A/N: Thank you so much for the lovely messages and reviews! I'm trying to write these as quickly as I can when inspiration hits. This chapter's inspiring song is Shallows by Daughter, and is from Red's point of view. Everything in italics is Red as the Wolf; the rest is human Red. It's a little longer than the Huntsman's chapter as I want to set up exactly what happened after Child of the Moon and what the King's Moon is and does to werewolves. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned OUAT Henry would have picked up a sword and fought some monsters by now. This is not mine.

Snow White left Red's new cottage a week before the next full moon, heeding her friend's advice for once and using that time to get far away from from the area as she could. In Red's short time with Quinn and her mother they taught her everything they could, from foraging for the best shelters, to finding the yummiest deer and rabbits. They even lectured her on the moons, and how each one was different. The Worm Moon signified the end of winter, when worms and other creepy crawlies dug their way from the frozen earth to greet spring. The Thunder Moon was named for the storms that so heavily ravaged the Enchanted forest, and of course the Wolf's Moon, in the dead of winter, when silly hungry wolves howled outside of villages, desperate for food in the dead cold.

Each and every moon signified something important for the Children of the Moon; they needed no mathematics to signify their calendars, only the night sky. The King's Moon was the most significant, rare, and dangerous of all. Anita said it was when the moon's pull on the earth was stronger, and ran their blood hotter and wilder than ever. Children of the Moon were made more powerful in those 4 days, even in their human form able to hear, see, smell, feel, and taste better than ever. Their strength increased tenfold to an extraordinarily terrifying power, and she would be so fast not even the smartest Hunter could catch them.

It was the middle of summer when Red's first King's Moon arrived, and she began feeling it a week before. It made her needy and wanton, desperate for company, before the wrong kind of company arrived. An entire pack of wolves migrated into these woods she so dearly loved, threatening everything the villagers nearby held dear. The villagers screamed and ran terrified for days, until in the town square they had rallied a hunting party so large, Red was certain she and her friends had no chance. They lusted on killing wolves, it seemed, for the first time she visited as a woman she saw the pelts and the stuffed heads, and knew their was not the first war they would win.

The King's Moon arrived, and with it the most difficult transformation she had known. Usually she barely felt her bones breaking to form her wolf, but this moon left her tired, slow, and needy. She felt every bone snap, each claw grow and each tooth push aside to bare great fangs. The other wolves looked up to her, acknowledging her as their Alpha, and with this Red did her best to keep them safe. Howls filled the woods, creating an effect that made twenty wolves sound like fifty.

The battle was bloody, but Red pushed on, ignoring the pain in her shoulder to protect those who trusted her. A mother and her pups sheltered in the cave she created for their den, but Red turned to fight a group of cowardly men with nets and let herself get distracted. The mother was slaughtered and the pups stolen, to make coats for the monster men. They fought with silver arrows and silver-headed spears, her only real weakness during a King's Moon. There was nothing fair about this war.

She had killed five men by the time it was over. The great black wolf they took for a token was beheaded, and carried away as a trophy, while Red licked the wounds of her fallen friends, and howled to the moon as she watched them all die. She was not fit to be an Alpha, let alone a good wolf. There was blood gushing from her shoulder, and gore all over her maw and claws. She vaguely registered the blood in her ears by the way her steps sounded so muffled, more quiet than usual.

She padded back to the cave, her tail between her hind legs, limping all the while begging her human self to not cry. The pain in her heart was greater than the pain in her shoulder, like she had taken all their deaths herself. She wanted to ravage the village, to show them what a true wolf could do. All she could manage was one transformation, then a desperate need to sleep. Bones cracked, nails replaced claws, and fur shrunk to reveal pale skin once more.

Gingerly, Red shrugged on her dress, tugging it up her hips and letting it rest on her waist, because the shoulder wound was not healing. With a steady grasp and bared teeth, she pulled the silvery arrowhead and cried out as it slowly budged from her skin, before flinging it across the cave, hissing in her hatred for men. The hot sting of magical healing began again then, a relief she didn't know she was desperate for.

Tucking blood-matted hair across her shoulder, Red turned to inspect the smooth skin when the scent of man hit her nose again. She was certain they had forgotten about her, and panic rose in her chest when she spotted him. Tall, armed with silver arrows, and a familiar red scarf. She had never hated someone so much. Who was he to question what she was? He was a monster too. She pulled on the last of her dress, and with incredible speed, had him pinned to the wall of the cave.

"I am a woman. You are the monster," Red hissed, eyes flashing gold in her anger. "You and your people killed my friends. Twenty wolves and their pups, for the sake of a little land?" She shoved him tighter against the wall then, before he brandished a hunting knife and pushed her away. She braced herself from tripping over before baring her teeth in blind rage.

"I did not kill the wolves!" The man shouted, his knife ready to defend and his pulse racing loud in her ears, even from here. Not the kind of speed that a liar would beat at. He was just scared.

"Why do you have that then?" She pointed at the discarded bow and silver arrow. He swallowed and frowned a little, before making his admission.

"I am under the Queen's orders to subdue and kill the Child of the Moon harassing this village." He said quietly, eyes meeting hers. She thought before that they were just brown, emotionless like the other hunters. They were the deepest blue she had ever seen in a human. Nonetheless, she prepared herself to change back to the wolf again, before he spoke up. "But I can't. I won't."

Red frowned. She knew this man, she realised. Snow had spoken of him once. He belonged to the Evil Queen, but before, he was a Huntsman. He protected the wolves, lived with them, loved them. He abandoned them. She gave a huff, and turned back to her things. "You should leave, Huntsman." Her voice was low, barely disguising her obvious dislike for him, no matter how much he was cared for by the wolves. She pulled on her red cloak, tucking her hair into the hood, and turned to him. His expression had changed from wonder to sadness. Perhaps now he knew what the forest had become for wolves since his betrayal.

She strode to the mouth of the cave, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. The Huntsman's eyes were full of tears, tears that broke her façade long enough to make her regret treating him with such disdain. He did care for the wolves. Why wasn't he here with them then?

"What?"

"...Who are you?"

"I'm just a girl. Let me go."

He held her tighter then. If she wanted, she could have crushed his grip.

"I'm sorry this happened to you." He spoke sincerely, and for another brief moment she let her anger fall away. The mother wolf, whose pups had been taken, laid slain in the cave, and the sight of it churned her stomach to tears again.

"I am too, Huntsman. May you always run free beneath the moon's pale light."

Red ran then, as fast as the wolf in her heart, and when she was certain the Huntsman could not follow her, she ran faster for half a day until she finally came to her home. Beneath the warmth of her blankets by the roaring fireplace, she finally let herself grieve. For her fallen family. For the fallen wolves, and for the Huntsman who should have been there but was too late to save them all.