Well, I got tired of waiting for reviews... still don't have any, but whatever. I will update anyway because it was 2013 when I last updated this. Crazy huh? Oh well. Here goes.

Chapter 2: Softening the Beast

Cameron sat at his chair, tapping his fingers on the table and waiting for his guest to make her appearance. It was proper etiquette that all members of the house and guests must be seated at the table before food can be served. He checked his pocket watch and growled impatiently. "That's it, I'm getting her down here." He got up and stomped out of the room. Anastasia followed him.

"Master, don't be too harsh on her, she probably doesn't have this routine at home," said Anastasia, trying to soothe Cameron's anger.

"I don't care. She had to have heard the house stirring, she has to be awake. She must learn to live in this house," said Cameron.

"Master, patient gestures and kind words are the mark of a gentleman."

"I am no gentle man." Cameron snorted this and pounded on the door. "Megan! Get out this instant!"

"No! I'm not coming!" Meg shouted from the other side of the door.

"Manners, Cameron, mind your manners, and speak gently to her."

Cameron slapped his face. "Oh, the things I do for my meal. Megan, may you please join me for breakfast? It would be an honor to have a lady such as yourself at my table."

"No!" said Meg.

Cameron looked at Anastasia with the 'You see?' gesture and turned back to the door. "My patience is wearing thin, Megan, please, join us for breakfast."

"I'm not hungry," said Meg.

"If you will not dine with me, then you can starve!" Cameron growled.

He stormed off and Anastasia said, "Oh, dear..." She then rushed off to try to calm him down.

Meg was not having a good time. She was taken from the only people she knew and was forced to stay with a monster. She cried bitterly into her pillow. She could only imagine what horrors awaited her everywhere.

Meg heard a loud thump in the wall and looked in the direction of the sound and saw a giant snake looking at her. She screamed. "Wait! Wait! I won't hurt you, please don't..." the snake was cut short by a hit to the head. Meg held her weapon, a measly candlestick in her hand, still upraised, if the creature should wake.

Meg's door unlocked (it could be locked or unlocked from both sides) and Cameron rushed in. "Vincent, wake up, buddy, wake up..." he said as he waved a vial near the snake's nostrils. The snake shook itself awake and cowered behind Cameron, afraid to be hit again. "I probably should have told you about Vincent."

"You have a pet snake?!" asked Meg.

"No, he's my brother. Each of my siblings changed form due to the enchantment. Vincent turned into a snake, Winston turned into a praying mantis, Gwendolyn, an angelfish, and Anastasia, a Great Blue Heron. I, however, was not blessed with a mere species change, as you well know," said Cameron. "I sent Vincent to check on you, but I suppose, being so used to his appearance, I didn't take time to think about how you would react to him. I apologize for my misguided action and I will strive to do better in the future. Now that you know what to look for though, why don't you go on a tour of the mansion? It's really quite nice once you see it the way I do." Cameron touched a part of the wall and, for a moment, the wall had color.

"This way, Miss Griffin," said Vincent, leading the way. As the tour went on, Vincent would point out key points, like expensive items, or items of sentimental value to the family, or rooms. Meg was actually getting used to a snake giving the tour, that is, until a mouse showed up. "Hello, breakfast," said Vincent, taking up the small creature in his great mouth and swallowing it whole. "I apologize, my dear, but my instincts rather took over. Don't worry though, I have no desire for human flesh for consumption." The tour continued, and soon, they reached the beginning of a set of stairs. "That is the West Wing, that is where the Master's domain is. It is strictly forbidden for anyone but himself to be up there."

"Why?" asked Meg.

"It just is... please, my dear, don't test him. Cameron Dogg has never been a man of great patience. If he saw you in the West Wing, it may very well mean your life. Turning around, why don't we head down to the ground floor? There are many interesting works of art and rooms of tasteful... Miss Griffin? Miss Griffin!" While he had been talking, Meg ran off.

Meg had went into the West Wing, wanting to know why it was forbidden. A woman is like a cat, they must investigate, even though it might wind up badly for them. She looked briefly into several rooms, but there was only one room that held anything of interest to her.

She went into the room that was Cameron's bedroom and noticed the furnishings were all over the place. Clothing was scattered on the floor like in a teenage boy's room. A portrait on the wall had a slashed picture of a dog that looked fairly handsome and reminded Meg of Brian. As she went further into the room, she noticed a glass case in which sat a red rose. The rose was glowing and looked much smaller than a rose in full bloom. She took off the case and went to touch it, but was met by a growling from behind her.

Cameron had come in and noticed what she was doing. He took the glass case and replaced it over the rose and stood around it protectively. "Why are you here? Didn't Vincent tell you that the West Wing is forbidden? Don't you know that forbidden means you need to STAY OUT?!" He roared and caused Meg to run away. She ran out of the West Wing as fast as she could and headed into the main hall.

"Where are you going?" asked Anastasia.

Meg screamed, but remembered what Cameron had said about the enchantment. "I can't stay here. It's too horrible!" She ran out the door and into the cold, snowy night.

"Oh dear..." said Anastasia again.

"She didn't go outside, did she?" asked Cameron, approaching Anastasia. The look in her eyes told him all.

"You can't go out there! The wolves will tear you apart!" said Winston, coming in on his hover-platform.

"Ladies, gentlemen, it's been an honor being your master," said Cameron as he went out into the cold, snowy morning.

Once outside, Cameron took a shocked breath at how cold the air felt against his body. He looked at the snow and noticed the still fresh tracks of Meg's footprints. He got on all-fours and ran after her, ignoring the cold.

Meg, meanwhile, was running as fast as she could, trying to remember which way was the highway. She couldn't stay with someone so fierce and cruel as Cameron Dogg, her own family treated her better than that. For all she knew, she could have been breakfast that morning. She heard noises around her and stopped short. That lunatic couldn't be following her, could he? She looked around and as the sounds got closer, she noticed she was surrounded by a pack of thin wolves... and they looked hungry. She picked up a stick from the ground and tried to fend for herself, but was almost overwhelmed, had it not been for a flash of black that attacked an oncoming wolf.

Meg opened her fearful eyes, having closed them from bracing herself, and noticed a black cloaked figure that could only be Cameron fighting off the wolves. It was a blur of black cloth and grey fur in the fight. As she watched, out of the corner of her eye she noticed another wolf. She screamed and Cameron immediately came to her rescue, delivering a Superman punch to the wolf's skull. The wolf yelped and ran off.

Cameron picked up the stick Meg had dropped and twirled it in the air. The wolves came, but they were no match for Cameron. Whether fighting them off using feral or kung fu means, he fought them off. Not one wolf got to Meg to harm one hair on her. After a few minutes, it seemed to be done, most of the wolves had run off, but there was still one more that attacked Cameron from behind. It got on his back and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out how to get him off. The wolf buried its fangs into Cameron's arm and he screamed. Cameron jumped off the ground and landed on his back, and the wolf. He then got off, turned around, and began beating the wolf in the ribs until the wolf ran off yelping.

Cameron panted from his efforts and put a hand out to Meg to help her up. She shakily took it and followed his lead back to the mansion. She was too overcome with what had just happened to say anything.

When they reached the mansion, Cameron was quick to close the door and collapse on the floor. "Master!" Anastasia exclaimed in fear. "Pick him up and put him on my back," she said. Meg complied. She couldn't help but notice how thin Cameron felt, and how incredibly feeble he seemed under her hands. His power against the wolves was not something she would have expected from a body like this.

Anastasia carried Cameron to his study and a fire immediately started in the fireplace, yet another advantage to the enchantment, they never went cold. "Well, why aren't you helping him?" asked Meg.

"None of the residents of this house have hands except you and Cameron," Anastasia replied. She took a first-aid kit from the corner and put it in Meg's lap. "I'll be with you every step of the way, dear." Meg felt scared, but she knew she couldn't leave Cameron in this state, not after he saved her life.

"Wait, no... please, you don't want to see me," Cameron said, almost feverishly.

"Oh, relax, Master, she'll only be patching up your arm," said Anastasia. Using her beak, she ripped off Cameron's sleeves on his wounded arm. Meg gasped, but went right to work patching him up.

Meg put alcohol on some cloth to disinfect the wound. "This will sting a little," she said.

"Everything does," Cameron replied. Despite this, he still tensed with the contact of the alcohol on his skin. He stared into the fire, wanting to not only avoid the sight of his skin, but also the sight of Meg looking at his skin. As she finished patching him up, he said, "Thank you. Any other woman wouldn't have done this. I appreciate it. I'm really very sorry for how I treated you earlier... it's just been a while since I've been in contact with the outside world. The enchantment has made me stiff to so many things. You have loosened my attitude a measure, and for that and for fixing me up and for getting me in a happier mood than I've been in years, I thank you."

"Thank you for saving me from the wolves... you didn't have to do that," said Meg.

"Leaving you to them would have been the same as murder. They like crowding the forest this time of year."

Anastasia had since left the room, but stood on the threshold and smiled. "She's softening the beast."

There's that chapter done. I think if this was the Beauty and the Beast movie, I would be about halfway through. We'll just have to see what happens next. I don't think I will do a musical like I originally thought. Please keep reading and reviewing, thanks :)