*.*.*.*.*.*

DAY TWO

The feel of something tickling her belly woke her up. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, Hermione looked down her body… to find Malfoy sniffing her knicker-free, curl-shrouded sex. His pink tongue peeked out and swiped over it once.

Hermione screamed and struck out at him, pressing her back to the cave wall. She tugged the cape over her, covering her nudity. "What do you think you're doing?" she screeched.

Malfoy leaned back on his haunches, tongue lolling out of his mouth with… was that laughter? He licked his lips, indicating he'd liked what he'd tasted, and she couldn't help it – her eyes dipped to his waist. His erection was prominent, and very much free of its sheathe. It was shaped like a human's, rather than a dog's, with a wide, wet crest.

Quickly, she turned her face away, feeling her cheeks burn. "Don't… don't touch me like that. Never again."

On hands and knees, Malfoy crawled over to her. He was so big, he crowded her. When he flashed his teeth and growled, she shook in terror. This was it. She'd angered him and now he was going to eat her alive. "Do it," she grit, angry at the world and tired of being frightened and alone. It would be better to die, anyway, rather than face a life of Lycanthropy. "Kill me." She faced him, met his large, grey gaze, and raised her chin, feeling brave for the first time in a long time. What more did she have to lose, really? She'd expected a painful death long ago. "I hope you choke on my bones, though."

Malfoy paused, gave that wuffing chuckle of amusement again, and then bumped his face against hers, licking her ear. He kept licking her, slobbering all over her throat, but it was playful in the way of young wolves. When it became clear that he had no intention of crushing her with those massive jaws of his, Hermione reached up and shoved his snout away.

"Enough. You're drooling all over me. I'm going to need another bath."

Just over his shoulder, she spied his long, bushy wolf's tail wagging back and forth. That surprised her, as she was sure Werewolves didn't have tails like that. It was supposed to be only a tuft of fur, she recalled from her former research on the subject. "You're… really so different," she pointed out, looking him over. "You don't look like a Werewolf should, and you certainly don't act it. You're not like Professor Lupin at all. What happened to you? How did you get this way? Was it something Voldemort did to you after he had Greyback bite you?"

At the mention of the alpha Werewolf's name, Draco growled again, showing teeth. Clearly, he had a beef with Fenrir Greyback.

"Theodore Nott said Greyback was the one who bit you," she told him. "Nott... he was the Head Gaoler in the prison. He liked to bite me, frequently. I swear I think he must have been part Vampire or something."

She rubbed the spot on her throat where Malfoy had infected her, which was the exact spot Nott used to gnaw upon. It was almost completely healed now.

Malfoy's angry growl had her quickly glancing up again. His long ears were flattened to the sides of his head and he'd bared his teeth again and clawed at the stone ground with his sharp nails, as if he were angered by what she'd said.

She found the behaviour bizarre, especially considering their history – but then so had been the licking and the caretaking. Frankly, Malfoy was behaving wholly… un-Malfoyish. She still wasn't sure whether to trust that the change was genuine, or if there was some other reason for his attentiveness and concern.

"The day Nott came to take me away from Azkaban to bring me here, he was completely different from how he'd been," she continued. "The things he'd said… well, it made me question whether everything he'd done had all been an act to throw off the others, like Professor Snape had done. Or perhaps he just felt really sorry for me. I don't know. He said he wanted to help me survive, though. He gave me this cloak, which has been charmed." She held up the woollen hem of her cloak, careful to keep from flashing any leg. "It stopped my descent when they shoved me off a broom over the forest, and it's kept me warm since then. He also gave me that bag." She pointed to the velvet bag still sitting on the lip of the pool across the room. "It's got special items in it to help me survive."

She opened her mouth to tell him about the arrangements Nott had made to help her get away, but then closed it again, thinking better of it. What if Malfoy decided not to help her get to Hagrid's old cottage at the edge of the wood? What if he'd decided to keep her here forever, to ease his loneliness?

"H-he was just… different. Like you." She pointedly stared at him, wary and attentive. "The question is: why are the two of you trying to help me?"

Malfoy's wolfish eyes simply blinked at her, as if he were waiting for her to figure it out on her own. When the reasons remained beyond her grasp, he let out a frustrated sniff, stood, and left the cave.

"Wait!" she called after him, but he didn't turn around.

He didn't come back for several hours, either, leaving Hermione time to take another dip in the spring, to scrub her body more thoroughly with the magical moss, and to contemplate what it was Malfoy wanted from her… and how to escape him in six days time.

*.*.*.*.*.*

Rationing her beef strips, Hermione figured she had enough for three more days, if she ate a single strip per meal. Her water situation, however, was dire. She'd have to ask Malfoy if he could go out and refill her canteen, as the water in the cave was too sulphurous to ingest.

He came back some hours later. She had no way of knowing exactly how long, as she had no timepiece or access to the sky to see the sun's progress. She guessed it was between four and five hours, though – and he didn't come back empty-handed. The stench of fresh blood and the soggy, squelchy odour of pond scum and wet dog fur preceded his arrival. The scent was so ghastly that Hermione had to clap a hand over her mouth and nose to ward it off or tempt another bout of stomach hurling.

Malfoy entered the alcove with something large and scaly slung over his shoulder. He tossed the carcass to the floor of the cave, just outside the ring of magical moss, and Hermione recognised it to be a Merwoman. The body smelled of algae and mud, and flopped, boneless, to its side. Knotted green hair covered most of its face, but from the angle, she could see a row of sharp, needle-like teeth jutting forward from a deformed, greyish-coloured set of lips, as if the female's jaw had been broken. The teeth were stained red from blood.

"Oh, my God," she gasped, hurrying over to the poor thing's side. "What happened to it?" She touched its throat and then its chest, searching for a pulse, hoping the thing's anatomy was similar enough to humans to find a heartbeat somewhere. There was nothing indicating the creature was still alive, however, as far as she could tell.

Brushing back the hair, she gazed down at the dead Merwoman's face, sadly closing the lids over its yellow eyes forever. "They sing so beautifully," she said, feeling pity well up in her chest. "I heard them once… at Dumbledore's funeral." Behind her, Malfoy was unnaturally still. She looked over her shoulder at him. "Did you do this?"

He hunched down to her height, seeming to consider her for a moment before nodding his head once.

"Why?" she asked around a small sob. The answer came to her the moment the word had left her mouth, and she cringed, moving away from him. "You cannot be serious! You mean to eat her?" She made a disgusted face, inching away even more.

Malfoy's hand shot out and grabbed her ankle, stopping her. She kicked at him, but he didn't let go. So, she kicked harder.

"You're sick! SICK!" she screamed, fighting him, trying to get away. "How could you? You murderous bastard!"

He let her go at that, and she scrambled as far away from him as she could get, huddling into the far corner of the cave under her cloak. He growled, looked angry – fierce and violent. Hermione stared right back, furious and terrified.

Malfoy closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he peeled back his lids, his eyes were glowing silver. A voice she recognised from her childhood – older, more mature now, but with the same inflections of tone – spoke to her in her mind.

"Stop being stubborn, Granger. You're going to change soon, and when you do, it could kill you. I've seen it happen. It's not a good way to die."

She gasped, utterly astonished by Malfoy's telepathic ability. Was this some special perk of the Lycanthropy?

"Yes, it is. You're pack now that you've been bitten. Wolves are telepathic. This is how we talk to each other." He indicated the dead Mermaid before him. "And this is the best I could do under the circumstances. The Acromantulas have decimated the forest now that the Centaurs are all dead. They were the only ones keeping the spider population contained. Now those eight-legged freaks are reproducing everywhere, eating everything in their path."

"And whose fault is that?" she dared to question.

"Voldemort. He killed the Centaurs off, so he could rape the forest of the things he needed before giving it to the spiders. He took everything of value – the unicorns, the bicorns, you name it. He left the rest of us to fend for ourselves. That Bugbear that attacked you did so for the same reason I killed fishgirl here: we're slowly starving to death."

"So… why don't you just… leave?" she hesitantly asked.

"Can't. There's a barrier around the forest. Nothing gets out once it's in. This Mermaid was stupid to cross under the barrier to hunt fish that she'd chased from the lake into the shallows where the water edges the forest. I didn't get the fish; they were too fast and swam back towards the lake. The Mermaid was a lucky kill, though. Her meat will sustain you through your change."

Hermione frowned – not at the part about eating a dead Merperson (because there was no way in hell she was doing that), or even the contention that she was going to change soon (eventually, she'd get back to that bit), but at the part about the forest having a barrier around it. "If no one can get out, then why did Nott say-" She stopped herself suddenly, remembering at the last moment that she hadn't told Malfoy about her escape plan.

He tilted his head, staring at her with that calm wolfish patience.

"What did he say to you?"

"I don't think I ought to tell you," she admitted. "I can't trust you not to interfere."

He snuffed.

"Why do you think I'm going to change soon, and how 'soon' is 'soon' anyway?" she asked, directing the conversation into another direction.

"The healing thing starts right away, as you've noticed. For the next two days, you'll notice small changes – all of your senses will sharpen. On the third day, the transformation hits you like an express train and you'll want to die from the pain. If you survive your first shifting, you'll come out of it a changed witch – cursed, but alive."

"What can I expect?" she asked in a small voice, worried. "Don't mince words, Draco. Just tell me exactly what will happen."

"You want it straight, Granger? Fine, here it is: you'll sweat with fever for half a day, and then everything inside starts to change. When it happens, your organs, teeth, and bones will break and be realigned into your Lycan form. Your skin will itch like a thousand sun ants are marching across it as the hair grows and recedes. Your brain will feel like it's going to explode with the migraine to beat all headaches. If you survive the change, you'll be like me – and hungry. Your first instinct will be to eat. Once you've filled your belly, you'll go into heat and we'll fuck until you're sated that way, too. The reversal happens a day later, and you'll turn back into a human. You'll sleep for a long time after that, but you'll still be in heat. That doesn't fade for a few days. During that time, we'll shag some more."

He crawled closer to her, and she could see he was erect once more.

"Long term, you'll still look human for most of the month, and you'll feel like yourself, but you'll be stronger, faster, and your senses and magical aura will align to your new predatory needs. You'll crave raw meat and blood on a regular basis, and the thrill of the hunt will always hold you captive. You'll shift with the full moon. You'll retain your mind, but you'll become more feral. And you'll be mated to me, your Alpha, for life."

Hermione's jaw dropped at that last bit. "Mated to you? No. No way! You have got to be kidding!"

Malfoy's canine features shifted, and if he'd been human, he'd be giving her a 'do I look like I'm shitting you?' look.

Hyperventilating seemed to be the only logical response to what she'd just been told. It morphed very quickly into a full-blown panic attack, though, starting with a rolling sweat and numb hands. She gasped for breath as her heart raced out of control. Her chest ached, and her lungs sawed in and out desperately seeking oxygen. She turned on her side, retched, but nothing came up. With tears stinging her eyes, she cursed him, repeating over and over again how much she hated him and wished she would just die – how they all would just die, and the world would burn. Her tirade ended with her collapsing into a ball and crying her heart out.

Malfoy did not approach her until she felt silent, and then, it was to pick up her limp form and to remove her cloak from her. Naked in his arms, he carried her into the hot spring with him, and held her as he sank down into the water.

"I want you to live. I need you to."

"Why?" she whispered, smelling the stink of fish all over him and hating it. Some bizarre internal instinct told her to wash it from him, and then to replace it with her own smell. She fought it off, recognising it as part of the changes he'd told her about and not wanting to give in so easily.

He wearily sighed. "Because I think you're the only one who can save me."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's Notes:

Please review!