Eugenia watched her daughter over her steepled fingers, leaned forward on her desk and turned just her eyes to look at Lee, who flinched at the blank but quietly infuriated stare. Irene tapped her fingers on the desk. "Mother, you know there is someone in the Covens that is attacking us. I have proof of that now."

"Based on the memories of a feral werewolf who can't remember how old she is or even when she was attacked. For all we know, the memories have been planted." Eugenia leaned back in her chair.

"You know how difficult that is! We both know!" Irene sighed in frustration and ran a hand through her hair. "It would take so, so much time and effort to mangle someone's memories like this. She's forgotten who she is, where she's from- just that she was in Louisiana when everything went wrong."

"There has never been an attack in our Louisana towns." Eugenia looked at Irene levelly. "I think you're a little too close to this situation, sweetheart."

"You-!" Irene stood up, ready to walk out. "Every time I try to help the Covens, you push back! I'm not a child anymore. Just because she broke my door down doesn't mean she's the enemy!"

"Ma'am, may I speak?" Lee asked, sitting up straight. Eugenia glanced at her and nodded reluctantly. "I know you don't trust me. I know most of the town doesn't. It's not hard to miss. But Irene isn't the one you should be afraid of. I'm not too familiar with the way your Covens work, but the fact that someone among you is powerful enough to damage my head like this should terrify you."

"It does, Lenora." Eugenia rested her hands in her lap. "But unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to name who it might be. We've done our best to stamp out those who would abuse our specific kind of talent, but most just started to hide. It has been... difficult to track them down."

Irene put a hand on her mother's desk. "I can help. Lee can help, Mother."

"But you must not, and you will not. Go home, Irene. Anabel will be around to escort Lee to the new safe house." Eugenia stood up as well. Lee looked terrified and stood, leaving the little office.

"You have no idea how hard I have worked to fix this, Mum," Irene whispered, shaking her head and following Lee out. Eugenia watched her leave before sighing, taking her glasses off and folding the arms down gently.

"My sweet Irene, you always get too close to the people you try to save."

                                                           -----

"Lee!" Irene walked down the sidewalk, turning around and walking backward as she looked for the werewolf. "Lee, come back! Where are you?" she called out, worrying more and more that Lee had really run off. Tomorrow was the start of the full moon, and she was terrified that Lee might disappear during those few days.

Irene passed an old, closed-down fruitseller's store, then paused and backed up, realizing the door was open. "Lee?" She pushed the door open, peering around in the dark. She heard sniffing in the dim room and stepped inside, minding her feet as she walked over random detritus and broken shelving. The store had been closed for years now, mostly because of a poltergeist that continued to tear the place apart.

Lee was sitting behind the counter, her head buried in her knees as she sobbed. Irene hesitated before sitting next to her, wrapping her arms around her and hugging her tight. "Shh, it's okay, you're not leaving my house, you don't have to-"

"What is wrong with this town, Irene? Why do they hate werewolves? Why?" Lee leaned into Irene, her face still in her arms.

The witch listened to her sob for a few more minutes before speaking, reluctantly, "About fifty years before I was born, Wodenton was attacked by a werewolf pack. They destroyed nearly everything - buildings, families, the Covens. They attacked for land, they attacked for... I don't know. Up until I met you, I'd never met a werewolf. They stayed out of our lands." She stroked Lee's hair, moving her hand and rubbing her shoulder instead. "The fact you and the others came in feral doesn't help matters."

"Then I'll just leave. I can't- I won't be caged again. I can't." Lee pulled out of her arms and stood up, putting her hands on the counter. Irene got up, resting a hand on one of hers. Lee visibly flinched but didn't pull away.

"You're not leaving without me. We'll leave tonight." Irene smiled at Lee when the werewolf looked down at her in surprise. "You really think I obey my mother at all times? Magistrate or not, she's been overprotective of me since I was a child. I don't care that she's the witch equivalent of a governor or senator or whatever for humans, her need for control is ruining this investigation. I'm not giving up on you." She cupped Lee's face in a hand, leaning up and resting her head against hers; Lee met her halfway so she wouldn't have to stand on her toes. "Let's hurry up and go. We'll pack up a couple of backpacks with clothes and food."

"You're willing to just- You're going to disobey the Magistrate of your Coven, your mother, to help me?" Lee looked disbelieving. "I know you like me, Irene, but you can't give up everything you have."

"Yes, I can. I've done it before. Sometimes I just have to remind her that I'm not one of her subordinates." Irene chuckled and let go of Lee, walking out from behind the counter. "She always said I get my rebellious streak from my father. I'm not surprised." She offered her hand to the werewolf with a smile. "Shall we run and drive my mother into a migraine?"

Lee just looked at the outstretched hand for a moment, her face unreadable, before she chuckled and smiled as she grabbed her hand. "Let's."

                                                        -----

Joel Lucas leaned over the pot on his stove, raising an eyebrow at the phone he'd propped up on the counter next to him. "You're going to do what, Irene?"

Irene sighed and explained, again, to her distracted father what had happened in town. It was difficult to do sometimes - the man lived so far away, he barely associated with Wodenton.

"... so Mum's just being her stuffy self again and I won't tolerate it." Irene looked over her shoulder at Lee, who was finishing folding the last of the blankets in the guest room and set it into the neat, tidy set of squares. "I just need to find out from you which key unlocks the other safe house so Mum doesn't track us down and knock my head off my shoulders."

"Oh, my dear, you know I can't give you the key. You've had it for years." He tapped the wooden spoon on the stove and picked up the phone, smiling at her. They looked so alike they could be brother and sister rather than father and daughter. "Do you not remember?"

"... no?" Irene blinked.

"The key ring your mother gave you when you took over the tea shop. The key with a blue stripe." He glanced at the pot again - goodness, he wished he still had a great big cauldron to work in but after his last one exploded, he'd decided to downsize. "I need to finish this batch of firebrand tincture and I'll call you back later, okay?"

Irene sighed dramatically, pulling her keys out of a pocket and examining the keys. "Okay, Dad. I love you."

"I love you too, sweetheart. Be careful."

Irene closed the call out and looked back at Lee, who was sitting on the pile of folded blankets with a backpack between her feet. Irene's bag was already by the door. "Ready? I kind of remember how camping works." Lee smiled nervously. "We sure we've got this figured out?"

"It's now or never. Anabel's supposed to show up in an hour." Irene took Lee's hands in hers and pulled her to her feet, smiling up at her. "Besides, better that we're out in the woods when full moon hits you than in here, you wouldn't fit through the door frame."

"You calling me fat?" Lee laughed and ruffled Irene's hair as they walked out. Irene grabbed her pack and locked the door to her apartment behind her, and the two quickly ran out into the treeline behind the tea shop once they hit the ground. Around both their necks were long necklaces with charms danging on the ends, obfuscation charms to hide their true locations as they fled the little town of Wodenton.

                                                         -----

The trek through the woods didn't take long. By sunrise, the small cabin in the forest revealed itself as they broke through the brush into a clearing. "Huh, so much for my Girl Scouts experience," Lee joked, shifting her backpack on her shoulder.

"The gesture was sweet." Irene chuckled and stepped up to the cabin door, pulling the key ring out and turning through the keys. As she did, one she had never seen before - with a thick blue stripe around its middle - manifested in between her house key and her shop key, making her blink and squint. "... Dad, you clever shit," she laughed. Of course he'd coat it in a reactive material that wouldn't render it visible unless she passed a ward or shield, she realized as she glanced over her shoulder, seeing the telltale shimmer of magic in the air around the cabin. She stuck the key in the keyhole and turned, feeling the tumblers rattle in their dusty holes, before turning the doorknob and pushing it inward.

As her feet crossed the threshold, a dusting spell swept across the house, cleaning up the dirt and dust that had accumulated since the last time someone had stepped inside. And boy, it was a lot of dust; she could clearly see how thick the layers were as they were swept away.

Lee squeezed past her into the house, blinking at how clean it was before realizing it had been tidied up with magic. "Oh wow, that's cool. Why don't witches have a cleaning service for people?" she asked, dropping her bag on the ancient sofa.

"Wodenton's unique in the way its citizens don't mind magic, Lee. The rest of the world is a little... less accepting." Irene flopped onto the couch after shutting and locking the door.

"Well then, I think I found where I'd rather stay." Lee found the bathroom and looked over at Irene. "I'm going to take a shower then relax for the next sixteen hours. I'm not looking forward to this tonight." The apprehension in her face made Irene sit up and shake her head.

"Do you want me to go with you while you hunt?"

"No, I can hunt alone, it's... It feels weird, knowing I won't- that I don't have a pack now. There'll be something missing." Lee rubbed her hand against the door frame restlessly before letting go of it. "Just... stay up for me til I get home? I'll be a giant pillow for you." She smiled at her girlfriend. It was such a strange thought... but the word made butterflies dance giddily in her chest.

Irene smiled back at her. "I like the sound of that, Lee." She yawned a bit and settled back down. 

"I'll come out after my shower and cuddle you on the couch, sleepyhead." Lee couldn't hide a giggle as she stepped into the bathroom, leaving the door cracked so the steam could escape.

The day crept along, which only made Lee more anxious as she paced by the windows and the front door. There wasn't much Irene could do to calm her down. What if her magic stopped working? What if the full moon did something to her head that let the old master take control back?

Come sundown, Lee realized her worries had been for nothing. She stepped outside, her clothes in a neatly folded stack by the door, and knelt on the porch to watch the sunset. Irene joined her, sitting next to her but giving her the space she'd need.

As the sun slipped below the line of trees, the moon's silver edge began to shimmy higher above the horizon. Lee felt a low grumble escape her at the sight, something in her body demanding her to change, to grow, to...

Irene had never gotten to watch a werewolf change before, and it was a moderately horrifying sight. If her mother wasn't lying, most werewolves could voluntarily change out of full moon from one shape to another - only the three or four days of a full moon counted as the truly dangerous days where the bite was contagious. She watched as Lee stretched her arms out in front of her, fur growing from her skin and her hands warping as the knuckles widened and nails changed to thick, sharp claws. Her teeth gnashed and clicked as they changed from the normal human set to killer-sharp canine teeth, the fur growing up across her body as her bones shifted and grew or shrank to accommodate the new shape of her body. Her feet followed suit, copying her hands and changing them to long paws tipped with the sharpest claws Irene had never seen.

When the transformation finished, Lee opened her eyes and turned to look at Irene, who looked somewhat in awe... and horrified. The werewolf nuzzled against her briefly,  letting out a short huff of air, before tilting her head back in a deep, prolonged howl. Silence was the only thing that greeted her and another howl escaped her, this one far sadder. Irene lifted a hand, stroking the thick fur on the side of Lee's thick neck and rubbing one of her pointed ears. "It'll be okay, Lee. We'll save them. All of them. Go on your hunt, I'll be here. I'll tell you more about what happened during the attacks tomorrow."

Lee watched her girlfriend for a few minutes before nodding in her own lycan way, bounding off into the dark. Irene stayed on the porch for a time, listening to the bugs chirp and the birds sing out until they fell asleep, and stood up, heading back into the cabin.

The sun was nearly up when Lee came back, dragging a deer in her sharp teeth and dropping it in the cool shade by the porch before going into the house. Inside, she found Irene curled up on the floor, having slipped off the couch when she'd fallen asleep. Lee would've laughed if she could've; instead, she nudged the coffee table away and curled up around the witch, nuzzling against her and closing her eyes to sleep too.