Chapter Text
The village is alight with tense fury and volatility. Their pitchforks scrape at the cobblestone path and the brick walls. The crowd is getting bigger and even in the night the culminative fire of their torches burns like a sun in the center of town. The chorus their fury has a bass to it that rattles the walls and alongside their ravenous knocking. They're looking for him.
Your cottage, at the edge of town on a small hill, can see out into the chaos. Every candle has been smothered and you hope the darkness is enough to hide you both. You stand at the window and gnaw at your bottom lip. The well of emotion is swirling in you. Tears begin to form and spark a sharp sting in your eyes. Frustration and helplessness, it spirals.
A warm check rubs softly against the back of your hand. Initially it startles you. You look down to the giant at your feet, avoiding the windows, hiding. Covered by the large black cloak he sauntered into town in. He presses a kiss to your knuckles and sighs, “You can close the blinds. I'll hear them if they come”
You sniffle, rushing to wipe away the brimming tears, swallowing the agony, before rushing to do as he says. Your hands shake with emotion as you clumsily shut the window shutters and set the latch. You breathe in a shaky breath in the darkness. It's so dark now that no light is allowed to enter. The wood of the window pane is rough against your hand as you slide it down. It threatens to cut you. A few splinters catch on the pads of your fingers.
“This isn't fair.” You whisper against the spruce, your voice cracks a bit. You curl your fingers into a fist, clawing at the splinters as you do, “How can any of this be fair?”
“Hey.” He calls softly, taking your hand at his cheek in both hands.
You kneel down, nearly crumble, your knees hitting the floor with a painful pang, “I don't understand. Valko, You were only here to help.” Your head low, your hair falls around your face. Your cold fingers tighten around his warm ones.
“Hey, Listen-”
“It's not fair, you didn't do anything. You were going to help us. You were sent here to help us!” Hot wet tears fall from your cheeks into the thin fabric of your dress.
Valko cranes his head down to look at you and reaches out to cup your cheek, “It's going to be okay-”
It burns. His warmth and kindness burn a hole of more agony in the center of your chest. You nearly launch yourself into his arms to hide your tears in his shoulder, “You don't deserve this. You don't deserve any of this." His tail curls around you as you scramble to eliminate the distance between you. Your arms find relief when they connect behind his neck. His hands settle on the small of your back. The pain in your chest eases the more you press your cold nose to his collarbone. The tension in your shoulders slowly releases.
You both breathe in the precious moment of reprise. It is almost an escape but the distant rage of the village is a drum that gets louder in the silence. It coats the moment in poison. Their fury and violence, it draws a silent sob from you.
Valko notices and moves to distract you. He smoothes a hand over the tension between your shoulders and laughs softly rubbing his cheek on the crown of your head fondly, “Is this the same girl that said she would skin me alive if I so much as touched her.” He pokes your side, “For the month that I've been living here, you've been cursing the obligation.” That gets a smile out of you and he senses it. With a teasing high pitched lilt he imitates the hot headed complaints you've been making, “Valko, you're getting the house dirty. Valko, you're eating all the food! I mean, it was nonstop!”
You snort suddenly and smile in spite of the tears. Chuckling a bit into his shoulder. “You were an asshole.” You rest your cheek on his shoulder to look up at him, “You ate all my cookies and berries. When you came back you were always a mess” you shove him lightly on the chest, “I never even wanted you to stay here. Ugh, this is so annoying.”
It has been a month since Valko was commissioned to take care of the gang of raiders that have been harassing the town. A bounty hunter hired by the king to investigate and keep the town safe. With no Inns for him to stay in your cottage was offered as temporary lodging. You couldn't fight the order of the king and already so unpopular as an unmarried woman you were pushed to agree. As a hermit that hunts you weren't exceptionally well liked.
He had driven you half crazy, disappearing for the day and coming back covered in dirt and blood and scrapes. Turning you into a nurse for a stranger.
Was it dumb luck that your out of the way cottage was the ideal spot for him to stay in while he investigated? Or was it a cruel tragic joke played on the both of you. If you had never gotten attached this might have been easier. If he had been smarter. If you had met somewhere nicer… You clutch his shoulder and shudder, fighting off a sob, “If you had just stayed inside last night…”
Valko shook his head, “You can't think like that.” He holds you tighter, pressing your weight so that it leans against him. The roar of the townspeople gets louder. “Who knows what would have happened if I didn't help.”
It was last night. It was only one night but it changed everything.
A shepherd boy had run off into the night. He had forgotten to close the pen. It wasn't his fault that the raiders chose just then to attack. It wasn't anyone's fault that Valko charged into the darkness at the sound of screams. It was only moonlight that can be blamed for changing him physically. For frightening not only the raiders but the boy and his parents. He had overpowered the attackers too well. You had run after him and managed to see the faces on them. The rumor spread all day and now…
Now it's building like a forest fire in a way you never expected.
You whine and collapse a little more into his hold. One hand falls from his shoulder to reach for his tail. He stiffens, his breath catches. “How could they be afraid of you?” Your other hand runs its fingers up his wolf ears, “You're so soft.”
He scoffs, “You know that's not how it works.” He begins to draw fond soothing patterns on your back, swirls or moons across your shoulders and a river down your back, “We can go back and rewrite the story but I don't think I want to. It was good to have spent time with you even if it ended like this. I wouldn't trade our month together for anything.” He sighs, relaxing into you again, “I had more fun with you than I have with anyone else. I know you hated most of it but driving you crazy has become my favorite hobby.” That stings in ways it shouldn't. It is acid on the burns of frustration. It's unfair.
You pull away sharply, inhaling a large breath, “Let's run!” You say suddenly out of breath, “Let's go, now while they are still away. Lets go!”
“Go where?”
“The woods!” You motion behind you, to the back of the cottage that looks out into the tree line.
In the dim moonlight you see Valko frown, he sits up, “I can't let you become a target too. They'll know you helped me escape.” He smoothes a placating hand down your arm, “My whole life I've known the risk of revealing myself to the wrong people. I'm ready for this” he says gravely, “It's a fate I've known and its not for you.”
You listen to him with blood pounding in your ears, “No.” Stinging tears prick your eyes again, “No, its not fair.”
“It's life.”
“Screw that.” Without warning you lunge for his hip. Your hand finds the sheath of his knife. In one swift motion you peel it from him and stand. You are wild and manic and are only half aware of what you are about to do. You stumble to a stream of moonlight.
“Wait!” Valko stands too.
You hold your knife towards him, “Stay back you won't stop me.”
“What are you doing?!”
A piece of your heart breaks, “You're keeping something from me. There's something I don't know yet and I won't let you leave me without answers.” The sharp edge of your knife burns as you slide it down the length of your calf.
Valko smells it before he sees it. He lunges forward reaching for your hand, knocking the knife to the floor with a loud clatter, “Stop.” He tries to hold you down but you kick up with your feet at his chest and shove him back.
Swiftly you pull your dress over your head and begin to tear at the fabric. You take an edge with your teeth and pull until the hem splits and a roar of fiber breaking echos in the dark. You pant, feral and bloody as you kneel and press the ratted fabric into the pooling blood at your feet.
“What are you doing?”
“If you dare to leave me,” you snarl pressing the knife into the bodice of the dress before slicing it down, “I'll tell them you attacked me.” You stumble up and glare, your back to the moonlight, “So you can leave and take a hostage or you can leave me here to die.”
Valko watches you then eyes the glistening knife. There's a hunger there and you remember your nudity isn't a neutral thing. Even in living together the both of you had seen very little beyond bare shoulders and thighs. He looks at you now in a new disastrous way. It's not entirely platonic but it isn't completely sexual either. Something deeper, closer to that secret he keeps looked in chest. He steps forward with a frown, “Alright” he pulls you into a soft hug, “Fine, you win, you crazy kid.”
You exhale and let go of the knife so it clatters. His hands are warm and intimate at your bare back. His arms bracket you against the cold. You shudder into a cry of relief, “Oh thank god, Valko, you've become my best friend.” You confess on a sharp inhale, "I never meant any of the nagging. You're the only one in this town that cares about me. The rest of them are scum.” You snarl those last words.
Valko presses a soft nuzzle into your head again, “You didn't have to hurt yourself to make that point. You could have just asked, you freak.” He nips at your ear and suffocates you in the hug until you begin to laugh again. Lifting you off the floor and into the air, “You can't cry anymore, Okay? You're getting what you want, and I refuse to go on the lam with a crybaby.” He teases with a smile in his voice.
You smile down at him with teary eyes, “Yeah, I'll stop, just put me down.”
He sets you down softly onto your unharmed leg. His hands stay on your waist for longer than they have to. His eyes glow in the moonlight. His gaze gains back that heated secret look that never gains any clarity. You sniffle softly. He raises a hand to wipe away your tears. The backs of his fingers drag across your cheek softly. He frowns, pressing his head to yours, “No more crying.” Slowly he pulls his hands away, then softer almost to himself “...No more crying.”
You nod then pull away awkwardly, “Uh, I'll go get dressed, they plan to come for you at dawn when I usually start my hunt.” You draw your arms up to cover your body, “You should start packing anything important. Warn me if they start coming.” You move to walk around Valko but he takes you by the arm and holds you. A troubled look on his face makes you afraid he might change his mind.
“Are you…” he starts then swallows, “What you are getting into is dangerous. Are you sure you want to come?”
You turn to him with a grave face and place your palm around his wrist, “More than anything.”
This brings a grin to him, an honest one, the first genuine one since last night. Toothy with his fangs shining in the moonlight, “Attagirl.”
He lets you go and you rush to your room. Valko works on making the attack look more believable. It takes around two hours to place supplies into practically sized bags and pick practical clothes. Valko makes you wait another thirty minutes as he bandages up your leg with a pout. He also worried about the winter and pushed you to take your bear fur jacket despite your reservations that it would look suspicious. In the end you're at the exit of your cottage with a bag of hunting gear and food and another bag of clothes and sleeping gear. You're about to step off into the woods but Valko stops you.
He steps in front of you and leans forward, “You'll have to stay off that leg for a while so get on.”
“What?”
He rolls his eyes and pats his back, “Hop on.”
You look at him sideways and he has had enough. He comes up to you and crouches right in front of you, reaching back for your knees. You end up falling forward with your torso pressed to his back. He hoist you higher. “This is ridiculous.” You complain.
“What you did with that knife is what was actually ridiculous.” He makes sure you and the bags are securely on his back before he lowers his hands to the grass slowly. You make a noise of surprise, expecting him to walk off. He huffs softly, something animal brimming to the surface. He turns his head to glance at you, “Are you sure about this?”
You nod, “Absolutely.”
“Then hold on.”
You do and and as soon as your grip tightens around his neck the skin on his back shudders violently as it changes into fur. You yelp as beneath you his massive back contorts into that of a beast. He's a wolf, a massive one. Almost three times bigger than the normal ones. The fur is soft and glossy against your hands and your face.
Valko shakes and growls softly. His muscles moving under your palm as he tests your stability on him in this form. He cranes his head at you. The wolf, a large wolf snout and ears watch you. It's almost terrifying and it would be if it wasn't Valko's golden eyes watching you with fear. Afraid of rejection, afraid of your terror and fear. He sniffs the air, watching a change in your mood.
You smile at him, your heart aching for your precious friend. You press a kiss to the back of his neck and rub your face in his fur, “Valko, you're beautiful.” He stiffens at that but his tail wags enough to jostle you somewhat. You laugh and hold on tighter. His ears give an embarrassed flick. You lean forward and whisper into the wolf ear, “Let's go. I'm ready.”
A breath… two
And then the trees are flying past the two of you. You can feel the power of his legs as he bounds off the ground and into the undergrowth. You are flying through the trees you spent your life tracking and memorizing. The woods you recognize and grew with, the one that fed you and hid you as you hunted. Even when the town refused to accept you it had. You press your face into the best gift it ever gave you. Finally you could leave it all behind and choose the woods that chose you.
Valko slows down to a stop at a cliff, panting. He watches something on the horizon. You look up to see the cottage you had lived in ablaze. The fire is almost invisible as the blazing sun rises behind it. You curl your hands into fists of fur. It's fine. The only pleasant memory you had from it was this past month. They could take it, they could take anything but they will never take him.
With a sigh Valko turns and bounds off into the wilderness. Freedom and happiness waiting for the both of you in the grasslands.