Chapter 2

Nick Stokes stretched languidly, relishing the way his muscles felt after the run he'd taken the night before. It was Thursday morning, and he had to work tonight, so he'd just crawled into bed after a hot shower, but he found he wasn't quite ready to sleep.

Thought of what he'd heard – out there in the desert – kept coming back to him. That low, haunting howl that told him he wasn't alone in the Vegas area after all.

He was a shape shifter, a human who could turn into a wolf at will. His entire life, he'd only known one other, his older sister, Samantha. She hadn't even told him, he'd found out by accident shortly after he'd hit puberty and changed for the first time himself.

They'd kept it from their parents, scared of their reaction. It was bad enough when their parents found out Nick was bi. Nick suspected Samantha was too, but she'd done what she knew their parents would want and gotten married. He didn't think Samantha had any true feelings for the man, as Nick himself had never felt any true attraction to a human, but he left her to live her life. In fact, he'd left Texas just the year before, moving to Las Vegas to escape his parents' judgement.

Nick just hoped whoever the other wolf was would be out there again. He wouldn't have any more time to go out again until his next days off, now. This week was going to pass very slowly.

Forcing himself to close his eyes, Nick tried to calm his mind for sleep.

It was now late Thursday night, soon to be very early Friday morning, and Nick was walking into the Las Vegas Crime Lab, where he worked.

Stopping in at his supervisor's office, he said, "Hey, Brass. Got anything for me?"

"Not yet, kid. Why don't you go introduce yourself to the new DNA tech," Jim Brass, the graveyard shift supervisor replied. He was dressed in his usual suit, and was sitting behind his desk, looking over a case file.

"Sure thing!" the Texan replied, an easy smile on his face, and a spring in his step.

Walking down the hall a ways, Nick stopped outside the DNA lab to watch the new tech for a moment.

Being a wolf, he liked to know if he was dealing with a fellow predator, or potential prey, when he met someone new.

The man in the lab was rearranging a shelf of supplies, presumably putting things where he could more easily find them. He moved with the grace of a wolf, so Nick decided this man was a fellow predator.

Knocking on the door frame, Nick finally moved into the lab. Within a few steps, he got his first whiff of the other man's scent, and stopped cold.

By this time, the DNA tech had straightened and turned to face Nick, a smile fading from his face as he got his own whiff of Nick's scent.

Shaking his head, trying to keep himself under control, Nick gestured to the door and said, "Mind if I..."

"No. Go ahead," the other man seemed to understand the unfinished sentence.

Taking a couple of stiff steps farther into the lab, Nick pulled the door stop and closed the door, then leaned back on it heavily. He noticed the other man had backed up against one of the glass tables.

"I'm Nick Stokes," Nick started, wanting to make a friend, not an enemy of the other shape shifter.

"Greg Sanders."

"You were... you were in the desert last night," Nick said.

"Yeah, that was me." Greg ran a hand through his crazily highlighted and spiked hair, a shy smile spreading across his face.

Nick pushed himself away from the door, slowly approaching the younger man, suddenly desperate for another whiff of his tantalizing scent.

After a few steps, he was standing in front of Greg, his eyes closed as he breathed in deeply. He had to keep a tight rein on the wolf inside. The wolf demanded they fight for dominance, here, now. There could be only one alpha male in a pack.

Opening his eyes again, Nick saw that Greg had a death grip on the edge of the table.

"You feel it, too. The need to establish the hierarchy of our pack, don't you."

Not trusting himself to speak with Nick so near, Greg nodded. His nostrils were flared, as he took deep breaths of Nick's scent.

"When's your day off?" Nick asked. He wanted to plant his hands, palms down on the table to either side of the younger man, tower over him, dominate him, but instead, he backed away so Greg could speak.

"Tuesday and Wednesday," Greg said, after pulling in a ragged breath.

"Perfect!" Grabbing a piece of note paper off of Greg's desk, Nick drew a quick map with some directions to the deserted dirt road he always left his truck at when he went for a run. "Meet me here, Tuesday, just after the sun's fully set."

Leaving the directions on Greg's desk, Nick let out a low growl, deep in his chest, then opened the door and walked out.

As he walked away, Nick realized he had another problem. His pants had become uncomfortably tight across the crotch.

Never in his twenty-seven years had Nick reacted to a human the way he had reacted to Greg. Sure, he'd have sex with humans – both women and men – to gain the sexual release he periodically needed, but he had never felt true desire for anyone.

On his way toward the break room, his pager went off. Glancing at it, he saw it was a 911 page from Brass.

Knowing he had to get rid of his hard-on in a hurry, Nick thought to himself, Think of Ecklie in a Speedo! He very carefully constructed the mental image of the balding Conrad Ecklie in a skimpy men's swimsuit, and was nearly instantly rewarded with the loosening of his pants.

This was going to be a long week if he couldn't figure out a way to avoid Greg. Otherwise, the risk was just too great that they would shift right there in the lab and fight over which would be alpha male, then do who knew what else. They had to safeguard their secret at all costs.

The rest of the week passed slowly, but relatively uneventfully.

Nick made sure that whomever he was partnered with – be it Brass, Grissom, Warrick, or Catherine – one of them took in any samples to DNA. Grissom was too obtuse to realize Nick was avoiding the DNA tech. Brass didn't seem to care, as long as work got done. Warrick figured there must have been something about Greg that Nick didn't like. Catherine was the only one that really tried to call him on it, but he brushed her off.

Tuesday, Nick spent on household chores, as he found he couldn't sleep.

He'd never truly been part of a pack before, even if it would only be him and Greg. There really hadn't been any question of them becoming a pack. You get two or more wolves together in the same place, and you have a pack.

Nick just wasn't sure if Greg was attracted to him or not. He thought that was what he was the most nervous about. I can handle not being alpha male, just please, let Greg feel the same desire for me that I'm feeling for him. He'd had to be very careful about when he allowed himself to think of the other shape shifter, as he'd end up so hard it hurt.