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The night the wolves started howling in the woods, Red's parents looked at each other, drew the curtains and barred the door. Mother wrapped a blanket around Red's shoulders.
"Keep warm," she said. "And don't listen."
Mother's anxious looks followed her all evening as they sat by the fire, mending and darning. Father smoked his pipe and sat apart from them, shoulders hunched.
In the dark of the night, everyone asleep, Red pulled open the curtains, lifted her face to the strip of sky in her window, and a small whine formed at the back of her throat, a tiny unborn sound.
When the day dawned and the woods fell silent, Mother heaved a sigh of relief.
~*~
Grandmother lived all alone in her house in the woods. Red had never understood.
"Why can't Grandmother come live with us?" she'd asked. Mother had merely smiled, her lips tight.
When she'd been little, Red had often walked the path through the woods with a basket, Mother's gifts for Grandmother, and she remembered skipping along, dawdling and playing in the meadow, picking wild berries along the way. She'd seen birds and hares, deer on occasion, even a wild boar once. Never a wolf.
But Red had grown older, and Mother had grown anxious, and now the woods were forbidden, no matter how bright the sun in the sky.
Now, she saw Grandmother on the Dark of the Moon, when she came down to the village for Prayer Day, and otherwise not at all.
~*~
Strangers were rare in the village, and everyone gathered in the tavern for their tales. This one was travelling alone, and Red stared at her from under demurely lowered lashes. Her dress was white and grey, her cloak was all fur, and her black hair was unruly where it spilled from her hood.
Mother flinched when she caught sight of the wolfskin cloak, and her hand closed around Red's wrist, pulling her away.
From the curtained door she turned, catching a last glimpse, just when the woman turned to the side, looking straight into Red's eyes. The woman's eyes were black and deep, and Red could have fallen into them, but Mother's grip was firm, and then the curtain closed behind them.
Her dreams that night were filled with the stranger's eyes, her wolfskin cloak wrapped around both of them. When she woke, something was caught in the back of her throat, trying to escape.
~*~
In the morning, Red went to fetch water from the well. It was early, the sun sluggishly peeking out behind greyish clouds, and a chill had fallen over the village.
The traveller was leaning against the well, smiling when she saw Red approach. "There you are," she said, eyes taking her in.
Red's mouth fell open, and she closed it quickly. The woman laughed.
"You like my cloak, don't you?" A wide, red-lipped smirk. "Do you want to touch it?"
And she reached out to grip Red's hand, pulling her in. Red hesitated. She shouldn't. But then her fingers were against the fur, and she gasped as something hot-cold and strange shivered over her.
"I knew it," said the stranger. "You are going to be something delicious." Another wide grin; then she turned away, waving a jaunty hand as she went. "I'll be seeing you," she called back, and it was a promise and a threat, and Red could only stand there by the well, shocked and breathing unevenly, and unsure what had just happened.
~*~
When Grandmother came the next day, attending Prayers, her eyes were hard and piercing. "It's your time," she said, and Red didn't understand.
Mother's face was tight, and she looked at Grandmother, thin-lipped, arms crossed before her chest.
"Be like that, daughter." Grandmother gathered her cloak around her, heavy fabric flowing. "Do be careful," she said to Red, and left, not even staying for dinner.
Red wanted to snap at them both. She was no child, not any more; she had a right to know what they were talking about.
~*~
The wolves had howled again that night, and the village was growing concerned. Mother and Father left in the morning, gathering with many of the older adults at the headman's house. Red had asked to go, but Mother had refused.
Left alone, no one keeping so tight a watch any more, Red packed a basket, just like she'd used to when she was a child.
~*~
The path seemed narrower, the woods darker than they'd used to along the edge of her path. The time for berries was over. When something rustled in the undergrowth, Red flinched. The basket felt heavy on her arm.
At the edge of the treeline, something large and black moved swiftly along. Red gasped, her hand clenching around the grip of her basket. A wolf.
It stopped then and turned to her, its eyes devouring, and Red shivered. Then it lifted its head and let out a long, drawn-out howl. It was echoed from around the woods, here and there and everywhere. Red swallowed harshly and hurried along the path.
On a darker stretch - she'd liked the looming rocks as a child, had climbed them on occasion, just for fun - a shadow jumped out at her. Red nearly dropped her basket, but it was only the traveller.
"I thought you'd be far from here by now," Red said. The woman had left, the day she'd met her at the well.
"Why would I be anywhere else?" the woman asked. "You are here."
Her voice shivered over Red's skin, and the wolfskin cloak drew her eyes like a magnet. She wanted to touch it again.
She clenched her hands against the urge and smiled, and the traveller walked with her, all the way to Grandmother's house, talking merrily along.
~*~
"Go away, Lou." Grandmother's eyes narrowed at the traveller, and she made a harsh shooing motion with her hand.
The traveller - Lou - only laughed, and turned away. "I can wait," she said.
Red offered the basket, and Grandmother took it, setting it down inside. "Sit," she said. "Your mother will not like that you've come."
"What is she hiding? What are you hiding?" Red knew there was something. "Is there something wrong with me?"
Grandmother considered her. "I suppose you're old enough," she said, and went to the back of her cottage, pulling something from a chest. She held it out to Red.
Red reached out and gasped. It was a wolfskin cloak, much like Lou's, grey rather than black and a little smaller. Its touch wasn't the same, not like a jolt through her body and a caress on her skin, but it felt alive, warm and breathing.
"You could have one of your own," Grandmother said brusquely. "But it takes a wolf to make a wolf, and not one of your own family."
Red forced herself to look up. "I don't understand."
Grandmother pulled the cloak around herself, and when she closed it in front, she suddenly crouched down. A moment later, a large grey wolf sat in her place, laughing at her, fangs bared and tongue lolling like a dog's.
Red stared, and stared. "Such big teeth," she whispered.
Grandmother's glare was the same, even coming from a wolf's eyes. Her body drew up, and her fur fell open, and a moment later she was again an old woman in a cloak.
"I could do that?"
"You could."
"Does that mean ..." Red hesitated. "Mother ..."
"Your mother refused the wolf. It was her choice," Grandmother said brusquely, grudgingly. "She shouldn't be forcing it on you."
Her mother had kept this from her. Grandmother had kept this from her. Red wanted it, with an intensity she didn't understand. "How do I ..."
"It's not so easy. You'd need another wolf."
"Lou?"
Grandmother scowled. "She's no good," she huffed. "Don't let her push you. She likes you now, but she doesn't even know you, and she won't be here for long. Be careful, Little Red. And remember - you can run with the wolves, but you don't have to."
~*~
Red stumbled from Grandmother's house, her thoughts reeling. What else had Mother and Grandmother not told her?
A howl came from along the path, and she saw the black wolf sit in the distance, watching and waiting.
"Lou?" Red called out hesitantly, taking a few steps along.
A moment later the wolf rose up, and the stranger-woman, the passer-through, the traveller folded herself out of the wolf's fur and skin. "Follow me, Little Red."
A last look back to Grandmother's house. But Grandmother had kept this from her, all her life. She needed to know more. She wanted more.
Grandmother had said Lou was no good, but Grandmother had lied to her. Why should she believe her now?
She followed Lou, first along the path, then off it, across tall grass and bushes and into the woods.
Soon it was the black she-wolf she was following again. It led her deep, occasionally circling back, circling her, blacker in the black of the shadowed woods, illuminated less and less through the branches. Red followed, slow and cumbersome on two legs while the wolf moved easily on four. The wolf's movements drew Red's eyes, and she stumbled over a root, catching herself on a tree trunk, trying to keep pace.
Then they stopped. The wolf circled her, round and around, It started howling. Elsewhere in the woods, others followed.
Red felt a whine form at the back of her throat, and she let it out. The she-wolf came forward, tongue lolling as if she were laughing. Then she jumped up, her front paws on Red's shoulder, pushing her into a tree, her wolf's breath hot and heavy on Red's throat. Red's heart beat a terrible staccato, but she could only hold still, back against the trunk of an old oak, pinned by sharp-clawed paws. Her skin was clammy with sweat, but her fear was half exhilaration, and everything felt inescapable.
If the wolf ripped her throat out now, her last thought would be: Yes.
The she-wolf didn't. The weight of her paws on Red's shoulders abruptly vanished as her body shifted, and it was the woman against her, not the wolf, her weight now firmly on her feet. But her hands were still on Red, and her face was very close, her mouth no less wide; her teeth no longer fangs but no less sharp.
"You've come to the wolves, Little Red," she breathed. "Are you ready, then?"
Red didn't have to answer. Lou's lips were on hers in a moment, hot and urgent, and her hand cupped Red's breast possessively. "Come into my fur," she whispered, mouth wet against Red's throat, pulling Red closer against her body.
Her bare skin. Her coat gaped open, and she was naked underneath.
Red froze, and Lou laughed at her, pulling back a little, fingers brushing over the lacing on her gown. Then she stepped back, letting her cloak drop to the ground, covered only by the spill of her hair.
She was beautiful, all of her - smooth brown skin, dark nipples, ample hips and the swell of her belly.
Fingers trembling, Red worked at her lacing. Lou swayed closer, pressing her body against Red, irresistible. Red had to touch.
Fingers gliding over skin, combing through hair - Lou laughed and let her, then swiftly, efficiently, worked open Red's gown and tore it off. Then everything else, stockings and all, until Red stood before Lou as naked as she, shivering a little in the chill of the woods.
Lou laid her down on her wolfskin cloak, brittle leaves rustling underneath. Lou's hands shivered over her, leaving fire behind. Then her palms were on Red's shoulders, pinning her to the ground as a wolf might. Lou's mouth came down on hers again, and Lou's knee pressed between her legs, and oh, oh -
Red shifted her hips against it, helplessly, feverishly, and Lou laughed again, white teeth glinting.
Lou's hands trailed over her breasts, and her mouth followed, hot breath against her nipples, then a warm mouth, suckling just for an instant, then gone again. Red drew in a sharp, surprised, greedy breath and whined at the back of her throat.
A hand sliding over her belly, fingernails brushing through the hair on her mound, fingers slipping between - Red arched, a yipping gasp torn from her throat.
Lou's laugh had so many teeth. "I'll make you howl yet," she promised, and Red shivered under the promise of it. Her thighs fell open, and Lou's fingers parted her, cold air against wetness, fingers sliding along, then back to the nub at the top.
Then Lou lifted her hand to Red's face, coated in clear stickiness. Red flushed hotter. Lou drew her wet finger over Red's lower lip, painting her in her own juices.
There were tears leaking from the corner of Red's eyes. She needed ...
"More," she demanded. "Don't stop, I need -"
Lou smirked. "Yes, little wolf, more."
Soon the whining at the back of her throat grew deeper. One day it might grow up into a howl. Red's fingers sank into Lou's shoulders, hard and desperate. Purely on instinct she pushed, rolling them over until Lou was the one with her back on the ground. Lou's eyes glinted.
Yes. Baring her teeth, Red slid her hand down, fingers burying themselves between Lou's thighs, sliding into wetness.
Lou moaned and arched towards her. Yes.
Against, then in, in - slow at first, then fast, and again, hard and demanding, though she wasn't sure what -
Lou's head was thrown back, and her hips rose against Red's movements, fingers clawing into the cloak covering the ground beneath her. "Yes," she moaned, "yes, yes, yes -"
Red crouched between Lou's legs, watching herself thrust deep into the slick rosiness bared between Lou's thighs. The smell of her filled her nostrils. She leaned forward, sniffing, then darted out her tongue. Lou shrieked her release even as her taste exploded in Red's mouth, sending spasms through her insides, pulsing spikes of pleasure and release.
Red collapsed onto Lou's body, darkness welling up behind her eyes, drawing her into unconsciousness. The last thing she saw was her own hand, turning into a paw, reddish-brown fur on Lou's skin.
~*~
Red woke up cold on leaves and bare dirt, the night dark above the trees. Her hesitant whine drew no echo from the woods. Lou was gone. She was alone.
A cloak of red-brown wolfskin lay next to her.
Her clothes were scattered under the trees; she found them on touch and instinct more than sight. Drawing the wolfskin around herself but not quite closing it, Red stumbled through the woods, not knowing how she knew but following the itch in her nose until she found a brook at the edge of a clearing. She cleaned herself as well as she could, pulled leaves and dirt from her hair and put her clothes on haphazardly after. The wolfskin came last, but again, she left it open.
Red looked across the clearing. Even in the moonless dark, she knew where she was. The path from the village to Grandmother's house was just beyond.
The village lay ahead. The woods behind her. And Grandmother's house, not far to the other side.
Taking a deep breath, Red's fingers clenched into her fur, and she took a step.