Once upon a time, there was a Godly valley with mountains that could touch the sky and trees that cast long shadows. The people who live in the small mountain town are hardworking and happy, so long as they never stray into the forest where the wolves lurk in the darkness. Adults brave the trees in groups to hunt the vicious pack as they have for decades, the conflict is deep with no sign of victory for either side. But wolves are not the only threat, nor the village's only secret - and the link connecting them is a simple cloak of Red ...

Every night, from the highest peak of the uninhabited mountains, a single Wolf howls to the good folk of the valley – as a warning, as a message, and as a reminder of what they did:
"Beware, beware, the Path where the Witch once stood. Beware, beware, of the Wolf in the Wood."

"You like the sound of the wolves, don't you Leon?"

Squall picked his head up from the doorframe he'd been dozing against, looking up at Selphie who was holding a blanket around her shoulders and a pillow against her chest. He tilted his head as he wondered what had made him so obvious, "Why'd you say that?"

The brunette bent her knees to squat beside him, her fingertip poking at his cheek "You smile whenever you hear them." She looked up at the starry night and pointed again "You look up there like there's something to see, but there isn't, and then you just smile. Especially when there's only one howling just before we light the candles."

Evidently, Selphie was more observant than Squall was aware of.

Squall huffed out a soft laugh but didn't deny it. There was no doubt his reaction would be perceived as peculiar, especially when Hojo regularly blamed the wolves for everything wrong with the village, Squall had since accepted that he would never be considered normal. But it was his lover calling out to him, his only piece of Cloud that he could safely bring home without fear of discovery – of course he smiled.

He could tell it was Cloud, and now he knew what he was saying through his wolf-song. I miss you … I love you … I wish you were here … see you tomorrow … before he had guessed what Cloud was saying, and now it was understandable to his ears. He knew it just as effortlessly as he was aware that fire burnt and that water was wet. His previous ignorance was bewildering now.

"Hey, Lee, why do you think they howl?" Selphie asked her head in the palm of her hand.

Resisting the urge to laugh again, Squall smiled and said: "They're singing."

"Singing? But … Father Hojo says they're trying to scare us …"

"Sometimes they sing scary songs, like soldiers going into battle. They growl and snap like we do," Squall allowed, recalling the snarls Cloud and Zack's human forms and even Tifa's wolf form had pulled off with excellent intimidation. They were like the screams of the good Father from his raised position in the church or the fuming sighs of Seifer and Genesis. "But soldiers aren't fighting all the time, neither are wolves. So they sing about other things."

Selphie sighed thoughtfully "What is this one singing about?" she tilted her head "It sounds spooky … in a good way, like … it's something unusual that makes you pay attention," she giggled.

Nodding in understanding, Squall pretended to think, "He's missing someone."

"Aww," the girl peered up into the sky "Did he lose a friend?"

"Maybe."

She shifted closer and leant into him "How'd you know, Lee? You said so, and it sounds exactly right to me."

Squall shrugged as carefully as he could to prevent knocking her to the floor, she grumbled as her head was nudged off her comfortable perch nonetheless. "I just … listen. Listen without expecting, and then I hear what others miss because they think they already know."

Grunting in confusion, Selphie asked "So you know because you don't know? You're so strange, Leon."

As she yawned, he answered her "I get that a lot."

Minutes later, he scooped up his little sister and put her to bed beside Quistis. The blond opened her eye briefly and grunted a sleepy farewell, having subtly grilled him all day for answers about his love affair, Squall was glad to be out from under her thumb. He made a promise to himself that he'd never leave for days on end without mentioning his reasons to her again- her wrath was taxing and never-ending, and hidden under a honeyed smile and a gentle, innocently probing questions.

He closed their door securely and walked back to his hut. It didn't feel like home anymore.

He shouldered open the door and sighed at the dust that had already gathered in his absence. He shook out his bedsheets outside, and rooted around for something edible- he settled on some preserved mushrooms- already missing the readiness and abundance that the forest provided as he dug about for useful things in his hut.

Quietly, absently, he wondered when he had become to accustomed to forest life. Cloud's habits had rubbed off on him, and in a way, they had freed him. But he couldn't recall when the forest ways had overtaken the civilised way he'd been raised. It was like it had always been. He went to bed, door propped open to hear the last of Cloud's song, dozing away peacefully to a half sleeping state with thoughts of a soft laugh, impish smile and warm presence.

Cloud rested on his forepaws, his song over and his promise kept for the day. He sighed, long and peaceful, imagining his Mate hearing him, knowing, and smiling in that special way of his. The way he smiled more with his eyes than with his lips. Knowing that he could easily bring that expression to the surface filled him with joy. He resisted, barely, the urge to roll over and writhe on the ground in a fit of happiness like a lovesick puppy all over again.

He didn't need to add to the analogy; Zack's teases had been enough.

He'd returned home once Squall had safely crossed into his territory, that invisible line in the woods that put Cloud on edge. Once he'd climbed up the cliff and into his wolf-den his friends pounced, they had been waiting for him.

Zack had howled obnoxiously, suggestively until everyone had heard him, and Tifa sniffed Cloud just the once and had promptly demanded to know everything. Cloud tried to obey her request, unashamed of anything that had occurred, but there was so much to say and tell her, and so much that he couldn't put into words. Although, it got harder to concentrate when Zack began to tag innuendos at the end of Cloud's every sentence. Cloud eventually tackled him to shut him up. They'd rolled and flipped each other like the pups they'd been raised as, each one throwing harmless insults and even softer punches all in good fun until Zack got what he really wanted.

"Ah-ha!" Zack ripped the shirt from his shoulders and beamed at the bites all over his skin "He's got teeth, I'll give him that." Tifa inspected his shoulder with an impressed hum of her own.

"Did this one bleed?" she prodded it thoughtfully.

Cloud smirked, "It might of, I was too busy pinned up against a tree to notice."

Her jaw dropped "What an animal!" she exclaimed, grinning, approving.

Groaning, borderline wantonly, Cloud covered his eyes and smugly said "He's sweet, but, Guardians, he's got a wild side worse than mine. You think these bites are troublesome? I can't tell you how hard it's been to sit down since I've been with him." He rolled to one side, laughing at their raised eyebrows "My Squall's left all the marks I could want and more."

"Who would that thought that the Hunter would be so primal," Zack snickered. "Did he bottom at all?"

Cloud groaned at the memories, "Fuck … he did, I might have to go take care of myself right now if I tell you about that one!"

Tifa pulled on his ear "No! You can't say that and not tell us, spit it out right now."

Wriggling his abused lobe out of her fingers he sighed and licked his lips in memory, "He's so beautiful when he's vulnerable." He described as much as he knew Squall would approve of but made sure to leave several winks and hints at just how much more there was throughout his tales.

Tifa was drooling slightly at the end of it, and Zack's nose was permanently red. "Damn."

His friends exchanged a look and their smiles returned.

Cloud's happiness radiated from him like heat from a fire, it was infectious, and it was attracting flies. Aqua and Terra had paused on their romantic stroll to listen for a few moments, they'd half expected the pair of wolves to curl up and listen, but they merely basked and inhaled to understand what had occurred, and left them to their playful banter. Yuffie, way too young to comprehend it all, kept wandering over to see what was causing all the warm, golden joy. The older wolves censored their speech and questions whenever she was within earshot, but she kept sitting near Cloud and leaching off the positive emotions he was emitting.

Almost the entire pack had tapped into his chain of good feelings. Half of them were eager for his happiness, a few more were surprised at it, and the rest were either too young or too prude to want to know.

After intense grilling and a hell lot of simple sharing of emotions and the reasons behind them, Zack promised to persuade Angeal to talk with Cloud, saying that it was about damn time and since he'd completed his end of the plan it was time for phase two. Cloud had made his claim, and now Angeal would be forced to listen.

Zack patted his back with a smirk "He's been thinking a lot, you know. Telling me to let him breathe, and he's been talking with Puddles and her mate so … I believe he 's actually coming around now." Zack beamed "Told ya."

Savouring the rush of relief, Cloud thanked his friend and then went off on his way up the mountain to howl down to the village. Squall was waiting for him.

"Is this a private time?"

Cloud's head perked up at the voice in his head that broke his dazed zone like a bubble popping in the air. He looked slightly down the mountain and spotted Angeal waiting below. Respectfully asking permission before joining him. Despite his confidence and his devotion, Cloud felt his ears go back against his skull. He'd be with Squall exactly the way he did ten times over if given the chance, but that didn't mean he regretted upsetting his Alpha nor that he didn't dread the scolding he'd get.

He swallowed his uncertainty and replied with as much confidence as he could summon. "I'm finished. You probably need to yell at me now, right?" he rested his head on his paws and prepared himself for the wrangling he was about to receive.

"Does everyone have so little faith in me?" Angeal climbed up, and his larger bulk settled in a noble wait beside him. "Have I really convinced my pack that I'm unchangeable and absolute? Cloud, do you fear me?"

Cloud looked up, alarmed and upset that Angeal doubted himself, "No! I'm not afraid of you."

"But you avoid me," Angeal pointed out, head lowering sadly.

Cloud whimpered "I … I don't want you to hurt my Squall. I'm scared you'll find a way to make me stay away from him … he's my Mate now, so you can't but … before …"

Angeal sighed "It's been difficult, these new months. So much to dread going wrong, so many loved ones needing answers and certainty when there wasn't any. How could I assure them with any kind of real sincerity that we would be 'fine' when we didn't even know what We were?" He looked up into the sky and kept his eyes fixed there. "We discovered new things about ourselves every day and questioned them. We were scared, I was … I was trying to give us the luxury of petty worries until we knew ourselves again. Until we had a safe place to grow into ourselves …"

"I am sorry that I so cruelly dismissed you and your feelings, Cloud. But at the time I couldn't see another way to keep the pack safe. Both from outside and from ourselves …"

The smaller wolf sat up to look Angeal in the eye, as best he could. "I understand. I do. I don't blame you at all … I just wished you'd listened. Even before he was my Mate, he was mine. And I was his, he would have never betrayed me."

Angeal nuzzled against his nose affectionately "I believe that time has proven you right. Before you mated, on the first day you left, I was tempted to seek you out to tell you that I was willing to adapt, to change." His blue eyes showed amusement as he found Squall's scent all over the young wolf, "However, it may have seemed like an attempt to stop you from Mating, so … perhaps this is for the best after all."

Cloud's tail wagged hesitantly "You're not mad?"

"No."

Cloud felt his rush of emotions. It was a complex soup of weariness, trust, happiness for Cloud's joy, patience, thoughtfulness, humility and caution. But he was not angry. Perhaps he had been once, but it had since been dissolved and resolved. The smaller wolf stood and partly leapt in happiness "You're really not mad."

Angeal snorted and gently cuffed the young wolf around his ear, "I am known as being stubborn, not a liar." While Cloud nursed the spot the elder had swatted with his paw, Angeal spoke again. "This is not how I would have liked to resolve our disagreement. But what is past is past. I have some questions about your Mate, and, if you are willing, I am prepared to meet him."

Yelping in surprise, Cloud tilted his head with wide eyes "Really? You're- Really!?"

Angeal let slip a look of hurt at Cloud's disbelief but didn't comment on it, "Yes."

Cloud howled briefly in joy and tackled the Alpha wolf "Thank you thank you! You're going to love Squall, I just know it," he chanted in a joyful, jumbled mess with his nose under Angeal's forelimb like he was a puppy in a sire's protective hold.

Angeal snorted above him, "Perhaps." He waited a moment before he added "I have some questions about him, and you. They're important."

"Oh, alright." Cloud looked up, uncertain and curious.

"Since you have mated, has he been affected as you have?"

Cloud rolled onto his side with a dopey look of affection "He has experienced the same thing a wolf-wolf mating would have. He … he knows me, he sees and hears so much more about me now, and … I've noticed that he's constantly drawn back to me no matter what he'd focusing on … it's nice." He refrained from commenting on their sex life in front of Angeal, whom he was trying to bestow a good impression of his Mate, but that unsaid thought may have reached him from earlier.

"Has he shown any … wolf behaviours? Outside of his Mating Bond?"

"No …" Cloud thought carefully "He's hunting without a gun now, but … I ever since he remembered me he's left it at home. He once said he'd never use one if he had the skill … I've helped him improve since, but that's something he's learnt, not just picked up out of the blue. Same for his habit of biting me and his weird attempts at howling," he smugly wagged his tail at the end comment, Angeal lightly swatting at him again for getting off topic.

"Has he been interacting with any Hunters since learning of you?"

Cloud shook his head, "Not willingly."

"Cloud …" Angeal drawled warningly.

Cloud's ears went back, and he heaved a great sigh. "One is his brother, he's family but I've hardly found his scent on Squall let alone seen them together. The other is the village Alpha, sorry, Leader. So … interacting with him is unavoidable, though I've never seen or smelt him on my Squall either."

"I see …" pondering for a few minutes, leaving Cloud worrying beside him, he kept his thought to himself and asked a new question. "Does anyone know of you, Cloud? Besides your Mate."

"Squall's Mother-figure," Cloud admitted. "She knows my name and only my name, but it was something she learnt from Squall when he was a child." Believing that Angeal should be aware, he added, "His siblings know that Squall has a lover, as is the entire village, but they do not have knowledge of my name, my face or my gender, even. Rumours spin and spread on their own and provide their own answers down there … Squall's told me what they think, they came up with it on their own."

Angeal would have raised an eyebrow if he was in human form, his quiet bafflement leaking over to Cloud who agreed that their system of hearsay was just plain strange. But neither commented.

"Have you ever met him anywhere else but in the woods?"

"No. We always meet deep in the trees, far enough away from either settlement so we can have some privacy."

"You've never been to his village?" Angeal checked approval and relief in his voice. Cloud nodded. "Thank the Guardians you listen to some orders." Cloud snickered into his paws. "You said before that he's never hunted a wolf, save for one trip that tainted his entire view on it. But if he is so against hunting why does he pursue it?"

"It's all he knows." The smaller wolf sighed heavily as he recalled the vulnerable look in Squall's eyes when he admitted the life he led was one of necessity and lack of choices. "He's shunned by those who aren't his kin, singled out because he's different and seen as cursed, unlucky and inferior … he doesn't have a choice if he wants to eat and survive. No one would be willing to show him another way to live."

Curious, Angeal looked at him head on. "He is shunned for his actions, but no one will allow him to do differently, so he is judged again for them?"

Cloud whimpered and growled at the truth in his words. It was not fair! Squall never did any wrong to them, and they hurt him. It was little wonder he had become everything they hated when they refused to show him Love! "I worry for him when he stays in that place … if I could, I'd take him away and keep him happy and safe somewhere else. Just us …"

Angeal was silent.

The smaller wolf lowered his eyes, missing Squall's warmth, his scent and his presence. He longed for his hands in his hair, and the subtle shines in his eyes. The dream he'd just admitted to his Alpha, the one of shielding Squall from all his past pains and dedicating himself to his future happiness was one he often thought about. He just wanted his Mate to be happy. To be able to wake up with him every morning, fall asleep every night without the ever present loneliness, and the freedom to make whatever choices he wanted without judgement.

"Angeal, Squall told me that he was an orphaned infant left on his Mother figure's doorstep by a wolf." he looked up, believing that the only one who'd likely have the answer was the current Alpha, perhaps he could finally give Squall some closure …

Angeal looked interested and surprised, and it was genuine. "A wolf you say? One of ours?"

Cloud's hopes fell. "Squall said there was a track of prints that led towards and away from him, everyone assumed he had been left by a wolf and cursed. But … I don't remember any of our wolves ever mentioning doing such a thing."

Angeal shook his head slowly, "They wouldn't have done such a thing. If they had found an abandoned infant, they would have left him or informed one of us. That is very strange …" they pondered the mystery for several more minutes, Cloud sadly conceding that he'd never be able to give Squall the truth that he wanted, and Angeal was plotting.

Angeal nudged Cloud's shoulder to get his attention, "I'd like to meet him. I have a … challenge for him."

"A what?" Cloud sat up, a little defensive.

"Have no fear, it is a harmless test, designed to quiet the minds of those who still worry and doubt in our pack. It will also convince me that he is worthy of travelling with us." He looked out from their vantage point into the distance, "I still worry for the choices you've made, but I will no longer ignore your wishes. Let me meet your Squall, face to face."

Hesitating again, Cloud took a few deep breaths and thought about the implications of Angeal's plan. "This test … what happens if he passes or fails?" he asked.

Angeal squared his shoulders "If he fails … I'll either decide to banish him entirely depending on the damage. Or he'll have to live at the edge of our territory should he choose to follow you, he will have no pack support, and he won't be permitted to travel with the pack. It will be a lonely existence. But you will be allowed to see him."

Cloud thought that this was still an option that could be workable, if Squall was banished he'd defect from the pack officially and stay with him, but he knew it would be a hard life for the both of them from then on. On the other hand, if he were allowed to live distantly, he'd also likely stay with Squall as much as possible.

"And when he passes, will he be part of our pack?"

Angeal's ruff stood up slightly with unease. "No. The pack is something sacred and unique to us wolves, and he is not a wolf. But I will permit him to interact and live among us. He can hunt in our territory, and I will see to it that he's not rejected by the others, I'll stand up for him and for you."

Cloud wilted slightly, "Will he ever be a wolf in your eyes?"

"If he can prove himself as a wolf maybe I'll discuss with Aqua a method of adoption into our pack. I'm stubborn, you recall. It'll take more than a few months to impress me."

The smaller wolf wagged his tail and prepared to howl a new message to his Mate, "Whatever this test is, he'll pass it so well you'll want him immediately," he grinned and ignored Angeal's ambiguous hum to call for Squall again. He had a new message and a lot to tell him.

OMG did I see plot advancement? (*whispering* finally ...)

Story is also available on Ao3 for those who prefer it there.