a/n: Okay, this is my second attempt at posting this as the first time ended rather badly. Anyhow. Thank you so much everyone who has reviewed. I'm really overwhelmed with the attention this humble little slice-of-slightly-not-so-normal-life fic has been getting. Thank you all so very much.

I'm also curious to see how you, the reader, would like this to end. I'm probably going to be wrapping it up soon so I'm interested to see if you would like this to end on a tragic note or something happily ever after. I have ideas for both so do please help me choose. Thanks again, and please enjoy.

Hunted

Chapter 6

She was running again.

Her hair was almost one single coiled tangle by now. It hung more than lope down her back with a few loose threads hanging across her face and her breasts. Hermione pounded one foot in front of the other, like an endless trail of beating, rampaging drums. The noises echoed like drums in her ear. Thump. Thump.

Thump.

And she ran with a smile on her face and the sun breaking through the trees. It shone in small circles, which the girl jumped with lean muscles stretched long to touch her bare-souled feet in each spot. The crunch of the leaves thrilled her - perfectly perfect music. A symphony and a garage band all at once.

Thump and a Thump again

He too, was running, chasing her. It seemed like forever since that first time. Then she had been red and now she was brown from the sun and the mud - brown like the thick fur that coated his body. He let out a wild noise from his throat which the girl answered with a noise of laughter, mocking him and baiting him all at once.

Their feet became rhythm and their voices cantered the sounds, braving words that no human ear would understand but all the forest trembled with a rush of animation. And all came thumping thumping thumping to every open ear and every closed eye.

With a song. With a blast. With a triumphant roar of beasts.

He prang upon her form and together they fell downward into the dirt and grime. There was a grunt from the male, he had landed on the bottom, while she sprawled out on his temporarily submissive form. Hermione lightly nipped his neck and he growled in pleasure, arching his back so that his hips made contact with her own. Another laugh, almost a giggle (but oh, is that not something utterly human, to giggle?) escaped her lips. Fenrir took the opportunity of her eyes being shut in her mirth to turn her over so that he was on top.

The dominant, conquering, victorious Alpha Male has claimed a mate.

And what a mate she was. Wrapping her arms and legs around his muscled, sweaty form she brought him down closer to her own. They took turns alternating between kissing, slobbering, and biting one another.

(She bit his shoulder when he thrust into her so that her growl (pain or pleasure?) would be absorbed into his salty skin. He preferred to nip at her lips until they were red and swollen from his ministrations.)

And when they were spent and their bodies heaving they would sit and talk for a few moments. He always seemed more inclined to be humanly social after a rigorous coupling, a fact that Hermione found a little funny. She imagined it was because afterwards she had taken part of the wolf in her and thus made him more of a man.

"Do you think you will bring me another book?" she asked him as she lay atop him. Her hands were crossed on his chest and her chin rested lightly on her hands. She was smirking at him, drawing a leg up and down his own in a suggestive, possessive way.

"If you would like," he answered. "What will it be this time?"

Hermione closed her eyes in pleasure as she recalled all the titles she would like to read. Suddenly a feeling of nostalgia passed over her like a wave, and hugged herself against him as if trying to block the emotion.

"Perhaps, Hogwarts, A History. The latest version if you can get it."

He said he would. She kissed his nose.

And then they were off again, running because the moon was about to enter the heavens. The other wolves were running near them now. The pack was all there, running with the ease of familiarity, of synchronized family. They let out a singular howl where each voice raised up to form a single, terrible and great note of music.

The animals who heard it trembled and were still.

For the wolves were out tonight and the wolves were omnipotent.