“Are you really going to wear that, Kathy?” Tatiana asked when I stepped out of the closet.

I glanced down at myself. I had picked out tailored, men’s cut trousers and a silk blouse, which had seemed like a good idea until I stood next to Tatiana. She showed up wearing a sequin minidress that exposed more skin than it covered.

“Don’t you want Marcus Streich to notice you?” she continued as she circled behind me.

“Shut up. There’s nothing going on between Marcus and me.”

“Then, you’ll be fine walking into that party next to me, right?” She hooked an arm around my neck and dragged me to her side in front of my vanity mirror. I could barely look at my reflection. Next to Tatiana, I looked like her dowdy aunt.

“I guess I could wear that,” I said, pointing to the black sheath dress hanging on the doorknob in its dry cleaning bag.

“I’ve seen you wear that at two other parties. This party’s the big one, and you need something fresh.”

Her words resonated in my ears. The big one. I glanced at my wall clock.

“I probably don’t have time to change. I promised the High Matriarch I would get there a little early.”

Tatiana frowned as she crossed her arms. Then, she reached back to unzip her dress and began to push it down over her hips.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Tatiana, wearing nothing but a lace thong, daintily stepped out of her dress and handed it to me. “This is your night, Kath. Wear this.”

An hour later, we pulled up to Streich Manor where our coven’s matriarch and Marcus’s mother, Natalie Streich, was throwing a lavish dance, in my honor, to celebrate the end of summer. I sat in the passenger seat of Tatiana’s car wearing her dress, which fit much tighter on me. The valet’s eyes dropped down to my bare thighs when I swung my legs out of the car.

“Aren’t you glad I convinced you to change?” Tatiana muttered into my ear. She took my arm and guided me up the steps to the front door.

I tugged at the hem of my dress. “Up until the part where I almost flashed the parking kid my hoo-ha.”

Tatiana laughed. “You’re such a virgin. It’s called a pussy.”

I shushed her as we passed a waiter carrying a tray of hors d’oeuvres. “I’m not afraid to say pussy,” I hissed. “So can we whisper, at least?”

Tatiana shrugged. She eyed the few guests in the parlor. “I can’t believe the Fowler sisters are here already. I’ll be stuck talking to them or Nosebleed Ned until everyone else arrives. What exactly did Mistress Natalie have to see you about, anyway?”

“I’m not really sure, but I’ll try to make it quick,” I said.

Tatiana sighed. “Okay. Go on, then. I’ll be fine here.”

I carefully hiked up the carpeted stairs to the upstairs landing. A door to my left was cracked open, cutting through the dark hallway with a single slice of light. I knocked.

“Come in,” Mistress Natalie said in her deep, authoritative voice.

I stepped into a spacious home office. Shelves of thick books lined the walls. Mistress Natalie sat at an antique mahogany desk typing studiously on a laptop. She eyed me over the rims of her glasses as I sat down in a leather armchair.

“Some outfit,” she said.

A nervous laugh fluttered out of my mouth. “It’s a special night.”

“It sure is.”

Mistress Natalie removed her glasses and closed her eyes for a moment. I noticed her silver scrying bowl sitting off to one side. Every High Matriarch in our coven’s history had looked into its waters to identify each year’s Equinox Maiden. This year, I had been chosen.

“Can I ask you why you wanted to see me?” I asked, thinking about Tatiana downstairs with our frenemies, Becca and Bailey Fowler.

“I wanted to tell you what would happen tomorrow night,” she said.

“The Wild Hunt?”

Mistress Natalie nodded.

The Wild Hunt happened every Autumnal Equinox. None of the other witches knew much about the Wild Hunt except for the previous Maidens, and they weren’t talking. Tatiana and I had spent many late night happy hours speculating over what it actually entailed. My best guess was that I had to commune with a spirit or something. Tatiana believed I had to catch a unicorn.

“Has your mother or grandmother told you about the Treaty of Brynn?” Mistress Natalie asked.

“That’s the treaty between the witches and the werewolves, right?” It was part of an old bedtime story told to every witch child in our hemisphere. All I could remember was that there was a war, the signing of the treaty in some mountain village in Europe, and then peace.

“That’s correct. The treaty was signed centuries ago by the alpha werewolf of the time, Ulric Romilor, and Gwen Devereux, who is an ancestor of mine.”

My eyebrows shot up. “I thought that treaty was some old fairy tale.”

“It has become one over the years, yes, but I’m afraid that the bare bones of the story are entirely true. One of the jobs of every High Matriarch is to uphold the provisions of the treaty, one of which is to offer a maiden selected to participate in the Wild Hunt on the night of the Autumnal Equinox.”

Werewolves. My palms tingled as bits and pieces of the story came back to me. “The werewolves were our enemies, but now they’re our friends,” my grandmother used to say.

“So what exactly am I supposed to do?” I asked.

A strange expression fell over Mistress Natalie’s face. Her mouth twitched up on one side but her eyes remained blank. “The Maiden is released into the woods at sundown. Three pack members are released by the werewolves at the same time. The first one to catch the maiden wins.”

“Wins?”

Mistress Natalie cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t know how to say this gracefully, Katherine, but tonight is your last night as a virgin.”

After answering all of my questions, Mistress Natalie nudged me down the stairs and told me to enjoy the party.

“Okay,” I said numbly as I descended the stairs. I had wanted to argue with her. How am I supposed to enjoy the party? I thought about saying.

A few more guests had arrived by then. I saw a few curious glances being thrown my way as I entered the parlor. Tatiana was in a corner sipping her usual gin and tonic within a cluster of our cohorts. Her face brightened when she saw me, and she tapped someone in front of her on the shoulder.

Marcus Streich paused mid-sentence to turn around and look at me. His mouth opened slightly as his eyes dropped to the top of my cleavage. “Kathy,” he said, a statement rather than a greeting. I felt my entire body grow warm as I approached them.

“What did Mistress Natalie say?”  Tatiana asked.

“She told me about the Wild Hunt.”

“No way! So what exactly happens, then?”

I shook my head. There was no way I could tell Tatiana, or anyone else, the truth about the Wild Hunt. It was no wonder why past Equinox Maidens had kept it a secret. It was just too embarrassing and bizarre.

“Come on! We’re best friends!” Tatiana wheedled.

“Here. Let’s go get a drink,” Marcus interrupted, offering me his arm.

I shot Tatiana a look. She instantly shut her mouth and smiled as we walked away.

“I know the truth,” Marcus muttered as he led me across the room.

I felt myself blushing as we slipped through a door that led to a deserted back hallway. “You do?”

“Of course I do. My mom is the High Matriarch.” He stopped us in the middle of the hallway and put his hands on my shoulders. “Are you going to be okay?” His eyes searched mine. Shadows fell across his face under the single sconce light, accentuating his chiseled features.

“I think so.” I swallowed, feeling the first prickles of anxiety. I was about to lose my virginity to a werewolf.  It hadn’t really hit me until Marcus asked me how I was. “I’m afraid it’s going to hurt,” I admitted, casting my eyes to my feet.

Marcus smiled. “I think the first time is supposed to hurt for girls, anyway. Don’t worry. My mom told me that an Equinox Maiden is blessed for life by the Goddess. It’s a good thing.”

“You’re not the one who has to fuck one.”

Marcus laughed. He wrapped his arms around me, enveloping me in the scent of his cologne and the sound of his deep, throaty chuckle. I closed my eyes as I pressed my forehead against his hard shoulder. This is how he does it, I thought, remembering the trail of heartbroken witches he had left in his wake going all the way back to junior high. It felt so good to be noticed and touched by Marcus. This exact feeling had been felt by every other girl before me.

“I actually wanted to ask you something,” Marcus said, finally pulling himself away to look at my face. “We’re both almost twenty-five. My mom has been bugging me about settling down, and everyone we know is starting to couple up.”

I felt a nervous pull in my stomach. “And?”

“And I think it would be a good idea for us to get serious. After the Wild Hunt, of course.” At my blank stare, he continued quickly, “Just humor me for a second, Kathy. We get along pretty well, first of all. And I’m the son of the High Matriarch. What better match for me is there other than you?” He cupped my chin and tilted my face up to meet his eyes. “The sexiest Equinox Maiden yet.”

Sexy? It was easy to believe that I was sexy while I wore Tatiana’s slutty dress and stripper heels. But I had felt frumpy, even unworthy, for most of my life. Marcus hadn’t even known I existed until his mother saw my face in her scrying glass back in the spring.

Marcus put his mouth close to my ear. “Let me show you how sexy you are.” He pushed me against the wall and kissed my bare shoulder. I tried to wriggle out from underneath him.

“We can’t. I’m supposed to save it for the Hunt.”

“I won’t do anything bad,” Marcus said as he trailed his fingers down my thigh.

I reached down and grabbed his wrist to stop him. Then, his fingertips touched the edge of my panties, and I felt a shiver fall down my back. It felt good.

“I promise,” Marcus said, fixing his eyes on my mouth.

I let my hand drop to my side as he kissed me. We had kissed before, but never with his hand up my skirt. He gently stroked the outside of my panties, making me hot and tingly in between my legs. His breath fluttered down my neck to my collarbone and left kisses all the way down to the top of my breasts. With his free hand, he gripped my left breast in his hand and caressed it from the outside of the dress. He slipped an index finger over the edge of the neckline into my bra, where it grazed against a nipple.

I gasped as my spin curved involuntarily. He looked into my eyes and smirked as he pulled my nipple out of my bra. I bit my lip to stifle a moan as I watched him draw my breast to his lips, as his tongue traced a circle on my areola, and finally when he kissed the hardened peak before his lips closed around it.

“Oh god, Marcus,” I whispered, gripping his black hair between my fingers.

“This is what you do to me, Katherine,” he said. I felt him getting hard against my leg.

“We can’t.”

Marcus continued stroking my panties. They were getting damp on the outside. He slid a finger inside, drew it along my slit, and moaned as he discovered the wetness there. “Let me do this for you,” he said as he searched my face. His eyes pleaded with me.

My heart pounded in my throat. “Okay.”

Marcus knelt down on his knees and pushed my dress up my hips. He buried his nose in my panties, pushing it up against my clit. I pressed myself against the deliciously cool wall, trying to keep myself from collapsing. “What are you doing to me?” I whispered.

Marcus kissed my bare thighs as he slid my panties to my knees. He kissed my mound and pursed his lips against my clit. His tongue slid out for a little taste. I gasped as I felt it probing inside, unexpectedly cold against my hot inner lips.

“I want you so bad,” he murmured.

I felt a flood of wetness. I reached down to touch his hair as his tongue went inside of me.

“That feels so good, Mar—”

The first few bars of a waltz drifted down the hallway. Instinctively, I pushed Marcus off of me and yanked up my panties.

“The dance!”

Marcus jerked himself up to his feet, and we stumbled down the hallway and through the door. We paused just outside of the parlor.

“Will you think about what I said?” Marcus asked.

I smiled at some guests as we entered the parlor together. “I will. I’ll think about everything that came out of your mouth tonight.”

Just then, a male witch in a purple suit asked me to dance. Marcus’s lips twitched up as I accepted. He looked nervous for the first time.

Equinox Night came, pretty as a postcard. There was barely a cloud in the windless sky. The type of night Maidens wished for, Mistress Natalie kept telling me.

“I remember when I was thirteen. That year, the Equinox Maiden had to run around in a thunderstorm. Imagine having to lay down for a big, hairy werewolf in a patch of mud.”

I grimaced at the window as the jeep ambled up a smooth, dirt road. We pulled up to the fence that marked the edge of Drowning Man Ranch, a property belonging to the Harmons, one of the oldest families in our coven. Mistress Natalie reached over to put her cool, dry hand on top of mine. She inclined her head toward the woods. There was a trailhead that led into the trees. With a shudder, I realized that it was the very trailhead that had been used by every Equinox Maiden in this town as she ran toward the Hunt.

Mistress Natalie’s driver opened my door. Two other cars pulled up next to mine just as I stepped out. Last year’s Maiden, a woman named Yolanda, drove one of the cars, accompanied by a few elder, practiced witches. Marcus Streich was driving the other one.

“Hello, Katherine,” he said. He licked his lips and smirked. I had to wrap my arms around myself to hide my shaking.

A short, middle-aged woman in coveralls and hiking boots met us at the gate. “Maggie Harmon,” Marcus introduced.

“Such an honor,” she said as she pumped my hand. “Could you ask for a more gorgeous night? You’re blessed, you are.”

She held a flashlight for us as we followed her across a field to the trailhead. Marcus and I fell behind, letting our voices drop to whispers.

“Are you scared?”

I nodded.

Marcus gave me a quick, one-armed hug. “Just imagine that it’s me.”

I scoffed. “That’s not what I’m afraid of. I’ve just never met a werewolf.”

“Oh. Well, they’re pretty polite, actually.”

Mistress Natalie motioned me to her side once we had reached the others. She lowered her head and muttered, “Make sure you are ready to accommodate.”

“Excuse me?”

She cleared her throat and blinked quickly. “You know, Katherine. Moist! Make sure you are moist before they...”

“Oh. Oh! I’m sorry, Mistress Natalie, but ew—”

“The time has come, brothers and sisters!” Mistress Natalie suddenly called out. She raised her palms to the sky, the faintest of blushes creeping over her cheeks. Maggie, Marcus, and the other witches stood reverently as their eyes followed the movements I had been trained to do.

I quickly unbuttoned my coat and handed it to Yolanda. Underneath it, I wore the ceremonial dress of the Equinox Maiden, which was one-shouldered and draped like a sari. It only covered my right breast, leaving my left one bare to the cold night. Last week, I had balked at the mock-up that had been presented to me, but after days of fittings and modeling before the High Matriarch and various other high-ranking witches, I couldn’t have cared less about who saw my left boob.

I drew my arms over my head and sank to one knee, praying to the Goddess. Mistress Natalie anointed me with the ceremonial oils. When I rose to my feet, I was swathed in the fragrant aroma of roses and sage.

Maggie Harmon looked at her watch. “Almost time,” she said.

I studied the faces of my fellow coven members. They were bright with solemn deference and respect, but tinted with fear. Every Equinox Maiden came back from the Hunt a changed woman.

“Remember, you must keep them in pursuit for as long as you can. It is imperative that the fittest wolf wins,” Mistress Natalie said.

“I know,” I replied with a roll of my eyes. The concept had been drilled into me all day. The winning wolf, the fittest wolf, would be the alpha wolf until the next Equinox. If the new alpha wasn’t the fittest and only won by some fluke, it would throw off the balance of the local pack and subsequently the dichotomy governed by the Treaty.

I caught Marcus staring at me. His gaze fell to my bare breast. My nipple puckered and peaked under his gaze, as if sensing him. Just imagine that it’s me, he’d said. I closed my eyes against the sight of the woods and my coven, taking myself back to that moment at the manor when he had knelt in front of me. Was a werewolf as gentle as a Marcus? I felt a hand on my shoulder and knew that it was time.

Without a parting glance, I took off running.

The trail dipped and curved as the trees closed in over my head. My footsteps and harried breaths were the only sounds cutting through the stillness. Even the birds were silent. I slowed to a stop by a large tree to catch my breath. Just as I placed my hand on its bark, I heard the first howl climbing the night air.

Ah-woooooo!

My chest tightened and my eyes shot wide open. The sound threaded my blood with adrenaline, and I was more awake than I had ever been before.

I abandoned the trail and cut through the wild underbrush. Two answering howls echoed in the distance as I wove through the trees. I recalled Mistress Natalie’s tip about...moistness. How was I supposed to take care of that and evade the werewolves?

Another howl cut through the air. It sounded much closer. I ground my hands into fists and pumped my feet, imagining that I was a graceful, springy deer rather than a clumsy woman of one hundred and thirty pounds. My chest burned and my skin became sticky with sweat, but I chugged on. When I heard another pair of feet in the leaves somewhere in the shadows, I realized that I wasn’t alone anymore.

“Hello, sister.”

I slid to a stop.

A brunette werewolf stepped out from behind a tree, his body impossibly wide, like a truck. He had the face of a wolf with the expressiveness of a man. The nostrils contracted as he inhaled, and his yellow eyes narrowed into slits. “You smell sweet.”

His eyes fell to my bare breast, shining with perspiration and shaking as I heaved to catch my breath. I took a step back as he came forward. He stepped into a patch of starlight, and I saw his member unsheathing itself from the tuft of thick fur between his legs.

“Holy shit,” I uttered mindlessly. When I thought it had gotten as big as it could get, it only kept growing. I felt a dull ache in my pelvis as I watched it swell.

A snarl off to my right yanked my attention away. A flash of gray leapt out of the shadows and collided with the brunette werewolf. He yelped as he hit the ground. His opponent, a gray-haired werewolf, swiped at his chest with a set of razor sharp claws. Specks of blood blackened the dirt around them. My heart pounded as I watched the werewolves tumbling over each other, every ounce of humanity in their eyes now gone. What remained was purely primitive, running on instinct and hunger and lust.

I tore myself away, hurling myself into the first gap in the trees. It didn’t even alarm me when my feet kept sinking into the tracks of another wolf, not when the sounds of flesh crashing against flesh, growls, and snapping jaws grew fainter the further I ran.

The trees became thicker, and I had to raise my arms to swat at low-hanging branches. The only sounds now came from me as I hacked my way through the foliage with just my hands. As I stepped carefully over a cluster of broken stones, a thin branch that I had pushed away came swinging back, cutting me on my breast.

“Ouch!” I uttered, along with a string of curses. I pressed my hand against my breast and pulled it away. It shone with blood in the patchy light.

“You should be more careful,” a low voice rumbled out of the darkness.

I froze. My skin prickled and my nipples hardened as I felt someone’s cold gaze upon me. “Who’s there?”

He stepped out from beneath a tree, barely making a sound. I knew he must have been powerful, considering his huge size coupled with his skillful stealth. He was larger than the other two werewolves—much larger, I realized, as I spotted the flaccid salami swinging between his legs. He was obviously the only contender for the title of Alpha. The others had been thrown in for the sake of tradition. But that left me in a bit of a dilemma. Did I keep running, or was I to give up?

The werewolf licked his lips with a broad, pink tongue as he stared at the cut on my breast. “Let me help you with that,” he said.

I backed away, suddenly aware that he could probably smell my blood. “Um, I think I’m okay. Thank you, though.”

“But I insist.”

His voice had a groping quality. I could feel his words all over my body like a pair of hands. Polite, my ass. One thing I always made sure at night in the proximity of strange men was to listen to my gut, and at that moment, it was telling me to run.

I tried to slip through the trees as the werewolf advanced. He lowered himself onto his hands and extended his face so close that I could feel his hot breath. The moment it steamed against my skin, I took off.

It disturbed me how I couldn’t hear the werewolf’s pursuit, although I knew he was on my trail. The others at least had been detectable, either by their howls or by the sounds of their footsteps. My chest ached and my heart thudded in my ears, so loud I was afraid the whole forest could hear it. I clutched my fist to my breast. The cut had stopped bleeding, but it stung like hell.

It’s pointless to run.

I wasn’t sure if I had heard the words out loud or just in my head, but they gave me cause to slow down. Mistress Natalie’s advice floated unexpectedly through my mind. I stopped running and leaned against a tree.

I closed my eyes.

I imagined how that pink tongue would feel inside of my mouth. A werewolf’s kiss. A dull throb erupted in my pussy as I pictured that same tongue doing other things.

When I opened my eyes again, the werewolf stood before me. I sighed.

“Do you always arrive unannounced?”

The werewolf made a motion that approximated a shrug. It was a funny thing to witness. “It’s merely a habit. I apologize if it makes you uncomfortable.”

I had to admit, he actually was kind of polite. “What’s your name?”

His lips parted and he flashed his teeth in a grin. “Why do you want to know?”

“Shouldn’t I know the name of the man who is about to fuck me into oblivion?”

He made a strange whistling, grunting sound. It alarmed me at first, but I soon realized that he was laughing. “My name’s Damon.”

Damon. It was so normal-sounding. I had to laugh, too. “I’m Katherine. But you can just call me Kathy.”

“Kathy.” It sounded strange coming out of his wolf’s mouth. He lowered his head and crept forward. “May I?”

I nodded and gasped as he slid his tongue over the cut on my breast. My skin tingled at its surprising warmth and softness.

“Your blood tastes sweet. Strong.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

He continued licking my cut until it started bleeding again. Then, he clamped his mouth over it and began to suck. I shivered as his teeth grazed me, the points not quite close enough to break my skin. I felt something pulling on me inside, a delicious tingle that unraveled me from my chest to my groin. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat.

“Leave some for the fishes, will ya?” I said breathlessly.

Damon broke away. “Sorry.” He grinned with a set of pink-tinged teeth. He reached up with his giant, spade-like hand and tore at the strap of my dress. It fluttered to the ground, and what remained of my bodice hung limply at my waist. He lunged forward and gripped my side with his fingers, his claws barely digging into my skin. I felt my spine shoot rigidly to attention.

“I—I know this is tradition and all,” I began nervously, “but please just don’t hurt me too bad.”

Damon’s wide face furrowed. “It’s not your first time, is it?”

I felt my shoulders relax a bit. “That’s real funny.”

Damon ran his long tongue over my nipples, making me shiver with pleasure. “I like a little sarcasm in my prey.”

“Didn’t your mom tell you not to play with your food?”

“Nope. But she did tell me to stay away from girls who talk too much.”

I couldn’t tell whether or not he was serious. I felt my guard coming down as my fear gave way to borderline annoyance. “Let me guess, you’re a substitute teacher slash comedian when the moon is down.”

“I should have listened to my mother,” Damon said in a low growl, “but you look so delicious.” He pointed his nose down and slid his tongue up my thigh. That shut me up completely. I seized the mane around his neck.

“I won’t hurt you,” he promised, suddenly serious.

I had almost forgotten to imagine Marcus in Damon’s place as he gently lowered me to the ground. He planted his hands on either side of my head and towered above me, casting a shadow the size of an elephant. I wondered how we would fulfill the actual mechanics of sex, considering our difference in size, when he began to shrink. I turned my face to watch his claws retract into his fingers. His knuckles looked a little less hairy than before. When I looked back up at his face, he was still more wolf than man, but his yellow eyes had a softer quality, and he had an actual mouth with a pair of surprisingly succulent-looking lips.

“May I kiss you?” he asked with his new mouth.

I nodded, suddenly unable to breathe. He lowered his face and inhaled deeply, something that struck me as a very wolf-like thing to do, before he pushed his whiskery mouth against mine. He had an earthy, irony kind of smell, nothing like Marcus’s manufactured cologne scent. I parted my lips and let him explore me. When my tongue brushed against the tips of his fangs, a thrill shivered down the length of my body.

As Damon kissed me, his hand kneaded my breasts and thighs, as if he couldn’t decide between the two. I opened my knees, letting him feel my outer lips. The pads of his fingers were rough and calloused, again very different from Marcus, whose privileged life under our High Matriarch left his hands as soft as a hand model’s. I lifted my lips into his touch and moaned against his mouth when he brushed against my clit.

“Let me know when you’re ready,” he said as he stroked me.

I felt a surge of desire but kept my mouth shut. Even though I was a virgin, I had talked to Tatiana on enough morning-after phone calls to know that getting warmed up was just as important as the marathon itself.

Damon lowered himself between my knees and pushed his head under my skirt, tickling the skin of my thighs with his fur. I gasped as I felt the first light touches down there.

“How’s this?” His voice was slightly muffled.

My back arched as I felt his tongue flickering over my clit. “Ah! That feels...amazing,” I managed to say. I regretted comparing Damon to Marcus. He was nothing like him, at all.

“And this?” Damon continued.

I cried out as he did something with his tongue that made my pussy drip. My thighs clenched around his ears. “Just shut up,” I said through gritted teeth. I rocked my hips against his face, guiding his mouth to the center of me.

He slid a fingertip inside, almost questioningly. I lowered my hips to the ground and opened my legs. He pushed his finger inside. I felt a tug in my pelvis as my pussy clenched around him.

“So tight,” he murmured with his mouth close to my mound. I felt his breath against me, fluttering like butterfly kisses on my clit.

“Let me see you,” I said.

Damon’s face reappeared above my legs, his expression unreadable. Then, he stood up on his hind legs. His cock, which hung semi-hard between his legs, gave a hopeful lurch and rose halfway up. In the little bit of starlight we had, I could see it rising from his fur, red and glistening.

I lifted myself onto my knees and put my lips on his tip. It shivered and stretched, and I wrapped my fingers around his shaft. A low growl rumbled in his stomach as he grew harder under my touch. I slid my tongue from the tip to the base, about eight inches’ worth, and watched it grow even longer. I took as much of him in my mouth as I could, filling my nostrils with his strange, wild scent.

“Kathy,” Damon said.

I touched myself with my free hand. My finger felt impossibly tiny inside of my lips compared to Damon’s. His fingertips combed carefully through my hair as I tasted him. Finally, I pulled myself away and stared up into his face.

“I’m ready,” I said with only a small shake in my voice.

Damon pulled himself away as I stretched out on my back. He positioned himself above me and pushed his swollen tip against my quivering pussy.

“Tell me when,” he said.

I closed my eyes and reached up to grip the tufts of fur on his chest. I could feel it heaving against my hands with his breaths, pulsing with blood in his veins. I nodded once.

Pain seared through my lower body as his head penetrated me, splitting me in two. I winced, and tears leaked out of my eyes. He gave me a moment to catch my breath.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded quickly. I could feel myself throbbing around him. Slowly, he pushed himself in another inch. I bit my lip as my pussy strained against his hardness, like a balloon on the verge of popping. I tried to relax, but it was impossible.

“Can you, like, shrink a little more or something?” I asked, my voice choked with pain.

I could see the struggle on his face. His brow furrowed in concentration. His shoulders narrowed and widened a few times. The whiskers on his face shook as his muzzle kept changing sizes. He screwed his eyes shut and yanked himself out so quickly that it hurt almost as bad as when he put it in.

“Give me a minute,” he said in a deep, smooth voice. It sounded almost human. When he opened his eyes again, I was surprised to see them flecked with gold and green.

I gripped his shoulders as he pushed his cock into me again. It was much smaller this time and slid into my pussy easily. I sighed and relaxed as he pumped his hips in a slow rhythm.

“Better?” he asked.

I nodded and studied his face. He looked almost like a man. I could see traces of cheekbone and hints of hazel in his eyes. His fur was sparser and shorter, exposing tracks of tan skin. His ears were still pointed and adorably furry. I reached up and scratched behind them. His expression slackened, and his hips jerked unexpectedly.

“Don’t do that,” he said.

I giggled and scratched some more. His eyes closed and he let out a growl. He punished me with a succession of hard, deep thrusts that felt surprisingly good. I wrapped my legs around his waist, grinding myself against him.

“Are all witches as sexy as you?” he asked, his eyes fixed on my neck.

“Do you want to find out for yourself?”

He grinned wickedly. “Not really.” He lowered his face to my chest and trailed his tongue over my nipples. He tasted the blood from my cut again, and a low groan rumbled in his throat. His back stiffened, and he stopped.

“Damon?”

I felt him growing rapidly bigger inside of me. I held onto his shoulders as they widened under my hands. My heart drummed painfully inside of my chest as the rumble in Damon’s throat thickened into a growl. The sound of it ignited me with fear.

I heard whimpering and realized it was me. “You said you wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Don’t talk,” Damon said gruffly.

I hissed as he slowly pushed himself deeper into me. His tongue snaked out of his mouth and lapped at the cut on my chest, making my stomach clench. I arched my back, and he grunted as he pushed himself in even further. I was high and dizzy with adrenaline and fear, but despite all of that, my pussy gushed and dripped around his throbbing cock.

“Concentrate,” I said as I gripped his face. His yellow eyes burned into mine. “You’ll kill me if you lose it.”

I wanted him to stay that way, that size. I watched the hazel flood his eyes again. He plunged his cock back into me, making me gasp.

“That’s good. Just like that,” I said encouragingly.

He found his rhythm, slamming his huge, hard cock into me at just the right angle. I pressed my hips close to his body as his pace quickened, letting his throbbing head rub against that sweet spot inside me.

“Oh god, Damon,” I cried.

His cock swelled inside my pussy. With each thrust, I felt something like an itch blossoming in the back of my brain. I moaned frantically and squeezed his thick arms.

“Don’t stop,” I begged.

Damon growled and bared his fangs as his thrusts came even harder. I arched my back, letting his soft fur brush against my hard nipples.

“Are you close?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

Damon grunted as he pounded me. He was thrusting so hard that he was dragging me along the ground. I cried out when he pushed me against the roots of a tree, and my pussy took the full force of his cock.

“Faster,” I whispered.

He jerked his hips, hammering into me. I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck. My muscles clenched tighter and tighter, and my blood rushed down to my lower body. My pussy dripped so much that I could feel it painting the insides of my thighs. I braced my feet against the ground and pushed my hips up to meet his. A growl escaped my lips as the first wave came.

“Oh my god!” I cried as my pussy spasmed around his cock.

Damon howled, the sudden volume like a knife to my ears. I let myself grow limp as he continued fucking me, each stroke pulling me deeper against him. His eyes faded in and out. Blackness encroached my vision, and I shut my eyes. The last thing I heard was the tail end of his howl, shaking in the air. The last thing I felt was him exploding inside of me, filling me with burning heat and ecstasy.

The birds’ incessant tweeting was what finally woke me up. I opened my eyes and blinked quickly against the scorching daylight.

“Ugh,” I managed to croak.

“I wasn’t that bad, was I?”

I bolted upright. “Damon?”

He was sprawled out on his stomach a few feet away. He propped himself up and smiled. I felt a nervous tug in my chest.

He was human.

“Some night, huh?” he said. He pushed himself to his feet and ambled to my side.

“Yeah,” I said faintly as I watched him approach. He only had hair in the expected places, now. The stuff on his head was dark and shoulder-length. I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet.

“Would it be totally lame if I asked for your number?” he asked.

I was surprise that he looked so young up close. He could have been my age, late twenties tops. I crossed my arms over my chest. I knew it was silly, but I felt like I was looking at a stranger.

“I’ll understand if you’d rather not.”

He ran his tongue over his dry lips, and I briefly recalled what that tongue could do.

“I’ll decide later,” I said, reaching up to grip his hair. “Kiss me, first.”

The mouth and the soft, hairless skin were technically foreign, but Damon attacked my face with a predatory skill, and I rode waves of memory back to last night as he folded me into his arms.

“Tell me you don’t have a boyfriend.”

Marcus’s face passed through my consciousness as quick as a sneeze.

“I don’t.”

It was true. Well, it was about to be true, at least.

We kissed again when we found our way back to the trail. He was supposed to meet his pack at one end, and I had to meet my coven at the other. We kept turning around to look at each other as we walked away.

The first person I saw was Marcus. Even from a distance, I could identify his silhouette. I had spent so much time studying him from afar that I could have found him if he was an outfielder and I was in the nosebleeds. But his familiar shape didn’t excite me the way it used to.

I emerged from the forest, and the other members of my coven approached me quickly. Mistress Natalie beamed.

“We are so proud of you,” she said.

Marcus glowered when he saw the tattered remains of my dress, but it had no effect on me.