1. If you're being picky, run away.

This was horrible. Mind-numbingly, psyche-traumatizing-ly horrible. The birds and the bees talk. I know what you guys are thinking. You're thinking, "You're overreacting, Rory. It's uncomfortable and awkward, but we all get through it. Now, shut up and eat your waffles." But I don't want my stinking waffles! Not after having my dad sit across the table from me and give me tips for crying out loud. Another wholesome breakfast ruined in the Harper house!

"I don't wanna do this." I whined, banging my forehead on the table for emphasis. Which was a total lie. According to my hormones anyway. The rest of me wasn't so keen on this "tradition."

Okay, confession time, try to keep up people. My parents, my siblings, and just about everyone in my general acquaintance are werewolves. Yeah, I dropped the W-word. Hold your laughter and scoffing. 'Tis true.

Which is why I'm in this horrible predicament. When Werewolves like me and you—okay, not you—reach a certain age, the hormones start a ragin'. Kinda like humans, 'cept when we get that special feeling in our pants, our choices become limited to mate or eat someone. And not in the good way. Sex crazed or homicidal. Or really sex crazed and homicidal. I mean, I haven't seen my best friend, Lucas, in two weeks since I want to rip his head off for no good reason except that I don't appreciate the smell of males wolves all that much lately.

So what is done about this awkward, potentially flesh-rending problem? It's simple, really. You round up all the young wolves coming into their first...heat—oh, cringe!-and throw a big...teenage monster sex jamboree in the woods. Yeah, I'm betting that would sound even worse out loud.

The jamboree was tonight, hence my dad's vomit-inducing pep talk.

My complaining earned me a smack to the back of my head. "Stop being stupid. There's no shame in it, Rory. It's what we are." I made a face at that, but since my forehead was pressed against the table, he couldn't see it. "I won't have you growling at your brother like you've been."

I sighed. There had been a not so good moment a few days ago when I had come very close to strangling my brother. No, not good at all. I needed fur between my teeth—icky werewolf euphemism—before I had blood there.

It was just...ew. Chock full of ew.

I was going to have to screw a stranger. I knew that there were a bunch of studies and Lifetime movies that said that teenagers liked nothing better than to be as slutty as a sailor on shore leave, but not me. I felt dirty already. I just thanked Whoever that there were no werewolf STDs and that female wolves don't ovulate until they're in their thirties. Ick.

My dad's chair screeched as he pushed away from the table. I cringed at the horrible noise. Really good hearing wasn't always the best. I made a mental note to tell Mom on him for subjecting me to that scarring talk. Mom loved her wooden floors as much as she loved her children.

"And maybe you'll come back tomorrow with a reputation like your old man." I looked up at him at that just to make sure he had really said it. He raised his eyebrows at me. Oh, my deity, was it too late to get put up for adoption?

"What reputation?" We both jumped as my mom came in. My mom was an alpha. A really powerful one, which meant she could hide her scent and presence from other wolves. The woman was as sneaky as a ninja.

"Ah, nothing." My dad said then bolted, Mom right on his heels. I wished I were normal.

There was a loud crash somewhere deep in the bowels of the house and an "ow!" Five seconds later, Mom was back, not looking at all disheveled, not even a strand of her white hair out of place. See? Ninja. "Look, honey, just look at this like a road block you have to get over. After tomorrow, everything will go back to normal." She encouraged.

I took in her words. She was right. This was just a necessary thing everyone had to put up with and just do. Like going to the dentist. Except "drilling" had a a whole new meaning in this situation.

And just when I thought that I could have a relatively normal conversation with a parental figure, my mom had to go and ruin it. "Ignore everything your father told you. I had to train him." She left with a wink.

I gagged and got up to throw my waffles away. Why did they let my parents breed!?

::::::::::::::

The thing was being held in the woods, like any good jamboree. Actually, it was being held in the forest. Trust me, there's a difference.

"You look so gay, dude." Lucas laughed. I ignored the loser even if he had a point. I was wearing clothes that I didn't care got ripped to strips when I shifted. I had on a plain wife beater—sorry undershirt for the PC crowd—and orange flip flops. It was the pants that tied the whole outfit together. Baby blue sweatpants with Juicy on the ass. Casandra—another friend—had left them at my house a million years ago and had never got them back before she moved.

Once again, I know what you're thinking. I'm psychic like that. "Rory, why don't you take off your clothes before you shift, so you don't have to wear an embarrassment of gigantic proportions?" Well, I have issues about the whole getting naked in public thing most wolves took to like breathing.

I think it was because I had eyes and noticed how I lacked the Adonis-like perfection every wolf but I had. I was a scrawny little thing. Lucas had even said that I look more like a coyote instead of a big, bulky wolf.

I was also horribly self conscious about my skin condition. I had splotches all over my pale skin that mimicked the spots on my fur when I was in wolf form. It looked like I had a bunch of grayish birthmarks all over. My hair was likewise affected, I had a gray streak in the middle of my brown hair. It was a genetic disorder that like only five percent of wolves have. I had gotten it from my mom who's hair was entirely white.

Let's just say that my nickname of "Spot" for all of elementary school kind of gave me a complex. So I shifted in clothes when I was with other wolves.

And now you're wondering how the hell Lucas and I were in the same car and there weren't small, bloody pieces of tissue—mostly mine—smearing the windshield. The answer was simple, Lucas had a convertible.

With the constant stream of wind in my face I couldn't smell Lucas and his male-ness.

Soon—too soon—the car was slowing down. Dozens of cars were parked in the small lot reserved for campers that swarmed these parts at the height of summer. Luckily, a lot of forest rangers were wolves, so we could get away with things like this and not have to answer awkward questions.

Lucas pulled up to an unfamiliar car that had me salivating. A '69 Camaro, orange and black. I got out as soon as Lucas stopped and pressed my nose against the window to pine over the pretty interior.

"Rory?" Lucas whistled like you would to get a dog to come.

I turned and flipped him off, but parted ways with the sweet car. I got my bag from the back of Lucas' ride before heading towards the trees. "You could have left that in there." He pointed out as we ignored the well marked trail and started picking our way through the underbrush in the opposite direction.

"I'm not getting so close to the road butt ass naked." I said, then pressed my nose against my bag, trying to avoid an incident even though my wolf side felt calmer than it had in a long ass time. It was likely because of the scents of females I had caught back at the parking lot. Most unfamiliar. A lot of packs only have these things with other packs since most people found the thought of losing their cherry (idealistically) to someone they grew up with repulsive.

I planned on avoiding the scents of the girls I knew like candy corn. A few of them were like my sisters and the rest scared me.

That was one good thing, I wouldn't have to see this girl and have horrible, awkward conversations with her again.

"Fuck, it's cold." I bitched after awhile.

"Maybe 'cause you're dressed like an extra in a gay porno?" I glared at him. He just laughed. I was not scary. Especially for a werewolf.

We were following an invisible trail made of scents that would lead us to the gathering spot which is where we would wait for the moon to rise. You could also mingle I guess.

I dropped my bag by a tree and made sure to touch the trees I passed so I would be able to find it later. Suck it, Hansel and Gretel.

"You're such a prude."

"Am not." I argued. My argument would have been a lot stronger had we not reached the gathering place that was filled with half naked or completely naked people. I adverted my eyes and turned several shades of red. Lucas laughed. Oh, I was just a barrel of laughs tonight.

"Asshole." I growled as he passed me, entering the clearing, stripping as he went.

"Human." He called back.

I made a huffy noise in response and then found a nice comfy rock to sit on in the shadows aka out of sight. As I listened to the others trying to impress the opposite sex, I thought about what Lucas had said. No, not the gay porn thing, the human thing.

Werewolves were half human, half wolf. I felt like I was only a quarter wolf—an eighth wolfish. I always felt out of place at the not so human aspects of my life. Like I often found myself wondering why I was there when the pack gathered. I wonder if there had been a mistake when they were giving out souls. Here we have a new, ready-to-go wolf body. And what did they do? Stuffed it with a soul that was supposed to be human. Their filing system must be crap.

To be honest, I was almost asleep when silence woke me up. Don't look at me like that. A lack of noise can be as loud as thunder in a garbage can in the right situation. The moon was up.

The silver glow found me and my human side was bitch slapped to the back of my head. I fell off of my rock and thrashed in the leaves and dirt. Skin flowed, muscles twisted, bones broke. It didn't really hurt. It never did, but it still surprised me. I expect it to hurt. Every time.

I stood up on white paws splashed with gray, ready to run. So I did. I ran as fast as I could for the sheer joy of it. Running sixty miles an hour through a dark forest was just exhilarating. It was the thing I liked best about being a wolf.

A warning growl caught my attention and I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. Strangely enough, I wasn't all that in the mood. My psycho hormones had disappeared. Was that normal? I stuck my nose to the ground and looked for a scent.

I found several going off in different directions, none of them catching my interest. Through the trauma, I recalled my dad saying something about not being able to be picky. I was definitely being choosy. What the hell?

Maybe it was because my dad was such a man slut when he was younger? Maybe that was a—It was there!

The scent ran over my mind like a brain orgasm. It smelled like cupcakes, gasoline, leather, ink, just every good thing there ever was and ever would be. And fire. It smelled like burning. But a good burning. Oh, I was drooling.

Mine!

I got the general direction of the trail and took off, the sound of my paws hitting the ground was almost like a chant. Mine, mine, mine. Mine!

And then a dark shape was dashing ahead of me. I almost growled, thinking they were on the same trail as me, but I realized it was coming from the black wolf. I put on another burst of speed that proved to be unnecessary since she was slowing down. Had I been able to feel self conscious, I would have when I flew right past her. But then she was chasing me. I kept running, a little confused. Was that protocol? My wolf track skills, while super sweet, were no match for hers, since in no time, the thunder of paws was right behind me.

I was about to let her go ahead of me, when she jumped on me and sank teeth into the ruff of fur around my neck. Wasn't that my job?

That's when I smelled and...well, felt it. The black wolf was a guy.

Fuck! But that smell...that heavenly scent. I wanted it so badly.

I let my wolf form go, or more accurately, pushed it away with all my might. He let go when I started to shift, but didn't go far. I ended up on my hands and knees in the dirt.

"I'm—I'm a guy." I explained needlessly, out of breath and painfully erect. Life sucks. Period.

"Oh, I know." He breathed, apparently shifting when I had. Before I could think of a response to that, he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me against him, so my naked back was pressed to his very naked front as we knelt there.

I whimpered at the contact. Most of my coherent thoughts were waving goodbye, leaving me standing in the doorway with hard core lust to keep me company.

He shoved his face into the bend of my neck and breathed in deep. "You smell so good." He growled. I felt his cock twitch against me. At that point, I should have been trying to get away, but I couldn't—didn't want to. Not with that car-and-cupcake smell surrounding me.

So instead, I rubbed my ass against him, making him moan.

"How do you want to do this, babe?" He asked, breath heavy in my ear. He chased the question with a kiss against my lobe and then his teeth.

I made a few sounds—none of them words—my fingers digging into his arms where they were wrapped so tightly around me.

I gathered the few braincells I had left. "I don't now...just touch me, just fuck me, just please." I panted.

He laughed, I felt it through my back along with his racing heart. "Oh, I will." And that was all I wanted to hear.

He kissed down my neck, each kiss growing more and more aggressive, each nip of teeth harder than the last. Little sounds escaped me at each bite. As his mouth was busy, so were his hands. He let go of his grip around me which I didn't mind since his hands were running over my stomach and chest. Each hand found one of my nipples, alternately pinching and soothing the already hard nubs. A much louder sound escaped me.

Almost subconsciously, I was rocking against him. His breathing shuddered every time I pressed his erection between us. It encouraged me to move faster. "Oh, god." He moaned and grabbed my hips, stopping me. I whined in protest.

In response, he grabbed my cock. An excellent rebuttal guaranteed to win any argument. I practically shouted, it felt so good. I was surprised I didn't come. He bit my neck and started slowly—so fucking slowly—moving. His thumb passed over my leaking head and my whole body trembled.

"Please ." I begged and I didn't even know what I was asking for.

"Top or bottom?" He asked, not bothering to stop stroking me. My hips jerked towards his hand.

"Um..."

"I mean for the first time?" He clarified. Shit. For a second I got a little worried. What had I gotten my self into? Was I ready to have sex with a guy? Multiple times? His fingers tightened around me.

"I don't care." I panted.

I swear, I could feel him smile.

::::::::::::::

Stupid, obnoxious sunshine woke me up. It had been there for a while, but when my pillow moved, it had let a shaft of light stab my eyes. I was about to roll over and go back to sleep when I really woke up. My pillow moved?

I jolted up and away from the wolf lightning fast.

Fuck a duck! I had done it. I had really done it. Banged a total stranger. And a male stranger at that. I couldn't do anything right! I half expected my wolf side to still be all crazy. But it wasn't. The best way I could describe it was that it felt at peace. Like it was curled up and taking a nice nap inside of me.

Horny bastard.

I sat there, in the grass, staring at the nameless guy for while, halfheartedly trying to convince myself what I thought happened last night, hadn't.

But it had. Though the night before was a little hazy, I vividly remember that beautiful face above me, looking down at that long dark hair as the mouth under it sucked me off, and my lips had become very acquainted with the skin that covered that perfect body.

Oh, yeah, we had done the nasty. The way my body hurt confirmed it. Sitting down would not be pleasant for awhile.

He shifted in the cool dawn air and I took that as my cue. I knew how one night stands worked even if I had never had one before. This was my exit.

I scampered as fast as my aches and pains would let me. I cataloged them as I worked my way back to my clothes. I had bruises on my hips, scratch marks on my back, a bite mark on my upper, upper thigh, another bite mark around my left nipple, and my ass...I wasn't even going to go there.

I just wanted to go home, take a shower (or twelve), sleep, and forget this ever happened. I had had my appointment with the dentist as it was. Fuck the complementary toothbrush, selective amnesia worked for me.

Once I was clothed and shod again, I felt a bit better. Anyone would after strolling through the forest naked with the words "sexed up good" all but written on their forehead. After that, it wasn't too long until I made it back to the road.

Imagine my surprise when I found the parking lot very empty. Lucas had left me. What the hell!?

"That bitch!" I yelled, throwing down my empty back pack for emphasis. "That dirty, rotten douchebag hoser of a cocksucker!"

"I hope you're not talking about me."

I jumped and turned to find the guy I had fucked—and been fucked by—leaning against the awesome Camaro, clad only in a pair of ratty jeans not even buttoned up and a pair of sunglasses.

So not what I needed right now.

"I mean, yeah, I'm a cocksucker as you well know." I swear he checked out my no-no area. But then it didn't really matter since he had seen the whole show before. "But hoser? I'm so not Canadian." He smiled. I just stared at him. I had no idea how to proceed in the situation. It was awkward and sucked.

"Okay, I admit that wasn't funny." He levered himself up to sit on the hood of the car, ducking his head a bit. My eyes just about popped out of my head. You see, the gesture was a show of submission, he was putting himself lower than me.

"I'm not more dominant than you." I pointed out. I didn't even have to check his "level" of dominance. I was always the submissive one. Yet another reason why growing up in a wolf pack sucked balls. But then I actually did check and...whoa.

There are wolf kids that you can pick out to see if they'll be an alpha when they grow up. And there was this guy. I bet his parents had called alpha status as soon as he had popped out of his mom. He would probably end up being a pack leader.

And I hadn't felt any of this last night. It had just been that scent and crazy lust. It had been like being drunk, but not. I had still been in control, but not totally all there.

He shrugged. "Do you need a ride?"

I looked at the space where Lucas' car had been as if I could will it into existence. It didn't. God, why couldn't I have been a witch instead of a wolf? It seemed a lot more useful in the long run. "Yeah," I finally admitted.

He smiled, a bright, open smile. A little puddle of warmth dribbled into my middle. I tried to shake it off as he stood and opened the door to the Camaro.

"No way!" Okay, I had seen him sitting on it, but my slow brain hadn't processed the fact that the car was his. He gave me a questioning look. "You have like the sweetest car ever."

"Thanks." He smiled again. A small one that didn't mess with the pool of warm goop in my stomach. Oh, that sounded gross. I mean, it didn't give me butterflies. Ugh, too girlie and pathetic. Meh.

I picked up my bag and got in. So the ride would be suffocatingly awkward? It would be an awkward ride in an awesome car. We went to the first mile in silence with me scooted away from him as much as I could, my body twisted towards the window. I didn't trust myself. What would I do if I got one good whiff of him?

Well, I knew what I would do. I had done it last night. And that would just spell disaster right now as he was trying to drive. Memories started to rise and a little sound escaped me. I shook them off, my hands gripping my knees so hard my knuckles went white.

"Stop that." He growled in a low voice and I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Sorry." I squeaked.

Wasn't last night supposed to fix this? My hormones still seemed to be inclined to random fluctuations. I so needed to get home.

"I'm Piper, by the way." He said a little while later. Ugh, thanks for reminding me that I don't know your name but I let you screw my brains out. My uncomfortableness racketed up a few dozen more notches. I was officially a slut.

"I'm Rory."

"That's a weird name."

Oh, that just pissed me off. I turned to look at him. "Look who's talking. Isn't Piper a girl's name?"

"Yeah and so is Rory." He argued back.

"It is also a boy's name. Tell me, have you ever met a another guy named Piper?"

"No." He admitted, clenching his jaw. I let out a little laugh, having won the argument, but then my logical side kicked in and told me to shut my dumb mouth. I was teasing a pre-pack leader. He could so kick my ass. I mean, he had liked me last night, but I was sure that was only because I was offering him sex.

We went back to silence after that. I think it was for the best. The next time I spoke, it was because I had to since we were close to civilization. "I'm over by the church." Surprising as hell, there was only one church in our tiny town. So it was the church.

Oh, crap, now he'd know where I lived.

"And that is where?" Oh, yeah, he wasn't from around here. I couldn't wait for Piper to go back to his pack.

I gave him more detailed directions and soon we were in front of my house. I grabbed the door handle as soon as we stopped, but it was locked. Bastard! "Could you let me out, please?" If he said no, I was going to climb out the window. I could fit.

"Rory, look...I..." He started.

I turned and cut him off. "Yeah, yeah, one time thing. I know. Don't flatter yourself and think I'm going to cling to you like a groupie or anything. Let me out so we can both put this behind us." God! Do I give off a clingy bitch vibe?

Piper shook his head and took off his sunglasses. I didn't try to wedge myself out of the window since his eyes stopped me. They were the amber of wolf eyes. So I wasn't ready to protest when he pushed forward and kissed me.

Oh, god, yes! I wrapped a hand in his hair as if he was planning on running. The way his tongue swept through my mouth disagreed with that assessment. I moaned and he ate the sound out of my mouth. His hands moved from my shoulders, moved down my back, and then landed firmly on my ass since I had some how gotten on my knees. I was about to climb onto his lap when my sanity crawled to the forefront of my head.

I pushed Piper away. "Door, please." My voice was shaking. He didn't look at me as he unlocked the door.

I got out and ran to my house, not stopping to look back. I opened the door and slammed it shut behind me in a heartbeat. I leaned against it, trying to get my whirling thoughts in order. Why was there a part of me that wanted nothing but to go back out there and have Piper take me in the back seat of his Camaro? And it was more than the fact that he was a great lay—not that I had much experience, but damn.

"Whoa, just like your old man, huh?" My dad scared the holy hell out of me. But I should had expected that he would wait up for me. He was huddled on the living room couch with a mug of coffee. "Getting in at the ass crack of dawn. Have fun?"

I ignored him and trudged upstairs. Shower, bed, shower, bed. It was all I wanted out of life. My mom waylaid me two feet from my room to add to my glowing mood. "Oh, honey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, whatever." I mumbled. She tried to hug me, but I ran into my room and slammed the door.

::::::::::::::

I got clean, and no, I didn't end up curled on the floor of the shower, rocking back and forth. I didn't feel like I had been raped or anything so dramatic. I had been definitely been saying yes (shouting it a lot as well) last night. I just felt dirty over the fact that I knew nothing about Piper but I had lost my last virginity to him.

And there was fact that he was a guy. I mean, I had had the desire to "experiment" for awhile now. I was pretty sure that my growing attraction to member of the same sex wasn't just a phase or anything. I didn't care that Piper was a dude, I was just...worried about what it meant. The whole point of getting all hormone-crazy was because of females. The scent of in-the-mood ladies should have overrode my latent homo-ness.

Speaking of scents, what the hell had that been? I had thought about it in the shower and realized it hadn't been real. It had lacked wolf and general people smells. It had been like Piper had sprayed on something that smelled of everything I loved. And he had said something about me smelling really good, too. Had he scented me or what he wanted to smell?

In the end, I pushed all the thoughts away and burrowed under a million blankets to take a much needed nap, ignoring the occasional knocks at my door.