Here it is, folks, the final chapter of Still of the Night! I may not be too pleased with this chapter (but then again, I hate all the endings I write) so I'll let you all be the judges of that. Thanks so much for all the reviews, favs and follows, and be sure to keep tuned in for Sucker Punch! ;)

Also, this chapter hasn't been checked for spelling and grammar as I posted it right before having to go to bed (early work day in the morning, ugh) so please be kind and give me 24 hours to go back and fix any mistakes. :)

Now…enjoy!

Chapter VII

Anna wasted no time between them getting off the ferris wheel and quickly departing from the park. Saying nothing more than an urgent "come on," she had grabbed Elsa's wrist before pulling her towards the exit of the amusement park. After changing back to her human form, of course.

"Anna, are you sure it's them?" Elsa couldn't help asking as she was doing her best to follow the redhead, garnering as many weird looks as she had received earlier with Anna on the kids' rides. "I didn't hear anything."

"Werewolves have three times the hearing the average human does; I'd be shocked if you had heard it."

"It couldn't have been a normal wolf?" Elsa asked next. "You're sure it was your pack?"

"It was them," Anna said grimly. "You wouldn't understand, Elsa, but you have to trust me."

"I do, Anna," the blonde said with conviction, grasping the hand leading her with her own and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Anna looked back over her shoulder at her and smiled. Or rather, she tried to, though Elsa could tell it was strained as her eyes remained clouded with worry.

"You don't think they'd try anything in public, do you?" Elsa couldn't refrain from asking next.

"I wouldn't put it past one of my brothers, Hans, honestly," Anna answered in a bitter mumble.

"Should we return to my place then?"

Anna shook her head. "I don't know what's going to happen, Elsa, but I don't think a confined space would be the best to handle this in. Are there any open fields or abandoned lots or buildings around here?"

"You really think that's necessary?" Elsa balked.

"I don't know!" the redhead snapped, immediately apologizing afterwards. "I just know my brother and father are going to be mad, and I don't know how many others in the pack they dragged into this."

Squeezing Anna's hand once more, Elsa tried to calm her. "Okay," she whispered. "It'll be okay, Anna. I'm not going to leave you to deal with them by yourself."

Anna stopped running at this and spun to face Elsa, her eyes wide with fear, yet shimmering with gratitude and affection underneath.

"No, Elsa," she started, "you need to go home. I don't want to see them try and hurt you."

Elsa let out a dry chuckle. "Anna, don't be silly; I'm not leaving you."

"But what if they hurt you?!" Anna cried, tears welling in her eyes. "I couldn't take that! These aren't just people, Elsa, they're werewolves! They could really hurt you!"

"Damn it, Anna, I'm still not leaving!"

"Please!"

"No!"

"Awww, isn't this sweet?" a new voice cut in with a croon.

Elsa noticed a flash of fear ignite in the redhead's eyes before she spun around to face their new guest. Recognition dawned across Anna's face as she spread her feet to hold her stance, throwing an arm out in front of Elsa, and emitting a purely animalistic growl from deep within her throat.

"Hans…" she uttered.

"I brought company," the dark auburn wolf, Hans, sneered before, sure enough, several more wolves emerged from various angles until Elsa and Anna were surrounded.

Anna let loose another growl, still in her human form as she slowly turned to take in what had to be at least half her pack. Elsa counted ten wolves in total. Despite her best attempts to keep calm and maintain a strong front, she couldn't fight the nerves that began to rise upon seeing so many wolves surrounding them, many looking displeased, if not donning uneasy snarls.

"Why couldn't you just leave me alone?" Anna asked, addressing Hans mostly. "Was what you did when I ran away not enough?"

"Anna, you should know the penalty for deserting your pack—your blood—for such trivial things as this abhorrent thing we call humanity goes deeper than a few scratches."

"They weren't 'scratches!'" Elsa shouted before she could stop herself.

"Elsa…" Anna whispered in a warning tone as the blonde made to take a step forward, only stopping when Anna's arm kept her from advancing more so.

"She was hurt," Elsa continued, growling in her own way. "She was bleeding and had a sprained wrist, paw, whatever, all from her family?"

Hans merely sneered in her direction—or as much as a wolf could sneer, that is—choosing to ignore any of Elsa's words.

"And I see you found yourself a pet while you were gone," he sniggered.

"She's not a pet," Anna mumbled, venom lacing her words. "She's a friend."

"Same thing," Hans grumbled, going as far as to roll his eyes, something which for some reason unnerved Elsa even more than watching a wolf talk. "Now, are you going to come back with us willingly, or are we going to do this the hard way?"

In answer, Anna simply stood her ground, a low rumble now coming from her as her hand clenched around Elsa's arm. Elsa, even though she couldn't see Anna's face from where she stood behind her, could basically see the glower she was shooting Hans.

"The hard way, I see," Hans said with a grin. "I was hoping for this."

He looked ready to pounce before another shout sounded.

"Hans, wait!"

Growling, Hans looked over his shoulder as a new wolf walked up beside him, this one blond and bulky.

"K-Kristoff?" Anna gaped, sounding surprised the blond had come after her.

"Hey, Red," he greeted, shooting his best attempt at a smile. "I don't want to see it come to another fight, that's why I tagged along, but if you don't come with us, I'm afraid I can't stop what you know will happen. Dad's livid."

"I don't see why this is such a big deal!" Anna exclaimed exasperatedly. "I'm full grown, why can't I do what I want with my life?"

"Because when what you want to do something as foolish as join the humans, we have to put a stop to it!" Hans barked.

"Hans, come on," Kristoff piped up. Walking closer to Anna, he sighed. "Anna, do you know why we have such a…strained relationship with the human race?"

Anna's stance slackened. "N-No…"

"Because one of these monsters like the one you're protecting killed our mother!" Hans hollered with a bite before Kristoff could speak again.

Anna's arm dropped from in front of Elsa as she exhaled a small, "N-No."

Elsa made to step up next to her, but Anna hardened her resolve once more before she could do anything, her glower even fiercer than before.

"You're lying," the redhead stated, though her voice wavered underneath. "Mom died during a hunt. Sh-She was trampled by buffalo; Papa told me himself."

"Anna, you were barely able to open your eyes when mom died," Kristoff explained in a much softer tone than Hans, who was now pacing impatiently behind the blond wolf, obviously wanting more action. "You were too young to know the truth, nor would you have even understood had we told you."

"But you all were pups too!" she cried it retaliation.

"Dad did it to protect your 'innocence,'" Hans drawled, and if he had been in his human form, Elsa knew he would have put air quotes with the word innocence from how disgustingly he said it. "Ever since birth you were enthralled with humans. He thought after a while you'd grow out of it and come to hate them like the rest of us did, but you never did."

"When you ran off, Dad knew then he should have told you earlier," Kristoff finished, still in a softer tone than Hans could possibly ever achieve.

From where Elsa was standing, Anna appeared to have shut down entirely. Her hands were clenched into fists at her side, and she was staring at the ground with no movement, no words.

"Anna?" Elsa asked hesitantly, moving to place a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't you dare touch my sister, you animal!" Hans shouted, leaping into action faster than Elsa could blink.

She shut her eyes and waited for impact, but it never came. Chancing opening them, she saw Anna standing before her again, now in her wolf form, blocking Hans from touching her. Hans growled threateningly once more.

"Move, Anna," he said. "I couldn't do anything about the human that killed mom, but I can do something about her."

"As long as I'm breathing you'll do no such thing," Anna ground back, her ears back, tail erect, and hair standing on end all down her back.

Her words made Elsa's world come to a stop momentarily, having never felt such devotion from anyone ever. Yet, here was Anna ready to fight her own brother for her.

"Why are you protecting her?" Hans questioned. "She killed our mother!"

"She had nothing to do with it!" Anna fired back. "You can't blame an entire race for the fault of one!"

"Our mother is dead because of them!" Hans yelled. "Why isn't that registering with you?"

"Maybe because I know the cruelty of life better than you! Why do you think mom was killed?" Not waiting for an answer, Anna continued. "Most likely because she had done something to either harm that human or one of its loved ones, or frighten it! Humans don't even know we exist; not really! As hurt as I am knowing why and how mom died, it doesn't make me hate all of humanity! What about all the buffalo, deer, other wolves we kill? They probably hate us because we kill their family! As much as I didn't wish it, that's the way things are! I'm not going to hate humans just because you hold a grudge!"

Hans bared his teeth before looking to Kristoff. "You deal with her," he spat, inclining his head to Elsa, "I got our traitorous sister."

"Wait-!" Elsa tried to get out before she was taken to the ground by the big blond wolf.

"Elsa!" Anna cried, turning to face her and her brother, before she too was tackled by Hans.

Elsa closed her eyes and braced herself for some kind of pain, but when none came for the second time, she chanced opening them once more. Kristoff stood above her, one paw pressing down on her back to keep her from moving.

"I'm sorry it came to this," he told her, truly sound apologetic. "I can't stop this, however. Hans is the eldest, and without our father around, we all have to obey him."

"But he's hurting Anna!" Elsa exclaimed, watching in horror as Hand had Anna pinned to the ground on her back as another wolf from her pack leapt on top of her as well, the others not close behind. "They're going to kill her!"

"I don't expect you to understand our customs, and I don't expect you to like them even more," he said, "but this is the way werewolves work. In our eyes, Anna has betrayed us by trying to leave our pack—leave who she truly is. If she can defeat Hans, she will be allowed to make her own choice. If not…"

"Then she's going to die…" Elsa finished with a sob.

Elsa covered her mouth to quiet a cry as she watched Anna try and fend off her pack. Hans had her neck in his mouth, another wolf was literally on Anna's back completely, and another had hold of her tail. Anna would let out whines occasionally but was holding strong despite everything. Still, Elsa knew she could only take a bit more.

"Get off me, I have to help her!" she shouted, trying to reach Kristoff's ear to tug.

Kristoff merely applied more pressure to her back and Elsa let out a yelp of pain. That cost Anna, as the red wolf looked over at her cry.

"Kristoff, leave her out of this, damn it!"

"I can't, Anna, and you know that," he said with a shake of his head. "If you truly want to stay with her, you know what needs to be done."

Anna looked ready to say something else before Hans had her by the throat again and she yelped in a pain of her own.

"Anna!" Elsa screamed, paling at the blood now running down the wolf's throat.

Right as Elsa was about to try pushing Kristoff off again, a new, deep, authoritative voice cut through the midst.

"That's enough, Hans."

Instantly, Hans got off Anna as well as the rest of her pack, leaving a severely wounded Anna lying in a heap on the ground. Kristoff as well let go of Elsa and the blonde wasted no time in running to her wolf pup.

"Anna," she whispered, pulling the pup's head into her lap. "C-Can you hear me?"

Whining, Anna managed to nod her head, though doing much else was painful. Stroking her head, Elsa looked up as a shadow cast over the pair of them and she was met with dark yellow eyes.

"W-Who are you?" she asked, her hold on Anna tightening even more at the threatening black wolf before her. "Please don't hurt her anymore."

The wolf said nothing and merely looked down at the wounded wolf in her lap. Ever so slowly, Anna's eyes opened as they trained on their newest guest.

"P-Papa…?"

Elsa gasped and looked back to the black wolf. This was Anna's father? He came after all? She realized then that Kristoff, Hans, and the rest of the pack had retreated completely, now sitting at attention in silence at their leader's presence.

Anna's father sighed heavily as he took in his daughter's state. "Anna, look what you caused."

Struggling to pull herself from Elsa's lap, Anna made to face her father. "I didn't…a-ask for any of this!"

"You knew what running away meant, did you not?"

"But why does it have to mean anything?" she asked in a pleading tone. "Why can't I just do as I please?"

"Your brothers told you what happened to your mother?" It may have ended with a question, but even Elsa could tell her father meant it more as a statement.

"Y-Yes, father, but it doesn't change anything to me!" she cried. "It doesn't mean I'm not still lost and distraught from mom's death, but it doesn't mean I'm going to hate humans like you all expect me to!"

"And why is that?" her father asked.

"B-Because humanity isn't all about killing! They do it to survive, just like us!" Anna had now made it back to her feet—the four of them—but was being held steady by Elsa as she continued to address her father. "Were you around when mom was killed?"

"I was not."

"Then how do you know she was killed in cold blood?" Anna questioned. "For all any of us know, she was killed in defense! I can't blame an entire race because they were protecting themselves! That's all any of us, wolf or human alike, know how to do! We protect ourselves by killing others. We kill to survive; they kill to survive. We're not any different than they are."

"You learned all this on your trip?" her father asked next, not sounding interested, but rather like he was assessing every word that came from Anna.

Anna shook her head as best she could in her state. "I knew all that before," she answered, "I just didn't know how readily it applied. Even if I had known about mother before I ran off, I still would have. You wouldn't understand, papa, but I need to be a human. I'm not a werewolf, not really deep inside. From the day I was born I knew I was different. I always wanted to stay in my human form, I wanted to learn all I could about them, and as I did, I realized what magnificent creatures they are.

"But you wouldn't let me chase after my dreams. You told me to stop learning about them, to stop asking questions, and then you lied about mother's death to 'save my innocence?' I don't get it, papa."

Flattening her ears to her head once more, Anna looked over her shoulder at Elsa, still on the ground behind her, her eyes wavering with unconditional affection again.

"I can't believe humans are all that bad after meeting Elsa," she said, causing Elsa to quirk a smile. "She's shown me so much kindness that I know without a doubt that mother's death wasn't anything more than natural selection. We both kill to survive," she restated. "Sure, some humans kill for other reasons like greed, revenge and more, but we do that too." She shot a look to Hans at that. "Think what you want, but we're just like them, papa. Hell, we are human."

"You would not be content, then, to come back if I allowed you to turn to a human whenever you please?"

Anna shook her head again. "I know you'd only be letting me out of pity, and I don't want that, papa. Even with your consent, I'd still be driving a wedge between us and I can't do that. That's why," she paused, as she made sure she looked her father in her eyes and finished, "I need to be severed from the pack completely. I need to leave my werewolf ties behind."

If wolves had eyebrows, Elsa could imagine her father's rising as he sighed, "And how do you plan on doing that?"

Changing back into her human form, Anna whispered, "By following my heart."

With that, she turned to face Elsa, beamed, and then crashed her lips to hers. Elsa fell backwards slightly from the force and out of surprise, but quickly caught herself and let her arms come to settle around Anna's waist. This wasn't how Elsa had imagined their first kiss to go; both of them on the ground, Anna hurt, and her entire family watching them, but she couldn't deny it still wasn't perfect.

Her eyes slid shut out of bliss as she kissed Anna back feverishly, so she was unaware to the blinding light that engulfed Anna's form as the kiss went on. When the light faded, Anna looked no different, but then she slumped to the ground, effectively breaking the kiss.

"Anna?" Elsa looked down at the girl in her lap and worry immediately began to rise within her upon noticing Anna's sickly pallor. She hadn't looked like that before they kissed. "What happened?"

"If I had to guess…" Anna mumbled, her voice weak and quiet, "I'd say the myth worked. True love…turned me into a human."

"Then why do you look like you're d-dying?" Elsa whimpered, cradling the now-gasping redhead closer to her.

"If I had to guess," Anna's father cut in, mimicking his daughter's words, "I would say because she no longer has the extra strength of a wolf. Even in our human form, we possess exponential strength. Now, robbed of that, Anna is left with the stamina of any ordinary human, and therefore her wounds are more substantial."

"I need to get her to a hospital then!" Elsa cried, quickly making to stand, bringing Anna up with her in her arms.

"We will let you go," her father said. "Anna," he grunted.

The redhead in Elsa's arms blearily looked to her father and Elsa could have sworn she saw a grin flash across the wolf's face.

"You may not have thought so, but you always did have the courage and heart of a werewolf inside you," he said. "You proved so just now with your sacrifice."

Anna smiled. "Thanks, papa."

Then, without warning, she fainted and fell slack in Elsa's arms.

"Anna?!"

"She will be fine," her father addressed Elsa. "She's always been stronger than any of us have thought; she will come out of this. After all," Elsa thought she saw a smirk again, "she now has something to live for after so many years."

A smile of her own flickered across Elsa's face at Anna's father's words, gazing down at the girl she held.

"Do you love her?"

Looking the wolf in his eyes and no longer having any reason to fear, Elsa nodded resolutely.

"I do."

Anna's father nodded before looking down at his daughter once more. "She is in your hands now," he told her. "I have no doubt you both will live happily. After all, it was your love that turned myth into truth, and that isn't to be taken lightly."

Fixing her with a hard stare, yet with a softness shimmering just underneath, he uttered one last thing: "Take care of her for me."

Elsa's grip only increased as she uttered back, "I will."

Then, with a final nod, he turned away. Without a word, his pack turned to follow him, leaving Elsa and Anna alone. Kristoff lingered behind, nodding at Elsa as he departed as well.

Once they were truly alone, all Elsa wanted to do was collapse to the ground in relief and exhaustion, but the fainted girl in her arms kept her going.

"You'll be okay, Anna," Elsa whispered as she took off back in the direction of the amusement park to get to her car. "I promise."

XxXxX

When Anna came to, Elsa was the first thing she saw. The blonde had been sitting beside her bed the entire time, only leaving her side when the nurses forcefully shooed her out.

"Hey," Anna whispered, her throat dry.

"Hey," Elsa echoed, handing her a cup of water.

Taking the cup greedily, Anna downed the whole thing before laying back in her bed. Smiling, she reached for Elsa's hand.

"I was afraid that…that was all a dream," she said.

Elsa chuckled. "It was as real as could be, I'm afraid."

Anna let out a giggle of her own before looking up to Elsa with those captivating teal orbs of hers, although they no longer held their yellow glimmer.

"I love you, Elsa."

Elsa beamed and leaned down to kiss Anna's forehead. "I love you too."

Humming pleasantly, Anna bumped her forehead with Elsa's, causing the blonde to chuckle once more.

"What?" Anna asked, though she didn't draw back at all.

"Nothing," Elsa reassured. "Just," she opened her eyes to find Anna's staring right back, "if you're going to be a real human from now on, we're going to have to teach you more human forms of affection."

Anna mirrored Elsa's coy smile as she whispered, "Oh really?"

Smile turning to a grin, Elsa nodded. "Really." Then, leaning in to press a searing kiss to the corner of the redhead's mouth, she purred, "And you just love learning about us humans so much, I'm certain you're going to enjoy every minute."

Fin