A/N: This one is for all my fantastic reviewers, especially TrinityDD! Cheers doll, your reviews make me SQUEE with delight! Big thanks also to Takenikos, HopeForTheFuture, Letishia, LupinLovesTonks (course he does!) and OleiMera. Big, big thanks for taking the time to review! On with the story... Which will be wrapped up next chapter x

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Remus is finding it hard to concentrate, which is troubling him more than he would like to admit. Not for the first time, he regrets agreeing to tutor Tonks in stealth.

Tonks is standing in front of him, red-faced and rubbing at her leg with a grimace, having just recently banged it hard against a doorframe. Remus sighs and Tonks winces, offering an apologetic smile.

"What I fail to understand is how you managed to hurt yourself in a doorframe," he begins, holding up a finger to forestall the objection he can see forming on her lips, "it's not as if you're so big you fill the space.."

"You startled me!" Tonks exclaims, scowling, "All you said was that I had to creep up on you, not that you'd be lurking behind the bloody door waiting for me."

Remus is momentarily distracted by the Wolf remarking how fine Tonks looks when she's all hot and bothered; how it would be heavenly to run his tongue gently up the side of her face and collect the tiny droplets of perspiration he can see gathering there. He shakes it off with a frown and sighs again.

"Tonks, when you're trying to sneak up on someone you have to be prepared for the possibility that they may have noticed and are waiting for you." The Wolf silently points out to him that any self-respecting male would smell the divine scent of Tonks before he sees her; cinnamon and warm flesh.

Tonks scowls again, but concedes the point, "Fair enough. But it's hardly fair, 'cos you know I'm trying to sneak up on you at the moment, you're at an unfair advantage."

"Well, then, try it when I'm not expecting it. Not today, or tomorrow, or even this week. Try and catch me unawares." Remus' voice hold a distinct note of challenge, which the Wolf notices and whole-heartedly approves of. Games are good, he notes, and games with females are the best sort.

Tonks grins, her competitive spirit well and truly aroused.

"You're on, Remus," she announces, eyes sparking from mid-brown to lurid green, "you're definitely on."

When it comes, Remus is indeed caught entirely unawares. His transformation is a mere week away, and the Wolf is so intent on fighting him for dominance that his normally sharp senses are dulled. The Wolf strains and pulls at his leash, and most of Remus is attempting to hold him back; his every waking moment is devoted to restraining the feral beast inside.

Tonks, with her impeccable sense of timing, chooses this point to launch herself from the doorway on to Remus' back as he sits on his bed.

"HA!" She screams triumphantly, "I bloody well knew I could get you, Mr Wolf!" Her shout of triumph is abruptly curtailed as Remus snarls and with inhuman speed flips her on to her back, straddling her hips and restraining her by the wrists. For a second, he holds himself poised above her prone form, before the Wolf manages to escape his bonds and he lowers his head to within millimetres of hers, taking a deep shuddering breath and closing his eyes as he processes her scent. The Wolf is a creature of instinct, and he knows the smell of sexual excitement when he's near it. With a sound of satisfaction, he leans forward and gently draws the very tip of his tongue along the curve of her jaw. When she gives a small moan his eyes snap open and he draws her lower lip into his mouth, tugging gently and staring into her eyes, which look dazedly back at him. She shifts underneath him and he adjusts his legs so that he's pressed hard into her, so close that she can't help but feel his burgeoning arousal.

"Remus.." she whispers in a voice entirely unlike her own.

That one word brings Remus abruptly back to himself. He scrambles off of Tonks and stands up with a muttered curse, "Tonks, I'm sorry, you startled me.."

"Bloody hell, Remus, if that's what you do to every girl that startles you.." Tonks is trying her hardest to inject a note of jocularity into her tone and is well aware that she's failing miserably.

"I'm sorry, I should never have.."

"Didn't say I didn't like it," she mutters, looking down at the floor.

Inside Remus, the Wolf growls deep in his throat, aching to stamp his possession over the woman in front of him in the most primal way possible.

Tonks takes a step forward and places one hand on his chest, feeling the steady thump of his heart, "in fact, I wouldn't mind if you did it again.."