it stood a few tents and the campfire in the middle. There were no people there, just the pack of wolves she was searching for. They were larger than normal wolves, she knew that now. There were six of them and the pack leader, a total of seven; there were two females and five males. The pack looks startled and backed away as the pack leader stepped forward. He wasn't at all afraid, but she was. She backed away from the alpha slowly, not taking her eyes off of him for a second. The alpha didn't move, just stared at her. She waited until she could barely see him anymore, even though she was certain he could still see her, and turned and ran.

She headed for her house, stumbling a few times in her haste. The path back seemed a lot longer than the way there. She head the howling of the wolves as she ran.  What had happened to the people she heard back there? Where did the wolves come from? Were they following her? She had heard the sounds of leaves moving behind her, but when she turned to look it was nothing. As soon as she got in the house she locked the door and slid down to the floor, panting. She thought she was alone in her big empty house. She was wrong. There was a faint growling from outside and it grew louder and louder as it approached the door. She held her breathe and didn't move, couldn't move. The growling didn't go away, it just got louder and there was a scratching at the door. Then it stopped and was replaced by a howl. There was the sound of paws hitting the porch toward the window and more growling. She slowly got up and headed for the gun cabinet in the next room, keeping her eyes on the window.

The wolf suddenly lept into the house through the window. She screamed and ran into the other room quickly grabbing the first gun, which was a Desert Eagle. The wolf walked a little closer to her and she held the gun up. She hadn't had much practice with this one, but she could if this thing decided to attack her. She was secluded right now with this wolf getting closer, and the sounds of it's pack mates howling surrounding her house.