Chapter Twelve

Adam looked down at his paws…no hands…he turned them, these looked like human hands but they weren't his. He took a deep breath in and heard the sound of guns, of weapons, of horses and he turned nervously. He could see blood. He could see swords covered in blood. Knives. He felt himself pushed back and put a hand to his chest. He brought it up to his face and turned it. Deep, warm, thick, blood. He coughed and felt it within his body, within his mouth.

"My son," he heard a familiar voice and he started to find a high pitched whistling in his ear. "Why did I promote you!? This was your future ruler!? Your future leader and you -"

"If I were you, I would take into consideration the men that are alive," Adam heard Gaston say as he reached out but the world started getting blurrier around him. "Your Majesty should know that when the dead have fallen, there is no way to revive them."

"How can you say that?" Adam asked but his voice didn't sound like his own. His brother. He was seeing things from the point of view of his oldest brother.

12.2

Adam sat up panting. He could hear from the sound of the bed's mattress and the way that his panting was heavier than a typical human male's that he was still 'the beast'. Holding onto his wrist for support, he tried to take deep breaths whilst finding sweat to be covering the fur on his face. What was that? How had he seen that? It had seemed so real.

He closed his eyes and brought his paw up to his forehead. He was imagining these things. They weren't really happening. He was going through a stressful situation and stressful situations led to bad dreams and horrible moments like what he had just experienced. "Calm down, you're here, you're safe."

"You are safe," he heard Belle's voice as she dabbed at his forehead with a damp cloth. She knelt before him, being mindful of their child in her womb. "Adam," she said slowly. "Was it a bad dream?" she asked and Adam frowned. He looked away.

"My brother -" he said not quite sure how to explain what he had just seen. "You know that my brother is fighting in another country," he told her and Belle nodded. He very slowly let his paw rest on her cheek and she curled into his touch. "And my father…and…"

"And Gaston," Belle completed the thought for him and Adam nodded once again.

"My brother might have been killed or…I don't know if it's possible," Adam looked at his wrist where he knew that the rose was embedded into his body. "I could see it, I could see my brother dying, it was as if I were him."

"Are you sure?" she asked him trying to be mindful. She didn't know how Adam would feel about this. His father and older brothers had caused him to be transformed into 'Beast' but Adam was different from them, he was loving and generous and empathetic. He would probably be hurting because a member of his family had died despite the cruelty that that same person had shown towards him. He shook his head and she placed her hands on his cheeks before standing to embrace his much larger body. "Then maybe it was just a dream," she tried to reassure him.

Adam smiled weakly and as Belle stepped back, he let his paw go through her hair. She smiled to him and sat down on the bed next to him, letting her body lean into his.

"How can you do that? How can you see through this…this body?" he asked her and Belle hummed.

"I'm looking at you," she tried to assure him. "But, when I look at you and when I look at you in your…true form," she said knowing that's the way he perceived it. "You make me realize that no matter what it's contained in, you only have one soul, Adam, you only have one inner self. So you can stretch it or shrink it however you'd like but your mind doesn't change so you don't really change."

Adam nodded and pulled her closer to him. He took a deep breath and looked up but still smiled when Belle relaxed into his chest. "I really do hope that was just a dream."

12.3

Two days following that dream, Belle had been reading with Adam in the library when the two had heard a pounding on the front door to the castle. Adam gulped as he looked at his paws. He couldn't let an outsider see him in this manner. Still, that had to be excessive pounding for them to even hear the echo of it this far into the castle.

Adam looked at her. "Do we remain still? Will they say that we are out?" he asked and Belle shook her head. She let her hand rest atop of his and her fingers spread sinking into the fur of his paw.

"They think that you are in bed trying to conquer your…illness," she said and Adam sighed. He shook his head with a roll of his eyes.

"Some sickness," he commented and Belle heard a knock on the library door. She walked over to see Lumiere standing there looking very uncomfortable. Adam stared at him. Was this that urgent? Couldn't they just send whoever it was away with some excuse?

"Adam, this is…your brother…" he said and then gave a sad look to him and Adam already knew what he was going to say, he knew the words which he was going to hear. "The second son, your brother, is at the castle doors at this moment and your…I am very sorry to inform you that -"

"I know," Adam nodded. He took a slow breath in. If his brother saw him in this manner then all was lost. He would be trapped and sold as an animal, a secret weapon of theirs. He wouldn't be able to stay with Belle and their child. "He died on the battlefield fighting alongside Gaston and my father."

"You knew?" Lumiere asked in disbelief and Adam nodded. He needed to learn more about those dreams but yes, he had known or he had experienced the death of the heir to the throne. "The prince is demanding to speak with you. He is the new heir in line, the second son and he has -"

"I know," Adam said as Belle kissed him and pressed her forehead against the side of his face next to his horn. "He has power over the servants of this castle especially in his duty as the acting king. I know that it is necessary for me to enter a discussion with him."

"Let me try first," Belle whispered as she kissed her love. "Maybe you don't need to see him."

"That might be for the best," Lumiere said and Belle took slow breaths before going to see Adam's older brother. She nervously placed a hand over her belly where the baby was growing and did the best formal curtsey she could given her size. The second prince looked as if he had been caught in the rain and was pacing, a look of panic on his face which Belle wasn't expecting.

"I asked to see my brother," the prince said and Belle nodded.

"I understand but Adam is quite ill, he needs bedrest. He sent me to talk to you. He's feverish and though it isn't infectious…I -"

"So I can see him?" the prince asked and then looked away. "I would like to apologize to him, to you both. I have been selfish and I'm being selfish now with what I have to ask him." Belle stared at him. What was he going to ask him? No. That wasn't important right now.

"I'm afraid that it's best for his health if -" Belle tried to say and found the prince to push past her. She moved herself so that she could block his pathway but he moved quicker, this time going up the stairs. She was glad that Adam wasn't in the room but how much longer would it be until he was found out? "He truly is sick," Belle said quite flustered and the man shook his head.

"I don't believe that he's too sick to see his own brother," the prince said and Belle was about to argue again before she heard a soft but loud recognizable voice.

"Antoine!" Adam called out and Belle could see that he had turned into his human self, the rose appeared on his arm. Despite looking human, Adam was still very pale and looked ill and Belle hoped that this wasn't what he truly looked at. "Antoine! You can stop searching for me, you wanted to see me?"

"Adam," Antoine said as he walked over to his brother who was staring at him with slight anger in his expression. "I understand that emotion," Antoine said as he went to Adam and placed a hand on his shoulder. Adam stared at his hand in shock but didn't shrug it off. "I want to offer my apologies though I doubt that I need to. I do have more power than the third in line."

"Before you do what?" Adam asked before gesturing around himself. "To evict my wife, myself, and our unborn child from this castle. I have made friends with the servants here, we care about one another as if we were truly a family so even if you do try to have me evicted, I have people who love me an-"

"I don't want to be king," Antoine told him and Adam took a step backwards trying to wrap his head around this. He was only human right now because he needed to be human but if he didn't murder then he would return to his beast form and spend the majority of his life like that. Nobody wanted a beast as their king.

"Well it's your role," Adam coughed.

"When you are well enough, I will step down and you will be heir to the throne. It's a role that you never believed would be yours," Antoine argued and Adam turned to Belle. They both know that wasn't the point. Adam blinked as the image in his mind turned to him standing as his beast self with a long cape with fur trim and a crown on his head whilst holding a scepter. Nobody wanted a beast as their king.

"I am ill, I am unfit and unsuited to be the king. Father is alive still, at least to our knowledge," Adam told him. "You need to not shirk your duties."

"When father returns, I will step down and that will mean that you are the heir to the throne," Antoine informed his younger brother. Belle looked between them. It was a good thing Adam was human right now or otherwise the conversation may have been very different. "If you step down too then you are once again bringing dishonor on our family name."

"That is nothing new," Adam argued, "Our family is used to my bringing dishonor to them. You are the next in line," he said as he maintained eye contact with his brother.

"Then prove that they made a mistake. You are no longer that hideous inhumane monster," Antoine told him and Adam stared at him, he opened his mouth but no words came out. Yes, he was still that hideous monster, his current body was only temporary to him. Nobody wanted to be ruled by a Beast.

End of Chapter Twelve

Thank you for reading

Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Eleven

BellatrixBlack1997, gisela19wwe, Rachel