Everything had gone wrong.

As soon as their basket landed on firm ground bellow the great sequoia, Rose and Bianca went to the Scharlach home as fast as their feet could get them. All the while the rose maiden pointed to various homes and landmarks as if the quickest tour of the village had been directed by her a thousand times before.

Red and Ulv had on the other hand a simple mission, look for a large animal tranquilizer, except the only local veterinarian had taken a vacation, so Red had to go to his neighbor's son: Antoine Chasseur.

Red's chest-beat raced against all his best instincts, He thought they had landed things on the best terms that nothing would change whatever had happened in the past and that it would stay that way. But then again Ulv had seen his true intentions from the start in their last year at their school year. And for being cheated with a cheerleader there was no undoing.

His hands sweaty under the gloves. It had been a full year, but he still remembered what his father had done to Ulv, and Jessica's face when they got caught.

"Anyone home?"

He knocked on the small hunting shack whence the Chasseur family had built their hunting and weaponry empire.

Antoine appeared quickly.

"Jean, so nice you come by."

His handsome smile like an arrow through his chest, charming and pearly white, his eyes like amber caramels, his skin bronze like newfound copper, and his hair like chocolate perfectly combed to the side. A charming huntsman that specialized in guns.

"What can I do to help you?"

"What's the largest animal tranquilizer you have?"

"I sell guns love, not..."

"Please, you know why this is important."

Antoine clenched his mouth, he used his hand to take off some sweat, wistfully looking the other way. In another time he used to do so while flustered and looking directly to Red.

"Why do you care so much anyway."

"You know why."

Red replied sharply.

Antoine searched the back of the counter; he rustled through some plastic bags.

"I got one, it's supposed to work on bears, acepromazine I think, it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to take effect."

A small wooden box slid on to his direction.

"Oh, thank you, how much will it."

"It's on the house, one last week before we make it public."

Red's face went remorseful, then he gulped.

"We're not getting back together."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"Me too."

Antoine disappeared into the back of the store.

"Send my regards to your grandma if she ever comes back."

Jean Scharlach sighed.

"I will, see you later Anti."

Red ran out back to the parking space where Ulv had parked a public suspender, a vehicle like a motorcycle that floated using a hyper-magnetized crystal to float on the metallic under rails built in the streets.

Ulv's gaze met his, his glowing green eyes regularly sad and longing now smiling.

"Got everything we need?"

"I think we do, now we should better get going."

His heartbeat rushed, the smell of anxiety, he lied a little bit, but the smell on the box was as tasty as pure alcohol was to a child before taking a vaccine.

:::

:::

"I don't think an assault rifle is my type of weapon."

Bianca uttered as she looked at the armament Rose had laid on the bed.

The maroon color room had plenty of lamps, and a smell of roses that tinged the memories cozy, her furniture a deep wine-brown almost mahogany but not quite, and all around rose motifs, pictures of silver wolves with glowing yellow eyes, and a ceiling lamp that looked like a crescent moon.

"Well, there's some pistols, maybe a javelin would do."

She pointed at the assortment of weapons, from Rose's perspective these were perfectly normal, training elements vital for survival, especially in New Gevaudan, she had a small collection, even Red agreed. The collection had a revolver, two pistols decorated with silvery details, a spear, an assault rifle with pink stickers all over, a tactical knife, a rapier, two completely wine-red short swords, a crossbow and a quiver with arrows.

"That would be my brother's style not mine."

"Huh, first time I hear you talk of him like that. Do you think he would ever like... sent the huntsman eventually?"

"What do you mean?"

"Most people from the kingdom are used to hats, hoods, that sort of stuff, it gives them security, keeps them in their element, but from what you can tell of him, he right now has a lot of power and a golden hat to keep, and you could probably say he is not fit to have something like that."

Bianca had thought so as well.

She thought of the weapons on the bed, and how she only learnt to use the more sport-like ones, she marveled also at the option that now she may be a pebble on his brother's shoe

Then her mind circled back on Achilles and the way he talked, the way he walked, the interest in his brother, things weren't adding up, if Raeb wanted he could have sent a huntsman from New Gevaudan, but he wasn't from here.

"I think he, used to be sweet or charming on his own way. If you were to meet him, you'd be surprised at how poised and regal he is. I think maybe the pressure of being the king led him to call the mercenary, but I don't think it justified what happened, be it him or a third party who did it."

"That's very regal of you to say."

Rose pointed out.

Bianca stared at a small shelf on Rose's room, where a small frame displayed a sepia photo of a younger, smaller rose with shorter box braids wearing a shawl, and a woman in a clear cloak, her Skin paler than Rose's they held a basket together.

"Rose, what happened to your mom?"

Rose expression dimmed.

"Well, she is on a travel, at least we thought so for a year, but that was two years ago."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's not bad, at least we heard she made it to another kingdom before all communication stopped."

Rose responded opening her closet and taking out a backpack from where a new assortment of weaponry poured out.

"Do you miss her?"

Bianca thought back at a plenty other photo she had seen of the woman hanging on the stairs up to her room.

"I do every single day. you did love the king?"

"Like a full blood brother ever could."

"You know you have the royal right to be named heiress, why didn't you do it?"

Anxiety, pain, laziness, maddening power, it was not her best interest, what would the kingdoms say when the queen much rather preferred to spend time engineering and programing instead of attending the social events and coordinating the kingdom.

"I'm not cut out for it."

Her voice a taint sad, a taint lie, for all Rose knew about Bianca it felt like a little quench on her heart to hear.

"What about this one?"

The bow the princess held was white with greyish rings of color and a silver detail on the tips where the strings held on to.

"Does it have a name?"

"Is just a white bow."

Bianca gasped.

"You said you named all your weapons."

"I did, but only those I used more than thrice."

"How about Ivory?"

Rose looked at the princess stretch the string as if taking aim, her technique quite practiced, quite sporty, she could tell Bianca was not a huntress, then the girl twirled the weapon in her hand, swinging it around, not like a girl with a toy but as a warrior, with stance and technique.

Bianca laughed

"That was silly wasn't it."

"Yeah, you have potential, but you need to put your mind to it, as for Ivory, I think he fits you."

Rose replied smiling.

:::

:::

By the time they started the way to grandma's cabin the sun was about to set, they had used a pair of horses to ride their way easily, Bianca and Rose on a grey stallion and Red and Ulv rode a pristine mare.

Bianca led their rides into a makeshift stable on the back of the house, while Red and Rose spoke about the scarlet clad lad into their ex's shop.

"So, we got no fast-acting tranquilizer."

"I tried my best."

"The dosage may need to be altered, there's no way just one will act on his system like that."

Bianca pointed out as she took closed off the barn.

"How would we administer it?"

"I'm not poisoning my..."

Friend? Lover? Boyfriend?

"...him."

"We still have a set of needles and a syringe."

His sister recalled doubtfully.

"Do you have medical training?"

"No."

"I do."

The princess spoke as she took out the key from the lock.

"Really?"

"Yeah, so far my first aid trainer said my needlework is imperceptible."

"Unsettling, but remarkable."

Rose concluded.

Afterwards Bianca followed Rose, Red and Ulv into a door in a nook under the stairs, an iron steering wheel spun under the handle of Ulv, a set of stairs led to a basement where a cage rested, on its floor mantles, robes and blankets, a cage so large a horse might as well come in and comfortably lay on its side. Dangling from the ceiling, lanterns, and wind chimes things long used to calm him when he had first begun to transform, now keepsakes from a mother that stepped up to keep him safe and was now long gone.

The quiet clink was what Ulv used to focus on, while the princess prepared the needle, the syringe soon reached the arm of the soon to be wolf. As quiet as a mouse the princess finished quick and painless with a sticker soon closing up the wound she sprayed with alcohol.

"Now, you two go up."

His voice was deep.

"I wish you good rest Ulv."

The princess uttered before following Rose back up, gripping the stairs as their stomps faded away. Ulv began to Undress.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't get your medicine."

"It's okay Red."

"I failed you."

"Don't say that, you're still here, that's all that matters."

Ulv covered himself in a blue robe, Red's eyes crystalline in small tears, Ulv kissed them.

"I'm afraid."

"So am I."

They touched foreheads, Red slumped on the stairs attentively, while Ulv covered himself under the blankets locked inside the cage.

In a matter of minutes, the boywolf's head began to drum and rumble, a high pitch noise made him fall to his knees, but Red couldn't hear it, none of them could, then he felt as if his heart was on his throat, the taste of bile and iron.

"Stay back"

Ulv screamed as his hands bulged and cracked, he felt pain and blood pouring all from the insides spreading through his muscles, then his forearms, then his shoulders, neck, it all began to crack and break as he couldn't help but scream in excruciating pain.

He collapsed to the ground, as his muscles and bones healed disseminated the pain all over his senses, it was not fast, and it started to feel warmer and warmer, at first it may as well be the blood, but Ulv knew this was the newly grown furs, spreading like a blanket all over his body.

His feet elongated. His mouth watered and tasted like blood, as the canines forced out most of his human teeth.

His face reshaped. Claws broke his nails painfully and began to scratch the wooden floor.

Lost to the haze, Ulv and all sense of self became lost to the creature he was transforming into. Pain once again had clawed into his psyche and reached for something primitive, the taste of flesh seemed so inviting, he salivated as the grasp on reality slipped off into sleep.

Before Red there was a void black fur covered monster, with claws, teeth, and yellow eyes, on all fours, salivating as their gaze met.

"What big ears you have."

The creature growled and sniffed, then replied in a deep monstruous voice:

"All the better to hear you with."

Red felt a chill on his spine, he knew it was not Ulv, but there was something like wanting on his voice that reminded him of his beloved.

"What big arms you have."

One step back

"All the better to hug you with."

"What big teeth you have."

"All the better to eat you with, my dear."

The wolf stood still.

Time stopped.

Breathless.

Eyes locked.

Then it growled and broke off the cage's door. Red ran up as fast as no man ever could.

A growling mass of darkness and teeth lunged towards him landing on the base of the stairs.

Red screamed, as he closed the steering door behind him.

Then Rose and Bianca joined in locking the basement stirring the mechanisms shut.

"Did it work?"

"Doubt it."

He answered his sister.

"I don't know why we couldn't mix the tranquilizer with sleep gummies, in theory that could work, he could take it."

Bianca added.

The wolf scratched the door, the kids startled, Rose reached for her grandma's rifle, as she was used to it, loaded it in a quick swift motion and stared intently, ready to take aim.

"First off, Ulv is family we are not drugging him, second he's immune or something to those, we already tried."

"Quick Red, relax he might be responding to your heartbeat."

"What?"

"Just do so Jay."

Red took a deep breath, the runaway princess joined, their breathing began to slow and soon the beat hammering on the boy's head began to fade into nothing.

The scratches at the door soon stopped.

Silence reigned, then a loud "thud" and a slumping sound.

"Is it..."

"I'm not going in there."

Rose scoffed.

"I'll do it."

Down at the base of the stairs, a slumping mass of black fur salivated from its mouth, unconscious, its limbs bare, from its gut a growl that turned into a snore as it went through the chest.

They were safe, at least for the night.