"Blair," Max came pounding on the door, only to find no one at home. He entered it, but was greatly disturbed. She hadn't been home much lately, so he thought he would do some looking around. The oven was still warm to the touch, so she hadn't been gone long. There was a book on her bed, with an old letter marking its place. Nothing too important there. So she must have just left, he thought to himself. Must go find her.

He grabbed one of her cloaks and then went to his friends. Max was definitely a man on a mission and would not be made a fool of by Blair or anyone. Her little rendezvous would end, and he would challenge the man who had so fool heartedly made an attempt for her heart. Whoever it was could not compete with him, Max was sure of that.

"Come with me," he ordered his friends Cord and Cain.

"Where are we going?"

"Blair has upset me. We need to find her, so I can put this nonsense behind us for once and all. I'm growing tired of waiting for one girl. You will be my witnesses that she will accept my proposal of marriage," Max smiled smugly.

So the threesome set off on their journey, with Cord and Cain unaware of just how far Max would go to win. Competitive to the end, what he would find next would begin the mark of a bitter and wounded man, refusing to give in to his ego.

They were shocked when Cord's canine, David Vickers, picked up on a trail. None of them expected it to lead to where it did.

"This cannot be right," Cain said. "Surely she cannot be here. There must be some mistake."

"You idiot," Max scoffed. "Can't you see what has happened? The Beast has captured Blair and it is up to us to rescue her. This is a good thing. Surely she will be so grateful that she will not turn down my offer now. This changes everything. Come with me."

Cord and Cain looked at each other, not knowing whether or not they liked this, but they knew they had little choice. If this was what Max wanted, then they knew that he would get it. They didn't dare cross him, for they saw what he was capable of doing. If he could take on the beast, what would he do to them?

00000

Meanwhile in the castle, Todd and Blair were sitting in the parlor, enjoying a glass of wine by the candlelight.

"This is nice," Blair smiled.

"If you say so."

"Come on now," she patted his hand. "Can't you see this is much better than sitting by yourself locked up by yourself? I don't know how great of company I am but surely it beats talking to your pictures," she laughed.

"There are nothing wrong with my pictures. They remind me…"

"What," she whispered, looking closely at him.

"They just remind me of a different time. I don't want to talk about it," Todd said a little gruffly.

"You can tell me anything. I hope you know that."

He said nothing.

"The man in the photo…was that you?"

He shook his head no. "That is my brother, Victor."

"You have family?"

"He's all I have left. I should have burnt that picture a long time ago."

"But why…"

"Why doesn't he look like me?" Todd interrupted. "Good question. You'll have to ask my mother about that one."

"What's your mother have to do with anything?"

Todd stood up. "She's the one who did this to me."

Blair gasped. "She..she did this to you? What kind of mother would do such a horrible thing to their own child?"

"Not exactly mother of the year is she?"

"Oh, Todd. I'm sorry. I had no idea. Is this permanent?"

"Kind of. She did put some sort condition attached to it but I really don't want to talk about it."

"You can tell me anything, you should know that."

"I don't know if I should."

Blair stood up and took his hands. "Please tell me. Thank you for being honest with me. That's all I ask from you. Tell me the truth; don't lie to me. We'll never have any kind of friendship if you can't do that."

He looked away. "Well the problem is, I have to fall in love, and then I'll go back to being the person I was before. It's been so long I don't even know who that person is anymore."

"Wow. That's hard. You have to fall in love but you can't be around people. That's cruel." Blair thought about it. "But you have your whole life ahead of you. You can do this. I know you can."

"No, Blair, you don't understand," he walked away, shouting. " I have until the time I'm thirty and that's sooner than you know. So when you came along I thought that maybe, just maybe I had a chance, but now after what happened that became clear that nothing would ever happen. So unless you know some other female that can get past all of this," he pointed at himself." Then it's too late for me. I'm going to live like this- alone- forever."

Blair didn't think twice. She ran up to him and put her arms around him and kissed him and then waited. But nothing happened. Neither of them knew what they were expecting, but something, anything was better than nothing. Maybe Todd was right; maybe it was too late for him after all.

Unbeknownst to them, at that moment Max and his friends happened to walk in, setting a chain of events that would change everyone's lives forever.