"Oy, that will make a mighty fine coat."

The pirates laughed heartily at the joke as they stood in a circle around the panting creature. Killian raised his eyebrows and smirked slightly at the joke, his arms crossed over his chest. His black hair ruffled in the breeze as his ship cut through the water with what would be alarming speed to anyone unaccustomed to sea travel.

"Should we kill it, cap'n?" asked Smee, his voice bouncy and excited like always. Waving his good hand dismissively, the captain sniffed.

"Leave it for now. The pelt will still be good once we reach the shore."

The crew growled, hoping to see a show and not getting what they'd wanted, and dispersed, leaving the captain and his first mate alone.

"I don't want blood on my decks," the captain added, glancing over at his first mate with a wry smile on his lips, "It will be much easier to kill the thing on land."

"Aye," Smee agreed, rubbing his hands together like an excited little imp.

The two men stood watching the panting beast in the hold below, too worn and beaten from its recent ordeal to bother lifting its head to snarl at them. They stood in silence for a moment before the captain raised his eyebrows and glanced pointedly at Smee.

"Well? I'm sure you have better things to do than stand around gaping at a dog."

"Aye, Hook. Aye." He scurried away, leaving Killian Jones - now better known as Captain Hook since that reptilian sorcerer had rid him of his left hand, forcing him to replace it with a metal hook - to look back down at the exhausted beast below his feet. After shutting the metal hatch over the hold, closing the beast in its prison, he smiled to himself and walked off to sleep the night away. He may have not found a way to get his revenge for what the Dark One had done to him, but he had bagged himself a rather valuable pelt that would bring him in enough gold to expand his search.

Red woke as from a nightmare, finding herself cold and alone in the darkness. The last thing she remembered was night falling over the snowy landscape outside the home she shared with her Granny. Now, she was dressed in the tattered rags of her clothes, leaving her mostly naked hence the reason she was so cold. The darkness was so thick her human eyes couldn't focus on anything nearby. Reaching out, she felt around for something, wondering if she should shift so she could see better. She decided against it, figuring her more vulnerable human side would be the best thing for her captors to see if they came looking for her. If she needed it, she could change so quickly it wouldn't ultimately matter anyway.

As she reached out, her hands didn't touch anything at first. Inching forward, her fingertips brushed cool metal, and she realized she was in a cage of some sort. Or better yet, a cell by the feel of the wooden wall behind her.

That was when she realized the room was swaying.

Thankfully, the wolf within her gave her its balance and she didn't get seasick easily or she would have barfed at the rocking motion of the room and the darkness which prevented her from seeing anything past the end of her nose. How could a place be so infinitely dark anyway?

Suddenly, light flooded into the darkness, and she yelped, covering her eyes from the harsh glare. The pain of a migraine filled her head from the glaring light and she shrunk back to the wooden wall at the back of the cell, squinting against the light streaming in from above as booted feet echoed down a stairwell entering the hold of the ship where she was imprisoned.

Hook rested his right hand on his sword and smiled, pleased with himself. He had managed to cage the most beautiful wolf pelt he'd ever seen. He had decided overnight it would make him rich beyond his wildest dreams, and he would finally get his revenge on Rumplestiltskin. Victory had already begun settling into his bones as he calmly descended the stairs into the hold of his ship.

"You will bring me a pretty gold coin at the market," he spoke, knowing the wolf couldn't very well respond but feeling giddy enough to gloat anyway.

Turning on his heel as he reached the bottom of the stairs, he stepped out of the circle of light created by the sunlight streaming through the hatch and stopped short. His breath caught in his throat, and all of his good mood dissipated in an instant.

Red stood from where she'd been cowering against the wooden wall, drawing herself up as he took her in. Granny had taught her to be proud of who and what she was, even if others hated the wolf. They loved Red, and she was an honorable person even if she was a werewolf. She had been hunted and beaten and tortured, but she'd also loved and befriended and been taken in as part of a group with Snow and Charming and their friends. She wouldn't allow this seafaring villain to take that away from her simply because she was alone and out of place.

Hook stared gaping at the girl, not expecting what he saw in the least. "You... you're not...who are you?" he asked in an accusing tone. How dare she steal his wolf? He didn't imagine that she was the wolf. "What did you do with it?" he growled, advancing on her as his irritation rose. Everything he wanted had been at his fingertips - wealth, power, vengeance, revenge for Milah's death - and this girl had taken that all away.

"What did I do with what?" Red asked bluntly. She was a bit confused by his reaction. How could he not know she was the one in the cell? What was he thinking?

Then she realized. This pirate had captured a wolf, not a young maiden. She saw the greed in his eyes, the loss of power and money, as he reached the bars and gripped them in his right hand. She smiled then, satisfied that she had managed to dash his avarice however unintentionally. Crossing her arms over her chest, she stared innocently at him, ignoring the tatters of her clothing which clung to her curvaceous form.

"The wolf... it was right here..." he answered, looking around the cell with a hopeless look in his eyes. Then realization seemed to dawn, and he looked up at her, his lips curving into a smile. She supposed most women found him attractive. She could imagine him giving them that rascal grin, his blue eyes twinkling, and she saw the women falling into his bed. He was a pirate after all; there was a certain dangerous appeal to a pirate that most women could not resist. Perhaps it was the wolf within her which kept her mostly immune, but she simply glared at him as he attempted his charm on her.

"You are the wolf," he stated obviously. She wanted to roll her eyes, but she refrained. Stating the obvious wasn't exactly the game she wanted to play. Actually, she preferred the 'release her to go home' game over this one, but she would have to play her cards right if that was ever going to happen.

"Aren't you clever? It would seem to make sense if you cage a wolf and wake up in the morning to a woman that they would be two parts to the same creature, would it not?" she asked sarcastically, leaning back against the wooden side of the boat with an exhausted sigh.

The pirate glowered at her and crossed his arms, tapping his index finger on his scruffy chin as he contemplated her. Finding out she was a werewolf had its own complications. She wasn't just a mindless wolf he could skin once they were on shore. Killing her became murder instead of a simple hunt. There was some part of her that was human, and even if he was known as a 'bloodthirsty pirate' he was adverse to killing someone with little reason. Sure, wealth was a strong draw, but he had to admit he was interested in this creature. He vowed to himself that it wasn't only because of her shapely chest and curved hips.

He had felt the loss when Rumplestiltskin killed Milah. He'd loved her, or so he had believed he did. Granted, much of his draw to her had been her willingness to forsake her motherly landlubber life to follow recklessly after him, but he had loved her in his own way. He loved her loyalty and her willingness to throw her past aside for him. He wouldn't fall for another woman again, especially not just because of the curves of her body. He'd bedded plenty of women in his time, and that was all his observations of this woman owed to: he was a male with a healthy respect for the female body. Nothing more.

"I imagine werewolf pelts bring in even more gold than any other wolf pelt," he noted to himself, shrugging slightly. The sunlight glinted off of his hook as he shrugged, and Red's eyes were drawn to the missing hand. Hook. She had heard his name whispered on the lips of others. Fear came with the name, a fear borne by ignorance. People were afraid of pirates as murderous criminals, riding the high seas with no laws to keep them in check. However, she was best friends with Snow White and close to her husband, Prince Charming. She wasn't alone even if they literally weren't with her now.

"The moment you tried to skin me, the princess would have you beheaded," she snapped, more irritably than she'd intended. She didn't want this man to see that he got beneath her skin, even a little bit.

"Is that so?" Hook asked, his eyebrows raising in interest. "The princess, you say?"

He took a step closer to the bars and finally pulled his hooked arm out from beneath his elbow, the hook glinting wickedly in the light. The sound of metal scraping metal grated in her ears and she winced before she could hide the discomfort. Even in her human form, her hearing was heightened more than another human's, and the sound split into her skull like a bull horn.

"Snow White is not my princess any more than a unicorn is my king," he hissed, the smile still on his face. He was at ease, in his element, here in the hold of his ship, and she knew he was right. His world was the sea, and there was little Snow or Charming could do to save her as long as she was in his world. The sloshing of the ocean against the sides of the ship suddenly made her feel nauseous.

"What will you do with me, then?" she asked, her arms uncrossed as she dug her fingers into the wood at her back.

Hook shrugged his shoulder nonchalantly and waved his hooked hand around in the air lackadaisically. "I haven't decided, but for now I suppose it would be best if you stay down here in case you decide to try to wolf out and chow down on any of my crew. Have a nice day, my dear."

With that, he turned his back on her and headed back toward the staircase and the sunlight beyond.