Beauty and the Beast

"Please," I gasped.

Laurent shook his head, his face kind. "Look at it this way, Bella. You're very lucky I was the one to find you."

"Am I?" I mouthed, faltering another step back. Laurent followed, lithe and graceful.

"Yes," he assured me. "I'll be very quick. You won't feel a thing, I promise. Oh, I'll lie to Victoria about that later, just to placate her. But if you knew what she had planned for you, Bella…" He shook his head with a slow movement, almost as if in disgust. "I swear you'd be thanking me for this."

I stared at him in horror.

He sniffed at the breeze that blew thread of my hair in his direction. "Mouthwatering," he repeated, inhaling deeply.

I tensed for the spring.

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Laurent had lied when he said that I wouldn't feel a thing.

My entire body was filled with a mindless, screaming agony. Fire, scorching hot, was crawling through my veins. I would gladly sell my soul to the devil, if only it would make that fire go away.

Blood was spilling quickly from the place on my arm where he'd bit me. Gritting my teeth against the shriek of pain that threatened to escape me, I looked up at Laurent. His eyes were burning with an animal need that I recognized.

"End it," I begged. "Please, just make it stop."

Laurent nodded absently and slid forward to oblige me. Not like James, I thought with an alien sense of triumph. Laurent wouldn't draw it out for entertainment—he would simply kill me and feed.

Through the thick haze of pain, in my mind's eye I saw Edward's face. His profile was beautiful, as always, and very clear—it was as if I had just reached down for him from the bottom of my consciousness, as if he'd been there all along. It didn't matter how many times I'd tried to push it away; nothing could keep me from his image now. In my vision, Edward was smiling. "I love you, Bella," he told me. "I'll be waiting for you."

I let out a strangled sob as Laurent reached forward to snap my neck…

His hand paused in the action when, from far off, a furious howl sounded in the forest. It was like a wolf's howl, but different somehow, more intelligent.

Laurent's eyes were wide with terror. "No," he muttered to himself. "No…" Even through the agony, I was shocked as he turned and fled.

I was alone in the forest.

"Wait," I cried in a broken mumble; my body was going into shock from all of the pain. "Come back…Oh, God, just let me die…"

Dimly, I noticed that I was not alone in the forest, after all. Five gigantic, furry animals were suddenly there, sitting very still and watching me writhe in pain with dark eyes.

One of them, a rusty brown, larger than most of the others—let out a whimper. At this sound, and some other kind of unspoken command, the other four burst into action. Snarling and growling, they ran off in the direction Laurent had taken, disappearing from beyond my view into the woods.

The rusty brown was still here, whining softly. It approached me, its body using very wolf-like movements, and sat next to me. Its dark, knowing eyes were filled with an unshakable misery.

I let out another yelp of pain as the venom continued to spread.

The wolfy creature seemed oddly safe to me, despite its size and cruel-looking teeth. "Kill me," I pleaded, my voice rising in pitch as the pain worsened. All I could think about was the fire in my veins, the pain, and how I had to stop it.

A shudder racked the animal's huge frame, but it made no move towards me. It raised its muzzle and let out a long howl: filled with as much sadness as there was in his eyes.

One of the other wolf-things, a silver one, strode back into the meadow. Instead of more wolf-things, however, it was followed by three young men. Three young men I recognized…

But all thought was erased by another wave of blinding pain. I let out a hoarse yell, and saw one of the men wince out of the corner of my eye. "What are we going to do now?" asked a voice that I knew as Embry's.

There was no answer.

The russet brown wolf lay down next to me, laying its large head on its paws. The other men looked on in silence as the evening wore on, and my anguished cries mingled with the wolf's mournful howls.

Author's Note: Hey, everyone. I told you one day that I would do a real story, didn't I? Well, here it is. I might do a sequal if Bella ever meets up with Edward (which I haven't decided yet) but this story is about Bella and Jacob--hence the name Beauty and the Beast. I know this first chapter was a little dramatic. I don't think the others will be as bad. Oh, and I'm not going to try to copy Stephanie Meyer's writing style. I don't think anyone can do that, and I write better in my own style. Thanks for reading. I have another chapter written, but when I submit it depends on the number of reviews I get.

-Poola