A/N: Orriginally written for the rt Challange on Live journal and I sincerly hope that posting this won't get me into trouble! (Attempts puppy dog face which doesn't seem to be working on the live journal mods)
Why
"You love her don't you?"
"Who?"
There was pain. More pain than Remus had ever felt before. Greyback kicked his side again so that a now old wound bled a fresh.
"Do not play the fool with me!"
Teeth racked across the back of his neck, he could feel his flesh being torn from his body. He screamed. Greyback laughed
"Yes, little pup, you do take after your father. He was just as insolent and stubborn as you are. But I got my revenge didn't I?"
Greyback grasped a handful of Remus's hair, pulled back and shoved his face into the hard wood floor.
"Now," Greyback leaned down and Remus's eyes began to water at the closeness of his foul breath. "Answer your maker. Do you love her?"
The pain would go away if he told the truth. He knew that.
"I don't know who you're talking about," he lied. Greyback grabbed hold of his wrist and twisted it.
"You can't lie to me pup," he hissed in Remus's ear. "I have seen you look off to the west, to the direction of the village when you think no one is looking. I've heard you mumble her name in your sleep. Nymphadora."
Greyback sneered and spat at the ground as though her name were a curse. Remus bit his lip to keep from answering.
Greyback pulled himself up from the ground and with his foot rolled Remus over so that he was lying on his back.
"Is she pretty? Your little witch? I suppose you would say that she was beautiful, but I'd expect you to exaggerate."
He bit down harder on his lip. No matter what Greyback said, no matter how he goaded, Remus would not tell him anything. Especially not about her.
"Is she young?"
There was a feral glint in Greyback's eye that made Remus twitch. Greyback laughed again when Remus tried to heave himself from the floor and failed.
"I'll take that as a yes. What do you dream of, I wonder, on those nights when you whisper her name? 'Can't imagine they're the nice pretty dreams that normal men have of their girl."
Remus balled his hands into fists and looked away. Greyback looked down on him and smiled.
"See?"
Greyback grabbed Remus' leg, and stuck one long, slimy nail hard into the old wound.
"No matter how you might try to fight it little pup, you are a wolf. Wolfs don't have normal desires, normal needs."
He kneeled down next to Remus once more. His hand remained on the leg, picking at the old wound, making it throb and bleed.
"Oh, I'm sure you love her in that sweet, trite, human way when you're awake. But at night…"
Greyback took his fingernail out of the wound and began instead to run his horribly callused hands up and down Remus' leg in a disturbing sort of caress.
"I wonder…do you dream of turning her? I'll bet your mind is just filled with images of her small, perfect, body writhing beneath you as you bite down on her, mark her as yours."
Remus closed his eyes, attempting to shut out the pain of these words as much as the pain in his body.
Seeing this display of weakness, Greyback continued.
"Does she scream when you turn her? Does her pale skin turn white as you tear at her throat? Does she cry? I'll bet that she's awfully pretty when she cries. Most girls are."
Greyback moved his hand up to stroke Remus's arm.
He tried to pull his arm away, and suddenly Greyback had grabbed it and pinned it over his head against the wall. Remus let out a gasp of pain. Smiling so that each one of his yellow jumbled teeth showed, Greyback straddled Remus' body and leaned down to whisper in his ear:
"You know, pup, it's too bad that you are so weak you can't see your dreams realized. Perhaps if you let go of the human end? If you let your wolf take control?"
Remus writhed again. He did have nightmares about that. Of letting his feral side take control, of turning her, of hurting her. The image haunted him. And he would die before he ever saw those nightmare's realized.
The more Remus moved beneath him, the wider Greyback's smile grew. He pushed his hips painfully forward against Remus's still aching stomach.
"Well of course if you don't have the strength…I am always searching for new children to add to our ranks."
Remus stopped moving; his very blood seemed to freeze at Greyback's words.
"Now, I wonder how the rest of the pack would feel knowing that a girl one of their members has been harboring affection for has joined their ranks. Now imagine their surprise when they realize that not only was she a witch, but that her lover did not even have the guts to turn her himself? I don't think they'll like that will they? They might even see it as treason."
Her life would be over. His life would be over. Not only his life, but his cover, Dumbldore, the order. Such a scenario meant disaster for everyone.
"Oh, yes. I can picture her in my head. I'm sure her body is made of soft curves, her eyes have a gentle twinkle, her lips are pink…her blood tastes as sweet as she looks. I'm sure that she is a bit old for my usual tastes, still," He closed his eyes and began licking his lips.
"She would be a pleasure to turn."
Remus wasn't aware when he pushed himself up off the ground. He didn't quite remember thinking as he lunged for Greyback, grabbing his neck in a choke hold. All he knew was the basic desire to attack, to disarm, and to protect. He couldn't let anyone steal her innocence. No, he would kill Greyback before he let that happen.
The next thing he knew, his arm was twisted behind his back, and his face had been pushed hard against the wall of the shack. He heard Greyback laugh cold and mercilessly again.
"So you do love her? I thought so."
Greyback released Remus' arm and shoved him to the ground one last time before moving to the door of the shack.
"I will find her, just wait little pup. When you least expect it."
With that last cryptic warning, Greyback slammed the door of the shack shut leaving Remus alone and weakened surrounded by his own blood.
He lay on the floor for several minutes. He knew that he would have to get up eventually. The pack would begin to wonder about him, and Greyback would be more than glad to fill their heads with stories of his treachery. No doubt that was his plan from the beginning when he had some how found Remus after his transformation in the shrieking shack.
Yes, those questions about Tonks were simply a smoke screen, designed to frighten him. He hoped…
Still, he couldn't take chances. He would have to be even more careful now. He would avoid her at all costs, keep his distance. After all, Greyback had ways of having him followed; he could easily learn where she was. He had vowed that he would protect her at all costs. And he would even though he hated it
He picked himself up from the ground with several loud groans and made his way to the door. He would return to his fellows, his equals. He hated it. But there was nothing else to be done. It was his duty.
Just as it was his duty to protect her, even from himself.
He hated having to keep his distance from her, hated having to dream of her each night and wake up in cold sweat, hated loving her yet… there was nothing else to be done.