CHAPTER 10

BELLE shivered, gritting her teeth as a cold gust of winter wind whipped her hair off her face and stung her wounded cheek. Though before she could determine which direction to take, a firm hand on her shoulder caused her to cry out in shock and surprise and whirl around on her heels.

"Belle! Stop! What do you think you're doing?!" LeFou snapped, not quite yelling at her, though the shorter, stouter man certainly did not look pleased to see her out in the frigid cold alone and unprotected.

Neither did his affianced, for that matter. Both of them had pursed lips and equally displeased scowls on their faces as they stared at her, wanting an explanation as to why she was out here in the cold, alone, in the middle of the night.

"You should go back inside, LeFou," Belle answered in a flat and emotionless-sounding tone.

"No!" LeFou angrily protested, coming to stand in front of her and placing either of his hands on her shoulders, and giving Belle a firm shake. "Are you out of your mind? Belle, no, think about what you're doing! It's the middle of the night, you're injured, it's winter, you can't go!" he shouted, inwardly flinching as the hurt look on Belle's face was almost too much for LeFou to bear. Instantly, Gaston's friend regretted speaking the words, knowing how harshly she was judged back in Villeneuve, but it was too late to take back his words. LeFou fell silent as Belle shook her head.

"My mind has never been clearer. I…I… I have to go back…" said Belle in a small voice, cringing almost immediately the words left her mouth as she watched both LeFou and Claire's faces drain off what little color was left, and she knew it had nothing whatsoever to do with the chill. Both of them stared at her as though her mind had gone insane.

Even she felt surprised at her own boldness.

LeFou and Claire drew in stuttering breaths as the cold shocked their burning lungs as they looked at one another in horror, thinking that surely, they had heard the inventor's daughter wrong.

Had the entire realm fallen on them?

LeFou and Claire exchanged a dark, knowing stare before they collectively shook their heads no in response and turned to stare at her, both wanting to believe that they had heard the young French girl wrong. But her tone was serious and her expression as grim as a graveyard, and there was no hint of any kind of jest or joking traced within Belle's brown eyes.

"Y—you can't…" LeFou's voice warbled.

Belle could only stare at Gaston's oldest compatriot, something akin to pity flickering through her dark brown eyes as she nodded, signaling that she disagreed with his words.

"If I don't go back, the prince is only going to send his men to the village and kill my father. I'm sure of it. They won't stop hunting for me…I think it's safest for him and for Gaston if I leave…"

LeFou was instantly transformed into stone, rigid and unmoving, as a hot, marring shame rained down on him like a shower of arrows. Belle turned towards Claire, who vehemently shook her head no with a desperate want to convince the girl that her idea was foolish and mostly a suicide run.

"We can't let you do that, mademoiselle. Please." Claire stepped forward as if to take hold of Belle's arm, though she stopped when Belle automatically took a step back away from her.

Still, she had to try. She tried again, hoping to supplicate the young woman into staying put.

"Why don't we escort you back inside? Get you warmed up. Monsieur Dupont would bloody murder us both if we let you go deep into the Wolves' Woods alone. There are wolves out there," she pointed out, though Belle did not need reminding. For at that exact moment, a lone wolf howled in the distance that set their blood cold.

"I can't. I h-have to go back." Belle's face crumpled again as she turned away and shook her head, threatening to break down where she stood. "I will not sit by in safety while my father is hunted down by the prince's scouts and tortured. I shan't eat mead while he's forced to suck on bones. I will not wait for word to come of his death, or…" She wiped at her eye as her throat hallowed. "He's so old, my Papa…I'm all that he has left. I can't let my father die. I gave the prince my word. I—I have to go back. I'm sorry, LeFou, but there's no other way. You don't have to tell Gaston you caught me slipping out," she said, a twinge of bitterness laced throughout her voice as she momentarily looked away. "He'll figure it out himself when he wakes and I'm not there," she answered, not looking at either LeFou or at Claire for the moment, as the mask of calm she wore to hide her true feelings was beginning to crumble and break in front of the pair of them.

Claire instinctively locked the younger woman in her arms as the girl let out shuddering, frustrated sobs. All of Monsieur Gaston's planning, all the risk that had been done to claw her away from her fate working as a servant for the prince, will be wasted. But she could not let her do this.

She glanced towards LeFou over her shoulder for help, though was horrified when the man's expression held a calm, almost contemplative look like he was considering her words and finding her statement to have merit.

"How do we do it, my lady?" he murmured. "Will you really go back to the prince and admit your escape?" Beside him, he felt Claire shudder.

Belle let go of Claire, wiping at her eyes and straightening her gait. She slowly nodded her head. "The prince saw Gaston take me, but I don't think he truly understands the circumstances." She lifted her chin and jutted it out slightly defiantly. "I will go back to the castle and tell him it was my idea. That I planned for Gaston to rescue me," she said slowly, nodding as she figured it would have to be enough, and hope the prince would accept her excuse. She would be punished. Of that, she was certain, but if this was the only way to save her father and not let Gaston take the fall for this, then she could live with whatever punishment the man saw fit to give out, is what Belle tried to tell herself.

She noticed LeFou and Claire's horror-stricken expressions and tried to reassure them that she was going to be just fine.

"It'll be alright," Belle stammered, trying to convince herself to believe her own words she spoke to them both.

"And Gaston?" LeFou challenged, almost sounding angry with Belle as he folded his arms across his chest. "You could really do that to him, Belle, after the trouble he went through to get you out of that place, you would willingly just…leave?"

LeFou stared incredulously at Belle in shock and disbelief, as though Belle had sprouted antlers.

Belle nodded, her lips twitching as she fought against the wry, sad smile that threatened to break across her face, causing her wounded cheek to throb in the process. She flinched.

"It's the only way. I will be alright," she repeated, lifting her chin, and turning on the heels of her boots, clutching her cape tighter around herself. She made to take the first step back in the direction that Gaston had steered his horse earlier, though she paused and peered over her shoulder to shoot Claire a soft smile, hoping one day, to be able to call LeFou's affianced a friend. That was, assuming she survived whatever fresh hell the prince might have in mind for her when she returned. "Thank you for—for helping me. I hope one day, you and I will meet again someday…."

It was all she could muster at the moment.

Claire inclined her head and offered a slight polite curtsy. "You're welcome, mademoiselle."

Without another word, heaving a haggard sigh, knowing there was no changing the brunette's mind, she recognized that stubborn streak in the inventor's daughter, Claire turned on her heels to head back inside. Her mind was made up, and nothing that she or LeFou said was going to change it. Behind her, she heard LeFou speak.

"Won't you at least take my father's horse, Belle? It would surely beat walking in this cold…" LeFou's nervous voice stammered off as again, Belle shook her head, waving away the kind offer.

"It's not that far. It surely won't take me more than half an hour to make it back to the estate. I will be just fine," she whispered, her words almost lost over the roar of the winter wind. "I don't want you to worry about me, LeFou…This decision is mine to make. This is my choice, sir."

And without another word to the man and before LeFou could protest, Belle turned on her heels and marched away from LeFou's parents' house, leaving poor LeFou standing in the cold.

Only one thought resonated in his mind. That he and Claire had just allowed Belle, the object of his oldest and perhaps his only friend's affections, to wander into the heart of the Wolves' Woods alone, with no protection, no horse. Alone.

Dread began to seep into LeFou's stomach at the idea of the one task he knew he feared above all else: telling Gaston the truth of Belle. Bile rose in his throat at the thought, but Gaston deserved to know in order to save her.

Barely managing to repress his groan as unpleasant visions began to flit in his mind's eye of what Gaston was going to do to him when he woke up and learned the truth of what happened, he shivered as a cold chill went down his back. LeFou, not wanting to linger outside in the cold, shivered as a cold chill wafted down his spine as another piercing howl from a wolf in the distance rent the air. He made to head back inside, though not before pausing to peer over his shoulder.

"I must be out of my mind," LeFou growled darkly to himself as he opened the door of his parents' home and shut the door firmly behind him. The man was smart enough not to look back.

IT didn't seem like Belle had been walking for long, the faint outline of the towering parapets and buttresses of the towers of the prince's castle just barely visible through the canopy of the trees, when Belle began to notice something rather odd.

Belle looked over her shoulder, unable to shake the strong feeling in her gut that she was being watched.

It was an uneasy feeling, and as she was alone, she had no one to which to confess it.

Surely, she was just being silly, she tried to tell herself in the hopes of calming down her fears.

It was just because she was wandering in unfamiliar territory, and the very thought of going back to that wretched Prince who was more monster than man was sticking with her and scared her, more than Belle cared to admit then.

Now, as she gazed over the winter white landscape, she saw nothing, not a single person or creature in her line of sight, but Belle still felt eyes on her. It was dark, anyone could be hiding out here, waiting for her, watching her.

Belle shook her head to herself and let out a slow, deep breath. "Stop it!" she scolded herself, her embarrassment quickly turning towards anger. The longer she dwelled on such uncomfortable feelings, the more at risk she was putting herself.

And Papa, she thought nervously to herself, a stab of fear pricking at her heartstrings. It was thoughts of her father that propelled the young woman to keep going, though a noise gave her pause and she froze dead in her tracks at the sound.

She turned around and had been about to take another step forward, when the sound of a crunching twig underfoot caught her attention, as did the familiar low, guttural sound of a wolf snarl.

Suddenly, Belle's ears were burning, and her stomach was in knots, her heart pounding in her throat painfully. She swallowed and it felt like she was swallowing knives. It was a wolf. Definitely.

"No, no, no, no!" Belle breathed frantically. She looked around. She needed something sharp.

Something she could kill the creature with, in self-defense if it were going to come to that, though she prayed not. She had never killed anything in her entire life and didn't want to start.

Belle's nervous eyes made a quick scan of the snow-covered ground around her and spotted a splintered, half-broken-off branch nearby. It wasn't much and didn't look at all sharp, but it was going to have to do. Hastily, she knelt to pick it up.

She held the overly large branch up in her hands, raised up by her face and ready to swing if need be. She inched backward and turned around.

Oh, god. A sickening horrible wave of a cold fear settled in the pit of her stomach as the four-legged huge, hulking beast of a wolf came padding towards her, its great size and bloodied muzzle sending shards of terror through her.

As the wolf drew closer, Belle slowly retreated, thinking that any sudden movements she made might spook it, and cause the beast to lunge at her.

She felt like she was going to drop dead from the fright. Her heart pounded in her ears, her throat hurt, and Belle was starting to feel dizzy. Suddenly, she wished LeFou or Claire had come and had at least seen her to the castle's gates.

This creature's teeth and claws were huge, very pointy, and the speed, ferocity, and strength in which she had seen a few wolves move earlier when Gaston had hidden her from a pack of them were honestly fear-inducing, and now was no exception. With a sharp, pained gasp, Belle stumbled back and let out a startled yelp as the brief heel of her boot snagged on what was likely a twisted, gnarled old tree root hidden beneath the snow, or more accurately, her own foot.

A startled pained cry left her lips as she felt her ankle twist in a way that it shouldn't, and a searing heat began to be radiated from her foot, just enough to let her know that she had twisted, but not broken, her foot. She swung out with the stick erratically, her aim wild. Though she missed as the wolf lunged.

Before the young woman had a chance to even wonder what was happening, she felt a searing pain in her arm, as a pair of ferocious jaws clamped down over the limb, viciously tugging her backward off her feet and through the snow.

Belle let out a startled scream as white-hot, searing pain blinded behind her eyelids, and accidentally dropped the stick she had been holding. Gritting her teeth as she twisted her body in an effort to regain the hold on the stick, Belle realized that the wolf had dragged her too far away from it. She had no means to defend herself.

She breathed in a shuddering breath as she saw the stick lying several yards away from her by this point, but really had no way to get to it. Not with her arm clamped so securely in the wolf's jaws.

"NO!" Belle screamed, balling her free hand into a claw, and trying to gouge out its eyes as fresh tears blinded and stung the edges of her eyes. That only seemed to anger the white wolf more, as it clamped down its jaws on her trapped arm even tighter, making Belle's right arm throb in pain as a pained scream tore through her throat.

Letting out another pained, frightened cry, Belle grabbed at the beast's jaw, trying to pry it off of her with her free hand. She knew she was no match against this creature, to kill it or even hurt it.

But she could at least try to free her arm and escape. That seemed to be just about her only option at this point, to run, but only if she could get her arm free. Still grimacing painfully, Belle put what little was left of her rapidly fading strength into trying to pry the monster's jaws open with just one hand, whimpering and squeezing her eyes shut when the wolf just clamped down harder, grazing her fingers with its sharp incisors as blood dripped down out the sides of its mouth.

Oh, god. It was so horribly painful but even more terrifying. What if it bit her arm off? What if she bled out here in the cold and went into shock? Belle clenched her eyes shut and shrunk down, trying to make herself as small as possible as she felt the vicious animal attacking her bite down on her arm again and swipe its claws across her body again.

This time, hitting her arm more than her chest, and seemingly, shallowly so. A pained, frightened scream choked her up as her tongue felt thick in her mouth, as the wolf clamped down its jaws onto her arm even harder, raising a sharp claw up again, ready to slash her.

It was only a matter of time before she was killed. With a claw-like that, it could cut an artery. Just when Belle was confident she was about to have her heart clawed right out of her chest, Belle inexplicably felt the weight lifted off of her.

When her lungs heaved to cough, she pried open her eyes and stared up with wide eyes at the unspeakable fresh horror that loomed over her.

"Oh my God…" she whispered, her voice cracking. She tried to open her mouth to scream, though all that escaped her cracked and wind burnt lips was a squeak that turned into a cough.

The frightening sight in front of her she now bore made Belle's pupils dilate even in the dark of night.

Something huge and hulking stood over her, its blue eyes burning like midnight torches, and Belle could clearly draw that loathing that spiraled within this—this unholy thing that was surely crawled from the depths of Hell itself and sent to this realm to torment her, was that it? This creature that now towered over her, standing at around at least a good six feet, Belle guessed, was a savage monster, in every literal sense of the word. Huge, hulking, hairy, and horned, though it stood on two legs. Briefly, she wondered if she now found herself face-to-face with Skin Changers, the peasants called them, people who could shapeshift by means of magic into other creatures, other beings, other humans.

It then occurred to her that the wolf was no longer making any kind of sound. Did that mean…

Did that mean that this…creature, this beast…had saved her life? But if it had, why?!

Belle inhaled, her cracked lips opening and her fingers clawing at the cold winter air in front of her so her lungs could swell again with air. She fell against the red-stained snow, and it was then that she saw the wolf's carcass a few feet from her.

Its mutilated carcass still warm and bleeding, and an overflow of crimson against white. She slowly sat up, clutching her now-bleeding and wounded arm close to her chest, her fright slowly seeping into her chest from this carnage and murderous scene in front of her.

She screamed, shuddering away from the massacred and the huge…beast, that had begun to stalk its way towards her on two legs, its cold blue eyes glistening as they remained fixed on her, its irises filled to the brim with intense loathing.

But there was something else: something she began to shiver for, that resembled abhorrence and worse, an almost frustrated…. desire. For her.

"I…I don't…I never…" Belle whimpered, keeping her bleeding arm clutched close to her chest, her voice trailing off. What she thought had been a healthy amount of fear only amplified when she heard the crunch of its paws padding towards her.

Her stomach churned and a chill ran through her so deeply that Belle started to violently tremble.

The fear was literally sickening. It was so bad that for a moment, she thought she might vomit as bile rose up in her throat. Her throat burned and hurt as she considered whether or not to say something to this Beast, her unexpected savior, but as she considered whether or not she should even speak, she struggled to decide how she would go about it.

Should she beg it? Could it even understand her words? Should she try to talk to it, try and make herself seem harmless to it? Maybe trying to supplicate it some would do her some good.

Or should she simply stay quiet and take whatever it was it was about to give her?

Maybe this creature might have some pity on her. But would a beast capable of killing a wolf, if this creature were some sort of Skin Changer, for she'd never seen a creature like this stand on two legs and wear clothes. Belle shivered with gritted teeth. Would this creature really let her go free? Was it not better to hold onto some dignity?

Or should she try to preserve her life by all means possible?

The questions raced through her brain at an unbelievable speed as this thing came closer, though as she instinctively scrambled back in an effort to put as much distance between this hellish monster from Hell itself and her, searing pain coursed through her newly-injured arm and she bit down on the inside of her cheek so hard that she instantly tasted blood.

"Please," she whispered, the words leaving her lips before she could even make the decision to speak them. "Please don't hurt me, I...I don't mean you harm," she begged, her breaths catching in her throat as a half-formed sob fled her lips.

Belle felt tears touch at the edges of her lids as she blinked a nearly frozen tear escaped as the creature came closer to her and Belle waited. She knew her chances of escaping were slim to none.

This monster was sure to pounce on her and catch her before she could even get two feet, and more to the point, her ankle was twisted. This creature could snap her in half like a twig with its jaws if it were a mind to.

Whatever this creature was, it started forward and Belle instinctively put her good arm up to shield her face.

"Wait!" she cried as the thing lunged for her, and it skidded to a halt and the beast froze.

Belle squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the inevitable feeling of teeth ripping into her flesh and blood pouring out of her, but it didn't come. When Belle had managed to regain some courage, she opened her eyes and looked at it.

The creature was staring at her blankly, but she could see the monster's piercing aquamarine eyes. They had the strange look that she used to attribute to her father whenever Papa was trying to make up his mind on something.

Almost…human. Amazed, Belle's eyes widened in both awe and horror. She felt sure this had to be a changeling.

What in God's name else could it be?

"Can you…. understand me?" she asked more softly, and bit down on her lip, as to her utter amazement, the beast inclined its head to her.

Belle sat up straighter, ignoring the ice-cold snow seeping into the thick fabric of her dress and cloak, and looked up towards the intimidating beast slowly. She didn't know how to go about this at all. She had never met a Changeling before.

Belle flinched when the creature slowly brought up a hairy claw, its left, and hovered its long fingernails over her stitched up and scarred cheekbone. Belle couldn't be sure, but she swore she heard it growl.

It was like a warm tingling charge that caused goosebumps to erupt all over her skin as she shivered. As she watched this monster staring at her, she felt a temporary surge of happiness rush inside of her.

This thing, it—it wasn't going to kill her! Maybe, just maybe, somehow, it had formed some type of attachment to her as a human being. In that brief fleeting moment, Belle felt as though everything she had done in her life, granted, it was only twenty years, had been worth it up till now. This thing didn't seem to want to kill her. Had she really done the impossible?

If only she knew what kind of attachment this monster had formed. Though Belle's surge of triumph quickly faded, however, as she watched this wolflike beast kneel into a crouch, looking like he was about to pick her up. But before Belle could feel the inevitable terror that would soon flood through her, black spots crept in at the edges of her vision, and her equilibrium failed as she felt her body pitch forward, landing completely unconscious at the creature's paws.

Its hairy face and crystalline blue eyes were the last things she focused on before her world went black and she slipped into a deep sleep from blood loss and exhaustion.

Belle was already unconscious as the creature gingerly lifted her in his arms and carried her on its two legs out of the Wolves' Woods and back towards the place she had been trying to get to.

The Prince's castle.