Winter bore her teeth as a feeling like lightning surged through her veins. Feeling a power unlike anything she'd ever felt course though her mortal coil before, her slowing heart kicked back into action, and energy erupted as a battle-cry like pure fire from her chest.

"Cut me down." Silver light burned within her irises as they seethed with anger. "That's an order, Tamer!"

On her command, Tamer became devoured by silver light.

White fur ripped out of his body in an explosion of light. His features snapped and distorted; the shift worked from his rigid fingers upwards, until claws and a snout protruded, and gigantic wolf landed on the blanket of snow before them.

Demon? Beast? Winter's first thought was that the creature looked more like something divine. Its white fur shone with a silver hue that was faintly iridescent, like when moonlight shone over snow, and its eyes glowed golden like two tiny suns.
But when it threw its head back and howled, the noise struck a primal note of fear into her heart, as she knew Tamer's own battle cry had been waged.

This wasn't a half-breed. This was a fully fledged wolf.

He tore her binds apart with his teeth.

Perhaps it was purely instinct to be afraid of the perfect predator. Everyone seemed to be the same when he bolted back to the front of the tower -- momentarily, just for a second, paralysed with fear. The spectators could hardly reach for arrows with their trembling hands. It took the sound of his father's cry for them to finally leap into action.

A torrent of arrows bounded in his direction.

Falling face first to the ground from her tower, with thumbling fingers, she re-sheathed her knife. She crawled underneath the tower, remaining low for safety.

She looked up just in time to see speckles of blood spray through the air as twenty or so arrows plunged into the beast's back. Its howl was one of furious agony. Before the archers had time to reach for another torrent of arrows, as quick as a bolt of lighting, Tamer rounded on his father. The man didn't even have time to cower; instantly, without a single moment's hesitation, Tamer picked him up in gigantic jaws and flung him aside as easily as a rag doll.

"Winter!" She'd almost forgotten the beast was Tamer until she heard the sound of his voice bouncing in her mind. "Get on my - "

He was unable to finish before a deafening noise ripped through her ears. A bang that sent the crows fleeing from the treetops.

She'd never heard the sound of a gun being fired. They were expensive, and often ran on magic to be fired. Most of the villagers here couldn't afford owning one, or simply couldn't fire it in the first place. But somehow, she knew the sound immediately as it echoed throughout the forest.

A bullet rode through the icy wind, and her scream battled for dominance with Tamer's as it tore through his back leg.

"A silver bullet," his father panted, clutching a pistol in quaking hands.

Rage lit up the wolf's eyes. It seemed it had no intention of going down just yet, bounding towards him.

"I saved up all I had for just this one." His father sighed.

The man had enough time to utter those words before his son sank his fangs into his forearm.

The sight of his blood spraying through the snow sent the few remaining people into a frenzy. Screaming erupted through the forest. Strengthened by moonlight, Tamer was healing far too quickly. More arrows fired, but they were useless; seeing Tamer not even falter, ultimately, they fled. And even with the bullet, supposedly the only thing capable of killing the wolf, he was still standing with time to kill them yet.

Winter buried her face in her hands, trying to block out all sounds. Even if she couldn't blame Tamer for the slaughter, she could not bear to witness the sight. She knew how the man had abused him as a child but still, the sound of the man's scream had been top much to handle.

Everything in the forest had gone silent in the wake of the beast. Tamer withdrew, blood staining his muzzle. The liquid dripped from his snout, painting the snow in bloody blossoms like gigantic red roses.

"Why?" Tamer whispered, staring down at the man with his paws flat above his shoulders. "Why did you let me live until this moment?"

His father bore his teeth. "W-why?" he rasped.

The dying man reached out to touch the wolves' gigantic muzzle with his teeth bared. "You think it was mercy? Tamer..." He grinned spitefully, a manic budge in his eyes as blood poured from his body. "I let you live for your mother, not you. I'm... so deeply afraid of you."

Tamer's eyes widened.

His father laughed. "B-but even more so than that, I-I'm afraid of your real Father. How ironic that those eyes, just like his, are the last thing I'm going to see..."

His eyes went ice cold, but it wasn't just due to the vice of death seizing him.

"I've always hated you, Tamer," he whispered, looking the wolf dead-on in the eyes. "You look just like your dead mother."

After those final words, cutting like a silver blade into Tamer's hide, the wolf delivered the final blow.

Winter winced. From the cracks in her fingers, Winter watched the man become still.

Tamer simply stood for a moment. Then, he fell to his knees. Even as an animal, she could see the torment in his eyes, the lifeless detachment in his gaze as if disassociating.

"Come on, Tamer, please, you've come so far. This night is nearly over." Her voice was meek as she got to her feet. He didn't respond, simply staring at the corpse with glassy eyes.

Tamer had saved her. Despite her not being in any better state, emotionally, now it was her turn to attempt to save him by providing the emotional support he needed to get out of this night alive. She feared he he may have stayed there to die and rot away forever otherwise.

She literally had to tear his gaze away from the mangled corpse. The wolf was gigantic enough to come up to her shoulders and look her dead in the eye. She would have been lying if she said there wasn't some fear in her heart at having it so close. She found it difficult to even speak. After seeing it kill a man, her body still rattled.

"Tamer," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

He looked away. The iridescent glow of the wolf's white pelt was diminishing, as if blood truly had tainted the beast.

"I did not wish to do it," he whispered after so long in silence. "I did not wish to do it, but with that silver bullet, he has poisoned me. In my eyes, it was either him or you."

She buried her face in his neck to try and ease his trembles. The warmth of its fur could not comfort her, nor could her touch comfort him. He'd saved her, but at the cost of revealing a side he'd never wanted her to see.

"The arrows," came his voice, weak inside her own mind.

She looked up and once again became aware of the arrows sticking out of his back. Before, he hadn't flinched when she had stabbed him, but now he whined with each arrow she removed.

"We must leave here," he said, although there wasn't much passion or urgency to it.

"Are you strong enough for that?" Winter whispered.

Pain lined the hunter's face. Its shining eyes averted from hers.

"For you, I will be," he replied.

Winter ran her fingers through the irresistibly soft fur on his neck, but he slid out of her grasp almost immediately. The wolf trotted ahead, panting in distress and staggering as if the forest was spinning around him.

With the silver in his bloodstream, Tamer's accelerated healing appeared to have stopped. The bullet had poisoned him, leaving a knot of fear inside her that wondered if the worst was not over yet.

****

Finally, after twenty minutes of journey in a dreadful silence, the wolf's strength finally diminished into nothing, sending him tumbling to the ground.

"Tamer!" she cried.

The wolf panted, eyes half-shut in a manner that made her nervous. He could take no more. The moonlight coaxed the beast in shimmering light and ate at his skin until his human form lay before her, drenched in blood in the snow.

"Tamer, come on," she whispered desperately, attempting to lift him in her arms. "Please... "

Even after all the trauma he'd put her through, she couldn't bare the thought of being alone now.

The remnants of gold still shone in his eyes. The colour, while still ignited by the moonlight, was on a different level entirely than the red that burned at her previously. Even in his weakened state, he looked unbelievablely relieved to see her alive.

"Winter," he panted. "I should have got you to do it sooner, but I didn't want to hang about those parts. I need you to remove the bullet."

Her stomach churned as her eyes flickered over his bloodied calf. "But how?"

His expression darkened. "Do you still have your knife?"

She nodded reluctantly. "Y- yes."

"Then I'm going to need you to cut it out."

"Tamer, I - "

He placed a finger over her lips and squeezed her shoulder, but all it did was draw attention to his own shaking. "It is a full moon. I can assure you when the bullet is removed, I will be able to heal."

"Do you promise me, Tamer?" Her voice cracked as a tear rolled down her cheek. She found herself squeezing his hands. "Do you promise me you will live?"

He grasped the collar of her bloodied dress, giving her a quick peck on the lips. Despite the fact that his entire heart didn't seem to be in it, she guessed he needed it. He needed to be able to do something other than hurt her this night, as well communicate how glad he was that she was alive and breathing in his arms.

"I promise," he whispered, golden eyes fixated on hers.

Winter nodded. "Right now?"

"Yes," Tamer replied. "The moonlight will help me heal quicker. However, when we need shelter, there is a cabin nearby that was all but abandoned after the wolf attack years ago. A friend of mine lodges there sometimes, but he is a nocturnal creature and unlikely to be at home just now."

Winter reached for her knife. "All right," she said nervously.

Tamer nodded and rolled on his stomach. In some places his clothes remained, in other places they were completely tattered. Winter wondered how exactly how that light that had devoured him, turning him into a wolf, actually worked. She could only put it down to the wolf inside him when he didn't complain of coldness upon lying his bare skin on the snow -- he was just like her in that regard, she guessed.

Her eyes travelled down the ridges of his shoulder blades, the smooth skin that curved into the dip of his torso. She could only wince when she saw the flawless complexion of his skin maimed with the scars of the torture and punctured by the torrent of arrows. She noted how irritated the skin was around the wounds. He looked like he had been burned. Whatever had happened, Tamer did not seem to want to speak about it.

All that to save her.

She bit her lip at the hole in the back of his leg. She could see it all in its vile glory now, and swallowed nervously.

It hit the bone. She wouldn't have to cut to deep, but the situation still unnerved her.

"Okay, I'm going to do it," she said, taking the knife to the wound with shaking arms.

"All right," he said, shutting his eyes tightly to brace himself.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes."

Taking a deep breath, she plunged the knife into the hole in his leg.

Tamer howled. His teeth began to sharpen in his snarl and a constant growl rumbled in his throat.

Winter managed to dig the knife under the bullet. Turning the knife at an angle, her hands trembled wildly as the blade began forcing the bullet out.

"Come on, come on!" she screeched through gritted teeth.

Finally, it worked. Blood sprayed the snow as the knife dislodged the bullet. The silver piece went soaring through the air.

Although the knife had cut through his skin, Tamer seemed more relieved to have the bullet removed. He lay on the ground, gasping, rolling over so that the snow could act as an ice pack to his wounds.

His blood may have been pouring out, but the moonlight numbed the pain. It also did no harm to relieve himself of the tainted blood. He gave a heavy sigh of relief like he'd just drizzled freezing water over a sizzling wound.

"Are you all right?" Winter gasped.

He shut his eyes, his body relaxing as it soaked up the silver moonlight. "I think so," he grumbled. "I just need some time. It will be awhile before my body can flush the toxin of silver from my system and begin its normal healing process. Until then, some exposure to moonlight will do me good. Thank goodness it's a full moon, or I wouldn't be healing like this."

"Thank goodness," she muttered. Her next words came out shakily as the realisation dawned on her. "You're... All I have left now..."

He grimaced, the stars above reflected in his golden eyes.

"Come here," he whispered.

He drew arms around her clung to her. The two of them still trembled, that probably wouldn't ease for days, but the comfort of the others arms helped hold them together for now. They clutched at one another so tightly, as if an act of defiance to those who tried to tear them apart. Winter was surprised by the burning heat that radiated from his skin. He glowed like moonlight, yet felt pleasantly warm like sunlight.

"That's how I've always felt about you, Winter," he said quietly back. "You're the only human who's ever made me feel cared for. We're... The same now, huh."

He sniffled, breathing raggedly in silence.

"Tamer," she whispered.

"Mm?"

She caressed his cheek, wiping away the tear flowing down it.

"I know this maybe isn't what you want to hear, but... you did so well." She shut her eyes, tears pouring freely down her cheeks. "Thank you so much for saving me."

Tamer's eyes shifted, looking uncertain on how to respond to praise. "I... I'm sorry. "

She shook her head, gripping his face within his palms so he was forced to look at her. "It was so scary but... Th-that wasn't you, right?"

He shook his head and squeezed her. Even if it was, she had no choice but to remain with him now.

"I'm sorry," he whispered back.

She buried her face in his chest and, silently, let all the emotions pour out of her.

"Y-you must be freezing," Tamer said eyes averting, tightening his grasp. "Maybe you should go to Lorelei's cabin and warm yourself. I should probably stay out here for a while, but I'll be with you shortly."

"Tamer...." Winter said, raising her body to look him in the eye. "Do you need time alone? Because I'd rather not be alone myself unless you really need it."

Knowing Tamer, he's probably embarrassed about me seeing him crying.

Sighing, Tamer got up and lit a fire. He didn't seem to protest more than that so in the meantime, Winter laid her cloak on the ground for them to lie. She took the opportunity to do her best to bandage his wounds with some long blades of grass.

The glare of the moon seemed less ominous when it wasn't driving Tamer to bloodlust. The beautiful silver orb kissed the land with its light, making the world faintly shimmer. Tamer rolled on his side, staring at her thoughtfully. She could see the ghosts of what happened haunting his eyes.

For a long time, they sat in silence.

"In some ways, our shitty relationship made it worse," he said eventually. "If I knew clearly how I felt about him, I wouldn't be in so much turmoil. He was awful, but I wasn't even his real son and he still raised me and gave me a place to live. He just absolutely sucker-punched me when he told me he was afraid of me; turns out, he had every right to be... "

She nodded, but she wasn't sure she could ever truly understand.

Tonight had incited such so much pain. She was a little more relieved to finally be safe with him after thinking she might lose him forever. After all the hurt and rejection, she tried to do something to ease the hurt in her heart. She sensed it was okay to be to a little affectionate and bandage the bite-marks in their souls. She squeezed him tightly, and kissed the tears from his face.

After all the hurt, psychical affection felt like such a relief. It was more of a cleansing, a gentle licking of one another's wounds. She needed to do something other than hurt.

"Come on," Tamer said quietly. "It's over for now. Just a little while longer so I can heal, and then we can rest."

Her broken, battered soul craved nothing more.