Chapter 2: Lavender and Apples
Ruby woke up feeling sick to her stomach. Her head hurt and her mouth felt sore and wet. She brought her hand up to her mouth and touched her lips. She looked at her fingers to see blood once again on them. "Great!" she thought to herself. She hated being a werewolf, she hated giving into its hunger and desires. She didn't know how to stop herself from running wilding into the night looking to tear something apart and devour everything. She still hadn't learned to tame the wolf in her. It was as if the wolf didn't want to give her any control of its senses when such a night came around every now and then. But her thoughts were halted when she noticed something very unfamiliar on her body. She picked up the black cloak and brought it up to her nose to sniff. The moment the cloak touched her nose, her senses heightened up at the hint of lavender and…. apples? She picked a brow up in confusion. She decided to smell the air and her nose led her to look up at the apple tree. And that's when she realized that's where the apple scent was from. Well, that explains it, she thought to herself. She sniffed at the air again trying to trace the lavender scent but there was little to no trail of it left. The wolf in her growled a deep growl. She didn't know why but she wanted to snuggle her nose into this person's neck and take in the scent as much as she could. She brought the cloak up to her nose again and took a deep breathe in. It helped her feel relaxed and light. She forgot about her current situation and decided to stay laying under the tree a little bit longer.
But her comfort was disrupted by the shadowy figure standing over her. She could feel the heat through the glare she was receiving right now. It still amazed her that she couldn't hear or feel her grandmother's presence which was why she managed to appear in front of her out of nowhere. She really needed to take control over her wolf soon or else she will never be able to escape her family hunting her every move.
"Before you start granny, I would like to plead not guilty" she said with a cheeky smile on her bloody face. In an instance she was up in the air, gasping for air. Her granny had grabbed her by the throat, choking her enough to gasp for air but not kill her. The older werewolf brought Ruby closer to her and sniffed at her mouth.
"You killed another human, didn't you Ruby?" Granny asked trying to hold her anger at bay.
Ruby tried to mouth out anything, but the grip started to get tighter, and she couldn't get anything out of her mouth to put a stop to her granny crushing her throat. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. But instead, she was thrown against the tree. Hard enough for Ruby to yelp in pain and get on her knees to cough up blood on the ground beneath her.
"You really are cruel Granny." Ruby coughed in between the words as she rubbed her throat to soothe the pain. Luckily, she didn't have to worry about scars or bruises on her since she had the ability to heal.
"When are you going to learn to tame the wolf inside of you, Ruby?" Granny asked as she let you a soft growl. Ruby looked up to notice her granny was facing away from her now. "Gather yourself child, we need to leave from here right away before the humans come." Granny said leaving the question hanging in the air.
Ruby got up from her knees and wrapped the black cloak around herself to hide her naked body. Granny had already started walking when Ruby decided to follow her. She knew she had to learn to take control over the wolf but every time she tried the wolf would do everything in its power to stop it from happening. She hated every time this happened. She didn't want to kill and eat the humans, but she didn't know what to do either. No one wanted to help her, it was like she was left on her own to figure this out. Ruby sighed a defeated sigh as she stopped for a moment and looked up at the big bright moon hanging up in the sky. If only she could tame the beast in her, her life would be a lot easier. She picked up her pace to catch up with her granny, wrapping the cloak around herself tighter and soon both disappeared into the forest as well.
Regina got off Rocinante and led him into his stall at the stables. She kissed him on his head and petted him a little bit before existing the stall. She glanced at him one more time before she started to walk out of the stables towards the castle to return to her room. She tiptoed around the guards trying her best to not get caught sneaking out in the middle of the night. Once she reached her room, she opened her door slowly as to not make any sounds to alert anyone nearby. She looked around the hall and when she noticed no one she went inside and quickly turned around to close the door.
She released a breath she didn't know she was holding and went to lay on her bed. She got up to take her shoes off and laid back down. Her thoughts went back to the strange well not so strange night at all considering the incidents that have been happening around the Evil Queen's kingdom. They had a werewolf situation like every other kingdom out there. 'Mother will have a heart attack if she were to learn what transpired tonight' Regina thought to herself. Not trying to think about her mother Regina's mind quickly diverted to the unconscious woman she left behind. It was her first time happening upon a werewolf. For a moment it felt so unreal that a creature like that was right in front of her and she had been on the verge of dying if it hadn't fallen unconscious.
She wouldn't be in this room, on this bed tonight if the situation had been a little different. She got lucky tonight but that won't be the case every time she decided to venture out in the middle of the night by herself. She just hoped that the incident won't come back and bite her in the ass. She decided to let go the thoughts about the young werewolf and catch some sleep. Her mother will be furious in the morning if she wasn't present during family breakfast time.
As the night passed the werewolf's mind was made up to find this stranger that decided to show her kindness. She knew from the scent off the cloak that it wasn't another werewolf but a human. Which made Ruby even more curious to hunt down this human that decided to spare her life.
The hunt was on. The wolf in her growled in satisfaction as Ruby too decided to catch some sleep from the rough night.