Nathan pulled the heavy load on his back a little higher, and slogged up the hill before him with a determined groan!
"I'll make ten miles today if I have to crawl!" he growled, wading through a stand of young pines, springy branches brushing some of the heavy snow from his jacket. Putting one burning leg in front of the other, the hiker made steady progress towards the pine-spiked summit, before something grabbed his boot and dragged him down. Pwuff. Nathan spread his arms and legs, making an involuntary snow-angel as he tried to hoist himself free. A gasping breath or two, and he began laughing, rolling over onto his back. Resting his aching body, Nate gazed up past the maze of gently swaying branches at the electric blue sky.
"It's your fault, you know," he matter-of-factly informed the sky. "You just looked too damn good to avoid, all cloudless and deep..." He raised an arm, and wagged a mittened-finger, snickering. When he felt capable of verticality once again, Nate levered himself out of the man-shaped crater in the snow and struggled up the last few feet. He'd just lifted his eyes from his footing when he spotted it...straight ahead, perhaps twenty feet away. Soft gray coat, piercing yellow eyes, tensed frame and trained ears.
"Oh my god..." Nathan breathed, slowly tugging off one mitten to free his moist red hand. Reaching behind him, he burrowed into the sidepocket of his backpack, feeling for his camera. But with a flirt of its tail, the wolf vanished, darting down an ill-defined corridor of red pines. Nathan's fingers closed on the camera, and he followed the fleeing tail amongst the textured pillars of the trees.
"Ranger never mentioned wolves, did she? I thought they'd been driven out, one and all." Mumbling to himself, Nathan watched the faint trail like a hawk as he shuffled along, making as little noise as he could manage. Surprisingly, he crested a low hill to see the wolf staring right back up at him, still about twenty feet ahead. Excited, he raised his camera, and got a stunningly beautiful photo of...a spray of snow. Cursing into his high wool-lined collar, he set off again, wishing he had a Slim Jim or something to lure the wolf closer for just a moment.
Ten minutes later, Nate was certain the wolf was teasing him. She'd led him up and down several hills already, and now the landscape seemed to be funneling down into a valley. A sudden thought brought the excited hiker up short. Could she be leading him to her pack? Was he dinner? Nate gazed slowly around, peering between snow-skirted pines, feeling like a child in a ballroom. An odd half-yip half-wurf brought his head around again, to see the wolf with front legs spread and head down low to the ground, most certainly a playful pose. Nate hesitated, then took a slow step closer. One wolf was odd enough! Chances were slim there was an entire pack here, living unnoticed...
Another step. This time, the wolf stood its ground, gazing up at him and wagging a snow-jeweled tail slowly. Another step...another... Nearly before he realized it was headed for him, the wolf frisked right into his legs, bowling him over into the snow! The impact was solid, and as he gazed up at the wolf standing over his sprawled body, he fully realized the size of the creature he'd been pursuing... Not even Saint Bernards were this big! He began to roll slowly away from...her, he guessed, but when he rolled onto his back he saw a gray-furred leg cross over and plant a big clawed paw down on his other side...then a hindleg, the wolfess straddling him. He turned his head slowly up, to find himself nearly nose-to-nose with the panting wolf! Nate swallowed and lay as still as he could, watching the wolfess watch him.
With a slow unmistakable wink, the wolf settled all her weight down atop him! A warm tongue slid out to stripe his face, startling a gasp, then a giggle from the downed hiker.
"Are you even a wolf at all? Maybe a huskie...or a half breed... No way you'd be doing this if you were wild." Nate chuckled weakly, while the wolf gape-grinned at him.
"Well, I'm not exactly a wolf, but I find the form appropriate these days." The sultry, growl-toned voice insinuated itself straight into his mind, but with the wolf's eyes locked to his, there was no question where it had come from. "Bringing down the sick, the weak, the foolish... Making them mine." Her eyes lidded partially, tongue draped over her black lower lip as she panted atop him, her stomach letting out a loud enough gurgle to be heard above the pounding of his heart and felt through three layers of clothes. "Eventually, all will be mine, but I'm patient."
Nathan swallowed again, and shut his eyes, jaw clenched achingly tight. "No. No no no. There's absolutely no way in hell this is happening!"
The warm heavy weight atop him shifted, then vanished. Had he banished his delusion so easily? He felt a tug on his jeans, and the zhurt of a zipper. Struggling up, he opened his eyes just in time to get shoved back down with a furred hand. Hand. Not paw. What?!
She'd changed... Humanoid now, but far from human. Still thickly furred with the soft gray pelt, still grinning with a muzzle full of teeth and tongue, and those yellow eyes. But...he couldn't help but notice the heavy furred roundness of a perfect pair of breasts, and the darker fur between her thighs. That furred hand wrapped around his member was surprisingly the last change he noticed, but notice it he did, when the wolf bitch gave it a squeeze. "I wasn't always patient enough to enjoy myself... Four centuries ago, you would've already found your way down my throat." Removing her paw from the middle of his chest, she withdrew it to rest it on her belly, which was quite heavily swollen now that he took a good look at it. Swollen...and squirming?! Faint bulges rippled her thick pelt, and the wolfess took a definite pleasure in his reaction.
