20

BACK and forth it went in an agitated line. Back and forth. Back and forth until it let out a snarl. "This accomplishes nothing!" Greyback snarled as he restlessly paced in an agitated line in the parlor of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy's home. He swung out a broad arm, only for the sleeve of his black leather jacket to catch on a nearby house-elf made vase by the looks of it, and send it crashing to the hardwood floor at his feet.

This only added to the savage werewolf's already fraying nerves and his wild emotions as the wolf let out a low rumbling growl from deep within the confines of its broad and hairy chest, as Fenrir kicked out viciously at a larger fragment, sending it skidding across the room only for it to hit the opposite wall and shatter.

Feeling slightly better than he did before, Greyback let out a shuddering breath and stalked his way towards the open window, looking up at the sky at the Goddess, his Mother Moon, and praising the light that she bestowed. It was a waning moon, so his next transformation would not be for another month.

Ever since he had been forced to flee from the Welsh woods and that pretty little slip of a Muggle, he could not seem to get the delectable image of the young brunette out of his mind.

He felt a budding sense of annoyance at Lyall Lupin, with the pureblood wizard having gotten the better prize, and now, her image burned itself into his retinas. Whenever a Death Eater of Lord Voldemort's opened the door and it was not her, he felt his anger jump a little. Leave me alone! He kept repeating the command over and over in his head, waiting for an answer but none came to him. He curled his fists into claws, digging his blackened fingernails into the skin of his palms until his knuckles were tight and white from it.

The skin of his palm still tingled and burned from where the delicate little woman had let her touch him before she had squirmed away. Just the memory of the sensation mocked his skin for the knowledge of the Muggle it remembered, taunting Greyback until he could think of nothing else. His stomach churned and twisted into an uncomfortable bundle of nerves and forbidden desire for the non-magical woman.

When he had walked towards her back in those woods, his brain had almost gone blank. His eyes were on the girl's beautiful, perfect face, her sparkling hazel eyes alight with curiosity, and stunning hair.

Her beauty rocked the savage beast to his core, and for the smallest of moments, Greyback could forget who he was, what he was, and the state of his lycanthropy. But the moment he'd seen her face tilt to the side as she'd adamantly refused to answer his questions, trying to wriggle free from his ironclad grasp, he couldn't help but be reminded of what he was: a savage brutal animal.

His jaw tingled, the thick hairs on the back of his neck rose up, and his insides coiled with both revulsion and desire as images of the young Muggle woman's face that Lyall Lupin had taken a fancy to refused to part from his conflicting thoughts. Such beautiful innocence in any woman, witch, or Muggle, should have been disgusting to the werewolf, and it normally was. Most of the females in his encampments in the Wolves' Woods never knew that their Alpha reviled them as much as they reviled them, but somehow, this she-stranger, this delicate little bird that Lupin had taken an interest in, was different to the savage werewolf.

She was fragile, like a little bird. His little bird was how Fenrir Greyback was now choosing to see the young lost Muggle woman in the woods from now on inside his mind.

The moment Lupin and Scamander had Disapparated with the young woman in tow, that was the moment where Fenrir Greyback's mind became stuck on one thing only: her.

Just even the thought of her caused his breaths to quicken, heart rate to elevate. He lifted a heavy boot and took a step towards the door, the meeting with the other Death Eaters and the Dark Lord be Merlin damned, all of that was not nearly as important, his plan made up and his decision fully made.

He would have her, one way or another, as his mate. He would just need to be patient, be a good dog, and the dog would have his bone, then. It was when the other Death Eaters had filed into the drawing-room to discuss infiltration strategies for taking over the Ministry of Magic from within, that suddenly, things began falling into place in the werewolf's mind, the synapses in his reeling mind started to connect.

Greyback knew that if things went downhill, and Lupin did something wrong, his side had a place to hit the Ministry of Magic employee where it would undoubtedly hurt the pureblood wizard the most.

The meeting did not go well at all. Not for any of them. Discussion about which employees to target to attempt them to join their cause, whether by means of persuasion or use of force via the Imperius Curse started up. Greyback adjusted in his chair, not able to shake the curiosity as to whether or not the sweet Muggle girl who'd gotten herself lost in that Welsh forest a few weeks ago realized exactly what kind of man she had set her sights on. Lyall Lupin was not a good man, not a good wizard in the very slightest.

But who could mate with a man like that, and not know? And why, more importantly, was Fenrir allowing himself to care so much of her? Their very way of life had been threatened on more than one occasion by those who would seek to topple the Dark Lord's reign of power.

Lyall Lupin happened to be an important figurehead working against the Dark Lord, and Greyback thought he knew exactly how to respond to this growing threat.

The meeting was starting to adjourn, some talk of getting a bite to eat in Diagon Alley filling the air. Beside Greyback, Evan Rosier was very nearly shaking with rage at their ideas cast aside.

"What the Dark Lord is asking of us is impossible," Rosier whisper-hissed angrily through gritted teeth.

Though Greyback was cut to cut off the younger wizard's potential tirade with a warm claw curling around Rosier's arm.

"Calm down, there is a way we deal with vermin like Lyall Lupin," Fenrir Greyback murmured. His voice was uncharacteristically soft, quiet enough that not even Severus Snape, the greasy-haired git, could hear him across the table as the meeting concluded.

The rest of the Dark Lord's followers either Disapparated from the room entirely to get on with their appointed tasks or chose to walk out of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy's home and discuss what to eat.

Mr. Lupin's name had come up several times in conversation throughout the course of the meeting, which only ignited Greyback's blood. The hated thief that would steal the pretty Muggle woman's kisses and her scent, all for himself. It was not something that the werewolf could articulate, as in times past, he had viewed women as good for the sole purpose of mating and bearing cubs, and that was it. These new desires and foreign emotions welling within his chest were new, yes, and Greyback's claws trembled in rage.

He wanted to kill Lyall Lupin. Again, and again. He wanted to bash his skull to the floor, to hear the man's bones crack. The savage wolf wanted to grow his fangs and dig them into the column of Lyall Lupin's throat. To watch the pureblood wizard bleed to his death on the floor. Greyback's breathing increased.

He sucked in large breaths through his nose, his nostrils twitching as his tongue flicked out to taste the air, hoping to catch just a slight whiff of her scent. She smelled like biscuits, this Muggle. Electricity coursed through his limbs. Raw, violent passions. It was a need the wolf could not understand. Animalistic and yet emotional, too. There were no words he could use to describe it.

"Pretty little bird," he whispered in a low baritone voice that not even Rosier beside him heard.

A dozen and one ways to rid himself of the thorn in his side that was Lyall Lupin flitted through the beast's mind, as the beginnings of a tentative plan began to take root within his mind.

Killing Lupin would be easy enough. But then the body. He knew they would have to get rid of it, and dead meat wasn't nearly as good as fresh. Bodies began to smell once the soul left, and then, considering how well known throughout the Ministry Lyall Lupin was becoming, someone, coworkers, family, whomever, was sure to come asking after the man. The bad man. Greyback would have to ensure that they were out of sight when it happened, to make sure that the bird would be good and safe. So much to do. So much to do.

Greyback became fixated on the idea of stealing the young Muggle for himself that the werewolf could think of nothing else but her. Nothing but the pulsing of blood as it coursed through his veins, hearing nothing but the roaring of the blood pounding in his ears. The feel of her skin pressed against him, tasting her.

Feeling the Muggle close to him. But it wasn't enough. He wanted more. The dog wanted his bone. The wolf wanted to play. He understood now, and Greyback knew he had to get to work immediately now if Rosier would help him out. Because he wanted so badly to play with his little bird.

Greyback's yellowed eyes narrowed in contemplative thought as he turned over the details of his tentative plan in mind. A way to get what he wanted and keep suspicion off himself.

A way to make Lyall Lupin suffer. And suffer. And suffer. Until the man was begging for it, for Greyback to help him be put out of his misery, a plea which he was only too happy to oblige. But first, he would take Lupin's woman. Once she was Turned, Muggle or not, she really would be the perfect Queen for his tribe.

"We can handle Lupin, Rosier," Greyback barked in a rough, grating voice that sounded like sandpaper as he kept his gaze firmly fixated on Severus Snape and the Dark Lord, both wizards conversing in low murmuring tones amongst themselves, seemingly too preoccupied to be paying any attention to the two of them right now.

Still looking furious, Rosier looked up at him.

"What the hell are you on about, dog? I plan to already put on a bounty on Lupin's head," he growled, gritting his teeth how he thought of how the wizard had an indirect hand in the arrest of his son, who had been arrested and sent to Azkaban by a pair of Aurors after Lupin had investigated a series of house calls, only to learn that Rosier's son was setting loose a savage ghoul on a group of innocent young witches, all for sport.

The ghoul had grown violent, and Rosier's son had been taken in then.

The werewolf shook his head in protest. "No, no, that's not good enough, wizard," he spat. "See, you manage to get Lupin killed, the wizard won't really suffer. You have to hit the man where it hurts. His heart," he pointed, gesturing with a sharp claw towards Rosier's chest, who flinched.

The black-clad Death Eater did not look at all convinced by the werewolf's words as he pursed his lips and looked at Greyback in disbelief. "A man like Lyall Lupin doesn't have a heart."

Fenrir snorted and found it difficult not to roll his eyes a bit at that as the werewolf made an odd, strangled noise at the back of his throat as he breathed out what was supposed to be laughter.

If Greyback had learned one thing since joining the Dark Lord's ranks and taking up the cause, it was how to play people into his claws. He knew the right strings to pull, the cards to play, and exactly what it took for men like the pair of them to want revenge. The man seated next to him was a Death Eater, and a wizard more worried about money and his status in their society than the way things were properly done. But Greyback liked that about Evan Rosier, seeing in the younger wizard a kindred soul. Shaking his head, Greyback leaned in close to the wizard, the edges of his pink gums curling upward to reveal his sharpened incisors that made Rosier involuntarily flinch out of instinct as the wolf grinned conspiratorially at the young man.

"Oh, but I can assure you, he does, and I know just how to get to it. There's a girl, someone that's caught Lupin's attention, a lovely little Muggle, a pretty thing," he grinned, his smile widening. Greyback stifled his urge to grin further as the younger wizard's dark eyes lit up with intrigue. This revelation had clearly surprised his colleague, and Evan Rosier offered a slight incline of his head and an appreciative nod as he smiled.

"You have my full attention, werewolf."

HOPE looked up eagerly as the bell above the door to the insurance office where she worked jingled. The rain had been coming down so hard for so long that she didn't think anyone would be coming in today, as none of the agents had any appointments or matters that couldn't be dealt with over the phone.

Even so, their insurance office in Cardiff was tucked away in a corner and only locals ever came into their office. When the weather got this bad, they only had one to two customers per day.

Her Tuesday morning had been dragging on, so she was pleasantly surprised when the strange man walked in. She had been hoping that would be Lyall, but the man had to work, but he promised he would visit her.

She jumped up as if to move towards him, but one of the insurance underwriter's sons, a kind enough kid named Jason but a little clueless, intercepted him before Hope had a chance and she gave him a hard glare as he winked at her. Huffing in frustration, Hope settled back down in her chair behind the front desk, observing the tall stranger as her coworker Kate's son, went to greet and assist the stranger.

"Mornin', how's it goin' today?" Kate's son asked the stranger.

The stranger clad entirely in black turned to look at the young boy and then turned back around.

It would normally not be so strange to see a man with a thick black knit cap on his head in this kind of weather, nor with such a thick black coat and black leather gloves, but the fact that the man did not lower his hood once inside the insurance office struck Hope as odd.

His reaction to Jason only seemed to add to the strangeness of this man, whoever he was. His cheeks were red and windblown, and the water droplets were sliding off his shoulders and beginning to gather in a little puddle on the floor, making the man glisten slightly as he turned his gaze towards where Hope sat at the desk.

"So, uh, can I call someone for you?" her coworker's bored son asked as he followed the stranger towards the wall of their little front lobby, pausing to look at the awards on the wall.

The man turned his head towards the kid just a fraction of an inch, before turning to look at Hope.

"Jason, don't," Hope muttered as the kid looked at her. He raised his eyebrows at her and she shook her head, mouthing 'no' to him as she gingerly rose from her chair and moved to assist.

The teenager winked and looked back at the man. "I guess you get into a lotta trouble, huh?" he asked, shoving his pockets in the hood of his sweatshirt. "That's why you need insurance? Nothing better to do with your life?" The kid laughed nervously, but the man stopped abruptly and glowered at him.

Hope cringed. She knew Jason had only meant it as a joke meant to make fun of them but, not just the man, but this stranger obviously didn't know that.

Hope grimaced at her coworker's son's inability to tell a joke that wasn't rude or hurtful. Jason apologized for any harm and backed away. The man went back to looking at Hope and she shook her head at the kid.

"Go to the back breakroom and stay there, Jason," she whispered as she passed him as he shrugged. She walked over to where the man clad in black stood, hoping to supplicate him a little bit. In their type of business, word of mouth was everything.

"I'm so sorry sir, he—he didn't mean that as an insult, it—it was a joke," she stammered nervously, a light pink blush speckling along her cheeks as she gingerly shoved Jason back, hoping the thirteen-year-old took the hint and went back into the employee break out to stay put and hopefully out of this man's hair. "He—he really does mean well," she said as she shot Jason a look. "He's just one of those kids who doesn't know how to interact with people all that great, but we're working with him," she smiled brightly, and he paused as he turned.

Hope's smile dissipated quickly as the stranger looked at her, his mouth pinching and turning downward.

Slowly, his head turned downward, and the young administrative assistant felt a chill waft down her spine and her stomach turn when she came to understand, without the slightest doubt in the world, that he was openly, slowly, and without shame, ogling her and checking her out.

Her face turned beet red, and she tried to pretend she didn't notice. I wish Lyall were here, she thought morosely as a twinge of cold fear pricked her heart. If she weren't afraid of the man getting caught by his own people for using magic in front of her coworkers, she would have him jinx him.

Glancing sideways at the clock up on the wall, she still had about ten minutes until her lunch break. Lupin had promised to visit her. Those ten minutes now in her mind, couldn't come soon enough.

Something of this man eyeing her currently was causing her to feel unnerved.

"Ah… if you don't have an appointment, I would be happy to see which of our agents are available to meet with you," she stammered, and when she did not respond, she felt her chest go tight and a sheen of sweat glittering on the top of her scalp. "I'll just…be at my desk, and if you have any more questions, sir, just let me know," she said, and turned on her heels and walked away.

The stranger turned his head and Hope could feel his eyes peering over her backside as she slipped back behind the safety of her desk.

Thankfully, after that, the man didn't stick around. Hope turned her head to the side and closed her eyes, breathing a sigh of relief, as the bell over the front door to their office tinkled, signaling that Death Eater Evan Rosier had left.

HOPE'S fascination over the magical world didn't subside over the next few weeks of entering into a steady relationship with Lyall, much to the shock and surprise of her coworkers at the insurance office when the wizard came to call on her that same day during her lunch break, asking her if she wanted to accompany him on a call to Strathtully to rid the town of a boggart.

Her coworkers looked at her like he had grown two heads when he'd uttered the word 'boggart,' and for all they knew, perhaps Hope's new suitor had. Not wanting to avoid a scene, she nodded. Eager to assist Lyall in whatever way she could and more than eager to put that unnerving encounter with the stranger out of her mind for good, Hope eagerly accepted upon hearing the colorful orchestra of the handsome wizard's voice and paired with his hopeful glowing smile, there was no way that she could possibly refuse Lyall.

"I'd love that," she whispered shyly, lowering her lashes as a light pink blush speckled along her cheeks as she ducked underneath her reception desk to grab her purse and sling the strap over her shoulder.

Though Hope never once took her eyes off Lyall, who was patiently waiting for her with a single white lily in his hands. There was something so bright and pure about the man's smile that came from it that made it all the more special in Hope's mind now. She intertwined her hand with his, shyly accepting the simple flower in the other as she allowed Lyall to lead her outside and around the back of the insurance office.

"Are you comfortable with Disapparating?" he asked, sounding concerned as his brows furrowed as Lupin looked at Hope worriedly. "Most people vomit the first time," he cautioned. "It takes a bit of getting used to, but after the first few times, the sensation tends to wear off and it becomes more bearable."

She nodded, though she swallowed down hard at the idea of getting sick over whatever was about to happen.

"Will it hurt?" she asked, giving Lyall's hand a light squeeze, wanting the comfort.

Lupin shook his head, returning the gesture with a firm but a reassuring squeeze of his own.

"Not a chance, Hope. I would never do anything to put you in harm's way, I—I hope you know that," he stammered, as he lowered his eyes, suddenly unable to meet Hope's eyes with his. "I…" He hesitated. "I care about you," he said, at last, lifting his gaze to hers and looking pained.

Hope blinked and somehow managed to bring herself back to the moment as the thoughtful and touched gaze she graced Lyall Lupin with was one the wizard would cherish.

"Shall we go?" she asked softly, her eyes lowered as she squeezed onto his hand.

She furrowed her brows into a light little frown, still unable to shake the uneasy sensation she was left with at the strange man who had popped in earlier and had said not a single word to anyone.

Lupin frowned, sensing Hope's initial discomfort, thinking there was something she wasn't telling him, judging by the look on her face and how she suddenly could bear to look him in the eyes. Worry wormed its way into the pit of his stomach, tightening into hard coils and making him feel slightly sick.

In the few weeks of getting to know the young woman he was more or less dating, Hope had never hesitated to tell him anything that was on his mind or ask him questions.

She had told him she'd never felt like she'd had to hide from him and shared more about herself with him than she'd had with anyone. So why the sudden need for this secrecy?

What was she hiding from him?

"Hope?" he asked, speaking with great care so as to not come across to seem demanding of her or hurt. He set his hands on either of her shoulders as he kept his eyes fixed on her face. "What's the matter? What's wrong? Has something…" he paused, so unsure of himself. "Happened?" he asked, at last, growing worried.

Lyall gazed at Hope with worry and concern, because for once in the last few weeks of getting to know the bright young Muggle from Cardiff, the curious woman looked away from him.

This was not exactly a promising sign, he knew, as she settled her gaze somewhere to the side, keeping whatever expression she wore away from him.

After several minutes, Hope spoke up.

"I—it's nothing, Lyall. Nothing worth worrying over. Just a…troublesome customer," Hope hesitated as she finally spoke the half-truth. She cringed as she had no choice, unable to bring herself to tell Lyall the truth of the man. "Ready?" Hope asked, turning eagerly to Lyall, wanting nothing more than to make the stranger in the office from earlier a distant memory now.

Lupin shoved aside his concern for the young woman as he couldn't keep himself together anymore in the presence of the loveliest creature that he had ever laid eyes upon in his life.

"Always," he retorted, holding out his hand for Hope to take, drawing in a breath as she effortlessly slipped her hand into his, their fingers slotting together perfectly, like missing puzzle pieces.

He marveled silently at how well they fit. Lyall was still thinking over this, thinking how well their hands fit together as one, as he closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of Hope's hand in his, as she allowed him to take her to Strathtully to rid the town of a boggart.

Neither of them was aware that the two of them, the wizard and the Muggle, were being tailed by none other than Death Eater Evan Rosier, who stepped from the shadows of an alley, and Disapparated in precisely the same spot as Lupin, having been spying on them and listening to their every word, and knew exactly where to go.