Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Christine Montgomery

Lex and Dorian were working on another case which infuriated Alek to no end. He had since gotten over his euphoria at having Lex at home again and was back to insisting she listen to him on basically everything of importance in her life. Of course Lex had never stopped defying him. She even scolded him from a near comatose state when he was arguing with Dorian in the hospital. Having her back out with Dorian on another case, no matter the details, was foolish if not dangerous. But Lex wouldn't listen and insisted that Alek spend him time checking in on Christine instead, since Lex and their half-brother were going to be busier than usual. Alek jumped at the idea. 

In honesty, he did enjoy the short time he had spent with Christine already. She was spirited, which he liked in a girl who wasn't his twin sister, and good company. But there was the added bonus that she and Dorian were an item of some kind, and that gave Alek extra incentive to become friendly with the girl.

Alek was looking at flowers in the market near Montgomery Manor. He knew how to woo a lady and flowers for no reason at all was almost always the first step.

[Christine Montgomery]

Christine was in the village that day. She couldn't be in the castle any longer. Her family was happy she was home, and everyone was extra careful around her. They assumed her misery was because of M, but in truth she was suffering Dorian's absence. The misery was driving her insane.

At first she had wanted to leave all together. She was of age, they couldn't stop her, but she didn't want to worry them. Instead she found herself staring at the bleeding heart flowers and finding it now appropriate that it was her favorite flower.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

He spotted Christine across the way. Her back was to him and she was looking longingly at some flowers. This saved him the trouble of figuring out which bouquet to bring her. He gave the clerk four galleons for the bleeding hearts, and went to claim his prize.

"Lovely flower," he said as he approached her from behind. "But not as lovely as the woman before me."

[Christine Montgomery]

"Alek!" she said genuinely pleased to see him, though confused as well, "What are you doing here?" she asked glancing in both directions as though an explanation could be found. She didn't ignore his compliment, but rather thought that was simply the way he was.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Alek smiled as he reached past her and picked up the bleeding heart flowers. "I came to see you," he said, handing them to her. "I'm afraid you've caught me though. I've been here for twenty minutes trying to decide which flowers were beautiful enough to be in your presence."

[Christine Montgomery]

She laughed and took them, breaking one flower off and placing it in her hair. The move was unconscious, but inviting all the same.

"You know, once you save a girl's life, you don't have to bring her flowers." she told him.

She enjoyed Alek's company. He was charming, teasing, playful, and dangerous. When she was with him she couldn't scratch the feeling that he was more beast than man, yet his manner was all kinds of civil, perhaps it was the wolfish way he looked at her, or the predatory way he looked at everyone.

Still there was something in his eyes, some great sadness that haunted him. He was lonely. Christine didn't know his life story, but she knew that.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Alek studied her. She had an ease about her that was alluring. He could see what had drawn Dorian to her but he could also see where his pathetic brother would loose her. Dorian was too rigid and uptight. He walked as if a string was pulling his head toward the heavens like a self-righteous marionette. But Christine...Christine was light. She laughed and showed a gentle side to her that Dorian would take for granted. She was playful and had a sense of humor, two characteristics Dorian had never exhibited before. Christine deserved a real man; a wolf of a man.

"Well, if you don't want them..." he said playful, pretending to steal the flowers away from her.

[Christine Montgomery]

"I didn't say that." she said holding them out of his reach. She smiled. The first smile since Dorian had left her. While it seemed impossible that she could smile after everything that had happened Alek was a familiar and welcome presence.

She walked with him in silence for a bit before remarking, "Lamprocapnos spectabilis."

She lifted the flowers to show him what she was talking about, "Bleeding hearts." she said giving the known name rather than scientific one.

"Do you know the story?" she asked him

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Alek shook his head. "No, but I'm going to guess it involves young love." There was a story behind everything, as if nothing existed until an emotionally charged even happened.

[Christine Montgomery]

She laughed, "Well, the flower is named bleeding heart." she said as an explanation for why it involved young love as well as emotionally charged events.

She took the flower from her ear and sat on a nearby bench, "Unrequited love. The best kind."

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Alek sat with her and watched as she removed the flower from her hair. He titled his head and raised his brow at her comment. "The best kind? Isn't that a bit of a morbid way of thinking about love?" If Alek had known of his brother's foolish actions in breaking Christine's heart, he would have better understood her macabre outlook on love. But Alek was ignorant to the woes of his brother, which would have given Alek great joy in return.

"Love shouldn't be one sided and neither should one person love the other more than they are loved in return. That is infatuation and lust. Perfectly fine emotions, but not love. Everyone deserves to be loved in return."

[Christine Montgomery]

"Sarcasm." she told him with a lengthy sigh. She straightened her posture then and made a face, "Wow, don't I sound cheery?" she asked with further sarcasm.

"But you're right, everyone deserves to be loved in return. And love shouldn't be so hard." she said with a hint of bitterness.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Alek's suspicions were growing about Christine's relationship with Dorian. He couldn't know for certain but he could smell the despair on her. He turned her head to face him. "Anyone who struggles to love you is a fool."

[Christine Montgomery]

"Refuses." she corrected. Dorian refused to love her or be with her any longer. She understood. "But it's not him. It's my fault." she didn't know why she was bringing this up with him, but he was easy to talk to.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Christine's strife caused Alek mixed emotions. He genuinely didn't want to see her hurt. She was Lex's friend which made her important to him on some level. In addition to caring about his sister, and Christine by proxy, from the limited amount of time he had spent with Christine so far he could see that she was a very lovely girl who had horrible things happen to her in the recent past, one of them being his idiotic brother. But at the same time that he was feeling a sort of sympathy for Christine, he was also elated at the news that her and Dorian were having a falling out.

"The Auror? Lex's partner?" He clarified, as if the show they had put on at the Ministry or the fit Dorian threw in the hospital at Lex's bedside hadn't made it clear enough. "What could you have possibly done to make anyone refuse to love you?"

[Christine Montgomery]

Christine glanced at him, "That obvious huh?"

She looked down guilt in her eyes, weariness in her soul, "I lied to him."

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

"If that stopped him from loving you, then he's a fool not deserving of your love. There are far more worthy that wouldn't throw you away out of pride." He was laying it on thick now, but at the same time he spoke the truth.

[Christine Montgomery]

"It's who he is." she said trying to explain, "I didn't just lie to him. I compromised him with the things I kept from him. He's so damn noble. And I violated his sense of nobility. I don't think he stopped loving me. I think he refuses to be with me, so I hurt us both really."

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

She was further gone than Alek had expected, but it would make the end result that much better. He gave her a sympathetic smile and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Come on," he said, hugging her and pulling her from the bench. "Let's talk of happier things. You're far too beautiful to wear such a sad expression."

[Christine Montgomery]

Christine smiled, "You're right." she told him, "I don't know about happier things, but I do know that I've got to keep moving. Thinking about how and why it ended won't make anything better." Christine wasn't the wallowing type. She was the move on and kick some ass type.

"How's Lex doing?"