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It seemed even the moon and stars knew the importance of the tradition that was about to take place, setting the night alight for the participants. 

The moon hung full and luminous, bathing the land in a soft glow as far as the eye can see, and the clear, cloudless sky made it seem even bigger than the supermoon it already was. The stars were also on shining display, dotting the sky like diamonds on dark velvet. A cool, crisp breeze rustled the blades of grass on the field where everyone was gathered. 

It was a perfect night for the Mating Hunt.

The Mating Hunt was an ancient rite of the werewolf villages, an annual gathering held in and around the Okami Forest during the first full moon of spring, to symbolize fertility and new beginnings and blossoming unions. 

It was the night when the unbonded alphas and omegas of marriageable age would run through the ancient forest, chasing and being chased, in the hopes of finding the one they wanted as their lifemate. Or at least someone they wanted to spend the festival with. 

A few were successful in their first year of joining the Hunt, immediately choosing and marking a mate. Most took a few years, returning every spring before finally finding theirs. And many had no plans of settling down just yet or committing to anyone, opting to simply have fun with a willing partner and enjoy a night of sex and festivities, of carnality and celebration. 

It was a time-honored tradition that everyone took part in, even if some did so less willingly than others.

—

Haruno Sakura stood in the open field just outside Okami Forest, stretching her limbs in preparation for the chase, like a runner before a race. She was attired in a thin, loose, sleeveless white slip dress, airy and comfortable and just right for running, its hem ending just above her knees. 

Around her were dozens of girls dressed in identical white slips, mostly omegas just like her, and a handful of female alphas and betas seeking alpha males as their mates. All talking and giggling and chatting, equal parts nervous and excited to be chased, hunted down, caught — and if all goes well — mated, bonded, and marked by dawn.

On the other side of the field were the alphas, gathered in a loose, large cluster of bare, muscled torsos and brimming testosterone, waiting restlessly for the Hunt to begin. She could smell the pheromones in the air, the anticipation, their desire to rut, and their eagerness to unleash their wolven forms. Occasionally raucous laughter would break out, no doubt from some dirty joke or locker room talk about scoring an eager, pretty female before the night ended. 

It was unfair, Sakura groused inwardly. Even though the females would be given one hour’s headstart to run in the forest, they had to stay human and were not allowed to shift. It symbolized the human half of themselves, according to tradition, and the duality of their nature as werewolves. To symbolize their wolven half, the alpha males, on the other hand, would shift into their wolf forms when they did the chasing. 

Even with that disadvantage, she had no plans of getting captured tonight. 

There simply wasn’t any alpha she was interested in, whom she wanted enough to chase her and catch her. 

Well, there was one alpha, and he was joining this year’s Mating Hunt like her and most of their friends, but it was a non-issue. He didn’t count because he only saw her as a friend since childhood, and a former teammate during their younger years. 

For a moment she wondered who he’d choose, but she didn’t allow herself to dwell. 

It was an exercise in futility anyway; he wasn’t going to chase her, and she wasn’t going to let herself get caught. 

Thinking of her gameplan, Sakura knew her next heat was a safe two weeks away or thereabouts. Even if it came early by a few days, there were still plenty enough days as buffer. That would help in not amplifying her scent even more. Plus, Sakura knew she was agile and lightfooted; strong and very, very fast. Her hectic shifts at the hospital often involved twelve hours on her feet rushing to and from patients, going up and down staircases, making her rounds throughout different floors. She was fit, and not easily tired. Physical exertion was not a problem. 

With the one-hour headstart, she was almost certain she would be far enough, or hidden enough, to evade any male by the time they entered the forest searching for a mate or a quick fuck. She mulled over the idea of picking a high enough tree to hide in and wait out the Hunt until it ended at sunrise. 

She scanned past the circle of girls to see what was happening, searching for the person who would formally start the proceedings. 

Holding court at the center of the field was Senju Tsunade, the Hokage of Konoha — an uncommon female alpha in an even more uncommon bond with a male fellow alpha, Hatake Kakashi, who stood beside her. Sakura felt a swell of pride that those two living legends had trained her and mentored her. 

Together, Tsunade and Kakashi conferred with the Head Alphas of the participating packs, accompanied by their successors standing behind them to learn, listen, and observe. Sakura identified the blond, ponytailed Alpha Yamanaka first, because she spotted her best friend Ino behind him as the clan heiress and one of the few female alphas in this year’s group. Though Ino was an alpha, she was dressed in a white slip dress like Sakura’s, signifying her participation as one of the chased. But unlike Sakura, Ino had been quite excited about the Hunt, saying that only another alpha can handle her, and that only the one who can hunt her down would be worthy of her hand. 

Flanking Ino’s father were stout, affable Alpha Akimichi and shrewd-eyed, scarfaced Alpha Nara, together with her classmates Chouji and Shikamaru. Sakura also saw Hinata’s father, Alpha Hyuuga, an imperious-looking man with the same pale complexion as Hinata and the same long, straight brown hair as his daughter Hanabi behind him. Beside the Hyuuga leader were Alpha Aburame and heir Shino, and Alpha Inuzuka, a fierce, shaggy-haired woman with red facial markings, accompanied by her heiress Hana. 

And last among those she recognized, standing closest to Kakashi, was Alpha Uchiha — Konoha’s Chief of Police, and he completely looked the part. He was a tall, forbidding man with ramrod-straight posture, a stern, impassive stare, and an unsmiling face with grooves around his mouth that made him appear older and even more serious than he already was. 

Behind him was the only alpha that had ever caught her eye — and her nose. 

Uchiha Sasuke, future Head Alpha of the Uchiha Pack and second son of the current Alpha. Although Sasuke inherited his looks from his mother, it was obvious that Sasuke had gotten his height and intimidating aura from his father. 

She and Sasuke were on the same genin team along with Uzumaki Naruto, and Kakashi-sensei as their team leader. Three alphas on her original team, but to her, it was only Sasuke who had always smelled nice, ever since they met as children at the Academy. As they got older, his scent only got better and better, and no other guy smelled as good as he did.

But apparently it didn’t go both ways. Sasuke was silent about her scent, so she’d assumed that her scent was nothing special to him. Unremarkable, but at least she knew it was inoffensive to his senses. Because, to be fair, he never once recoiled from her nearness, and never pushed her away when she’d hug him affectionately or on impulse. He didn’t seem to mind when they found themselves physically close. And he had always been a good teammate to her. 

She’d been small and thin as a youngling, who hadn’t yet grown into her power and strength. One time, she’d wandered too far away from her friends during an intervillage tournament and ran into a group of older kids from Oto. They began bullying her for her unusual coloring and for being a wolf that didn’t belong to a pack. Both her parents were lone wolves, so they were just a little family of three with no famous or prestigious pack in which to claim membership. 

They were in the middle of tormenting her — one of the bullies had been pulling painfully at her hair, the sting of it forcing her to the ground, while the other one kicked soil in her face and a third called her insulting names. 

Then Sasuke had appeared, swooping in with barely-controlled fury, a dark guardian angel who somehow knew where she was at the right time and place. He easily subdued the one who was holding her, and proceeded to break both arms of her assailant. The terrifying expression on his face scared her; she knew beyond a doubt that he was ready to kill the bullies who’d hurt her. He was about to deliver a fatal blow to the prone figure on the ground when she’d hugged him from behind and pleaded with him to stop. 

And he did. 

He had stopped, at her request, and he had let her drag him away to walk out of there together. She never forgot his protectiveness, his concern.

She’d been a little in love with him since then. Even if he was probably just being a good teammate. 

He’d help her prepare their food, lighting a Katon for the campfire and helping her cook what he and Naruto had caught, while Kakashi-sensei set up camp. If Sasuke was injured and confined at the hospital, it was she whom he’d let assist him. If she fell and needed catching in battle, it was Sasuke who would break her fall. 

As they grew up and matured, so did her feelings. Except that she’d always swept them under the rug, careful not to ruin their friendship and make their missions and interactions awkward. Even as their Team Seven began having less missions together, being assigned their own solo missions or put in other mission-specific, ad-hoc teams, she’d never quite gotten over him. 

Then they reached adulthood and presented for the first time. 

When she’d had her first heat, her mind had flown to him, touching herself to imaginings of black hair and mismatched eyes, of burning kisses on her skin and rough hands gripping her hips as he rutted her from behind. She’d endured all her heats alone, getting through them by thinking of him. 

Maybe Ino was right. Maybe it was time for her to experience spending a heat with a physically-present alpha. Maybe it was time for her to find an alpha who was actually interested in her. 

Sasuke wasn’t making it easy for her tonight, though. The ANBU mask he usually wore was nowhere to be found, and he was shirtless like the rest of the alphas. With her heat just two weeks away, she was feeling particularly appreciative of the view. 

He’d always been good-looking as a boy. But now, as a man, he was downright devastating. Her eyes traced his form, carved in perfection — broad shoulders, sculpted torso, all corded muscle and chiseled lines. Ripped but not bulky, just right for his tall, lean frame, and the hard ridges and planes of his upper body seemed to gleam in the moonlight. Even his face was perfect. From where she stood, his face was in profile, which emphasized his patrician nose, high cheekbones, and sharp jaw. With a sigh of resignation, she knew now that she’d have even more fuel for her self-care during her heats in the foreseeable future.

And oh the scent of him.

Despite the distance, she could make out his heady smell, sexy and masculine and just as unfairly attractive as everything else about him. 

Too bad that any sensitivity to each other’s scent seemed entirely one-sided. 

Sasuke must have felt her gaze on him — it was her fault that she’d been admiring him far longer than she should have — because he turned his head and stared her straight in the eye. 

The corner of his mouth lifted and gave her a small, inscrutable smile. He didn’t break their shared gaze, instead tilting his face slightly upward, nostrils flaring as if scenting something in the air. 

She quickly looked away, his stare too intense for her to handle right now, the kneejerk reaction of embarrassment making her forget to smile back. She pressed her legs together and exhaled shakily, annoyed at herself for letting her feelings for him slip through a crack. A blush crept up her cheeks at being caught staring, and at the thought that what if he’d caught a slight whiff of her body’s reaction to him. 

Probably not, she reassured herself. Maybe she was too far from him to pick up her scent; and besides, there were so many people in the field that he couldn’t have singled her out, could he?

—

“Earth to Sakura!”

Sakura was so lost in thought that she hadn’t noticed the short huddle disperse and that Ino had jogged up to her side. Unlike her, Ino was here because she wanted to find an alpha. She’d been excited since the start of the year. 

“Stop fretting, Forehead! You look great!” Ino assured her, elbowing her in the ribs. Before the gathering, Ino had styled Sakura’s hair, leaving it mostly down and in loose waves, but accented it by weaving cherry blossoms into a thin braid that tied her hair back from her face. 

“I’m not fretting. I would just rather not be here.” I’d rather be working, thought Sakura with a backward glance at the village skyline in the distance. “I have work to do at the hospital.” 

I don’t want to be chased by alphas I have no interest in, she added silently. 

But her loyalty to the village was unquestionable, plus she’d always been one for rules and tradition despite her outspokenness. So she’d resigned herself to being a participant out of duty, compliance, and an unwillingness to disappoint her mentors. 

“Look, we know Tenten was even grumpier last year than you are, and now she’s singing a different tune,” Ino pointed out, grinning. Tenten, being a year older than they were, had joined last year’s Hunt with much protesting but ended up all smiles and heart-eyes after finding her match in Hyuuga Neji, heir of the Hyuuga Branch Pack. Now they were married and expecting pups. 

“What if I don’t like the guy who catches me?”

“You can refuse, of course. This is a lifetime bond we’re talking about. Unless you’re just after a one-night stand or a fling, in which case you can just enjoy the night and not think about liking him enough to be mated. But if someone truly is your mate…” Ino trailed off, a dreamy look in her ice-blue eyes. “It’s reciprocal. You’ll be mutually attracted to each other’s scent. I heard that you wouldn’t even think of refusing, when you’re there in that moment. From what the pack elders have been telling me, you’ll just know.”

Sakura tried not to appear doubtful, so as not to dampen her friend’s enthusiasm. Sasuke was the best-smelling alpha she’d ever smelled in her entire life, but it seemed it was anything but mutual.

As if reading her mind — well, Ino was a Sensor type and a telepath and an expert in the male species and her best friend who knew her too well — Ino nodded in the direction of the cluster of alpha participants. 

“I noticed Sasuke sneaking glances at you during the meeting of the pack Alphas,” Ino said, eyebrows waggling suggestively. “In fact, I think he’s still looking at you now.”

Sakura kept her eyes on her best friend, not daring to glance at Sasuke to check if Ino was correct. “Maybe he’s just scoping out who among the girls he’s going after,” she said lightly. “Doesn’t mean it’s me.”

Although Sasuke was participating, it wasn’t any indication of interest. He could be here simply because it was required, or due to pressure from his pack elders to pick a nice omega to breed and settle down with. 

Still, the thought of Sasuke chasing some other omega, maybe seeing him paired off with someone by the end of the Hunt, sent a pang through her chest that she quickly tamped down. 

Their conversation was cut short by the thunderous sound of ceremonial drums reverberating through the plain, signaling the formal start of the rite. The drums were being beat by elder alphas and omegas, symbolic of their encouragement and blessing of the next crop of mated pairs to carry on their way of life and produce a new batch of younglings for the next generation. 

In spite of herself, Sakura couldn’t help getting swept up in the festive atmosphere and the momentous significance of an age-old tradition. The cool, bracing wind, the anticipation and excitement permeating the air, and the pulse-pounding beat of the drums all combined to send a surge of energy through her bloodstream, dissipating her reluctance and replacing it with adrenaline. 

Tsunade’s booming voice silenced any remaining chatter. “Ready yourselves!”

The girls formed a loose, horizontal line parallel to the border edge of the forest. Sakura’s muscles tensed and she coiled into position, like an athlete at the starting line. 

The percussive strikes on the drums grew quicker and harder, the rhythm rising in pace and volume until Sakura could feel the drumbeats in her heart. 

When the drums reached the crescendo, Tsunade blew long and loud on the ceremonial horn, the deep, resonant sound carrying throughout the field.

When the last note died down, Sakura ran. 

The girls took off, many of them laughing and whooping, caught up in the sheer wild freedom of racing as swiftly as their feet can carry them, wide open nature before and around them, endless sky above them, the wind whipping through their hair, the cool night air on their upturned faces. They ran towards the forest, sprinting into the woods. 

She lost sight of Ino and Hinata in the chaos of identically-dressed, running bodies. In almost no time at all, she had separated from the other girls as everyone split up in different directions at different speeds. 

Sakura weaved between the trees like a wood nymph, maneuvering with ease through the maze of trunks and fallen logs, saplings and bushes, dodging vines and low-hanging boughs, leaping over fallen branches and streams and rocks. She’d made sure not to go in a straight line nor take the easy, beaten path. 

She’d planned to run as fast as she can early on to put as much distance as possible between her and any would-be pursuers, then take a breather to replenish her energy for another bout of running should anyone come close. 

To make it more difficult for potential pursuers, she also went around in circles occasionally, zigging and zagging, going in varying directions, careful not to let her tracks get too predictable. 

All she had to do was stay far ahead, stay hidden, and stay invisible until it was safe enough to come out at daybreak, when everyone was already neatly paired up.

—

An hour later, the ceremonial horn sounded again from the direction of the clearing, audible despite the distance. It was followed by baying and howling, signaling the next part of the Mating Hunt. 

The alphas have been let loose. 

Her adrenaline spiked, her heart hammered in her chest, and despite being an hour ahead she couldn’t help the frisson of excitement and tension that ran up her spine. 

All her senses were already engaged, but now they were turned up several notches, partly from the thrill of the chase and partly from the role reversal of being the prey rather than the predator. She may be the fastest runner among the chased this year, but her two human legs would be no match for the four legs of a determined wolf if one managed to catch up to her and get within pouncing distance. 

She continued running for about a couple more miles, putting even more distance between her and the alphas before she decided to take a break and catch a second wind. She might need energy in case one decided to pursue her. Pausing for breath, she leaned against a wide tree trunk as she rested, calming her heartbeat and cooling down the burn of exertion in her muscles. The forest was rather quiet in this area, peaceful even. 

In her more relaxed state, she let her mind wander to Sasuke, wondering where he was right now, who he was chasing, what he would look like as a wolf. She recalled how handsome he was at the assembly, and her body reacted just as it did earlier tonight. Heat pricked at her nerve endings, her inner wolf rippling just beneath her skin and getting increasingly on edge. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of running, but the footfall was light. It was a girl. 

“Sakura-chan!” 

Sakura whipped her head to the side to see Hinata several meters away from behind, coming from another route to the left, and heading towards her. Hinata, she noticed, wasn’t running in fear or dread, and the redness on her face looked closer to a blush than to physical strain. They high-fived each other in mutual support as Hinata cut diagonally across her path. “Good luck, Hinata-chan!” she called out.

Leaves crunched under heavy steps, setting Sakura on high alert. A sturdy, solidly-built wolf came into view, bounding after her friend. It had orange fur and a wide yellow streak that began with its ears and ran down its back and tail. 

She broke into a relieved grin. It could only be Naruto. No wonder Hinata was blushing and not in any hurry to get away.

Sakura was about to resume her run when, to her puzzlement and confusion, the yellow-orange wolf slowed down and approached her. Why was it approaching? Perhaps it was someone else who happened to have similar coloring as her friend? But when he came closer, she noticed thick, prominent whiskers and playful blue eyes, so it was definitely and unmistakably Naruto. 

Then he began circling her, sniffing at the air around her. Which only added to her confusion. She was absolutely sure that Naruto wasn’t interested in her. He’d gotten over his childhood crush on her, and he’d even confided during a team lunch at Ichiraku that he was planning to chase Hinata during the Mating Hunt. 

Then why was he…?

A loud, warning snarl split the air and made both her and Naruto jerk their heads up to see a menacing black wolf from atop a small hill. 

It was leaner than the yellow-orange wolf, but larger and taller, fearsome instead of friendly, pitch black in color, so black it would have been invisible in the darkness if not for the light of the full moon. 

Baring its sharp teeth, it snarled again. The sound was angry. Territorial. 

To her surprise, rather than bristle its fur or raise its hackles in response to the threat, Wolf Naruto made a sound that was suspiciously similar to a bark of laughter. When she raised an eyebrow at him, he gave her a mischievous wink and a friendly wave of his tail before resuming his pursuit of Hinata. 

She couldn’t help but shake her head in exasperation. He had sniffed around her intentionally, pretending to be interested, to get a rise out of the black wolf. 

That brief interaction between the three of them, particularly Naruto’s jest, must mean that this black wolf was likely… Sasuke, although she wasn’t one-hundred percent certain. In human form, her sense of smell, while stronger than a normal human’s, still covered a smaller radius than her shifted form, and she had not yet seen both guys as shifted wolves thus far. 

They’d been teammates from childhood up to their midteen years, but as they grew older and advanced in rank, they began being assigned their own responsibilities and missions, sometimes solo, sometimes with other teams. Sasuke was invited to join ANBU, and his natural fighting skills and proficiency in combat guaranteed that he’d almost always be assigned on field missions, while her chakra control and healing talent meant that she spent more time inside the hospital than out.

By the time they reached the age of adulthood and presented their secondary gender, she hardly ever saw them anymore, except for the occasional team lunches, and they had yet to be assigned a mission together as grown adult werewolves.

The black wolf descended from the hill, stalking towards her with a deliberate, single-minded focus. 

Like it wanted to corner her. To devour her. But at the same time, it didn’t move fast or make any sudden movements, like it didn’t want to scare her.

Still, she took an involuntary step back. And another. Then another, still keeping her eyes on the wolf. 

The wolf didn’t change its course. It continued in her direction and right towards her, letting out a low, rumbling sound that was markedly different from the angry, threatening snarl when Naruto circled her. 

She realized then that it had probably been on her trail since she’d entered the forest, following her scent, running at a speed that had him quickly catching up to her, and keeping close enough to her to turn away another wolf that got too near. 

At first it seemed like it had no distinguishing features aside from its size and pure black color. But as it approached, it stepped into a ray of moonlight, and she caught sight of its eyes. 

They were mismatched. One red with tomoe, one light purple with concentric circles. 

Sasuke. It really was him. The black wolf intending to pursue her was Sasuke. 

And when it stepped into scenting distance of her human olfactory receptors, the achingly familiar smell of him filled her nose, the potency of the scent even stronger in this form. Smoke from some fragrant wood like sandalwood, fire like his elemental type, distinguishable notes of leather, and a clean, natural musk that all combined into a deliciously masculine scent that called to her inner omega. 

Warmth bloomed under her skin, unfurling in gossamer waves and gathering low in her body. She rubbed her thighs together, squirming, wetness pooling at her core as his alpha scent started to get to her.

The black wolf raised its muzzle and sniffed the air, letting out another rumbling sound that sounded close to a purr. Sakura’s cheeks warmed in embarrassment as she wondered if he could smell the desire in her skin, the stirrings of arousal that were the effect of his scent on her body.

Interested or not, she wasn’t giving up easily, and her pride wouldn’t allow her to just roll over and submit without putting up a fight. Plus she was still in human form, without weapons or protective gear, forbidden from shifting, so the sight of a terrifying, massive predator moving towards her triggered a natural and instinctive fear, sending the synapses in her amygdala firing. The wolf’s predatory gait as it approached had her hindbrain wanting to get away in panic. 

She was a wolf, a hunter in her own right. But in this moment, in her human skin, she was the hunted. 

She was the prey.

Pure instinct took over, and she bolted. 

Behind her, Sasuke gave chase. 

Sakura ran as fast as humanly possible, even faster than she did during the first hour of the Hunt. The wind whipped through her hair as she poured speed into her legs and feet, her pink locks streaming behind her, until she felt like she’d become the wind. She didn’t look back, not wasting even a second to see how far — or near — he was.

She heard a feminine squeal somewhere to the east, probably an omega that had already gotten “caught”. Less than a minute later, she heard a long, distant howl from the southwest — yet another alpha had claimed his omega. 

The alphas were gaining on them. 

Adrenaline coursed through her as she pumped her arms and legs, muscles moving like a well-oiled machine. She hardly felt the branches and brambles scratching her skin, catching at her dress. It also felt like payback of some sort; let Sasuke run after her this time. Even if by the end of the night she might eventually get caught, at least she’d made him run and chase her. The crunch of fallen leaves some distance behind her meant that the black wolf was still on her trail. She had to keep running. 

Then Sakura’s nose was assaulted by a new scent, pungent and muddy. All of a sudden, something broke through the bushes to her right and she saw a stocky wolf, probably from Suna or Iwa from the color of its fur, barreling straight towards her. 

But before it could even get close to her, the black wolf slammed into it with a roar, knocking it off its feet and sending the interloper skidding across the ground with a yelp. 

She took advantage of the distraction, not pausing to glance back. She heard Sasuke growl in frustration at the delay as she put more distance between them.

Sakura had gone several more meters when suddenly the familiar beginnings of a cramp twisted in her stomach, the unexpected sensation nearly making her trip over an overgrown root. When she regained her balance, her inner thighs rubbed together and she felt them smeared with slick.

She was going into heat. 

No no no, she thought frantically, even as she righted herself and regained her momentum. Not now. Even if she did manage to lose her pursuer, her stronger scent would make her easier to track, not to mention the motivation it could give to an alpha wanting to rut. This was not the right time to go into heat, of all days. 

Maybe that was the intent of the ritual after all. To bring their true nature to the forefront. To bring their urges to the surface. To connect them to thousands of years of tradition and genetic history. This was how their ancestors declared their intentions, how they chose and accepted their mates. Maybe the Hunt was meant to draw out their basic instincts and basest desires, and it turns out that even she couldn’t resist falling under its effects. The sacredness of the millennia-old rite and the energies of the full moon, the thrill of the chase and of being chased by him, the primal wildness of it all — it had gotten to her despite herself. Her biology had responded. 

And when he’d gotten close, the scent of him was just as intoxicating as she remembered. Probably even stronger in his shifted form. 

Well, if she was eventually getting caught anyway, she wouldn’t slow down for him. He had to work for his catch and earn his prize. And some part of her felt a gratifying satisfaction in having Sasuke chase her, making her want to hold out as long as she could. 

She sent an extra burst of energy through her body, racing through the forest, her legs a blur in their speed. Her slim frame helped her slip through the spaces between clustered trees that the wolf had to swerve around because of its size. All that was in her mind was run, run, run, driven by something innate and elemental. A small part of her considered that maybe he would stop following her, and instead turn his attentions to easier, slower, more willing omegas. 

But Sasuke matched her, picking up the pace as well. Branches on the ground and low-lying boughs snapped like mere twigs in his path, not slowing him down in the slightest. 

He’d always been the fastest in their year, and it was only mostly because of her headstart that she’d managed to maintain her lead. But even that was quickly becoming precarious. He was gaining on her, the distance between them shrinking and shrinking, the sound of his paws hitting the ground getting louder and louder. 

Fear and desire warred within her — fear because of a large, apex predator was hunting her human form, desire because it was Sasuke and the thought that the night might end with her on her back or on her hands and knees had more wetness starting to trickle between her legs and another cramp twinging in her belly. That he wanted her, wanted her, especially on such a significant night, made her body hot and her heart warm, and the omega part of her thrilled at the thought of such a strong and capable mate, one of the two most powerful alphas in generations. 

She could feel the black wolf’s breath behind her, hot on her legs, canines snapping at her heels. 

In merely a minute he was running alongside her. She knew then that it was only a matter of time. Sasuke had selected her, zeroed in on her as his target, and it seemed he had no intention of letting her go. She only hoped he wouldn’t hurt her for some unknown reason. 

Soon, Sasuke was done playing. 

He nudged his snout at her legs, not hard enough to send her crashing to the ground and injuring herself, but just enough to cause her to lose her rhythm and stumble. She tucked her body in and rolled to the ground to break her fall. 

The second she came to a halt and lay flat on her back, the black wolf leapt on top of her body, caging her in, its massive paws on either side of her, covering her like a kill he was protecting. 

Then it reared its head back, tilted it up towards the full moon, and let loose a long, deafening howl. 

A claiming howl. 

Every single werewolf in attendance would have heard it. 

After the howl faded into the forest, the wolf bent down, stared straight at her with its heterochromic eyes and let out a deep, velvety growl that only the two of them could hear. 

You’re mine. 

Her inner wolf whimpered in submission at the display of dominance, and Sakura felt her body respond, subconsciously baring her throat and her legs parting slightly. The sheer possessiveness of that deep sound sent heat rippling under her skin and anticipation crackling in her veins. It made her squirm restlessly, suddenly aware of the throbbing at her neck gland and between her thighs. As she lay back to catch her breath, inhaling lungfuls of air due to the exertion of running, the scent of him surrounded her, flooding her nostrils, making it so difficult to think anything else but Yes, I’m yours; yes, take me, alpha. 

The primal feeling of being chased, then caught, then surrendering to the alpha who had hunted her down, his heady scent both intoxicating and comfortingly familiar that it felt like both a drug and a salve, all combined to pull her deeper into her heat. Ahead of schedule, earlier than expected, but her biology seemed to have a mind of its own when it came to Sasuke. Having him so close to her and not yet touching her or taking her, was making her symptoms more pronounced. Her skin was feeling hotter, her stomach was cramping in shorter intervals, her glands were throbbing in time with her rapid heartbeat. The aching between her legs grew, along with the overwhelming need to be filled. 

The black wolf loomed over her, its face just inches away, and with the moonlight helping, Sakura was able to better appreciate the wolf above her. Just as Sasuke was handsome as a human, he made an equally handsome wolf. Thick, lush black fur all over a lean, muscular form, large even for a werewolf; strong and powerful limbs, massive paws, well-shaped ears and a sleek muzzle perfectly proportional to its head. 

Extending her arm, she reached out her hand to cup the side of its face, smoothing down the fur in affectionate caresses. It leaned into her touch, closing its eyes and panting as it rubbed its face against her palm.

When it opened its eyes again, the wolf broke away from her touch, lowered its head and nuzzled her cheek with the side of its snout, its soft fur almost tickling her. Then it nosed a downward path on her body, from her neck where he took several huffs at the scent glands there, to her chest, between her breasts, down her abdomen, pelvis, the apex of her thighs which had instinctively fallen open in submission.

The black wolf must have picked up the scent of her heat, unmistakable now in their proximity to each other, because it stopped at the juncture between her legs. She could feel its hot breath even through the fabric of her dress. 

Her cheeks burned, knowing the scent he must have smelled there, and just when she was about to close her legs, its muzzle slid between her knees, pushed them apart, and nudged at the hem of her slip with a low whine. 

With slow, sure fingers, she yielded, sliding the thin fabric up her thighs until it bunched around her stomach. The black wolf pressed its nose to her soaked panties, right over her slit, and took a pronounced, audible sniff. The deep, purr-like rumble from its chest went straight to her core. 

Right before her eyes, the black wolf shifted, its bone structure changing, its fur drawing back, flattening, receding, fading into skin. In moments, a human Sasuke was kneeling between her legs. Naked and hard and staring at her with half-lidded eyes that raked over her with a hunger that seemed only she could satisfy. The dark, feral, hungry look in them, unambiguous even in the mismatched colors, made the ache low in her body grow sharper, more urgent. 

As a healer, she was no stranger to male anatomy, and yet she couldn’t help but let her gaze trail over this alpha’s — her alpha’s — physical perfection. She’d stared furtively back then at the field, but this time, emboldened by his clear interest, she let herself enjoy the view. The expanse of his shoulders, his bare chest, the muscular definition of his abdomen, the cuts on his hips, then lower… He’d been visibly aroused as a wolf, just as he was now as a human, and he was exceptionally well-endowed in both forms. She wondered briefly if his would even fit, and that was without his knot yet. 

The thought of his lips at her throat, his teeth over her glands, and his knot stretching her open and locking his cock inside her and filling her full of his come, sent a fresh gush of slick down the inside of her thighs. 

Sasuke’s nostrils flared and he groaned, leaning forward to brace his arms on either side of her head, the length of his body draped over hers, his erection heavy and throbbing between them. He spoke before she could. 

“Sakura.”

She whimpered at the sound of her name in his mouth. It sounded urgent, desperate; it made her squirm restlessly, her body flushing with heat, and she knew she must have given off pheromones in the air, an involuntary response to her alpha’s call. 

“Your scent,” he said, voice slightly hoarse from just having reacquired human vocal chords. “You smell so good. I can’t— I can’t hold back anymore.”

His lips dragged down the side of her throat, his hot, questing mouth both a relief and a fuse to her rising heat.

She drew in a surprised, soundless little gasp, eyes growing wide then fluttering shut at the alternating sucks and kisses along her neck. “Is that— is that what you tell all the omegas you spend your ruts with?” She’d meant to be a little sassy and defiant, an attempt at putting up one last fight, but the words came out breathless and just this side of teasing.

Sasuke raised his head at that, the heated look on his face turned to one of confusion, then disbelief. “You think I’d waste my time on other omegas?” He sounded almost angry that she’d thought such a thing. 

“Um, yes?” He was elite even among other alphas. With his looks, skills, and status, Sasuke could have any omega he wanted—  

“No.”

He lifted her chin and, staring at her mouth, ran his thumb across her bottom lip. “I’ve never been with an omega. Or anyone else, for that matter. It was always you.” He lowered his head to nuzzle at her neck glands, running his nose and lips across the delicate skin there. Her mating glands throbbed at the brush of his lips. “And none of them smell like you.”

Their eyes met and gazes held, and she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak at the possessiveness and want that she found there, almost frightening in their intensity. 

“I could smell you across the field earlier,” he murmured. “I’ve known you were my mate — chosen you as my mate — years ago.”

“What?” Sakura couldn’t believe her ears. A stray thought crossed her mind that maybe this was some fever dream induced by her heat. But the solid warmth of his body, the scent of him filling her nose, the hard ridge of his cock pressing against her — were very, very real. “You’re choosing me? You— you want me? As a mate?”

“I’ve always wanted you,” he rasped, lips grazing the curve of her jaw before lifting up to meet her eyes again. “Waited for this night as soon as we were taught what a Mating Hunt was.”

Sakura could only stare back, dizzy with want, drunk on his confession. The intoxicating scent of his arousal was growing even stronger, surrounding her, making it so difficult to think, enticing her to give in to pure instinct and whatever ancient, mystical, elemental forces tied them together. 

“And now I’ve caught you,” he said, voice husky with triumph. “Do you yield? You belong to me now, yes?”

The knowledge that Sasuke felt this way was exhilarating and made her inner omega flush with a wild, primeval joy. Alpha desires me. Alpha wants to take care of me. 

“Yes,” she breathed. She arched into his body, pushing her hips against his erection. “Please…”

“Say it.”

“Please, alpha, I-I’m in heat, I need this—”

“Say it.”

She whined, clutching at his shoulders. “Please, Sasuke-kun. Take me, rut me, please—”

Sasuke growled with dark satisfaction. He’d declared it with a howl earlier, but he said it again in words. “You’re mine, Sakura. My omega.”

Those words, in his voice as deep and rough as his wolf’s growl, made her insides ignite and her pussy clench, sending her spiraling fully into her heat. 

Before she had a chance to reply, he bent down and took her mouth in a feral kiss. She squeaked as his lips moved firm and sure against hers, claiming just as much as kissing. One of his hands gripped under her ass to pull her pelvis directly against his cock. She gasped, and Sasuke seized the opportunity to invade her mouth with his tongue and slide it against hers. Despite being their first, it wasn’t sweet or shy or tentative. It was like a dam had broken, feelings and desires they’d long held back finally freed to wash over them in a tidal wave. Desperate and all-consuming, a clash of lips and teeth and tongue. 

Sakura threw her arms around him and she gave as good as she got, kissing him back with equal passion and fervor, meeting the rough, openmouthed presses of his lips with her own. He kept her in place, hand splayed on the side of her neck and jaw, the rough pad of his thumb on her cheek, and suddenly she couldn’t understand why she’d doubted his interest in the first place. 

Even with their inexperience, their bodies knew what to do. They had always been attuned to each other; both on and off the battlefield, in conversation and in companionable silence.  And apparently it was no different when it came to intimacy. Their natural synergy, instincts, and raw desires took over. 

Sasuke bunched the hem of her dress in one hand, and the hand that was on her neck slid down to slip one strap of her dress down her shoulder. “Let’s take these off. Want you naked.”

Eager to feel more of his skin on hers, Sakura pulled off her white slip over her head, unhooking her bra and tossing it to the side as Sasuke yanked her underwear down and off her legs. The forest breeze washed over her naked, too-warm body, but the relief was only temporary. She lay back on the cool, mossy earth, squirming and flushing at the way Sasuke’s gaze raked over her hotly, greedily, like a starved man about to feast, until she wasn’t sure if she was still breathing. 

The searing, single-minded attention made slick seep out of her and she rubbed her thighs together to relieve the discomfort, but she only succeeded in spreading her wetness even more. It drew Sasuke’s attention to her dripping center and the glistening skin of her inner thighs. 

The air was charged with mating pheromones. Sasuke let out an animalistic growl and another wave of his scent flooded her nose, richer and even more potent, the scent of a highly aroused alpha now fully in rut. It coiled around her senses, made her pliant, and all she wanted to do was drown in it. Her eyes fluttered closed as she inhaled the way he smelled. Wood and firesmoke and leather. Sexy and dangerous, yet strong and comforting and so primally male. 

Sasuke braced himself above her, his body covering hers. His teeth grazed the skin over her neck gland and Sakura whimpered, the desire for him to bite her filling her mind. Suddenly he pulled away. “I’m sorry,” he panted, gathering himself. “I almost bit you— I’m sorry. I should ask you first—”

“Ask me later,” she breathed. “We have time. I just want— I want— I need— Please—” She wanted more. Needed more. More of his touch, more of his skin on hers— 

She had barely finished begging Please when Sasuke’s mouth closed over a nipple, sucking it between his lips and laving it with his tongue, his fingers on the other peak, switching his attentions back and forth between both breasts until she was writhing and moaning under him, feeling her pussy clench and slick with every rough suck and twist on her taut, sensitive nipples. 

“Sakura,” he rasped. “Your scent is getting stronger. Do you have any idea how good you fucking smell to me?” 

“I think—” she struggled to form a coherent sentence, her mind dizzy with desire, “I-I think I do. It’s the same for me—” she broke off into a loud, needy whine when Sasuke licked at the skin of the mating gland at her neck, contenting himself with tonguing at it instead of biting. She arched into him, and was rewarded with a guttural sound when she rocked against his erection. 

Encouraged by his enthusiasm, she trailed her nails down the front of his torso and felt the sculpted lines of his abdomen, the way his stomach muscles jumped beneath her hand as she went lower and lower. She reached down and wrapped her hand around his cock, though her fingertips didn’t even meet around its size. It was long and thick and curved just right, so hard it was leaking precome onto her palm. She preened inwardly. Alpha is pleased.

She wanted to please him more. So she stroked up and down the length of him, swiped her thumb over the head, pumped him in a grip he’d guided her into that he liked. She felt the heft and hardness of his cock, felt it pulse and twitch eagerly at her touch. After some moments, Sasuke grabbed her wrist with an almost-pained grunt and pulled her hand off his shaft. “Much as I love your hand on me and have imagined coming all over you countless times, tonight I’d prefer coming inside you while you take my knot.”

“Yes, alpha, please,” she whined. She didn’t care anymore how wanton she must have looked or sounded. She wanted all of it. His cock, his knot, his come filling her. Scent me. Fill me. Claim me. 

“You need your alpha, don’t you?” he rasped. 

“Yes— Ahh—!” Before she could dwell on how Sasuke referred to himself as her alpha, like he was hers, she choked on a moan when he reached down and slid his hand between her legs, fingers running up and down the soaked folds of her pussy. She let out a particularly loud gasp when his fingers brushed against her clit, a bolt of electric pleasure shooting through her. “Sasuke-kun! God—” 

“Yeah? Right there?” He smirked at her as he rubbed her clit in maddening circles, and she couldn’t help the thrashing of her body and the bucking of her hips. 

Even more slick trickled out of her at the stimulation, but the embarrassment was drowned out by the sheer pleasure of his touch. She opened herself wider to his fingers as he stroked her, spreading the slickness around her folds, over her clit, making the slide of his fingers even easier. 

“You’re so wet,” he said, almost in wonder, voice gone deep and husky, making a pleased noise that was half-hum and half-groan. “Wet for me, omega?”

Before she could even agree that yes, she was so wet for him, only him, and that he was responsible for jumpstarting her heat, he slid his middle finger inside her, making her gasp. “—And so tight. Fuck. I’ll have to stretch you before you take my knot, Sakura. Although I know you can take it.” 

Thinking of being knotted had her whimpering, pussy tightening around his finger. 

“Has anyone else touched you here?” He alternated between fingerfucking her and circling just outside her hole.

“No,” she gasped as his fingers worked her. “I’ve never—”

“Good. From now on, I’m the only one who will.”

He kissed her again, covering her lips with his just as he added a second finger. Sakura moaned into Sasuke’s mouth as two strong fingers slid in and out of her, stroking her inner walls, quickly learning the places that elicited louder sounds from her. 

One particular crook of his fingers over one particular spot along her front wall made her scream. Her body shuddered, the air leaving her lungs. Sasuke smirked, satisfaction written on his face as he watched her cry out again when he repeated the action. He made his way further south, pressing kisses down her body and nipping at her skin. 

When she felt her thighs being pushed up and apart even wider, exposing her luridly to the cool night air, her eyes flew open and she peered down self-consciously. 

Good thing she was on her back, or else she might have keeled over from the knee-weakening sight of Sasuke looking up at her with hungry, half-lidded eyes from between her legs. 

She felt his nose and lips run up her inner thigh. “Let me taste you. I need to taste you.”

Her mind was formulating something akin to How about later, please fuck me now but before she could utter a word, his tongue was on her, running a broad, flat line from the bottom of her pussy to her clit at the top, and whatever she’d been meaning to say died in her throat, replaced by a loud wail that must have echoed through the woods . “Alpha,” she whimpered, struggling for breath and writhing in his hold, but he kept her pinned, trapping her right where he wanted her. 

His grip tightened on her thighs and he swore into her soaked folds, his lips brushing against her clit and making her moan at the contact. And then Sasuke turned feral, his tongue ravishing her, lapping at her, slurping up any slick as soon as it flowed from her. He ate her with the whole of his mouth, sucking her clit, his lips caressing every bit of her, his tongue pushing inside her and lashing at her pussy with firm, merciless licks that sent sparks coursing through her body. 

The ministrations of his mouth didn’t stop, and when he slid his fingers back inside her to stroke repeatedly at the sweet spot he had found earlier, the building tension and rising heat became too much to bear and she came with a loud cry, back arching and pussy fluttering against his eager tongue.

“Sasuke-kun,” she moaned. Her fingers threaded into his hair, needing to anchor herself under the continuous oral onslaught. 

He lifted his head slightly at the mention of his name. The lower half of his face was obscured by the mound of her pussy, and his eyes glowed as he watched her face. “Look at you, making so much slick for me,” he said, looking down to where he held her open. 

She felt her cheeks burn. Before she could respond, Sasuke lowered his head again and buried his face between her legs once more, inhaling deeply, mouth and tongue working her again. “Mmmm,” he groaned. “Fucking addicting.” The vibrations from his words sent frissons of pleasure radiating upward through her body. 

Her mouth fell open in a soundless cry when he dove back in and sucked on her clit at the same time that he pushed his fingers back inside her, fucking her with his fingers as he had earlier, but with the added pleasure of his mouth. Sakura let out choked little whimpers, lost in how good it felt and embarrassed by the mess of slick she was making, but Sasuke would groan against her pussy as if enjoying a particularly delicious meal, as if overcome by the taste and feel of her just as much as she was overcome by him. 

Sasuke inserted a third finger and she stopped breathing, her pussy contracting around him in initial resistance, and a low sound rumbled from his throat. “You’re gonna feel so tight around my cock and on my knot. Can’t wait to feel you around me.” 

She was so wet that his fingers slipped in and out with little difficulty after working past the initial tightness of all three. They rubbed against her sweet spot while Sasuke continued licking and sucking her clit, and for a moment Sakura honestly thought she’d lose her mind. 

She writhed and thrashed, torn between pushing herself closer at how good it felt and pulling away from overstimulation, but Sasuke held firm, determined to bring her to climax again. She could only take so much and she felt her body tense, pleasure and pressure coiling low in her abdomen like a spring ready to release. 

Mere moments later her senses overloaded and she tumbled over the edge again with a high-pitched wail as she came on his tongue and soaked his fingers. “That’s it, Sakura, give me all your slick,” he coaxed.  

Her hips ground against his face in tiny, helpless jerks as she rode the throes of her orgasm and he lapped at her pussy, drinking her like wine. “Could eat you out all night,” he rumbled against her. He dragged out her release, slowing the flicks of his tongue and the strokes of his fingers as her spasms lessened, until he pressed one last kiss to her clit and mercifully pulled his mouth away. 

When Sasuke surfaced, he looked like a predator that had eaten its fill from its prey, except that his mouth, chin, and cheeks were shiny with slick instead of blood. 

Sakura fell back, panting and dazed. The ache in her body had subsided somewhat, but the restless need was still there, simmering under the surface. It wouldn’t go away until his cock was inside her and he’d knotted her and she was coming all over it while he fucked her full of his come. 

Soon she cramped again, the need to ease the ache becoming her immediate goal.

Sakura rolled over onto all fours, on her hands and knees, “Sasuke-kun,” she moaned. “Alpha, please. Please—” She arched her body, enticing him with the sensuous line of her back, the dip of her waist and the curve of her ass, high in the air as she presented herself for him completely. 

There was a ragged exhalation behind her. “You have no idea how pretty you look on your hands and knees like this. You’re driving me mad, omega.”

Large, callused hands gripped her hips up and palmed her ass before spreading her open. She backed up against him and was met by the hard feel of his cock right between her ass cheeks. 

She whimpered and writhed, ready and desperate for more, undulating her hips to entice him to move. 

His closeness, but still not having him inside her, triggered another cramp, another wave of prickly restless discomfort that felt like wanting to crawl out of her skin. She looked back over her shoulder, pleading with her eyes. “Please, alpha, I need you—”

“Impatient little omega. So annoying,” Sasuke growled affectionately. “I’m going to fuck you the way I’ve wanted to for a long, long time, I’m going to fuck you until you beg for my knot, and I’m going to fuck you until you can’t think of anyone else mating you but me.”

She could smell his desire, a stronger, muskier, concentrated variant of his scent. Thick in the air and enveloping her, sinking into her skin and marking her as his. 

He ran his cockhead and shaft along the wet line of her slit, sliding it up and down her folds, smearing his precome on her and slicking himself with her arousal and release. 

The feel of that first press and push of his cock against her entrance made her fall forward onto her elbows, breath catching in her throat as he breached her. He paused, letting her get used to his size, and him to her hot, wet tightness. 

He pushed in gradually, slowly, stretching her fully now as he sheathed himself inch by inch. But the needy, impatient whimpers that escaped her throat must have unmoored the last of his self-control and Sasuke let out a low, drawn-out groan as he plunged himself inside her in one long, continuous slide until he was buried to the hilt. 

“Fuck.” The strangled curse that Sasuke let out was one she’d echoed in her mind but couldn’t voice out, that first overwhelming feel of him rendering her wordless.  “You feel so good,” he rasped into her hair. “So perfect. Like you were made for my cock.”

Her pussy throbbed, clenching around him at the praise. He must have felt it, because he let out a deep groan and notched both hands on the curves where her waist flared out into her hips. 

She could only nod and mewl in agreement. His alpha cock stretched her just right, every inch of him rubbing deliciously against her inner walls, reaching places she didn’t know existed.

Sasuke pulled back, until just the tip of him remained inside, then he yanked her onto his cock, slamming into her with a force that knocked the breath from her lungs. He did it again and again, pleasured cries tearing from her throat as he took her from behind.

“You like being fucked by your alpha?” he hissed.

“Yes,” she sobbed. “Yes—” and the rest of it were just incoherent pleas she couldn’t string together and sounds she couldn’t believe she’d make. 

Sasuke surged forward, bracing himself above her from behind, pressing his chest and torso against the length of her back. He began rutting her in earnest, his hips snapping relentlessly against her ass. She felt his nose nuzzling against her nape, then left to right over her glands at the junctures of her neck and shoulders. She could feel him inhale as he took in her scent again, could feel the puffs of hot breath against her skin. 

Then he sucked on her gland, hard, and she shattered with a scream, body convulsing, soaking herself and his cock with slick. Sasuke panted in her ear from behind, his warm weight a solid and comforting presence. 

The burning discomfort of her heat faded, the release he’d given her granting her much-needed relief. She closed her eyes, savoring his nearness and the feel of his skin against hers. The way they fit together so perfectly. But the relief was short-lived, and she let out a small whine as the restlessness started building up again. The throes of her heat returned. There was more that her body needed to be satiated. The ache rose up in her again, demanding to be soothed.

Sasuke was pressed against her back, so she shifted under him, turning her head to beg it of him. He was still hard between her legs. Every little movement she made caused his cock to rub inside her, making her moan. It wasn’t her first heat, but it was her first spent with a partner. Was it always like this? Addicted to being fucked by her alpha? “Please, I need— I need—”

“What is it? What do you want? Tell me what you need, omega, and I’ll give it to you.”

It was getting hotter in her skin. “Knot,” she gasped. “Please— knot me, come inside me, rut me— Need it, need you—” She didn’t care anymore how incoherent or desperate she sounded, begging and pleading for him to give her his knot and fill her up with his come. 

He growled, then cursed, and she could feel how he was vibrating from his own barely-controlled need. She knew he was holding back for her, waiting for her permission. “You want to take my knot?” His hands moved from her hips to the globes of her ass and spread her open, making her feel him even more as he thrust, making her imagine how much his knot would stretch her pussy. “Good, because I want to knot you so fucking bad.”

She could only moan and grind backwards against him even more, tempting him to do it then and there. 

But Sasuke pulled out, leaving her with an empty ache, her pussy contracting around nothing. 

“No!” she  wailed, protesting, feeling immediately bereft. Alpha is leaving. “Don’t leave me, don’t stop, please—”

“Sshhh,” he crooned. “I’m not going anywhere, omega.” His voice sounded strained despite the reassurance. From the heavy scent he was giving off, he was at the very edge of his restraint and a hair’s breadth away from losing control and taking her and claiming her completely.

And she wanted it all. She backed up into him, pressing herself even closer against him, offering herself for his taking. 

Suddenly Sakura yelped in surprise when found herself flipped onto her back again, nearly bent in half as Sasuke hauled her legs up over his broad shoulders. His fingers dug into the flesh of her ass, his grip harsh and possessive. 

“I’m gonna knot you, Omega,” he panted harshly in her ear. “Gonna pump you full of my come.”

“Yes, yes, alpha, please,” she begged, scrabbling at his chest. “Please, I— ahh!” she cried out when he plunged back inside her in one long, smooth stroke. 

Then he began to move, the drag of his cock as he withdrew and the slam of it as he thrust back in,  making her eyes roll back and squeeze shut in pleasure. 

“Look at me. Look at me while I fuck you and give you what we both need. Look at me when you come, Sakura.” 

Sakura forced her eyes open, meeting his. Seeing Sasuke, usually so stoic and reserved, giving in to his basest urges that she had caused, sent her reeling. Sasuke looked wrecked, and she knew she must look the same. He rutted her again, his thrusts speeding up and hips driving into her relentlessly. Sasuke knew instinctively how to move inside her, his length and girth rubbing the most pleasurable spots inside her. Her mouth dropped open in a gasping cry when the head of his cock hit just the right place. Sasuke was nothing if not a fast learner, so when he’d found the right angle he hit it again and again.

“You’re perfect. So perfect,” he said raggedly.  Sasuke leaned back and brought her legs down to wrap around his waist so he could get closer and kiss her in between thrusts, panting in each other’s mouths, a thin string of saliva connecting them when they would part.

Every thrust was hard and deep, and the way his body was pressed and angled over hers had his pelvis moving against her clit as well, the delicious friction and constant stimulation wringing sounds from herself that she’d never heard before. 

Sakura marveled at the overwhelming pleasure and rightness of them like this. Maybe the old stories about fated mates were true after all; and if true, that’s what they surely were. They felt so good and so right together that it was impossible that they weren’t meant for each other. It seemed Sasuke was feeling the same; he pressed their foreheads together and they stayed that way for moments, breaths mingling, inhaling each other’s scents. 

“You were made for this. Made for me. And I for you.” His voice was low and rough, his eyes alight  with desire and a fierce emotion that looked — dare she hope? — a lot like love. 

Sakura nodded frantically, eyes glazed over. “Yes. I am. We are.”

The sound she made was soft, barely a whimper, and another gush of slick dripped from her, filling the air with another burst of her scent. She was already so wet, and yet somehow she still got impossibly wetter. If she were in a bed she’d be soaking the sheets.

But Sasuke didn’t seem to mind; in fact it seemed to drive him even wilder.

Sasuke wrapped a hand around the front of her throat like a necklace, not enough to hurt, but with just enough pressure for her to feel his dominance, his show of ownership and possession, and she felt her pussy clench, her blood thrilling with her helplessness. 

“Say my name,” he rasped. His thrusts sped up. 

She felt like she would break apart from the pleasure, reduced to nothing but a moaning, desperate mess. “Sasuke-kun,” she sobbed. 

“Keep saying my name.” He sounded strained, holding onto his last shred of self-control. “So I know you know it’s me and not just because I happen to be the alpha who caught you.” He gave a particularly pronounced thrust and she cried out. “Want you to know just who exactly is fucking you and knotting you and coming in your pretty little pussy.”

“Sasuke-kun, please—”

“That’s right, omega, you belong to me,” he ground out harshly, fucking her hard and fast and she couldn’t do anything but cling to him, her arms around shoulders and her ankles hooked together at the small of his back.

“Sasuke-kun,” she choked out. “It feels so good. Why does it feel so good—” She broke off in a cry as Sasuke’s hand reached down to tease her clit with his fingers while he continued pounding into her ruthlessly, fucking her into the mossy earth.

“I’m close,” she gasped. “Oh god, Sasuke-kun, I’m going to come again,  I’m so close, please—” Sakura clutched at his back, her nails raking into his skin, feeling the crescendo of her impending climax and the tightening of her pussy around him. 

“Just like that,” he hissed. “Come for me, Sakura—” 

Their gazes held, lips parted as the rising tension building low in her body snapped and her toes curled and she screamed as her orgasm crashed over her, her whole body shaking, pussy spasming rhythmically around him. 

It set off his release. In seconds, his knot expanded and it felt like it wouldn’t be able to fit but somehow it did, locking inside her on an inward thrust. He let out a feral sound that was half-shout and half-growl as he came, spilling inside her and filling her with hot streams of come.

She thought she was full before, what with the size of him, but when the knot at the base of his cock swelled, she’d gasped at the satisfying pressure inside her, the feeling of being stretched even more, pleasure just short of pain.

Locked inside her at the base, he couldn’t pull out, could only make short, close pumps and bucking motions while pressed to her. Limited in movement, he ground against her experimentally with deep, short, solid rolls of his hips and Sakura cried out as the tug of his knot rubbed the sensitive areas just past her entrance in tandem with the head of his cock brushing against her sweet spot. 

Sasuke intertwined his fingers with hers, pinning her hand to the ground. His other hand slid down to the crux of her thighs to rub at her clit again, knowing her body better even better now, circling on it with just the right speed and pressure. 

“Come for me again,” he growled, the movement of his fingers unfaltering on her clit, keeping up the delicious friction on the sensitive nub until she crested into another orgasm, contractions milking him as he kept coming inside her.

“Every wolf will know you’re mine. Every wolf will know you belong to me,” he rasped. “They’ll smell my scent on your skin and they’ll know it’s my come dripping between your legs.”

They sated their heat and rut all through the night. 

She had lost count of their orgasms; all she knew was that every time it happened, it brought the relief she needed, easing the ache caused by her heat, and every time he knotted her it strengthened their bond and brought them closer. 

During a lull in their frenzied mating, they got to talking. They lay on the ground, Sakura curled up at his side and his arm around her. 

“Do you remember that day you were harassed by the Oto wolves?” Sasuke asked, drawing circles on the skin of her shoulder.

Sakura traced the ridges of his abdomen. “How could I forget?”

“I could smell your distress. Even if I wasn’t near and there was no normal physical way to have smelled you from that far.”

“What?” Sakura lifted her head from his bicep to look at him in shock. Another bit of lore was that fated mates could smell each other’s scent from great distances.

“I know it sounds impossible, and I don’t know how but I could. That’s why I knew where to go. And you smell so good that it was easy to find you.”

“I thought my scent didn’t call to you. Or didn’t affect you. Or that it didn’t, um, appeal to you. At least before tonight. You would always stand like a foot away!”

Sasuke gave a small, wry smile. “That’s because you smell so good up close that I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to control myself and make things weird or awkward. So I had to put even just a little distance—”

“You never said anything!” Sakura protested. 

“Not one of my wiser decisions, I know. That’s why—” the corner of his mouth upturned in a determined half-grin — “I have years to make up for.” 

His hand slid over her bare hip. “And I thought you didn’t like me anymore. But tonight I found out that wasn’t the case,” he smirked. 

She swatted his chest, letting out an indignant little mewl. She could try to deny it, but it was pointless to do so, what with him apparently being sensitive to her smell, just as she was to his. 

No other alpha’s scent had caused her to go into heat early. No other alpha’s scent made her produce slick. The fact that it was Sasuke, his scent, his pheromones that did it for her… Maybe this was meant to be. Again, her theory…

He nuzzled at her hair. “You smell incredible. Fucking addicting.”

She blushed. “The feeling — the smelling? — is mutual. You smell good to me, too. You’re the only alpha whose scent I like,” she confessed.

“Yeah?” he looked smug, satisfaction written all over his face. “Good to know,” he said huskily, nipping at her earlobe.

“Why didn’t you make a move?”

“I wanted to do it the right way. I wanted to claim you properly during a Mating Hunt.” He looked at her, his expression suddenly serious. “This isn’t… this isn’t just a casual thing.”

Sakura’s eyes widened at the significance of his words. The intensity in his eyes was overwhelming. She couldn’t look away. She searched his face for any trace of doubt and found none. 

“I want you to be my lifemate, Sakura,” he continued. “My wife. I want you to be mine, not just for tonight, but for all the rest of your days, and nights, and moons. And I want to be yours.”

“Sasuke-kun,” she breathed. Her eyes brimmed with happy tears, and her heart felt so warm and joyous she could barely contain it. “I feel the same way. I want my lifemate to be you.”

“Aa. I’m glad.”

“Have you heard of true mates or fated mates? Soulmates destined to be lovers and share a mating bond?” she asked softly. “I know it’s just an old legend, but this—” she trailed off, and she knew he knew what she meant.

“I have. And I know that’s what we are. I never wanted anyone else.” She felt his chest rise and fall in a deep breath. “The Uchiha believe in it. It’s true, at least for us. My parents are fated mates. Nii-san and Izumi-neesan, too. And so are we. Tonight, and everything we said, just confirmed it.”

Sakura was stunned into momentary silence. Well. It seemed Sasuke was full of surprises tonight. “And here I was, worried that you’d think I was crazy for bringing up the theory.”

Sasuke tapped her forehead with two fingers, just above her purple diamond mark. “I love you, you know.” 

“You— you love me?”

“Since we were kids.” He pressed a kiss on her forehead. “Always have. Always will.” 

After the initial shock, her inner omega purred, the wolf part of her rippling with joy. Their feelings are connected, mutual, united. Sasuke would be a strong, protective, and devoted mate. 

The raw emotions and pheromones triggered another wave of her heat. She felt her skin getting hot and her gut beginning to cramp, wetness pooling between her legs again and her scent becoming stronger. Sasuke’s nostrils flared and his gaze, which had gone soft and half-lidded, sharpened once more as her growing arousal registered on his senses. 

He rolled on top of her, hiked up her leg, and entered her with a push of his hips. 

“Will you—” he started moving, his thrusts slow and deep. “Will you be my mate?”

Sakura wanted it. She wanted him to take her, to mark her, to claim her so wholly and thoroughly that everyone would know she belonged to him. 

“Yes.” She had never wanted anything as badly as she did at that moment, couldn’t imagine anyone else as her mate. “Yes.” 

“Say it, Sakura. I need to hear you say it.”

“Yes, I’ll be your mate. Bite me, mark me, make me yours, alpha — Sasuke-kun — please—”

“You want me to bite? You’re sure?”

“Yes— Now—”

“No turning back,” he growled against her neck. “After this, you are mine and I am yours and I am never letting you go.”

Sasuke’s rut took over him again. He fucked her with greater urgency, like a wild animal, driving into her at a brutal pace. 

She spread her legs wider to accommodate him, all the sensations sweeping over her. His chest brushing against her nipples, his cock stroking every inch of her inner walls and hitting unerringly at her g-spot, his pelvis rubbing constant pressure on her clit, his lips mouthing at the sensitive mating glands of her neck, his voice whispering dirty, pretty things and promises of forever. 

Her senses overloaded, all her nerve endings on fire and she came, her climax hitting like an electric shock. 

As she contracted around him, his knot swelled again, popping into place inside her as it expanded and sealed her entrance. She felt every inch of his cock and knot against her inner walls, and the simultaneous stimulation of his knot tugging at the entrance of her pussy and his fingers rubbing expertly at her clit tipped her over the edge once more, her walls clamping down on him. “Just like that, fuck, come on my knot, squeeze it just like that,” he panted raggedly against her neck. “I’m gonna fill you up some more, I’m gonna fill you till your pussy’s so full my come spills out of you.”

Sasuke attacked her mating glands with ferocious enthusiasm, licking hot, firm swipes over them alternating with sucking kisses. Sakura wailed, the pleasure near unbearable, as if his tongue was on her nipples, her clit, inside her pussy all at once, followed by incoherent, desperate sounds that might have been Please, alpha, please, oh god, Sasuke-kun, please—

His teeth scraped over the skin of her gland, and she only had a fleeting awareness of the friction, was just about to let out a moan when Sasuke sank his teeth into her flesh, breaking the thin skin over her gland, making her his. She screamed as fire ripped through her veins, white-hot pleasure radiating throughout her body and sparking up her skin. 

Nearly sobbing she came again, feeling like she was soaring on air, her whole body shuddering and spasming with the force of her climax. 

When she descended from her high, Sasuke was waiting for her. “Your turn.” Awe and urgency had turned his voice rough. “Bite me.” 

“Okay,” she breathed, aftershocks still rocking her body. She mouthed down his neck, then over his own mating gland, feeling it throb under her lips. She gave it a few delicate licks before sucking, gratified by the bucks of his hips and the guttural groans in her ear, knowing it would feel as good for him as it did for her. 

Then she bit down. His blood seeped into her mouth as he pulled her flush against him, following her over the edge with a roar-like, primal sound as he came, grinding his hips into her with short, hard thrusts, spilling pulse after pulse of come inside her. 

When the fog cleared, she found him staring at her, entranced, almost unblinking, fierce adoration and a feral sort of reverence all over his face before gathering her into his arms. 

With the reciprocal mating bites while his knot was locked inside her as he came, the ritual was complete. The mutual binding was done. She was his and he was hers. 

They were tied to each other, although this was but a formalization of a bond that was ancient and deep.

They spent a few more hours there, making love in mated bliss until the wee hours of the morning until it was close to daybreak and they lay on the forest floor, the haze from their respective rut and heat temporarily receded because of how much — and how often — they’d sated each other’s hunger. Her body ached in the best way, and her thighs were sticky with his come.

The need would overtake them again later, but for now, it was time to head back and close their Mating Hunt. 

His fingers were tangled in her hair and his arm draped possessively over her waist. She felt safe and warm, surrounded by their mingled scents. 

“We should get back,” she said. Her voice was a little hoarse from all the sounds he’d wrung from her. 

“Yeah, I think we should. While it’s still a little dark. It’s going to be dawn soon.”

Sasuke licked the bite marks he’d made on her gland. They’d already begun healing. Sakura shivered, moaning softly. She curled up against him and nuzzled at his neck, running her lips along the line of his jaw and her fingers up and down his chest.

“If you keep that up, I’m going to get into another wave of rutting and we’ll be here ‘til midmorning.” His arm tightened around her shoulders, and with his other hand he lifted her chin with a finger. “How about we go home to my place?” His gaze was half-lidded, affectionate, but gleaming with eagerness and no less hungry as when they’d begun. “Finish your heat and my rut there.”

“Mmmm, tempting,” she said, planting a kiss on his mouth. Then she drew back slightly, a thought passing through her mind. “May I—” she bit her lip, hesitating, not wanting to sound too presumptuous. Even if they were already mated, it was all still so new. Plus it was his house, not hers, and she had her manners.

“What is it, Sakura?” He asked, picking up on her hesitation, a worried frown marring his forehead. 

“May I make a nest there? In your room?”

He visibly relaxed, and the stupidly sexy smile that curved his mouth nearly made her jump him for another go. “I was hoping you’d ask,” he said. “Of course you can make a nest. Our nest.”

She burrowed further into his chest, pressing her nose to his skin and savoring the warmth of his body. “I’d like that. Thank you.”

The night sky had grown lighter, dark blues fading into pinks in the horizon. “We need to get dressed,” Sasuke said with a reluctance she felt in equal measure. “We just have to report to the elders fast before we start up again—” he kissed her, long and deep, as if he couldn’t get enough, and they nearly lost themselves again in the distraction. “Then we can continue. This. At. Home,” he said, punctuating each word with a kiss. 

Sakura put on her white dress, now wrinkled and streaked with soil and leaves. 

“Let’s go, omega. My mate. My wife-to-be,” Sasuke said, getting up and holding out his hand to her. 

Sakura took his hand. 

Smiling at each other, they walked together into their shared future.