A week passed and then another and another.

Red and Loup rarely left each other’s sides, both terrified of being separated once more and eager to spend every single moment together. By day, they dedicated themselves towards renewing the bond they once shared, swapping jokes and stories and memories. By night, they explored the new fragile thing that had grown between them, with locked lips and tangled limbs.

On the night of the full moon, the wolf showed Red the forest in her own way. She showed her the moon and glittering stars and sang her haunting songs to Red until she collapsed exhausted into the warm soft fur.

As each day and night came and went, Red began to believe that the danger had passed. Perhaps the protection of the wolf of the forest counted for something.

But the huntsman did return, and he did not come alone.

Red and Loup were in the forest collecting mushrooms when they came. Loup had just told a lewd joke and Red was doubled over in laughter when the sound of hoofbeats echoed through the trees.

Red rushed to Loup's side as five riders appeared and promptly surrounded them. All of them bore spears and swords and armor that gleamed in the sunlight.

"My lady," the huntsman called. A few of the accompanying guardsmen snickered at the title and Red's stomach churned with fear and anger. "This is your last opportunity. Surrender calmly or we will need to resort to force."

Loup stepped between him and Red, letting out a low growl.

"If you have any affection for this beast, I suggest you consider your next actions carefully," he added.

Red looked at the distressing number of spears, all pointed directly at Loup

"Loup-" she whispered.

"I'm not letting them take you!" Loup hissed.

The huntsman dismounted and drew his sword, its edge gleaming impossibly bright.

Loup drew her own knife in response, but it seemed dreadfully inadequate in comparison. What was worse, Red could see straight through Loup's bravado to the tense fear below. She knew just as well as Loup that she was nowhere near full strength. It was too many days since the full moon.

Without warning, the huntsman struck, catching Loup across the arm as she tried to dodge. She dropped her knife and screamed in pain, clutching at the wound. The horrible stench of burning meat struck Red's nose and a faint wisp of smoke curled from the wound.

Silver.

Red knew that the royal armory had a secret arsenal of weapons: cold iron chains, ash staves and arrows, silver edged blades… all manner of unique weapon to combat the supernatural. To see one employed for its intended purpose…

Someone seized her roughly from behind, one of the huntsman's companions.

Loup howled and spun at Red's scream, only to receive another slash, this time across her back. Red watched in horror as Loup staggered forward a single step before collapsing to get knees and then her side.

Red bit hard into the gloved hand at her chest. The man roared in pain and she threw her weight against him. She broke free and fell upon Loup before the huntsman could take another swing.

“Please,” she begged. “I'll do whatever you want. I'll go with you willingly. Just don't kill her!”

Some flicker of sympathy crossed his face and he lowered his blade.

Red's previous assailant grabbed her by the hair and jerked her off of Loup.

Loup cracked her eyes open and reached after her.

“Red!”

The man delivered a kick to Loup's side.

“Enough,” the huntsman snapped. “She'll be dead by nightfall anyway, leave her for the vultures.”

Dead?

Red thrashed against her captor as she was dragged to his horse. A blow to the face and a punch to the gut rendered her senseless long enough for her hands to be bound and her body secured to the saddle.

“Loup! I love you,” she managed to croak out before she was carried away.

Loup's injuries burned like fire as she last curled on the forest floor. She drifted in and out of consciousness as the sun slid slowly across the sky. She needed to get up. She needed to save Red, but every time she moved, the searing pain from her wounds overwhelmed her.

The sky was gold, edging towards red, when a figure appeared, silent as death.

“Foolish child,” Grandmother clucked. “What mess have you landed yourself in this time?”

“They took Red,” she rasped.

“Of course they did,” Grandmother replied. “The queen is too stubborn to let that one go.”

She crouched before Loup, meeting her gaze with cold grey eyes.

“We have to-”

“Do you love that girl?” Grandmother interrupted.

“Yes,” Loup replied without hesitation.

“Hm,” Grandmother replied. “That's good, you'll need that for what comes next.”

A gnarled hand pressed a smooth stick between Loup's teeth.

“I do apologize, child. This will not be pleasant.”

Loup squeezed her eyes shut and clamped her teeth down.

The guards were not gentle with Red. The first order of business was to roughly hack off her hair and burn her dress while she screamed and trashed against their grips. Her resistance earned her a split lip and a couple of likely cracked ribs on top of her black eye from earlier.

She was dressed in a rough spun tunic in a masculine cut that made her stomach twist and brought to the queen's chambers where she was roughly shoved to her knees.

"Not so fair or beautiful now, are you?"

Red glared up at the queen where she lounged in a high backed chair. Ever haunted by her own vanity, the queen's appearance was immaculate, with not a single hair out of place and a dress intended to make her look ten years younger than she was. But beneath the caked make up, there were new stress lines embedded in her skin and the manic gleam in her eyes had only intensified in Red's absence.

The queen languorously stood and made a circuit about Red because gesturing to a single apple that sat upon a side table.

"Would you care for some refreshment?" she asked with a cruel edge to her voice.

The skin of the fruit was glossy and deep red… like blood.

Red recalled the events and revelations that led to her initial flight from the castle.

"Why? Are you planning on poisoning me like you poisoned my father?"

The queen's eyes flashed with fury and she stalked forward to deliver a backhanded blow to Red’s face. The room spun and the floor rushed up to meet her painfully. Red lay there, tasting blood and feeling the throb in her cheek where a ring had caught her flesh.

"You should be so lucky to get poison!” the queen hissed. “Not after everything you've done. Did you think word wouldn't get to me? I know about the noble families that you've been communicating with. I've heard the whispers of revolt."

Red blinked up at her in confusion. What on earth was she talking about? Was that what the queen thought Red had been doing in the forest? The idea seemed almost ridiculous. Red did not have a mind for schemes or machinations. She didn't even want to rule at all.

For a strange dizzying moment, she wondered if she had fallen into someone else's story.

The queen snatched the apple from the table and looked over Red's still prone form.

“I am going to make an example of you,” she said in a low, dangerous voice. “You will beg for poison before I am done with you.”

She bit into the fruit, spraying flecks flesh and droplets of juice on Red’s face.

"Take him to the dungeon," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Give him some time to consider his crimes before we begin."

Night had fallen in truth by the time Grandmother finished.

All that remained of Loup's wounds were puckered scars and a bone deep ache that might never fully heal.

“I'm going back for her,” Loup said as she painfully rolled her shoulders.

She cast a defiant glare towards Grandmother, but was met only with a nod.

“Of course you are. I wouldn't expect any less.”

The old woman climbed painfully to her feet and leaned heavily on her staff as she hobbled over to Loup. A gnarled hand fell on Loup's shoulder and…

For a horrible, dizzying moment, the two of them were nowhere, a black empty place in between.

…and then they were back in the forest. Loup broke free of Grandmother's grip and staggered into the bushes to wretch. When she finally recovered, she discovered that they were now at the edge of forest, miles from where they had started.

The castle rose imposingly in the distance.

"This is as far as I go," Grandmother grunted. "The rest is up to you."

The old woman looked worn, almost translucent, as if healing Loup and transporting her here had used up some vital part of her.

“Thank you,” Loup said, swallowing the lump in her throat, “for everything.”

Grandmother gave her a single nod and turned to hobble into the shadows of the forest.

Loup turned back in the direction of the castle and took a deep breath. The moon was merely a crescent hanging low in the sky. She'd only have two, maybe three hours to draw on its light, meager as it was.

She closed her eyes and sought the beast where it slumbered within her.

Please. I need your help.

It stirred. The song of the moon was just a distant echo, but the wolf heard the plea and lent Loup her power.

The world came into focus. Sounds and scents grew sharp. Her muscles sang, ready to run. Teeth and claws grew into weapons that she hoped she would not need.

"I'm coming, Red," she whispered and she began to run.

"A princess, beautiful and fair, will take the queen's throne."

Red's eyes snapped open and she looked painfully over her shoulder from the cold floor of her cell.

Standing in the other side of the bars, somehow looking regal even as she clutched a lantern and peered into the gloom, was Red's stepsister, Antonia. Behind her was a nervous looking clerk holding a folio. He kept glancing over his shoulder nervously as if he would rather be anywhere else.

"I always thought the meaning was rather straightforward,” Antonia continued. “Of course one of us would take the throne from her when the time came. But mother was convinced that it meant something nefarious. She has always been obsessive and paranoid and the prophecy only made it worse. I don't know her exact wording, but when she asked her mirror for a princess, it showed her you."

"What are you doing here?" Red muttered as she sat upright. "Did you come to gloat before your mother tortures me?"

Antonia pursed her lips but said nothing. Instead she produced a heavy key and unlocked the cell.

Red stared at her, utterly baffled.

The cell door swung wide and Antonia made a beckoning gesture.

"What…?" Red asked.

"You're free to go, but as a good faith measure…"

She held out her hand to the nervous clerk who produced a sheet of parchment from the folio.

"...I would like your formal abdication, forswearing any claim to the throne."

She handed the sheet to Red who eyed it dubiously.

"And if I refuse?" Red asked cautiously.

"I let you go anyway," Antonia replied. "I want you gone, not dead. Your presence here complicates matters and your signature on this document will make things a lot cleaner for the both of us."

Red stared at her, comprehension dawning slowly.

“It's you,” she gasped. “The prophecy… you… you're the one plotting against the queen. You're the one inciting revolt.”

Antonia smiled grimly.

"Don't sound so surprised, I am my mother's daughter after all. I have my own eyes and ears in the kingdom. There are a great many individuals who are displeased with my mother's rule. The scent of change is on the wind. I've merely positioned myself to be on the winning side."

Her face sobered, and there was a rare flicker of sisterly concern.

"I do apologize for your current condition. It was never my desire that you come to any harm."

She produced a pen and handed it to Red.

"I know you never wanted to be a prince and I strongly suspect that you have no desire to be a princess either. Sign and you can run off to your lover in the forest and no one will ever trouble you again. Everyone can live happily ever after."

The choice was so plainly simple, it was almost laughable. It was true. Red had no desire to rule, she never had. Even if the court accepted her as she was, she would never be happy. Not like she had been in the forest with Loup.

Loup… Red's heart twisted. Her Loup was somewhere out there in the dark, hurt and alone. Loup was the only thing that mattered to Red now.

With a shaky hand, she signed her throne away and handed the sheet back to Antonia. The clerk produced an official stamp and the deed was done.

Red felt a weight leaving her shoulders that she hadn't even realized she'd been carrying.

"Come, I'll show you a way out." Antonia said, hefting the lantern. "There isn't much time."

Red heard a shout from down a hallway and distant sounds of fighting.

"You're staging your coup now??" Red asked incredulously.

Antonia shrugged apologetically.

"Like I said, your presence complicates matters. We had to move up our timetable."

Red followed her in baffled silence. She'd only been away from the castle for two months. How far back did her stepsister’s political machinations go? She would have made a very poor ruler indeed if she had missed all of this.

She found herself begrudgingly grateful for the choice to abdicate.

"There's a secret passage, just around-"

Antonia cut off as another lantern bobbed into view. They had arrived at an intersection at the same time as the queen and her huntsman.

Loup sprinted through the halls of the castle, ducking into shadows as guards hurried past. It had been unexpectedly easy to slip in as there seemed to be some kind of disturbance in the yard.

She came to a staircase and sniffed at the air. Red was somewhere below in the dungeon, Loup knew that much. She caught a whiff of Red's scent and bounded down the stairs towards the source.

She rounded a corner at the bottom and skidded to a halt.

Red and an elegantly dressed woman about their age were staring down the huntsman and a woman who could only be the queen.

All four sets of eyes snapped to Loup, but her gaze was fixed on Red. Relief warred with fury at the sight of her miserable state.

The queen struck, faster than lightning, shattering the tension. In an instant, she was behind Red with a dagger pressed to her throat. The blade gleamed with something slick and an acrid smell that Loup couldn't identify burned in her nose.

"Nobody moves or he dies," the queen spat.

Protective fury surged in Loup and she took half a step closer, growling as she did. But the queen pressed the dagger closer, and Loup froze.

"Mother, enough!" said the other woman, Red's stepsister, Loup realized. "You've already lost. Surrender quietly and we can come to an arrangement."

The queen's eyes flared with rage.

"You traitorous, ungrateful wretch!” she spat. “I should have smothered you in the cradle!"

Loup's eyes flicked between Red, the queen and the princess. She cared very little for the family drama playing out in front of her, not while Red was in danger.

"Maximilian, seize my daughter!"

The huntsman paled slightly and hesitated.

"Max, ignore her."

"I-" he began, but she interrupted.

"You swore an oath to serve the crown, which, one way or another, will no longer belong to my mother come morning. Did you not also swear an oath to me?"

He swallowed and the point of his sword swiveled away from Loup to point at Red and the queen. Loup's entire body tensed and she readied herself for… something, anything.

"How dare you?!" the queen screeched. "I'll see you burn for this!"

She waved the dagger frantically, first pointing at him, then her daughter. The blade was away from her throat and Red found her opening. She slammed her head back with a sickening crunch and the queen howled in pain. Red elbowed her and twisted out of her grip, but not before the queen's dagger scored a gash in her arm.

Loup sprang forward and caught Red, tearing her away from the queen and the waving blade.

"I've got you," she said.

Blood streamed out of the queen's nose and her eyes burned with hatred. She spat once at her daughter's feet and fled.

"Max! Don't let her escape!" the princess ordered and the huntsman disappeared down the corridor after her.

As Loup tore off a strip of her shirt and began wrapping the injury, Red met Antonia's eyes. Her stepsister's composure had fractured, revealing a panicked stricken expression. She knew just as well as Red.

Poison.

The dagger had been coated in it.

She could feel it spreading from the cut, a cold tingling sensation. Even if they could find the queen's hidden workshop, without knowing the exact poison, they would never find an antidote before it was too late.

The only thing that mattered was getting Loup out before more guards came.

Antonia opened her mouth, and Red shook her head minutely. The princess swallowed and nodded in reply before composing herself once more.

"You should get your friend out of here," she said, echoing Red's thoughts. "The people are in a bit of a frenzy at the moment and I cannot vouch for her safety."

She led them to an alcove and pressed at a brick. The wall swung in, revealing a damp tunnel.

"This will take you out of the castle," she said. "It should let you out far from the fighting, but make haste to the forest regardless."

"Thank you," Red said to her. "You didn't have to do this."

There was another flicker of emotion in her stepsister's face.

"I wish I could do more," she replied.

With that, she turned and strode away, back straight and regal, every inch a queen.

"Come on," Loup said as she took Red's hand.

Together they ran down the narrow corridor. It was too dark for Red to see, but Loup's footsteps were sure and her grip on Red's hand was solid. Eventually they reached a ladder that led up to a trap door in a small room attached to a grain silo. As promised, the area was deserted. If there had been guards posted there, they had long since been recalled to the castle and swept up in that chaos.

Together, they hurried across the fields by the light of the stars and moon. But as they ran, Red felt the coldness of the poison continue to spread through her. She could no longer feel her fingertips in the injured arm and her other hand and her feet had begun to tingle warningly. Her breathing was becoming shallow. Her heart began to flutter.

She didn't stumble until they reached the outer my trees.

"Red! What's wrong?"

Loup's golden eyes gleamed in the darkness as she knelt at Red's side.

"Poison," Red gasped out. "The dagger was coated in poison."

Loup's mind raced.

Poison? Why hadn't Red said anything earlier? She needed to get back. She needed to find-

"No," Red said, brushing a hand against Loup's face. "You can't go back. It's too dangerous for you."

Red screwed up her eyes and her eyes filled with tears.

“Loup, I'm sorry,” she said. “I had to make sure you were safe. It's too late."

"What?? What are you… No, you can't…" Loup choked out as her own eyes burned with tears. "We only just found each other again. It can't end like this."

She scooped Red into her arms and held her close. Her heart beat was so weak now.

"Will you kiss me… one last time?" Red whispered in a small voice.

Loup bent down and pressed their lips together. Red was so cold, so weak, but she parted her lips with a desperate need. For a flicker of a moment, Loup imagined the kiss purging the poison. That was how the stories went, wasn't it? True love's kiss was supposed to break the spell.

But Red only grew colder and weaker in Loup's arms.

As Loup pulled away, the clouds shifted and the light of the moon fell upon them.

The gleaming crescent of it sang to her.

She looked down at the beautiful girl that she loved, bathed in the silvery light and an idea took root. It was something desperate and terrible and unforgivable, but Loup would do anything to save her.

"Red…" Loup started hesitantly. "There might be a way to save you."

Red's eyes fluttered open.

"Loup-"

"Red, listen to me. I could…" the horror of it stung in her throat. "I could turn you. I could make you like me. The curse would stop the poison."

Red eyes widened fractionally.

"Red, I can't do this without your consent. I won't. If I do this, you'll become a monster. You'll be hated and hunted. We may never be truly safe."

Red's reply was a barely audible whisper.

"Is a monster such a terrible thing to be if we're together?"

"I suppose not," Loup murmured. "And I promise I will never leave your side. I… I love you, Red."

"I love you too," Red replied.

Red closed her eyes once more.

"Do it."

Loup did not hesitate.

Her fangs were sharp and her heart was set.

As gently as she could, she bit into the soft flesh where Red's neck met her shoulder. The sweet taste of blood burst forth, tinged with the sour tang of the poison. Red made a muffled noise of pain and she tried to recoil, her body instinctively resisting.

Loup held fast until Red let out a gasp as the connection sparked between them and the curse took hold.

Loup withdrew, wiping the blood from her mouth.

Red took in a labored breath and began shivering again. She was still so cold. Her heart was still so weak. The moonlight was so weak, Loup prayed it would be enough.

As promised, the curse drove out the coldness of the poison, but now Red felt herself burning from the inside. It was as if her blood had been replaced with molten gold and her body would burst into flames at any moment.

"It's okay," came a voice from far away. "I've got you."

Cool hands brushed tears from her eyes.

A twisting pain built in her gut. She clawed at Loup's clothes as she frantically searched for something solid to cling to.

She heard it then. The song of the moon and the stars, beautiful and strange. The melody was faint, but her need was urgent and desperate, so it was enough. The curse came fully awake and she felt its will pressing against her awareness. Terror seized her and she clutched closer to Loup.

"Don't fight it," the voice whispered. "I'll keep you safe, love."

Red gritted her teeth and nodded through the fear and the pain. She could hear Loup's heartbeat now, steady and strong and comforting.

Red surrendered to the embraced the wolf and she felt herself become unmade.

The wolf pants heavily.

The moon is young and the first transformation is always the most difficult.

She is alive.

Sensation floods over her, a million sounds and a million scents, unfamiliar and sharp as claws. Wind caresses her fur for the first time and she marvels at the feel of it.

She is still cradled in her mate's lap. Fingers gently stroke her fur.

They are bound together now, united by the song in their blood.

The wolf wants to drift into sleep to the music of the song and the rhythm of her mate's heart.

“Red?”

The wolf opens her eyes.

Her mate looks upon her. Tears fall in wet spots on her fur.

“Red, I'm sorry.”

The wolf raises her head and gently licks the tears away.

There is nothing to forgive. They are together now.

Her mate smiles tearfully and presses her forehead to the wolf's.

The wolf's ears twitch. Together they look back towards the castle.

Her mate says something, human words that slip through her understanding. But she understands the tension in her mate's posture and the whisper of fear in her scent.

The wolf climbs to her feet.

Beyond the trees, across the field, pinpricks of torchlight bobo in the distance. The wind carries the faint sound of human voices to them.

Instinct tells the wolf to run.

The wolf looks to her mate, unsure. Her mate smiles, gesturing wordlessly towards the trees and together they run deep into the forrest.