Adjusting his life wasn't too hard. Cloud had no trouble with the constant changing guards with Zack, or the random moments he would catch up in his sleep. Due to this change however, left him too exhausted to have any sexual tendencies.

Whether Sephiroth had any irritation to the change, he didn't show it. Instead he showered Cloud with encouragement. And when he would wander off to hunt Sephiroth always promised he wouldn't kill his victims, merely drink enough to hold back his hunger and let them live.

Cloud was the most anxious for these nights. He would pace, and Zack would be alert and silent. They learned that no amount of small talk would help the situation. Sephiroth never liked an audience when he fed, plus he was much faster on his own.

They both understood this. Still, the growing anxiety as they waited wasn't something they could just shove away and pretend it didn't exist. The constant fear of the hunters catching up to them and catching Sephiroth alone was their worst case scenario. Yet just before the dawn awakened Sephiroth would return.

This cycle went on for a few months. And just when Zack debated this was good enough for the pair to be left alone so he could make an attempt to claim his own mate, something unforseen happened.

The town this mansion was built in was under attack by rampant werewolves. There was a huge pack, all of them succumbed into their bloodlust and unable to return to their human forms. The screams awoken them in the night.

"What do we do? They will find us." Zack turned to Sephiroth.

"Protect the townspeople." There was no hesitation at the order.

So the three of them set out to put the rampant werewolves down. Zack was quick to carve a route for evacuation. He could be heard over the howling and screams for everyone to run his direction to safety. Meanwhile Sephiroth took to the east side of the town. Which left Cloud to the southern entrance.

"He's one of us!" One snarled.

There were three in total. Soon as they smelled him they paused in their chaos. They eyed him warily, for he was not part of their pack.

"Don't drag me down to the likes of you. I am nothing like your kind." Cloud huffed, drawing First Tsurugi.

"Let's rip him to shreds!"

They charged full speed. Cloud blocked one with ease, the jaws unable to get a good grip on his blade. He grabbed a smaller piece to pierce at a second beast. It pierced through the heart and the beast collapsed.

Enraged the other two howled. The first one he blocked backed off. Cloud hears the one that hadn't attacked yet race around to strike at his back. Cloud sliced the arm off, sending the werewolf whimpering. It only moved away but remained close to help its packmate.

Taking advantage of the distraction the first werewolf charged again. This time Cloud was a little too slow in his block. He still succeeded only because he held the blade at an angle and so the werewolf ended up charging to his death when the blade cut deep into its throat. Teeth were inches away from Cloud's face.

The last of the three was easier to deal with since it was wounded. Once he was done Cloud moved to a different street to take down some more. As the night wore on things looked like it would turn into their favor when half of the pack was decimated.

That was until the hunters showed up.

"Cloud?" A familiar voice called out.

He froze. Tifa ran and pulled him into a one sided hug. Cloud caught sight of Barret, Aerith and Red.

"There you are! Fuck man, we searched high and low for your ass! Where the hell is Vincent?" Barret searched around.

Vincent didn't return to the guild?

"Stay away from me." Cloud ripped himself away from Tifa. He turned around at the sight of her confused and pained expression.

"What the hell happened to you, asshole?"

"I said stay away!" Cloud ran, using his full speed to any random direction.

He almost ran straight into Zack when he caught him.

"Whoa! Easy, man! What happened?" His voice snapped Cloud out of his panic.

"The hunters! They're here!" He gasped out.

"Shit. We gotta go find Sephiroth. I think the rest of the pack is trying to deal with him first." Zack lead the way.

The whole pack had Sephiroth surrounded. Without thinking Cloud charged in head first, taking a stance to be back to back to his mate. Without hesitation the pack began their onslaught. In the perimeter Zack was joined by the hunters.

"Zack!?" Tifa was surprised to see him.

"And so the plot thickens..." Barret watched the pair in the center. He turns to Zack with a glare. "The fuck is Cloud doing with a blood sucker?"

"Um...well uh, that's his mate." Zack managed to stammer out.

"Are you fucking serious?"

"And uh, I can't stand by if you attack him." Now gaining confidence, he gripped his sword.

"Why?" Aerith frowned. Zack stared at her for a second. When he next spoke it was to her, and his voice sounded sad.

"He's my master. Until he releases me from his service, I am his guard dog."

"Fuck it, we'll worry about this later. For now, we take care of the pack." Barret had too much of a headache to process the information fully.

And so the hunters joined the fray. Zack kept a wary eye on them as he fought alongside them. He remained close to Cloud and Sephiroth. Both took notice of the new allies. However for the moment they were relieved the burden of the fight wasn't so heavy to him.

Once all of the beasts were taken care of, they warily turned to each other. Everyone was silent. The air was still charged with intense energy. Slowly Sephiroth sheaths his sword. Following his lead Cloud and Zack do the same. Although their gazes never strayed from the hunters.

"So what, we not good enough to fight?" Barret spat.

"No. I wish not to slaughter the once friends of my mate and my guard." Sephiroth's voice was icy cold. He wanted nothing to do with them but understood he might have to defend himself should they refuse to back off.

"So then he wasn't lying." Now that she had a moment to process, there was no sense in Zack to lie.

"So what do we do?" Aerith turned to the guild leader.

"Shiit, this is just plain weird. You know the rules, we can't let any blood sucker slip from our grasp."

"You're not touching him." Cloud snarled, drawing his sword. Zack placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Easy, we don't have to fight." He tried to calm the blonde swordsman down.

"This is one shitty situation." Barret shakes his head.