Rapunzel could see him, her mate. He had stopped at the sound of her voice, his hand frozen on the latch to the gate but he didn't turn around, didn't look at her, and as the sun set, darkness falling, she screamed out in both physical and emotional agony.

As her bones cracked in her body, realigning to create another form, stretching skin and pushing her hair from her skin, out far enough until she was covered in fur. Fear stole her breath as she stood there, a beast, behind her cure, her mate. If he turned and saw her he would hate the animal she was, perhaps he would try to hunt it. Rapunzel realised that she hadn't thought this out very far. She barely knew Niko. He could be a hunter, could want her fur for a pelt.

With a howl of distress Rapunzel turned her snout up to the moon before loping back to the safety of the castle, berating herself as she did so. She was a coward, he'd stopped for her, she could have reached him in time, but she had hesitated in her anxiety. What if she shifted forms as she reached out to grab him? What if she had reached out and had hurt him, killed him? She would have been cursed once more, to an eternity within this form, alone without him.

As she made her way to the castle her father opened the twin doors and escorted her inside her home where she promptly prowled around the hallway, growling as she did so.

'Rapunzel don't be discouraged,' father told her as she snarled, his inner beast able to understand her. 'He will return, he's curious about you, as all mates are about their females.'

She merely growled once more, telling him that the curious male had left her, had rejected her. She didn't understand how mates could reject each other in this way. Mother had summoned her mate to him and then proceeded to become best friends with him. If she could look beyond the beast then why couldn't Niko? She didn't understand why she thought he was different to the other suitors to other males. He smelled of her element yes, but that didn't mean he was as pure as the water itself. Did it?

'Niko comes from a very mysterious family daughter, his mother died when he was a child. Maybe he fears letting another female into his heart in case he loses her too. Everybody has their secrets, look at us,' he said and she turned her haunting golden eyes on him. What about us? 'You're a werebeast my child, that's as big a secret as they come.' She was a secret that had to be locked away for eternity. The only person other than her parents that she saw on a regular basis was the Vampire Countess Red.

'Is everything okay in here?' Red, the devil herself, asked as she entered the room and merely looked at Rapunzel as though they were no different. And in a way they weren't, they were both monsters of the night, both nightmares that only existed in the nightmares of children and the silver screen. The only difference was that Rapunzel was hideous and Red was glamorous, her mate accepted her for what she was, and there kinds had always been at war. Their love could transcend anything, but Niko couldn't even accept the human form of Rapunzel.

Tears stung her circular eyes as she thought about that, contemplated the fact that her life would never be any different. She had never left the confinements of her family grounds and she never would. She'd never known public school, or college, or university, had never had the chance to make friends, have sleepovers or go shopping. She'd never been on a date with a male had never even eating ice cream, for the fear the clouds would cover the summer day and her curse would fall over her in the darkness.

'Rapunzel!' Her father called out as she ran away and loped up the many steps to her tower. And once there she threw herself on her bed so hard she very nearly broke it, and there she lay, beast form and all, howling in self-pity, her depression taking over her as quickly as her hated form had.

Niko had finally reached the confines of the castle's grounds, contemplating the weirdness of the building when he heard the most heart wrenching sound of his life, more pitiful than the tears of his younger self. It sounded like an animal in pain and his first instinct was to comfort the creature to heal it, something within him was demanding he find it and stop the sounds of pain that seemed to echo in his chest.

Though his heart wanted to go back, he forced his feet to his car and drove off into the night, his gaze lighting upon the golden glow from the tallest tower in the castle.

'I'm sorry Rapunzel,' he whispered to the rear view mirror as he pressed down on the gas and sped away as fast as he could, lest he return and make her life as hellish as his own. What curse could be worse than killing with a touch?