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© 2012 UnstableBill

It was a gorgeous October day as Adam Chaney climbed out of his Marshall County work truck, the suspension creaking as his considerable weight transferred onto the gravel. It was a little after 2:00 p.m., and the sun was still high in the sky. The air would be warm and comfortable until at least 8:00 or 9:00 p.m.

It was beautiful.

Too bad I won't get to enjoy it, he thought.

Oh well. He was getting a full night's worth of overtime pay, at twice his usual rate. That was definitely worth sacrificing one fall evening. Might be worth two or three.

Climbing out of the truck, heading to the bed to pick up his toolbox, Adam took a moment to enjoy his surroundings. Way out here at the Ranger Station, all he could see for miles was rural, winding road and trees in every gorgeous shade of red and orange he could imagine. It was straight out of a tourism commercial - Visit scenic Marshall County! - minus Adam, the oversized country grunt in a white t-shirt and navy blue workpants. For a moment all he could hear was birds chirping, and then one of the Rangers yelled at him from the second-floor deck of the ranger station.

"Is it break time already, you lazy bastard?" she called down at him.

He looked up.

It was Kate Campbell. She smiled down at him from behind the dark wood railing, twelve feet over his head. Kate was in her twenties, and with ponytailed red hair and a seriously athletic body, she had caught Adam's eye as soon as he'd started the job, a little under a month ago. He'd had asked her out on the fourth day of the project. She had said no, but at least she'd been nice about it.

Adam crossed his big arms and frowned up at her. "Excuse me, Ranger Kate. County electricians get four breaks a day. It's not my fault your union isn't doing shit for you."

Kate laughed, and then her eyes left him and settled on the pile of electric components and rubber insulation in the back of his truck. The bed was open and she could see the entire pile; Adam had been the last in to the county garage this morning, and thus had gotten the crap truck with the squeaky belts and the missing cap. The cargo had spread out on the trip, and covered nearly the entire floor of the truck bed. The only thing that had stayed put was his massive toolbox, and that was only because it weighed as much as an old TV.

"You got a lot of crap there, Chaney," she said, matter-of-factly. "You want me to send Dale down?"

Adam shook his head. "Naw, I got it. The toolbox is the only heavy part." He reached up and played with his short white goatee.

Kate smiled down. "If you say so, jock boy. As long as you don't mind me watching."

Adam laughed out loud, and climbed slowly up onto the rear bumper of the battered white truck. Adam wasn't big so much as_hulking -_ at 6'4" and 280, more muscle than anything else, the back of the truck sagged noticeably under his weight. He lifted one thick leg over the tailgate, and the Dakota wiggled as he moved into the bed. Adam was built to big standards, with extremely light blonde hair that he kept shaved everywhere expect a trim little goatee, and he was used to being watched, or at the very least stared at.

Katie stepped out the front door, a few feet away from his truck. He hadn't even notice her leave the deck. "And here you are anyway," he told her. "Can't resist me, huh?"

She watched him shove boxes along the scraped bed toward the dented tailgate. "I don't want you herniating yourself to impress me," she said, frowning. "I already rejected your stupid ass." She held out her hands. "Gimmie something to carry."

Adam smiled. "I thought you were going to send Dale." He handed her a big box of rubber couplings.

Kate looked back up toward the building. "Yeah, but he doesn't look so good. I think he might be getting the flu or something."

Adam snorted. "I think he's got a bad case of hating my guts."

Kate smiled angelically, picking small cases out of the bed and making a little stack. "You jock boys are so sensitive. Dale hates everybody's guts. I told you, there's two reasons people become Rangers - because they really love nature, or-"

"-or because they really hate people," Adam finished, laughing. "I remember. I'm just glad you're so...welcoming." He winked, setting another two long boxes on top of her pile. "Kinda wish he was too, though. He's got a purty mouth."

Kate laughed in his face. "What_ever_, you dog. Just leave him alone tonight and you'll be fine." She frowned, backing up so Adam could jump out of the truck. "I still don't see why you have to finish all the electrical work tonight. Our wiring has been jacked since the roof leaf, and that was in January. It waited ten months but now it's urgent?"

Adam stepped over the tailgate and dropped into the parking lot. His thick construction boots raised twin size-16 clouds of dust as he crashed down into the gravel. "Because the repairs lasted a little over a month. The project was approved in the budget for this month, which ends tonight, and my boss doesn't want to have to requisition a whole new project budget for the month of November just so we can use one day."

Kate stared at him. "So your department is charging the county...what, 12 hours of overtime? Just so your boss doesn't have to fill out another form?"

Adam nodded, grinning. "Exactly."

Kate raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Adam shrugged. "You know how this red tape bullshit goes. You're county-employed, just like me." He reached into his truck and pulled out his toolbox. It was the biggest in the department, weighing close to 75 pounds, but for Adam it was nothing. "Besides, I like working overnights - the money is good." He cocked his head. "I'll be fine unless Ranger Dale tears my throat out. Are you sure you don't want to swap the overnight shift with him?"

Kate laughed, hefting her load up to her chest. "Oh please!" she said. "He's just a big puppy. You'll see."

Adam reached into the truck and grabbed three long pieces of tubing in one big jock hand. "I guess I'll find out," he muttered, following Kate up the stairs.

The Marshall County Ranger Station was a large two-story, log-cabin style building. On the first level, open to the public, was the Spring Valley Nature Center, with two hundred square feet of prairie-themed exhibits: cross-sections of soil composition, specimens of native Midwestern plants, and a dozen or so examples of museum-quality taxidermy. It had a small library and a decent-sized classroom, public restrooms, and a modest gift shop. While its traffic could not compare to, say, the Marshall County Water Park, the little Nature Center saw plenty of traffic in the summer and a steady stream through the winter months. It was a favorite field trip destination for the four adjoining school districts and one of the top day-trips in the tri-state area.

The upper level was devoted to a fully-functional ranger station, as a home base for the groundskeepers, tour guides, and naturalists that maintained the 200 acres of preserves. The rangers didn't do much on a regular basis - mostly chased off drunken teenagers - but once in awhile a five-year-old disappeared from a field trip or a picnic, and it was still early enough in the fall that a full-time staff was warranted.

Adam saw Dale Wallace as he reached the top of the open stairwell.

"Hi, Dale," he grunted as he stepped up into the room. Most of the station was a large, open room, edged with folding tables, all of them topped with equipment. In the corner at the top of the stairs, the Rangers had set up a little waiting room, with a 70's era couch and two uncomfortable looking armchairs, all upholstered in stiff red-and-gold plaid and surrounding a long, scarred dark-wood coffee table covered in magazines. The sofa faced the stairs with its back to the rest of the open area. It was a homey little touch.

Dale looked up from the ancient-looking computer he was carefully typing on with his two index fingers. He nodded at Adam impassively, dipping his chin. "Chaney," he said, just loud enough to be heard across the room but no louder than that.

Dale Wallace was a short man, probably 5'8" if that, broad-shouldered and stocky. He had a low center of gravity, and he always seemed to Adam like he was sizing him up, as if he was deciding who would win in a fight. He wasn't aggressive - nor was he particularly friendly - but he always struck Adam as vigilant.

He was in his late forties, with a short, black crew-cut and a bristly little patch of permanent stubble under his chin. Adam had met him and immediately thought ex-Army. Maybe ex-Marine. Ex-something. And if Adam was perfectly honest with himself, he found Dale immensely attractive, because Adam swung both ways and apparently had a serious thing for park rangers.

As usual, Dale watched him just a moment longer than necessary, and was about to go back to his spreadsheet when he saw Kate come up the stairs, with her arms full of electrical components. He did a double-take, his eyes widening, and looked at Adam like he was going to start growling. "You let her carry all that?" he demanded, scrambling out of his metal folding chair. It clattered on the pine floor.

"It wasn't up to him," Kate said, matching Dale's tone. "You sit back down! You're not feeling well!"

Three feet away, Dale froze in his tracks, eyes widened again. "Katie, I would have helped," he grunted, frowning.

As Adam tried to gently set down his toolbox without dropping it straight through the pine floor into the RECYCLING AND YOU exhibit, Kate dumped her load onto the ancient couch. "It's fine, Dale," she said. "I didn't even break a nail."

Adam held back a smile. Dale stared at both of them.

"Go sit back down!" Kate insisted, shooing Dale back toward his computer. "I'll make you some tea before my shift is over."

Dale shrank back, retreating toward the makeshift desk. The computer was one of two perched on a folding table, flanked by old metal file cabinets, against the interior wall of windows that adjoined the conference room. "You don't have to do that," he insisted. "I feel fine." The stocky ranger frowned, steadily backing toward his chair. "I think it was just something I ate."

"Nonsense!" Kate cried, disappearing into the little kitchenette in the corner opposite the staircase. "SIT DOWN!"

She left Adam and Dale staring at one another.

Dale blinked at Adam, and immediately colored faint crimson. "She...does that," he grunted unhappily. "I'm fine," he said. "Really."

Adam grinned at him. "I know you are. But I think you won't be if you disagree with her."

Dale stared at him, unblinking for a moment, and then he smiled. It was not the first positive emotion Adam had gotten out of him in the last thirty days, but such displays were still rare enough to be notable. The conversation between them had mostly just been awkward.

"You'd better go sit down," Adam said, raising an eyebrow. "She's gonna kick your ass."

"Mmm," Dale said, and just like that the smile was gone. He turned back to his computer.

Blinking at the ranger's back, Adam rolled his eyes.

I guess we're done talking, he thought.

Twenty minutes later, Adam was ready to get to work, and Kate was about to head out.

When he'd started a month ago, the Nature Center downstairs had been the priority, since there was a lot of exhibit lighting, and of course that was the public face of the preserve. The official reason for the reno had been the roof leak, but as far as Adam could tell, most of the electrical "ghosts" were probably due to nothing more than old, bad wiring. He had replaced over 600 lineal feet of wiring downstairs, and thus far none of it had been related to the actual roof leak.

Tonight he was going to tackle the short itself. Three outlets in one interior wall of the Ranger Station had fizzled out and died nearly a year ago. The station relied on lots of electrical equipment, including short-wave radios to monitor distress calls, and of course having a massive ongoing electrical short in the building used to manage forest fires was not an ideal circumstance.

Adam had taken a look at the damage previously - it was easy to spot, underneath a vast water-damaged spot in the ceiling tiles - and had figured he could finish it in one night. Kneeling in front of the center outlet, however, staring at a pair of telltale melted prong holes, he wasn't so sure.

Behind him, a few feet away, Kate was talking to Dale, on her way out the door.

"Now, you be nice," she said to him. "We don't want a repeat of the incident with the drywall guy."

Dale grumbled something unintelligible.

"I know," Kate said, back to him. "But this is just one night." She turned to Adam. "And we need him if we want the lights to work," she said, smiling.

Adam looked over his shoulder and scoffed. "You don't need me for that," he said, grinning. "The lights are on a different breaker. You only need me for the outlets."

Dale frowned at him, crossing his arms. "There are plenty of outlets downstairs," he said icily.

Kate shot him a look.

Adam stared at him for a moment, and then smiled. "I'll stay out of your way tonight," he said. "You won't even know I'm here." He smiled disarmingly.

Dale frowned at him, took a deep breath, and visibly softened. "It's fine. I have some projects to work on," he said, weakly.

"None of that heavy lifting downstairs," Kate warned him. "That's why we have high school interns."

Dale visibly colored, his cheeks reddening under his black stubble. "Fine. Don't you have a date to get to? I'm sure this time he picked a really nice sports bar."

Kate glowered at him.

Dale swallowed and held up his hands. "Alright," he said. "I'll take it easy." He dipped his head, looking embarrassed. Adam tried very hard not to notice.

Katie grinned. "You'd better, Dale," she said. "Or Adam is going to rat you out."

Adam froze with his hand on a screwdriver. He looked up, frowning. Katie was grinning at him. Dale was not.

He shook his shaved head. "Nuh-uh," he said. "You leave my ass out of this. I'm going to be out of here by midnight, and I ain't looking back."

20 MINUTES LATER

Adam was going to be there, he decided, until at least 3 or 4 a.m.

"Shit," he hissed, under his breath.

It wasn't just the wiring that was fried. The junction boxes were all toasted, also. And half the pass-throughs in the studs were too narrow and needed to be re-cut, which was a four-hour job, minimum. And Adam found three different sets of live wires that had simply been taped off. There wasn't even a wire nut. Just electrical tape. Fucking shit. The water-short might actually have been a blessing, because if the breaker hadn't been switched off for the last ten months the entire ranger station might have burned down.

As it was, there was charred wood and singed wiring just about everywhere Adam had looked. No wonder a simple water leak had fried the entire circuit.

It was pretty clear that a non-professional electrician (assuming it was an electrician at all; it could just as easily have been somebody's cousin who thought he was an electrician) had done all the wiring on the interior walls. Nothing was up to code, the gauge was too light for the current, and the splice into the breaker box looked like a rat's nest.

Replacing the burned-out wiring was going to take at least a couple hours, and he would probably have to follow the wiring all the way to the breaker panel. That meant going up into the attic. This was a twelve-hour job, at least.

Adam sighed heavily, crouching in front of the short wall. This was going to be a pain in the ass.

Behind him, Dale cleared his throat. Adam turned.

The Ranger was carrying a weathered file box full of what looked like old school textbooks. It looked heavy; the Ranger's thick biceps bunched impressively inside his button-down. Adam tried not to notice.

"I'm going to get started downstairs," Dale said. "We just got a bunch of donated textbooks, and I'm going to go work them into the collection."

Adam cocked his head. "Want me to carry those down for you real fast?" he asked.

Dale's eyes narrowed in anger, his mouth tightening. He started to flush.

Adam let out a sigh, closing his eyes. "That wasn't an insult. Kate said you weren't feeling well. I didn't know if you hurt your back or something."

Dale blinked at him and then deflated, coloring faintly. "Oh. Uh, right." He swallowed and shook his head. "No, back is fine. I'm just a little tired out, that's all," he said. "Anyway, I'll be in and out for a little bit, but then I'll be downstairs for awhile reorganizing things. Let me know if you need anything from your truck, okay?" he said. "The door locks behind you." He thought for a moment. "Did you bring something to eat?"

Adam shook his head. "I was planning on hitting McDonald's around eight or nine."

Dale cocked his head, raising an eyebrow. "I remember when I could stomach that shit." He shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just let me know when you leave, because I'll have to let you back in. Doors are locked after six p.m."

Adam nodded, and then risked a half-smile. "Are you going to take it easy?"

Dale stared at him, and Adam got that peculiar sizing-up feeling again. The ranger took a long time to speak. "Are you going to rat me out?" he said, his voice dangerously low.

Adam stared back for a long moment, and then grinned. "Naw," he said.

Dale watched him. "That's it?" he asked. "No witty retort?" he asked. "No endearing commentary?"

Adam cocked his head and sighed wearily. "Would it make a difference, Dale?" he asked.

Dale stared at him for half a second, and then frowned...but not in anger. The Ranger was virtually impossible to read, but just for a second Adam thought he looked a little bit...disappointed. But then he turned away and started down the stairs. "Nope!" he called back, over his shoulder.

Adam watched him go.

TEN HOURS LATER

Adam...hated the ranger station.

Covered to his elbows in drywall dust, an Extra Value Meal sitting unhappily in his stomach, sore and dirty and soaked through with his own sweat, Adam hated the ranger station.

He hated the Rangers, hated the building, and now, by extension, hated the abstract concept of Nature itself. He wished he hadn't discovered the horrible wiring clusterfuck, and that the entire building had burned down with everyone in it, and somewhere, somewhere, the miserable asshole who had done this job would be so wracked with guilt that he'd put a shotgun in his mouth, because as far as Adam was concerned that's what he deserved.

He was on his back, lying on the floor between two pushed-aside folding tables, arms raised over his head. He was wrist-deep in electrical guts, trying to work upside down inside the wall, because if he ripped out any more drywall the poor carpenters would be stuck at the Ranger station for just as long as he was.

Even with his clear safety goggles, there was sawdust and bits of drywall in his eyes, and he'd forgotten his damn bandana at home, so now his sweaty, bald, head was coated in a thin layer of dust which had caked on and dried like cement.

Gritting his teeth, he fought with a stripped screw from underneath an outlet box, his muscular arms quivering with the effort of holding the screwdriver tight against what little groove was left in the screw, seriously entertaining the thought of just tearing the entire fucking stud out with his bare hands and starting over. His teeth hurt, he was so exhausted, his eyes stung, and he was so warm he could smell his own deodorant baking away.

There was a clatter toward the front of the building. Adam looked down his chest at the staircase, and caught Dale's eyes as he cleared the top of the staircase. The ranger had stripped off his button-up and was now dressed more or less like Adam, minus the pit stains and the fine sheen of sweat.

Dale walked up to Adam's feet and cocked his head. "Thought for sure you'd be wrapping up by now," he said.

"Yeah, I thought I so, too," Adam snapped, lifting his arms back over his head.

Dale cleared his throat and checked his watch. "You know, it's after midnight," he said. "It's almost one, in fact."

"That fact did not escape my attention," Adam grunted, without looking.

Dale was quiet for a moment. "Your, uh, budget only ran through the end of the night," he pointed out.

"A-yup!" Adam said, a little too loudly.

Dale cleared his throat. "So you're working for free?" he said, puzzled.

Adam grunted unhappily. "Yeah," he said. "S'what I get for caring about stupid shit, like whether the building burns down or not!" He lined up the screwdriver again, clamping his big hand around it.

Dale was quiet for more than a few seconds, and when Adam looked back down, he found he was alone in the room again.

He sighed loudly. Whatever. If Dale really didn't want to like him, fuck it. He went back to the stripped screw, cursing all the rangers and their miserable old building.

Ten seconds later, he felt tapping on one of his big feet.

The screwdriver slid out of the groove, and Adam cursed loudly. "_What _is it, Dale?" he snapped, looking down and gritting his teeth.

His eyes narrowed in anger, Dale was holding a pair of Sam Adams in dark brown bottles. They were obviously ice-cold, covered as they were in glistening condensation, just like in the commercial. Even from four feet away Adam could sense their cold, liquidy refreshment.

It called to him.

Wide-eyed, Adam stared longingly at the bottles. "I take it all back. I'm sorry. I love you."

If Dale was amused, he didn't show it. He snorted, cocking his head. "C'mon, Chaney," he said, thumping him on the boot. "Let's take a break."

They walked out to the deck, where Dale sank idly into one of half a dozen armless wooden chairs. He gestured to the one next to him, and Adam obliged. The upper deck was lit at each corner by a colossal sodium-vapor light 30 feet up a telephone pole, but other than that it was just the stars and the full moon.

The temperature had probably dropped into the 50's, but marinating as he had been in his own sweat, Adam was perfectly comfortable. Steam actually rose off his white undershirt in a delicate fog, until a light wind picked up and whisked it all away.

"Okay," Adam said, letting out a breath. "I have to admit it. This was a really good idea."

Dale nodded thoughtfully. "I thought you might think so."

Adam took a long swig of his Sam Adams, finishing off half the bottle in one long pull. He relaxed his big body in the rigid chair, tilting his head back, feeling the night and the beer leech the heat out of him, from inside and out. "I gotta say, this Ranger business doesn't seem like such a bad gig."

Dale grunted, playing with the label on his bottle. "It pays the bills," he said.

Adam stared into the darkness, and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "So how'd you end up here?" he asked, glanced in Dale's direction.

Dale opened his mouth, and then closed it without responding.

Adam glanced at him. "Traumatic story?" he asked. "Or are you just giving me the silent treatment?" He paused. "Again?"

Dale blinked at him, and let out a soft sigh. "It's not traumatic. I have a criminal record."

Adam finished his beer, choking the last of the suds down his throat, and turned to regard the Ranger. "You're shitting me," he said. "For what? Jaywalking?"

Dale clenched his teeth, staring darkly at him, and Adam saw his nostrils flare. "Aggravated assault," he said.

Adam blinked at him. "Jesus Christ," he said.

Dale glanced down at Adam's big hands. "You finished your beer," he said. He looked down at his own bottle. "Here, take mine. I only had a sip." He reached forward with it, offering it neck-first like the butt of a gun.

Adam looked down at it, unmoving. "You sure?"

Dale nodded. "Yeah. Here. Ain't gonna bitecha," he said.

Adam grunted, reaching forward for the bottle. "Thanks," he said. "I hope I don't catch whatever you got. So, ah, you gonna tell me what hap-"

Dale groaned audibly. "It was a bar. Some redneck shitbag was pushing his girlfriend around, and I didn't like it, so I told him so. He wasn't too happy. He knocked her down, probably just to spite me, and I really didn't like that. So I rearranged his face with a pool cue."

Adam stared at him, unable to lower his eyebrows. Abruptly, he began to feel the alcohol. He'd drunk it awful fast, he concluded.

Withering under his gaze, Dale lowered his head and let out a shaky sigh.

"How long did you get?" Adam whispered.

Dale shrugged. He picked up Adam's bottle and began playing with it. "Just two years," he said. "I got out early for good behavior."

Adam took another long swig, marinating in that information. "What the fuck," he said, finally. "Seems like an awful lot for defending some skank's honor."

Dale snorted, finally cracking a smile. "You have no idea. The sk- ah, the young lady testified against me, too. Standing by her man, I suppose." He looked up. "I fucked the guy up pretty bad," he said. "He went blind in one eye."

Adam blinked at him in surprise. "I...ah...wow," he said finally.

A colossal moth began fluttering around the sodium vapor lamps above them, big enough for the flapping of its wings to be audible down on the deck.

Dale shrugged shallowly. "Sorry you asked?"

Adam cocked his head. "Sorry for what happened to you. Sounds like a pretty raw fucking deal."

Dale snorted again. "How would you know what a raw deal is? Have you had a single life milestone not handed to you on a silver platter?"

Adam furrowed his eyebrows. "Not everything, asshole," he said. "Just sports...my education...the job...my pick of colleges..." He grinned, leaning forward, putting his elbows on his knees. "I've had my share of misfortune. For instance, I really did not care for our housekeeper."

Dale stared at him for a moment, and then chuckled, glancing sideways at Adam. He was smiling, showing some teeth. "Ah," he said, softly. "I know this tune. The Lament of the White... Heterosexual... Male." He raised Adam's empty bottle, toasting him.

Adam thought about that statement for a moment. And then, abruptly, something occurred to him about Dale. He furrowed his brow again, grinning. "What a curious thing to say."

Dale glanced over at him, instantly frowning. "You think so, college boy?" he asked.

Adam grinned, cocking his head. The world tilted a second too late, and he realized with some interest that he was more than a little buzzed. "I do, Ranger Dale," he said. "First of all, what an interesting place to bring up sexual orientation, thusly unprompted." He grinned. "Unless said orientation was already on your mind."

Dale looked away, coloring swiftly.

Adam nodded slowly, chuckling. "Secondly, who on earth said I was a heterosexual?"

Dale blinked at him, and then scowled at him darkly. "Shut it, Chaney," he said. "I've been watching you trying to game Katie all month," he said, all but growling.

"So what?" Adam said, setting his bottle down on the deck and heaving his thick body out of the chair. His bottle tipped over and rattle-clanked away from him. He ignored it. "Ain't you ever heard of bisexual?" He stepped toward Dale, grinning.

The Ranger froze in place, watching him approach, his dark eyes widening, raising his chin warily as Adam moved closer. He looked...panicked.

The electrician stepped over Dale's legs, straddling him, and slowly lowered himself into Dale's lap. "You should be more open-minded," he whispered, reaching up to cup the Ranger's chin, and leaned over to roughly kiss him.

Dale stiffened at first, letting out a shocked little snort. After a moment, Adam felt him relax, his warm lips working against his own, and then they were full-on making out, their tongues fighting and Dale's scruffy stubble scratching his face. Adam quite definitely preferred females, but there was something that couldn't be beat about grinding faces with another man. He enjoyed the aggression, he supposed.

Dale reached up, almost hesitantly, to put his hands on Adam's hips, and Adam reached up to pull the Ranger's cap off, cupping Dale's chin with his other hand, holding his head in place. They fought each other in the kiss, their teeth briefly scraping against one another, and for a moment it was absolute bliss.

Then, suddenly, Dale grunted and pulled away.

Adam frowned down at him. "What's the matter?" he asked, putting his hands on the back of Dale's chair. He made no effort to move.

"Get off me," Dale growled, furrowing his brow.

Adam narrowed his eyes. "Why should I?" he snapped.

The Ranger shook his head. "This isn't going to work," he said. "It's pointless. You won't even be here tomorrow."

Adam frowned lopsidedly. "I could be," he said, loudly. "That's kind of up to you."

Dale glared darkly up at him, and then he shook his head. "Well, I guess you're going to be disappointed, then," he said.

Adam blinked at him, and then he slowly stood up, unable to keep the angry frown off his face. "Great, Dale. I guess you can just keep telling yourself you hate everyone you meet, just because you don't have shit-clue how to interact with them."

Dale blinked up at him, and then let out a sigh, looking down. "Don't you have some work to finish up, Chaney?" he asked.

Rolling his eyes, Adam walked back into the station.

Fuming, Adam returned to the gutted section of interior wall. He snatched his screwdriver off the card table next to the work area, vowing that if the screw didn't come out in the next ten seconds he would just rip out the entire junction box and-

Eyes widening, Adam stared. He _was_going to rip out the entire junction box. The 220 line was attached to a junction box that he was replacing anyway. Why hadn't he seen that before?

Angling his head into the wall, Adam peeked around the side of the junction box and, sure enough, two perfectly-intact screwheads stared brightly up at him. With them out of the way, the entire junction box could go in the trash, with the miserable 220 line still attached to it.

Shaking his head, Adam took a deep breath. He'd been frustrated and careless earlier. The break, infuriating as it was, had cleared his head.

He glanced back over his shoulder, just as Dale was stepping back into the station. The ranger's dark eyes widened in alarm for a moment, but then the familiar cloud of anger descended over his features, his brow furrowing and his eyes narrowing.

"I still feel like shit," Dale all-but growled, "So I'm going to lie down for a bit. Try not to make too much fucking noise, huh?" Without waiting for a response, he slowly teetered unsteadily toward the couch and dropped himself onto it. A second later Adam heard his boots hit the hardwood as the ranger kicked them off onto the floor.

Staring after him, Adam had to freeze in place for a good 30 seconds, in order to resist the urge to stomp over, grab Dale, and just shake him.

His broken-in work boots whisper-quiet on the wood floor, Adam crept silently to the back of the couch.

Dale had closed his eyes as soon as he lay down, but after a moment of Adam looming over him, he opened his eyes. He jerked in surprise at the sight of the massive electrician staring silently at him, gasping in shock and flinching violently.

He stared up at him for a moment, eyes wide and frantic.

"Sure, Dale," Adam said sweetly. "Whatever you say."

The ranger stared up at him, and for a moment, all his anger was gone. In a moment of clarity, Adam realized that the anger had been fake. The anger had been fake all along. The only real part was the fear.

Unmoving, he let his eyes roam over the prone ranger's form, taking in his expansive chest, thick legs, and wide, bare feet. After leering his way down, he made eye contact again, staring the ranger down until Dale looked silently away. It was stupid and petty and mean, but just then Adam felt like being mean.

"Have a good rest," he said, turning away without waiting for a response and moving immediately out of sight.

Walking back to the wall, Adam had to struggle to keep a satisfied smile off his mug. He felt childish and immature, but there was a certain feeling of victory in showing the big scary ranger he wasn't afraid of him. In fact, Dale was probably afraid of him now.

Behind him, he heard Dale let out a shuddering breath.

With renewed vigor, Adam returned to his work.

Adam worked fast after that, and an hour and a half later, he finished up. He twisted the last wire nut at 2:28 a.m., finishing about an hour earlier than he would have guessed. Oddly enough, he had always worked better mad.

The walls looked like hell and there was a lot of cleanup to take care of, but he could stop by in the morning on his way to drop off the county truck. Friday was Adam's day off, and he could take his sweet time.

Besides, his thoughts kept drifting back to Dale, and he decided he needed to go somewhere. Adam was sore and exhausted and annoyed, and he worried that he would say something that both of them might regret. He wasn't thinking clearly. Dale probably wasn't, either. Right now all Adam could think about was getting out of this station.

Not bothering to walk quietly, Adam thumped over to the back of the couch, and just before he cleared it, he noticed a peculiar smell. He paused and sniffed the air, wrinkling his nose.

Working inside mildewy, water-damaged walls, not to mention swimming in his own cloud of evaporated Right Guard, Adam hadn't noticed the peculiar odor the Ranger Station had taken on. It smelled...musty. It was a bit like wet dog. He cocked his head. Maybe it was the books Dale had been working on. Oh well, he was in the process of thinking, not my pro-

Adam cleared the back of the couch, and stopped short, sucking in a sharp, startled breath.

Dale was sprawled out on the couch, eyes closed and mouth hanging open, and he was so soaked in his own sweat that his white t-shirt had become transparent. Adam saw a snarl of thick black chest hair at the center of Dale's barrel chest, running all the way down the subtle bugle of his stomach. His skin was flushed and his face was damp, and his short black hair was matted to his scalp. He took fast, shallow breaths, his mouth hanging open, his eyes closed and his brow gently furrowed. Even in his sleep, he looked upset.

"Holy shit," Adam breathed.

Dale flinched awake and opened his eyes, staring blearily at Adam. "Uggghhh," he groaned. He turned his head slowly to regard Adam. "Who's that?" Dale stared at him a long time, wrinkling his nose and blinking slowly. "Chaney?" he asked, hesitantly.

Adam frowned. He stepped around the couch, feeling all of his anger leach slowly out of him, like air escaping a deflating soccer ball. Letting out a sigh, he lowered his massive frame into a kneeling position, next to the ailing ranger. "Dale?" he asked, quietly. "Are you okay?"

Dale took a few shallow breaths and stared dazedly back at him. "Damn," he said, quietly. "I guess not." He swallowed and considered for a moment. "I guess this is the flu or something. I feel weak as a kitten. I never felt like this before."

Adam nodded slowly.

Dale squeezed his eyes shut and tried to raise himself to a seating position. He made it up onto his elbows before he groaned and settled down. "Are you heading out?" he asked, his eyes half-closing.

Adam swallowed. "Uh, not yet. I got some cleanup to do first."

Dale half-opened his eyes and squinted at Adam suspiciously. "Thought you were going to do that in the morning," he grunted. His voice sounded like gravel.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Adam asked.

Dale nodded. "I'm fine. Go home," he said, swallowing.

Adam cleared his throat. "Uh, no can do. I gotta be finished by morning," he lied. "Listen, do you want something to drink? How about I open a window for you? You look like you're burning up."

Dale frowned at him, and then turned his head away, grunting. He rolled onto his side, away from Adam, crossing his arms over his chest. "Go home, college boy," he said. "You don't even like me."

Adam considered for a moment, and then reached up with one big hand. It was an impulsive move, probably brought on by the late hour and his sleep deprivation. He reached up and gently took Dale Wallace's hand, holding his thick fingers very gently and resting his own hand over Dale's waist. It wasn't meant to be a provocative gesture, just a comforting one.

The ranger stiffened, and looking longingly over his shoulder. He opened his mouth, took a breath as if to say something, but remained silent. After a moment, he rolled back over with a frustrated sigh.

Adam sighed softly. "Okay, Dale," he said, raising himself to his feet.

Before he did, he squeezed Dale's hand.

The ranger did not visibly react.

Before he got back to work, Adam found a tall glass in the break room. He filled it with cold water and set it on the coffee table behind Dale. The ranger did not visibly stir, and Adam didn't say another word.

Cleanup lasted another forty-five minutes. Adam took his time.

When 3:15 a.m. rolled around, he decided he couldn't stall any longer and still be vaguely useful in the morning. His day off was probably completely shot, as he would be exhausted and disoriented all day long, but if he stayed awake "working" any longer he would be completely non-functional. He wasn't 18 anymore.

Carrying a plastic contractor bag around the second floor, picking up drywall chunks and electrical debris, Adam decided he would sleep in one of the recliners flanking Dale's sofa. One of the other rangers would be in at 8:00 a.m., and she could take over Dale's care at that point. But until then Adam wasn't going anywhere.

He picked up the last few severed pieces of coiled electrical conduit. Angled and discarded as they were, they looked like so much disemboweled intestine, as if a pack of predators had successfully executed a large kill.

Picking up the last piece, he blinked and stared at it. Wow, he thought. Where had that thought come from. Shaking his head, reflecting on the bizarre nature of sleep deprivation, Adam stepped to the back of the couch.

He gasped.

Dale wasn't on the couch any longer. He had rolled off at some point, and now he was on all fours a few feet away, struggling to hold himself up with shaking arms. He had also squirmed out of both his shirt and his workpants, leaving him clad only in white cotton boxers and a sheen of slick sweat and wet curls of black body hair. Dale's chest was close to the floor and he was actually fairly thick with muscle; under absolutely any other circumstances it would have been hot as hell, but conditions as they were Adam felt his stomach turn over in horror-induced nausea.

He thudded over to the ranger's side and dropped to his knees. "Dale!" he cried. "Jesus Christ, what the fuck?!" Up close, he could see the man was shaking, too, heavy tremors racking the thick muscles of his arms and legs.

Dale shook his head, breathing fast and shallow, his teeth clenched and his lips pulled back. He looked like he was in agony. "B-burning up," he grunted. "An' my stomach's doin' something horrible. D-dunno wha's wrong with me."

"Why didn't you ask me for help?!"

Dale shook his head, still trembling. "F-forgot you were here," he said, and then shivered mightily. He dipped his head, squeezing his eyes shut, gasping for breath, and arched his back, hissing in pain.

Adam stared at him, his eyes wide, and set his jaw. "This looks pretty bad, Dale," he said. "I'm taking you to the hospital."

Dale sucked in a breath. "Okay," he gasped, and somehow, the grizzled ranger's immediate consent was the scariest possible response he could have given.

Adam shook his head. "Fucking hell, it's a good thing you're a little guy," he said. He thought for a moment. "Okay. Uh. I'm gonna get you up on the couch. We're gonna get your pants on. Then I'mma throw you in my truck and we'll drive down to County General. Okay?"

Hissing in pain, Dale didn't respond.

"Okay." Adam nodded. His heart was pounding. This was seriously scary. What if he'd gone home for the night? Holy shit.

Leaning forward, he slid both his big arms under Dale's sweaty chest, both above and below the ranger's arm. His skin was hot to the touch, much hotter than it should have been, and clammy, and absolutely dripping with sweat.

He edged Dale toward the sofa, gritting his teeth. Dale gasped in pain, his voice taking on a high-pitch keen to it.

Adam started to lift him up, and Dale suddenly stiffened, crying out in pain. "Aarrrgh!" he roared, snapping both hands up to clamp over his head, and if Adam hadn't been holding him he would have smashed his face into the hardwood.

"Dale, what is it?!" he cried.

"Arrrrrgh my head!" Dale cried, writhing in his arms. The ranger squirmed right out of his grasp, crashing over onto his right side. He threw his head back, arching his back mightily, and started thrashing around like a panicked animal, his head inches from the hardwood base of the sofa. One of his flailing feet caught the edge of the coffee table, and the glass Adam had brought him teetered off the edge and shattered on the floor.

Adam lunged forward and grabbed the ranger's flailing head and thick shoulder. It took all of his weight to hold him in place. "Dale, stop thrashing! You're going to hurt yourself!" He swallowed. "I think I'm gonna call 911," he said, loudly. His hands were starting to shake.

Dale let go of his head with his right hand and shot sideways to grasp Adam's wrist. He held on like a man drowning. "Don't leave me!" he cried, his voice high and desperate.

Adam tried to pull his wrist back, the ranger's grasp painfully tight. "I'm not leaving you!" he said. "I can't get you down the stairs by myself! I need to call 911! Dale, let go!"

And then something happened.

Adam felt it before he saw it. Dale's palm on his wrist, hot and wet and clammy, took on such a...unique tactile sensation that Adam recognized it immediately, despite its utter impossibility. Suddenly, he felt leather. The skin of his wrist, under Dale's palm, told him he was feeling hot, soft, leather.

Forgetting his pain for a moment, forgetting even Dale's apparent agony, Adam looked down.

Dale's fingers were clenching and unclenching, but they were moving in a different way, as well, and even though it was happening right in front of him it took Adam a moment to process. Dale's fingers were growing thicker. They were growing thicker, right before Adam's eyes. The entire sensation of Dale's hand on his wrist became something altogether inhuman, because what was happening to Dale was completely impossible, something expanding from within and actually growing in size. It felt more like a blood pressure cuff.

He looked at the palm of Dale's other hand, but the ranger had it curled into a fist at his side. Insanely, this hand was also bigger.

Dale jerked suddenly, arching his back and throwing his head back, all the veins and tendons in his neck standing out like steel cables under his skin. His pecs and abs tensed too, the muscles of his arms standing out as rigid and distinctive as an anatomical model.

As Adam watched, Dale's chest hair started to thicken. It was happening on the backs of his arms, too, and now his forearms. Dale was a hairy guy to begin with, covered in vast swatches of coal-black hair, but now there was more growing right as Adam watched. The hair on the back of his hands grew so thick that his skin was no longer visible, like stubble or...like fur. It looked like fur.

Adam watched, astonished, and his brain started to do a funny thing. It kind of lost its anchor on reality and drifted gently away, like a balloon, soft and gentle on the breeze. He felt dazed and light-headed.

"Dale?" he asked, his own voice seeming to come from far away.

"Hrrrrnnnnngggghhh!"_Dale squealed, through clenched teeth, clamping down on Adam's wrist hard enough to cut off the circulation to his hand. _"Hhrrrrrllp me!" he gasped, shaking violently, with...with..._whatever_was happening riding right up along his arms. Ten seconds later, Dale had grown so much hair on his clenched, muscular arms that it looked like he'd reached shoulder-deep into an oil drum.

Adam heard cracking and popping noises, like knuckles cracking only much louder, and with a startled gasp he realized that it was like knuckles cracking, except it was all the joints in Dale's body. His actual knuckles cracked, loudly (which was to be expected since Dale's colossal hands were now larger across than Adam's) and then his elbows and his shoulders. Crack cr-crack pop CRACK!

The joint-popping followed the seemingly-unstoppable tide of thick hair, and Adam noticed to his astonishment that, in his pained writhing, Dale's muscles appeared to be increasing in size. His shoulders and arms seemed to widen, with complementary skeletal changes, and even under the hair Adam could tell his biceps were thicker and more rounded. In ten seconds, Dale had probably gone up two shirt sizes.

Dale arched his back, half-tucking his elbows under his sides, and thankfully he finally let go of Adam's wrist, leaving five deep half-moon-shaped cuts and an already-formed bruise in the shape of a giant hand.

Hair - no, it really did look like fur, thick black fur, thicker than any normal human had grown since the Paleolithic era - now covered Dale's arms and moved in over his pecs, radiating out from the center of his chest at the same time.

The waves of fur broke against one another, the ranger's chest covered in fur like he was wearing a thick sweater, and as they made contact something happened inside his ­body. Suddenly the fur _erupted_out of him, from head to toe, masking his face and covering his stomach, thickening on his legs and the tops of his feet. His whole body started to change, too, most notably his legs, his ankles cracking and popping as his feet seemed to break and restructure themselves. There were definitely joints bending the wrong way, and Adam felt a wave of nausea roll his stomach over at the sight.

Dale howled in agony and pulled his thick quads in against his chest, trying to curl into a fetal ball. "_Earrrrgghhh!"_he yowled, and the end of his exclamation turned up like a feral animal's death cry.

At least part of his brain wondering what the fuck he was doing, Adam reached for Dale's big hand and clasped it in his own. He held it palm-to-palm, locking their thumbs together, and the more sophisticated neurons in his hand told him that yep, that was definitely a leather pawpad.

Dale Wallace was straight-up turning into a fucking werewolf.

Once Adam had at least tentatively accepted the obvious (it helped that his brain was completely dismissing this as non-reality), the rest of the transition was easier to comprehend. Dale squealed in pain as his face distended and extended, his jaw cracking and popping as he spontaneously grew a muzzle. He made a gagging, choking noise, snapping his new mouth open, and Adam realized he had been choking on his own lupine tongue.

Dale - or the Dale-wolf, Adam supposed; he was practically straight out of a monster movie now - shivered and shuddered and trembled violently, and while some part of Adam's brain told him he should be running and screaming by now, he just couldn't bear to leave the ailing ranger. He was the only one here. He couldn't just leave.

Dale jerked violently, thrashing his thick legs in the air, and Adam looked down and saw the back of his boxers bulging and realized what was happening now. Briefly letting go of the ranger's (the werewolf's) thick hand (thick paw), he tugged the waistband of his boxers down. As he expected, Dale was growing a thick bushy tail, and as soon as it had room to move he calmed down considerably.

It looks like CGI, he thought. It _did_look like CGI, right in front of his face.

Dale's tail finished growing in, ending up almost two full feet long, and the wolf went limp, crashing pathetically onto his side. He lay there, panting desperately, his long, wide tongue lolling out and laying flat on the hardwood. Adam was on his other side, and watched him, silently.

The ranger was now a movie-perfect werewolf. He was thick with muscle, like a fur-covered Olympic weightlifter, and bore claws on each finger as big as the end of a screwdriver. He was all-black, except for a dusty-white patch around his mou-...at the end of his muzzle. His amber-colored eyes were half-closed, and he panted desperately, still shivering violently from time to time.

Swallowing, Adam stared at the prone werewolf.

Holding his breath, he slowly leaned forward on his knees, peering silently over the wolf's frame toward his face.

_"ROWRRRRRROO!"_the wolf snarled at him, abruptly thrashing over onto his back.

Adam was so keyed up on adrenaline and so startled he wasn't even consciously aware of leaping backwards - one second he was kneeling in front of the wolf, and the next he was flailing ass-over-teakettle over the back of the couch.

He flailed wildly, his big arms and legs pin-wheeling, crashed over the short bookcase behind the couch. He landed hard on his side in the middle of the floor, slamming down on the pine flooring, his arm flat out next to him.

And then, between the shock and the impact, Adam's brain took a little break, and everything went black for awhile.

When he came to, he could hear growling.

Adam's scrambled thoughts ordered themselves in a hurry. As soon as he felt the wood floor under his head and arms, his remembered where he was. He lifted his head fast, ignoring the way the world spun around like an off-balance top.

Dale Wallace was gone. In his place, tucked in the corner next to the railing and Adam's only way out, was a snarling, angry-looking, black-furred man...wolf...thing. It had shaggy black fur, yellow eyes, pointed ears and a thick, muscular build. It was balanced on its hands and on thick digitigrades paws, each the size of a softball, tucked under the animal in an obvious preparation for a leap. Adam noticed, crazily, that the wolf was still wearing Dale's boxers.

The wolf-beast glared at him, growling. They made eye contact, and Adam quickly came to the conclusion that the thinking, rational, and (most importantly) non-murderous portion of Dale's brain was now completely absent from this picture. It might as well have been an _actual_wolf with him in the Nature Center, except a genuine wolf probably would not have been quite so pissed off.

The wolf-beast's thick legs tensed. He leapt.

_"Gah!" _Adam kicked backward, hard, the heels of his boots scrabbling for purchase on the floor. He flailed backwards, realized he wasn't going to make it, and lifted his feet up at the last second.

The wolf crashed upon him, crushing his legs against his chest, and all the air left Adam's lungs in one whoosh. The beast sank his teeth into Adam's left boot, and suddenly it was like his foot was caught in a vice grip. "Aaaagghh!" he cried, straightening his other leg on instinct and panic.

His right boot was planted in the center of the wolf's chest, out of luck more than anything else, and the snarling animal flew backwards, slamming against the exterior wall. He collapsed into a seething mass of fur and teeth.

He still had Adam's left boot in his mouth.

His heart pounding, Adam kicked back, trying to scramble to his feet.

The wolf dropped his boot and lunged forward, thick claws scrabbling on the hardwood, and leapt at him again. His arc was different this time, longer, and Adam realized with blood-curdling terror that the animal was adapting, and heyanked his arms and legs in over his torso, because now the fucking thing was going to land right on his-

The black beast slammed directly down on top of him, his snapping jaws a foot away from Adam's face.

"Get off!" Adam bellowed, unnecessarily, as he shoved upward as hard as he could, before the wolf had even stopped moving from the leap.

Adam's already-considerable strength, now fueled by pure fear, lifted the wolf halfway to the ceiling. Carried by his own momentum, the wolf hurtled across the room, a flailing mass of fur and limbs. He crashed onto one of the card tables against the wall to the conference room, smashing it like a cardboard box. The wolf crashed to the floor amid two old CRT-monitors and a small pile of books, with a noise like a recycling truck dumping two tons of scrap metal.

Get up get up get up! Adam scrambled to his feet behind the long sofa, desperate to get off the floor before the wolf's next attack. He was surprisingly fast, impossibly fast.

Adam was next to the stairwell, but he didn't have his truck keys and he reallydidn't think he'd make it all the way down the stairs before the wolf caught him.

He bolted for the break room. He thundered across the pine floors, making the entire building shake, pounding across the small station with one boot missing. THUD_pffft _THUD pffft THUD pffft!

By the time he got halfway he could hear the wolf behind him. The animal's claws skittered on the hardwood in a way that, even despite the mortal peril he was in, made Adam think of the raptors in the kitchen from Jurassic Park.

He made it to the tiny kitchen, barely the size of a jail cell, a second before the wolf did. Whirling on his booted foot, he threw his entire body weight into hurling the door shut.

The dark-stained wood was preposterously light and made an unsatisfying _thunk!_sound, and with horror this bones, Adam realized it was a hollow-core door. It wouldn't stop a German shepherd, let alone a fully-grown werewolf.

Half a second later, the wolf crashed into the door from the other side. The door bulged at the center, crunching with the unmistakable sound of wood splintering. CRUNNGGHH!

_ "Awkk!"_Adam cried, involuntarily. The door had probably only bought him ten or twenty seconds before the werewolf smashed it to splinters.

He whirled. His only escape was a tiny window he would never fit through, and then he would just be outside. There would be a knife in the kitchen. Right?!

Adam lunged for the nearest drawer.

_CRUNNGGH!_went the door again. The wolf yowled in frustration from the other side of the door.

In the third drawer, he found a big butcher knife. He held it in his hands. It could have been a prop in a horror movie.

Adam stared at it, his big hands shaking.

A butcher knife. He was seriously considering using a fucking butcher knife on Ranger Dale, who organized nature books for 7-year-olds and, by Adam's own reasoning was probably just a cripplingly shy and lonely old man.

He swallowed. "Ohmigod I can't do this," he whispered.

CRUNNGGHH-CRACCKKKTH!

Adam jerked in shock, dropping the knife with a clatter into the sink, knowing what he would see in the half-second before he saw it. The door had a huge crack down the middle, light shining through from the main room. He couldn't see the wolf, but something struck him as important about the crack itself.

It was probably only five feet above the floor. He had to look down at it.

The wolf was not small, but he was smaller than Adam.

Small enough to beat.

_CRUNNGGHH!_went the door as the wolf slammed into it, and the flimsy wood bulged outward exactly where Adam thought it would - right were Dale's shoulder would have been. His height hadn't changed much. Adam would tower over him.

The door was shot. One more hit would take it out.

Adam took a step back, planted his booted foot on the linoleum, and charged the door like the linebacker he had trained to be.

Adam hit the door and annihilated it, crashing through it like it hadn't even been there. The hollow-core door shattered like tissue paper, splitting with a sharp CRACK! down the middle and bursting away from him on either side, tiny bits of wood shrapnel and sawdust exploding in all directions. It was a terrific impact, one that jammed his shoulder hard into the socket and jarred him through his entire skeletal system, but it did not slow Adam down. He was still at full speed when he crashed into the werewolf, who had been about to hit the door from the other side.

Hitting the werewolf was exactly like one of the brain-jarring impacts Adam remembered from football, except this time he wasn't wearing his padding or a helmet. It was like doing a belly-flop off the high-dive, if someone had drained the pool ahead of time. As the entity with greater mass, however, Adam had greater momentum, and literally lifted the werewolf off his paws.

They were falling, suddenly, and Adam let it happen. He grabbed the wolf's arms - God, he thought, pure muscle - as they plummeted toward the carpet, and as the hardwood rocketed up toward them he held the animal firmly in front of him.

The wolf landed on his side, and grunted as he hit the ground, but when Adam's entire crushing body weight landed on top of him he let out a sharp, agonized yelp as the air left his body. He jerked, violently, teeth clenched, writhing in shock and gasping for air, writhing on his side under Adam's weight.

The animal regained his wits almost immediately, faster than Adam, and he rolled onto his stomach and tried to squirm away.

"Oh no you don't," Adam grunted, lunging for the animal. He was on the wolf in half a second, wrapping one thick bicep around the werewolf's throat, climbing on top of him like a wrestler in the wrong weight class. Adam had been on the wrestling team, for about half a semester, and he knew a thing or two about sleeper holds.

Adam clamped his 18" bicep around the wolf's throat, cutting off his windpipe and the blood flow to his brain. "Dale, if you're in there, go quietly," he grunted.

The wolf stiffened and snarled as best as he could with no airflow - the beast was terrifying, he was all muscle and anger - but Dale had been, what, 5'8"? One-eighty, if that? The wolf was no match for Adam, even with teeth and claws. Adam was going to put him out, and then restrain him, and then he would figure out what the fuck to do next.

The wolf that had once been Dale stiffened mightily, and then struggled in earnest. He tried to pull his head out of Adam's grasp, and then he tried to thrash his way out, jerking and slamming against Adam like a hooked shark. Adam _felt_the moment the wolf stopped fighting out of anger and started fighting out of pure panic, out of fear that Adam was going to gut him and eat him. The animal thrashed violently, crashing up against Adam's stomach hard enough to bruise him, lifting them both up off the ground to slam back down hard enough to shake the building.

"Calm down, God dammit!" Adam snapped, digging the fingers of his other hand in under the wolf's barrel chest. The wolf lifted his arms and dug at Adam's arm around his throat, trying ferociously to pull him off, but his claws were dull and he barely succeeded in breaking the skin.

It was a perfectly-executed sleeper hold, and in ten seconds flat, the wolf's entire thick body went limp.

Adam held him another few seconds to be sure, straining to hold up the heavy animal, and then relaxed.

The werewolf dropped limply to the floor. Adam sank on top of him, panting desperately.

Shuddering, he let out a shaky breath.

The wolf was only out for a few seconds, but it was enough time for Adam. By the time the animal even began to stir, Adam had laid out between the couch and the coffee table and lashed the animal's wrists together with heavy insulated wire. He had also tied his muzzle shut, but that had been just a couple feet of wire looped around the base of his muzzle and wrapped around the back of his head. Adam wasn't sure that would even prevent him from opening his mouth.

That was about all he had time for, though. He had barely sat down on the coffee table, which creaked under his weight, when the werewolf's golden eyes fluttered open.

He stared blankly at Adam, seemingly confused, and then his eyes widened. He tugged on his bonds, squirmed in place, and then looked fearfully up at Adam, eyes wide and alarmed.

Adam stared down at him. "Yeah," he said. "That's how _that_went. I kicked your furry butt." He cocked his head, smiling wryly. "I guess this isn't your typical werewolf event, huh?"

The wolf just watched him, ears back and eyes wide.

Adam frowned at him, crossing his arms and rubbing the skin on his right forearm. The wolf had scratched him up pretty good, and it was bothering him. "Well, I don't know what you expected," he said, to the silent wolf. "I'm like twice your size." He frowned down at the animal. "What did you think was going to happen, exactly?"

The wolf just stared up at him, eyes wide and blank.

Adam stared at him. "Dale," he whispered. "Are you in there at all?" He stared at the prone wolf.

The wolf looked in the opposite direction, toward the couch, his eyes wide and his ears folded back.

Adam snorted. "Oh, okay, now you're submissive," he grunted. "Now that I kicked your ass." He pondered for a moment, watching the wolf breathe slowly and lay perfectly still. "Actually, that kind of makes sense. That's what you savage assholes do in the wild, isn't it? Fight for dominance?"

The wolf remained silent, breathing softly and staring at his own big wolfie feet. He was arguably calmer than Adam himself, whose heart was still pounding like crazy.

Adam looked the wolf over. He took a good look at the werewolf for the first time.

As much as he had been an asshole, Dale had caught Adam's eye almost as fast as Katie had. The Ranger was a great blue-collar daddy combination: bulky shoulders, intelligent brown eyes, and a spring of black chest hair spilling out of his shirt. Plus, Adam had a thing for shorter guys. If Dale hadn't emitted hateful vibes from the very start, Adam would have hit on him instead of Katie.

That had been as a human. As a werewolf, he was...breathtaking. Adam couldn't believe he was having these thoughts, but.... The beast had the same anatomically perfect build - thick shoulders, and narrow waist. The wolf seemed to be a hell of a lot more developed. It was like Dale had gone on a gym binge for a month or two. The wolf's pecs were like slabs of meat, and he had a neatly-laid grid of cobblestone abs visible even under his soft fur. The werewolf even had the same fat package in his boxers. Well...Adam had a feeling the exact layout had changed.

As the wolf breathed slowly and quietly, otherwise holding perfectly still, Adam marveled at his thick musculature. The muscular animal's pure submission was...something to behold.

Was that Dale in there, he wondered? Was it just a dumb animal? Was it both?

Would this wolf's submissiveness carry over to Dale, when he changed back? If he changed back?

Still sitting on the coffee table, just to see what would happen, he leaned over and reached down, gently reaching toward the wolf's stomach with his thick fingers.

The wolf that had been Dale didn't growl, or snap, or turn his head with foam dripping from his jaw.

Instead, he arched his back gently, lifting his vulnerable tummy up toward Adam's hand, and let out a soft snort.

Adam touched the wolf's stomach. He was surprisingly warm. And his reaction was even more surprising - the wolf let out a soft, shuddering breath.

He seemed to like it.

Swallowing, Adam snatched his hand back. Shaking his head, he stood up from the coffee table.

Puzzled, the wolf looked up and watched him.

Adam shook his head, trying to clear the impulse to dig his fingers into the werewolf's fur. It was probably just stress, and sleep deprivation, and hormones. That's all it was.

That's all it was.

"Hi, Katie, it's Adam again. Look, I know this is like the tenth time I've called you in twenty minutes, and I realize you aren't like avoiding me, but I seriously need to get in touch with you because this situation, uh, it is not getting any better and I could really use your help." He inhaled. "So, uh, call the station. Thanks. Bye."

Closing his cellphone, turning away from the work area, Adam turned back toward the couch.

The muscular black wolf was crawling around behind the couch, hands still bound, moving on all fours. Adam's heart leapt up into his chest - the animal looked like The Wolf Man meets The Ring - and he felt an instant adrenaline rush.

"HEY!" he barked, pointing at the air like he was yelling at a German Shepherd.

The wolf flinched, eyes wide and alarmed, and raised his head, his ears folded back. Pushing against the ground with his thick arms, he lifted himself nimbly into a kneeling position. He knelt, his wrists bound before him and his muzzle tied shut, like a prisoner of war.

"Quit moving around!" Adam growled, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "Katie's going to call back any minute and then we'll get you...some help." He frowned. "And quit trying to stand up or I'll-"

"Kaaaaaaaaaaa reeeeeeeeey!" the wolf said.

His jaw dropping, Adam stared at him.

The wolf frowned in concentration, his brow furrowing elaborately, and opened his mouth, playing with his flat, wide tongue. The wire muzzle had been useless after all.

The wolf licked his teeth, his ears telescoping in all directions, and finally looked up at Adam again.

"Kaaaay-dey," the wolf said, much more clearly. His voice was deep and gravelly, like a long, drawn-out growl.

"Holy shit," Adam responded. He slowly approached the kneeling wolf.

The black animal remained in a kneeling position, staring up at him, but now there was something different about him. Adam looked into his eyes, and as the wolf looked back, he distinctly saw human intelligence. His eyes were golden now, not brown, but he had the same somber, piercing gaze that Dale had worn, and now, for the first time, he really looked like a werewolf version of the Ranger.

"Dale?" Adam whispered. "Is that you in there?" He stepped a few feet closer.

The wolf stared blankly up at him, and for a moment Adam was sure he'd imagined the brief glimpse of the Ranger, but then the animal looked down, his ears folding back in thought.

After a moment, taking a long, deep breath, the wolf nodded. "Daaare," he said, swallowing. "I Daaare." The wolf couldn't form the letter "L." Apparently, the creators of Scooby Doo had been right all along, Adam thought, crazily.

"Wow," he said.

The wolf stared at him expectantly. It was a very dog-like stare, but it was a very Dale-like stare, too. For the last four weeks, Dale had watched him with the same expectant gaze as a dog. Waiting to see what he would do. Adam just hadn't made the connection.

Adam cocked his head. "Are you...all right?"

The wolf processed the question. He thought about the answer. "Yesss," he growl-hissed. He nodded, too, which looked bizarre and otherworldly to see an animal do, even if he was only half-animal.

"Do you know who I am?"

The big black wolf stared at him for a moment, and then cocked his head. "You...Arram," he said. "You...strong."

Adam furrowed his brow. "What?"

The wolf nodded, tilting his ears back. "Strong. Fight." He lifted his bound paws, staring at him. Tilting his muzzle downward, he looked up. "Dare...Dare sub...submit."

Adam stared at him. "What did you say?" he whispered.

The wolf risked a glance up at him, his ears flat against his head. "Strong. Heh'p Daare. Daare submit," he rumbled. He lifted his bound paws by way of explanation, lowering his muzzle and breathing softly.

Adam was again struck by how much the wolf looked like a prisoner of war, and he abruptly realized that he hadn't been attempting to stand; he had knelt intentionally. It was to show Adam he wasn't a threat. He had done it to show his submission.

The electrician cocked his head. "Is that so," he said, softly.

The black wolf held perfectly still.

Adam took a few steps forward, his thick boots making soft, deliberate footfalls on the hardwood. He stopped in front of him.

"Lift your chin then," he said, his own voice sounding half an octave lower.

Obediently, the thick werewolf lifted his blunt muzzle, exposing his furry throat. Adam looked him over. The animal looked calm and relaxed. If anything, he seemed to be relieved. It made sense - Dale the wolf was apparently having a hard time putting thoughts together. He was in no shape to make decisions now, and he knew it.

Adam thought about it. This would make things a lot easier. If Dale was submissive and pliable, he would be easier to manage until Kady - er, Katie - could be reached. Adam wouldn't have to worry about the wolf trying anything if Dale was completely under his control.

Completely under his control.

He could watch over him and keep him safe. The wolf knew it. Adam was stronger and smarter, and he could keep Dale safe. It was a wolf's verbalization of the self-protective instinct to submit to a stronger party.

Reaching gently forward, Adam brushed the wolf's exposed throat with his thick fingers.

The wolf swallowed reflexively, and shivered, but otherwise made no other move. He simply stared complacently at the ceiling, a submissive tower of muscle and fur.

For all intents and purposes, he appeared to be completely passive.

Adam felt like he should really test that, however. Just to make absolutely certain that Dale would be...safe.

"Dale, are you submitting completely to me?" he asked, softly.

The wolf took a moment to process. "Yess," he whispered, holding perfectly still.

"Good. You won't mind if I prove it, then," he muttered.

Adam lowered himself to his own knees, slowly letting his fingers trail down the front of the wolf's chest. That was a hot button for dogs, wasn't it? They only showed you their tummy if they were acknowledging that you were the boss.

The wolf shivered, looking up and toward the ceiling. He puffed his chest out, exhaling shakily, and Adam saw his thick arms tense. He watched the muscles thicken, like steel cables under an inch of soft fur.

He trailed his fingers down over the top of the wolf's stomach, between his bound forearms, and the animal let out a soft whimper.

"It's okay," Adam cooed, quietly. "I'm not gonna hurt you." He cocked his head. "I'm bigger and stronger so I'll be gentle with you." He trailed his thick fingers over the wolf's oversized paws, making contact again just over the waistband of the wolf's boxers. "I'm gonna take care of you."

Still pointing his muzzle skyward, the wolf nodded awkwardly. He radiated discomfort.

Adam decided to see how far he could push it.

Reaching in with both hands, Adam gripped the lower seams of the wolf's boxers and tugged them downward. He did it slowly and deliberately, letting the wolf feel himself be exposed.

Adam had wondered if a wolf's natural state of nudity would carry over to a werewolf, but apparently it was Dale's human modesty that had the most influence on his werewolf form. As his boxers slowly rode down his hips and finally cleared his genitals, the wolf let out a soft, shaky whimper. He started panting nervously, fast and shallow.

The wolf wouldn't look down but Adam did. Dale had low-hanging balls covered in fuzzy black fur, almost like velvet, and a plump little skin thing...what was that called? A sheath, he thought. A fuzzy sheath made up of loose skin covered in black fur.

The wolf let out a soft, involuntary whimper, his thick chest heaving as he strained to hold still.

Adam grinned savagely. "Are you feeling nervous, Dale?" he asked. "I'm not sure that you trust me completely if you're this freaked out."

The wolf whined loudly now, lowering his muzzle to make eye contact. "Trust!" he growled loudly, and then he realized he was staring Adam in the eye and looked away, his ears folding flat against his head.

"We'll see about that," Adam said, wrapping his thick fingers around the wolf's fuzzy ballsack. Dale's balls were surprisingly hot and quite heavy. Adam rolled them in his fingers.

Dale shivered violently and let out a panting gasp, arching his back and gritting his teeth. He raised his bound paws and put them on Adam's left shoulder, staring at him with wide, alarmed eyes.

Adam grinned at him from inches away. "You're doing pretty good, Dale," he said. "Almost got me convinced." He rolled the werewolf's fat sac in his hand, rubbing the space just under Dale's sheath with the pad of his thick thumb.

Dale squirmed in place, amber eyes wide, but he did not attempt to writhe away. He just knelt there, breathing hard, bracing himself on Adam's thick shoulder, allowing himself to be manhandled. He had submitted, utterly and completely.

"That's a good boy, Dale," Adam rumbled. "Two hours ago you wouldn't even let me kiss you, and now you're kneeling here with your balls in my hand," Adam gloated. "How does that feel?" His heart was pounding. It felt good to finally show Dale who was boss. He squeezed his balls gently and tugged on them, probing at the wolf's sheath with his thumb, harder this time.

Dale stared at him a second longer, and as he stared into Adam's eyes, his own amber eyes began to slide closed.

Adam cocked his head. "Hmm, is that starting to feel good?" He raised his other hand and wrapped his thick fingers around the back of Dale's neck. He rubbed him there, firmly, while he played enthusiastically with the wolf's package.

Dale stared blankly at him for another moment, and then it was like all the intelligence went out of his eyes again. He stared right at Adam, transfixed, and his mouth opened gently. He just looked like a dumb dog, stupid and happy to be getting attention.

Adam could smell him, now, too. The wolf was getting turned on. He was becoming even more submissive. It was perfect. Some part of Adam's brain was aware that he was slowly masturbating a supernatural monster, but everything he forced on Dale made the werewolf more compliant, and he wanted him as pliable as putty. The more secure Adam's role as alpha was, the more secure he could keep the weaker werewolf.

Adam released the wolf's balls and reached up to drag his fingernails through the wolf's stomach fur. Dale's eyes stayed half-closed but his eyebrows arched up, and he let out a soft moist breath and tensed his thick stomach muscles.

"There you go...just relax, wolfie," Adam rumbled. He dug his fingers into the wolf's ruff and held him hard, rubbing him vigorously all over his thick chest and stomach, his shoulders and his neck, and finally his muzzle. The wolf tensed his muscles and writhed under his hand, and boy, did he feel good to touch. He was such a strong, powerful wolf, even if he wasn't as strong as Adam.

The wolf was clearly enjoying the sensation just as much. He rumbled softly, his muzzle still half-open, and as Adam watched a thin streamer of werewolf drool hooked off of one thick canine and trail off down his furry chest.

Adam reached up for it and gently brushed it away with his wrist. He grazed the wolf's muzzle, and something made him hold his hand there. He felt the urge to wrap his thick fingers around Dale's muzzle, so he did.

The wolf closed his eyes completely and arched his back, shivering blissfully. He made a little moaning sound inside his muzzle, and Adam tasted a copper sting of victory in his own mouth. He felt wild and powerful. Dale would be eating out of his hand in another ten minutes. Literally, if Adam so desired.

He leaned forward, towering intimidatingly over the wolf, staring straight down at him, close enough to ruffle the wolf's short muzzle-fur with his own breath. Still holding the ranger's ruff, Adam let his big hand slide down between Dale's pecs and over his stomach again. He rested his fingers momentarily on the cables still binding Dale's wrists, tugging on them to remind the wolf how helpless he was.

Dale half-opened his eyes, locked on Adam's gaze just inches away, and stared dully into his eyes, transfixed.

Dominate him, something whispered in Adam's mind.

Adam frowned. There was something wrong about this. Face-to-face wasn't the way to truly show a lesser wolf his place, was it? He should be behind him. It was called doggie-style for a reason, wasn't it?

Dale widened his eyes, confused, but by the time he'd furrowed his brow in consternation Adam had shuffled around behind him. He put one arm around the wolf's waist and the other around his throat, squeezed the wolf tightly against his chest, and shivered violently at the feeling of shaggy fur and rough muscle on his bare arms.

There,that was better. The wolf smelled like autumn in the forest, and Adam was surprised to find his own cock rock-hard and throbbing in his jeans. He hadn't even noticed how erect he'd become until he ground his cock against Dale's tight little wolf butt. The wolf had such power, but Adam owned all of it.

In front of him, Dale squirmed in place and growled softly, but something in the sound let Adam know it was not a threatening growl. It was a growl of pleasure. He knew that because...because...

Frowning, Adam cocked his head. How in the fuck did he know that-

Abruptly, the Dale wolf let out an impatient growl, probably because Adam had stopped moving. He angled his head around and clacked his teeth together, snapping his jaw shut inches from Adam's face.

_OH NO HE DID NOT. _ Something hot and angry roared up inside Adam. He tightened his big arm around the insolent pup's throat, lunged forward, and snapped his own teeth shut on the top of the wolf's muzzle. He bit him, only for a moment, but hard enough to break skin.

Dale yelped explosively and flinched, tensing his entire thick body, but he was no match for Adam's superior physicality. He held his tension only for a moment, and then he went completely limp in his arms. If Adam had not been holding him, he would have collapsed to the floor.

Wide-eyed, tasting fur and blood on his teeth, Adam stared in wide-eyed astonishment. What. In the holy fuck. Was that.

Dale craned around to look at him again, but this time his eyes were averted. His ears were back, and his throat was exposed, and he whined submissively like the little pup he might as well have been. He stuck his tongue out, splaying his ears to the side to show there were no hard feelings.

Adam felt himself begin to calm immediately. It was all right. He'd asserted his dominance. The disrespectful pup had been shown his place. He was ready to behave now. He was ready for Adam to own him. He set his jaw and again leaned forward, pressing himself up against Dale's back. The wolf was as good as his property. And when he turned back into a human, he still would be. Opening his mouth, Adam brushed his teeth against the wolf's neck and prepared to bite down.

"HEY I HEARD YOU WERE A WILD ONE! OOOH-WOOO OOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A song rang out as loud as a concert speaker, roaring through the silent ranger station. Both Adam and the wolf flinched hard enough to crash over in opposite directions.

"IF I TOOK YOU HOME IT'D BE A HOME RUN! SHOW ME HOWWW YOU'LL DOOOOO!!"

They both looked wildly about. The wolf was so startled it was almost comical. He looked like someone had switched on the vacuum.

Cellphone. It was his cellphone. Adam looked around, cocking his head in all directions, trying to locate the phone.

The phone was right on the coffee table. It was right next to him. He'd left it right next to them.

Wide-eyed, his heart pounding, Adam looked back at the werewolf. Some of the haze cleared in his mind, and he felt like he was waking up from a deep sleep.

Guilty, scared, Dale lowered his head and looked submissively back at him. Swallowing, the wolf awkwardly tugged his boxers back up over his flagging erection. He was so awkward with his hands he could barely grip the elastic. He pawed at it like a domestic dog.

Swallowing, Adam picked up his phone and slid the ANSWER button. He noticed the clock for the first time. It said 4:24 A.M.

"Hello?" he asked, feeling guilty. What the hell had been happening just now?

"Adam?!" Kate demanded, on the other end of the line. Adam could hear thumping dubstep in the background. "Are you okay?! What's happening?!"

He cleared his throat. His mouth was full of saliva for some reason. "Kate," he grunted. "Hi. How's it going," he said, flatly.

"Are you hurt? Is Dale hurt?"

Adam swallowed. "Uh. Not exactly. He's, uh, doing something a liiiitttle of out of the ordinary, however." He stared at the shaggy werewolf. Dale's ears were both perked toward him, and Adam could tell he was listening to both sides of the conversation. The look in Dale's amber eyes did not betray whether or not he understood a single word of it, however.

"Is it that flu he had earlier? Does he need to go to a hospital?"

Adam processed that. "Uh, not really, no. This is not a hospital sort of problem." He considered for a moment, swallowing. "Maybe a vet."

"What?"

He coughed. "Nevermind. Listen, it would be a lot easier to have this conversation in person. Can you come to the station? Like, as fast as you can possibly get here?"

There was a pause. "Is he hurt? Did you guys get into a fistfight or something? Because there was this drywall guy and they ended up-"

Adam let out a breath. "No, he's just...he's changed." He sighed. "Really, this conversation is totally impossible to have over the phone." He looked back at Dale. The wolf cocked his head innocently.

"Can I talk to him?"

Adam sighed again. "No, I'm afraid you can't."

There was a long pause. "Do I need to call the police?"

Adam gasped. "Jesus Christ, don't do that. We'll never see Dale again. I can't tell you what's happening but _please_trust me if you show up with the authorities it's all over for him."

Kate sighed loudly. "My God. All right. I'm on my way. I'm at a party downstate, so it's going to take me probably an hour and a half to get back."

Adam sighed gratefully. "Thank you. Thank God."

There was a short pause. "And look. I don't know what's going on, but...if you harm one hair on his head I know about two dozen spots out in those woods where they won't find your corpse for another three decades."

Adam felt the hair on his arms bristle at her tone, and it occurred to him that she was completely serious. "I believe you," he said, and he meant it. "I won't harm a hair on his...anywhere."

"Mmm-hmmm." There was another short pause. "You're lucky I trust you, Adam."

He let out a breath. "Tell me about it. Just get here quick, okay?"

"Right," she said, and then the line went dead.

He checked the timestamp on his phone. 4:26 A.M.

This was shaping up to be a hell of a night.

Dale-wolf had raised himself up on his knees and haunches when Adam returned. He cocked his head as the big electrician approached, his ears folding back submissively.

Adam cleared his throat. "Kate is on her way," he said. "She'll help me figure out what to do with you."

Dale nodded, his big eyes calm and understanding. "Kayyyy-deyyyyy," he said.

Adam nodded. "Eyep. Kayy-dey." He eyed the wolf up and down, warily.

The wolf stared expectantly back at him. He cocked his head like a confused Labrador.

Adam swallowed. He didn't want to get too close. Something...had happened to him earlier.

Something strange.

Dale watched him keep his distance, and then suddenly his golden eyes widened. He'd realized Adam was avoiding him. The wolf's ears flapped back against his head, and he suddenly looked so despondent that Adam felt guilt sink into his stomach like a lead weight. Human Dale would have covered it up with anger, but wolf-Dale had no such cover-up. He just hunched his head submissively.

"Aaram is...angry?" he asked, softly. His pointy black ears splayed out to either side, and he dipped his head close toward the floor.

Adam sighed. "No, Dale. I'm not angry. I'm just...I don't quite know what's going on. I think I'd better stay away for a bit." It sounded lame, even to himself.

Dale's eyes widened even further. Adam could see white around the edges. "Arram leave?" he asked, an alarmed whine creeping into his voice.

Adam frowned lopsidedly. He held his palms up defensively. "No, buddy," he insisted. "I'm not leaving. I just think it's a good idea to stay a little further apart."

Dale-wolf started shaking, like a dog during a thunderstorm. He sank forward, bracing his hands on the floorboards and struggling to stay up on all fours. His posture reeked of hesitance and fear. "Arram leave," he lamented softly. "Darre arr... arr...arlone?" The wolf hung his head, nose pointed at the floorboards.

Adam watched the miserable wolf, his face screwed into an agonized grimace.

He was going to have to choose here, he realized. Stay away and stay safe, or dive in to comfort Dale in his hour of greatest need, and expose himself inextricably to whatever consequences that decision would bring.

He stared at the meek, despondent werewolf ranger for a moment.

Sighing, he stepped forward.

The wolf looked hopefully up at him, his big eyes wide with longing, and Adam reflected that this was probably all animal now. Human Dale would never have given him a second chance.

"C'mere, puppy," he grunted, reaching for the wolf's muzzle. "Let's get these cords off of you."

Wide-eyed and silent, the wolf allowed Adam to remove the tied-off cord from the base of his muzzle. The fur was matted flat to the wolf's muzzle where the cord had been, so Adam gently ruffled it up with his thumbs.

The wolf stared at him while it was happening, and then slowly let his eyes drift shut in the same dazed, half-hypnotized expression as earlier. He looked blissfully happy, so Adam kept rubbing his muzzle, and finally the wolf let out a soft, contented sigh.

"You stay," the wolf said, contentedly.

With those words, Adam felt the bizarre pounding return to his heart. Dale was relaxed and docile in his arms. Adam had control of him again. The wolf was his. Adam started to feel good now, too, and it was only then that he realized how upsetting it had been that the smaller wolf was so distraught. Adam wanted_to make him happy. He wanted to take care of him. He _needed to. His very being demanded it.

Gently closing his thick fingers around the base of the wolf's muzzle, holding it from underneath, Adam took a deep breath and pressed up against the animal. He put his other arm around Dale's back, under his arm, and with that he had the muscular wolf effectively trapped. He gently tilted Dale's muzzle upward, watching the cords of muscle and tendon ripple under the wolf's thick fur, in his powerful, exposed neck and throat.

Dale, for his part, rumbled and shivered gently. He arched his back, flaring his nostrils, and Adam smelled something that he immediately identified (somehow) as arousal. The wolf let out as soft chuff, staring at him trustingly with his big yellow eyes.

Adam cocked his head. The wolf was absolutely his property now. He could do whatever he wished with him. Kate would be at least another hour. Surely there was nothing to be hurt by playing with his conquest...?

Adam slid gently away from the wolf, taking the beast's bound wrists in his hands, and scooting off to his side. He pulled Dale-wolf's wrists upward, around his muzzle and up over his head. The baffled wolf furrowed his brow, and his look of confusion only intensified when Adam tugged him over backward.

Cradling one arm under the smaller beast's back, Adam laid him out on the hardwood. He pulled the wolf's arms taut over his head, pinning his wrists to the floor with one big hand. Scooting in next to him, he lay next to the prone wolf.

"How do you like this, Dale?" he rumbled, staring down at the animal. "Being laid out and helpless."

Dale bristled under his gaze, arching his back and opening his mouth. "H-hep-ess?" He withered.

Adam could tell the dominant stare-down was making the wolf uncomfortable, but a part of him was really getting off on it. He stared on.

Still stubbornly refusing eye contact, the wolf began panting softly, his pink tongue poking hotly out of his muzzle.

Adam let his eyes rove down the trapped ranger's form. He lifted his huge right hand and planted it on the wolf's barrel chest, feeling every feature of his thick, slab-like musculature. Dale arched his back and grunted, shivering, but Adam didn't stop. He dug his fingernails through the fur over the wolf's cobblestone abs, making shallow furrows in the animal's shaggy fur.

Dale made a shuffling noise as he squirmed on the hardwood, gritting his teeth in discomfort. He glanced pleadingly up at Adam, his golden eyes wide and concerned.

Adam snorted. "Oh no, Ranger Dale," he grunted. "I beat you fair and square, and now you're mine." He dragged his fingernails through Dale's chest fur, up toward the werewolf's throat.

Dale arched his back and shivered, struggling to lower his thickly-muscled arms, but only succeeded in tensing his stomach.

Staring him down, Adam let his big hand drift up to the wolf's throat. He planted his hand around Dale's neck, gently tightening his fingers, feeling the blood and the heat and the air coursing through Dale's most vulnerable part. He began to squeeze.

The ranger-wolf let out a desperate, begging whine, his eyes wide and desperate.

Adam chuckled. "Don't worry, Dale, I'll be a good alpha." He let his gaze darken. "You've made my life miserable for a month, though. I think I need to make you squirm a little more." He gave the helpless werewolf's throat one more firm squeeze, and then let his hand slide down to gently massage the wolf's thick pecs. "You were kind of a prick, you know."

Dale glanced down at him and snorted, frowning. He stuck his lower lip out defiantly, and one of his lower fangs popped into view. You deserved it, the wolf said, with the expression in his annoyed eyes.

Adam stared at him, and felt his upper lip twitching. "You disagree?" he said, icily. "Well, little pup, I'm afraid your opinion is moot." He lunged forward for Dale's bound wrists.

The wolf yelped in surprise as Adam grabbed his wrists, and began struggling as the big electrician dragged him across the hardwood. He flailed his big digitigrade paws behind him, writhing and thrashing like a raccoon in a trap, but he was no match for Adam's superior strength.

The larger human dragged the ranger to the back of the couch and shoved him toward one of the thick wooden legs. He dug his fingers in under the base of the sofa and heaved it upwards an inch or two, surprised at how light the giant old sofa was. Stooping, he shoved the cord from Dale's furry wrists under the leg, and dropped it back into place. Then he let go.

The thick black werewolf tried to pull his arms down as soon as he felt Adam's paws leave him, but discovered he was restrained to the couch a moment later. Squirming around to look at the couch leg he was bound to, the wolf let out a plaintive whine and yanked uselessly on his bonds, making his arms tense gorgeously.

Licking his teeth and grinning, Adam reached for the wolf's chest. He dug his fingers into Dale's wide furry armpits. The wolf grunted in surprise.

Adam dragged his fingernails down the wolf's flanks, moving toward his waist in a low crouch.

Dale arched his back and growled loudly, gritting his teeth and writhing in discomfort.

Adam hit the wolf's waist and snagged his boxers, yanking them roughly over the wolf's sheath, and then Dale really went crazy.

The wolf yowled, wide-eyed and panicked, and tried to pull his muscular legs up, hard, his quarter-inch thick claws scrabbling on the hardwood. Even as thick as they were, the wolf's thick legs were no match for Adam's massive arms, and the big man wrestled the wolf's boxers down his legs with almost no difficulty. They caught on his softball-sized paws, and Adam snarled in a sound startlingly similar to Dale's own noises.

Dale fought roughly against the couch leg and against Adam's death grip on his boxers, his muscles roiling like steel cables under his thick black fur. The sight of him struggling uselessly, all that power rendered helpless under Adam's own superior strength, set Adam's blood on fire, and he felt an adrenaline rush and a throbbing boner in his own workpants.

Rrrrriiipppp! Dale's boxers finally gave way under Adam's strength, and split down the middle. Adam careened backwards but regained his balance almost immediately.

The snarling werewolf only had half a second to realize what had happened, before Adam lunged at him a second time.

Baring his teeth, the big human roughly planted his mitt-like paws on the wolf's knees and spread them violently.

_"ARRRRP!"_Dale yelped in terror, trying to double over and succeeding only in beautifully tensing his abs and dragging the couch a few inches with a deafening squeal.

Adam thrust forward, diving his head toward Dale's vulnerable soft parts.

_"HAWRRROOOO!"_the wolf yowled, terrified.

Laying practically on his stomach, braced on the wolf's tensed, spread legs, Adam stopped, perched half an inch over the wolf's exposed scrotum.

Wide-eyed and alarmed, the black wolf stared down at him, his ears cemented flat against his head.

Adam grinned savagely up at him. "I _said_I was going to be nice to you," he rumbled. God, this was such a rush. He could make this wolf worship grovel at his knees if he so desired.

Dale stared at him, shivering, for another moment, and then averted his eyes, breathing hard, his entire body tense and alarmed. Adam could smell him now. He stank of fear and submission.

Adam contemplated the wolf's balls and sheath for another moment, and then lowered his face to roughly nuzzle the wolf's fuzzy ballsac.

Dale jerked in surprise and tried to pull his legs back. He let out a shuddery breath, splaying his fat toes in discomfort.

Adam grunted. "I just want to see what it feels like," he grumbled. He nuzzled the wolf's dangling balls, opening his mouth and letting out a hot sigh. He dug his nose in against the base of Dale's fat sheath, and inhaled deeply. The wolf still smelled a lot like Dale, warm and soft and grizzly, and the scent made Adam's heart pound. Had he smelled Dale up-close before? He couldn't remember.

The wolf squirmed in discomfort, whimpering softly, and Adam felt bad for him, so he lifted his big left hand and planted it on the wolf's muscular stomach. He stroked gently, dipping his head and concentrating on the wolf's plump sheath, inhaling deeply, over and over again, letting out hot breaths over the wolf's fuzzy balls.

Dale grunted quietly, and the next time Adam looked up the wolf's mouth was partially open and he was watching again. Not defiantly, but intently, urgently. As Adam watched, the wolf's pink tongue poked slowly out, and Adam saw the wolf's barrel chest move like a mountain range as the ranger took a very deep breath.

There was something else in Dale's scent now, and it made Adam's mouth water.

He reached up with his right hand, too, and planted that one on Dale's stomach, as well. But he didn't stay put. He dragged his fingernails through Dale's shaggy fur down the lowest expanse of his abdominals, over his pubic bone, and around the fat pronouncement of his sheath. He kept going, circling Dale's package, and gliding his fingers very gently under Dale's balls. He tickled him gently, playing with the werewolf's taint, softly nuzzling his sheath as he went.

Dale half-closed his eyes and shuddered extensively, arching his back and growling. He grit his teeth, pulling his upper lip back into a snarl. The wolf's sheath was plump and heavy now, and Adam could see deep red within its confines as it began to open up.

Adam grasped the wolf's heavy balls and tugged them out of the way, dipping his head so he could nuzzle directly at the werewolf's taint.

Dale arched his back and groaned loudly, and a wave of sweaty, acrid scent washed over Adam as the wolf's fat meat slid steadily out of his sheath.

Adam reached up for the wolf's meat as soon as it was in view. He started pumping it. The wolf's meat was the size of a can of Red Bull, but felt twice as heavy and scalding hot. As Adam worked him over, the wolf grew startlingly erect.

Dale arched his back harder, curling his shoulders in, tilting his head so far upward that Adam could only see the underside of his muzzle. Adam heard him whimper blissfully and the muscular wolf shuddered.

He was his. Adam owned him.

Licking his teeth, the big man raised his head. "How's that feel, Dale?" he whispered, working the wolf's dick over. It was deep red, like blood, with a normal head but a strong taper at the tip. The base seemed to have a thick bulge in it, which was getting thicker.

Dale gasped loudly. "Ahhdam!" he moaned, shivering violently. His voice had an edge of a desperate howl in it.

He'd said his name. Unprompted, no less.

"Good boy," Adam rumbled.

Panting, the wolf looked down at him, his golden eyes wide and apprehensive. "G'boy?" he gasped, shivering violently.

Adam licked his teeth, and nodded. "Yeah, Dale," he whispered, leaning his head forward and taking the wolf's fat cock into his mouth. He pursed his lips and sucked, hard.

_"Aaaaahh!"_Dale gasped, jerking as if hurt. Adam held him down by the hips, and the wolf struggled as if trying to escape.

Inhaling through his nose, Adam relaxed his mouth around the wolf's dick and slid lower. It was surprisingly warm, and filled his mouth quite pleasantly. He sucked hard, lowering his head until the head of Dale's monster wolf cock was lodged firmly in the back of his throat, feeling his mouth fill with slimy fluids as the wolf's throbbing member leaked milky precum into his throat. He swallowed, rumbling.

"Howroorooroo!" Dale yowled, writhing and gasping. Every thick muscle in his body was tense and squirming now, and the wolf burned a ferocious amount of energy. And yet he was helpless to escape. He didn't want to escape anymore, Adam knew. He had enslaved his desire as well as his body.

That thought made his skin feel like it was on fire.

There was one more thing left to do.

Still nursing the wolf's fat meat, Adam let his thick fingers slip between down between the wolf's legs.

Dale squirmed blissfully under his ministrations until the moment Adam had his middle finger planted right up against the wolf's asshole, and then he realized what was about to happen. He tensed his entire body, not that it mattered.

Adam pushed his thick middle finger into the wolf as hard as he dared without lube. He forced his way into the wolf's entrance easily, sliding in to his third knuckle.

_"ARRRP!"_Dale yelped, jerking hard enough to rattle the trinkets on the nearby bookshelves. He tried to writhe away, his thick toeclaws skittering on the hardwood, but he was too startled and uncoordinated to move himself anywhere.

Adam slid off the wolf's cock, slurping up the excess fluids. "Ssssshhh," he whispered, stroking the wolf's stomach with his other hand. He nuzzled the wolf's slimy, drooling cock, smearing wolf juice and his own spit into his stubble, staring Dale right in the eye as he did it.

Dale writhed in discomfort, gritting his teeth and whimpering.

Adam curled his finger inside the wolf, roughly massaging the animal's prostate, whispering to him as he nuzzled and kissed at his throbbing cockhead.

The werewolf watched him helplessly for another few moments, breathing hard and fast, and then slowly he fell victim to the dull waves of pleasure washing over him.

"That's it," Adam rumbled. "Give in, little wolf. Show me you're really mine." He rubbed his lips gently against the edge of the wolf's cockhead, letting his tongue dart out, nuzzling it lovingly.

Dale blinked slowly, letting out a slow breath, and Adam felt him relax his asshole. He held his finger in place, massaging the wolf's insides with slow, rhythmic, gentle pressure. The wolf stared stupidly down at him, his mouth opening slowly, his tongue gently poking out. He shivered in pleasure, and somewhere underneath him was a loose floorboard, because it went CLAKCLAKCLAK! when the wolf's leg shook.

Adam raised his head and stared at him. "I'm going to mount you now," he said, quietly.

Dale stared back at him, his eyes suddenly clearing, and nodded.

Adam grunted. "Wait here," he ordered. He slid his finger out of the wolf and stood up.

Dale grimaced, but bravely, he did not make a sound.

It only took Adam a few seconds to dig the Astroglide out of the bottom section of his toolbox, but when he got back it was like he was seeing Dale for the first time.

He had finally freed his wrists from the bonds that held him, which was not very interesting to Adam, since he was completely confident of the wolf's obedience at this time.

What caught his attention was the black wolf's size and power, his muscular perfection, his jaws massive and dangerous and dripping with saliva. He glared at Adam, a perfect killing and fucking machine. For all intents and purposes, he looked like he could rule the world.

But Adam knew the truth.

As soon as he was close enough, he threw his own huge body at the wolf, pinning him to the floor. The wolf struggled, and he was strong, but Adam was stronger, which meant that the other animal was as good as his slave.

"Hold still, little wolf," Adam snarled, raising himself to his knees, digging his fingers into the wolf's ruff with one hand and frantically wrestling open his workpants with the other. Dale yelped indignantly, fighting to get away from him, as Adam manhandled his own cock out of his jeans. Adam was more like eight or nine solid inches and as thick as a nightstick, making him considerably bigger than Dale in every category. He was rock-hard and leaking already.

He struggled to uncap the lube as Dale struggled to get away from him. Grunting, he dropped his weight onto the smaller wolf. Dale yelped loudly as he was pinned to the floor. Adam ground his cock up under the wolf's tail but he wasn't lubed yet.

Awkwardly, he rolled partially onto his side, still pinning Dale down with all his weight, squirted lube over his cock like he was hosing down a campfire, and quickly jerked himself a few times.

Dale turned around and snarled loudly, foam dripping from his jaws.

Snarling back, Adam rolled back over and stabbed at the wolf with his throbbing cock.

He had to stick it two or three times before he finally speared the wolf's asshole, and just as he felt something start to give, Dale yelped in surprise and pain. Then Adam really let him have it.

He thrust forward, pushing so quickly and deeply into the wolf that he had to arm-crawl on his knees. He threw his left arm around the wolf's neck and pulled him backwards as he impaled him on his preposterously-huge cock. His ass fur tickled Adam's cock the entire time he was sliding in.

_"ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPPP!"_Dale squealed, and just like that all the fight went out of him. He stiffened; every muscle he had control over stiffened, but he was no longer struggling.

Grunting, buried in the wolf up to the hilt, Adam shifted on top of the conquered werewolf. He felt shaggy fur pressing against the entire front of his body, pinned underneath him, and it felt amazing. It just felt so right.

He humped shallowly at the werewolf, letting his cock slide in and out just half an inch at a time.

Dale grunted and dipped his head underneath him.

Adam tightened the headlock with his left arm, bringing Dale's shaggy head up to his face, and he nuzzled the werewolf's muzzle. Some of his facial fur was wet with slick wolf sweat, and the sensation of nuzzling a slick, hot, wet werewolf muzzle made Adam feel dizzy. His cock throbbed inside the captive animal as he adjusted to the sensation of being mouth-to-muzzle with another wolf. No...not another wolf. Just a wolf. Right?

Shivering, Dale hung his tongue out, panting gently.

Watching the wolf intently, Adam pushed his hips forward a little.

_"Nnf!"_Dale chuffed. He retracted his tongue and grit his teeth.

Adam rumbled, clearing his throat. "You can take it," he said, huskily. He dug his cock into the flattened wolf again.

Dale grit his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut, and shivered. "Nnnnf!" he gasped, softly.

Adam pressed his beard against the wolf's shaggy muzzle, digging into him again.

Dale shivered again, half-opening his mouth now. He was starting to enjoy it.

Adam rumbled, opening his mouth, too. "I knew you'd love this," he whispered. "I love it too. You're such a good boy." It felt good to say it. He started humping gently at the helpless monster.

Dale let out a rough breath and sucked in another, his eyes still closed, opening his mouth wider. He'd given Adam a chance. He was being such a good wolf. He deserved a reward.

On impulse, Adam licked at the wolf's muzzle. It felt like something a wolf would like. It would show him Adam was being affectionate. It would show him he was right to submit. It would solidify his place in the pack. It would solidify _Adam's_place. He licked the short fur of Dale's muzzle. He expected the situation to be strange, but it wasn't. Dale's muzzle was warm and his fur was bristly and the slimy sheen of saliva felt...just right.

The wolf angled his head and licked Adam back, slurping across his lips and the end of his nose. He exhaled shakily as he did it, his yellow eyes half-closed and dreamy, and Adam could feel the wolf's thick canine teeth graze his lips.

He pushed his hips forward, hard and faster than he had before, and Dale stiffened beneath him. "Ngh!" the werewolf grunted.

Adam thrust into him again, and again, and as Dale shoved his furry ass back against the electrician, they finally settled into a rhythm, one that Adam had desired since he'd first laid eyes on the ranger a month ago.

Their rhythm was swift and brutal, almost the same pace Adam set for himself when he was exercising, one he wouldn't have guessed he'd have been able to maintain. He ground himself into the helpless wolf over and over again, fast and shallow, both of them nearly immobile except for Adam's hips, spearing the wolf anew every few seconds.

As he violated the animal Adam pinned him to the floor, crushing his legs and chest underneath him, holding him down. With his tongue he entered the wolf from the other end, and Dale allowed him to, submitting entirely without resistance, giving himself completely to the bigger animal. All teeth and claws and muscle, the wolf simply lay there, and took it.

"Yeah...yeah...yeah...yeah...yeah..." Adam groaned, his brutal humping of the werewolf growing more and more frenzied. He felt his leg muscles start to burn from his tenuous stance on the hardwood, and his ass starting to burn from the ferocious humping he was doing. It was good burn, and it excited him more. He kept going.

"Nnnrrrggghhh!"_Dale yowled, gritting his teeth and snorting loudly. "_Arram!" he gasped, tilting his head to the side and squeezing his eyes shut. He was baring his throat.

An insane desire roared into Adam's head, and he lunged forward to bit down hard on the werewolf's back of the werewolf's neck, yanking his head back hard as he did it. Dale let out an ear-splitting yelp.

Something started to change.

It began in his hands. There was a burning-hot sensation, like his hands had gone to sleep and were just starting to regain feeling. The muscles in his hands and forearms twitched and spasmed, and for a moment it felt like when he accidentally shocked himself with a live wire, exactly like that feeling, complete with the momentary numbness and pins-and-needles a moment later, and that was when Adam realized what was happening.

His hands swelled up in a matter of seconds, and the explosion of fur started immediately. His skin felt like it was sliding off, and then his entire body went completely numb at the same time. Adam felt light-headed and dizzy, little white stars exploding across his field of vision, and when he regained feeling he was in someone else's body, furry from the inside out. Every single skin receptor in his body reported furs rubbing against other furs, and for a moment his skin was crawling and Adam tensed from head to toe.

The skeletal changes coursed through him with a sensation unlike anything he had ever felt before, a peculiar combination of needing to crack every joint in his body and a bizarre, unstoppable swelling. Adam felt himself get big, and he sucked in a deep breath in his massive chest. He snarled viciously, the deep growl filling the ranger's station, and Dale yelped in fear underneath him.

His right foot felt incredibly compressed for a moment, intense pain bordering on agony, and then with a tearing sound suddenly the pressure was released. His boot loosened to the point where it felt like strips of leather and shreds of cloth draped loosely around his foot. And then Adam realized, it was strips of leather and shreds of cloth. His foot had exploded his one remaining construction-grade boot. His toes felt big and thick, positively massive, and they were stuck in the wreckage of his boots, but it didn't affect his stance over the smaller wolf, who he was still skewering.

The muzzle and tail happened at the same time, and they were both so bizarre - nerves where there were none and the insane sensation of a spinal extension - that he actually blacked out for a moment. His nervous system simply couldn't process the change, and the world went static-y for a moment and his view of the world cascaded abruptly to blackness.

When his brain kicked back on, the massive wolf was very disoriented. He growled loudly, his head spinning, snorting loudly. There was another wolf near him - no, underneath him, he had the other wolf flattened beneath his massive bulk. He felt a warm, wet tongue on his thick, wide muzzle, slurping lovingly and submissively, and suddenly everything was right with the world. The large wolf opened his eyes and blinked slowly.

Pack. He was with pack. The smaller black wolf underneath him was known to him, and the lesser beast continued licking his muzzle. It made the large wolf relax, even though, for some reason, his own white muzzle seemed to absolutely fill his frame of vision. He was so disoriented. The color white looked wrong. Why?

"Arram?" whispered his packmate, and the big wolf knew his name.

Relieved to be in the company of a known wolf, the big animal leaned and nuzzled his black packmate, and the smaller wolf shivered in pleasure. No - ecstasy. He could smell it. "Arram," the smaller beast moaned, and the scent of arousal pouring off of him made the larger wolf's cock throb to attention. As his cock returned to hardness, Adam was startled to realize he was already inside the smaller wolf.

Adam leaned in to roughly nuzzle the smaller wolf's thick neck, and the small beast's name came to him. He slurped Dare's face, growling softly, and bit gently at the submissive wolf's muzzle, feeling himself grow to full hardness inside the other wolf.

Dale dipped his muzzle, whining softly, his tongue hanging out. "Bigger," he grunted, gritting his teeth, but Adam didn't know what that meant so he did what his body commanded him to. He slid into and out of the wolf, breathing hard, feeling his own big muscles working as if for the first time, his thick tail lashing bizarrely behind him, the only sensation he was worried about the sensation of his massive throbbing wolfhood spreading the smaller wolf wide.

After a moment, the smaller wolf's ruff found its way into his mouth, and Adam closed his teeth around it, and with his dick inside his packmate and his head full of endorphins, Adam became the second-happiest werewolf in all the world.

Experimentally, he slid his dick a small measure out of his trapped packmate, and thrust it forward again.

Dale whined loudly, pushing back up against him, dipping his head with his tongue hanging out.

Adam repeated the motion, harder, and harder still.

Dale pushed faithfully back against him, his pawpads and claws barely holding him in place, his legs shivering hard as Adam spread him open and filled him to bursting. The bigger wolf could tell his conquest would not be able to hold out for much longer.

Very well.

Adam bucked his hips as hard as he dared, his jaws clenched around Dale's thick ruff, crushing the wolf between his teeth and his cock. The thickened base of his wolfhood spread Dale as wide as he had ever been opened, and then suddenly the thick knot in the base of Adam's cock popped into the smaller wolf and stayed there. Underneath him, he felt Dale jerk violently in surprise.

_"HRRNGH!"_the little wolf grunted as he was plugged tight, shivering violently in place, completely helpless even to move now. He squirmed, caught. Adam knew by his scent that the little wolf was on the very edge of climax himself, but now that he was tied the smaller animal would be helpless to speed the process along. Dale hung his head and moaned desperately, his eyes half-shut and his tongue hanging out.

Adam bucked shallowly against him, inhaling deeply, snarling involuntarily. The sensations began to build within him, of Dale's ass clamped around his knot combined with the lesser lupine's muscular body squirming against his stomach and chest and thighs, and Adam felt like his chest was going to explode.

Squeezing the impaled wolf in a crushing embrace, Adam grit his teeth and bore down, digging his muzzle into Dale's shoulder as his lust completely took over his body.

_"Hrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrnnghhhhhhhhhhhhh!"_Adam howled, feeling his massive wolfcock jerk and spew into the other wolf, pouring hot wolf seed into him by what felt like the gallon. He lost control of his massive arms and his legs, and he squeezed Dale with crushing force, holding him steady against the flow of wolf cum gushing into him, digging his claws into the other wolf's chest hard enough to draw blood.

Writhing in the larger wolf's grasp, Dale whined explosively, his eyes opening wide and alarmed, and his own climax roared over him like an ocean wave. He jerked in surprise and pain in Arram's grasp, shivering violently, and jerked his head back as his own body followed suit. _"AwroooroooROOOOOOOO!"_Dale howled, clinging to Adam's thick forearms, his unattended wolfhood gushing thick gobs of wolf semen into his stomach and chest fur, all the way up to the underside of his muzzle.

Still filling the little wolf from the inside, Adam began to lose feeling in his thick fingers and hands. His meat just kept unloading into the helpless little wolf trapped in his grasp, for a long, long time, filling him, as his little black packmate squirmed and clenched and shivered around his invading member.

The little wolf finished first, shuddering as if freezing, squirming uncomfortably and whining loudly. He clung to Adam like he was fearful of the night.

The massive wolf on top felt his cock finally relax, and then it was like all the strength went out of his body. He couldn't move his arms even to release the little wolf from his tight grip, so he simply went limp. Let the little wolf take it from here, he thought. He trusted him.

They tilted over to the side. Dale grunted. Adam simply exhaled.

The smaller wolf shivered for a good full minute after they were finished. Adam held him tightly and positioned his muzzle to lick the side of Dale's muzzle. He tasted content and relaxed.

There was something else floating around in Adam's mind. Something to do. Or...prepare for?

He blinked his yellow eyes, frowning, staring into the night. What...how...what did....

Dale shivered again, letting out a soft, contented whine, and craned his head to affectionately kiss the underside of Adam's muzzle.

Adam remembered this wolf was his to protect, and nothing mattered beyond that. He held guard over him the best way he knew how: he held him in his arms.

That was all Adam could remember, so he kicked off the strange pieces of fabric clinging to his paws, made a conscious decision to ignore the strange fabric coverings around his legs, rested his head on his packmate's neck, and closed his eyes.

In just a few seconds, he was sound asleep.

5:45 A.M.

Daylight was just beginning to fill the sky when Kate Campbell made it to the ranger station.

She pulled in, taking care to point the nose end of her hatchback back toward the main road. She would have a quick exit if she needed one.

Kate hated to think why she might need one, but her mother hadn't raised an idiot, and when she was walking into a situation like "He's...changing, don't bring the authorities or we'll never see him again," it wasn't hard to theorize that she might leave the ranger station at a full run. Kate mulled this over as she tied her red hair behind her head in a tidy ponytail.

She unclipped her door keys and scrambled out of the Focus, leaving the driver's door standing open behind her. Walking briskly to the front door, her heart pounding with adrenaline, she looked around.

Dale's truck was still there. So was Adam's. Neither of them appeared to have moved. Neither vehicle showed signs of being disturbed. There were no car keys or articles of clothing lying abandoned in the gravel driveway. No blood stains. Looking up at the building, she detected no broken windows or bullet holes. So far, so good.

Tightening her right hand around the stun gun in her purse, Kate unlocked the front door. She opened it loudly.

As soon as she entered she heard scrambling near the top of the stairs.

"Who's there?" she called, loudly.

"Oh shit!" she heard Adam say, huskily, on the main floor. Not a great sign. His voice sounded deep, like he had just woken up.

"I'm coming up," Kate announced, stepping toward the stairs.

There was a scramble of rustling and thumping at the top of the stairs.

Withdrawing the stun gun, Kate started up the steps. She pressed herself toward the right side, edging up with her back against the wood-paneled exterior wall, her stun gun raised and her thumb on the FIRE button.

Adam and Dale weren't hard to find. Their condition, however, was altogether unexpected.

Adam Chaney stood a few yards inside the entrance, his shirt off, his pants open and unbuttoned. He was frantically buckling the belt of his dust-covered navy blue workpants, and when his thick bare arms moved in certain ways, Kate could just make out Dale cowering deeper in the room. In the occasional flashes of Dale, she saw bare skin and black hair and absolutely nothing else.

Kate stared, her mouth hanging open.

"G'morning!" Adam said, cheerfully.

"It's not what it looks like!" Dale cried from behind him.

Kate cocked her head and stared at them. Yep. Adam and Dale. Clearly getting dressed.

Adam considered, glancing back at Dale. "Actually, the part that you're probably thinking of is _totally_what it looks like." He grinned a big stupid goofy grin back at the ranger.

Kate couldn't see much of Dale, but she did catch him glaring daggers back at Adam.

She frowned sourly. "Alright, you imbeciles. There's nobody else here? Nobody's in mortal peril?"

Adam shook his head.

Kate rolled her eyes. "Put some clothes on and then you're explaining." She turned around, facing the entrance stairwell. "You have ten seconds."

There was a frantic rustling behind her.

Sighing, Kate felt like she was back in college and she'd walked in on her roommate having sex with some fratboy moron.

"It's really not what it looks like!" Dale wailed pathetically.

Adam chuckled, a deep bass. "Dude, you gotta stop saying that."

Eight...nine...ten. "Time's up." Kate whirled around.

Dale was still bare-chested and barely wearing his hunter green workpants (_minus_any undergarments, Kate noticed), facing away from her, and he yelped pitifully as his thick legs fought the canvas. He toppled over onto the couch, eyes wide and alarmed, crimson from the middle of his chest up to the top of his head. Adam, on the other hand, leisurely picked a white shirt off the coffee table and handed it to Dale. "Hi!" he greeted Kate, brightly.

Kate stared at him, and then looked down at his thick chest. He wasn't hard on the eyes. "Leave the shirt off," she said. "I at least deserve a little eye candy for getting dragged out here."

Adam processed that and then grinned at her like a labrador. If he had a tail it would be wagging, she thought.

"Now then. You want to tell me what the hell happened? I assume your sexcapades weren't the reason for the twenty frantic phone calls last night." She looked back and forth between the dopey electrician and the cowering ranger. Dale scrambled off the couch and paced around, looking for his shoes and socks. "You can't even find your clothes? You idiots must've fucked like _animals_in here."

Adam's grin actually increased in size. He tried to exchange a glance at Dale, who turned a deeper shade of crimson and very deliberately avoided his gaze.

Dale pulled his shirt over his head, swallowing. "It's nothing," the ranger grunted, his voice low and angry. "We had a few drinks. Got to foolin' around. May have made some unnecessary phone calls." He glared at Adam, and then turned back to Kate. "Sorry to ruin your evening."

Kate narrowed her eyes at him, and Dale practically shriveled before her gaze.

Dale lowered his head like a scolded dog. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

Adam cleared his throat. "Dale's a werewolf," he said, simply.

Wide-eyed, Dale froze.

It took Kate's brain a moment to process the words that Adam had spoken. She looked up at him very slowly. "I'm sorry," she said. "What was that?"

The big electrician cocked his head. "Dale's a werewolf, and he turned into this beast thing, and then like an asshole he turned ME into a beast thing, and then we had sex." He stared at them. "Crazy, wild, man-beast sex." He nodded, thoughtfully. "We thought he had the flu, but he actually had...werewolfism." The bald electrician nodded gravely.

Kate stared at him, and then at Dale, and then back at Adam, and then back at Dale. Adam looked smug and vaguely dopey...so, normal...and Dale looked horrified -down to his very core. Neither of them seemed particularly amused.

Kate slid her stun gun slowly back out of her purse.

Adam's eyes widened. "Whoa, hey!" he said. "I didn't say we were dangerous!"

Kate narrowed her eyes. "I don't think you are. I am very dangerous, however!" She pointed the stun gun at Adam. "And if you idiots think it's funny that I drove 85 miles at five in the morning on no sleep for a fucking prank_you do not know the _meaning of the word dangerou-"

Adam cut her off, waving his big hands in front of her. "No, seriously!" he gasped. "I mean it! Dale, tell her!" He turned to the ranger.

Head hunched down, Dale swallowed, frowning. He glanced over to glare at Adam.

"It's okay," Adam said, softly. "I got yer back."

Dale stared at him for a long time, and finally rolled his eyes, sighing. Another few moments passed with agonizing slowness. He looked away. "I don't know what I got to tell her that you didn't already," he whispered.

Kate stared at them both. "Oh please." She was still holding the stun gun, but she couldn't decide which of them to point it at.

Adam grunted. "You're right. It's much more likely that Dale charmed the pants off of me, a handsome bisexual twenty-something with eighteen-inch biceps and literally dozens of other sexual prospects. Because he's such a smooth guy."

Kate thought about that, and slowly lowered her stun gun. "Okay," she said. "I suppose you do have a point there."

Dale furrowed his brows angrily. "Hey!"

She turned toward Adam. "I'm only entertaining this thought because I haven't slept in 28 hours and I am running on gas station coffee, but I'm gonna need more proof than that."

Adam nodded, and then looked around. It only took him a moment. "Here," he said, taking two steps and reaching down for something.

It was a construction boot, a big one, 16 at least. It definitely looked like Adam's. Or at least, it looked like it had been Adam's, because the leather upper was separated from the rubber sole, which was nowhere to be found. It looked like the boot had burst from within, like someone had inflated a car airbag inside of it. Frayed yellow switching hung from the mangled leather boot-top like dangling jungle vines.

Kate stared at the boot, and two thoughts popped into her head. The first was Hey! That's a great prop for such a lame prank! The other was Holy fucking shit Dale's a werewolf!

She cocked her head. "Got anything else?" She felt surprisingly calm about the entire thing.

Adam looked around. "How about that?" He gestured toward the break room door.

Kate stared at that a moment. The door had clearly been destroyed. Bits of it were scattered all around the floor.

She blinked. "Umm. Wow. Could...could have been your psychosexual Olympics." She turned back to him. "Got anything better?"

Dale let out a strangled whine, and the sound was so undeniably lupine that it made the hairs on the back of Kate's neck stand up. "Katie, you don't believe this shit, do you?" he whimpered. He looked back at Adam and back at her, hunching his shoulders anxiously. He even held himself like a scared dog.

"Ngh!" Adam grunted, and Kate heard what sounded like knuckles popping crazy-loud, and when she turned back her rational brain took a little vacation.

Adam was looking down at his hands, except they weren't his hands anymore; they were gigantic white-furred wolf-paws, except they weren't _exactly_paws, they were more like hand-paws, and holy shit Adam was a werewolf too. He looked at his paws and grinned, satisfied.

Kate stared, and felt strangely calm. "Okay," she said. "I'm convinced." She turned back to Dale. "Why didn't you tell me you were a werewolf?"

Dale stared pathetically at both of them, dipping his head and hunching over anxiously. He looked nervously back and forth, his eyes wide, like he might make a break for it.

Adam straightened up, eyes wide. "Hey, it's okay," he said, soothingly. "Katie's a friend. She's gonna help us figure this thing out." He crossed the room to Dale in three steps, and just when Kate thought the ranger was going to bolt Adam put his furry arms around him. He held him tight and slid around behind him.

As Kate watched, Dale visibly calmed. Adam pressed his bare chest up to the ranger's back, and Dale took a few deep breaths. He blinked as if in surprise, breathing deeply, and before thirty seconds had passed he was all but asleep in Adam's arms.

"It's alright," Adam whispered into Dale's ear, nuzzling the back of his head, squeezing him gently. Dale reached up to gently touch Adam's furry forearms, looking relaxed and subdued.

Kate watched the two of them, and something occurred to her. She narrowed her eyes. "Oh my God. You've got the behaviors, too. Look at that, you've already established a pack structure."

Adam looked up at her, wide-eyed and clueless. Dale hung his head, frowning in shame. He clearly didn't want to be the submissive wolf. But he didn't deny that he was.

A torrent of information began roiling through Kate's brain, consisting of basically every piece of canine-related information she remembered from ten different biology courses. Now her curiosity began to get the better of her.

She took ten steps to snatch a magnifying glass off of one of the exam tables and strode over to Adam and Dale with it. "Palm up," she said.

Blinking in confusion, and then grinning like an idiot, Adam lifted his big white-furred right paw and opened his fingers.

It was undeniably, impossibly real, right in front of her. Hand and finger structures were notoriously difficult to replicate, even for big-budget film studios, and Kate could tell immediately that she was looking at a piece of a living organism.

She grasped the back of Adam's paw with one hand (it was huge, it was like holding a throw pillow), moderately surprised at how soft and warm it was, and peered over his palm with her glass at hand.

The leather was fine-grained and absolutely canine in structure. Adam waggled his fingers and she saw the leather wrinkle and stretch. There was a wide, variegated scar spanning across the flat of his palm.

"Mmm," she said. "Is this a scar you...normally have?" She looked up at him.

Adam blinked at her. "I grabbed a saucepan off the stove," he said. "When I was six."

"Interesting," Kate said again, and released his hand. Adam put both his furry paws onto Dale's shoulders. The smaller ranger shivered. Kate looked at him, and he wouldn't make eye contact.

"Dale," she said. "Are you okay?"

Dale let out a shuddering breath, and shrugged. "I guess so," he said, frowning.

On impulse, Kate reached forward and stroked Dale's short spiky hair. The other ranger flinched at first, standing between the two of them.

She stared at him. "Dale," she said softly. "I get it, this is extremely fucked up. But if anybody knows how to deal with...werewolfism...it's a couple of park rangers. Okay? We're gonna get through this."

Looking sick, the ranger swallowed. "Lycanthropy," he said, smiling weakly. "_Werewolfism_isn't a word."

Kate mock-scowled at him. "I know it's not a word," she snapped.

They stared at each other for a moment, and the Kate leaned forward and enveloped him in a tight hug.

Dale sighed audibly, and gently squeezed her back. They parted after a moment.

She smiled at him and squeezed his arm. And then, just like that, she had a plan. It was a simple one, but it would be fine, for now.

"Okay," she said, finally. "Here's what we're going to do."

They both cocked their heads at her.

She looked around, nodding slowly. "Alright. Adam, you take Dale home. Clean yourselves up and sort yourselves out. I'll stay here and clean the place up." She looked up at him. "If anybody asks, we'll say Dale got sick and you took him home. I'm here because..." She thought for a moment. "You called me...and I came to watch the station." She looked around, testing that scenario out. "That works, right? We've got the station covered and it gives you two a chance to think things through. I will...um...think of something for the door."

They both nodded.

Kate lifted a finger and pointed delicately to Adam's furry forearms. "And you might want to...ah...lose the wolf gloves."

Adam looked down at his hands, his eyes widening comically. "Oh! Right!" he said. He frowned down in concentration at his arms. There was some assorted knuckle popping, but his arms shrank down in size like molten plastic closing around a vacuum form. The fur thinned out and receded until there was nothing left, and then there was just plain old Adam, grinning like a moron at his own hands.

Kate shook her head. "I saw that and I _still_can't believe it." She looked at Dale.

Dale held his hands up. "Don't look at me. I did it and I don't believe it."

Kate nodded. "Alright. The next shift gets in at eight. I'll come straight to Dale's and we'll figure out how the hell you got infected in the first place." She crossed her arms. "And I'm going to want to see you transform. Completely."

Adam leered goofily at her. "Are you sure you're not just trying to get me naked?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "God, Adam," she said. "It's good to see you're still the same old idiot."

He stared at her for a moment, his eyes twinkling.

Dale shook his head. "I can't watch this," he grumbled. He began thumping his way toward the break room. "Need my bag. Get my keys. Wash my face. Be right back." He staggered off across the wood floor and picked his way through the debris into he break room. A second later, she heard water running loudly.

Kate watched Adam, who watched Dale with blissful, stupid devotion, and the look in the electrician's eyes was unquestionably...no. It couldn't be. Could it? After one night?

Impossible, that Adam would have fallen this hard. And yet...

Stranger things have happened, she thought, with a smile.

Dale took the stairs two at a time, pounding down them on his big booted feet. He needed to get outside.

Adam was right behind him. "Hey, Dale!" the big bald electrician protested. "Wait up!"

Dale hit the door hard, hard enough to swing it against the side of the building, and burst into the sunlight, gasping. The scent of the forest, familiar but so much more significant now, like it had weight, roared over him like an ocean wave - pine cones and tree sap and animal musk and even the gravel in the parking lot - and he staggered for a moment, trying to process all the information his body was dumping into his brain. It was enough time for Adam to catch up behind him.

"Dale, what's the matter?" Adam asked, a concerned whine creeping into his voice. He gently grasped Dale's arm, stopping him in his tracks. "You kind of bolted. Are you okay?"

He whirled, and as soon as he lay eyes on Adam and his beautiful face, twisted into a grimace of concern, the ranger felt another surge of emotion. Bare your throat roll over go to him lick his face submit submit submit the alpha will help you the alpha will help you SUBMIT. He snapped his eyes shut, clamping his meaty hands over his temples. The voices instincts? welled up inside him, painfully, and just as he was about to scream howl? he felt Adam's arms around him, and that made all the difference.

The big idiot squeezed him, and to Dale it was like he was pushing the madness right out of him.

He opened his eyes and blinked, surprised. Suddenly he felt okay again. Inches away from him, Adam smiled gorgeously.

Dale felt dread drop into his stomach. He had to stop this now before it got too far.

"Get off me," he growled.

Adam stared at him, his brow furrowing unhappily No you've upset the alpha what have you done, and Dale shook his head. He bit his lip, fighting the urge to cower submissively. It would be better in the long run. He couldn't let this go on any further.

Adam stared back at him, hurt, and cocked his head. After a moment, he seemed to realize something, and then he re-adopted his familiar, vacant and vaguely smug stare. He did let go of Dale's shoulders, but he left one big hand lingering on his arm.

Dale pulled away and walked toward his truck. "Whatever you just thought of, don't tell me, okay?" he snapped over his shoulder.

Adam stared at him, surprised, but then he grinned that stupid lopsided little smile, and again it made Dale's heart flutter a little. But that was useless, it would never work. They were horrible for one another. Adam was going places, and Dale would just drag him down. Dale swallowed his emotions as he unlocked the driver's side door of his truck.

"Dale, you don't have to do this anymore," Adam said, softly. He stepped in behind him.

Dale half-turned and stared at him. He didn't know what the electrician was talking about, and he felt his confusion give way almost immediately to anger. "What?" he demanded, hotly.

Adam half-smiled. He wasn't getting mad. He'll never get mad. "You don't have to do this. I get what you're doing - you think everybody leaves sooner or later, so you push people away before they can get too close. But you don't have to do that with me." He cocked his head like a satisfied labrador. Like it was that simple.

Dale scowled back at him. "I don't do that!" he snapped. Did he? He thought frantically back to the patio last night. Why had he pushed Adam off him? He looked down, his eyes widening. Had that been it?

Adam nodded slowly. "It's okay," he said, quietly. He reached forward and gently touched Dale's forearm. "I'm not gonna leave."

Dale tried to ignore the gentle feeling of warmth from Adam's hand. "Adam, don't you get it?" he asked, wearily. "It doesn't matter. None of it matters. What happened up there...that wasn't us. That was just...animals." He swallowed, feeling hot, and looked hesitantly back up at the electrician. He was such a nice kid. "We changed, Adam. But then...we changed back." He suddenly felt very tired.

Adam stared thoughtfully back at him, and then slowly shook his head. "No, Dale," he said, quietly. "We're wolves now." He squeezed the ranger's wrist, and nodded definitively. "I feel it. I know you do, too. We're different, now. Both of us."

Dale opened his mouth to argue, but he couldn't think of anything to say, so he just let out a frustrated breath and closed his mouth.

Adam gently encircled Dale's left wrist, and leaned forward to put his big left hand on top of the ranger's head. Dale's head started swimming with his scent immediately.

"You're forgetting the most important thing," Adam said, leaning in close. "But I remember. I remember that when wolves mate, they mate for life."

Dale did have a response for that, that he did remember, that he was a five-year veteran of the Marshall County Park Rangers, and if any asshole should know that wolves mate for life it would be him, but he couldn't get the words out. His instincts told him to shut up and press close against the bigger wolf, and listen to his heartbeat, and it wouldn't even matter that his emotions were so full and raw that he was shaking.

He leaned forward, and Adam swept him up into a hug with his oversized arms. He squeezed Dale and nuzzled his right ear.

"You shouldn't play with an old man's heart like this," he whispered, shakily.

Adam was silent for a moment, and then leaned down to kiss him, and in that moment of warm, wet contact, Dale felt his resolve suddenly crumble.

He was still standing against Adam's chest a full minute later when he heard crunching on the gravel behind Adam. Dale felt so relaxed in the bigger man's arms that it took him a moment to register.

They slowly separated. Kate had come down the steps into the sunlight. For the first time Dale noticed her car standing in the middle of the lot with its driver's door hanging open. He grimaced.

Adam apparently had the same thought. "Sorry if we scared you," he rumbled.

Kate smiled tiredly. "It's no problem. I just gotta pull this into a parking space. You guys should get going, though. Tim gets in early sometimes." She climbed into her hatchback and started the engine. "I'll see you around eight, okay?"

Adam nodded. He turned back to Dale. "Your place?" he asked.

Dale nodded. Still unsure of what was going on in his own head, he climbed behind the wheel of his truck. As long as he and the alpha were together, he knew he would be okay.

Adam started to walk around the hood. "Hey," he said, turning.

Dale looked up at the grinning electrician.

Adam stared at him. "Are you glad I stayed?" he said, smugly.

"No," Dale grunted, though he couldn't keep the smile off his face.

He waved to Kate as they pulled out of the parking lot. In the seat next to him, his big lug of a werewolf boyfriend stretched his arms over his head and yawned out the window.

Despite himself, Dale smiled. It was going to be a beautiful day.