I very much prefer Wolves to Vampires. I should also confess I've never read the Twilight books (I read maybe chapter one of the first book before putting it down in disgust) and only saw one of the movies when my girlfriends dragged me out to skip class-they paid for everything in my protest. That aside, I do like the premise, and love the chance to put one of my favourite leading ladies in (and haha! I resisted bashing the stupid shallow characters that were so badly written!). So Seth of the Quileute wolf pack meets Hermione. Growrrrrr.

On patrol for his new alpha Seth took the borders, cautious despite the war having already been fought. For some reason wolves were still shifting in the packs, and there were no vampires in the area.

The strange events had made the packs wary, so Seth was doubly tense the next time he was out.

Which was now.

On the borders.

It was just a little bit intimidating to be out there alone, but Jacob trusted him. So Seth would do his best job. His ears were constantly moving, scouting for sounds. His eyes were roving the landscape, looking for the tiniest movement in the night.

Everything should be resting.

He should be alone.

His back arched and his fur stood on end as something crashed in the bushes to his left, and he snarled and prepared to pounce just as a furry form tumbled out and struggled to run.

His growl died in his throat.

It was a wolf. She wasn't of the pack, he couldn't hear her thoughts, but she definitely wasn't a normal wolf.

While Seth was the smallest of the pack, he was the size of a horse still. This wolf was only slightly smaller than him, definitely not normal.

But he wanted to help her. She was bleeding, limping—her head didn't seem able to lift all the way, her neck hung low and she swung her head about to try and see as she struggled to get to cover.

There was a brief worry over what could cause such injuries on a larger predator like them, but Seth wasn't thinking too deeply about it.

He was helping the wolf.

He approached on the ground, lifting his head up to nuzzle into her ruff before slowly standing and trying to coax her shivering form more into his. If they could manage to get her to lean on him they might make it to the woods—some of the larger trees could provide adequate shelter.

They managed, it was slow but they did it. One of the larger redwoods had thick roots, and they could tunnel underneath the entirety of the trunk into a makeshift den. She whimpered and he pressed her on, hoping that she wouldn't be hurt more by the rough terrain they had to traverse and squeeze through.

When they had finally settled in enough—Seth using his own body to block the entrance—he set to licking the blood from her face and cleaning her wounds. She quietly accepted his administrations with small whines and whimpers, little snuffles telling him she was tired.

He growled lowly at her, trying to keep her awake and conversing the only way they could. This would be so much easier if she could hear him.

She fell asleep just as he finished the wound on her hind leg and moved on to the one behind her neck. Slowly as she slumbered more of her golden brown fur was revealed, the white patches fetching against the bright hue. Seth admired her thick coat of color for a bit, wondering what kind of pack she came from, before he fell into a wary doze—keeping his ears alert for any movement outside the den and his tired eyes on the she-wolf curled into his side.

The she-wolf had tensed and awoke only once in the night when an animal passed too close. Aside from that her injuries kept her slumbering and curled up to his broader form.

Carefully nosing his way around her neck he checked her scent and health—pleased with her steady heartbeat in his ears and the feeling that she was getting well swiftly.

The next morning, after two days of holing up in the makeshift den under the tree roots, Seth was awake as she transformed into her human form. Her clothes were tattered, but still on.

Which was a blessing considering he hadn't concretely known she was a shifter but felt the pull to protect her

It would have been embarrassing otherwise to awake naked beside each other.

Seth transformed into his own man shape, untying his shorts from his leg and sliding them on carefully so as not to wake the stranger.

When he resettled she took the opportunity to stretch and arch against him, her hands flexing like she still had paws. Seth gulped.

This was confusing and scary and he wanted the pack.

But then she opened her eyes and he met gold and it all made sense: because she was his world.

She let out a little gasp when she met his eyes, and her rosy skin flushed pinker. As they stared at each other she slowly bit her bottom lip, her expression slightly dazed and heady.

Seth swallowed.

"I'm Seth," he said softly.

"Hermione."

"That's pretty."

She blushed darker and smiled at him. Then her eyes seemed to clear, becoming sharper and brighter. "You were the wolf, the one who helped me hide."

"I am. I didn't think you'd shift though."

She laughed lowly, sending warm breaths across his chest. He shivered.

"I certainly didn't expect to wake up with a man instead of a wolf."

"It's good that you still had clothes on," he said honestly.

But her brows furrowed and she drew back a bit, her eyes darting about as if trying to figure out how to take his comment.

Seth blinked and thought back, confused. And he didn't understand still, but she was pulling away so he wrapped his arms around her—she couldn't move now.

Except she was pressed so close, so intimately, that Seth shivered and felt himself awake. One of his arms had wrapped around her neck, letting her rest her head on his bicep as his hand curled over her upper shoulder; the other arm had wrapped fully around her trim waist, reaching her bum and grasping it firmly, sliding the back of his fingers along the ground.

She blinked up at him from his chest, tilting her head back slightly to regard him suspiciously.

Seth licked his lips and couldn't help giving a little squeeze. Hermione gasped and arched slightly, her wide eyes molten.

"Sorry," he said quickly with a blush despite the burning desire to do it again and watch her react.

She blinked and looked at him in confusion before sighing. She tried to shift, to turn away or pull away he didn't know, but his instinct was to tighten his hold and he did. Hermione bit her lip and shyly wiggled her hands until they rested on his chest before she slowly and completely rested her ear against his heartbeat.

Seth cleared his throat and tried to clear his mind—distract it. "What were you running for anyway?"

Her breath hitched. "They wanted to kill me."

His hold tightened further.

Who would want to kill this golden-eyed woman? What could they justify that with?

"No," he growled out.

She inhaled, burying her nose in his bare chest. "It's understandable," she whispered.

"No it's not." She blinked, her eyelashes brushing against his skin. He shivered and maneuvered to look into her eyes without letting her go. "You are special, you would be missed. I would miss you."

She gasped—"So you do feel it!"

Seth blinked and reared his head back slightly.

"I was scared you didn't feel the life bond! You weren't reacting like the pack, I thought it was one-sided." She blushed but looked up at him happily.

"The imprinting?" Seth managed, confused again.

"That's what you call it here? I can't believe this, it's amazing!"

"Hermione?"

She blinked up at him, "You do…feel the life bond right?"

Seth once again tightened his grip, squeezing her flesh while pulling her against him. He licked his lips and buried his face in her wild hair—"I do."

She inhaled in relief.

"But that doesn't answer why you were running, or injured, or away from your pack in the first place."

She sighed and snuggled into him, breathing in his scent and lightly scratching her nails against his chest.

"Well, I'm a bit of a freak." She laughed.

Seth growled and pinned her below him, angry and hurt. "You're not a freak!"

She blinked up at him, complacent despite his weight bearing over her and his angry expression. "Seth, where I come from every shifter is normal sized. The stag looks like every other stag in the woods, and the dogs can fit their collars, and the rabbits and cats and birds are tiny. I was normal too."

He leaned up on his elbow and listened, slowly rolling them back to cuddle her into him again.

"There was a war, and in the fight I got captured. The werewolf they had…liked my scent."

Werewolf?

"He bit me while it wasn't the full moon, and my inner wolf interacted with his curse. The others weren't so understanding the first time I shifted—I'm like a werewolf, but I can transform any time. They were scared."

Seth cleared his throat—he'd never heard of werewolves, or at least thought the legend was based off shifters…but then again most people didn't believe in vampires. "So…you have shifters of other animals? Rabbits?" What was the point in being a prey species?

Hermione laughed against him. "Yeah, we study to change, and become the animal that best suits our personality. I was a rather plain amber wolf."

"You guys don't fight vampires?"

"Only when they attack us, the British Ministry of Magic likes to control the creatures in the realm."

Seth was confused. Very obviously so.

Hermione took it upon herself to explain her world to him. She did a rather good job of it.

Except… "How…Why'd you run all the way here from Britain then?"

"I told you—they didn't like my new animangus form. The Ministry has been hunting me for weeks now—I needed to go outside their jurisdiction."

"No more running." He growled.

She gasped, "Not without you."

"No more running at all, they were hunting you, but now you have my pack. If they so much as look at you wrong we'll tear them apart."