Fated to the Alpha by Jasmine White

CHAPTER TWO

 

I always loved the howls, gathering with the whole pack under the moon and stars, howling to the sky with the crackling bonfire lighting up the night.  I loved getting pumped up as our alpha led the cheer, while I hooted and hollered along with everyone around me.  I loved when we all started stripping our clothes off, and then shifting into our four-legged shapes to continue the howl.  And I loved running off into the woods, feeling the wind in my fur, and finding some large animal to bring down, or else finding some random packmate to hook up with, where we would shift back to our two-legged forms and fuck in the dirt.

 

But that was before I was engaged to the alpha of our pack.

 

That night, I stood beside him on the big rock, looking down at all the friends and family I’d known my whole life.  The whole situation felt wrong.  I belonged down there, among my pack brothers and sisters, not standing up on a pedestal above them.  Looking down, I saw them all becoming riled and excited.  Any other night I would’ve been right there with them, getting my blood pumping just as they were. 

 

Tonight I felt no excitement.

 

Leon stepped forward, looking down over the pack.  “My brothers and sisters of the Caldour Pack!” he called.  “We stand on lands that have been ours for generations!  Every rock, every tree, every blade of grass on this land, we are the rulers of it all!  Our ancestors, our mothers and fathers ruled it just as we do, and I say to you that our children will rule it just as we have!”

 

The pack shouted and pumped their fists.

 

“But,” he went on, “we must not drop our guard.  There are those who would take everything we love from us, and if we grow complacent, they will succeed.  Our neighbors from the Morgandorf Pack have seen fit to disregard our borders.  They have crossed into our territory and taken our game, and if we let them, they will surely take our homes too!”

 

A chorus of canine barks and growls arose from the pack.

 

“But we will not let them!” Leon shouted as various pack members began shedding their clothes.  “We will make our stand here!  We will not let a single Morgandorf cross our borders, or take what is ours!  And every creature that walks, flies or crawls will know, we are the strongest beasts in these lands!  We will make sure none of them will dare to challenge us again!”

 

Articles of clothing dropped like snowflakes as the pack erupted in howls.  Leon joined them all, throwing his head back and howling to the sky, as the pack followed along with him.  One by one, members of the pack began dropping to the ground, shifting to their four-legged shapes and filling the night with their eerie song.

 

Finally, Leon started to join them, throwing off his leather jacket and stripping away his shirt, revealing the many scars that covered his torso.  Scars were not uncommon among our pack; as I said before, many wolves obtained scars from fighting in the ring.

 

Most of Leon’s scars weren’t from the fights.  At least not from fights with members of his own pack.

 

Most of them were courtesy of the Morgandorfs.

 

Just like my dad’s scars.

 

Leon had a lot of personal bad blood with our neighboring pack.  He’d pretty much been born into our ongoing feud with them, and had carried it on like the dutiful alpha he was.  Of course, I’d only ever heard about these supposed boogeymen who lived a few miles outside our territory, never having encountered them myself.  I never understood what it was we had against them.  I was always told they were the enemy.

 

Leon turned to me as he started unfastening his pants.  “Waiting for something?” he said.  “You’re an example to them now.  You ought to act like one of them.”

 

 

I was one of them, I thought as he shifted to his four-legged form.  When I realized I was the only one still two-legged, I decided I might as well follow along.  I sighed, and off came my clothes.  I dropped forward onto all fours as my fur sprouted and my face reshaped into a wolf’s snout.  But even then, I didn’t find myself joining the howl.

 

Well, at least not at first.  For a while, Leon led the pack in howling , while I simply sat beside him, idle.  Finally, I realized I was just being obstinate, and let myself join.  Leon howled again, and I finally threw my head back and let the night hear my song.

 

As they always did, the pack soon scattered, running off into the woods.  This time I didn’t hesitate to join them.  This was exactly what I wanted to do, more than anything.  I wanted to run.  I wanted to run far away, if I could.  The only thing that was different about this than it was on any other howl we’d had was that I didn’t want to run alongside the rest of the pack. 

 

I wanted to run alone.

 

As we hurried down off the rock and followed the pack disappearing into the trees, I stayed at Leon’s side just as long as I had to.  I wasn’t sure if he would try to follow me if I tried to go my own way, but I felt it was worth trying.  Besides, it wasn’t like I was trying to escape from him or anything; I just needed some freedom and solitude.

 

Soon enough, however, the issue got resolved for me as we caught the scent of a deer.  Immediately the whole pack went charging in that direction.  No one noticed when I decided to go off on my own.  I peeled away from Leon’s side as he joined the others closing in on their new found quarry, and I dashed off into the brush.

 

Thankfully, I neither heard nor smelled anyone following after me.  I was free to run where I wanted for now.  I raced away from all the pressures of my pack’s expectations.  I raced away from the pressures of my alpha wanting me to be his.  I raced away from the pressures of my father having my life already planned out for me.

 

I’m not sure how long I ran. It was like I intended to keep running until I felt like I’d left all my worries behind, even though I knew I could never run far enough for that.  I finally stopped by a creek, where I caught my breath for a minute, and lowered my head to lap up a drink of water.

 

I allowed myself a moment to forget everything.  I even let myself forget that there was anything human about me.  As far as I was concerned, at that moment, I was just a wolf out in nature, enjoying the stillness of the woods and the cool water soothing my parched throat after a good run.  I let myself forget that I had an alpha, or even a pack.  I allowed myself a moment to believe there was only me.

 

That is until I heard something move.

 

I lifted my head, moving my ears about and sniffing the air.  At first, I detected nothing.  Maybe it had just been a raccoon or something that had scurried away.  I wasn’t hungry enough to go after it.

 

Suddenly, I looked around me, and realized I no longer knew where I was.  I’d never run this far before; could I have crossed outside of Caldour territory?  I’d never even been beyond the borders of my pack’s hunting grounds.  For a second I started to worry that I might not be able to find my way back… but then, my own scent trail couldn’t be too hard to follow, could it?  I couldn’t have gone that far.  I’d be able to find the scents of my pack soon enough; I was sure of it.

 

Just then I caught another scent.

 

Whatever it was that had moved before, moved again, and this time the wind brought its scent to me.  The scent was unmistakable.

 

Wolf.

 

And not just any wolf.

 

A wolf like me.

 

A shifter.

 

And it wasn’t from my pack.

 

I tensed up, searching about for the strange wolf I smelled.  I even dared him to show himself, giving a soft but sharp “huff!”

 

Finally, a head emerged from around a tree, cautiously moving forward, sniffing the air coming off me.  We spent a moment simply standing there, tensed, regarding each other.  So far, I could tell only that he was a he, and that he was not of the Caldour Pack.  Anything beyond that could only be conjecture.

 

At least until he finally decided to take a chance on me and shifted to his two-legged form.  A lean, light haired man in his mid-twenties suddenly stood in the place of the wolf that had been there a few seconds before, looking down at me cautiously.  It was obviously a risky move; in my four-legged form, I could easily rip him to shreds, so he was effectively dropping his guard.  I decided to take that as a show of faith.

 

So I shifted back to my two-legged form as well.  “Who are you?” I demanded.

 

“A little forward, aren’t you?” he said.  “You’re the one who’s on my turf; who are you?”

 

“Why should I tell you who I am?”

 

“I could say the same.  We could go back and forth like this all night, if you want.”

 

My lip curled up.  “Are you a Morgandorf?”

 

“You’re in Morgandorf territory, or didn’t you know that?” he said.  “Were you looking for us?”

 

I didn’t have a sharp retort ready.  “No,” I said.  “I was just running.  I was getting away from my pack.  I guess I got lost.”

 

“Getting away from your pack?” he said.  “Why, what’d they do to you?”

 

“It’s none of your business!” I snapped.

 

“It is if you’re in our territory,” he said.  “Were you looking for a new pack, then?”

 

“Never!” I declared.  “I wasn’t running away.  I just wanted to get away for a bit.”

 

He nodded in understanding, but still watched me suspiciously.  “This pack of yours… that wouldn’t be the Caldour Pack, would it?”

 

I cautiously took a step back.  This had the potential to get really ugly really quick.  “What if it is?” I asked.  “Will you turn me over to your alpha, and have them pass sentence on me?”

 

“Why should I want to do that?” he said.  “Have you done something to us that needs to be punished?  ‘Cause as far as I can tell, all you did was get a little water from one of our creeks.  Call me crazy, but that doesn’t seem like much of an offense to me.”

 

For a moment, I didn’t say anything.  “So what do you want with me?”

 

He shrugged.  “I just wanted to know why you’re here.  That’s all.”

 

“So… you’re gonna let me go back to my pack now?”

 

“Do you want to?” he asked.  “You’re the one who said you were trying to get away from them.”

 

I didn’t say anything then.

 

“What were you trying to get away from?” he finally asked.

 

I wasn’t sure why, but I felt comfortable enough now to open up a little more. 

“My alpha wants me to marry him.”

 

He nodded.  “And you’re not too keen on the idea?”

 

“I don’t know what I am on it.”

 

“But you say you’re not running away?”

 

“Everyone I know is there,” I said.  “My family, my friends… I don’t know anyone outside my pack.  Besides, I’m not totally opposed to marrying him.”

 

“But you’re opposed a little, aren’t you?” he said.  “Or else you wouldn’t be this far from them.”

 

I couldn’t argue with that.

 

“What are you going to do?” he asked me.  “Will you go back to them?”

 

“I can’t imagine I won’t,” I replied.  “Why, are you offering to set me up with your pack?”

 

He tilted his head and studied me.  “I don’t recall saying anything like that.  But that’s interesting, that your mind went there.”

 

“Well, I mean… I wasn’t suggesting…”

 

“Don’t stress about it,” he said, putting his hands forward in a calming gesture.  “I don’t think accepting a Caldour among us would go over well even if you were asking.”

 

“Well that’s fine, because I wasn’t.  I love my pack.  They’re everything to me.”

 

“But your alpha isn’t, is he?  You say you don’t want to leave your pack, but you obviously don’t want to be with them right now.  I can’t take you to mine either.  So where does that leave you?”

 

I paused to think of an answer—and I really did not have one.  “Nowhere, I guess.”

 

He shrugged, and gestured to the ground beneath my feet.  “Right here seems like a good enough place.  I’m here, if you need someone to listen.”

 

Suddenly I wasn’t sure what to make of the man in front of me.  “What’s your name?” I asked him.

 

“Jeremy,” he said.  “Yours?”

 

Hesitantly I answered, “Evelyn.”

 

“That’s pretty,” he said.  The step he took then was the first time I actually noticed him moving closer to me.  It was only at that point that I realized he had been slowly coming closer to me the whole time.

 

A howl rang out in the distance behind me.  Immediately I recognized the voice.  It was Leon calling for me.  “Oh shit, that’s my alpha,” I said.  “I’ve got to go!”

 

He shrugged.  “All right.  If that’s where you really want to be… I’ll leave you to him.”  He turned around to start walking away.  “Who am I to stand in your way?”

 

“Wait!” I said, holding a hand out to him. He turned to look at me… and I paused, not certain I really should say what I wanted to him.  After a few seconds, say it I did. 

 

“Can I see you again?”

 

His mouth curled into a smile.  “I don’t see why not, if you don’t.  Come back here tomorrow night?”

 

“I can sneak out after midnight,” I offered.

 

“Works for me.”

 

Almost against my own volition, I caught a smile cracking across my face.

 

“See you then,” he said, before shifting to his four-legged form and loping off into the brush.

 

I stood there staring after him, until I heard Leon call for me again.  I came back to reality then, and turned and shifted back to my four-legged form to go rejoin my pack.

 

*

Most of the pack was just getting back to the village by the time I returned.  My pack brothers and sisters were returning to their two-legged shapes and busily retrieving their clothes when I emerged from the trees.

 

Leon had already redressed when I found him, and he stepped up to me.  “There you are!” he said.  “Where did you disappear to?”

 

I shifted to my two-legged form again, and carefully met his gaze.  “Well, I… I just…. ran off somewhere else.  I got a little lost and… had to find my way back.”

 

After I met a Morgandorf wolf and agreed to meet him again tomorrow. Yeah, things wouldn’t be pretty if he knew that part.

 

“Why didn’t you join us for the hunt?” he asked.  “This was our first howl with you as my betrothed, and you were nowhere to be found!”

 

I wondered if he could sense my nervousness.  “I just wasn’t hungry for deer,” I shrugged.

 

He cocked his head, studying me.  I bit my lip, unable to guess what he was thinking.  “All right then,” he said, “what are you hungry for?”

 

“What?”

 

“If you’re going to be my wife, I have to make sure you’re taken care of, and that means keeping you fed, don’t you think?  I have plenty of food to offer you.  It’s the least I can do.”

 

“Um… thanks, but I’m not really hungry now.”  I started walking past him to find my clothes.

 

Leon reached out and took hold of my arm to stop me.  “Oh, don’t be coy,” he said.  “You have to eat something.  The last thing I want is for you to starve yourself out of jitters.”

 

As lightly as I could, I pushed his hand away from my arm.  “Really, it’s okay.  I’ll get something to eat at home, don’t worry about me.”

 

When I again attempted to go for my clothes, he suddenly moved in front of me, blocking my path.  “Is there something wrong?  You seem bothered.”

 

Well, he wasn’t wrong, especially at that point.  I was beginning to lose my patience with him.  “I just want to be alone right now,” I finally said.  “Please.”

 

This time when I went to retrieve my clothes, he didn’t try to stop me.  I got dressed and headed back to my house without a backward glance at him.

 

Mom and Dad weren’t back yet when I got home. That was fine by me.  I had meant what I said to Leon out there; I really did want to be alone at that time.  There was no one that I could really talk to, not about what had happened tonight.  If even one person learned I’d spoken to a Morgandorf… I didn’t even want to think about it.

 

I also meant what I said when I’d told him I’d get something to eat at home.  I actually was a little hungrier than I’d let on; I just wasn’t interested in being fed by him.  I found a can of ravioli in the cupboard, which I didn’t even bother to heat up.  I just opened it, grabbed a fork and started munching it out of the can.

 

My parents returned shortly after that, coming in the door just as I was tossing the empty can away.  “Evelyn?” my mother called as they came in.

 

I sighed.  “In here,” I called from the kitchen.

 

As they appeared out of the entryway, Dad quickly made a beeline for me.  “Leon tells me you gave him a bit of the cold shoulder tonight,” he said.

 

I rolled my eyes.  Not more of this!

 

“I didn’t give him the cold shoulder,” I protested.  “He was just kind of pestering me a little.”

 

“Pestering?” Dad gasped, seemingly taken aback by that word.  “Don’t you think your alpha and future husband is due a little more respect than that?”

 

“I have nothing but respect for Leon,” I said.  “I just didn’t want to be bothered.  I have that right, don’t I?”

 

“Of course you do, dear,” Mom nodded, putting a hand on my shoulder.  “She does, doesn’t she?” she said to Dad.

 

Dad swallowed his indignation, rolling his eyes and giving a subtle nod.  “Yes, yes, you do,” he sighed.  “But I really have to say, your whole attitude since Leon made his declaration yesterday has been bothering me.  This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to you, and you’ve been acting like you’ve received a prison sentence!”

 

Maybe I have, I thought.

 

I did not give him a verbal answer, though.  I walked by him, heading for my room.  “I think I’m gonna go to bed.”

 

“Evelyn!” my dad called.  “Evelyn, come back here!”

 

Mom intervened, stepping in between Dad and me as I walked away.  “Rene, leave her alone.”

 

I didn’t see the rest of the exchange, stepping through my bedroom door and shutting it behind me.  I collapsed onto my bed, where I was safe, comfortable, and alone.  There was no one in the room to harass me, to pressure me into anything.  There was no one there, who made it necessary for me hide my feelings. I was still trying to get my head around it.  Tonight I had spoken to an enemy.  And I had asked to do it again.

 

Was he really an enemy?  He didn’t seem like one.  He was just supposed to be an enemy; because he was a Morgandorf, he bore the label. But tonight I’d been able to open up with him like I hadn’t been able to with anyone, even my own pack.

 

Well, maybe Charlene.  A little.

 

The point was, the man I met tonight had in no way resembled the bloodthirsty savages and marauders I’d heard about all my life.  He didn’t act like he was trying to steal land or game from me. If he’d wanted to steal me away from my pack, he’d had the perfect opportunity to do it, and he didn’t.

 

Instead, he’d seemed concerned with nothing more than my well-being.  Nothing about him had said “enemy” to me.

 

Could I really be betraying my whole pack by opening up to a guy like that?

 

No, I firmly decided then.  I was not.  Just because my pack wouldn’t have approved didn’t mean I was betraying them.

 

Besides, the pack seemed to think they needed to make all my life choices for me.  This one choice I could make for myself.  If I wanted to see Jeremy again, I would, and everyone would just have to stay out of my way.

 

*

 

I didn’t know whether to be relieved or insulted at how little attention anyone seemed to pay to me the next day.  It was like the whole buzz about me becoming the alpha’s betrothed had already passed, and now it was on to the next thing. 

 

Even Leon himself barely seemed to notice me.  Apparently, the chase was over, if there had ever been one to begin with, which as far as I knew there hadn’t been.  He had declared me his and that was that; over, done deal.  Apparently in his view, that meant he no longer needed to pay me any mind.

 

While that wasn’t overly flattering, it did make things easier for me.

 

The one person who did have his eyes on me regularly was my dad.  All throughout the day, I would keep looking up and finding him watching me, regarding me with his disapproving glare.  It was as if he was studying me, trying to figure me out, wondering what was wrong with me.  Like, could I really be his daughter?

 

Thankfully, I did get the occasional reprieve when Dad wasn’t around, and I could just talk to someone like Charlene.  I met with her for lunch, when we decided to take a little trip into town for some takeout.

 

“You made any kind of decision about Leon?” she asked me as we sat over our platters of Chinese.

 

“Not really,” I shrugged.  “I think I’m more or less in the same place I was when he announced the whole thing.”

 

“Cause, you know, if you don’t want him, I’ll take him off your hands!” she smirked. 

 

I wasn’t entirely sure if she was being facetious or not.  It might simplify things if she could really do that, which made it that much more unfortunate that Leon had more than likely irrevocably made up his mind.

 

So, instead of answering, I just chewed on a mouthful of sweet-and-sour chicken.

 

“Come on, lighten up,” she said.  “You could be way worse off.”

 

“Yeah, I could,” I lamented.  “But I still wish it didn’t feel like my life was being lived for me.”

 

There was a brief pause, before Charlene finally said, “You know, you could always say no.  Leon and your dad won’t like it, but you could still do it.”

 

“I know I could,” I admitted.  “I just don’t think I’m prepared for the fallout.  Right now, I’m just trying to see if there’s another way.”

 

“Another way?  Like what?”

 

I grimaced.  “I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”

 

Maybe I wanted to see Jeremy again out of a desire to find the answer.

 

I still didn’t want to mention him to Charlene, either.  I trusted her, but I doubted that even she would respond well to the idea of me meeting with a Morgandorf.

 

Getting out of the house that night was not the easiest task to pull off.  Not with the way Dad was always on my case, bothering me to accept that what was happening was the best thing for me.  I eventually excused myself to my room, and waited for Mom and Dad to go to sleep.  This, of course, meant waiting a long time with my ear against the door.

 

Finally, a little while before midnight I started to pick up the sound of Dad snoring.  As soon as I heard that, I slipped across the room, slithered out of my clothes and climbed through the window, shifting to my four-legged shape as I leaped to the ground below.

 

I ran hard into the dark woods ahead of me.  I rushed through the trees, stirring the animals that slept in them, and scattering the ones that were still moving.  The forest was nearly pitch dark at this hour, but it wasn’t important.   I didn’t need to see where I was going.

 

My wolf’s nose knew the scents of the forest, the smells of dirt and leaves and grass, and knew just where all of it was.  My wolf’s ears could hear every rustle of the brush, every owl’s hoot, every critter scurrying away.  My wolf’s paws could feel the earth under them, every rock and ditch that I crossed, and I pushed off it all, driving myself forward.

 

For a minute or so, I worried I wouldn’t be able to find the spot again; after all, I’d been running kind of aimlessly when I found him the first time.  I’d tried to make it a point on my way back to learn the trail, to recognize the sounds and scents to lead me back there.  Soon enough, I stepped out into the area just barely illuminated by the sliver of moonlight streaming through, bouncing off the trickling creek.

 

I lifted my head and sniffed the air, searching about for the scent of the strange wolf I had met last night.  At first, I smelled nothing, and I began to worry he might not show.  Then the wind blew in just the right direction, and I turned my head as that distinct scent reached my nose.  I hurried forward a few steps, before I shifted back to two legs.

 

“Jeremy?” I called into the darkness.

 

“I’m here,” his voice called back.

 

I saw movement within the gloom, and into the minimal light, his figure emerged.  Any creature with duller senses than mine would never have been able to tell it was he.  But my wolf senses immediately recognized the mysterious stranger from last night.

 

“I was worried I wouldn’t find you,” I said.

 

“Really?  Did you have trouble getting away?”

 

“Not once my father went to bed,” I said.  “I had to wait a long time for that, though.”

 

He smirked slightly.  “Sneaking out your bedroom window,” he mused.  “Is that a normal thing for you?”

 

I shook my head.  “No.  I’ve never done anything like this before.  I’ve always been daddy’s girl.”

 

“Don’t tell me that all changed because of me?”

 

“No, it’s not all you,” I said, shaking my head again.  “I think it’s because of this whole marriage arrangement.  Dad wants me to marry the alpha so that he can have alpha grandkids.”

 

“And the question of what you want isn’t even on the table?” he said.

 

“Something like that,” I said.

 

“Have you told anyone else how you feel about this?”

 

“Most of the she-wolves in my pack are so jealous of me, I don’t think they’d believe me if I said I don’t want to marry Leon.  There’s one friend I have who I can kind of talk to, but even she thinks I should just get over myself and realize I’m the luckiest girl in the pack.”

 

“So no one really gets you, do they?” he said.

 

I looked up at him.  I think you do, I thought.  I didn’t feel comfortable enough to say that out loud.

 

“Why are you so interested in me?” I suddenly asked.  “Is this a charity case, or are you trying to get inside info?”

 

His face fell.  “You still think I’m trying to take advantage of you?  Just because you’re a Caldour?”

 

I shrugged.  “I’ve got to at least consider it, don’t I?  I mean you seem like a nice guy, but… you’re still a Morgandorf.  And I’ve never heard any good things about the Morgandorfs.”

 

“I’ve never heard any good things about the Caldours, either,” he said.  “But here we are.  And as I recall, you were the one who asked to meet again.”

 

I sighed. “Okay, I’m sorry.  Forget I said that.  But I ask again, why are you so interested in me?”

 

He shrugged.  “Maybe I just find you interesting.  Is that so incredible?”

 

I eyed him suspiciously.  “Come on, there’s got to be more to it than that.”

 

“Why?  What’s so uninteresting about you?  Your desire to be independent?  Your struggle with not being allowed to be?  The fact that you have to wander off into the middle of nowhere and unload on a stranger from another pack?  Which, by the way, I’m honored to be the one you feel comfortable enough to open up with, especially when you say you can’t even do that with anyone from your own pack.” 

 

He paused for an instant and then added, “You know, maybe that’s what it is.  I just like the feeling of being a friendly ear, and you seem like you need one.”

 

For a minute, I didn’t say anything more.  When I finally did it was a simple, pathetic, “Oh.  Okay.”

 

He reached out a hand and touched my arm.  “Tell you what: why don’t we go hunt something together?  Isn’t that the best kind of bonding experience two wolves can have?”

 

I cocked my head, looking at him with a curious grin.  “You want to… bond… with me?”

 

“Don’t you?” he said.  “Or at least with somebody?”

 

I grinned wide enough to show my pearly whites.  “After you.”

 

He shook his head, and gestured forward.  “Ladies first.”

 

I smiled at him a few seconds longer, and then ran a couple steps forward before shifting into my four-legged form and dashing off into the woods.  I almost immediately could hear his paws running behind me, his breath panting as he ran and his claws gripping the dirt beneath him to propel him forward, just as mine were doing.

 

As I let him catch up to me, I spared a sideways glance to see his lupine form dashing through the dark forest beside me.  I realized this was a much different run from the one I took with Charlene the other night.  That had been a run to try to get away from my life, to escape the pressures that I was feeling. I just happened to have a friend along with me.  Right now, I was already away from my troubles.  That was why I had come out here to see Jeremy in the first place, I realized.  He had no expectations of me; there were no demands on me with him.  For right now, I had no need to escape.

 

So this was about something else entirely.

 

We were running to feel alive.

 

I wasn’t unaccustomed to this feeling.  Hell, it was how I always used to feel when I took off running after a howl.  That was what it was about when everyone in the pack took off into the woods to find whatever we could kill and eat.

 

Right now, there was no pack running beside me.

 

There was just him.

 

Eventually I caught the scent of a rabbit somewhere in the brush.  I immediately veered off the trail in its direction, with Jeremy following close at my side.  We closed in on the small creature as one, clamping my jaws onto its neck before it even knew we were on it, while Jeremy’s teeth sank into its meaty haunches.

 

As one, we shared in our meal of the small animal.  This was the first time in days I didn’t feel like I was forcing myself to eat something, or seeking comfort food.  I honestly felt there was no place I would have rather been.

 

I gulped down the rabbit meat and licked my chops, and then looked at Jeremy as he lifted his head from our kill.  I moved forward, nuzzling my snout against his, making a happy little whine.  When I felt him nuzzling me back, I knew my advances weren’t unwarranted.

 

So, that was when I went for broke.

 

I pounced on him, tumbling with him to the ground as we rubbed our noses together.  As we rolled about in the dirt, as one, we suddenly shifted to our two-legged forms, finding ourselves entangled in a naked heap on the ground, with our faces just inches apart.

 

 

I closed that distance.

 

I kissed him deep, deeper than I could ever remember kissing anyone before.  I felt his hand come up and grip the back of my head, entangling in my hair, while his other hand stroked along my spine.

 

When I lifted my head and looked down at him, he said, “You’re pretty forward, aren’t you?”

 

“It just felt like the thing to do,” I said.  “You’re not complaining, are you?”

 

“Not for a second.”

 

With that out of the way, I kissed him again.  I heard myself moaning into his mouth as I fidgeted around on top of him.  I ground my pelvis against him, feeling his manhood hardening beneath me, and my loins began to moisten in response.  His hand came down to cup the curve of my ass, making goose bumps break out across my skin.

 

He rolled us over, putting himself on top, and ducked his head to capture my tit in his mouth.  I rolled my head back and arched my chest upward, pushing more of my breast into his mouth.  His hand meanwhile slid down my belly, coming to the junction of my legs where my wetness awaited him.  His fingers ducked inside me, making my hips leap up off the ground as I gasped sharply, grabbing him by the wrist.  He slowly began pumping his fingers inside me, his thumb diddling my clit, playing me like a musical instrument.  It was certainly making some kind of music come out of me.

 

By the time I felt my juices trickling down my ass, I was worked up beyond the point of waiting any longer.  I reached down and grabbed the stiff tool that jutted from his loins, stroking it in my hand.  “Put it in me, please!” I begged.

 

He didn’t disappoint me.  He maneuvered himself between my spread legs, and down he plunged.

 

My head lolled to the side, letting out a loud groan as he parted my nether lips.  He slowly began working his way into me, one thrust at a time.  He got an inch or two in on the first thrust, and got progressively deeper, bottoming out on about thrust number five.  At that point, my hands came up to wrap around his shoulders, embracing him to me as he proceeded thrusting inside me.

 

Most of the times I would hook up with guys before had been just random, casual encounters after a howl.  It usually was about nothing more than the excitement of the moment, and the thought that went into choosing a partner had rarely been more complicated than who was nearest to me when the mood struck.  It was just how a pack typically lived; socialize normally with them most of the time, but during a howl, inhibitions went out the window, and everyone could be as promiscuous as they wanted.

 

There had been a few guys over the years whom I’d been with outside of the howls, but none of them had ever been serious.  It was always just about “scratching each other’s itch,” so to speak.  I honestly couldn’t remember a time I’d hooked up with someone when my choice of partner had been anything other than just convenient.

This was nothing like that.  This wasn’t a case of me simply wanting to be fucked.  I wanted to be fucked by him.  I wanted Jeremy.

 

With that in mind, I clutched his body that much tighter, wanting to envelop him whole.  My legs came up, hugging his hips and wrapping about him as I tried to urge him on.  My mouth hung open as he gradually sped up his thrusting, driving me to greater heights of pleasure.  My pelvis moved up to meet his thrusts, rubbing my clit along his pelvic bone.

 

I rode the wave of mounting sensation in my loins, coming steadily closer to something I had never achieved just from straight fucking before.  When I realized he was getting close to making me climax, it only made me that much more excited, and only served to get me even closer.  “Oh god,” I gasped, “I think I’m gonna cum!  Fuck me faster!”

 

He responded by speeding up just as I asked him to, and I felt my impending orgasm coming closer.  I let it come, welcoming it with open arms, letting it take me over.

 

When it finally came, I let loose, thrashing my body beneath his weight, screaming to the night sky.  I think I heard the leaves rustling about me as the creatures in the trees fled from the sound of my cries, but I was so delirious at that point, it was hard to be sure.

 

When I came down from my high and regained my senses, Jeremy was still thrusting.

 

I suddenly held up a hand to stop him.  “Wait, stop, I need a minute,” I said.  I was a bit too sensitive after my orgasm to continue right away.  He sat up and pulled out of me, exposing his glistening wet cock to the moonlight.  I bent forward, slurping him into my mouth, tasting the tangy flavor of myself on him.  My head bobbed back and forth on his pole, my cheeks caving in around him, sucking him voraciously.  I heard a grunt of appreciation come from him, and I felt his hand running through my hair.

 

When I felt I’d given my pussy enough of a break, I got up and turned over on my hands and knees, putting my ass upright in his direction.  He took hold of my hips, stroking the curve of my ass as he positioned himself behind me.  He slotted his cock in my opening and pushed forward, burying himself in a single thrust this time.  I grunted hard, digging my fingers into the dirt.

 

He started to build up a rhythm as he thrust into me from behind, his hips repeatedly slapping against my ass.  I soon dropped to my elbows, my eyes shut and my mouth open as one pleasured grunt after another escaped my mouth.

 

He bent forward, pressing himself to the length of my back, and moving his hands from my hips to my swaying breasts.  He squeezed them in his powerful hands, kneading the soft flesh and playing my stiff nipples, sending further shivers of excitement through me.

 

 

With his added stimulation on my tits combined with his continued thrusting, I soon found myself soaring through my second orgasm of the night, and my second ever from simple thrusting.  It wasn’t as intense as the first, but it still made me collapse forward, screaming into the dirt.  And after he did that, he thrust forward once more and held himself there, grunting behind me as I felt him splashing against my insides.

 

For a long while, neither of us moved.  I lay there with my face in the dirt while he held himself inside me, both of us catching our breath.  Eventually, he withdrew his softening cock and came down to the ground with me, and I reached out an arm for him, pulling myself to his body and resting my head against his chest.

 

“You’re all glowy,” he murmured above my head.

 

I raised my head to look at his face, barely visible in the moonlight.  “How can you even tell?  It’s dark as pitch here.”

 

“There’s plenty of light coming from you,” he said.  “I take it that was good for you, too?”

 

He was right; I couldn’t stop smiling.  “Yeah.  Don’t let this inflate your ego too much, but that was the best I’ve ever had.  I’ve never actually cum during sex before.  Every orgasm I’ve ever had has been either self-induced or from someone eating me out.”

 

“Maybe you just weren’t with the right partners,” he said.  He paused a moment, and then suddenly asked, “By chance, does that include your alpha?”

 

I shook my head.  “No.  I’ve never done it with Leon.”

 

As soon as his name escaped my mouth, the reality of what had just happened came crashing in, and I sat bolt upright.  “Oh my god!  Leon!  Oh, shit, what did I just do?”

 

“What you wanted, didn’t you?” he said, sitting up more slowly and putting an arm around my shoulders.

 

“Yes, but… oh, god, what if they find out about this?”

 

“You’re not planning to tell them, are you?”

 

I looked down at myself, and held an arm up to my nose and took a sniff.  “As soon as they get a whiff of me, I won’t have to!  I’ve got your scent all over me!”

 

Jeremy lifted his head and scanned about, searching the sounds of the forest.  “I think I hear the creek off in that direction.  Come on, let’s go wash.”

 

He rose to his feet with a grunt, and then lowered a hand to help me to my feet.  He led me by the hand through the woods until we came to the trickling creek, where I let go of his hand and rushed in.  The water was numbingly freezing as I squatted down and splashed it all over myself, rubbing as if my life depended on it, but it was a small price to pay.  All I could think of was what Dad would do if he knew what had just happened.  Or what Leon would do.  A little cold water was nothing compared to that nightmare.

 

I heard more splashing, and looked to my right to see Jeremy doing the same thing I was.  “You don’t want my scent either?”

 

“You think you’re the only one who might get in trouble for this?” he said.  “I can’t go back smelling like a Caldour any more than you can go back smelling like a Morgandorf.”

 

I scrubbed myself until I was certain no one would be able to identify the scent of another wolf on me, and then stepped out of the water and shook myself off.  Jeremy stepped up beside me.  I looked at him.

 

I just looked.

 

I knew I had to go back.  I had to.

 

And it was the hardest thing in the world to tear myself away from the man before me.

 

“You should be going now,” he said.

 

“I know.”

 

“I should be too,” he said.

 

“You should.”

 

“We ought to be saying goodnight now.”

 

“You’re absolutely right.”

 

We waited a few seconds more before temptation overtook us.  And then we launched ourselves at each other for the most intense goodnight kiss I’d ever had.  It was like we were trying to devour each other, our mouths pressed together so hard.  Our tongues seemed to be trying to tie themselves into a knot with the way they danced together, and our hands couldn’t seem to find any one part of each other they wanted to grab onto, with the way they kept moving all over each other’s bodies.

 

It was he who finally broke the kiss, suddenly turning four-legged and scampering off into the dark woods.  As he disappeared into the brush, I paused, needing to catch my breath again after the intensity of that.

 

Just before I was about to turn to leave, I happened to sniff myself one more time.  Oh, great, now I’ve got to wash again.