Queen of Wolves

The moon was full and bright, high up above us. We ran through the forest effortlessly, blood pumping hot in our veins. I could hear the other three behind me, there was no need to turn my head and check on them. We'd been together so long I wouldn't have worried even if I couldn't sense them.

The four of us had split from the main pack, but I couldn't say how long ago. Time felt different when I was a wolf. It didn't have the same meaning. The smell of our kill was still fresh on my nostrils, the blood sharp on my teeth. That was all I knew.

Our bloodlust sated, I could already feel my need to hunt receding. I could run all night if I wanted, my muscles were strong and tireless, and my mind as much animal as person. It would be dawn soon, however, and it was better to be home before then.

Lucas, Jess, and Damian were right there with me. We'd run together since we were pups. They all knew where we were going, and the boys could have outpaced me if they'd wanted. They merely kept pace, following my lead.

We made it home before the sun. The back door was wide open the way we usually left it. I leapt the railing of the back step just to show off and powered through the doorway, nearly colliding with it on my way past. I heard the sound of someone stumbling behind me and felt wolfy satisfaction at having proven my superior agility.

I was first to the big dog bed. I slowed and took the time to pick my spot, then settled. Damian and Jess were shortly behind, having timed their final arrival so that they didn't have to stand there and wait for me. Lucas, the stumbler I assumed, was just a tad sheepish behind them.

The three of them curled up next to me, all of us touching one another to varying degrees. Jess got right up on my flank like she often did. She liked being close, though it didn't always matter whether it was to me or one of the boys.

My eyes were closed even before Lucas had finally snuggled into place with us. Our bellies were full, our primal desire met under another full moon, it was nap time.

****

I woke in a tangle of naked human bodies. That was nothing new for me. I extricated myself with practiced ease, taking a moment to ruffle the hair of each member of my pack.

Damian rolled over a bit as I slipped my leg free from beneath him. His eyes didn't open, and soft snores resumed shortly after.

I padded to the back door with the intention of closing it, more for form's sake than for any practical reason. Closed doors didn't really appeal to the wolf in me, or any of us, but when I was human, I tried to act like it. That meant little impracticalities here and there.

There were streaks of dried blood on my skin, my hair was tangled, and dirt smudged my feet and hands. I needed a shower. I put it off a few minutes as I looked out at the back yard and the forest beyond.

Small traces of the emotions and sensations from the night before echoed in the wolf part of my brain. My nostrils twitched in remembrance. I imagined I could still taste the deer, even though swiping my tongue around my teeth didn't turn up any missed remnants.

I closed the door and glided off to the bathroom. First crack at the shower meant I had all the hot water in the world to work with.

I felt refreshed, despite my short slumber, and rinsing all the grime off my body was a better feeling still. I was truly waking back up into my human form. My wolf side wouldn't lie down entirely for another few days after the moon, but the hunt was over and done with for another cycle. Calm was returning slowly but surely.

The bathroom door creaked open, not that I'd shut it all the way to begin with. Privacy wasn't really a big concern.

"Serena?" Jess called softly, despite how she must have known it was me.

"I'm almost done," I said aloud.

Jess ignored me and stepped into the shower with me anyway. She looked the way I'd felt upon waking; so very alive, but also quite filthy.

"You're always trying to shower without me," Jess accused.

"There's no trying involved," I said. "There's just no need to do it together. Why would I wait to see if you decide to roll out of bed before noon?"

Jess pursed her lips and shook her head petulantly. "I liked you better back when you used to drag me in with you. You used to be so much more fun."

"Well, we all gotta grow up sometime."

She snorted. "This has nothing to do with growing. You're just getting all full of yourself, is all."

Jess turned her back and stole all the spray from the shower head to wash herself off. I glared at the back of her head, but she very deliberately didn't look back at me right away.

She was still such a brat at times. We weren't puppies anymore. All four of us were in our twenties now, and the youthful excesses of our teens should have been fading.

Well, kinda.

I knew we'd never truly settle into boring human lives the way other people did. We'd never be 'civilized.'

But I had responsibilities now, dammit. Jess knew that. Lucas and Damian knew that. They just didn't seem to want to acknowledge it. Not when it inconvenienced them, anyway.

"Wash my back?" Jess asked innocently.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine."

I knew what she was doing. I also knew that she didn't care if I knew. It was the same old game from her, and it kind of annoyed me how well it worked.

My hands followed the familiar lines of Jess's smooth back down to her tight little butt. It started out just washing, same as it always did, and somehow evolved into something more.

I couldn't resist her when I was fresh off a hunt. My hormones were all wild and crazy, and I was such a horny thing. Maybe not as horny as her, but then she didn't try to restrain herself hardly at all.

I squeezed Jess's butt, then slipped my arms around her waist and circled back up to her tits. She giggled and let me play with her, even leaning back against me so our shower-slick bodies pressed delightfully together. I let my hips grind on her ass, my pussy searching for purchase that just wasn't there.

"You don't gotta be the serious boss lady all the time, you know," Jess said. "We still love ya."

I growled rather than responding properly. I slipped a hand down to her hot little slit and ran my fingers along its length. I knew exactly where to touch and what buttons to press. Her body was as familiar to me as my own, which made resisting her all the harder when she wanted me.

Jess moaned and squirmed at my touch. Her butt wiggled enticingly against me, spurring me on as I fingered her just the way I knew she loved. She tilted her head to bare her neck to me as I nuzzled up to it. I gave her a little nip with my teeth, then kissed and nosed my way up the back of her cheek to her ear.

I grinned in personal satisfaction when I made her cum on my fingers. I brought my hand to my face while still holding her to me. My nostrils flared as I inhaled her scent, then I sucked my messy fingers into my mouth to taste her. In my aroused state, that threw yet more fuel on the fire.

A moment later, Jess snaked herself out of my grasp and dropped to her knees in front of me. She looked up at me with big, round, 'little sister' eyes as she extended her tongue and dive straight into my wet cunt.

We'd essentially been raised as sisters, really, and had grown up as best friends that became fuck buddies when we reached a certain age. We knew each other about as well as anyone can know another person. Jess was well aware that I couldn't stop her when she looked at me like that while I was horny and she had her tongue buried in my pussy. There was just no beating that combination.

She used her physical charms and cunnilinguing skills to best effect, pinning me against the shower wall while she licked me. That was what I hated, and what I'd been trying to avoid. I was supposed to be in charge, dammit. That was the whole point. And here I was melting at her touch and the adorable fucking eyes she made at me.

Jess, the little brat, even slid a finger up the back way, between my ass cheeks. She wasn't holding back at all this morning. Her frantic oral assault on my pussy carried on unabated while she wormed a finger up my butt. She wanted to make me cum hard and fast.

It worked, too.

I leaned back even more heavily against the slippery wall as my orgasm rose and built, then was finally teased out on the end of Jess's nimble tongue. I came all over her face while she licked and fingered me through to the end.

She was still looking at me as she sat back on her heels, now with a trace of pride and self-satisfaction. She was so annoyingly smug about these things, just because she had me wrapped around her little finger.

Fucking goddamn. I was about ready to grab her and take her to bed.

"Are you two almost done in there?" Damian asked from outside the shower.

Thank goodness, a distraction.

"All done," I said, using the excuse to get out and shake myself off. As an afterthought, I grabbed a towel and patted myself dry for real.

Damian was just as naked as Jess and I, and his cock was about halfway hard already. I looked away again when I realized I was staring. He looked fucking good to me right about then.

"You stay, Serena," Jess said. "I'll wait for Lucas."

"No," I said. "I'm done. Things to do."

"Nuh uh," Jess said, "you're still horny. I can smell it. Have a quick fuck, you'll feel better."

I looked at Damian. "Keep Jess in here, would you? Find something to keep her mouth busy if she won't shut up."

Jess made a noise of indignation, but when I looked back over my shoulder upon exiting the room, she was already giggling and pulling Damian into the shower with her.

Lucas still lay in the middle of our big dog bed, all stretched out and just as filthy as the rest of us had been before cleaning up. It was just as tempting to climb on top and ride him for a while as it had been with Damian or Jess. I was so fucking turned on and helpless against my desires, needs, and hormones.

"You're missing the fun in there," I said to Lucas.

He shrugged lazily as he basked in the sun coming in through the window. "So are you, looks like."

"Yeah, well, I got things to do."

He grinned. "Name one."

I shot him a dirty look, then walked away. "None of your business."

"Yeah, didn't think so," he called after me.

I got to my room and swung the door partway closed. Even with my current desire for privacy and time to myself, closed doors felt wrong, somehow. It was a conscious effort to shut them fully at the best of times, and right now I didn't have the motivation to go back and close mine before flopping onto my bed.

I wished my mother hadn't been queen. I didn't want all the responsibility of taking over one day. I especially didn't like this new authority I'd been tasked with over my best friends and pack-mates. I missed the old days when the four of us could have spent all day after a hunt fucking around with each other to our hearts' content.

But I couldn't do that anymore. Not while trying to maintain some level of discipline. It fucking sucked.

Jess could sucker me into sexy times basically whenever she wanted, especially when my blood was up. Damian and Lucas could both take me in a straight fight if it ever came to that, not to mention all the amazing memories I had of rolling around in bed with them too.

They all followed my lead, for the most part, but I couldn't quite trust them to obey if it ever came to something really serious or important. It was all just a game to them, and my newly forged role as leader of our sub-pack had never been properly tested. I dreaded to think what might result if I actually needed them to listen when they didn't want to.

****

A while later, after a good sulk, I got up and got dressed. The house was quiet, which was either a good or a bad sign, depending on what the silence meant.

Lucas was sprawled across the couch playing a video game, and had managed to grab a shower and a pair of jeans since I last saw him. He glanced up at me for a second, then back to his game.

I thought about asking where the other two were, then decided I didn't really care at the moment. "I'm going out," I said instead.

"Cool," Lucas said. "Want me to come?"

"No, I'm good."

I remembered to put on some sneakers before heading outside. Human feet didn't take to barefoot walks like paws did.

I paused at the end of our driveway and looked down the street each way. I didn't smell anything noteworthy, nor did I see or hear anything to help make up my mind.

Our neighbours were fairly sparse in either direction, which was by design. Being in a more rural area meant cheaper property and more room to be our wolfy selves without attracting attention.

After my brief hesitation, I turned away from the nearest town, going the direction where the already isolated houses would get even more so. As soon as I was out of sight of our property, I broke into a jog, then a run.

It wasn't the same running as a human, but it still had some positives. It got the heart pumping, blood moving, sweat pouring, and most importantly pushed my thoughts to the side. When I was going full speed, I didn't have room for anything other than breathing and watching for obstacles while my body moved like a perfectly built machine.

I let my wolf mind come out to play a bit. Time faded away and I lost all sense of how long I'd been out or how far I'd gone. All I knew was running. I ran until I couldn't, until my lungs ached and my heart threatened to burst.

I stopped by a promising tree with some nice, low-ish branches. I judged the jump, then leapt and scrambled up to a likely looking perch just over head height from the ground. I settled there, snuggled securely in the branches where I wouldn't accidentally fall off.

It was a good place to stop and reflect, hopefully get some clarity away from the others. With no one around, at least my body should stop demanding sex quite so urgently, if nothing else. That was the hope, anyway. Those kinds of hopes never really worked out the way I might have liked.

****

I truly had no idea how it happened. It didn't make sense to me. Somehow, someway, I found myself waking the next morning at first light deep in the woods.

I was naked, of course, but that was only to be expected. My wolf self was not in the habit of carrying around a handy bag of clothes for my human self.

I sat up and blinked as I examined my surroundings. Entirely unfamiliar territory was all that I could see.

Thinking back yielded some results, though nothing immediately useful. I remembered running, on all fours this time, and I remembered the moonlight. Not a full moon, but close enough to make my feral side come out despite having been sated the night previous.

I remembered some kind of prey... a rabbit maybe? Whatever it had been, it should have just waited for me to go past. I hadn't been in a hunting mood, not exactly, but when something small started running, I had to chase it.

There wasn't quite as much remaining of last night's meal as of the night before, but some smears of blood marred my skin, along with some dirt, and some leaves and twigs in my hair.

Fuck. I blamed my own self-imposed sexual frustration. Not that blame helped anything at the moment.

I grimaced. I didn't want to do it, but I didn't see any good alternatives.

Concentrating hard, I let myself slip into my other form. I let the wolf out, in spite of the surrounding daylight. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.

I felt sick to my stomach as I made the final shift and dropped to all fours. My senses came alive slowly and unwillingly. Still, my nose finally started picking up some helpful smells on the still forest air. At the very least, I could pick out which way I'd come from, and if all else failed I could follow my trail home.

I loped away in the general direction of the way I'd come. I kept sniffing wildly in every direction, trying to get a sense of where I was. I could retrace my steps and go straight home if I wanted, albeit via a circuitous route, but I had somewhere else in mind.

Finally, when I'd almost given up hope, I caught the lingering scent of the pack from the night of the full moon. So many of us all together had left a trail that could be followed for days after, perhaps weeks if one knew what they were doing.

My stride picked up as I gained confidence in which way I was headed. Pretty soon I was running and bounding through the undergrowth, though still not as quickly as I would have been on a moonlit night.

An indeterminate time later, once again blaming my wolf side for not keeping track very well, I emerged into a backyard that wasn't my own, but was oh so familiar. It was a larger yard than my current one, and with a much bigger house too. It was the home I'd grown up in; my mother's house.

I slowed practically to a crawl, my nose frantic and overwhelmed at all the scents there were to parse. I could have happily explored the back yard until sun down without getting bored, if I'd wanted. But I had something more pressing that needed my attention.

My shift back to human was again a slow and nauseating process. It was never as easy as changing into a wolf anyway, and was usually done while asleep if it was feasible. I didn't have that luxury this time.

A woman stepped gracefully out the back door of the house, a broad grin on her face. I matched her smile, even though I was still fighting my stomach and trying not to throw up. She glided toward me, her light sun dress trailing softly behind her and rippling in the breeze.

"Hello, little Serena," Athena said.

"Hi, Aunt Athena," I greeted her in return.

Not my biological aunt, actually, but wolf families and our pack mentalities transcended blood lines. It was like how Jess, Lucas, and Damian were all younger siblings to me, in a sense, though in another sense they also very much weren't. It was complicated if I thought about it too much, but made perfect sense if I didn't worry about it.

We embraced warmly. Athena didn't even flinch at the blood and dirt that would be rubbing onto her dress.

"I don't get to see you enough anymore," she said, stroking my hair the way she had when I was little. "You should come visit more often."

I brushed my hair back as an excuse to look away for a moment. "Sorry," I said. "I'm still getting the hang of things. Speaking of which, is Mom around?"

"I'll have to locate her," Athena said. "Do you want a shower in the meantime? Or clothes?"

She knew, of course, that I'd been a wolf at a very odd time. I appreciated that she didn't actually ask about it, though left room for me to bring it up now if I wanted to. I didn't think I was ready to discuss it with anyone other than my mother.

"Actually," I said. "I could go for a bath. We don't have a tub in the new place."

She smiled. "Of course. I'll see about that right away."

Athena glided back off into the house without waiting for me. It was my childhood home, she knew very well I didn't need an escort and might want to roam around a bit on my own before bathing.

I didn't feel the need to explore in this instance. I could tell without even trying that the house was mostly empty at the moment. It was daytime, and compared my new house there were a lot more human-world responsibilities to be tended to. Me and my sub-pack basically just had to work flexible part-time jobs while we got used to our independence; bringing in enough money and looking after the house sufficiently that it didn't all fall down around us.

Our relatively easy life made it all the more frustrating that I couldn't find the way to balance it properly.

The tub was filled and steaming by the time I made my slow way to the master bathroom. I hadn't explored, but I had lingered a few places along the way, letting memories of a simpler time fog my mind for a moment.