A Need To Protect

By Crystal

"No... don't go..." Willow screamed at Tara. She had token a blow to the chest.

"I can't stay. I have to go." Tara shouted back at her. And in a flash, the blond was gone, leaving Willow alone. Willow looked up at the sky. She was left alone by the one she trusted. A single tear fell from her eye before everything went black.

The Oz-wolf sniffed the air. He smelled something familiar. Something sweet, but full of pain ... like it was hurt. He ran until he saw a figure lying on the ground. He went over and sniffed the human girl. She looked familiar, like his other mind knew. Werewolves weren't stupid like everyone thought, he knew about his other self, but could not remember anything from it. Until now, a thing flash through his mind that he never had saw before. It was of the girl, she was saying something, but he couldn't understand.

'I love you.' The words came out breathy and soft, and they were coming from this girl. She had said she loved him. Love was special, like a feeling of pure joy and something he wanted to have. His other mind loved the girl so much, and he decided that he loved her too. He nuzzled her face to see if she would wake up. She was hurt and wouldn't wake up. He was scared for his love. The first thing he ever loved, and it was going to die. He couldn't let that happen. He scooped her on his back. He was going to take care of her.

"Where's Will?" Xander's yell could be heard throughout the woods.

"I don't know! I ran! I was scared!" Tara cried.

"So you left her? Was she hurt?" Giles asked.

"Yeah." Tara said looking towards the ground.

"Get away from us. We'll take it from here." Xander said walking past her.

"But..." Tara stammered.

"NOW!" Giles shouted.

The blond walked off.

"We have to find her." Xander said turing on the flashlight.

The Oz-wolf laid Willow down onto the pallet his other mind must have made for him. He didn't need it really. And he didn't want her to lay on the cold floor of the crypt. He heard the rustling of leaves outside. His ears shot up and he inched closer to Willow.

"Maybe she came in here." Xander's voice came in clear. Oz-wolf growled. Xander walked in kind of jumpy. "Will?" He yelled. He heard a growling sound and stepped back. He saw Willow on a pallet, and standing protectively over her was a werewolf. "Uh, Giles, we have situation!"

"What is it Xander?" Giles said as he walked into the crypt. Xander pointed to Willow and the werewolf. "Oh no. Oz."

"That's Oz? Why hasn't he ripped her to shreds?" Xander asked. Oz-wolf bared his teeth and stood closer to his love.

"Uh, Oz seems to have reached the point where can start to remember thing in his wolf-form. He has started to remember Willow and how much his human self cares for her. He seems to be protecting her." Giles said with a slight smile. He placed a hand on Xander's shoulder. "She's in good hands. He won't let anything happen to her now." Giles said as he walked out.

"Don't you mean 'paws'?" Xander said turning around after the watcher.

The Next Morning:

Demon. Hurt. Tara. Left Alone? Willow was trying to think of everything thing that happened. Tara left me... Willow's face fell. She looked around. Sunlight, warm blankets, solid gray... walls? She looked on the ground, Naked Oz. NAKED OZ?! He changed? And he didn't kill her??

"Oz?" She looked at him and blushed. Oz stirred.

"Hmmm. Why did you attack me with a toothbrush?" Oz mumbled. Willow smiled, he mumbled gibberish in his sleep, it was so cute.

"Oz, wake up." Willow whispered.

Oz's eyes fluttered opened, and got real wide. "Willow?" She nodded.

"What are you doing here? I changed last night! Oh, God. Did I hurt you? If I did I'm so sorry ... this wasn't supposed to happen. How did you get here?" Oz rambled.

Willow smiled. Oz rambled too. "You didn't hurt me."

"Then why are you here?" Oz asked.

"I don't know." Willow looked down at him and blushed a deep red. Oz looked down and blushed an even more red. She got off the blanket and handed to him. She grabbed her chest as a sharp pain hit her.

"Are you ok?" Oz said taking the blanket and wrapping in around him quickly and rushing to her side.

"I took a good beating last night." Willow said.

"By me?"

"No! Not by you. By the new demon. Tara left me there." She saw the fear and anger rise in his eyes as he inspected her wounds. She looked up at him with surprise and realization hitting her. "You saved me." Oz was outspoken, but he didn't talk much anyway. She did?something they both didn't expect, she kissed him. He returned the kiss. When they broke away, the broke into smiles as well. "You saved me as a werewolf. That means I might be able to control you! No more werewolf troubles! And--" She said.

He smiled a full blown smile. "Both of me must love you."

"Both of you must." Willow grinned and kissed him again.

Willow lead Oz to Giles' door. "I can't."

"You can." Willow said squeezing his hand.

"You saw they way they looked at me last time." Oz said showing not much of an expression.

"They won't look at you that way, I promise." Willow tugged at his hand when the door was open.

"Look, it's Will ... and Oz?" Xander sitting with a very confused look on his face.

"Hi guys." Willow?said cheerfully.

"How are you? I heard you took quite the beating." Buffy said eyeing Oz with a hint of a smile on her face.

"I did, but Oz saved me." Willow said clutching Oz's hand.

"But was Oz a werewolf last night, the moon looked pretty full to me." Buffy looked confused.

"Yep. He musta' recognized me or something. He took care of me." Willow said matter of factly. "And I've been basking him in my thanks ever since this morning."

"It's true. Me and Giles' went to find her last night and when we did, Oz was already taking care of her. Giles said just to let him take care of her, he would protect her."

Oz hadn't said anything the whole time, he was kind of afraid too. "I only remember a little from what happened last night. I'm remember..."

"Willow!" Tara walked in a wrapped her arms around her. "I was *so* worried about you!"

"Tara ... please let go of me." Willow said pushing her slightly.

Tara looked at Willow with a small glare. "What?"

"I'm not stupid. I remember." Willow said pushing Tara out of the way and walked over to Oz and grabbed his hand. "You left me to lay there, maybe lay there and die. Oz came along and saved me, AND HE WAS WEREWOLF!" Willow >yelled. Tara was token back. Tears welled up in her eyes. Willow's voice >reduced to a whisper. "I would like you to leave please."

"Willow... I..." Tara stumbled out.

"She asked you to leave Tara." Giles said opening the door for her.

Tara glared at him and walked out. "Well that was fun." Xander spit out.

Willow laid her head on Oz's shoulder. "How long till sunrise?" She asked.

"About an hour." Buffy told her.

"Come on Oz, we need to find a cage." Willow said. They said their good-byes and headed off.

"Six minutes." Oz sighed.

"Six minutes?" Willow pouted.

"Yeah." He ran a hand through her hair "Maybe you can let me out, maybe I won't hurt you. And then we can be together all night."

"Maybe. That would be cool. I could pet you. And ruffle your fur and you wouldn't rip me to pieces." She grinned. "How long?"

"Five minutes." He leaned down and kissed her. She got up from his lap held his hand to the cage. "Good Dreams."

"Good Dreams." She said. She stayed in the cage and lingered in their for a moment. She pressed her fingers to her lips and then to his. "I'm gonna miss you."

"I will miss you too." Oz replied. They lost track of time. The pain made him double over. He was able to look past the pain to look over to Willow. Her eyes were dead set in his. She was doubled over in pain also. *Oh God* was the last thing we thought before the change had devoured them both.

The Oz-wolf stared at the she-wolf in front of him blankly. She had the same smell at his love, but his love wasn't a werewolf last time he had seen her. He went over to the she-wolf and sniffed her. She growled. *Don't remember?* he tried to mentally reach her. But it didn't work.

The Willow-wolf was lost. She didn't know where she was, or who she was, or who the male wolf sniffing her was. All she could do was growl. She calmed down when he nuzzled at her neck. She was scared. She couldn't fight him. She didn't know how. He was going to kill her. He went around in front of her and laid down. A sign not to be scared. She felt a flood of relief. She sniffed at his nose to tell him she wanted him to stand.

The Oz-wolf did what she wanted. He had done this to his love, had put this terrible curse on her. He would take care of her and be hers forever. With a mutual step forward and her nuzzling his neck, the ritual began.

Willow's eyes fluttered open. She smiled. She looked over to the body that was curled up around the curves of her own. He was holding her so close, almost if afraid she would leave him again. He shivered. She picked up the blanket and covered them both. She didn't want to wake him, but they had to talk. She felt all the strong vibes coming from him, like she was being pulled to him if his arms weren't around her so tight. She felt the things he must have felt when being around Veruca. But she and Oz had so much more than him and that bitch would ever had. She cupped his face in her hands and looked at him lovingly. She pressed her lips to his so feather light, she was surprised he woke up at all. She was alarmed when his lips pressed back even firmer. His face still in her hands, she stroked his face while bruising his lips with her own. They broke about and were ready to give their morning greetings.

"Good morning." Oz said putting his hand on her forehead and rubbing it with his thumb. He frowned.

"Morning." She said smiling. "What's wrong?"

"Your a werewolf. It's my fault." He said adverting his eyes away from hers.

She lifted his chin with her finger. "Oz, you didn't mean to do this, I know that, it was accident, and accidents happen. You were just trying to take care of me." She ran a finger down his face to his shoulder. "Oz, we..." She grinned and looked up with shining eyes.

Oz thought for a moment. And then all of the nights events flooded back to him. "We..."

"We." She wrapped her arms around him. "Mine." She said in a tiny possessive voice.

"Your a werewolf?" Xander asked. "That means wolfboy here must have scratched you."

"Yes, he didn't mean it." Willow said rubbing Oz's arm. He looked kind of depressed, and she was still trying to comfort him.

"Well, this isn't a biggie." Buffy concluded. "We already know Oz takes care of you. So we have nothing to worry about, right?"

"Right." Willow said. OUTSIDE

Tara stood outside Giles' place. So, she was spying. She wasn't going to loose her possession.

"Willow's a werewolf." Tara whispered. "This is good. A little mythology, and she will be mine again."

Willow lead Oz into the crypt. Fifteen minutes till sundown. They figured they would just sit and talk until the change.

"So..."

"When we change, you'll have to remove some of your clothes, it hurts when you leave them on." Oz said. Willow smiled at him. She leaned in and tugged at the hem of his shirt. Oz gave her a puzzled look, but caught the wicked glint in her eyes. He lifted his arms so that she could succeed in removing the shirt. She looked at the clock, five minutes. She gave him a sad glance. He quickly helped her remove her shirt.

"It's looks like the werewolves will be let loose in a few minutes, now won't they?" Tara sneered at the couple from her place in the doorway. She was smiling an ugly toothy smile that disgusted Willow. She had never noticed how evil Tara looked. Willow grimaced and moved into Oz's arms. Tara winced and looked at the clock. One minute, one minute till Oz was out of the picture completely.

Willow held on to Oz as tightly as possible. She felt the sharp pain run through her body. Oz picked her up and placed her on the ground when his changes began. Willow felt things tear and rip, and fur covered her body, and the jeans she wore tore and made her feel trapped until they ripped and the Willow-wolf took her place. She looked at the blond and growled, but backed away. She was afraid of this creature that she had never seen before. She looked over to her mate for help. He would know what to do.

Oz growled and stepped back. He had to protect his mate which was also his love. He started to slowly moved over to his love.

Tara caught the bigger werewolf start to move over to Willow. "Not that fast." Tara spat out pointing a gun loaded with sliver bullets at Oz.

"Now you stay a-away from her. She's m-mine."

Oz-wolf heard the word 'mine' coming from the blond girl's mouth. Willow was not hers. She was his. They were mates and the loved and took care of eachother. The Oz-wolf growled again and Tara cocked the gun. "Y-your gonna be gone soon Oz, and I won't have to worry about you taking my Willow away."

Willow heard her name and 'mine' come from the girl's mouth also, and she was not happy. The blond stringy girl was going to kill her Oz, and wasn't gonna let that happen. She quickly stepped in front of her mate, who was currently worried for her. She mentally touched him and told him everything was ok.

"W-Willow, g-get out the w-way." Tara yelled while moving the gun to motion what she wanted.

The Willow-growled and didn't move a budge, if this other girl tried to kill her love, she would tear her into little pieces and let her lie there. "Get out of the way Willow! Don't you remember me? I'm Tara." Tara pleaded with the red-haired werewolf. Willow growled. "Why don't you want us to be together?!" Tara shouted. Willow wolf went over and sniffed at Tara. Then she walked over to the door a nudged it with her nose. She back away silently asking Tara to leave before she ripped her to shreds. Tara gave a loud huff and walked out.

Oz-wolf was extremely proud of what his love had done for him. She had handled it perfect. He watched as his mate walked back to him to make sure the blond hadn't shot while she wasn't looking. She saw no wounds. She went around and nuzzled his nose to tell him she was tired and ready to sleep. He got up and follow her to the pallet, she laid down first and he laid next to her placing his head on hers. They slept peacefully till morning.

Oz's eyes popped open to look around. He looked over to Willow who was >shaking. He tried to warm her up with his body and stared down at her.

"Will. Honey, wake up. We have to face life this morning." He ran and hand through her hair. She smiled and snuggled up closer. "Wake up faker." His said gently. She grinned and her eyes popped open.

"Morning." Willow said sleepily.

"Are you okay?" Oz asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Willow asked running a finger down his face.

"Any side effects?" He asked.

"I'm a little sore. But no big side effects" She told him looking at him with concern. He was frowning. "You know I don't blame you."

"I know. I can't help but blame myself." Oz said kissing her forehead.