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[center]His Wolf, Epilogue - by A. A. Samuel[/center]

Sam came home in a good mood. It was the end of his second week in his new job position. He was finally starting to feel at home with his new duties, [i]and[/i] it was the weekend. Plus, last night he hadn't had a single nightmare all night, for maybe the third time! Last month's trauma was finally letting him go—at least enough to get a proper night's sleep.

Speaking of dreams, though, Sam had something to tell Jake. He hung his coat on Jake's coat rack, set down his soft-shell briefcase and his work ID badge, and kicked off his shoes. Then he jogged down the hall toward Jake's office.

Unusually, Sam found his . . . boyfriend? . . . actually working. He paused in the doorway.

Boyfriend? Was that really the word he wanted to use? "Lover" felt like TMI. "Partner" felt like something they hadn't earned yet; they hadn't been together long enough. S.O.? No, if Sam used that one, Jake was [i]certain[/i] to decide it meant "superior officer" and make fun.

Dammit. Sam just had to face that he was in a gay relationship and get over it. There wasn't anything wrong with being gay. Or . . . well, whatever they both were.

"Boyfriend" would have to do for now. Sam's boyfriend. Jake. He looked handsome there at his desk. He was in a t-shirt and boxers, and his hair was a frizzy mess under his headphones, but his face was all serious and smart, lit up by the computer screen, which was dominated by an incomprehensible AutoCAD diagram. Jake was typing mathematical formulae in a smaller window to one side. Sam could follow most of the math, at least.

They were a good match, the two of them. They understood each other better than Sam would ever have guessed, a mere two months ago.

Sam knocked on the doorframe, hoping it was loud enough to be heard over whatever freakish music Jake had playing in those headphones.

Musically, Sam had learned, they were 100% incompatible. Which was why civilization had invented headphones.

"Honey, I'm home," Sam teased.

Jake jumped slightly, and pulled up his music program, to pause it. He tugged down his headphones and turned off his monitor.

"You live here now?" he teased back. He spun his chair to look up at Sam, grinning.

Technically, Sam still had his own place, in town. When he was alone there, though, he still jumped at every shadow, always thinking Hurst had broken in again. Every time he turned around, he expected to find Hurst, naked and smug, on his couch.

So Sam spent most of his time at Jake's, racking up a huge gas bill every week, with all the driving. It wasn't a long-term solution, but in the meantime . . . yeah, Sam did almost live out here. The question made him blush. He broke eye-contact.

"Anyway," he said, "You were so sound asleep when I left this morning, I couldn't tell you the dream I had."

"Dream?" Jake asked. He stood from his chair and came to put his arms around Sam. "Another nightmare?"

Sam accepted the hug, but he still had trouble relaxing into Jake's arms. It still felt weird, two guys, acting all cuddly. Jake kissed Sam's neck, and Sam flinched away. It wasn't that he didn't like being kissed there. If he considered it, he actually kind of loved it.

His neck was just so sensitive. It was startling.

"You smell good," Jake said, holding him tighter.

Instinctively, Sam found himself sniffing Jake's hair in reply. Sam's "boyfriend" hadn't showered all day, Sam could tell, but it didn't matter. His cock responded instantly to Jake's familiar, masculine scent.

"You too," he whispered. He realized this wasn't a bad direction for their conversation to turn, anyway. He let his hands slide lower down Jake's back, under his t-shirt, to rest on the waistband of his shorts.

Jake, in turn, seemed to take this as an invitation, gently pushing Sam to the wall for a long, slow kiss.

Sam felt silly, but he didn't resist. He didn't dislike kissing Jake, after all. He just . . . needed more time to get used to all this.

When Jake began to undo Sam's belt, though, Sam caught his hand and stopped him.

"My dream wasn't another nightmare," he said. "It was a good dream. It was crazy vivid too. Can I tell you about it?"

Jake tensed slightly, like he resented the interruption, but he didn't protest.

"Let's curl up together then," was his offered compromise. "I need to be touching you."

Sam's pale skin blushed to the roots of his hair, but he smiled too.

[i]If a woman said that to me, I would only be flattered and happy,[/i] he thought. [i]And turned on. I don't have to take it differently, just because a guy said it. Not Jake anyway.[/i]

[i]You worry about the strangest things,[/i] came Miah's voice from inside Sam's mind. [i]What werewolf female would want you, and what human female could possibly be relevant? Only your feelings for Jake matter . . . or maybe other werewolf males if Jake accepted them. Or if they beat him in a fight. Or . . .[/i]

[i]Just stop![/i] Sam begged her.

He and Jake hadn't finalized how open or not-open their relationship might be, other than the "hot dryads" rule. It just hadn't come up yet . . . though Sam doubted Miah could be trusted to respect any rules they made anyway. She offered Sam respect in most instances, now, but once her heat was on her, Sam still found her . . . difficult to work with.

Besides, [i]Human females might be relevant,[/i] Sam insisted, perhaps a bit petulantly. More to the point, [i]And that wasn't what I meant either. I'm dealing with . . .[/i] He sighed. [i]Never mind.[/i]

Despite Miah's own insistence that she felt no attraction for women, she had also failed utterly to understand Sam's struggle with his new sexuality. The tiniest sliver of bisexuality, buried in Sam's subconscious, had been artificially inflated and given—almost literally—a life of its own by Hurst's weird manipulations of his wolf. In Sam's opinion, it was even worse than if he'd grown up bi or gay.

It annoyed him that Miah wouldn't acknowledge the shock to his system. She barely even acknowledged Sam as male.

[i]Well,[/i] Miah replied, infuriating him further, [i]as long as you don't fuck any females without my permission.[/i]

Sam bit down an impulse to threaten her with another dominance fight, for control of his body. He always felt dirty and abusive when he played her wolfy D/s games. [i]We agreed to consensus-only on all future sex-partners,[/i] he reminded instead. [i]I'll keep the agreement if you do.[/i]

Sam heard an odd sort of mental "sniff" from his troublesome wolf. Then, [i]Jake is waiting on the couch. He'll worry if we keep arguing,[/i] she said.

Sam rolled his eyes. [i]Yes, yes,[/i] he replied and turned his attention back to the world outside his own head.

Jake met his eyes, seeming to understand that Sam and Miah were conversing. He'd already gotten so he could usually tell. He was impressively accurate now, too, about which one of them, Sam or Miah, was controlling Sam's body at a given moment. He smiled, unconcerned, and patted the cushion next to him. Sam accepted the invitation.

They sat together on the comfy old loveseat Jake kept tucked in a corner of his office, near a small bookshelf of engineering reference materials and the "brain-soother" books and comics Jake kept near his desk for when he needed a break. Jake slid up closer than Sam really wanted him to, but then, the whole point was to keep touching, so Sam didn't scoot away.

The two men did a kind of awkward dance trying to figure out whose arm should go around whose shoulders, which eventually led to a brief wrestling match, which somehow led to them kissing again.

The exchange struck Sam as funny, especially in the context of his dream. Smiling, he pulled back from the kiss and held Jake by the shoulders to keep him at bay. Jake grinned, his grey-green eyes full of cheerful mischief.

"My dream," Sam said firmly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm listening," Jake said. He leaned back in the little couch, with one arm around Sam's waist.

"I dreamed that Tree was giving me advice," Sam explained. "I was there in her house, and it was [i]so real[/i]. I swear I could [i]smell[/i] her. And there was something she thought I should try."

Jake's eyes widened. "Coming from Tree, that's probably a true dream," he said. "Was it sane advice, like something she would really say? Is it something we can easily do, just in case?"

That . . . was not the response Sam had expected. A true dream? Tree could do that? "It . . . was sane, sure, and easy enough to do," Sam replied, adding with a chuckle, "and it was definitely something she would say."

"Then let's do it," Jake said. "Better safe than sorry, right? Can we do it tonight?"

Sam blinked. He'd meant to lay it all out for Jake, see how he felt about it, maybe cajole a little bit if he wasn't interested, but this . . . "You haven't even heard what she advised yet. Are you sure you want . . ."

"I trust you, and I trust Tree," Jake said. He gave a soothing smile, as if he believed Sam needed reassurance or encouragement.

That wasn't the problem. Sam swallowed hard. "Well, ok," he said, "if you're that sure. Um . . . I guess we should get naked?"

Jake went still. "Wait . . . naked?" he asked. "Tree gave us sex advice?"

"It was a dream!" Sam said. "But it [i]was[/i] something she would say."

Jake narrowed his eyes and waited.

Sam felt himself blushing again. "She, ah, she, ah . . . said I should be the dominant male for a night, to help with my healing and yours, and to bring us closer together."

Jake just watched him for a moment. Then, "The dominant male," he said.

Sam blushed redder. His ears felt hot. "Um, in the dream, that was how Tree worded it to Miah. I don't know why I repeated it that way." He'd actually specifically intended not to. It had slipped out.

Jake raised both his eyebrows. "I'm listening," he said.

"Um, I should pitch," Sam said. "Be on top."

Jake opened his mouth and closed it again. He looked away at the couch, down at the floor, out the window past Sam's shoulder, and finally back at Sam.

"Yeah, ok," he said. He didn't sound excited. "I've heard most gay guys like it both ways anyway." His own darker skin reddened along with Sam's, and he didn't maintain eye-contact long. "Is, uh, Miah ok with that?"

Sam had been a bit afraid to ask her, but of course, it would be inappropriate—and possibly disastrous—not to. "I'll check," he said. Then, [i]Miah?[/i]

[i]What?[/i] she asked.

[i]Um, were you paying attention?[/i] Sam checked. He didn't want to explain the whole thing again if he didn't have to.

Sam felt a kind of shrug from his wolf. [i]I remember the dream,[/i] she said. [i]You want to put your cock in Jake's ass, even though he is your male.[/i]

Sam suppressed a facepalm. A retort like, "Yeah, but I'm his male too," would only prompt a pointless debate about his own gender. Sam wasn't interested.

[i]Sort of,[/i] he said instead. [i]Is that ok?[/i]

If nothing else, the fact that he and Miah had dreamed the same dream did lend credence to Jake's "true dream" theory.

[i]I don't see the purpose,[/i] Miah said. [i]If you want to be his Alpha, there are much better ways to . . ."[/i]

[i]It's not like that,[/i] Sam cut in. He still hated when she used the word "alpha". [i]Look, does the purpose really matter? I want to do it, and you'll feel good, and it's still sex with Jake.[/i]

She sniffed again. [i]I don't care. Human nonsense. Do what you want.[/i]

Sam sighed in relief and exasperation at once. [i]Thanks,[/i] he said.

"She thinks it's silly," he relayed to Jake, "and I think she's wandered off, but she gave the okay."

Jake nodded warily. "My wolf feels about the same," he said.

"But in my dream . . ." Sam began. He still wasn't 100% sure it was a true dream, but he did want to try this. He did think it would be good for them.

He needn't have worried. Before he could finish his argument, Jake put up a hand. "No, it's cool," he said, all serious and stoic, like he was agreeing to fight a pride of lions. "Let me go clean up a bit."

He stood from the couch and walked straight to the bathroom. Sam watched him go. Was Jake ok with this or not? Sam wanted to try it, but not if it would cause problems. After all, Jake had been hurt too last month, with Hurst. Was he [i]ready[/i] for this kind of healing?

Well, Sam would check again before they did anything. While he waited, he went to the kitchen and looked over their food supplies. Werewolf appetites were quite inconveniently massive, and Sam wanted to make sure they could refuel afterward without too much fuss.

Their dinner verified, Sam waited in Jake's bedroom, in nothing but boxer-briefs. Between Jake, Tree, and the lycanthropically-induced upgrade to his own physique, Sam had grown more comfortable with casual nudity than he had been a month ago. But he wasn't [i]that[/i] comfortable with it, not yet. In fact, he already regretted stripping down this far and contemplated putting his shirt back on. And maybe his pants too.

He could feel himself blushing pink as he tried to arrange himself on the bed. He wanted to look manly, but not to look like he was [i]trying[/i] to look manly. He wanted to look relaxed, but not seductive, and definitely not like he was [i]trying[/i] to be either relaxed or seductive. But he did want to [i]be[/i] seductive, just in a subtle, manly way. He did [i]not[/i] want to look shy, awkward, tense, worried, or goofy, though he was acutely aware that all of these were how he really felt.

[i]Dominant[/i], he instructed himself. Then, [i]No, that's stupid. I'm not trying to dominate Jake. I know perfectly well that this will make us[/i] both [i]feel good. It's not a hierarchy. It's not BDSM. Unless he wants it to be. Am I[/i] supposed [i]to be dominant? How do I even do that?[/i]

When Jake entered the room, Sam sat on the edge of the bed, stiff, nervous, and thinking fiercely. Jake didn't seem to notice.

He was nude already, and startlingly gorgeous as always. He appeared to have showered, and his kinky hair looked good wet. Sam suppressed an urge to lick up every lingering shower-droplet from his boyfriend's skin. He realized that, if their positions were reversed, Jake would probably not have suppressed the urge.

But before he could attempt to force himself to un-suppress it, Sam's eyes made it to Jake's face. He still looked more grimly determined than interested. Sam's stomach clenched.

"Jake, we don't have to do this," he said. "It was just a dream. If you're really worried it was real, we can call Tree first, find out how important it is . . ."

Jake waved a hand and came to sit with Sam on the bed. "I want to do this. I promise," he said. "I'm just . . . thinking about . . . you know."

Sam nodded, looking down at his lap. He did know. "Well, we could work up to it," he suggested. "Start slow?"

Jake shrugged. "If we need to, we will. We'll try it and see where we get." He leaned over and kissed Sam.

[i]We are partners,[/i] Sam found himself thinking. [i]We suffered together. We fought together. We have already earned it. "[/i]Lovers", too, didn't feel like TMI when they were in bed together—merely accurate. [i]He's my lover, and my partner,[/i] and [i]my boyfriend. And all of that is ok.[/i]

Jake climbed onto the bed behind Sam and positioned himself on all fours.

"Don't go easy on me," Jake said. "I want to work through this, for both of us. It's ok for you to take charge, or whatever Tree said."

[i]That was a dream[/i], Sam thought again, but he didn't say it out loud this time. Maybe Jake was right. If it [i]was[/i] a true dream, maybe the dominance thing really was part of Tree's recommendation.

"Ok," Sam said. He got the lube and climbed up on the bed behind Jake.

Jake's ass was round and perfect, smooth, soft, and just lightly fuzzy. Sam's cock twitched inside his underwear. He hadn't expected to be so turned on by this view, but he really, really was, even by Jake's muscular thighs, and the back of his ballsac, hanging below. All of it was lickably hot.

Sam gripped Jake's cheeks and pulled them apart, marveling at the clean, dark pucker between them. The thought of sliding himself inside that hole made his cock twitch again. He brushed his finger over it. Jake gasped. Sam's heart beat faster.

Yes. He wanted this.

He slathered one hand in lube and brought it back to Jake's anus.

"Gah! Cold lube!" Jake all but squeaked.

"I warmed it up just like you do," Sam replied, surprised. Yeah, it was usually a little cold at first but not shocking cold. Then again, Jake was always colder than Sam. One of those things.

"I'm sorry!" Jake gasped. "Is this revenge?"

Sam chuckled and tucked the bottle up under his arm for body heat. "No, I'll warm it up some more." He held his slimed fingers in his other hand for a few seconds and tried again. "Better?"

Jake still gasped a little but nodded. "Yeah, ok." He started to relax again.

Somehow even that drove Sam wild. He went back to work, teasing and pressing, pushing his slime-slicked fingers inside Jake's tight hole.

Jake made a small, muffled sound. It was somehow the hottest thing that Sam had ever heard. Sam found himself almost panting with eagerness. His underwear clung uncomfortably tight.

He shoved one finger all the way in, hooking it forward the way he knew felt amazing. Jake made a strangled sound. Sam knew the feeling. It excited him to be making Jake feel the same.

Shit. Sam's cock was throbbing now, hungry. He slipped in another lubed finger, and another.

"Slow down," Jake gasped.

Sam found himself chuckling a little. He knew that feeling too. He did, dutifully, force himself to slow a little, to work Jake open a little more gently, but with his other hand he reached forward, around Jake's waist, to grip his lover's totally hard cock.

Stroking Jake's firm erection, Sam murmured, "You love it. Relax."

Jake made another sound, somewhere between a gasp and a whimper. It gave Sam chills, in the best possible way. His underwear were really tight now. He eased his three fingers deeper into Jake's ass, hooking them all to hit that sweet spot.

Jake relaxed a little around him, moaning.

Fuck he was hot. Hot and Sam's. Sam needed to be inside him. Now. Pulling back, Sam scrambled out of his underwear and lubed up his rock-hard cock. Even that felt amazing, but he knew that Jake's ass would feel even better. He pressed himself to Jake's hole.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Maybe," Jake panted.

Sam couldn't wait. He pushed forward. His engorged head slipped inside. Jake was hot and tight and wet and perfect. He cried out and gripped the mattress beneath him.

"Careful," he gasped. "Hurts a little."

[i]It always hurts a little,[/i] Sam thought. [i]Give it a second. It's worth it.[/i] What he said out loud, however, while pushing himself a little deeper in, was, "I recall someone once telling me I was a big strong werewolf, and I could take it." He pushed in deeper still.

Jake gave another of those maddeningly sexy cries. Sam had never thought he'd hear a noise like that from Jake's voice, but fuck it was hot. He wanted more.

"Relax, princess," Sam heard himself murmur. "Just relax and it'll feel so good."

He felt Jake relax around him. He thrust in deeper, all the way in. Jake's ass gripped him on all sides, so hot, so good.

"I'm in," he said. "You ok?"

Jake just panted a moment. Then he nodded. "I'm oka- . . ."

He moaned again as Sam began to move, in and out, thrusting slow and deep, then faster, harder. Fuck it felt good. Sam hadn't felt this way in a long time—maybe ever. He couldn't compare it to his former girlfriends. He'd frankly never been as close to them as he was to Jake. Sam and Jake had come through hell together.

It made a difference.

It made Jake the hottest fucking person on the planet. And Sam was inside him, fucking him, hearing his moans with every thrust.

Sam fell forward against Jake's perfect, broad back. He gripped his lover tight in his arms, pressing his skin to Jake's skin, sliding his right hand back down to Jake's thick cock.

Sam wasn't thinking clear enough to have much manual dexterity by that point, but he took Jake's cock in a loose grip and held on as he continued to thrust. Such a grip from Jake's hand had worked for Sam, anyway, when their roles were reversed.

"You still okay?" Sam asked. He wasn't sure he could make himself stop if Jake said no, but he forced himself to ask anyway.

"Fuck yes," Jake gasped. "Don't stop."

At that, Sam almost [i]had[/i] to stop, just to keep from cumming right there. He lost his rhythm, took a breath, and dove back in, engulfed in Jake's body, Jake's heat, Jake's scent, Jake's fucking amazing moans.

Sam wanted to do this forever. He wanted to be here forever. Inside Jake.

He thrust in harder.

"I'm gonna cum, Sam," Jake said, another dead-sexy near-whimper. "I can't hold it. Fuck, I'm gonna . . ."

He made a strangled sound, and his cock pulsed in Sam's hand, hot fluids spurting out over Sam's fingers.

"Me too, Jake," Sam whispered. "I'm cumming!"

Hot pleasure bolted down Sam's cock, shock after shock of ecstasy spearing its way deep into Jake's body.

When it finally stopped, Sam knelt there, panting, still buried inside his lover. He brought his right hand to his lips and licked it clean, savoring every drop of Jake's fresh semen.

Jake, panting too, gasped out, "Towel."

Sam nodded. He didn't want to pull out yet. "I'll get it," he said. He didn't move.

After a moment, Jake said, "Sam? I'm getting a cramp."

Sam laughed. "Okay. Okay, towel." He pulled out, slow and bittersweet and cum-slicked, and reached for the towels they kept near the bed. Then he flopped down beside Jake, wincing and chuckling in oversensitivity as he toweled off.

Jake, beside him, similarly occupied, was quieter.

"How was it?" Sam finally dared to ask.

Jake paused, and leaned over to kiss Sam's shoulder. "It was good, babe. Sorry, um . . . sexy? Can I call you sexy?"

Sam laughed again, post-sex euphoric. "Sure, muffin," he replied. He rolled toward Jake for a kiss on the lips. "Was it really good?"

Jake met his eyes, oddly serious. "Yeah, it was." He frowned. "I didn't think I'd be that into it, but it was . . . intense, and . . . I think I needed that."

A rush of warm emotion flooded Sam's chest. He felt it tug his lips and eyes into a smile, heard it burst from his mouth. "I love you," he said.

And immediately found himself blushing again, and wanting to hide.

Jake chuckled. "You too, sexy, but that doesn't mean I want it this way every time. Don't go getting ideas."

Sam frowned. "But you're not just saying that, about it being good, right? Because . . . I mean, if it was good, you'd want to do it again, right?"

Shit, he'd let Jake do it to [i]him[/i] enough times. It did feel good. Yes, it was intense, but Jake had cum just fine.

Jake laughed again, but nervously this time. "I'm not saying never again, just . . . after Hurst . . ."

He sighed and propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at Sam. He tossed his towel at the laundry hamper and made a basket. Then he rested his free hand on Sam's increasingly sculpted chest. Lycanthropy made everyone naturally hot given time. Something about the healing factor and the way the transformation worked the musculature. Sam's new pectoral definition made it easier for him to let Jake just look at his body like this, though he still felt strange, and still had to resist the urge to cover himself up with the sheet. Even right after sex.

Jake looked so serious though, so contemplative, that Sam didn't dare distract him. He said nothing and waited, holding awkwardly to his own used towel.

"I needed to feel a lover inside me," Jake said softly. "I needed to know what it was to trust and . . . and love . . . the person fucking me. And I do want to feel it again, as many times as it takes until it's like he never existed. But it's intense, you know?"

As sick as it made Sam to remember what had happened to him, what Hurst had done to them both, he suddenly realized that Jake was suffering at least as much. Maybe Sam had gotten better closure, more of a victory over the bastard who hurt them. Or maybe it was because Jake had hidden his pain until now, shoving himself aside to take care of Sam and Miah.

Either way, Sam saw now why Tree would have suggested this experiment for them. And he got why, if it was a true dream, she'd sent it to Sam, not Jake.

For Sam it had been healing, yes. Fun, empowering . . . an exercise in both remembering his strength as a man and in becoming more comfortable with his new, forever-altered sexual orientation. It had been a great idea. He'd been eager to enact it.

But for Jake it was a deeper, more painful healing treatment. Sam remembered the way sex had felt for him in the first weeks following Hurst's defeat. He'd wanted it, known it was good for him, but had needed to be coaxed each time. Because even though it had felt good, it had also hurt, inside.

It was lancing an infection.

Sam realized, though, that if he made too big a deal out of any of this, he might only make it harder for Jake to do the rest of the work he needed.

"So, we're fucking Hurst out of existence. Check." Sam made his voice more gentle than teasing. "But yeah, you set the pace."

"I kind of rushed you this last month, didn't I." Jake sounded embarrassed. "I keep being greedy with you."

The comment startled Sam. He tried to roll over to face Jake better, got tangled in his towel, paused to toss it in the laundry, and missed. Grumbling, he heaved himself out of bed and relocated the dirty towel to its appropriate location. When he turned back, Jake was watching him, like he was beautiful.

Sam blushed again and hurried back to the bed.

"If anybody rushed me," he said, "it was Miah. Don't worry about it. I think what I need most is . . . the emotional stuff. Not sleeping alone, knowing I'm allowed to say no, that kind of thing. I can get all that while still letting you keep my crazy wolf sated."

Jake raised an eyebrow. "We had a lot of sex without her involved," he reminded.

Sam shrugged. "And I liked it," he said. "Not everybody has the same process."

Jake sighed. "Now I feel like I'm being a baby."

Sam punched him in the arm. "What did I just say? Different process."

"Ow," Jake said, rubbing his arm. He didn't mean it though. He was still smiling.

"I didn't hit you that hard," Sam teased back, "big baby."

Jake grinned. "Ok, so maybe not next time, but sometime soon we'll try this again. Deal?"

"Deal." Once again, Sam began to feel inspired by the prospect. "And we should totally try it as wolves too."

"Uh, Sam?" Jake reminded, confused, "I think your wolf form may be lacking some, uh, important equipment for . . ."

"Oh, I'd buy a strap-on," Sam assured him. He'd thought of that. "I already found one to match your wolf's."

Jake's face greyed slightly. "I don't know that I need . . . in wolf form . . ."

"You'll love it!" Sam was excited. "And then once you're more ok with things we can just take turns, fifty-fifty! And . . ."

Jake pounced on him and pinned him to the bed. "Maybe," he said, "but not tonight."

He bent down to kiss Sam, and Sam felt his cock twitch back to life, right next to Jake's. More? Now? Suddenly nervous, he pulled back from the kiss and searched Jake's face.

Jake grinned. "My wolf wants a turn," he said. "Does yours?"

Ah. [i]Miah?[/i] Sam asked. [i]Would you like . . . ?[/i]

The next thing Sam knew, Jake had leapt from the bed to pull the blinds better shut—because Sam was already changing forms.

This was going to be one of [i]those[/i] nights.

Well . . . truth be told, now that Sam was used to it . . .

That didn't actually sound half bad.