Grace

Chapter 2 - Of Pups and Wolves

"Your daughter never stood a chance."

Grace stretched and yawned, blinking sleepily as she woke up. It took her a moment to recognize her surroundings, the smells in the dark cave very different from those she was accustomed to. She sat up more as she heard someone shift, sniffing the air to catch a whiff of the person moving.

"Go back to sleep, pup." The rough voice of Fenrir came out of the darkness, moving as he moved around.

"Where are you going?" she asked curiously, getting to her feet to follow him, ignoring his command.

"None of your business, pup." Fenrir paused, waiting for her to catch up to him. Grace felt his hand fist in the front of her nightgown. "And I told you to go back to sleep. Don't follow me."

Grace scowled, glaring up at where she thought his face would be. "I'm not going to stay here all the time, even when the moon isn't full. And you can't tell me to stay if I don't want to stay." "You listen to a bigger monster, pup, and you stay here until I come back." Fenrir shook her roughly, rattling her teeth in her head. "Safer for a pup like you with the pack."

~ ~~ ~

Fenrir could smell the defiance on the child, her small jaw clenched as she tried to wriggle out of his grasp. He liked it, and wished he had the time to indulge in the ideas that floated up at the edge of his mind. Perhaps later, once he'd dealt with the idiot who'd thought he'd set a werewolf on another, particularly the one who dangled from his fist.

He gave her another brief shake as he sensed her preparing for a lunge, probably to bite his hand. "I'll be back soon enough, pup." He crouched down, letting her feet touch the floor, bringing her close to his face, drawing a breath through his nose to fix her scent in his mind. Sweet, young, and just starting to ripen towards maturity. "Go back to sleep, and dream about what you'll do when the moon comes up, and lets the monster inside of you free to run."

Grace went still a moment, and then he felt a small hand touch his wrist, delicate fingers curling around him tightly. The gown still clenched in his hand shifted, tugging downward as he heard her feet shuffle on the ground. Her weight leaned against Fenrir for a brief moment before he let her down, her knees thudding on the stone. She didn't whimper, and Fenrir twisted his lips up in a mockery of a smile.

"I'll wait here, then, until you come back." Her voice had that same haughty tone as it had the night before in the garden. Assured of her right to command, to control, no matter that she'd never had the chance to take that position. As if she did as he told her because she was granting him a favor.

Fenrir snarled silently, releasing Grace's gown to settled his hand at the base of her throat. "Watch your tone, pup."

Fear sharpened her scent, and he waited a moment for it to build before standing, and leaving her to think about what he might do when he came back. If anything at all.

~ ~~ ~

Outside the cave system that served the pack as a den, Fenrir glanced up at the sun, judging the time from where it rested in the sky. He nodded to himself, preparing to Apparate, appearing in a dingy alley that ran along the back of several buildings. He followed the scent trail from his last visit to these streets to a blank stretch of wall, rapping on the section where the tingle of magic alerted him to the current position of the door to the Avery town house.

A long moment later, he heard the faint creak of wood, stepping forward through the opening door into the dark entryway. The house-elf looked up at him fearfully, shuffling its feet against the stone floor as it closed the door behind him.

"Master Avery is in the study, sir. He says he does not want to be disturbed, sir."

"Then Avery will have to be disappointed." Fenrir curled the corners of his mouth up in an amused smirk, ignoring the squeaking protest of the house-elf as he sauntered down the hall. The door to the study stood cracked, as if the owner hoped that hearing the happenings outside the room would give him the edge over anyone trying to disturb him.

Fenrir pushed open the door, staying to the side of the entrance, chuckling as a curse came flying out to impact the far wall. "You know I'm not stupid enough to step in the path of whatever you care to throw at me, Avery. I'm not letting you wriggle out of paying me."

"Is it dead?"

"Your daughter never stood a chance." Fenrir leered to himself. She'll make the perfect little bitch. You won't recognize her when you see her again, if you are that lucky.

"What did you do with the body?"

"Took it home. You never said I had to leave it there."

An irritated sigh came from the study. "You could have at least left something for them to find. The mother thinks it just ran off. Not what I wanted."

"Should have said that when you hired me to kill the girl," Fenrir snarled, his temper fraying. "She's dead now, so pay up."

"Bring proof it's dead, and I'll pay you the rest of the fee."

"Proof?" Fenrir nearly laughed. All this for a child Avery said he didn't care about. Two hundred galleons, and something to show that he'd done what he'd been paid to do.

"If you haven't devoured all of the body, a hand or a foot. Or whatever it was wearing when you killed it, if there's nothing left of the body."

"Fine. I will bring you your proof." Fenrir's lips curled up in a smirk as he sauntered away, towards the front door. "And don't even think about trying to hex me when I come back, Avery," he called out over his shoulder. "Or I'll rip your son's heart out before I kill you."