A Girl Adopted by Wolves
Chapter 1- Amara

Wondering through the woods I remembered the first time I ran inhere. That was the worst and the best day of my life.

I am Amara Cross and I am sixteen years old. I am an 11th grader. Myhair are reddish brown in colour and eyes, chocolate brown. I have paleskin and I am 5 foot 3 inches tall. I skipped a grade, so I am in the samegrade with my sister, Elena. Elena and I moved in with our father RobertCross this year and by that I mean Elena moved in with our dad and Imoved to a cabin in the woods. Robert lives in Greycoast. I know weirdname right. It's a small town surrounded by thick woods and you canbarely see the sun due to the clouds covering the sky almost every day.Ironic, isn't it. But I love it here. I have my own little heaven in thewoods waiting for me, so I was quite excited to move here.

Elena and I lived with our mother Emma Cross till now in Esterden. Thisplace is a total opposite of Greycoast. It's hot there most of the timethrough the year. I love the warmth in Esterden though. We used tospend our summer in Greycoast every year, which never felt likesummer due to the weather. My parents got divorced when I was barelya month old. They got married when they were just out of school i.e. atthe age of eighteen. Teen love and all that shit. My mom was pregnantwith Elena at that time. They used to live in Esterden, a warm place withlots of beach. Almost eight months after marriage my sister was born.One kid is not that much of a problem for a low income family right.They managed pretty well. But after about three months, my mom gotpregnant with me and that's when things started going downhill. Theywere not ready for a second child. They were barely managing with thefirst one. When I was born the situation got far worse. With so lessmoney and two kids to raise, their relationship snapped. They were notready to handle the pressure. They started fighting a lot and eventuallyended up getting divorced. That's what everyone tells me. I was toolittle to know anything then. My father moved to Greycoast and mymother stayed in Esterden. I for the part, became a bitter memory forthem.

But that was just the start of the problems. My mother wouldn't look atme and father, he did not even consider me as his daughter. Elena, shehated me for breaking her perfect family. I was a kid back then, barely amonth old at that time and can't take care of myself. That's when UncleDale and Aunt Claire stepped in. Uncle Dale is father's older brother. Heis eight years older than father. Aunt Clair is his wife. They took me in.They have a son named Alec. We are two months apart. Alec is twomonths older than me. So, we practically grew up as twins. If it wasn'tfor uncle, aunt and Alec, I wouldn't be here. My mother, father andElena are just my family on papers but my real family is uncle, aunt andAlec. My parents refused to let Uncle and Aunt officially adopt me.Nobody knows the reason why. Maybe they wanted to see me suffermore. Who knows!

But the summer ritual was compulsory for Elena and me from when weturned five and four. I didn't want to go there as father practicallyignored my existence whenever I was there. I always felt lonely andunwanted in that house. I never understood though why they wouldsend me there if they don’t want to see me. I mean I was happy beingaway from their scowling, loathing faces. I used to take care of myself.Dad used to smile at Elena and would never pay attention to me. Hewould take her to eat outside, to the movies and I would be homealone starving or eating anything I can replace in the kitchen, which theymade sure not to leave much. But I would still wait for them in hope tobe noticed just once maybe. I studied hard and got good grades sothat mom and dad would praise me. I made myself perfect inextracurricular too but, still no avail.

The year I turned ten, we went to Greycoast as usual for the summerbreak. It was almost the end of the summer break. On that particularnight my father came home early from work. Elena was staying at hersummer friends Leah and Mia Butler's house. Dad went in the kitchenand started drinking. I was watching him from the small storage roomdoor which I would get as a bedroom over the summer every year.After an hour or so he stood up and started coming towards me. Thatwas the first time he looked me in the eye. The emotions in his eyeswere not what I wanted to see though. His eyes were full of hate andthat hate was directed towards me. He stood right in front of me andstarted shouting at me, "Because of you my family broke. Because ofyou Emma left me. I wish you were never born, then we would havebeen one happy family. I will make you suffer for everything you put usthrough.” And with that said he slammed his fist on the wall, an inchbeside my head and went in his room. I started crying. I didn't knew hehated me so much. I always used to think he is just mad at me aboutsomething but hate, it was a whole different level.

And I did the most rational thing a scared ten year old could think of. Iran out of the house and into the woods that were surrounding it. Itwas raining at that time as the summer break was about to end. I ranaimlessly in the woods, tears streaming down my face. After sometimeit got harder to see as it was getting dark and the woods were dense.Only little light passed through. I tripped on a tree root and fell facefirst and hit my head on a rock. Everything became woozy after that. Myhead hurt like hell and I was in and out of consciousness. I thought Iwould die here with nobody to look for me. Even if they did try to replaceme, what was the possibility that some wild animal wouldn't eat me upfirst? I mean it's a freaking jungle for crying out loud. I thought I wasdone for.