Title: I Never Met a Wolf Who Didn't Love to Howl
Pairing: Regina/Red, Regina/Ruby
Rating: R
Length: 2, 600
Spoilers: The Stable Boy
Summary: Regina knew Red, Ruby didn't know The Queen.
Warning: Sexin'
Notes: Written for thegirl20 and comparisons. Beta'd by my cougar.

Part Three

"Regina!" She could hear the animals in the immediate area around the small clearing in the Enchanted Forrest scurrying away like their lives depended on it. Again she shouted, "Regina!" but again she was met with nothing but the rustling of leaves and the far away call of birds. "Regina, come on."

The mirror Red held in her hand was thrown down next to a tree in frustration and Red followed suit, dropping to her knees and grabbing each side of the frame that held the looking glass, gripping it as if it were the only thing keeping her alive. "Regina," her words began harshly but faded to a plea, "Regina, I know you can hear me. Just… please come here."

"I do so love making people beg." The voice came from behind her so Red immediately stood and turned, trying to gather her dignity again. Regina stood not ten feet from her, leaning against a tree in one of her ridiculously opulent gowns, looking only mildly curious at Red in her own state. "Take a moment, dear. It looks like you could use one."

She was without her crimson cloak; it had been haphazardly tossed aside when she made the sudden decision to do… whatever it happened to be that she had been doing. This confrontation. The only thing she had left the cabin with was the mirror she had just thrown in the dirt. It took miles of running to find a spot where she felt she was far enough away from the cabin she shared with Snow – far enough away to bring Regina out from the Dark Palace.

Out of breath and with dirt on her dress, Red didn't much care about how she appeared in front of the Queen anymore. Their on-and-off monthly trysts had left Red feeling like she could be totally vulnerable in front of this woman, and Red hated it. Hated how humanizing the time had been. She saw Regina now. Regina who loved to ride, who always had a joke no matter the situation, who had been steadily helping Red control the monster she held inside her.

In three quick strides she was able to grab hold of Regina's face and bring it to her own, kissing her roughly and without restraint. The Queen returned in kind after a moment's pause, her own hands rising, one to Red's cheek while the other rested safely at her collarbone. Her movements were gentle while her kiss was not, but Red was not going to let her have the upper hand.

"Why," she began as she tore her mouth away, the Queen's head still in her hands as she panted breathlessly, "does it still feel the same?" She could still feel the tingle, like ice sliding down into her stomach and cooling her whole body. Wolfstime had safely passed, the wolfsbane out of her system, but still she felt the affects of Regina's touch.

"Puppy love?" She slammed the Queen back against the tree and turned away, pacing back and forth. "I'm sorry, dear. I have no answer for you."

"It's not supposed to be like this," Red whimpered as she walked back and forth.

"And what is itsupposed to be like, exactly?" There was a hint of disdain in her voice, a hint of amusement, and a strong overtone of boredom as she surveyed the surrounding forest.

"I don't know," Red snapped back at her.

"Then maybe this is exactly what 'it' is supposed to be like."

"It shouldn't be like this." Red whimpered once more and crumbled to the ground with her next step, hands curling in the soft soil. "It shouldn't feel good, especially when it's not during wolfstime. It can't."

"Ruby," the name is whispered in her ear and it sends unwanted shivers down her spine. She hadn't even heard the Queen move from her spot but her arm was now securely around Red's back. "It is what it is."

She barely needed to turn her head to meet the Regina's gaze, those warm eyes as sweet as chocolate, just like her murmured words. The Queen, she reminded herself in vain, Not Regina. The Queen.But it was Regina's kiss she received. It was Regina who gently laid her back against the soft ground. It was Regina who stayed with her until the morning.

Red didn't trust the Queen, but Regina, it seemed, was a whole other story.

Their trysts had become a frequent thing after the death of Graham. Regina needed to grieve, but grieving over a life you stole was something she still wasn't sure how to do after twenty-eight years of living in this world. At least this time, the whole town was grieving with her. And Ruby was most definitely included in that. Sometimes Regina would pull her into the bathroom at Granny's, and kiss her roughly, just to taste her again, hands gripping the taller woman's forearms hard enough to bruise. Ruby didn't seem to mind though. In fact, Ruby practically begged for more and it led Regina to wonder if Ruby was grieving over Graham for the same reasons she was. But her mind couldn't wander there. She couldn't create resentment towards Ruby. She just couldn't.

When Emma wins sheriff and everything is settled, she was waiting in Ruby's room before the brunette had even closed up the shop downstairs. When she entered, Ruby jumped in surprise at the sight of her but made no further movement except to lock the door behind her as Regina advanced. Regina kissed Ruby until she couldn't think anymore, fucked her because she needed to, and was out the door before the disheveled waitress could even find her shirt.

The next day when she sat down and ordered her coffee, Ruby smiled brightly and returned with a fresh brew – business as usual.

It was a rare occurrence for Red to wake up and still see Regina, let alone still see her sleeping, but she supposed that it wasn't quite as jarring when she was in fact in the Queen's own bed at the Dark Palace. It was accustomed for either one of them to leave after their rendezvous, but that unspoken rule had begun to slip, opening cracks in Red's defensive demeanor and lessening the condescending jokes from the monarch. Now morning afters had become less and less odd for them.

In her defense, the Queen's bed was glorious and had the softest sheets she had ever slept on, a full breakfast was always brought to them, and the sunrise over the valley that the Dark Palace overlooked was stunning. While Snow sits alone in our cottage, was always the first thing that came to Red's mind, though it probably wasn't true. Snow was off on her own mission and she had more friends to help her now. She had a love to fight for.

Regina didn't, Red gathered from their time together. Regina didn't seem to have too many people at all around her. She had picked up on the smell of wolves in the Dark Palace early on, but it seemed to fade and mix with the scent of a man. She had been informed that it was just the Queen's huntsman and, judging by the lingering scent of him in Regina's room, the Queen's plaything as well.

"Why do you need me if you have him?" She had asked the second night she spent in the palace.

"Maybe I'm going for a full litter."

Ruby didn't bring it up afterwards; it really was none of her business. Not that Regina didn't owe her real answers, she just found herself caring less and less about them as time went on. She stretched under the sheets before slipping out to get back into her dress, walking over to one of the large windows, and leaning over the edge to take in the world waking up around her. She wondered where Snow was. Looking for Charming. What else would she be doing?

"How does the day look?"

Red smiled a little to herself but kept her back to the Queen as she looked out at the valley. "It looks like a beautiful day to get ready for a monster's night of pain and torture."

"You're not a monster, dear." Arms wrapped around her waist, arms that were now covered in a black and violet silk robe, as if it were completely normal – which it was. Worst of all, she found herself leaning back into the embrace. "All you need is a little taming."

"Do you really think that I'll ever be able to control it?"

"Of course." Her hair is pulled to the side as a kiss is placed on the nape of her neck – another thing that had become all too familiar. "With time."

They're silent for a long time as the pink sky turns to yellow and then blue, their breakfast having been taken in front of the same window and done away with just so they could resume their positions, though Regina stood next to her rather than behind her.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Ruby, I think we're beyond the boundaries where you have to ask permission to ask me a question."

"Why don't you… why don't you just hire an assassin to kill Snow? I know that she said you tried once, but she got away."

Regina was leaning on the ledge with two arms, mirroring Red's own position, her face blank. "I don't want to kill her. I want her to suffer."

"Can't you see-"

"Ruby, you brought up this conversation knowing the answer to your own question. And I don't wish to discuss it further because it only seems to aggravate and hurt you." She was stone-faced, but the agitation was clear in her voice.

'I don't want to kill her,' rang through her head, 'I want her to suffer.' It resonated for months after. Even if she was comfortable with the Queen, she didn't trust her. She could never trust her.

One of the first things she learned about Ruby was that she likes her showers to be scalding hot. She emerged from her en suite in a towel, her hair up in a ponytail and only slightly damp, while her skin was a rosy pink, as per usual. Regina had been lounging on the bed, redressed save for the blazer that still hung on the back of the chair. She was running out of time, but still felt the need to linger. She liked lingering with Ruby. She needed to linger with Ruby – at least for a while.

"Your water bill must be ridiculous."

"Oh, don't worry." She flopped on the bed next to Regina, face clean, hair up, smelling of body washes and lotions and looking entirely too much like Red, but for the time, Regina could look past it. Ruby was Ruby, Red was Red. She knew it. She just couldn't forget it. "Granny docks it from my pay. Only because I'm a big fan of showering the day away, though."

"Am I included in that of which you're showering away?" Regina asked with a raised eyebrow.

It earned her a kiss before Ruby sprang from the bed to get dressed, any form of modesty gone between them. At least on Ruby's part. "Shower away a fantastic orgasm? Not likely. Some people like to smoke, I like to shower." She grabbed something from the top drawer and then turned and added with an almost curious but pleased look on her face, "I love that perfume you're wearing, by the way."

Regina felt her heart stop for a moment as she surveyed the girl in the corner. The last time she had put on perfume was before Graham's death, which must have been at least a few weeks' time by now. She had the sudden, fleeting, terrifying feeling that the curse was lifting, that it was Red in the corner of the room, readying to pounce and kill her for what she had done to the town. But the moment passed as Ruby began to hum and redress.

"Thank you," she finally managed, though her fists clenched at the reality of the curse slowly abating. If Ruby was getting her abilities back, if Graham had been seeing visions, if Gold knew, it meant it was weakening. All because of Emma Swan. Regina surveyed the brunette as her pink skin became covered with clothes, trying to shake the immediate rage that came to her. "Any word yet on our town's newest visitor. You probably talk to him the most at the diner."

"I've been chatting him up," Ruby admitted as she slid on tight fitting jeans, "But he's an enigma wrapped in a leather jacket. He tells me stories sometimes. About the places he's traveled."

"Do you want to travel, Ruby?"

"God, yes," she replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. It was easy as that for Regina to start putting the pieces together in the puzzle Gold had dropped in her lap earlier that day.

"Well, if you're looking for a job that offers the opportunity, I think you made the wrong career choice." She stands from the bed then, smoothing out her dress before reaching for her blazer.

It was a seed. Small enough to slip in unnoticed, but what doesn't go unnoticed is Ruby's stint at the sheriff's station. She'd be able to find the heart no problem. And Emma, as annoying and oblivious as she could be, could find the rest of the items needed to get Mary Margaret. Even if she had to sacrifice one of her only friends in the town, it would be worth it. Snow had to suffer like she did. It was as simple as that.

But it wasn't. She was sacrificing the only friend she had in the town, next to Ruby – who she was using as a pawn anyway. It was to get the vengeance she needed, she reminded herself as she dug the hole and placed Mary Margaret's jewelry box inside. Kathryn who had been the first real friend she had made in twenty-eight years, and Regina sent her off to be at the mercy of Gold's whim. Regina may as well have sent her to the butcher, she feared.

Ruby found the heart, the DNA sample was a match, and Mary Margaret got taken in. It should have been a banner day for Regina, but when she saw Ruby leaving the Sheriff's station the night of, the guilt of the whole plan hit her hard at the sight of her distraught face of the young woman.

She watched from across the street as Ruby called someone on her cellphone and went on to ignore the vibrations of her own phone, clutched tightly in her hand. It wouldn't be right, and Regina had had her fill of not doing to the right thing for that evening. She drove away unnoticed and fell into a troubled sleep when she returned home.

When she dreams – something that has become more frequent since the appearance of Emma Swan – it's Red she sees, not Ruby. But it's not the Red she knew, it's a Red who exists in this world, free of make up and without her usual smile. She sees Snow White, even if she's dressed as Mary Margaret, and Archie certainly doesn't turn back into a cricket. It terrifies her to see the hate in Red's eyes. She can accept it from anyone else, save Henry. Henry who hates her so much in real life that it doesn't surprise her when she dreams of him plotting against her. But when she sees the hate in Red's eyes, it's like salt on a wound.