Author's note: This is my first Once Upon A Time fan fiction that is not a crossover. I hope you enjoy reading it; and please let me know in what ways I can improve it. Also, thanks to those who have already reviewed this story; I appreciate it immensely.
Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fan fiction. The author claims no rights to any recognizable character, setting, or plot bunny from Once Upon A Time, which belongs to ABC Inc, part of The Walt Disney Company, nor is the author receiving any profit from this story.
Howling Wolf
She heard it, the sound of his breath, just as she felt his anger, his obsession.
His obsession stemmed from his rage with people's intolerance of his race and the ignorance of those around him. Sheriff Graham became a wolf when the queen stole his heart. It felt cold inside because he lacked a heart ever since the evil queen ripped it from his chest and locked it inside a box. She had hidden the key a couple years before he last saw her, but he felt sick and couldn't feel anything, except the vomit threatening to spill from his throat.
Emma ran deeper into the forest and her foot hit a root of a centuries-old oak. After cursing her rotten luck, she began to sweat tears, when she heard the sound of the howling again and again.
Graham became a wolf again when Regina returned the funeral hall. She found the box which contained his heart and held it in her hand. Her hand was cold like ice and Graham felt it. Though his relationship with Regina was nothing but numbing, he felt painfully alive when she squeezed his heart with her stone-cold fingers. Graham's blood ran cold and he began to transform into a wolf like in the fairytale world. His human body became a wolf's body, but Graham did not understand the transformation. He became anxious. When he first saw his soul mate, the wolf with the mismatched red and black eyes, in the city, he felt strange too. Had he ever been a wolf before? He remembered when he dreamt of a wolf for the first time. The red eyes made him anxious but now he knew that the red eyes were his. Graham became stronger and suddenly, he felt comfortable in his new body. How curious.
When Emma felt the grainy earth under her fingers and smelled the fresh air of the forest, she knew abruptly that the wolf had already taken its place next to her, but she waited on the ground for her death sentence instead of turning away. Finally, the wolf sniffed her clothes and stopped sniffling next to her head. It seemed like it was murmuring something, but Emma couldn't understand it; she had never learned any other language than her own. Suddenly, it dawned on her. "I know you," she whispered, turning away from the ground. "You're Graham, aren't you?" The wolf only stared at her strangely.
Sheriff Graham's transformation became complete when he became comfortable with his new body. He was much faster than before and he realized that the world was brighter and its sounds and colors more gorgeous than he could have ever imagined. Running in the dense woods, he heard the birds and smelled the rabbits and took off after his prey. As he sprinted through the forest in his new body, Regina touched his heart and pressed it softly together. He screamed and his heart thumped faster. He felt angry and had no lust to hunt the rabbit any longer; instead he wished to hunt something else: a human. Graham stopped running and howled pitifully. After that he heard the noise of footsteps cracking twigs; it was the sound of a running woman.