Chapter 5: Changes, Revelations and Decisions in Wolf's Underground Hamlet

Regaining consciousness had its downside, a throbbing headache that channeled to her stomach. Nausea made Gretchen heave. Acids burned her throat. She spit out liquid fire onto the hard floor she sat on, her back against the hard wall. Her vision swirled only partly from concussive damage. In front of her, two humanoid figures wrestled and clawed at each other. Their faces mottled with fur had impossibly wide mouths with dangerously long and pointing canine teeth. Their rib cage area had expanded, with the golden brown fur of the female hidden by scraps of her torn brown flannel shirt. Heavy breasts bounced about as she tackled the silver gray male but retained their shape.

"Wolf?" Gretchen muttered, her hand touching her face where another pain targeted it, a finger moving in front of her eye showing blood.

The male thing growled glancing at her and then screamed in pain as a long claw like fingernail penetrated his chest near his heart. Within a second he had the female flipped over and face down, his own claw dangerously at her throat while the other hand pushed her face into the stone floor. "Enough? Enough?" it sounded like he said in his growl.

The female monster on the floor metamorphosed into the most perfectly shaped woman Gretchen had ever seen if perfection meant the bosomy hour glass figure of a men's magazine model, which in Gretchen's case it did. Lust pinged through her pain and fear. And even the scowl on the dirty blonde woman's face didn't erase its beauty, lean and sharply etched with a lengthy nose similar to Wolf's that added character and dazzling hazel eyes that pooled and oozed out a tear.

Wolf returned to his familiar form as well as he carefully removed his naked body from the woman, tensed muscles readying for her renewed attack on his mate. She remained on the floor staring at Gretchen, scowling and near tears. Appearing to be unthreatening, Wolf glanced from her to Gretchen and approached his love tentatively.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

Gretchen rubbed her face. "I'm bleeding."

Wolf knelt beside her, gently as possible removing her hand. He breathed a sigh of relief. "It's just a prick. I'm glad I pulled her away before she marred your cute face." He kissed the wound. The woman growled. "Shut up, Nina," he growled back.

Both Gretchen and Wolf watched Nina rise to her feet, her body on complete display as she removed the remnants of her tattered shirt. Her khaki pants lay near her feet in a puddle of cloth where they had fallen when her broad hips narrowed during her transformation. Standing with fists hitched to her hips, she glared at Gretchen. Gretchen swallowed. The scary woman was stunning.

Nina spoke in a low and sexy voice, "You promised, Wolf."

"I found my mate, Nina," he explained, wrapping his large arm around Gretchen who tightened.

"This scrawny thing?" Nina spat. "I tossed the cunt like she was a sack of leaves, a small sack at that. And look, she's trembling like a leaf. It's my time, Wolf. You promised."

"Of course she's scared, you bitch," sighed Wolf. "I haven't informed her of our ... ways. Instead she's confronted by the worst of it."

Nina laughed. "Good. She'll refuse you and we'll eat her delectable flesh." Kneeling, she lifted her hand and touched Gretchen's cheek. Gretchen trembled at the touch, but when Nina pressed her perfect body against Wolf, anger flashed in her eyes. The flash made Nina smile.

Holding Gretchen tighter, Wolf grumbled his response. "You're not my mate, bitch. I finally find her and you..."

The kiss on his cheek and then the mouth breathing into his ear when she spoke and her hand moving sensuously lower and lower in circles from his chest across his abdomen until it held his hardening penis, cradling it, was watched with intense jealousy by Gretchen. Nina witnessed the power of Gretchen's emotion while taunting Wolf with her breath, "You promised to give me pups this moon, Wolf."

"Oh Nina," Wolf sighed, kissing her cheek. "You know I love you. You're my best friend, my confidant, my lover, but you're not my mate. I don't feel for you the way I do for Gretchen. We're not meant to be mates."

Suddenly Gretchen jumped to her feet causing a wooziness she fought to keep from overcoming her and managed to grab her clothes through her foggy consciousness. Her brain too physically and emotionally rattled to scream at full volume, she unsteadily roared, "I don't know what the fuck is going on, but I'm going to leave you weirdos to your weirdness and try to find my friends!" Her unsteady legs somehow brought her through the main room and upstairs and outside. Throughout she readied to be grabbed but surprisingly no too quick paws prevented her.

Fresh cold air intensified the throbbing until she breathed deeper and quicker and it softened. Following tracks visible in the light of a nearly full moon and cloudless sky, she found the large flat building and the wide ramp lowering to the corrugated metal garage door and beside it a set of steps leading to a door meant for people surprisingly unlocked.

Grasping her forehead tightly with her hand, trying to prevent the throbbing from exploding, she yelled, "Michael! Joseph! Karen!" into the interior of the building. The air of the large space filled with boxes on pallets increased her nausea. It smelled of meat. The cold inside matched the cold outside.

"Gretchen!" she barely heard repeated by two voices.

"Where are you!" she responded, moving past the boxes to find large silent machines filling the space. "Keep yelling!"

The voices led her to the back of the large space and two sets of descending steps and a hallway. The hallway crossed another, and the voices led her left and further down the hall where the concrete walls became glass threaded with a mesh of hexagons made of metal wire of a golden hue.

Joseph, a moderately tall, moderately handsome man with curly light brown hair past his shoulders and a broad face with piercing blue eyes, his body smoothly muscled from martial arts and stage combat training, and Karen, an exotic mix of the east and west, of oriental and Slavic, with Asian eyes on a broad and pretty and intelligent face, her subtle contours like a stout boy, not fat but big boned, stood on collapsible wooden chairs on the other side of glass, their heads tilted up so their voices carried through holes lining the top of the wall.

With a tortured smile, Gretchen caught their eyes and said thickly, "Hi."

"Gretchen!" they both spoke at once, climbing carefully off their chairs and pointing farther down the hallway.

Unfortunately the door with the same glass and metal mesh proved to be locked. Bouncing off it out of frustration, Gretchen collapsed and became unconscious.

Coming to, Gretchen jolted up to sitting, regretting it instantaneously when the blood drained from her head, making her dizzy again. She recovered and gazed angrily at the woman sitting near her feet on the edge of the bed: the breathtakingly beautiful woman she had seen transformed into a monster. Nina smiled.

"You're ... impressive," said Nina without malice but with a seductive tinge instead. She handed Gretchen a glass of orange liquid which Gretchen quickly swallowed—a familiar taste.

Gretchen realized she was back on Wolf's bed and sounds of birds and a glow outside the open door suggested morning. She smelled bacon and coffee and her stomach grumbled emptily.

"How..." she began.

"Kat left us some of the sedative just in case. Wolf brought you back here and we ... kept you warm."

"You ... slept with him after all?"

"Slept, yes. Talked too." Nina's gentleness somehow prevented Gretchen cringing when her fingers slid through Gretchen's hair. "Do you find me ... unattractive?"

Gretchen swallowed her lust and stiffened. "Where are Michael and Joseph and Karen?"

Nina chuckled quietly and kissed Gretchen's forehead. "Michael went with Kat. Joseph and Karen are having breakfast." The beauty nodded towards the door. "Here, let me dress you," pulling a heavy green wool shirt from her lap and helping Gretchen slip her arms into it and buttoning it up. The khaki slacks proved too wide and to long, but Gretchen cinched them with a belt and rolled up the cuffs. At her feet were furry suede slippers, a little too big but wearable and comfortable. She noticed Nina wore the same things. "I like comfort," Nina shrugged. "It takes a special event for me to dress up." She smiled and kissed Gretchen on the lips.

"Some women don't need to dress up," said Gretchen before she could stop herself.

Nina nodded and kissed her again. "I agree," she murmured.

A giggle passed through Nina's mouth when she saw Gretchen's powerful expression of anger and jealousy return to her face. Gretchen grumbled, "You're seducing me to be with Wolf."

Nina nodded and shrugged. "But it won't be a chore sharing him, will it? Certainly not for me."

"But you nearly killed me!"

With eyes dampening, Nina sighed, "I'm so sorry, Gretchen. Just know that if I had succeeded, not only would I deny myself the wonder that is you, but my very life. Wolf would have killed me. It's just ... I'm in heat and we tend to get feral."

"Feral... ?"

"Come have breakfast, my remarkable little powerhouse. All will be revealed."

Gretchen rolled up her too long sleeves to her wrists while following the beautiful, scary woman into the main room. Gathered at a rough hewn table were her fellow troupe members and two handsome blonde strangers, one of whom was female. Males and females paired up intimately. The blonde strangers looked like twins: thick shouldered and tall. The male loomed over Karen. Even sitting he was a head taller. The female equaled Joseph's sitting height, but her massive broad shoulders made him look small beside her.

Unlike everywhere else she'd been with Wolf, the room felt warm. She discovered why while approaching the table. The kitchen where eggs and bacon and coffee heated had a wood burning stove. Wolf emerged from the kitchen with a radiant smile and his hands carrying a thick earthenware plate holding eggs, bacon, toast and hashed potatoes and a large mug of coffee.

"Come eat," he said, placing the plate and coffee in the middle of the table across from her friends. "How do you take your coffee?"

"Hot and bitter," she replied, sitting where the plate had been placed. She returned the silly grins of her friends with a tentative smile.

"Then it's perfect," Wolf proclaimed, sitting to her right and sipping his mug of coffee. "Eat. You must be starved." Nina sat to her left.

Her stomach growled in agreement. Instead of asking the million questions dancing in her dazed brain, she filled her mouth with breakfast. As she ate, she watched the interplay of her friends and their mates, introduced as Lou and Reyna. "Pheromones," she thought, "like with me and Wolf." The couples talked so quietly she heard little of what they said. The smiles and laughter and the seductive touching made the words less important than the intimacy of sharing conversation and physical space.

Her stomach sated, she glanced back and forth at Wolf and Nina, noticing Nina studied Wolf like a prime roast. "Tell me what you became last night," Gretchen insisted.

The growl from Wolf set Gretchen on her nerves. It refocused everyone towards him. Nina cringed. Quieting his outburst, he informed Gretchen, though his eyes remained on Nina, "You saw the worst of us I'm afraid. You saw our battling form, the human with the animal, the most vicious of each."

"You ... become something else?" asked Gretchen.

Wolf nodded. "You saw the intermediate stage. We transform completely unless riled up or challenged. Close the shades, Lou, and set up the screen."

Lou nodded and used a long stick with a hook to pull down shades, then grabbed a freestanding screen retracted and looking like a vertical cylinder on a metal stand and turned the cylinder horizontally and unrolled the screen upward, attaching it to the top of a narrow post. Reyna removed the dishes from the table. Wolf walked to a door. Opening it revealed a closet. He pulled out a 16mm movie projector and placed it on the dining table. Lou plugged it into a wall socket while Wolf extracted a box from the closet, opened it and pulled out a reel of film, handing it to Lou to thread into the machine. Reyna turned off the lights and the movie began.

"Howie Ender made this before the Holocaust," Wolf explained as the sprockets clattered through the machine. "During the Weimar Republic, such art could be made and appreciated. It's really quite beautiful and at the same time tells our story to the initiates."

"Meaning us," said Gretchen.

"Yes."

The silent black and white film unspooled. Handwritten intertitles cut into thick stretched leather with a light source sweeping across it and then behind it, the light causing the film to bleach out. The careful sweep of the light source became the pattern for the film. Images emerged from darkness, flashed and disappeared in a gentle flow, sometimes quicker and more abrupt when the scenes depicted violence or fucking. Like the slide show in Kat's home, the film explained the origin of the werewolves and werecats.

"That looks like you!" exclaimed Gretchen to Nina, playing Diana.

"That is me," said Nina, sniffling. "And Yashaw's my brother. He was murdered by the Nazis."

Later Gretchen heard Wolf sniffle. "My parents played the Aunt and Uncle," he explained.

Later still, Joseph remarked, amazed, "Are those kittens emerging from that woman?"

"She looks like Kat," Gretchen noticed.

"It is," said Wolf.

"Oh my god, now puppies come out of that woman's..." Karen exclaimed.

Nina chuckled. "With all the fucking and the close up of cunts, the movie had a limited showing."

"Howie showed it to the Hoi Poloi of culture," Wolf explained. "They didn't figure it to be real, just editing magic, special effects, with the shadowiness of the film seeming to make such remarkable effects easier to convince."

"But it's real, isn't it?" said Gretchen.

"Yes it is. Howie filmed Kat giving birth and..."

"Bette's the bitch," said Reyna. No one laughed.

Using the sweeping, softly lit technique, a time lapse sequence showed a pup and a kitten becoming an adult man and woman.

"Is that you?" asked Gretchen. The man looked like Wolf ten years younger.

"Yes, and the female werecat is Kat again."

"Oh my god!" shouted all the initiates, or similar expressions of shock and surprise. Wolf and Kat became halfway transformed and fought viciously.

"That was an unwise choice of Howie's," Wolf sighed as he watched with the others his body and Kat's wounded by each other. He rubbed a small scar on his cheek. The fight ended with the two finishing the metamorphosis and licking each other's wounds which healed quickly though scars remained. Gretchen growled at the intimacy causing Wolf to chuckle.

Kat and Wolf began playing, Wolf a wolf chasing Kat a panther, catching her and toppling her over before reversing roles. Other werecats and werewolves, two tribes, also engaged in the violent playing.

The final act of the movie showed a man meeting a woman in a beer hall and courting her. "That's Howie and his mate Zelda," explained Wolf with a sigh.

"She's lovely," said Gretchen of the voluptuous blonde with the face of a rural milk maiden.

"Yes she was," Nina sighed.

"What happened to her?" asked Gretchen, watching the courtship become love making.

"When her mate died," Wolf explained, "she became completely feral repeatedly attacking the cats, provoking them until they ... put her out of her misery."

"Fuck," exclaimed Joseph, watching the lovers fuck doggy style. Howie sank his fangs into his lover's right shoulder near her neck. She looked ecstatic. His hips slammed against her butt with rapid thrusts until he went still and trembled. She toppled in a faint. Turning her over, he licked her pussy sent his fangs deep into her lower abdomen.

"Fuck," the initiates all exclaimed.

"He's infecting her," Nina explained. "Making her a wolf and her egg receptive to Howie's wolf sperm. Infecting a man is similar, except the bitch secretes into the testicles."

"Ouch," moaned Joseph.

"No pain, my love," said Reyna. "You sleep through it, and when you awake..."

Howie sleeps spooning Zelda. Moments later, Howie fucks Zelda and Zelda pierces Howie's neck with her fangs.

"This is how we change our mates and conceive pups," Nina explained.

After they climax, they transform into wolves and separate and sprint together playfully though the dark forest.

The tail end of the film flapped on the take up reel as the screen turned white. Lou shut off the machine. Reyna turned on the light.

"You have a choice," Wolf explained to the horrified guests. "Of course we'd prefer if you mated, but if you choose not to become one of us, we will help you escape to the West. Let me make our case. If you become one of us, your life will be extended. We live three times the length of humans. We are essentially impervious to infections, diseases and wounds. Becoming a wolf on full moon nights is, to say the least, exhilarating."

"But you said your parents were killed," said Gretchen.

Nodding, Wolf explained, "The Nazis used silver bullets. It poisons us and prevents healing. Also we have a gland at the base of our brain which causes our transformation. If it is torn out, we die. Decapitation of course is also fatal."

"Why us?" asked Karen.

"Our race is weakening," Nina explained. "We need an infusion of genes outside our race. Mating within our race has become problematic." She looked at Wolf. "As wolves, we're rather randy, but nothing comes of it. We need the overwhelming drive of a true mating, love if you will, to trigger the enzymes from the were gland. But such intense love no longer happens between wolves. We've essentially become sterile."

Gretchen gazed at the beautiful woman. "You think his desire for me will strengthen his sperm and maybe your already intense love for him will make you receptive."

Nina simply said, "Yes."

Seeing the need in Nina's eyes and the soft loving expression in Wolf's as they gazed at each other shifted Gretchen's mind. A deep love could be seen in Wolf's expression for his friend, but somehow he looked at Gretchen, at his mate, with a wonder and devotion and respect, a totality of love not given to Nina. Looking at his ruggedly handsome face and his infinitely deep eyes which stirred her to her core, and then at the beautiful and sexy Nina who excited her libido despite the terror she'd witnessed earlier, she decided her fate. "Change me," she murmured to her mate.

It took a moment to register, but when it did, Wolf looked ecstatic. Lifting her from her seat with little effort, he hugged her tightly, almost too tightly, and kissed her hard, her feet dangling off the ground. "Oh, my love, you've made me the happiest werewolf in existence," he exclaimed. His arm sweeping underneath her legs, he began walking back to the bedroom.

"Wolf," smiled Gretchen. "Wait." He stopped. She turned her head to meet Nina's unsure gaze. "Nina? Join us?" Nina seemed to shimmer when she smiled, rushing to her best friend's new mate and kissing her. They walked through the bedroom door, Nina closing it behind them.

Perplexed expressions met. Stunned, Joseph and Karen couldn't move or speak. Lou and Reyna shared a worried glance. Finally Reyna asked, "How can we help you decide?"

Glaring eyes met worried eyes and Joseph's expression softened, but his words held his suspicion, "You mean what can you say to convince us to become... ?"

" ... monsters?" Lou completed. Both Joseph and Karen nodded. With a shake of his head, he told them, "We can't force you to be one of us. You have to want it wholeheartedly. What Reyna meant..."

Reyna interrupted, "It's obviously the most important decision of your lives. You're both highly intelligent as well as passionate people. We can explore your choices both intellectually and passionately."

"Okay," Karen swallowed nervously, "obviously the mating is significant. How come you chose us as mates? And why did I suddenly want to ... fuck your brother more than I ever wanted to fuck anyone?"

"I just make you horny?" asked Lou.

"Extremely," Karen responded.

"Are you in love with anyone?" Reyna asked. Karen glanced at Joseph, shying away when he met her eyes. Reyna sighed, "Oh."

"What?" asked Joseph.

"It seems you're already mated," Lou replied.

"Explain mated, because I don't understand."

"It's a soul mate, your true love, the person who makes you whole," Reyna told him.

"Uhm, Reyna," said Joseph quietly, taking her hand in his and looking into her concerned eyes. Her eyes widened. He kissed her.

Karen sobbed, "He ... I never told him how I felt about him. He sees me as a friend."

"Have you slept together?' Lou asked.

Karen answered timidly. "Yes. Twice. Both times he was drunk and woke up feeling guilty. Both times I loved every minute of it. But ... I was afraid I'd lose his friendship. I'd rather have that than nothing."

Lou sighed. "You're a lovely woman, Karen, exotic and bright and talented. You'll find someone else who accepts your love and returns it."

The two unmated beings looked at the intimate contact beside them. Karen nodded. "Fuck me at least?" she said to Lou. Lou grinned and took her hand and led her to another bedroom.

His friend's departure barely registered in Joseph's mind, but it interrupted his stare into the blonde Amazon's hazel eyes because she watched them leave. "Why didn't you love her?" Reyna asked her mate while looking at their meshed fingers.

"I never saw her that way," Joseph shrugged. "I never knew. She's always been a friend. I've always enjoyed her company. But I'm sort of glad I didn't know, because ... the friendship would have suffered. She's just not my type. You are."

"And you've had big blonde women as your girlfriends?"

"No. And I've never been in love. Just parterned up, you know. I never knew what love would feel like really. Now I do." They shared an unrestrained smile. "But your brother ... will this hurt him?"

"No. The chemistry hasn't set yet. The bond is incomplete."

"For us too?" Joseph asked. Reyna nodded. Joseph continued, "So if I were to choose not to ... be like you, it wouldn't be painful?"

Shaking her head sadly, she answered, "No, but ... I ... would very much like it if you stayed."

Gently touching her cheek to guide her to face him, he smiled, "I think I'd very much like it too." He leaned forward and kissed her briefly but sweetly. "What about Wolf? If Gretchen hadn't agreed... ?"

"He would have been devastated. Wolf never allowed himself the vulnerability of true love until now. I don't think he would have recovered. He's our alpha, Joseph, our leader, but he wouldn't have been anymore. His strength would have been shaken to the core."

"The greater the soul, the greater the fall."

"Exactly."

"I think you're pretty great."

Reyna tittered at the compliment. "Thank you Joseph. But I'm from the last litter before the Holocaust, the youngest of the pack, so I haven't attained the great wisdom and strength yet of Wolf."

"Speaking of strong, I have to confess that the notion of being invulnerable is an incredible temptation. I am proud of my agility whether as a martial artist or a stage fighter. Will I gain more?"

"Follow me," Reyna smiled, standing and pulling him to his feet.

As they passed the bedrooms, sounds of fucking, both vocal and the rhythmic whine of bed springs could be heard through the doors. Both Joseph and Reyna chuckled. "I look forward to making those sounds," said Joseph.

"Me too."

The hallway continued longer than Joseph anticipated. Obviously a tunnel, it veered to the right. After the cabin they had walked from, few doors appeared and they looked heavier than the bedroom doors, similar to the metal door leading into the factory where he had awakened. Finally they stopped in front of one of those heavy doors.

"Open it," Reyna smiled.

Joseph couldn't turn the knob. "It's locked," he responded, though he saw no key hole.

"Let me show you," said Reyna. She pulled the knob out a couple centimeters and turned, opening the door. She immediately shut it. "You try."

Trying several variations: a swift tug, a gentle pull, attempting to move the handle in various directions and finally pulling with all his might, his feet pressed to the door; Joseph couldn't make it budge. "Holy shit," he exclaimed.

Reyna giggled. "I'm showing off, Joseph." Effortlessly she opened it again. "Being a werewolf makes you exceptionally strong. These doors have been made human proof."

Inside, Joseph immediately noticed the floorboards, especially since he followed Reyna's lead removing his shoes. Where the rest of the underground space had cold hard stone beneath his feet, this was different. And they seemed to give as he tread. "They're on suspensions; heavy gage springs," Reyna explained.

The reason became clear when a body impacted the floor loudly. "Fuck!" said the woman who looked like Reyna's older sister.

Reyna chuckled, "Mom will never learn."

"Mom?" Joseph thought, realizing the final proof of longevity. As Reyna's mother took her vanquisher's hand to stand, two other couples battled using what appeared to be jiu-jitsu except at a speed twice or more than Joseph had ever witnessed. They were nearly a blur, but Joseph could see the smoothness of motion and the precision. One couple worked more gently, testing holds but never fully engaged in fighting. Reyna distracted his observation. She stripped to panties. Her full breasts held their shape seeming to defy nature, but no plastic surgeon had changed them. Big boned, lean muscles rippled beneath a shallow layer of fat over a womanly skeleton as she padded to a closet and fetched a couple martial shirts and pants sets or gi, handing one set to Joseph. Broadness in her shoulders, butt and thighs seemed to accentuate her voluptuous shapeliness. The blonde Amazon's sexiness and beauty and sheer power took his breath away.

"Uhm, Joseph?" she smirked. "You'll be more comfortable losing your pants and shirt."

"You're stunning," he murmured, removing his shirt. Fingers stumbled at the button securing his pants.

"Need help?" she whispered into his ear, a nipple sliding against his nipple.

"Uhm, I'm..."

"Ooh, you do need help," she rumbled deeply, sexily, kneeling at his feet and taking over the unbuttoning. Once accomplished, she unzipped him and her hand slid across his tumescence and his balls held uncomfortably in his too tight underpants. A pale pink tongue tip slid across her mouth. Her hazel eyes sparkled lustily as she gazed into his horny eyes before returning them to his groin. Her hand rose, gripping just below his turgid cock head, squeezing and pulling and her head lowered. The tongue tip glanced off the reddening tip of his cock emerging from his foreskin, peaking out from the elastic of his tighty whities.

"Rey!" A loud voice ejaculated. Even with one word, it sounded Japanese, the low, masculine voice of a Shogun. "Do not disrespect the Dojo!"

Immediately the shapely beauty bounced to her feet and pulled on her gi. Bowing and blushing, she pronounced crisply, "Hai Sensei."

Not in the least gay, when the man approached Reyna and Joseph, the human couldn't help gasping. With chiseled oriental features on his oblong head, short spiky black hair, thick, perfectly sculpted chest exposed by a widely opened shirt, Joseph had never seen such a beautiful and handsome man. When the man chuckled and hugged Reyna and then kissed her forcefully, Joseph wanted to run away. He certainly was no match for her affections.

"Sensei!" Reyna exclaimed when the kiss ended.

"I wanted to taste you in full heat, Rey," Sensei exclaimed, his eyebrows twitching at Joseph. "Are you the man who fanned her flames?" he asked, lifting a hand to shake.

Clumsily, Joseph removed his pants from his ankles, stood and shook Sensei's hand cringing at the contact but finding a firm but not threatening grip. "Joseph, Sensei."

"She's a handful, Joseph. I envy you."

"You two seem ... intimate," said Joseph tentatively, putting on his gi.

The full laughter felt like a burst of wind nearly toppling Joseph. "I have tasted the sweet nectar of this lovely chrysanthemum, but you are mated, yes?"

"Sensei!" the big woman exclaimed looking remarkably cute in her blushing embarrassment.

"Not such a delicate flower, hmm?" Sensei continued the tease. "But delicious, and I only hope you may invite me to taste her again."

"Sensei! He doesn't know of our ... ways yet. And ... he's still deciding about mating with me."

"Nonsense!" Sensei boomed. "He is already bound to your heart as you are to his. But young man, you must not consider me a rival. We werewolves are a randy bunch, and me more than most. When not mated, we enjoy the company of others rather ... promiscuously."