Sakura took deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down. “I changed back.” She breathed. A final bloody tear escaped the corner of her eye. “Thank God, I changed back.”
“Come on, go clean yourself up and get dressed.”
Sakura looked up and saw Fai looming over with a bundle of the princess’ clothes in his arms that she’d worn before her transformation into the wolf. Syaoran stood at the side of him with some towels, but was silent. Sakura thought it was best not to talk about their, or rather her, situation just yet. Syaoran’s face was unreadable as he helped her up onto her feet and covered her up with the towels. Sakura was very unsteady on her feet. She felt like a baby taking its first steps; she felt as though this was her first time walking on two legs. Fai caught her as she almost tripped over herself then Syaoran helped her up the stairs to take her to the bathroom, while Kurogane and Fai stayed downstairs to try and clean up the mess that had been made, which wasn’t easy. Fur is tough to get out of the carpet, and blood is one hell of a stain to get rid off.

Sakura turned on the shower. The bathroom filled with steam. The water from the rusty showerhead hissed like a nest of rattlesnakes. She dunked her head under the scalding water, felt the heat soak through her hair and bite into her skin. With a soft whimper, she plunged the rest of her body into the shower cubicle, and stood in there under the steamy waterfall, trembling. She bit her lip, drawing blood. She tasted the iron tang of her own blood, relishing it at first, then gagged and screwed up her eyes tightly. The hairs on her arms were standing up with the shame of it. Slowly and soundlessly, she crouched under the acid burn of the showering water. Finally a choked gasp escaped her. The heat was excruciating, the water raining heavily from the showerhead was like a rain of fire. Purifying fire. She wanted to feel clean, she needed to feel clean. ‘Girly.’ That’s what her attacker called her before she killed him. That name was the last thing he said to her before she ate him alive. She couldn’t keep the scene of tonight’s events from replaying over and over in her head; his pasty lard-colored face filled with terror and agony, his greyish blue eyes wide and afraid, his clammy hands desperately trying to pry her claws off of his torso and push her teeth away from his throat. Sakura just wished she could dissolve under the searing shower and run down the drain with the water. She was so scared. Scared of the animal that she has become.

Syaoran was leant against the bathroom door outside. He was still silent with shock, but he didn’t want to leave her alone. He didn’t want her to feel abandoned. Besides; he made a solemn promise, didn’t he? That he’d stand by her, no matter what. Sakura’s muffled sobs from the bathroom sounded down the landing, Syaoran stood there listening to them for a while. “It wasn’t your fault, you know that? What’s been happening to you in this world, what happened tonight, none of it. You hear me?” Syaoran finally spoke. Sakura was taken back by Syaoran’s calm tone. “Those two men…are they-”
“Dead? Yeah.” Syaoran interrupted Sakura. Even under the heat of the shower, Sakura still managed to shiver. “I murdered them.” She sobbed. Every time Sakura used the word ‘murder’ it made Syaoran cringe. “You didn’t mean to kill them.” Syaoran told her, trying to justify her actions. “But I did!” She snapped suddenly. “That’s the thing; I did mean to kill them, that man who hurt Fai-san especially…and I did. In fact, I did more than that; I ate him. Then there was that man who escaped. Randy, they called him; I wanted to eat him too. I wanted to chase after him and kill him…it was horrible, Syaoran-kun. I couldn’t stop myself; it was like I was trapped in a dark room looking through a dusty window, but there was no way of opening it to get outside…I’m not a murderer, I’m worse than that now. Now I’m a monster.”

Syaoran was close to crying himself, hearing Sakura say those things about herself. “No you’re not.” Syaoran said firmly, and then sighed. “It wasn’t you who killed them, Princess. It was the wolf. The wolf killed those men; it was the wolf that wanted to eat that man, not you. I saw you fighting back there; you were hesitating each time you were attacked, meaning that you were attacking back only by reflex. You were just relying on your instincts. The wolf’s instincts.” Syaoran explained. “You’re not a monster, neither is the wolf. Everything you did earlier was solely out of pure natural instinct, and instincts aren’t evil.” Sakura still wasn’t convinced. Natural? How can turning into a wild animal and cannibalizing people ever possibly be natural? She buried her face in her hands. “You should’ve let them kill me-”
“NO!” Syaoran snapped, making Sakura jump. “It was those men who were the real murderers. Those men were the ones who were evil; they tried to kill us just to rob us, they were going to abduct you and one of them even tried to molest you! I know it’s wrong of me to say this…but I’m almost glad you killed them. Because now, thanks to you, the world’s well rid of those scumbags.”
Sakura didn’t reply. She unsteadily rose back up in the shower. The tears poured down her face. She splashed the stinging water against her cheeks and rubbed it into her eyes. It was no use. Even though all of the blood had completely washed off of her body and was now just a faint red stream swirling down the plughole, she still felt that she would never be clean.

Sakura turned off the shower and stepped out of the shower cubicle. She towelled her burning body dry, slipped on a bathrobe and knocked on the door, hinting at Syaoran that she was coming out. Syaoran quickly stepped aside from the door as Sakura opened it then he adverted his gaze from her half naked form. As Sakura walked out of the bathroom she felt for any cuts on her face, arms and legs, but she found nothing. Not so much as a scratch. “I thought…I’d be wounded from that fight with Kurogane-san.” Sakura stammered in surprise. “The lycanthrope’s metabolism is faster than a normal human’s. When you beast-shift into the wolf you’ll heal faster.” Came Syaoran’s clipped response. Sakura tilted her head at Syaoran slightly. “Beast-shift?”
“It’s the fancy term for a were-creature’s metamorphosis into its animal-form. When we first arrived in this world I visited the village’s library and read up on the biology of were-creatures, and the myths and legends of lycanthropy.” Syaoran clarified to her. Sakura shuddered. “So I’ll…‘beast-shift’ again?”
“Yes. Most likely near the next full moon, but don’t ask me when because I don’t know. Unfortunately I couldn’t find much about the triggers of the beast-shift.” Syaoran answered.

Sakura took another step towards her bedroom; then faltered. She really didn’t want to sleep in the room where that man had almost raped her, but she didn’t want to sleep in Syaoran’s room again either. Not after what she did to him that night. “You can sleep in my room tonight if you want.” Syaoran offered, making Sakura blush. “I’ll sleep in your room while you sleep in mine. Then we can leave for the next world in the morning.” Sakura was a little surprised. “We’re leaving tomorrow?” Syaoran nodded at her. “There are no more feathers in this world, and we know now that it was you who was at those farms, so once we leave we shouldn’t be causing anymore trouble for the village. We can ask Yuko if there’s a way to remove your affliction and get you back to normal in the next world.” Sakura nodded back at him in understanding. Syaoran could still see the sorrow on Sakura’s face, then without even thinking about it Syaoran gently took Sakura’s hand into his own. Startling Sakura and making her blush. “Listen; don’t ever think that way about yourself. Just believe in yourself, I definitely believe in you. The wolf isn’t a monster, because Sakura isn’t a monster.” Syaoran’s words touched Sakura deeply. Sakura quickly felt all of that fear from earlier events drain away. Only a little though. “Thank you, Syaoran-kun.”

Kurogane was on his hands and knees with a bucket of soapy water and a rag, scrubbing off all the bloody patches and wiping up all of the red puddles on the wooden floor, while Fai got a broom from the closet and brushed up all of the thick wolf-hairs that were on the carpeted areas of the room. “So, tell me; what do we do now, about this whole werewolf thing?” Kurogane grunted as he finished cleaning the floor and started picking up all the broken bits of the table that Sakura had smashed. “I’m not sure myself.” Fai sighed as he lifted the big heaps of fur into a bag. “I knew Sakura-chan was acting a bit odd during our stay in this world, but I would never have imagined this to happen. We don’t even know how she became a werewolf to begin with.” Kurogane looked at Fai, grumbling under his breath as he dropped the bloody rag into the bucket. “Well we can’t leave the princess as she is. She’s a real danger to herself as well as other people right now, I mean; after she changed back she could barely remember anything of what happened before. I’m just saying…what if she ends up killing someone again?” Fai froze when Kurogane said those last words. “But she won’t.” Kurogane looked at Fai. How could the wizard be so sure of that? “Don’t believe everything you read in horror novels, Kuro-woof. Do you know why she went crazy tonight? Instinct. We’re her friends; so her wolf-side sees us as her pack, and probably sees Syaoran-kun as her mate. She lost control because her pack and territory were being threatened; she wasn’t trying to eat us, she was trying to protect us.”
“If she was protecting us then why did she try to kill me?” Kurogane snorted. “Because you attacked her first, of course she was going to get mad and fight back. That time she was protecting herself. What else did you expect her to do, just roll over and play dead? She’s no more a savage bloodthirsty monster than you are, Big Puppy.” Fai chuckled. “Hey, I’m not the animal here, so stop calling me that!” Kurogane growled.

“Guys! Is everybody alright?!” A concerned childish voice sounded all of a sudden. Kurogane and Fai look over in the direction of the voice and saw Mokona flying in through the front-door, looking very worried. “Oh gosh, the place is a mess! Was there a fight? Where are Syaoran and Sakura? Is Sakura okay?!” Mokona squeaked in panic. “Moko-chan, calm down! Everyone is fine, Sakura and Syaoran are upstairs.” Fai assured the panicking creature. Mokona sighed in relief. “Thank goodness. Mokona went back to the village to get help but nobody would even come out of their houses, they were too scared of the full moon. Then Mokona tried looking for the hunters too but Mokona couldn’t find them anywhere. That’s when Mokona heard loud howling coming from here and got very worried.” Fai smiled at the little fur-ball and cuddled him playfully while Kurogane just groaned and rolled his eyes. “Nothing to worry about, that howling was just the princess.” Mokona looked at Kurogane confused. “Yes, it’s true. Sakura-chan is the werewolf, which means that Kuro-puu isn’t Big Puppy any more, now Sakura-chan is Big Puppy. A very Big Puppy.” Fai said trying to make a joke of it. Mokona was speechless, but now it made sense; that strange scary feeling he kept getting from Sakura was the aura of her wolf-side. Then a sudden big grin appeared on his face. “That also means that Sakura isn’t Little Kitty any more, now Kuro-rin is Little Kitty!” Mokona giggled, and then started running around the room when Kurogane started chasing him around with Fai’s broom. “STOP CALLING ME STUPID RIDICULOUS NAMES!!!” Kurogane’s booming voice was even louder than Sakura’s howl.

As Sakura was putting her damaged clothes back on, she could hear Kurogane’s yelling and Mokona’s laugh from downstairs. Causing both her and Syaoran to laugh a little themselves. Sakura made Syaoran look away while she was dressing, even though it was dark so he couldn’t see much, not to mention that he’d already seen her naked anyway. “I honestly can’t wait to speak with Yuko, I just want to be back to normal as soon as possi-” Sakura paused. Unconsciously she started sniffing the air again; mixed with the tang of fear, Sakura picked up a faint but familiar scent coming from downstairs. The scent of the one-armed man and the hunters that ambushed her. “Hey, what’s wrong?” Syaoran asked her, but she didn’t answer. Instead she left the bedroom and headed downstairs, Syaoran followed her cautiously. Knowing that something had caught her attention all of the sudden. Something bad.

There was a knock on the front-door. Fai went over and opened it. At the door were the hunters and their leader who helped them kill the werewolf that had the feather, along with a man missing an arm. “Ah, thank goodness. We heard howling and screaming coming from this residence and we came over as fast as we could to investigate. What happened? Is anyone hurt?” The leader asked in concern. Kurogane looked at him. The leader’s eyes were not those of an honest man, and from the way Fai was looking at them Kurogane guessed Fai had noticed that too. What were they up to? “Oh yes, everyone is fine. We…umm…were attacked.” Fair stammered. He didn’t know what else to say, how could he explain to them what happened to the two dead robbers without revealing Sakura’s current condition to these suspicious men? “By these men that you see on the floor, then a werewolf ambushed us and killed them, but Kuro-rin managed to chase her-…I-I mean it away, and-”
“Fai-san! Kurogane-san! Get away from them, now!”
Fai turned to face Sakura who was coming down the stairs hurriedly. Her eyes wide and afraid. He heard the leader laughing sinisterly, and turned to face him and the hunters again. His concerned look became a gloating sneer. “Oh yes, a werewolf did kill these men. OUR men. And it is standing right over there on the stairs wearing a pretty dress along with a woman’s skin.” He pointed a hairy finger at Sakura and she shivered as a chill crept down her spine. Syaoran was shocked. Those men were sent by the hunters? Even so; they didn’t know what Sakura was until it was too late, so how did they know about her being a werewolf?

“You see, Skeeter? I told you it was her all along! I knew there was something strange about her from the start!” The one armed man jeered. The leader chuckled and stroked the shotgun he had in his hand. “Yes, Tony. The boss knew too. That’s why he sent us here, however he didn’t know which one of them it was. He’ll be quite surprised to find out who it is.” Suddenly Skeeter raised his gun and pointed it at Sakura. Kurogane went to make a move but Skeeter shifted his gun quickly to aim at him instead. Kurogane froze. Skeeter sneered at him again, enjoying Kurogane’s look of angry frustration. “Oh relax, big guy. We don’t wanna kill her, coz’ then we won’t be able to sell her.”
“S-S-Sell me?” Sakura stuttered. “Sell her?!” Syaoran repeated. Neither of them knew how or why they would sell her, but Kurogane and Fai did. Kurogane was especially sickened by their intentions for he had seen such evil trades in his own country; girls being sold to disgusting old men, being humiliated and robbed of their beauty and innocence. It disgusted him so much. “Oi! What the hell do you think she is?! She’s a person, not some object that you can just take and sell!” Kurogane bellowed. Meanwhile…as they were shouting, Sakura began to feel those familiar savage urges building up in her again.

Then she felt it. Her bones were burning hot, her pores prickled with cold sweat. A pressure filled Sakura’s head. She started to shake as a deadly exhilarating feeling took control of her. Sakura felt like every bone in her body was cracking and splintering, as though an invisible vice was crushing her from the inside. The pain didn’t last though. It was quickly replaced with warm, reckless ecstasy. Every nerve in her body buzzed with a life of its own. She heard a strange half laughing, half roaring sound. Then she realised that she was making the noise herself. She laughed and growled uncontrollably as she watched her nails grow longer and sharper, and wiry fur worm its way out of her skin. The change was much easier than last time; she fell onto all fours and shook off the remnants of her human form and the clothes that covered it.
“Dear god! What the hell is this girl?!” One of the hunters breathed. Sakura snarled. Her saliva pooled out in a puddle in front of her. These men no longer made her afraid. They made her hungry.

“Sakura, no!” Syaoran cried. He could see the fury in her face and her muscles bulging. She was beast-shifting. Syaoran saw her nails curve into claws, her shirt split open and red hair coil out from her skin. Not knowing what else to do; Syaoran ran over to Sakura, fell onto his knees, and just held Sakura as tightly as he could. Her jaws lengthened, her snout trailed cold slime down his cheek. Her drool drenched his neck and shirt, mingling with his sweat. Syaoran couldn’t believe that he was crazy enough to do this. Sakura could bite through his throat in a flash without even meaning to, an instinctive snap in the throes of the beast-shift. He could die here, cradling her sleek wolf form. But none of that mattered to Syaoran; all he wanted to do was hold her. The change was complete now. Sakura shook softly, holding herself perfectly still in his arms. Syaoran felt her flank shiver beneath his fingers. He looked into her eyes, even with their now wolfish appearance they were still her eyes. Sakura’s eyes.

Suddenly Skeeter angrily shot at Syaoran, that’s when something inside Sakura’s head and heart panicked and took over both her and the wolf. Without thinking at all, Sakura shoved Syaoran out of the way and took the bullet for him. The bullet went right through her chest, but luckily missing her heart by just a tiny inch. Caught by surprise, Sakura recoiled and lost her footing. Syaoran gasped as Sakura fell backwards onto the bottom of the stairway. Kurogane attempted to rush over to beat the crap out of Skeeter, when suddenly he was smacked hard around the back of the head with the back of one of the hunters’ guns. Knocking him out instantly. Fai was the next one to make a move when Tony stabbed a syringe into his neck and pushed down the plunger. Fai stood shocked by the feeling of the needle deep in his flesh for a moment, and then his eyes started to droop. Then he fell to the floor unconscious. “Fai-san! Kurogane-san!” Syaoran shouted. “Keep quiet!” Tony snarled. “I’m not scared of you bastards! What did you inject Fai-san with?!”
“This.” Answered one of the hunters. A needle scraped Syaoran’s skin, and a flood of coldness penetrated his arm. As if someone had switched the light off, Syaoran sank into darkness. “Syaoran!! What have you done to Syaoran?!” Mokona shrieked as Syaoran collapsed. Then Mokona yelped, startled by the rough hand that grabbed and yanked him back by his ears and shoved him into a black scruffy bag.  
Sakura roared in a combination of anger and pain. Her sinewy flesh convulsed around the sharp red-hot object buried deep in her breast. It hurt, it burned. The bullet was burning her! Sakura kept trying to get back up but the searing agony of the scorching bullet was preventing every muscle in her body from moving. She was completely paralysed. What was it about the bullet that hurt so much?
“That silver bullet won’t hold her down for very long. Lets grab these freaks and get the hell outta here, before we get the villagers wanting our heads as well as a damn were-bitch!” Tony yelled at Skeeter. Sakura was in so much agony that she didn’t see the hypodermic needle being plunged down hard into her thick fur-covered neck. She barely even felt its cold contents seep into her powerful muscles, and then a numbing darkness smothered her senses.

As they hauled her and her friends out of the house and lifted them into the metal jaws of some rust-covered vehicle; her last thoughts before she surrendered to sleep, were of her most precious friend.

…S-S-Syaoran…k-kun…I’m s-sor-ry…