True Love

Chapter 4- A Monster Behind Bars

Flashback

Emma relaxed in her throne, as she watched the comings and goings of the people before her. Court was never much fun for the young Princess, but she knew she was expected to attend the daily gathering of the various people in the Kingdom. While the peasant, lords and ladies did not interest Emma, the exotic tradesman from far off places did. They came with magic and creatures alike, offering them to her parents in return for other things. While the magical items they possessed never seemed to interest the King and Queen, they fascinated Emma, and always caused her to want to explore the world more, and see where these things come from.

Sadly for Emma, today appeared to be one of the more boring days, and she sighed as another peasant stepped forward to complain about a band of pirates, who had been causing trouble at his tavern. Emma smirked when she recognised the description of the pirate's leader, but remained quiet while her mother addressed the small man.

"I shall station some of the royal guards around your village. Should these pirates return, I am sure my men will be able to handle it" Snow smiled at the now bowing man, and sat back in her throne, taking a hold of her husband's hand. Emma watched as the next group of people stepped forward to state their issue.

"Your majesties, my wife and I-" the man was cut short however when the doors to the throne room banged open, revealing the most bizarre looking man Emma had ever set eyes on. He had shoulder length, grey hair which looked grizzled and unkempt. His clothing consisted of materials Emma couldn't work out, was it leather? I couldn't be, it looked more like crocodile from were Emma sat. The strange man waltzed forward towards the royals, the crowd practically throwing themselves out of his path. He stopped and gave a little bow to them, before straightening up again, a smirk was plastered to his scaly face.

"What are you doing here?" James demanded, his usually friendly voice, filled with malice.

"I was just passing through, and thought I might pop in" his voice was high, giving Emma an uneasy feeling in her stomach. His eyes turned to look at Emma, who squirmed under his gaze.

"I don't believe we've been introduced" Emma looked at him, but blinked rapidly when he suddenly appeared before her.

"No we haven't" he smirked at her before bowing once more.

"Rumpelstiltskin"

"Emma" she tried not cringe as he planted a chaste kiss upon her hand.

"It's a pleasure, Emma" she smiled at him, before letting her hand drop back into her lap. "Tell me, Emma, you must be eighteen now?" Emma merely nodded, and he giggled, a crazed look in his eye. A sword shot into view, and Emma looked to see her father standing, with his sword pointed at Rumpelstiltskin's chest.

"Back away from my daughter imp!" he growled out.

"Oooh not feeling very friendly today I see"

"Not for you"

"James" Snow put a soothing hand on Charming's arm, and he lowered the sword, but continued to glare at the imp.

"It's clear I'm not welcome" the Dark One stepped back a bit, "but no matter, I merely wished to meet the Princess. At her age…things should begin kicking in". Emma looked at her parents before she returned her gaze to the little man.

"What do you mean?" he giggled once more.

"You'll see, soon enough" and with a small pop, he was gone, leaving a very confused Emma, and nervous looking Charmings. Emma turned back to her parents, to see them staring at each other, their expressions unreadable.

"What did he mean?" she asked. Snow sighed before answering.

"There's something your father and I need to tell you Emma".

Xxxxxxx

Emma didn't want to open her eyes, didn't want to leave the warm feeling the memory of her parents caused her, it her lulled into a feeling of safety, and security, all the while knowing when she became conscious once more, the safety she felt would vanish. Though she feared what was to come, Emma allowed her eyes to flutter open, and take in her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that she lay upon a bed, its soft mattress relaxing her overly tensed muscles. Emma sat up slightly and looked around, and to her relief spotted Max, dozing at the end of her bed. She made to move forward, but fell back when a wave of pain flooded through her body. Emma looked to see her shoulder was bandaged, but clearly not healed. She sighed as the old saying once again went through her mind.

"All things come with a price" Emma tensed when she realised the voice wasn't in her head, and she turned to see a figure, shrouded by the shadows of the room, watching her intently. The stranger stepped into the light, and Emma took a sharp breath in as the Queen came into view. She wore a skin tight red dress that hugged at all her curves, putting her various assets on display, and not leaving anything to the imagination.

"Why?" Emma's voice came out slightly hoarse, the hint of fear laced into it didn't go unnoticed by either women.

"Why what dear?" the Queen's voice was sinfully deep, sending chills all over Emma's body.

"Why did you do this? Why me?" Emma knew she sounded weak, and that her vulnerability was on full display, but she could not muster any more fight to throw at this woman. Regina smirked and edged towards the bed, each step causing Emma's stomach to do a backflip. The Queen lowered herself to perch on the edge of Emma's bed, her dark eyes raking over the younger woman. Regina seemed to be calculating Emma, as if trying to work out the best angle to approach her from.

"That is a very small question, for one of the biggest answers" Emma frowned at the Queen, her words clearly had hidden meanings, but yet Emma could not grasp at them.

"Does that mean I'm not going to get an answer?!" anger began to replace the fear that had been controlling Emma, causing the Queen to smirk at her.

"Your mother clearly went to extraordinary length to hide you from me, to protect her only child" Regina began, her words were slow, making Emma's frustration grow.

"Whatever she did, it clearly doesn't work anymore!" Emma swung her legs off of the bed and attempted to stand, but fell back when the pain of her shoulder seared once more.

"That it doesn't" Regina continued as if the Princess hadn't moved, "which makes this all the more fun". Emma stared at the Queen, waiting for her to finish, but instead she leaned forward to push Emma back down into the bed, a predatory look upon her face.

"What are you going to do to me?" Emma whispered, as Regina leaned forward, leaving only an inch or so apart from one another.

"I've spent most of my life trying to destroy Snow White's, and what better way, than to corrupt her daughter, her precious little girl" Regina placed a hand upon Emma stomach and leaned even further forward, their noses brushing slightly, "having you in my possession, will break little Snow's heart, leaving her with nothing but her own pain, just like she did to me!".

Emma gasped as Regina surged forward, capturing her lips in a demanding kiss, her tongue slipping past pale lips, to battle with Emma's own. Emma attempted to push Regina away, but felt her arms pinned down by Regina, keeping her in place. The Queens tongue pushed deeper into Emma's mouth, trying to seek more contact with the reluctant Princess's tongue. In a last attempt to get the Queen off her, Emma bit down on Regina tongue, causing her to yelp and growl at her. Emma took her chance, and sprung herself at Regina, knocking her off the bed, to land hard on the floor. Regina grunted on the floor, and hurled herself from the bed, gritting her teeth in pain, as she hobbled to the door, calling desperately to Max, who had yet to stir from his slumber. She yelled at him again, but he still did not move, his eyes remained closed, trapped in sleep. Emma yelped when she felt her body slammed against the wall, and pinned there. She looked to see the Queen clambering to her feet, her hand raised in Emma's direction.

"How dare you strike me! I should kill you for that!" she hissed at Emma, advancing on her once more.

"Let me go!" Emma screamed at her, "revenge will get you nowhere!" her attempt to reason with the Queen went unnoticed by the older woman, and she gasped when she felt a hand wrap tightly around her pale throat.

"No! You're mine now, and I have no intention of letting you go, dear" Regina reached out and jabbed Emma's shoulder with her free hand, watching as the Princess cried out in pain.

"Don't touch me" Emma wheezed out, but it only caused the Queen jab harder.

"It seems this is causing you quite a bit of pain dear" Emma looked at Regina, a smirk painted across her ruby lips, "so I'm going to make you a deal, since you seem to like making those".

"Deal?" Emma panted out.

"Yes, I can heal your shoulder in a heartbeat, relieving you of the pain you feel, and allowing you to move freely, but… you have to submit to me". Emma tried to think clearly, the offer was tempting, very tempting.

"Submit?" Emma wasn't sure why she was asking but she needed more time to think.

"Well yes dear, as much I enjoy a little biting here and there, I won't have you fighting every single one of my advances" Emma blinked at the older woman, fighting through the pain to get a clear answer out.

"No"

"No?" anger flashed across Regina's features.

"I would rather stay here in pain, than let you touch me" she spat out, putting as much venom into her words as she could. Regina growled at her, and took a fistful of her blonde curls, pulling her away from the door and throwing her to the ground. Emma landed heavily, the cold from the stone floor seeping through the thin cloth of her shirt.

"Then so be it!" the Queen barked at her, watching as Emma crawled towards the sleeping wolf, trying to wake him.

"Why won't he wake!" Emma cried at her.

"I put him under a little sleeping spell, so we could have a little privacy" Regina smirked at Emma futile attempts to wake the beast.

"Wake him up"

"No" tears formed in the corners of Emma's eyes as she slumped against the bed, burying her face in Max's soft fur.

"Please"

"I shall wake him when I want to! Consider it your punishment for disobeying me. Continue to do so and the consequences shall become much more…severe" with that Regina spun on her heel and marched from the room, ignoring the faint sobs from the Princess as she locked the door.

Xxxxxx

Regina headed back to her chambers, a headache rapidly forming. Her first meeting with Emma had not gone to plan, leaving Regina in an awful mood. She had thought the Princess would have been easier to bend to her will, much more innocent and simpler to manipulate, but the younger girl was strong, both physically and mentally. She could have forced her, that would have been easy to do, but force was always what he did, and no matter who Emma was, she did not wish that fate upon anyone, not even Snow.

Emma, it was a pretty name and suited the younger girl well. Regina found it difficult not to be attracted to the Princess. Other than her chin, she didn't look to much like Snow, the luscious golden curls made sure of that. She was fully grown from what Regina could tell, and had filled out nicely, with well rounded breasts, and a curved figure.

The Queen arrived in her chambers and slumped ungracefully into one of the chairs by the fire place, kneading her forehead vigorously. She had so many burning questions about the blonde, but felt her curiosity wasn't going to be sated anytime soon. The most prominent question of all being why the girl had run? What had driven the younger girl from her parents? Regina sighed as she went over the meeting with Emma, a twinge of guilt for leaving her in so much pain settled its self in her mind, but she quickly dismissed it, convincing herself she did not care for the girl. She would have to approach this whole thing more delicately.

Xxxxxx

Emma blinked open her eyes once more find herself in darkness, the only light in the room was from the moonlight streaming into the room from the balcony. She shifted from the end of the bed, were she had cried herself into a fitful sleep. Max still remained asleep, his chest gently rising and falling, his fur was ruffled from were Emma had been resting her head. The room was relatively large, with a wardrobe and vanity to one side, and a four poster bed dominating a large section of the room. She fumbled around room before coming across a bathroom, its design simple like her bedroom, with a bath In the centre, surrounded by various other things. Emma decided to run a bath, in hopes of easing the pain in her shoulder. The water was heavenly, and gave Emma a chance to look over her wound. It didn't look to deep, and would probably heal naturally in a couple of days, which relieved Emma, knowing she wouldn't have to rely on Regina's help to get better.

Emma covered her face with her hands as she thought of the Queen, and the whole situation she managed to land herself in. She wouldn't go back and change it, that she was sure of, saving Killian was all that mattered, but in doing so she was now in an impossible situation with no clear way of escape. Running didn't seem like a smart idea, and Emma had no doubt Regina would catch her, but the idea of submitting to the Queen was a very confusing thought. Though the kiss before had been unwanted, she couldn't help but notice the spark she felt from it. The tingling sensation it left behind and how it had felt so right. Emma knew she was swimming in dangerous waters and would have to navigate herself carefully if she hoped to not drown.

She couldn't fall for this woman could she? After all she is evil, isn't she?

A/N: Please follow if you like it and reviews would be appreciated.