Chapter Text
Her eyes opened in the woods. Something felt off tonight, something just on the edge of where the fog obscured her thoughts told her she should be distressed, but she didn’t know why. She was on her own territory, she had a moose large enough for herself and her pack laying at her feet, and her pack was with her, pink and red collars no longer needed with such unique scents to discern them. But no, this wasn’t her whole pack. Her pups were here, but where was her mate? Having found the problem, she lifted her face to the sky and opened her mouth to taste the air. The warm, comforting smell she was searching for was back towards the edge of the trees. She shouldered her prey and loped towards the source of the scent, finding it led back to her den. That made sense, her mate was just waiting for her return! But why was the entrance gone? She pawed at the wood where the entrance to her den used to be, barking up at the out of reach opening above in the hopes that her mate would hear her and fix the problem.
When she heard a loud noise of alarm and distress, and fear-scent drifted down to her from the opening, she immediately gave up on calling as panic flowed through her. Was her mate in danger? She had to help! She backed up a bit, putting her prey down on the grass, and slammed her entire body into the wood blocking the entrance, which cracked and splintered easily under her weight. She stumbled inside, looking around frantically. The scent was above her, where they slept. She scrambled up to the upper layer of the den, only to be stopped by another layer of wood! She snarled in frustration, hoping against hope her mate was still okay in there. Not to worry, she would be there soon!
—
Apo had barricaded the door as best she could with a chair, but after seeing the way the wolf monster had decimated the back door, she doubted it would make much difference. The monster was easily seven feet tall, with reddish brown fur and long, sharp claws. It had carried a full sized moose slung over both shoulders like it weighed nothing, and shredded through a solid wooden door like it was made of paper. Cherri’s crossbow was downstairs out of reach, leaving Apo unarmed for her inevitable face off with the monster. She was glad it was at least one of Cherri’s late hunting nights, so at least the monster wouldn’t get her or Blossom along with Apo.
The wooden door groaned and creaked in protest, and Apo felt her fear spike, the monster let out a loud snarl from the other side of the door, and the hinges snapped, the door and chair both falling forward to reveal the monster as it piled slightly awkwardly into the room. Apo pressed herself against the wall, hoping to go unnoticed as the monster’s good eye swept the room with a growl, before landing directly on her. It barked, and suddenly lunged forward at her. Apo braced for the pain of fangs piercing her skin…
But was instead met with soft fur as the monster pulled them against its chest, one enormous hand resting across her back to keep her from pulling away. It growled over their head, looking around the room as though expecting something else to be there. Upon not finding anything, it let out a confused little whine, and effortlessly scooped up Apo with one hand, holding her in a princess carry as it checked each corner of the room. Apo wriggled, trying to get free, but the monster’s grip just tightened with a soft growl, claws not quite piercing her skin, but leaving her viscerally aware of how easily this thing could rip her to shreds. She sat still after that, realizing it was unfortunately the safest option.
The monster carried her around the room for a few minutes, poking at each corner before finally seeming to realize that there was nothing there. It tilted its head like a bewildered dog, which might have been cute if Apo weren’t so scared, then turned and ducked awkwardly back through the doorframe, forcing Apo to lean into its shoulder to avoid hitting her head. The monster made a sort of soft huffing sound and patted Apo’s back with its free hand as they went downstairs, the touch feeling weirdly… affectionate?
The monster deposited Apo gently on the couch, then took the blanket off the back and slung it over its shoulders before sitting down on the floor at her feet, one clawed hand still wrapped loosely around her ankle.
Apo huddled on the couch, body trembling with residual terror. The monster leaned into the couch and started snoring. Apo tried to get up, but the grip around her ankle tightened, keeping her trapped. Unable to move, she resolved to watch the monster for the rest of the night.
—
Cherri woke up to a stiff back, a sore shoulder, and a pounding headache. The headache was normal after a shift, but the back and shoulder pain was new. She sat up from the half-sitting position she’d fallen asleep in and rubbed her throbbing shoulder with a wince. “Ow, where did that come from? Did I run into a tree or something?” She looked around, blinking against the headache as she got her bearings. “Why am I at home?” Normally she would wake up in the woods and walk back, since it was the safer option to keep the nature of her hunts a secret from Apo.
It was at this point that the implications of not waking up in the woods suddenly occurred to her, and she scrambled to her feet as quietly as she could. “Shit.” Thankfully it was still early, so Apo was probably still asleep. But the chances she’d seen something she wasn’t supposed to were extremely high, and Cherri needed to figure out an excuse fast. Blossom, sensing her panic, trotted along at her heels as she paced back and forth, finally deciding on going and getting whatever she hunted the previous night. It gave her an excuse to get out of the house, and it bought her some time to figure out what to do.
The back door was in splinters, clearly having been shattered by a heavy blunt force impact. “Well, at least I know why my shoulder hurts, I guess. Damn it, that’s gonna be a pain to get replaced.” Cherri carefully stepped over the jagged pieces of wood and out the door, immediately spotting the body of a moose laying in the grass a couple of yards away. Now that she was human again, Cherri definitely wasn’t large or strong enough to carry the thing by herself. She cursed herself for going after such large prey, pulling out her skinning knife and examining the creature thoroughly. It definitely wasn’t ideal, but she was going to have to butcher the moose into smaller chunks here and move them afterwards. Lost in her work, she didn’t notice Apo behind her until they tapped her on the shoulder.
“We need to talk.”
Cherri jumped, whirling around so fast she barely avoided stabbing Apo with her knife. “Apo! Hi! Have a nice night?”
“Well, a seven foot tall wolf monster broke into my house at one in the morning, trapped me on the couch for several hours, and then turned into my girlfriend.”
“Like, in front of you?”
“Yep.”
“You saw it happen?”
“Yep.”
“Ah.”
“Explain.”
Well, there was no getting out of this now. Here goes nothing. “I do that sometimes.”
“Wha- What do you mean you do that sometimes!?” Apo gesticulated in the air emphatically, ensuring her point got across. “People do not just turn into giant wolf monsters! That’s not normal!”
“I do. I have since I was seventeen.” Cherri gestured at the enormous claw mark scar over her bad eye. “That’s how I got this. I needed money badly, so I took a job no one else would touch. Turns out the reason no one else would touch it was because the target could turn into a giant wolf monster. I barely got out alive, and the next time a full moon rolled around I woke up in the woods next to an eviscerated deer carcass with no memory of how I got there.”
“On the full moon? Like a werewolf?”
“Yep.”
Silence for a second as Apo finally connected the dots. “You’re a werewolf!?”
“Took you long enough.”
“Okay, I’m sorry I didn’t immediately reach the conclusion that my girlfriend is secretly a magical creature that isn’t supposed to exist!” Apo snapped. “That’s not exactly a logical first conclusion to draw!” She took a deep breath, speaking again at a normal volume. “But yeah. You’re a werewolf. And you didn’t tell me.”
“I mean, I did say I was a dog person.”
“Cherri.”
“Okay, to be fair, telling someone on the first date that you turn into a seven foot wolf monster once a month can be a bit of a turnoff. I wanted to wait until there was a good time to tell you, but there just never was one.”
“This… actually explains a lot, now that I think about it.” Apo glanced over at the small orchard next to the house. “I should go check on the trees, see you when you’re done.”
“Wait, you’re just okay with it?” She hadn’t been expecting Apo to immediately leave her necessarily, at least the rational part of her hadn’t, but she’d been expecting the interrogation part of this conversation to be a lot longer than this.
“I mean, it’s not like me knowing changes anything. You’ve been a werewolf for longer than we’ve known each other, going off in the woods alone at night once a month is just a thing you’ve always done.” She smiled cheekily. “Besides, you make a very sweet giant puppy.”
“Moving on!” Cherri turned and stuck her knife back into the moose carcass, and Apo gagged a little.
“God, it smells like blood.” She pointed a finger at Cherri’s bloodsoaked hands and forearms. “By the way, wash off right away once you’re done this time please, last time you smelled like blood all day afterward.”
Cherri turned back around and made grabby hands at Apo, moose blood dripping off them and into the grass below. “Don’t you want a hug, Apo?”
“No!” Apo physically recoiled, disgust evident on her face.
“You sure?”
“You’re the worst. I’m checking on the trees, at least they don’t threaten to bleed all over me.”
Cherri laughed as Apo walked away. All things considered, that had gone really well. She turned back to the moose carcass. Now to deal with this problem.