FSE

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It's been a while since I uploaded something, and this is the first proto-story that managed to carry itself to completion since Exit Gibraltar. Anyway, standard disclaimer: This work contains sexual content between furry characters. If this is illegal wherever you live or if you're too young to view adult content, don't read it.

The sound of soft breathing intermingled with the normal music of the nighttime forest as I reclined naked with my mate half-sprawled on top of my black furred chest and silver belly. The grassy hillock on which we'd spent the night scaring the hell out of the local wildlife (and arousing the hell out of the rest of the pack, or any who were still conscious) was probably the only comfortable bit of bare ground for miles. It didn't hurt that the scenery was absolutely stunning either. A large, unnamed lake curved all around us as far as the eye could see, the water shimmering in the starlight. The air smelled like fish, lake, trees, grass, prey, distant rain, and most importantly to my mind, it reeked of mated Lycanthrope.

"Mmm, what are you thinking about?" My mate whispered. Her light frame supported a muscular body that was covered in fur that was for the most part white but was streaked with brown more or less at random. She lacked the telltale bite scar of a Turned Lycanthrope, marking her out as one of the rare Wolfborn.

"That I'm very lucky...and tired." I smiled down at her and scratched between her shoulder blades gently, earning an appreciative hum.

"So I take it the mating was satisfactory, my Alpha?" She smirked and nuzzled my chest making a show of glancing down at my now-flaccid member which she had just finished cleaning a few minutes prior. I could smell the mingled fluids on her breath, and it was surprisingly pleasant.

"Well, I could eat a whole deer, sleep for a week, I am sure I'm dehydrated, and I feel like something very important to me is about to fall off. Make of that what you will."

"That is good to hear." She laughed and snuggled closer to me, draping an arm and a leg over me. "I mean no offense, but it just doesn't do to have a virgin Alpha, and I would hate to have given you a bad introductory...experience."

"My experience was extremely pleasant...and thank you, seriously. You were very patient with me and I appreciate that." I nuzzled her forehead and injected just a tiny bit of the Wolf into my voice to drive the point home. Unlike the old Hollywood movies and endless fantasy books, real Lycanthrope packs rarely devolved to violent internecine squabbling, but Alphas did tend to be very overbearing. Before I'd been Turned I always figured it was some kind of psychological thing that came with the position. Now, after becoming one myself, I knew that it was nothing of the sort. Alphas were overbearing because leading a pack was like parenting a bunch of cranky toddlers, or at least that's how it felt to me. I loved them all dearly, but there were times I wished I could spank them and send them to their rooms to cool off.

Having lived under an utterly horrible Alpha myself, I'd been very careful to be an approachable one. My wolves were free to come talk to me about anything, and I turned group hunting from a strictly hierarchical expression of dominance and repression to something like a (bloody) family gathering. I was also very careful to keep track of the new wolves, though there had only been two since I took over.

Having gone through the Turning process myself I knew how horrible it was, and there were more than a few nights where I'd stayed up late talking to the pups when they suffered the odd panic attack. I even let them sleep in my tent for the month after their change, a gesture that shocked (and scandalized) some of the older members of the pack, but I enjoyed giving them the comfort and reassurances newborn Wolves tended to crave when the inevitable panic attacks set in. Heaven only knew I'd spent my first few weeks as a Wolf firmly attached to an older Lycan whenever I could get away with it. Fortunately my old pack's beta had been very accommodating of me and many was the night I'd snuck, shamefaced and crying, into her den.

"You say that like you think I had a bad time." She smirked, her tail thumping softly on the ground. "Heat sex is always fun. You're not the only one with sore loins you know."

"Did I hurt you?" I asked, concerned.

"No more than my other mates have." She said dismissively. "We rutted, well, like animals, what do you expect?" She looked up and saw the worry on my muzzle and rolled her eyes. "I'm a big girl, I can handle it. Besides, it's a good sore and it will fade in a few minutes anyway. Don't worry so much."

"I can only try." I leaned down and licked her muzzle affectionately, my gaze unintentionally shifting down towards her belly. "On a different subject, since we've, uh, died down now, does that mean?" I trailed off and put my paw on her lower belly meaningfully.

"Only time will tell." She said gently, stroking my paw with hers. "This is only the first night, and even if not, there's always next season."

"I can't tell you how many times I've told that to one of the pack, but now that I'm on the receiving end of it I see how hollow it sounds." I muttered, a sickly tinge of worry poisoning my good mood.

"Alpha..." She murmured. Like the others in the pack she referred to me by rank instead of name. In fact, none of them knew what my name was. I'd gone right from my Wolf-name, Coalpelt, straight to Alpha. "You know how hard it is to conceive. What's the advice you keep giving us? 'You are worth more than your ability to have cubs'?"

"Again, it sounds damn hollow when it's directed at you." I smiled, but it was a brittle one, and then I surprised myself by pulling her closer and burying my head in the thick fur of her neck. "I want to be a father, Rime, I've never wanted anything more in my life. Even before I Turned I wanted to start a family. When I was Turned and I found out that Wolves were almost all sterile I gave up on ever having a family, and it was the hardest thing I've ever done." I whispered, my throat painfully tight. "I always thought I was fine just being Alpha, but now that I have a chance at actually bringing a new life into the world the thought that I didn't..."

"Alpha, if I'm not pregnant it's hardly your fault. I've been fertile four seasons and I've never had a litter. It could be that I can't bear cubs, my mates couldn't bear cubs, or it could be that we just weren't lucky, this isn't something you can take the blame for." She covered the surprise in her voice well, but the affection was genuine, and the way she stroked the back of my neck was oddly soothing. "Besides, for all we know I am pregnant. We were certainly enthusiastic enough about trying. All we can do is wait and see."

"Yes, you're right." I forced the unexpected surge of caustic emotion down and pulled my face out of her scruff, careful to make sure she couldn't see how watery my eyes were. "And I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let myself get out of control like that."

"That's what you call out of control?" She asked, a little incredulously. "Every one of us feels the same way after breeding season, ask anyone."

"Still, I shouldn't have done that, it was selfish and-" Her paw covered my mouth in a rather forward fashion for a subordinate Wolf. Then her paws gently caught hold of my head and brought it down to her chest, just above her breasts.

"Even Alphas deserve a few moments of selfishness, don't you think?" She whispered, stroking my cheek with a paw. She couldn't know it, but my old pack's Beta had held me in exactly the same fashion the night after my turning, stroking and cuddling me until I'd cried myself out and managed to sleep at long last. The position brought back powerful memories, not all of them pleasant, but I focused on the present.

"Yes, I suppose you're right." I murmured eventually, curling up slightly and draping an arm over her. "Thank you...and Rime?"

"Yes?"

"If I asked you to stay like this, would you hold it against me?" I hated the insecurity that showed through in my voice. That kind of weakness made my Wolf nervous, to say nothing of my human side.

"Never." She murmured quietly, wrapping her arms a little tighter around me. I returned the gesture, pulling her close. She nuzzled my head and whispered quietly into my ear. "Go to sleep Alpha, you've earned a rest."

"Thank you Rime." My eyes closed. "I can't tell you how much this means to me."

*Earlier that day*

One would think that being the Alpha of a semi-nomadic Lycanthrope pack living in the northern part of what used to be Minnesota would be an exciting life, full of adventure and thrills. In reality, it was more like being the world's most put-upon scoutmaster, only fuzzier.

It was an interesting life, to be sure, and a rewarding one, I couldn't think of anything better than seeing my wolves happily bantering back and forth around the fire, or helping a newly-Turned Wolf come to accept their new state and see them through the worst part of the Change, but between parenting three dozen recalcitrant bipedal killing machines, finding food and water for aforementioned overgrown toddlers, and keeping on good terms with the ever so slowly re-growing human population via a military liaison I had enough stress to sink an elephant.

My wolves said that the stress made me a bit eccentric, but seeing as the eccentricity they were talking about was wearing clothes on a regular basis I wasn't quite willing to buy into their little theory. Despite my apparent youth, I was old enough to have grown up before the Great Magic War, and as such, I was more comfortable with clothes than without. However, since I was an eight foot tall, heavily muscled, furry brute I had to make a few concessions in my wardrobe that I never would have made when I was a human. I typically wore canvas shorts of the same color as my tent, but since no shirt could be found for one my size I had to go bare-chested unless I donned a military rain poncho, which didn't fit me right and looked like too-small vest.

Still, there were some benefits to being the Alpha of my pack. My tent was one of them. It was a military tent, like the others, but it was a larger command tent, which meant that I had room for a folding table and a few chairs in addition to my cot and bedding. Fancy.

The fabric was some kind of chemically treated canvas the same rotten olive green the military seemed to love, but it was thick and hardy. I'd had it for almost two decades and it had served me well. It even retained the Wolf-smell, and since I didn't have a mate and my pack didn't ascribe to the practice of sleeping all together in a tangled pile, the scent helped me sleep in the absence of another Wolf next to me.

Inside my fancy tent I spent most of my time looking over a great preponderance of maps. I had no less than eleven maps spread over the small folding table in my warm, sun-dappled tent. Many were duplicates of the same basic map, but annotated differently. One with the location of dead cities, one with surviving human settlements, one that marked the possible locations of other roving packs, and so on; as Alpha it was my job to figure out how I could keep my wolves fed and watered (no mean feat given your average Lycanthrope's propensity for eating and drinking) and continue to provide valuable information to my military contacts at the same time. I was in the process of planning my next little scouting venture when I was interrupted.

"Excuse me, Alpha?" I glanced up from my maps and looked up to see one of the younger wolves standing framed in the entrance of my tent. His posture was drooped beyond the normal subservience my wolves show me, giving me a clue as to what this little meeting would be about.

"Come in Wheatback, what's wrong?" The young Wolfborn was dark brown all over except for a long stripe of a lighter shade down his spine, hence his name.

"Is it okay if I sit?" He asked, staring at the ground.

"Of course, grab a stool." The small folding table in my tent was surrounded by a few collapsible chairs, a little too small to be comfortable for one of us, but sturdy and portable. Wheatback took one and settled into it stiffly. He was still young enough, as a person as well as a Wolf, to be strongly affected by his Wolf side's instincts, but mature enough to be aware of it and be unhappy about it. It was a hard time in a Lycanthrope's life roughly analogous to human puberty, though in this case the phenomena happened roughly a year to eighteen months after the Turning, if the Wolf was Turned, or late adolescence if they were Wolfborn. "What's on your mind?"

"It's...it's mating season, alpha." He muttered, his facial fur puffing up in the Lycan equivalent of a blush. Ah, one of these.

"What about it specifically?" As a rule, it was always better to ask a seemingly obvious question and get clarification than to assume and make a fool of yourself.

"I can't find a willing mate. I know it sounds stupid, because I am still young, but I...it..." He struggled for a moment, obviously caught between his embarrassment and frustration.

"But it is still frustrating and you feel like you aren't worth as much as the others?" I finished for him. Been there.

"Yes." He agreed miserably.

"Well, you're not worth any less than anyone else, I can promise you that. I know it sounds like a hollow platitude, but it's true." Those years before the pack's females took you seriously enough to consider you a potential mate could be rough. "Just because you haven't gotten a mate doesn't mean you're a bad Wolf, or a bad person."

"I know that but...it still hurts."

"Being turned down does hurt, that's true. It'll always hurt, but if you don't try you can't win at all. Once again, I know it sounds stupid but it's completely true." Giving pep talks like this was a significant part of my job as an alpha, and I'd gotten the formula down pat. "Don't blame yourself if you get rejected, you don't deserve that. You may not find a mate this season, or the next, but that doesn't make you in any way worse than any other member of the pack, just as the ones who do pair up and mate aren't any better than you."

"It definitely doesn't feel that way..."

"Wheatback, there are fewer females than males, which leads to some rather unfortunate math. You are just as valuable to the pack whether or not you get a mate, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Understand?"

"I suppose so." He sighed sadly, but I could tell I'd lifted his spirits a little. Oftentimes when my wolves came to me with something like this (and it never failed to happen around mating season) all they really wanted was a chance to vent, whether they realized it or not. A few reassurances certainly didn't hurt either. "But that doesn't help my other problem."

"Which is?" Again, I was pretty sure I already knew, but it was better to be clear.

"It's...well, do I really have to say it?"

"Ah, that kind of frustration." I said, careful to keep my tone and body language open and easy. It never ceased to amaze me how a bunch of people who almost never wore clothes and had a mating season could be so...well, uptight, about sex. After living through the disaster that was my previous pack I made sure that my wolves knew I was comfortable talking about sex with them if they needed it. "Yeah, that can get rough."

"Alpha!" He squeaked, looking around like he expected someone else to appear out of thin air.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of Wheatback. We all have the urges, and as a young male coming into your prime yours are going to be strong. It's better to admit to yourself that you have them than to try and deny it." I added a wry smile and a self-deprecating tint to my voice. "Trust me, I grew up Catholic before the Great Magic War."

"But...I can't walk five feet without getting...you know..."

"Aroused? Wheatback, you do realize that come this time of year all the males in the pack are sporting almost constant erections? Once again, it's completely normal. If you try and hide it you'll look odd. Just acknowledge that it happens and remember that you're just the same as the rest of us that way."

"But what about...um..." He made a vague gesture with a paw that was supposed to mean something.

"Masturbation?" I finished for him. This was hardly the first time I'd had this conversation.

"Y-yes." His facial fur puffed up again.

"Well it's perfectly natural. Everyone does it. Humans do it, the pack females to it, we all do. I'm hardly going to yell at you if you decide to take some time to, ah, relieve yourself."

"Really?" The look of surprise on his face was almost comical. For some reason a great many of the pack thought that I'd take a stripe out of their hide if I caught them taking advantage of the only lovers that would never leave them. Hell, I'd been a fervent practitioner since I was thirteen, much to the horror of Sister Angelique and Father Muldoon.

"Sure. Look, I'll give you the same advice I give the other males who aren't going to be mating this season. Yes, the others come to me, you're not the only one." I forestalled his predictable interjection with a raised paw, but I smiled to make the gesture less threatening. "Anyway, here's my advice: As long as it doesn't interfere with your duties to the pack, neither I nor any of the other pack members has any place telling you not to relieve yourself. And, just in case you were wondering, that includes getting any...companionship, from the other males." His jaw dropped open when I said that and I actually had to struggle not to laugh, but I continued regardless, it really was important that he hear this.

"Yes, I know it happens, I'm not blind, and I don't care. Neither does anyone else for that matter. If you're not into that it's perfectly fine, but if you are, well, I expect you to comport yourself the same way you would with one of the females. Anyway, back to the original topic, it's perfectly normal to get aroused and to take care of yourself manually just so long as it doesn't interfere with your work. If you need to take a five minute break to go" I smirked. "Be your own best friend, that's fine by me. Just don't advertise it, deal?"

"I...yes, deal." He said, smiling slightly. "Thank you."

"It's fine. I'm here to help you Wheatback, that's what I do. I'm willing to talk about anything, including sex."

"I think I'm okay for now." He said, standing up. "Thank you again for...well, everything. I feel a lot better now."

"Good, that's what I like to hear." I stood up too and, after a second of judging his body language, reached out and hugged him. "I know it's hard, but you'll find your mates eventually. I look forward to seeing your pups."

"Thank you alpha." He said, sniffling a little before continuing in a small voice.

"I love you." I told him honestly giving him a brief nuzzle. Though my job was difficult, and my wolves even more so, I really did love them, and unlike most alphas I wasn't afraid to say it. I was probably the sappiest Alpha there ever was, but I had happy wolves who knew that their Alpha always had a kind word, and a hug, for them when they needed it. It was a worthy trade off.

It felt a bit weird being the communal father figure, especially for the wolves who had a century or two on me, but I wouldn't have given it up for the world.

"Thank you, that feels good to hear." He replied, hugging me back. "And I love you too."

"It's one of those things everyone needs to hear from time to time. Now, I have some plans to make so I'm afraid I can't talk much longer. Go ahead and get back to your duties...or, on the other paw, go ahead and take some time to yourself." I said as I noticed his prominent condition.

"Oh! Sorry!" He jumped back, embarrassed again.

"It's fine Wheatback." I repeated, waving a dismissive paw. "Go find a little privacy and treat yourself to some fun. I'll see you at dinner."

"I, um, I will. Thank you again Alpha." He said, walking out. I couldn't help but chuckle as I went back to my maps, plotting the course we would take after the breeding season was over. We just settled in this area, but it was always better to plan in advance.

"Another disappointed youngster come calling?" Another voice interrupted my work. This time it was my Beta, Byron.

"Yes. I gave Wheatback the same advice as all the others."

"Keep that up and half the pack will be out in the woods pawing themselves half to death." He said lightly, walking in with the assurance no other Wolf in the pack could have had. He was older than me by a century at least, though he didn't look it. He was my polar opposite physically speaking. Shockingly short for a Lycanthrope, only six feet whereas the rest of us rarely dropped below six and a half at the lowest. His fur was a uniform pale blond, and he bulged with muscle in such a way that it made one wonder how he didn't just pop whenever he flexed anything.

"If it's a choice between wolves with sticky paws and wolves who are constantly pent-up, frustrated, and combative due to frustration I'll take sticky paws any day." I said idly. "Where do you think we should go next once we leave the island? Stay around the contour of the lake or head deeper into the woods as we head towards towards Park Rapids and try to find some deer."

"Personally, I'm in favor of fish since we won't have access to it when winter hits, but many of the pack prefer venison. That's not why I came though." He sat down in the stool Wheatback just occupied, fixing me with a pointed look.

"Alright, I'll bite. What is it?" I sighed, knowing exactly what he was going to say.

"Have you picked out a mate for this season yet?" And there it was, the start of our most well-worn argument.

"No, I haven't." I said lightly, reminding myself not to get angry. He was only doing his duty after all. Alphas pester their packs, packs pester their Betas, and Betas pester their Alphas. It's the circle of life.

"Alpha, with all due respect, this is important." He was studiously polite, but firm.

"I'm not comfortable with the idea, we've been over this." As Alpha, when breeding season came around I literally had first pick of the females. I chose first, and whoever I picked wasn't allowed to say no, not that they would've anyway. Their inner wolves would have been too overjoyed at the chance to breed with the Alpha. "Hmm, maybe we could try heading westward for a bit after the salvage run. Not too far, I want to stay fairly close to the military base so we can check in if anything interesting pops up, but I don't think we've explored that country much."

"I know you're not, you've explained it to us more than once, but you're missing a rather important point." Byron wasn't the type to let me change the topic easily, and the cant of his ears as he sat in the chair with his arms resolutely folded over his massive pectorals told me that he intended to make a fight of it this time.

"Which is?" I sighed, acknowledging that I wasn't going to be doing much travel planning. This ought to be good.

"The pack loves you. Females included. You do realize that I have to fend them off, correct? If I didn't stop them from coming to see you on a daily basis you wouldn't be able to get any work done."

"One could make the argument that I'm not getting any work done as it is." I raised an eyebrow, a human gesture I'd never quite lost despite my years as a Wolf.

"Alpha, you've gone three seasons without a mate. That's unheard of. Even back in the days before the war the Alpha always had a mate for breeding season."

"Well I'm just not comfortable going up to one of the females and telling her that I'm going to be claiming her." I reiterated my point for the nth time. "Even if she was willing, there's an element of coercion in it and I'd never forgive myself once the hormones were gone and my head cleared up again.

"Once again, Alpha, I have to fend them off. I've spent most of the day hovering outside the tent stopping the females as they come." He said exasperatedly.

"If you're that desperate to see me mated why don't you let them in?"

"Because I'm aware of your Catholic upbringing and consequent masochistic tendencies and over developed guilt complex." He said dryly, showcasing his pre-war education and syntax. Unlike most of my wolves, bless them, he was well spoken in the way you can only be when you get a proper education. Too bad he spends most of his time and energy snarking at me. "Rejecting all those females would feed that damn martyr complex of yours."

"Excuse me? I do not have a martyr complex."

"Interesting how you didn't even bother to argue with the first part." He said, grinning. "And yes, a martyr complex. I wasn't a Catholic myself but I grew up in Ireland. I know Catholic guilt when I see it."

"Ireland, eh? That's interesting." Byron guarded the details of his past more jealously than even I did, which was saying something.

"Don't sidetrack. The bare facts are this: the pack expects their Alpha to have a mate during breeding season. The first season was understandable, if only just, because you'd just ascended to Alpha recently, the second one came as a shock, and now they're beginning to whisper about it."

"Oh don't be melodramatic." I rolled my eyes. "Why would they be hung up about me when they've got their own mates to try and catch?"

"They care because we all look to you as an example. If they don't see you with a mate they're going to wonder what's wrong, and that kind of thing leads to challenges and duels. I've seen it happen, and to be frank you're the best Alpha this pack has ever had, and I've seen my fair share of them come and go."

"I suppose there was a compliment buried in there somewhere." I deadpanned. "If you'd fetch my trowel like a good boy I might even be able to find it."

"Look, Alpha, could you please just talk to me?" He sighed in a distinctly put-upon sort of way and I instantly felt guilty about having a go at him. "My job is to help you, but I can't unless you talk to me."

"Byron, I'm not trying to be difficult, the fact of the matter is that I _cannot_accept any kind of arrangement with a subordinate. I refuse to abuse my authority that way." I growled, my claws scratching furrows in the folding table. Byron looked thoughtful for a moment, and then his face softened.

"Ah, now I see."

"Don't use that tone of voice with me." I growled, guilt replaced by irritation. "You're not a psychologist and I'm not your patient."

"You're afraid you'll turn into Ashtail." Just hearing the name of my old Alpha was enough to draw a quiet growl from me, but I couldn't deny that the bastard was one of the reasons I made the decisions I did.

"I saw him go from decent Wolf to...what he was at the end, and it all started with the way he treated us. Like his own personal harem. It was a slippery slope I have no intention of starting down."

"You aren't him. You're better than that." He said. He believed it too, he honestly believed it. I, however, had an intimate understanding with my own particular set of iniquities and thus wasn't quite as assured as my loyal Beta.

"You can't know that." The thought of taking a mate was unbearable. I wanted to, badly, but if there was anything I feared more than anything else it was slipping up and doing what Ashtail did to his pack.

"I have faith in you." He said simply. "So does the rest of the pack, else they wouldn't love you so damn much. Maybe you should try having some faith in yourself."

"Did you get that line out of a self-help book before the war?" I asked acidly, unnerved by how well he read me.

"No, I didn't. I did have a very wise piano teacher though." He leaned over and rested a paw on my shoulder, a risky move for a subordinate to pull on an agitated Alpha. "I'm serious though, you're the only one who seems to think you'll lose your mind if you pair up and do what comes naturally."

"I've been afraid of turning into him for years Byron." I admitted, enjoying the contact. I gave out my fair share of hugs when I dealt with upset wolves, but that was all focused on someone else. Byron was the only one who ever gave me the kind of physical reassurance I gave to my wolves, and even that was rare. "And...I suppose part of me still thinks I should be waiting for a marriage, as stupid as that is."

"It's hard to shake what you grew up with." He said wisely, leaving his paw on my shoulder, probably for my benefit. If he knew I was upset he'd usually do that. It was just one of those things a good Beta did.

"I just...dammit, I can't even make sense of it myself. Half of me can't stand the thought of doing anything like what Ashtail did, and the other half of me thinks that I've taken things to a maladjusted extreme." I allowed myself a few more seconds of enjoying the touch before leaning back in my chair.

"He doesn't deserve the kind of attention you're giving him." Byron said firmly. "He's dead and buried, don't give him the satisfaction of hurting yourself just to try and snub him."

"You're right. As usual." I grumbled, burying my face in my paw. "But even if I do go through with this, how can I pick someone without looking like I'm playing favorites?"

"As long as you don't pull rank and claim a female who already picked a mate I'm sure no one will be upset." He said wryly. "You'll get ribbed of course, but they'll be happy to see you joining in on the fun."

"I've never done this before, how can I be an example, as you put it, to the rest of the pack if I stumble and stutter like a nervous teenager asking his first crush out to the school dance?" Byron was one of the few wolves in the pack I could use old cultural metaphors with when I spoke. The wolves born after the Great Magic War didn't have the context.

"Simple. You follow your own advice."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't you tell the nervous males that come to you that the worst thing that can happen is the female says no? In your case it's pretty much a given that whoever you pick will accept, but if you are rejected you acknowledge it and apologize for asking."

"So I just go up to one of the females and ask them if they'd be willing to rut me?" I asked flatly.

"Not like that, no." He replied patiently. "Part of your problem is that you're thinking like a human. Breeding season has been a part of Lycanthrope culture since long before either of us were born. Hell, look outside your tent. Most of the males are walking around at full salute, and the females are jockeying for their choice in mates. Holding yourself aloof from it all is going to damage your image if you keep it up. The pack knows you're young, and they don't expect you to be perfect. Go out there after dinner tonight and join us around the fire. Tell a few bad jokes, watch the females advertising themselves, get a huge erection and then laugh with the rest of us when we all get them too. You know, be one of us."

I thought about that for a long second. I knew he was right of course, particularly the part about the erection, that was practically a rite of passage among Lycan males. You weren't an adult until you got painfully hard around the fire while watching the females during breeding season. Still, a part of me recoiled from the notion. A long and silent war played out in my head before I replied.

"I suppose it sounds like...fun." I allowed, unsure.

"Yes, it is, and you could use a break from all this." He waved his paw at the maps on the table and the bag of other administrative detritus near my cot.

"I...I'll think about who I want to ask." I said eventually. "After dinner I'll try."

"Good." Byron said approvingly, his tail starting to twitch. "No offense, but I'll be happier knowing you're going to be able to rut out some of your stress."

"Byron." I growled, annoyed. His grin only got bigger. Bastard.

"Um, Alpha?" I twitched and looked up to the entrance of my tent to see one of the younger wolves, Snowpaws, standing there. Apparently my conversation with Byron had distracted me more than I thought.

"Yes, what is it?" I slipped into the role of calm, confident Alpha as easy as shouldering my backpack.

"Am I interrupting something important?" She asked, hovering in the entry, one of her shockingly white paws resting on the interior canvas and the rest of her black and brown mottled body outside.

"No, it's fine. Come on in. What do you need?"

"Well..." When she walked in I noticed that she held her tail higher than normal and there was a definite sway in her step. When she got in, apparently not noticing Byron, she stood in front of me with her legs slightly apart and her chest bared slightly. I could see her nipples poking through her fur. "I wanted to know if you've picked your mate for breeding season."

Byron gave me his best I Told You So look, which I summarily ignored. Snowpaws was just old enough not to be a pup, there were a few females below her in the unofficial hierarchy, but not many. Breeding me would have jumped her up the standings significantly. That alone was reason enough to turn her down, not to mention the fact that this was to be her first season and she deserved someone who could give her a skilled and enjoyable introduction. I had to say no, but I had to do it gracefully.

"I haven't actually." I said mildly, stalling for time and employing the better part of my considerable willpower to keep my eyes from drifting down to her visibly swollen lower lips.

"I would be glad to, Alpha." She said demurely, making a show of keeping her body posture submissive while simultaneously trying to show off her breasts and hips. It was overdone, gauche, and it damn near had me bursting a hole in my shorts.

"I...thank you Snowpaws, I appreciate the sentiment, but I have to consider this carefully. I truly haven't made up my mind yet." In fact I hadn't even had time to begin thinking about it when she came into the tent, but she didn't need to know that. "I'll pick after dinner tonight."

"O-oh." Her ears drooped with disappointment that was in no way an act and I instantly felt like I'd kicked a baby.

"I appreciate your offer Snowpaws, I really do." I used my best 'genuine' voice while I lied through my teeth. I was about as uncomfortable as I could possibly be, but once again she didn't need to know that. "But I won't give you false hope. I may decide to attempt to earn your attentions this season, but I haven't decided yet."

"I understand." She said, drooping. "I'll see you at dinner then."

"Until then." I agreed. Only when she was far enough away to be out of earshot did I turn to my Beta and say what I'd been thinking the whole time. "I really do need to put some thought into this damn fast, don't I?"

"Yes, you do." He responded vaguely amused. "And don't get all caught up with pack dynamics either. You're a virgin, right?"

"Yes, how did you know?" I asked, honestly baffled.

"You were a seventeen year old Catholic school student when you were turned. Catholic kids tend to fall into two groups regarding sex. You either A: never had sex and developed some neuroses over it because the teachers taught you that it was evil and that you were going to hell for having dirty thoughts, or B: You slept around and your neuroses come from that kind of guilt. You seemed like the virgin type to me."

"How long did you live in Ireland exactly?" I refused to give him the pleasure of seeing me ruffled.

"Long enough." He replied mysteriously. "My point is, if you're a virgin you deserve to have a good introduction. Don't feel like you're obligated to any female, pick someone you're comfortable with."

"They deserve to have a good partner too." I pointed out, slumping back into my chair. "Dammit, this is why I like the abstinence until marriage thing. The sex will suck in the beginning, but you can't be blamed for not being good at it."

"Alpha, heat sex and regular sex have very little in common. Trust me, I've had plenty of experience with both. This is going to be all instinct, no higher-order thinking involved. Besides, there isn't a female in the pack that would mind teaching you about normal sex. I refer again back to my statement about fending them off."

"They want the confident, blasé, self-assured Alpha. That's what they see me as. What they'll be getting is the inexperienced, nervous, tense Alpha. There's a bit of a difference."

"You're afraid you can't measure up." He surmised succinctly.

"Terrified." That was something that really sucked about being Alpha. All your fears and anxieties had to be shoved into a little mental box lest the pack see how cracked you were.

"Everyone's nervous their first time Alpha. You won't have to worry about it during the season though, the hormones will take care of that."

"But what about afterward?" I asked nervously. Byron was the one Wolf I could go to when I needed advice, and I needed all the advice I could get.

"Then you admit that your nervous to your mate and work through it. With time and some practice you'll be making your mates plenty happy." He said gently. "I'm sorry if this offends you Alpha, but it's times like this that remind me how young you are."

"I'm at least forty...I think." I countered, thrown off by his non-sequitor.

"No, you're seventeen. Maybe a few years older in some areas given the responsibilities you've taken on, but for all intents and purposes you're still a kid. So just trust me when I say that you're overthinking this. Mating season isn't supposed to be a big deal, it's a way for the pack to bond and release tension. If there's anyone in the pack who needs that, it's you. Think about it between now and dinner, and when the time comes just relax and enjoy yourself. You've sure as hell earned it."

"Thanks." I smiled weakly.

"Everything will be fine." Byron reassured, standing up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have my own mating season to consider and I, for one, would be delighted to keep Snowpaws company."

"Be nice."

"Only if she wants me to be."

*After dinner*

Our evening meal was the same boisterous event it always was. Two and a half dozen werewolves packing away pounds and pounds of meat, fish, and the occasional bit of plant matter is never a quiet affair, and add in the additional nervous energy that always comes with breeding season and you get yourself quite a party. We ate sitting or standing around the cook fires as always, using military issue utensils or just our paws and claws (usually the latter). Nearly raw meat squirted juice everywhere, fish skin crackled as fillets of perch, bass, pike, and walleye were devoured, and seeing as it was the start of breeding season and thus something of a celebration I'd even brought out a few bottles of wine to be shared around.

My generous offers mostly went ignored though, only those of us old enough to have lived before the Great Magic War had ever had the chance to have real wine and a few of those found themselves unable to touch anything alcoholic after their Turning. I myself grew up taking communion regularly and despite all odds managed to become rather fond of red wine, so I had a tin cup of unnamed red from the human lands down south, wishing it could actually get me a bit drunk.

I was still nervous about picking my mate for the season. I'd bought time and staved off Snowpaws when I said I'd choose after dinner, but word would definitely have gotten around and I was regretting my course of action heartily. Snowpaws herself looked fine, sitting in Byron's lap and doing a horrible job of trying to hide how she was rubbing her breasts against him as they flirted after their hastily gobbled meal.

When we were all done and cleaned up, and there was a great deal of rather intimate cleaning going on even after the meal, we all sat down around the fires to have our daily meeting. The tradition was something I started as a way to get everyone in one place where we could talk over any problems that came up while everyone was in a fairly good mood after a meal. As was usual, the rest of the pack unconsciously kept themselves lower than me at all times, bowing their heads slightly or hunching their backs. In the interest of saving them spinal pains I sat down on a conveniently tall log, thankful as ever for my thick canvas shorts. Once everyone was settled I started the obligatory speech.

"Alright everyone," I always used the same phrase when addressing the pack as a whole, and they all looked at me expectantly, their side conversations falling silent. "I'm not going to waste your time with my usual blathering about current issues and past issues. There's only one issue now, and that's breeding season." A round of chuckles wound its way through the assembled. "We've only got a few minutes before the moon rises and things really kick off, so I'll make this quick...if Byron doesn't get some relief soon he's going to pop." Another chuckle, this one slightly more perverse echoed through the camp as Byron whimpered dramatically.

"I see a lot of you are already practicing." I looked pointedly at Goldtail and Blackleg, who were tangled up and already well on their way to heavy petting. "That's fine, but just to be clear we're following the same rules as before. I trust you've all got spots picked out, so when you feel the moon calling pick yourselves up and do what comes naturally."

"Yes Alpha." Came the collective response.

"Good." I smiled. "Now, during the week everyone's blood is going to be up and I want everyone to try and remember that, I don't want any fights." A paw went up in the air and I couldn't help but laugh internally. Normally a Lycanthrope never would have willingly interrupted their Alpha, even in such a respectful (and unintentionally hilarious) matter. It spoke to how comfortable my pack was with me that one of them would even try it. "Yes Brownears?"

"Is it okay if we choose to mate in camp?" The male in question had a lascivious grin on his face and a female in his lap who let out a surprised sound and smacked him lightly despite the fact that she was smiling even more perversely than he was.

"I don't know, can you put on a good show?" A barrage of laughter and jokes of the predictably filthy fashion flew back and forth. I let it go on for a moment before gathering their attention again. "In all seriousness though, I'd rather you not. Just to avoid any issues. There's plenty of room on the island, just don't go too far away. Other than that I don't have any restrictions. Go out and have fun, you've all earned it." I smiled down on them, imparting as much affection in my voice as I could. The obvious closing left me open for questions, which started rather ominously by Snowpaw tentatively raising her paw.

"Yes Snowpaw?"

"I'm sorry if I'm being rude," She said meekly, staring down and canting her neck to the side as she spoke, the picture of obsequiousness, an ominous sign. "But...how come you haven't picked a mate the past seasons?"

Well that sure got everyone's attention. All extraneous conversation stopped as she asked what they'd apparently been wondering. Shit. I didn't think she, of all of them, would be that direct. How to play this? Everyone was staring at me intently now, except for Byron who was mildly panicking and trying not to show it. Generally speaking I tried to be as honest as was realistically possible when I addressed the pack. White lies were often necessary, as were occasional whoppers, but something like this...damn. After a long and, I hoped, thoughtful pause I decided that anything I made up on the spot would be worse than the truth, so I just came out with it.

"That's...a bit complicated." I said, careful not to sound angry lest I sound like I was chastising her for asking a legitimate, if annoying, question. "Part of it was that I was raised in an extremely strict religious home. Those of you old enough to have lived before the Great War will know what I mean, and the younger ones can ask them, or me, for elaboration later, but the gist of it is that when I was growing up I was always told that sex outside of marriage was..." I struggled to think of a way to describe the concept of sin to my younger, and completely non-religious, wolves. "Unacceptable and immoral."

"Um, what's marriage?" Snowpaw asked, unintentionally making me feel extremely old, and old fashioned.

"A formalized and permanent mating. Two people choosing to become exclusive mates for the rest of their lives." I explained, noting the incredulous looks I got from the younger wolves in the audience with wry amusement. I'd have to start giving history lessons at this rate. "My parents and the teachers at the school I went to made a great deal of fuss over it. I grew up being told that every time I got aroused I was being a bad person because I wasn't married yet and that I would be punished for it by God. I can see how ridiculous that kind of thinking is now, but it still made an impression on me. The other reason I haven't paired up is, well, as a direct consequence of the first reason, I've never mated before and I was a bit intimidated."

When I admitted that there was a pretty strong, though mixed, reaction. Most of the pack looked shocked, but a few of the older wolves (excluding Byron, who looked like he wanted to facepalm) traded a few 'I thought so' looks. I let the murmuring die down and waited for the inevitable question.

"You've never mated?" It was Wheatback this time.

"No, I haven't. When I was turned I was too young to have really had a chance to have a real mate. Things were different back then you have to understand, at seventeen I wasn't even considered an adult yet. Legally I would have been an adult at eighteen, but in the eyes of society you weren't really 'grown up' until your early to mid twenties or so, depending on a number of different factors. Things were also very tense because those were the turbulent years building up to the Great War. Then I was changed and..." Memories came surging back to the surface of my mind and I had to push them back down again before I could continue. Fortunately the resultant pause wasn't too long. "That is an entirely different story, but suffice it to say mating wasn't on my list of priorities."

"So you are going to take a mate this season?" Redtail, an older male, asked politely to break the long silence that followed as my pack digested the information I'd just given them. I'd only come to the pack roughly three years ago, and as a near-feral wandering loner at that. I hadn't given many details of my past and, as a courtesy, they hadn't asked. Still, the question was valid and required an answer.

"Yes, this season I am going to pair up." I had thought about it over the meal and come up with a list of potential females. Of course, half of them had taken mates during dinner, but there were still three left, and a brief second of deliberation, during the beat of silence after my last sentence, I made up my mind and turned to the white and brown female in question. "Rime, if you wouldn't mind, I would be honored to be your mate this season."

This would be the true test, would the pack be upset over my choice, I was asking a Wolfborn after all, or would they accept it (and by extension, my reasons for waiting to take a mate). To my slight surprise and profound relief, the reaction was unwaveringly positive. Rime was a well-liked because she was steady and easygoing. She was also high enough in the unofficial hierarchy to be picked out by the Alpha as a mate, and since she was Wolfborn and thus had a better chance of conceiving the elder wolves (especially the more conservative ones, for lack of a better word) would approve of us as a pair. An Alpha with cubs has a more secure position.

"I wouldn't mind at all." Rime said, standing up from her place around the fire and walking over to me with a smile on her muzzle. I smiled back, stuffing the relief I felt down my throat before it made my voice crack, and took her into my arms. She wasted no time starting to pet me, exploring my sensitive flanks and shamelessly dropping her paws down to my inner thighs as though we'd been lovers for years. She nipped the underside of my jaw submissively and I returned the gesture. We sealed it by touching noses. We were met with a heartfelt round of congratulations from the pack, which went a great deal towards alleviating my worries about the upcoming activity, though that may have been her pheromones talking.

"You know, Alpha, I've had a thought." Byron called unexpectedly, mischief in his voice.

"Now now Byron, remember our little talk? You shouldn't be doing that, it's dangerous." I shot back without skipping a beat, much to the general amusement of the audience. Only the Beta in a pack had the status required to start a real back-and-forth with the Alpha, and Byron was savvy enough to read the currents and capitalize on them by starting something, likely as a way of getting back at me for my comment earlier.

"The whole time you've been our Alpha we've never really seen you get your blood up." He ignored the jab. "I think it's only fair that we get a good look."

"You can't be serious." I said flatly. It was unofficial tradition that any male entering his first mating season with a female had to show off his goods in front of the pack.

"Tradition is tradition." He said sagely, his tail wagging. "Come on now, drop those shorts and spring it up!"

A loud and enthusiastic chorus followed him and I vowed to get back at him for this later. Still, he was right, denying the pack would be...unwise. Besides, standing in proximity to so many females in heat was starting to get to me enough that it sounded like fun. Then Rime put her two cents in.

"I wouldn't mind a glimpse of what I'm going to be getting." She smirked, her tail wagging. "I'm showing you the goods, it's only fair you give me a chance."

"Mmm, good point." I smiled at the catcalls coming from the audience. Then I wrapped my arms around her and nuzzled her ear, sharing her smirk. "Mind giving me a little inspiration?"

"I think I can do that." Then our muzzles melded in a parody of a human kiss. Between the slow, but passionate, almost-kissing and her heat scent I knew it wouldn't be long before my shorts were inconveniently restrictive, so I slid them off, my penis already starting to poke out of its furry sheath. A few more seconds of kissing and fondling had me stiffer than an iron girder. The pack cheered and laughed, egging us on happily. In stark contrast with the human culture I'd grown up in, Lycanthrope culture valued public displays of affection highly, especially sexual ones. Even out of breeding season it wasn't at all odd to see couples in the middle of camp in the midst of foreplay all the way up to third base and beyond, stopping just short of public sex. That wasn't to say public sex didn't happen, it very much did, but generally only during the season.

When we broke apart we were greeted by raucous laughter and more (genuine) congratulations. Then, to top it off, she reached down and gathered a bead of precum that had gathered on my tip and very blatantly licked it off. The pack let out a collective coo as I grinned and unconsciously bucked my hips into the motion.

"Well everyone, satisfied?" I asked, smiling.

"Very much." Byron chuckled. "Though now it's you whose about to pop."

"Not so much pop as gush." I deadpanned before addressing the pack as a whole. "Alright, now that I've given you all a show you'll all remember for years to come, I don't have any other rules or anything. This meeting is done. Now, go out in the woods and give the local fauna a show. If you need me...well, I'll be a little tied up." The pack groaned collectively, which I counted as a victory. My duty done I smiled down at Rime and gestured to the woods. She leered back and nodded leaning against me and stroking my thigh as I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and led the way out of camp. The group behind us fragmented as the last few unclaimed females approached their choices and the paired members drifting off to find themselves a spot to rut.

"Mind telling me where we're going...and giving my breasts a bit of attention? Your paw is right there after all." Rime asked.

"Well, if you insist." I chuckled, doing as she asked and cupping her right breast in my paw. "I thought we would wear a hole in the hillock by the beach."

"A rut with a view, nice." She grinned, but it fell away quickly and she put a serious paw on my chest, pushing me back slightly. I obeyed, but reluctantly. "Before we start though, we should talk."

"Yes, we probably should." I agreed, though my erection had started to physically hurt on the way over and it wasn't getting any better. She must have noticed my distress because she chuckled and stroked my cheek.

"Don't worry Alpha, I won't make you suffer. This is your first time though, so we can't just jump into it."

"I understand." I said tightly. She smelled so wonderful. Wild, and somehow savory sweet at the same time.

"Mmm, you're getting musky." She shivered, shaking herself to get a grip on her thoughts. "Here, turn around for a second."

"Huh?"

In my hazy state I couldn't quite register her words, and I nearly did something unfortunate when she moved behind me on her own, but any action I had been about to take stopped immediately when her paw wrapped around my shaft and started pumping, lubricated by some saliva and the white fluid oozing from my tip. I went from alarmed and almost violent to whimpering, desperate mess instantly. My hips bucked into her motions and I emitted a strangled groan.

Her other paw joined the first one a few seconds in and all I could do was rapidly buck my hips. I was forced to lean back into her as I rapidly approached the point of no return. When my knot swelled up to the breaking point she wrapped her left paw around it and squeezed hard. My brain temporarily melted in the euphoria of release for a blissfully long moment. Then I crashed back to reality and found myself dangerously weak. My legs shook like a newborn deer and I had to lean back onto Rime in order to stay vertical.

"Easy." Her quiet voice came in my ear and her arms wrapped around me. She lowered me gently to the ground and sat beside me, still acting as my support. "There you go. Feeling coherent now?"

"I've never been that...out of touch before." I said unsteadily. As Alpha, I had to be in control at all times. I had to set an example for my wolves. I had to be both man and Wolf at the same time, never going too far one way or the other. I was always in control, I had to be, losing it like that was, frankly, terrifying.

"That's what happens." She said softly, gently capturing my muzzle in her paw and turning my face towards hers. I was thankful for the instinct that overrode pack hierarchy instinct between mates, otherwise she probably would have been too uncomfortable to do something like this. "Feel good enough to talk now?"

"Yes. I think." My ears were folded back uncomfortably. Her smell was always starting to affect me again, if only slowly.

"Good." She nuzzled my chest and licked me comfortingly a few times. "Did you pick me because I've been the first mates of the two new wolves?"

"No, not really. I picked you because," My facial fur puffed up. "Well, you're mature, so I knew you wouldn't be intimidated because I'm the Alpha, and, um, because..." I growled to myself, embarrassed and angry, at myself, not her.

"Because?" She finished for me.

"Because I knew you wouldn't talk to the others about what happens between us." I said lamely, completely failing to get my point across.

"So you feel safe with me."

"Y-yes, I guess." She was kind enough not to make me look her in the eye, tucking her head under my chin instead.

"It's alright. I understand." She nuzzled my throat. "Just let me take the lead, okay?"

"Want to get the Alpha at your mercy?" I chuckled, feeling a bit better.

"No." She untucked her head and tilted it to the side, baring her throat to me submissively. "I want you to take me by the scruff and rut me until I can't walk, and then keep going. But I'm your first mate. It's my responsibility to teach you and make sure your first time is a good experience."

"Your responsibility, huh?"

"Yes. If you're with a virgin you owe it to them to make sure they have a good time and that you're supportive. Do that and they'll have the foundation to gain the kind of confidence that makes longer relationships possible."

"Most Wolves don't think that way." I said, interested. "Especially not the younger ones."

"It's a bit of a pre-war sentiment," She agreed with a small smile. "But that's what my first lover taught me and I stand by it."

"I never said it was bad." I tilted her head back up with a paw, delighting in the chance to just touch someone for the sake of touching them. My Wolves get plenty of physical contact, I don't.

"It's always served me well." She almost purred, nuzzling my paw for a second before pushing it away. "Now you're going to have to stop that for a while, I won't be able to control myself otherwise."

"I'll try." I laid down beside her and drank in her nude form, already hard again.

"Good. Now then, like you noticed earlier, when this starts, it starts, we're both going to lose control completely." The anticipation in her voice was obvious. "It feels like a dream when you look back on it later. You can learn to control it with time, but since you're new to this you're probably going to bite me."

"Bite you?" I blurted out, surprised.

"Mmm." She shivered, smiling. "It's instinctual, don't worry. The venom makes it worth it." She opened her mouth and I saw silver smears on the end of her canines, the naturally produced fluid that actually caused the Change. All Lycanthropes had it, and expressing it was just a matter of contracting some facial muscles, or when you sneezed. Why it happened when you sneezed I never found out.

"So I'm going to envenomate you? Without meaning to?"

"Yes, and I'm probably going to do the same." She nodded, licking the venom off her teeth. "It's okay, it feels fantastic and you heal up fast enough that you don't feel it in the morning."

"Biting feels fantastic?" I echoed dubiously.

"Just trust me." She stretched languidly, a paw absently drifting down to her belly, where she started scratching lightly with her claws. The motion drew my eyes like a magnet. "It's all instinct, you won't be able to stop yourself, but it's almost like having another orgasm."

"Alright, what else?"

"We aren't going to be sleeping much tonight." She said, her paw unconsciously moving a bit lower, keeping me transfixed the whole time. "I'm sure you've seen how we all get, but it's a totally different thing to live it as opposed to watching it. All you're going to want to do in the morning is eat, drink, and then go back to sleep. It's a good idea to sleep where you intend to mate, because once the moon comes up again you won't be moving from that spot granted your mate is within reach."

"So grab breakfast and then meet up back here for a nap?"

"Yes. Cuddling too. Cuddling is important." She smiled. "There's no better way to bond then pre-mating cuddling."

"I'll remember that." I said, pointedly scooting a bit closer and draping an arm over her. "What else?"

"Well...do you mind if I ask you something?" She turned wary.

"Of course." Even in my state I was careful to sound unconcerned and open.

"Are you going to keep mating me until next season or take Alpha's Right?"

Normally wolves that paired up during mating season stayed together until next season, when they swapped mates. It was a way of ensuring that the rare fertile wolves paired with as many other fertile wolves as possible. As Alpha though, I was allowed to take any female I wanted whenever I wanted. Alpha's Right.

"I'd rather not take Alpha's Right." I was tempted to, which was all the reason I needed to avoid taking it. I'd seen what could happen when it was abused. The thought of what Ashtail had turned into was enough to dampen even the chemically-induced arousal I was feeling. "I don't think it's fair for me to break the rules just because I'm Alpha."

"Even when you could mate as much as you wanted with any of the females you wanted?" She didn't seem upset about it, just curious. It felt weird to me since I'd grown up in a very strict monogamist human society, but Lycanthropes very rarely took exclusive mates. Having more than one at once was frowned on as being greedy, but not nearly to the extent humans took it before the Great War.

"Yes." I answered without hesitation. "Absolutely."

"I see." She said, carefully neutral. I could see her filing the information away for later. I almost said something, but at that moment the moon rose over the lake and we were bathed in true moonlight for the first time that night. The effect was, for lack of a properly descriptive word, breathtaking. Any thoughts about Ashtail or my upbringing sublimated instantly under the intensity of my newfound lust. Howls filled the air as the rest of the pack felt it too, followed shortly afterwards by the sounds of enthusiastic sex.

"I...think we will have to finish this later." I struggled out. It ended up as a resonant growl.

"Y-yes Alpha." She whispered demurely, looking away and baring her throat. Without thinking I opened my mouth and took her throat in my jaws. She went stock still, barely even breathing, until I released her. I fought my instincts as hard as I could, but it was a losing battle. The more intense the moonlight became the less coherent I was. Still, I had to do one last thing before the beast took over. It took all my willpower, but I managed to stop myself from capitalizing on the way she invitingly spread her legs. I crawled on top of her but didn't settle into mating position.

"Rime. Open your mouth." I growled as gently as I possibly could under the circumstances. She obeyed without a word, unable to look at me. Then, fighting my body the whole time, I moved to the side, lowered myself down, and put my throat between her jaws. It was extremely awkward, but it got my message across even through her heat. I couldn't see much from my position, but I saw her ears stick up straight and her body stiffened in shock.

I stayed perfectly still, aided by the same instincts I'd had to fight before, until she bit down ever so gently, acknowledging the gesture. Only then did I pull back and when I looked at her face I knew it had been worth it. Her jaws were parted in a panting smile and the excitement in her eyes wasn't just a mindless haze of hormones. When she bared her throat again, the flicker of uncertainty that had been in her eyes was completely gone.

"I can't control myself anymore." I whispered, using the last of my self-control to do so.

"Just let go." She whispered back. "Just let go."

Then my beast took over and I did exactly that.

My mouth descended to hers and I pressed against her, pushing my tongue into her muzzle. Her heat-scent permeated her whole being. I could taste it in the kiss. My physical perception began to change, the pain in my shaft became just another dimension of the enjoyment as I explored my mate's mouth. Then, bowing to my instincts, I disengaged and growled, open-mouthed, my fangs oozing with venom. The bite. The bite had to be first, to ensure a proper mating. That was the only way my cubs would be born. She understood my gesture and tilted her head to one side, exposing her right shoulder.

Wasting no time I lowered my head and sank my fangs into her, expelling venom all the while. She gasped and whimpered, but didn't move. When I was done I licked my teeth, and then her wounds, clean of blood and venom. She healed quickly but the work was done and I could smell a subtle difference in her heat scent. She whined quietly, trying to get my attention. I looked at her and she licked under my chin submissively, placating me. Then she parted her jaws slightly, her own fangs silvered with venom, and whined again. She wanted to bite me. The venom would enhance the mating, my instincts said. Submit to the bite. I soundlessly tilted my head to the side, though not nearly to the extent that she had tilted hers. After another whine and lick I felt her fangs prick my skin and slide into the flesh of my shoulder.

Warmth immediately flooded the area and I growled appreciatively. The pain, what little there was, faded almost instantly and left in its place a further clouding of my conscious thought, which I welcomed in my state. Then, to my surprise, she did it again, and again. My shoulder, my arm, even my chest. Small nibbles, not even bites really, just enough for her fangs to pierce and deposit their payload, then she moved on. Soon my upper torso was full of burning points of pleasure. Now _this_was interesting. I stopped her when she returned to my shoulder and moved across her body, doing the same to her. Shoulders, arms, and belly, I bit my way across them all. Like her, I used small bites, and like me she made appreciative noises as I went.

My last stop was her thighs. First her right, then her left. I knew there was a river of blood just beneath the skin, so I was careful to only pierce the outer thighs, and I expended the last of my venom there, leaving my fangs and jaw tingling deliciously. Then, as if drawn by a magnet, my attention was brought to the strongest source of her heat scent. I nosed at her swollen folds briefly, drawing deep breaths of her aroma. It filled my lungs and coated them like rich boar fat coated the mouth, driving away the last of my human side.

I lapped at her curiously, wondering what if she would taste the way she smelled. It was different, but no less wonderful. I pushed my tongue inside her as far as it would go, collecting as much of her aromatic fluid as possible. She squeaked and whined happily as I did all this, only enhancing my experience as I spent some time tasting her heat more directly.

Then my shaft gave a twitch that let me know the time for playing was done. A paw under her hip was all the cue it took for her to assume the proper position and in short order I was able to take my position behind her and start thrusting. It took me a few moments to find my mark, but find it I did, and it was glorious. I slid into her up to my hilt, drawing a startled bark from her throat, and the rapture of it drove me on even further. I bucked my hips hard and fast, sliding in and out of her without conscious thought. A few times I accidentally pulled out too far, and it would take a frustrating few seconds to realign myself, but even then it didn't take long for me to escalate to my peak.

I knew it was coming when I felt my knot swell, and I started thrusting all the faster for it. When my knot was fully engorged I repositioned myself, knowing I would need better leverage, and started tying her. I quickly found out that she was apparently too small to take the tie, but I knew that was not right. Females were tied, that was how mating worked. With a frustrated growl I drew back and pushed my hips forward with one sharp movement. She yelped when my knot rebounded off her and squirmed. Undeterred I tried again. Her body rocked forward underneath me when I failed once again.

Each time a jolt of pain shot through my pelvis, but I liked it. It was good, so I kept going, making her jump with each impact. Then, finally, after what felt like an eternity I felt something in her body begin to give way. The next time I pushed in I grabbed her hips and pulled back at the same time I pushed forward. She whined loudly and after a few seconds of mutual straining I slid all the way into her with an almost audible pop.

She instantly started quivering and raised her muzzle to the moon, letting out a loud howl. Her innards squeezed me deliciously as I kept bucking, finding myself completely unable to move. Then it came, the buildup of heat in my loins rose to a peak and erupted. I tilted my head back and joined her in her howling as pleasure flowed through my whole body. Her slick insides became slicker and warmer as I spurted gobs of sticky fluid inside her.

The moment lasted for a dozen blissful heartbeats before I crashed back to reality in on a tide of exhaustion so profound I could barely believe I didn't fall unconscious. Wobbling, I barely managed to catch myself on an arm and awkwardly lower myself to the ground, spooning her less out of desire than necessity, as she was still clenched tight around me.

Due to the way we were tied my head came to rest on her neck, which I didn't mind at all. I draped an arm over her torso and pulled her close, lapping at her cheek as the hormone rush faded and higher-order thought reasserted itself. After a long bout of panting, she spoke first.

"Congratulations Alpha." She said, somehow managing to talk, pant, and chuckle at the same time. "You've bred your first bitch."

"I...have...no...w-words." I managed to get out between gasps. I was met by more breathless laughter.

"Best kind of...mating." She informed me, patting my thigh. "Can't wait until the next round."

"Next round?" I asked incredulously. I could barely move. Even with my Wolf-enhanced stamina that had been draining in the extreme. I couldn't even begin to contemplate going again.

"Oh Alpha," She said almost pityingly, giving me a backward glance that was nothing less than predatory. "The night is young."