Then

Once upon a time there lived three Princes.

They were brothers and together they lived in a tall, dark castle made of heavy grey stone. The Castle was situated between the Little Carpathians of Slovakia and a small village which they never visited.

The brothers had no friends and the only people they knew aside from one another were a host of servants who were mostly silent and served every whim of the Princes. The three brothers had a father, but he was rarely home.

The castle was always dark. The servants would light candles, but only in the a few rooms and corridors; the ones that people used the most. So the boys were raised in shadows. They had never gone to the village because they were taught that anyone who was not royalty was lesser. They never visited the wild woods to the back of their home, for Princes did not belong in nature. They belonged in a dark world of glistening jewels and shiny coins, of silken robes and milk baths, of silence apart from their own loud shouts, of creeping shadows and family secrets.

The Princes all slept in the same room, because even thought there were over two hundred rooms in their tall castle and though the boys had never been taught to share and often argued with one another, not one could bear the additional loneliness of sleeping alone.

By ascending order of age the boys were Brick, Butch and Boomer. They were triplets, born under a red moon and so by the curse of their blood destined every full moon to turn into large wolves. It was always the same; the day of the moon the boys would be bought down into a deep, cavernous basement. There they would grow increasingly irate as their blood began to boil, snapping and biting each other, fighting and hissing. Then, as the sun would set, they would begin to change. Howling in pain their bones would snap and their skin would break. Their bodies would stretch out. Their teeth fell out and new canines grew in. Fur sprouted from their pores. Their noses and mouths would join and form a snout. Nails popped off as black claws grew in their place.

The boys, unable to even argue now, would fight throughout the night. In the day, bloodied and exhausted, they would sleep curled up into one another.

On the fourth day, when the full moon was passed, the boys would be released.

Then the boys would continue with life as normal. Surrounded by silent staff stiffly giving them everything they wanted (not what they needed) and the boys only having one another for companions. Every day, when they thought the others were not looking, a boy would look out the window to the village and wonder if there was anyone out there who was like them; if there was anyone who could be their friend; if there was anyone who could ever love them.

One winter night, when the half moon was high and white in the sky and a thick coat of snow lay on the ground, they arrived.

The boys had been surprised when their cousin, Elizabeth Morbucks arrived with her Lady In Waiting Sedusa and their maid Ms Scara. They had been sceptical, never having met any of these women before, but the women produced a seal that bore the family crest. Further, they showed that they too were more than human; though the creature they favoured was more of a bat than a wolf.

At first the boys had enjoyed having the women in their home. A connection to the outside. Their first link with people other than themselves. Three women, one for each boy. Brick became attached to Elizabeth, following her around like a lost puppy, braiding her long red hair and reading to her when she was bored. Butch and Sedusa practiced sword fighting, developing a new style by combining traditional Slovakian swordplay with far-eastern fighting styles. He had respected her lithe figure, her intelligence and her brutality. Where his brothers acted older than they were in an attempt to impress the women, Boomer became more like a baby. He would hang about on Ms Scara's dresses, getting underfoot as she attempted to tidy. He would sit on her lap and demand bed-time stories. His brothers would roll their eyes, lying in their own beds, complaining loudly but Boomer would stick his thumb in his mouth and watch Ms Scara reading with wide, blue eyes.

For boys who did not know love, they loved the three women quickly and deeply.

And so it hurt all the more when they were betrayed.

Now

"Are you all right?"

The brothers met the girls outside.

"Is it really over now?" asked Buttercup, a frown on her face.

"Truly," answered Brick, he looked down at their red-haired sister still unconscious, "we can take her back with us to the village of Cachville."

"We'll take you all," said Boomer quickly, smiling sweetly at Bubbles who returned it shyly.

Brick walked over to Blossom, getting down on one knee and taking her limp hand into his own.

"Will she recover?" asked Buttercup.

Brick stared at the Blossom, "I think so…" He leaned down, pressing a kiss to her still lips, instinct telling him what to do.

Her eyes fluttered open, pale pink to his deep red.

As he leaned back up, she slowly raised herself up onto her arms. She opened her mouth to speak, but her tongue was gone, so she could not.

"Blossom!" sobbed Bubbles, running and falling beside her sister before embracing her. The sisters hugged tightly, Bubbles almost on top of her sister. After all this time, having her sister back in her arms felt like a dream come true. Bubbles tightened her hold, she wasn't used to good things happening anymore, and she felt certain that something was going to go wrong.

Buttercup watched the pair, gulping when Blossom's eyes turned to stare at her. Bubbles had a right to hug her sister, but Buttercup was a traitor. She had left her sister in this terrible place. Had left her to the curse. Bubbles and Buttercup had gotten through this hell relatively well, but Blossom was now unable to speak and a part of this strange curse.

Instead she turned away from her sister's gaze, turning to the black-haired prince who stood beside her.

"Is she like you now?"

The boy looked at her, his eyes as green as the summer grass. "She is. She took on the curse. She took on us. We're linked now."

Buttercup felt her heart sinking, "will she have to stay with you?"

"No," barked an authoritarian voice. The black-haired pair turned to see Brick standing with Blossom at his side. The pair were holding hands. Bubbles stood a little further back, wiping tears from her eyes. The blond prince, Boomer, handed her a handkerchief with a small smile.

"No more of that," Brick continued, "we will take you to the village as promised. We can help your sister once a month, when the time of the wolf arrives. But you are free to live your lives however you want."

"And what about you guys?" asked Bubbles.

The brothers looked to Brick, who frowned, "after we take you home, we should return to the castle. We failed you as a people. We don't deserve anything more than to stay alone, as our father originally intended."

Then

Once upon a time there were three princes. They were brothers and they were so lonely and so starved for love, that they allowed three women they did not know into their home and hearts.

The full moon came around. This time it was special; the moon was a deep amber; a Hunter's Moon.

The boys were hurried into the basement by Elizabeth and Sedusa. There were kisses and cuddles as the women swore the allow the boys out during the day. For the first time, the boys would only be locked up for the nights.

The servants, standing silently in the shadows, scowled and cast glances at one another. Boomer noticed, but said nothing. The opinions of servants did not matter to a Prince.

The boys climbed down into the dark shadowy basement.

The door was shut and locked.

They could hear the giggling of the women outside.

Normally, the brothers would fight. But that night they stood silently, side by side, looking to where they had seen the door. Now, it was so dark they couldn't see anything.

Perhaps it was then that they had first sensed something was wrong. That niggling feeling each had had at the back of their mind that something was not right about the women, that there was a darkness there they didn't understand, that they were allowing their loneliness to override their common sense.

The giggling died away.

For a time all the boys could hear was the soft breaths of their brothers.

And then it started, the harsh whisper of Ms Scara chanting outside the door. It was in a tongue they did not know but in their bones they knew to fear.

The boys began to stir, unnerved.

What was she doing? They asked one another in frightened whispers. What was happening? Had they been tricked?

The darkness became aliving creature in its own right then, oppressive and heavy. They couldn't see.

The boys began to inch closer together. Boomer was shaking by the time he felt the brush of Brick's arm next to his.

Brick felt it.

He had told his brother not to worry, even as he himself felt more afraid than he ever had before.

But then it started. The boys yelped in pain, each falling to the ground as their bodies began to twist and contort, pieces of their humanity falling off and a wolf growing in their place.

Outside, mist began to drift over the amber Hunter's Moon as the boys, now wolf cubs, howled from their pit.

They remained in the basement as always. But unlike usual they did not fight. Even in their wolf forms they were uneasy. And strangely self-aware. Instead the boys paced, walking in circles around the room.

Slowly, they began to realise that the night wasn't ending. They defecated in a corner of the room each, and the smell was beginning to become over-powering. They were becoming hungry too, the bellies rumbling.

How was this happening?

Why was it not yet morning?

Where was the sun?

The boys began to howl, calling and calling, each remembering their favourite woman. Where was the beautiful Elizabeth? Where was the feisty Sedusa? Where was motherly Ms. Scara?

The howling began plaintive and sad, but soon became angry and crazed. The boys were starving. They could smell blood above them – what was happening in the Castle?

They began to hurl themselves against the wooden door. Smashing into it with snarls of frustration.

Boomer, a white wolf, soon became too weak. He collapsed on the ground. His stomach felt caved in. Cramps wracked his body. His brother, Butch, watching with hungry eyes, shaking with adrenaline, suddenly went after Boomer. He bit him on the leg and Boomer knew that his brother meant to kill him; that his brother was so hungry he had decided to eat him.

Boomer closed his eyes and whined, waiting for a miserable death. Perhaps it would be the right thing, to allow his brother, who was so much stronger, to live a little while longer? Boomer had been as spiteful and selfish as his brothers all his life, but in their time in the basement, realising that the person he thought loved him had not, Boomer had recognised that his brothers were all he'd ever had.

Suddenly, Butch was thrown. Brick, a ruddy-red wolf with shaggy fur, was standing over his body, snapping his jaws at Butch. Boomer looked at his dark brother, who's eyes were wide with terror. They locked eyes. Boomer understood. Butch was sorry, truly sorry, frightened of himself.

Boomer looked down at his bleeding leg for a while before lapping up the blood with dizzy relief; as well as having no food they had no water, and the blood was the only liquid they had other than pee.

The final straw for Brick was this moment. With supernatural strength he flung himself once more at the door, smashing it open.

Splinters flew, damaging his eyes, but he crawled out of the basement into the shadowy castle.

His brothers, looking thin and shocked followed behind him.

The castle looked the same, but it wasn't anymore. It was far, far colder. There was the scent of blood and flesh. Human blood and flesh. They could not see any servants.

A hiss alerted them to Elizabeth Morbucks standing at the top of the grand staircase. She wore her hair out, her red curls drifting down her back. Her dress was of the deepest green, almost black. She had sneered at the boys. Brick stepped back, his young heart stung.

It is a hard thing to be betrayed and heart-broken when one isn't even thirteen years old yet.

She told them that the Castle belonged to Royalty, specifically the proud house of Morbucks, and their food. She told them that dogs were not truly Morbucks and did not belong indoors.

The bottom of her long dress rippled unnaturally in an ugly manner, and out from under scrambled Ms Scara, her face contorted into a hideous grin. Her hair was white and wild. Her pupils sharp like a goat's. Her teeth were sharp. She put out her hand and said something in the strange language again.

The wolves were hurled outside. Darkness enveloped them. Everything was cold and icy.

When they came too, they found themselves outside in the wilderness.

They tried to come home, but could not.

They could not even stand in the shadow of their castle.

It was not theirs anymore.

The wolves howled.

Now

It was quiet for a moment after Brick's announcement. But then, a hand held his own.

He looked and saw Blossom watching him. Her face was soft and creamy. Her eyes big and forgiving. Her lips, which he knew were warm, were as red as winter berries.

"Sorry your Majesty," sighed Buttercup with her usual lack of deference for their royal station, "but you shouldn't be alone. Not anymore. You're coming with us to the village. Stay with us for a while."

"Meet our father," said Bubbles, following her sister's lead and holding the hand of Boomer.

"I turned my back on someone I loved before," Buttercup bit out, looking at the ground. Her cheeks were red with shame, "I hurt someone I loved."

Behind her, Butch winced and turned away.

"I won't do that again," she announced, "you Princes helped me and my sisters. We are the same age, I think. We're triplets like you. We were destined to stay together." She finally had the strength to look up, facing them all, "do not lock yourselves away again."

A beat.

"I won't," said Butch, his voice hoarse from lack of use, respect in his eyes for the dark-haired sister.

"I won't," whispered Boomer, looking at his hand clasped with Bubbles'.

Brick turned to look at the girl who would someday be the love of his life, "I won't lock myself away again."

And Then

It was the middle of Summer. The night was heavy with warmth and the sounds of humming insects.

Scented fruit hung heavy from every tree and bush.

Out in the mountains, away from their village for the night, were four wolves, their fur decorated with peaseblossoms and roses. The girls braiding the flowers in their furs were two sisters, the third now a wolf for the night.

Their laughter rose into the air.

A.N. Hope you all enjoyed.