A/N: Look, I wrote another chapter… yay me. I am really enjoying this little fic which knowing me will not end up that little at all. I'm not good at shorts. We'll see. All my love to those who have chosen to have a read of it so far. I know many are not fans of OC fics but Anyxxia is becoming one of my favourite characters to write and for those who like the canon characters, I have included more Hermione, a mention of a certain blond we all know and love, and of course, Fenrir Greyback is imminently due to make an appearance.

Much love…

Chapter 1

Six months later…

After that initial meeting with Hermione, Anyxxia and the other witch had stayed in contact and she had made very good on her wish to claim the curly haired witch as a friend. Adrian's funeral had been arranged by Hermione's department and Hermione herself had created and perfected a spell for the whole pack to release their inner wolves and howl in grief and respect for a moment, even as the moon was new.

Now, they met every few days for lunch at The Leaky Cauldron as their friendship blossomed and they discussed all manner of intellectual and social pursuits. Other than the friendships Hermione had made in school with her fellow house-mates, she preferred the company of Ravenclaws as the conversations tended to be highly academic. But sometimes, even the brightest of minds, needs gossip…

"Enough about your latest case, Hermione. Tell me about the guy you're seeing?"

"How could you tell?" Hermione asked, a little flabbergasted.

Anyxxia tapped her index finger to her nose.

"The nose knows," she giggled. "You can't get anything passed my senses, any wolf's senses. You should know that. I bet even Lupin knows you're getting some."

"Well, if you really must know…" Hermione responded with mock exasperation as a slight blush stole over her features. This was worse than talking to Ginny; was nothing sacred?

"Of course I must know; that's what friends are for. I recognise his scent but I can't tell where from."

Apparently, sacred is to be kept for the magical scriptures.

"It's Se-…"

The reveal was cut off abruptly as a silvery blue stag galloped up to the gossiping witches and Harry Potter's voice erupted. It was deceptively even but Hermione recognised the hidden panic.

"Alarm sounded in Raven Woods. UW1-dash-519 is back in the country. Meet me in the Aurory Reception at 2. We're assembling a search and I want you with me."

"Was that Harry Potter? It sounds awfully official. Do you need to go?"

Hermione checked her watch and nodded. It was 1.30 already.

"It was and I do. Sorry Nyx. A wanted 'ware' is back in the country and I need to be at the meeting." Hermione replied in an all-business tone, already packing up her things. "Lunch again Friday? I'll put this on the Ministry tab."

"Yeah, ok." Nyx said, slightly worried that a 'ware' was causing trouble, especially if it was the one who caused all her own trouble six months ago. The only one she knew of that was on the wanted list - Fenrir Greyback - but he hadn't been seen nor heard of since the war; at least, that's what everyone thought. If he was back and making his presence known, there was going to be mass panic.

"It's Greyback, isn't it? Can I help? He was the one who turned Adrian; he was the one who killed Adrian. I wanna get that bastard."

Hermione launched at her friend just as Nyx had pulled her back on her shoulder.

"We'll get him, Nyx. I promise." Hermione whispered, squeezing tighter for a moment before releasing the other witch. "Officially, I can't tell you who it is. Confidentiality and all that but as you're a 'ware' too I think you'll be able to smell him if he's nearby. The bastard doesn't seem to have heard of soap."

Nyx's slight nod confirmed that between the two of them, they had set the code-word 'bastard' for Fenrir Greyback.

"Be safe and please let me know if there's anything I can do."

Hermione hugged her friend once more before returning the sentiment to stay safe and to 'keep her nose open for the stench of bastard'.

Anyxxia apparated home after Hermione left for her meeting with the Aurors; home was her small but homely cottage at the edge of the village of Raven Woods. She felt jumpy, suddenly running quite singularly on fear and adrenaline; the wolf within pacing, on edge. She looked around nervously as if expecting Greyback to jump out at her. When no such thing happened she quickly dismantled her wards and hurried inside, erecting them once more. Such were her nerves that the raw scent of alpha male that lingered in the air went unrecognised.

There was no way tea was going to be enough to settle her growing discombobulation, not with Greyback around and so she headed straight for her liquor cabinet and uncorked her strongest vodka. Hermione had introduced her to the muggle alcohol about three months ago and she found herself rather taken with it… She added a highly caffeinated mixer for a longer drink and partook deeply.

After two such drinks and digging through some old things to keep her hands busy, Nyx was staring blankly at a photograph of herself with Adrian. It was taken just one day after the Battle of Hogwarts and he sat in a hospital wing bed with her beside him. He had a nasty bite wound – freshly scabbed over by medi-witches but still looking rather fierce - down his arm that was only visible for half a second in the moving image before the arm landed around her shoulders and was covered by her sleek mahogany curls.

She had merely been a third year when he was studying his NEWTs but they'd met properly two years later. She'd been in Hogsmeade enjoying a butter beer and a day away from school and he'd been working in The Three Broomsticks whilst waiting for an apprenticeship to come up. He'd smiled at her when she approached the bar, knowing she was under age and had not charged her for her butter beer; instead, he'd transfigured the bottle to look like another drink. Gotta love a Slytherin for sneakily doing that sort of thing.

They'd started owling each other once a week after that first encounter and he arranged his days off for when she was in Hogsmeade and spent time with her at her mother's bakery over the school holidays. He never once made her feel pressured to take the encounter further than she ready to go physically and on her seventeenth birthday they had consummated their relationship during the Easter holidays. Anyxxia was besotted and enamoured. Even as the war had become more dangerous and the final day of reckoning drew closer, Adrian had found ways to sneak into the castle and see her under Snape's 'reign of terror'. Having been one of Snape brightest students, the surly Headmaster had discreetly looked the other way, approving of the young couple in a way most people would think him incapable of.

Greyback had bitten Adrian on the day of the Hogwarts Battle and for sixth months after Adrian had tried to push her away; so desperately fearful of hurting her. It was Hermione who had managed to get him to see sense. Not through meeting with them both and trying to coerce them to be together but by mastering the Wolfsbane Potion whilst Snape convalesced and brewing it for all of Greyback's victims free of charge. He'd been near Hogwarts anyway, finding an apprenticeship in Hogsmeade under Nyx's father – a magical wood smith, who crafted speciality wands, canes, staffs and all manner of other arboreal accoutrements.

Three years later, after Anyxxia had completed her NEWTs and taken a job as Hagrid's assistant, the two had married in a private ceremony, presided over by Headmistress McGonagall. Hermione had not managed to be in attendance due to a case that took her to Romania to catalogue a new species of dragon Charlie Weasley had found. She was almost thankful to not have been present when she found out Draco Malfoy had been best man.

It was another five years before Anyxxia convinced Adrian to allow her to be infected with lycanthropy so she could truly be his mate in every way. He had gathered a small pack of six other wares by then and the whole pack had been present, on wolfsbane, to protect Anyxxia. It was discovered that a wolf on the Wolfsbane Potion cannot turn others even if he wanted to and so Adrian had to be wild for the first time in eight years. Anyxxia had almost died - Adrian had never forgiven himself – but the rest of the pack had managed to drag their Alpha off her before the damage had proved completely fatal.

The following month on the eve of the full moon, the couple had engaged in the lycanthrope mating rituals which would bind them to each other for life. It had mostly involved howling a lot whilst staring at each other naked but the culmination was the exchange of blood; drinking each other's, from goblets that had held water from the eternal spring in Glastonbury on the last wolf moon – January. Draco had once again stepped up to be a very helpful friend – probably as a thank you to Adrian for being the one to get him on the Slytherin Quidditch team so many years ago – going to the eternal spring under the January Full Moon.

That following night, transformed, and free of Wolfsbane once more, the pair had mated in their 'ware' forms and Anyxxia had become pregnant. This was the only way for two werewolves to conceive. It was different in the cast of Remus and Tonks when they conceived Teddy Lupin because Nymphadora Tonks had never been turned. Anyxxia tended to believe that not committing to the same life as a werewolf husband was tantamount to disloyalty and had never been fond of the stories that heralded to young Auror and Order member as a hero.

The night following the full moon, the pack had dedicated themselves to their new Alpha-Female. It was a rare thing for a witch to be turned, purely for the love of her mate; the desire to become a werewolf was practically unheard of and so the others were both in awe of this little witch's decision to join and aid their leader in leading them. The dedication ritual was similar to that of the mating preparations; at least the blood drinking was the same.

Six werewolves stood before their new Alpha female, as Adrian directed them one by one to add a drop of blood to a binding potion, finally culminating in the two Alpha's adding their own. Each in turn would then take sip from the goblet, kneel before their new 'Queen' and take her hand, kissing her knuckles. An ancient, magical link formed as the wolves took turns to pledge their lives to the Alpha; binding the pack to each other in a way that outsiders could not understand. The Lycanthrope Rituals were handed down from Alpha to Alpha as packs evolved.

Anyxxia had tears in her eyes as she reminisced over her life with Adrian. It all seemed so very long ago and yet barely any time at all had passed since that deplorable abomination to the name of werewolves had ended her love's life. It was made all the sadder by the fact that her daughter, Vinia had lost her father before her second birthday. The pack helped with raising Vinia, as well as two other pack children but it wasn't the same. She was now the sole Alpha to a pack of ten and it was hard work juggling such things with a toddler, a job and a grieving heart.

Just as she was about to pull a few more captured memories from the photo album, she caught it; a strong, musky scent attacking her senses. Familiar. Powerful. Alpha.

"Greyback." She whispered to herself.

Whilst he didn't stink of bastard as he had ten years ago, or even stink of murderous arsehole like he had six months ago, the scent was unmistakable. She assumed losing herself to memories had temporarily disabled her senses but wiping her tears and returning to the present had somehow brought the dominant smell to the forefront.

Panicking was a bad idea. If she panicked the pack would sense it and turn up within minutes. It could be a blood bath and she wasn't prepared to lose anyone else. Her daughter couldn't lose any of her aunts and uncles like she had her father. It was unthinkable to put her through that.

Why the hell is he here? Hasn't he done enough damage to my family? Wait… six… months… oh shit!

It was a startling and fearful realisation as she accio'd the calendar from the kitchen and double checked when she was last in heat. It had been three months. It had been the only reason Greyback had got the jump on Adrian in the first place; they'd just finished a rather wild, but human, rutting in the woods that named their village and they had both been dosing in post-coital bliss. The slash of claws to the sleeping Alpha's throat had been unrealised and lethal. Nyx had awoken at the sound and screamed at both the sight of her beloved mate's bloody visage and the sensation of the other Alpha's partially transformed nose-snout-thing inhaling deeply up her thighs.

Greyback had reared back at her screaming, before leaning forward and licking the blood splatter from her face. With a final whiff of her intoxicating scent, he fled into the trees. It had taken hours for the witch to compose herself; she knew her daughter was safe with the pack and so had cast protective charms around herself and wept into the silence of the approaching twilight.

She stared at the calendar as the overwhelming scent got stronger. Her heat three months ago had been extremely subdued by grief and she had barely noticed it. The longing to be wild and unrestrained lost its shine when one couldn't stop crying. Even nature realised the need to grieve. Now, though? The tears had almost abated completely, thanks to Hermione's unwavering support, not to mention pack. Except when she got into these downward spirals of reminiscence and memory.

Picking up her wand to strengthen her wards, Anyxxia pointed at her front door and raised her hand… the charm on the precipice of being uttered, when…

Knock, knock.

The rapping sound, coupled with the scent of strong canine musk and her repressed heat slowly emerging from hibernation all exploded in her at once. A half-groan, half-shriek erupted from her and magic burst from her wand, causing the front door to fly open. The intent of her heat apparently overriding that of her fear and self-preservation instinct.

They stared at each other a moment, in silence. Both shocked at the turn her magic had taken. Then, he crossed the threshold… stalking toward her.

A/N: So there we have it, a little conversation, a lot of history and a confrontation cliffhanger. I wonder where I'll go with this now. Will Nyx's heat continue to overpower logic? Will Greyback dominate the She-Wolf into submission? Will little Vinia make an appearance and melt the heart of the most notorious werewolf who ever live? All will be revealed… at some point. You know my posting schedule is sporadic at best but I will do my best to update soon.

Love and Blessings.

Moon x