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to understand, this is just an experiment. Don’t go falling in love, planning mating parties, and pups. Do you understand?”
    I felt my own eyes grow wide as the man before me punctuated his statement with a bit of a menacing growl for good measure. “What the fuck?” Ashley spewed out.
    He looked her up and down, almost appreciatively for a moment, then turned back to me. “Do your friend a favor, and either make her one of us or ditch her. She’s in dangerous territory now that the Ancients have moved in.”
    “Wait, What?” My brain felt all kinds of fuzzy, and I knew I was missing something really important, but I drank a truck load of alcohol before leaving the bar and it was affecting me in a serious way. He was gone before I could get anything else out.
    “What the hell was that all about?” Ash asked as we turned back around and marched off in the direction of her apartment.
    “Who the hell knows? This has been one strange freaking night.”
    “You can say that again!”
    “This has been one strange freaking night!” Giggles erupted from me.
    “Ha! Smartass!” She threw my arm over her shoulder to help me balance a little better, and we walked on. “Now, I see what you have to go through all the time when you take me out.”
    “Not all the time,” I laughed, “sometimes you actually get lucky and I have some random dude there to help me carry you home!”
    “We can’t all be virtuous virgins, like you, hon!” She winked at me. I felt another ripple of power blow over me. It was there and gone again in an instant.
    By the time we got back to Ashley’s apartment, I was mostly sobered up, and beyond tired. I crashed on the couch as Ashley made her way to her bedroom to sleep. I hadn’t been resting well since I came into my full power. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe, unmated females always felt unsettled or something. Not many stayed mate free after the age of 20. Those that did, well, there was usually something wrong with them. It wasn’t that I didn’t have prospects. I was paired with Zach, I just didn’t want him. I knew he was wrong for me, more importantly my wolf knew it too. Actually, there was no one within my pack I felt right about. I had blossomed a little later than other females. I was already 21 and just completed my final transition two months ago.
    I stopped thinking about Zach and everything else that went on that day. Instead, a stranger’s face was now clouding my mind. His scent lingered all over me, and it was intoxicating still. I knew I’d be in trouble when my family smelled it tomorrow, but I’d deal with it then. Tonight, I reveled in it. I rolled on the couch, marking his scent all over it as I twisted and turned, and then I finally passed out into a blissful sleep wrapped in the scent of a stranger. Mom told me to find a challenge, I wonder how she’d take the fact that I actually did.
     

CONSEQUENCES
     
     
    “Are you sure you want to go home smelling like that? I mean, even I can smell his musk on you.” Ashley sniffed my shoulder, on the side where my mystery man had snuggled in and made himself at home with my neck. “Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t turn him away. Hell, I’m half ass tempted to roll around with you for smelling like that.”
    I laughed at Ashley then, at least she was making things lighter than they were really were. In less than an hour, when I returned home, everything was going to be ramped up a notch or 200. “Admit it, you want my body!” I joked.
    “Damn straight I do. You smell like the promise of damn good sex.” I gasped at her, “Jesus, listen to me, I’m not even a werewolf. Your family is going to flip the fuck out!”
    “Don’t suppose you want to come with me?” I asked sheepishly. It was a cowardly thing to do, but if I could be cowardly with anyone, it was Ashley.
    “Um, no hon! That’s one thing I do not want to be in the middle of. No offense, but if I decide to let one of you turn me later on, like you