Lucky Sevens

[Aldon Huang]

Tree branches, bushes and thorns whipped and cut into Aldon's legs and torso with his mad dash through the woods. Beyond the canopy of oily, dark leaves the moon shone high like a singular beacon in the night sky. Not a single star could be seen; all there was was the moon, regal on its throne.
He didn't know where he was going, or why he needed to be there. He had lost track of his progress through these woods, following that crazed instinct which led him through dense undergrowth and through moonlit clearings. Skidding to a halt amid a shower of loam and dried leaves, Aldon lifted his head--eyes fixated on the moon, opened his mouth like a red chasm of hell and howled.

The change came once a month, painful in its beginning and end--and every moment in between as well. No one could pinpoint the reason for it but Aldon had always been... different. Most of his kind were perfectly fine to group together during this time of the month, favoring their own territories in which to wait out the night, but from the time that he was a wee little babe, Aldon had been brought here. He wasn't safe. He wasn't... quite right.

Not even Roe, his own twin, experienced a change like this, all frenzy and madness, a crimson haze from start to finish. Aldon barely retained any of his human nature; that impish playfulness, the incurable lecherous nature, gave away to a singularly savage animal. There was no other word for him but animal--bereft of all sense and sensibility, he was a creature possessed by the bloodlust that drove him to hunt those of his own kind, to kill and feast upon their flesh.

As the echoes of his lonely cry faded, Aldon dropped his nose to the ground. He sniffed deeply, contorted in his current form like some grotesque hunchback, body rippling with hard muscle and white, sleek fur. The fur always made him stand out but he wasn't worried; it was a beacon to lure others to him. Once or twice there were hunters too but Aldon, with the cunning and ferocity of a wild animal, dealt with them.

Just as he lifted his head again, his ears twitched. A silky, dry rustle alerted him to another's presence and low, deep in the back of his throat, he growled. It sounded nearly like a purr. On stealthy feet Aldon crept forward, belly nearly to the ground, and as he sighted the dark silhouette of another--another like him, another wolf--he let out a ferocious snarl and pounced.

[Greggory Lennox]

Ever since he'd been nicked in that hunting accident several months ago, Gregg had been on his own. After the battle, he insisted he was fine. He was just fine. However, the nick he'd received worried him. It was nothing but a small flesh wound, he told himself. Yet as the full moon began to crawl closer, his skin began to crawl, too. Something didn't feel right.

The shifting was too much. He had no control over it. All he could do was abscond himself far, far away from any potential victims and disappear from the hunting group he'd been associated with. He just... disappeared.

And here he was, in the forests of Washington, breathing heavily as he stumbled over some rock formation. The pain was finally beginning to subside and his vision cleared up. He breathed in the scent of nearby water. Under the light of the moon, he could see small animals scurrying about. A mouse was scooped up by an owl. Then he lowered his head, sensing another presence.

Another one. A wolf. He barely had the time to look up when a magnificent white wolf hurtled toward him, all snapping and snarling. Gregg let out a yelp and immediately pushed himself forward, attempting to swing the other wolf off and away from himself.

[Aldon Huang]

Snarling, growling, Aldon's teeth snapped at the newcomer's neck as he cannoned into him. The force of their collision was alleviated somewhat by the way that the other wolf swung but Aldon was quick on his feet, and even in the air his body twisted to make enough adjustment so that he wouldn't be thrown completely.
This was a new wolf. His scent was unfamiliar. The creatures that roamed these particular forests--aside from normal forest animals--already knew to lay low when Aldon came rustling through the underbrush. There were a few others like him, too, ones besieged by madness. Wolves. They couldn't form a pack exactly but it was pretty well-known that certain parts of the forest were off-limits.

So what was he doing here then?

Skittering to a halt, Aldon came around again. He wasn't the biggest of his kind but he was powerful, made more so by the strain of madness that he carried. Launching himself once more at the stranger, he bared his teeth in a feral display of aggression but something strange was happening. The red mist thinned before his eyes, allowing him to see his target.

Usually they were nothing more than a mass, a blur; not a face or a form but only the smell and sound of blood thrumming through veins and arteries. But Aldon saw, with increasing clarity, this new wolf. It was a little too late to stop, though; he crashed into him and together they went down in a heap, a wriggling mass of white and dark fur, thrashing limbs and long, sharp teeth.

[Greggory Lennox]

When it came to fights between wolves, Gregg normally stayed the hell away from them. That was why he was here of all places. He'd come to get away from other wolves during his change. He didn't expect to run into another one--one that seemed to be in a deep frenzy as he wildly attacked.

Gregg wanted to fight, too. At first. Then as they tumbled over a hill together, he began to hear the world again. He could hear crickets. Owls. Rodents.

And he could hear the snuffling of the wolf that attacked him. No longer snarling, no longer tearing into him, the other wolf seemed to be coming to his senses. Gregg let out a growl, more of a warning than anything else, then moved away from the other wolf. He stumbled to his feet.

There was a wound somewhere around the scruff of his neck area where the wolf had attached himself but it didn't seem to be life threatening. It was in a place he couldn't lick, however. Stepping back and away, he lowered his head and let out another growl, unsure of what would happen next.

[Aldon Huang]

Aldon scented blood in the air but it did surprisingly little to stoke the frenzy inside in the way that fresh blood usually did. If anything, it was like a slap to the face--proverbially speaking. He backed off warily, gaze fixed on the newcomer, circling him as he was being circled.

Communication was restricted to yips and growls but he attempted to convey that he was no longer hell-bent on murdering the other wolf. His tail dropped and wagged--once--and Aldon finally sat down to inspect the stranger. He was definitely not one of them; not one of Aldon's kind and not of his pack, either.

[Greggory Lennox]

After an evening of touring the forests of Washington with his new wolf companion, the pair ended up collapsing in a makeshift den--which was really just an outcrop of rock. It wasn't even really deep enough to be called a cave but it was out of the way and provided some measure of protection from the elements.

It was a clear enough summer night, so it wasn't as if the weather was tearing down on them but there might have been other predators out there.

Not that Greg was all that worried about it, even as a wolf. There weren't many creatures in these woods that would want to take on a wolf. Most of the predators in the area were birds of prey. The bigger mammals, like bears, weren't going to mess with them either.

When morning arrived, Greg had all but forgotten the night before. He tasted blood in the back of his throat, coppery and tangy. His body was curled around another body, which was unusual, given Greg's normal attitude toward sex and lovers. People called him frigid for a reason. He was all but celibate unless he was in really dire straits--and then it was better to pick up a pretty stripper than it was to actually date.

He certainly didn't curl around them.

The body beside him was male, which was also... unusual for Greg's typical tastes. He jerked back upon seeing that. Not that he had never been attracted, curious, or sexual with another male but... he didn't remember this one at all. Had never seen him before in his life.

[Aldon Huang]

Usually when "one thing led to another" with Aldon, he didn't end up stark naked in the forest with his evening's entertainment. Usually he woke up tousle-headed in bed, arms and legs tangled with other arms and legs or with sheets.

This morning, he was using somebody's arm as a pillow (normal), he was sore all over (oh hell yeah, they had a GOOD time last night didn't they?) and there was something digging into his back but it didn't feel like the usual thing that dug into people's backs in the morning.

Groaning softly, he turned over and heard something rustle. Not sheets. More like... pine needles and dry moss and a thick layer of dirt. The smell of mold filled his nostrils as he breathed in, mingling with something slightly wild. "Hm?" he queried without opening his eyes, feeling the body next to his shifting. Aldon threw out an arm and held on tight. No. Nobody was getting out of bed and dragging him out of bed with them! Never!

By degrees, events of the previous night came back to him as he half-dozed, clinging tenaciously to the last of unconsciousness. Moon. Full moon. His usual rampage through the woods hadn't ended in bloodshed when he met another wolf. There was anger at first, he remembered that, and then... curiosity. Sniffing and nudging and pawing. Somebody nipped somebody--playfully. Then they were running through the woods, twin streaks of white and gray, hunting more conventional prey. Actually it was all rather... fun, all things considered.

"Let's not get out of bed," Aldon whispered into what felt like a clavicle, not particularly worried about his current partner. Wasn't Ry; couldn't be Ry. He'd remember fooling around with Ry.

[Greggory Lennox]

Greg didn't expect the arm to pull him back in. Actually, he thought the other person was still asleep, given his even breathing. But no, he was pulling Greg back in and close to his body heat.

The morning air was cool, sending a ripple of goosebumps over his skin. Morning dew clung to the plants that surrounded them and had settled in a delicate mist against their bodies, too. The other man smelled of the wilderness. His lips were soft as they moved against his collarbone. That was when Greg became more conscious of a stinging pain between his neck and shoulder. Nothing severe, but it felt like he'd been bitten or scratched.

Greg didn't check it. Instead, green eyes slid over the body, taking in its masculinity. Athletic thighs melded into the curve of an ass which in turn melded into a slightly arched back. The arm that wrapped around him was muscular, although it had nothing on Greg's arm. He didn't see the face, since it was currently pressed against his shoulder.

"We're not in bed," he finally spoke aloud, tone neutral.

[Aldon Huang]

"Mmhmm," Aldon hummed purely to humor the man, since his 'let's not leave the bed' was spoken more as a rhetorical demand than as an inquiry into what the other person preferred to do. Okay, he just plain didn't want to move, it wasn't a crime! But what was undoubtedly a crime was the chill running up and down his spine, and to ward it off he scooted closer to his partner until there couldn't possibly have been any space between them.
"It's cold," he complained purely for the sake of complaining, arm tightening. The guy felt solid. Very... solid and muscular in a way that was pleasing to Aldon, even with his eyes closed. He might have liked having it all his way, but that didn't mean that he liked having it all one way. (Although, yes, Aldon tended to stray towards pretty rather than musclehead but sometimes he changed it up.)

He was pretty tense, though, Aldon's partner whose name he couldn't actually recall. Also, they might not have done it. Aldon remembered the change, though other events were still somewhat hazy. But he assumed that if they ended up naked here together, there was more than 70% chance that something happened after they changed back. Generally Aldon woke up alone, surrounded by piles of bones and gore. This time, not so much, so his companion must have joined him after he reverted to his sane human form.

At length, he shifted but only his head, pulling back to look up. Hm. Good-looking. Naturally. "Hey," he said with a singular lack of originality, voice still husky from sleep. "Did we do it last night or...?"

[Greggory Lennox]

Hm. Yes, it was cold but lying there naked in the forest wasn't going to fix that. They had to find their clothes. Except with a glance around, he began to realize it wouldn't be that easy at all.

They'd come off during the change. Wherever they were now, they were likely torn up and unwearable. Greg hadn't gotten so used to the change yet that he knew to prepare in advance, to strip down and get ready for it.

Even if he had, he would have forgotten where the hell he left those clothes because... of this.

How did he get into this predicament? He remembered the brilliant white wolf. He took in the other's hair. Did that have any bearing on his wolf form at all or was it bottle blond? Had to be bottled.

He remembered they ran together, tiring themselves in the process. But did they fuck?

Everything felt sore, in that good way, the way it felt after a good session at the gym or after a good fuck. His bum didn't feel sore, though. He tried to take a surreptitious glance at the other man's ass, as if it held the answers to the mystery. He looked at the other man at length for a long moment. Then:

"...how's your ass?"

[Aldon Huang]

Holy tattoos Batman! Aldon's gaze couldn't stop wandering, up and down and sideways. Jesus, somebody was brave! Just the thought of how much pain this guy had to endure just to get all of that inked on him was enough to curl Aldon's toes.
"Uh... huh?" He was distracted. There was a lot to take in, after all, and while the guy was checking him out, Aldon was definitely checking him out. He blinked and lifted his gaze, then sighed wistfully. If the guy had to ask, then they definitely didn't do it.

If nobody came away with a limp then... yeah, nothing happened. Aldon didn't always 'make love' and the wolfish part of him tended to get a little rowdy, especially around the full moon when those animalistic urges surfaced. Naturally, certain people were afforded more care and consideration than others.

However, with a crooked smile, he reached down for one of the guy's hands and re-positioned it on the body part that he inquired after. "You tell me how it is!" It was fine--obviously, since he didn't wince or scream in pain. "How's yours? What's your name again? Are you new? I feel like you're new." A guy like this showing up in Aldon's pack would have no shortage of admirers, and definitely wouldn't have gone unnoticed!

[Greggory Lennox]

Not quite the reaction he expected. Because his question had been serious, he expected a serious response. Instead, the other man--wolf--man?--took his hand and placed it in a very obvious place. A nice place but a place that didn't look to have taken much punishment in the night.

"Fine."

His ass was fine. As far as he could tell, there was no sting, no feeling that he'd been fucked of violated the night before. Which to him was surprising, given the instincts that welled up when he took the form of a wolf. Not that he would have submitted to just anybody but the thing of it was, this one already knew.

He knew that Gregg wasn't exactly... well. He hadn't been around the werewolf block. He was new.

"Yes," he said, after a moment's reluctance to admit as much.

[Aldon Huang]

Oookay, no-name it was then. Not like Aldon wanted to know his name, or where he was from, or what he was doing in the woods so far out of town. Not like he was a curious person by nature, or loved butting into other people's business or anything. Sheesh!
...not like he bombarded a guy with several questions in rapid succession, right after waking up together in the middle of nowhere...

Still, it wouldn't have hurt the guy to be a little more spirited! Aldon looked him over, up and down (especially down). Hm. He did look fine. Nobody was bruised or marked in any way, except for the usual ones from changing back. There was a rock digging into his back, however; he arched away from it. "Well, Yes, my name is Aldon," he said with a cheeky little grin. The stupid joke would've made certain people cringe or groan; Aldon thought he was being rather clever.

"And if you're new here, then you wanna join up with a pack fairly quickly, caaause... You really don't want to get isolated by hunters, believe me." Those hunters were definitely out for blood lately. Some mercs even began showing up, taking out innocent people just because they happened to be different. Only a few weeks ago, Aldon's own pack came under attack--he was changed at the time, though, and couldn't exactly help anybody.

Finally, he pulled back and away from Yes. Couldn't lay around forever, even if he was comfortable where he was in the other man's arms. Aldon had things to do! "C'mon, let's get outta here and back to civilization. I'll introduce you to my pack leader, maybe he'll take you in!"

[Greggory Lennox]

"It's Gregg," he said, by way of introduction. That was his name, not Yes. And this man was... Aldon. Aldon the werewolf. The magnificent white wolf; he remembered that much. Slowly, he lowered his gaze, then skirted it away, away from Aldon and his exposed body. It wasn't so much out of embarrassment as it was rumination.

How were they going to get anywhere when they were naked? Gregg wasn't body shy but the idea of just walking through the forest without any form of protection seemed foolhardy.

Hunters. His nostrils flared for a second. No, Aldon was right. He knew how hunters worked and if they found an isolated wolf... So he nodded and moved away as well. He got to his feet and looked around but if he hoped to find clothing, he was sadly disappointed. Nothing but flora and fauna as far as the eye could see.

[Aldon Huang]

With a bound, Aldon was on his feet. He shook himself in a vaguely dog-like manner to dislodge any clingy bits of dried leaves and dirt and then, quite without thinking, grabbed Gregg by the hand. "C'mon, I'll show you a shortcut. I think I know where we are." It was necessary to be able to find his way out, after all, and he didn't always end up at the same place during each full moon.
The going was kinda tough without shoes and a lack of clothing meant that they were prey to every stray breeze. Aldon tried in vain to shield himself and when that didn't work, he settled for grumbling.

"This is seriously the worst part of being us." The walk of shame--the naked walk of shame. Thankfully clothes would have been set out at the usual appointed place, and Aldon was fairly sure that there would be something for Gregg too. If not... well, it wouldn't kill him to wear clothes a few sizes too small for a little while.

"So," he said conversationally after the spate of grumbling had subsided. "Are you just new in town or... are you new new? You're lucky you didn't get mauled last night, you know. These woods aren't really safe, people usually change in the woods closer to town."