Beauty and the Beast

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

“You think this pack can survive without leadership? Or is it that you fancy yourself a new leader for a new age? There have been many before you, come to challenge my family as rightful Alphas of this pack, you will not be the first to succeed.”

The mutineer laughed. “We’ll see,” he said tauntingly, before addressing his followers. “Take him.”

Instantly the four wolves lunged at Alek, teeth bared as they attacked. The first one swung at him and Alek grabbed the man’s arm, using the force from his attacker’s swing to twist his arm behind his back before kicking him in the back of the knee and forcing him to the ground just as his friend came barreling toward them. Alek threw the first man forward into the second, and kicked the third that was coming from the other direction. All three fell away from him as Alek drew his wand and aimed it at the ring leader.

[Christine Montgomery]

Christine was transfixed by the strange objects and weaponry Alek kept at his desk. She might have been frightened when she entered the room, but the more she saw the more intrigued she was. Her earlier fear that he might have been M had dissipated. Alek wasn't M, but he wasn't who she thought he was either.

Who was he?

As if the room had heard her question Christine stumbled upon a clue.

She ran her finger gently along the edge of a blade not expecting the wicked sharpness to pierce her skin. Cursing she fell into the chair behind the desk. Her knee hit a hidden latch and revealed a secret compartment. A leather bound book had been hidden inside.

Forgetting her mild injury she reached hungrily for the book and flipped to the latest entry...

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

I fear I am losing my beloved sister to the harsh wilds that is London. The city offers so many pleasures we were denied as children and I am reminded that it is because of me that she was not permitted the chance at a happier life than that which our parents gave us. Aleksandra has always stayed by my side and protected me, but when I saw the opportunity for her escape I was too coward to let her go. I find that I still do not have the courage to allow her her happiness.

Perhaps if she had been raised by kinder parents than ours she would not find comfort in such a treacherous position as she has on the Auror force. But then hers has always been a protective heart and she surely would have found herself drawn to the weak in some way or another. But I am scared for her. She does not acknowledge the pain of her attack as she knows I am frightened for her, but her whimpering at night draws me to her and her night terrors overtake her. I am both relieved and concerned that she has no knowledge of her terrible dreams when she awakes. I charm away the bruises from where I have had to hold her down to keep her safe.

I am concerned further still about what may happen at night as she spends more time from our home. She has been keeping a room in the city, no doubt to avoid my relationship with her friend Christine. Yet another beast that plagues me as I have driven a wedge between the two. Aleksandra trusted me to protect her friend and I seem unable to control myself at the mere mention of the girl. My sister is once again alone and I am the reason for it. I fear I am the monster my father always knew me to be.

[Christine Montgomery]

The passage certainly grabbed Christine's attention. She wanted more than anything to leave the basement and find Lex and hold her. She had no idea about Lex's night terrors, or how their strained relationship might have affected her or Alek. She chewed on her lip mulling over what she had learned.

She was about to return to another passage in the journal when the pensieve against the wall caught her eye.

"Yahtzee!" she said placing the journal back and then striding confidently to the well of secrets. She would finally learn who Alek really was. She experienced a brief moment of hesitation as her conscience told her again how much a violation of privacy this all was, but it was only a moment before she plunged forward.

[Christine Montgomery]

"Wake up Boy!" Eirik growled nudging his son with the toe of his boot. It was the early hours just before dawn. Eirik still hadn't slept. He spent the night interrogating the village for the traitor within the pack, and as his pathetic excuse for a son would some day be Alpha, a thought that was truly debatable in Eirik's mind, he was to learn how an Alpha dealt with traitors.

"Boy!" he barked, "Don't make me say it again!"

An eight year old Alek stirred, his blond curls matted to his face from sleeping huddled under his warm blanket where the monsters couldn't find him. Except they had found him. Alek stretched as he opened one eye.

"Father?" Alek said through a yawn.

"Get dressed!" he ordered before leaving, knowing that his order would be followed with all haste.

Alek could accomplish the task without being fully awake, though the waistband of his pants were twisted and his shirt was on backwards. He managed to get his shoes on the correct feet and he yawned again as he tied the laces into a double knot to keep them from coming undone. He had long since learned his lesson about loose shoe laces around Eirik. He scratched his tiny belly as he ran down the hall, finally opening his eyes fully as he caught up with his father.

He gave Alek a scathing once over. Alek was too soft, too blonde, too blue eyed, too fair. He was unkempt and feminine with curls in his hair that he undoubtedly inherited from his mother.

"Fix your shirt." Eirik snarled, "We have business to attend to."


Alek looked down at his shirt before pulling his arms inside the material and spinning the top around without exposing the trunk of his body. His arms appeared through the sleeves and Alek looked up at his father nervously.

Eirik ignored his son in favor of his beta whom he met outside the estate. His strides were long, confident, and fast, and he still berated Alek for being unable to keep up.

After a brief conversation with the other wolf Eirik turned to his son, "Today you will learn what it means to be King." he said in almost a cruel fashion as he took Alek by the scruff of the neck and led him to a naked man tied to a post.

Alek stifled his whimpers as his father grabbed him roughly. When Alek caught sight of the captive man Alek gasped and covered his eyes. "He's not wearing any clothes," Alek whined.

"Quiet!" Eirik hissed pulling up on Alek's shirt and grabbing the boy backward. He crouched to be at eye level, although he found the position beneath him.

"Kassar is a traitor to our people. He has been found guilty of treason, and must be made an example of so it does not happen again. Do you understand Alek?"

Alek nodded, as was his innate response to his father's demands but as Alek looked between his father and the traitor his head began to shake from side to side indicating he wasn't clear on how to make the man into an example.

Eirik nodded once in affirmation of his son's understanding and then stood up, he removed the blade from his side and held it in the air.

Kassar's family and friends stood to one side, a woman with a boy Alek's age was there her entire body shaking, she was silently crying against another man who held the same coloring as Kassar, a brother maybe.

"A thousand cuts!" Eirik shouted to the group of people watching, at his declaration the crying woman screamed.

"No!"

She was quieted by the other man while Kassar began to struggle and speak words of comfort to his wife and child.

Eirik without remorse turned to his eight year old son and placed the blade in the boy's hands, "From the thigh or the breast first."

As the woman screamed Alek jumped and his eyes started to water. He took the blade, not daring to argue with his father and turned toward Kassar, but his feet wouldn't move. Alek began to cry.

Alek's weakness made Eirik shake with rage, he gripped the child's neck harshly pulling him toward the man who was suspended on the post. He knelt next to his son, and in the most chilling barely control voice he snarled quietly in Alek's ear, "You will do as you are told and you will not snivel like a puling coward!"

Alek's cries became silent though his sobbing increased evident by the large tears that poured from his eyes and the shaking of his little body. He raised the blade and held it in the air, quivering with silent terror, before dropping his arm and with it his head.

"I can't do it," he sobbed, knowing what would be coming.

Eirik snarled his rage backhanding his pathetic excuse for an heir sending the boy sprawling backwards.

He moved toward Alek with a lethal grace, kneeling once more, "Now, you will take this knife and make the first cut boy, or would you rather I find your sister to complete your task for you?" he asked preying on Alek's greatest weakness.

Alek's lip was bleeding as he laid sprawled out on the ground, still crying. He whimpered, pleading his father to stop, explaining that he couldn't do it. But as Eirik threatened to force Lex out here in his place, Alek's cries fell silent.

He wiped the snot and tears from his face using the sleeve of his shirt before crawling to his feet. The boy continued to cry as he picked up the blade and shuffled slowly and carefully to Kassar. "I'm sorry," he sniffled as the blade pressed to the man's skin.


With a cruel twisted smile Eirik came behind his son and guided the boy’s hand taking his pound of flesh from the man’s thigh.



Christine pulled back from the pensieve a hand over her mouth as the sickness welled up inside her. There were fresh tears in her eyes and she couldn't stop them from flowing as the horror replayed for her. She held herself tightly wishing she had eight year old Alek to hold.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Alek was still in the woods, attempting to stave off a protest that looked to be the start of a rebellion. He'd already thrown three attackers to the ground. He addressed the fourth, the ring leader, with his wand drawn on the stranger.

“You cannot best me physically,” Alek said with the confidence of a man who had taken on more physical attacks than someone his age should ever have had to experience. “Care to try your luck magically?” He taunted the man as a slim smile crept across his face.

[Christine Montgomery]

It took a few minutes before Christine felt right enough to move. She realized in her dismay over what she had seen she had backed into a pedestal which held a book. The book was ancient, and yet surprisingly sturdy. The pages were thicker than ordinary paper, and it was bound in some type of skin though Christine wasn't sure what kind.

At the moment focusing on anything was better than the images she had just seen, but then the words she was seeing take shape on the pages she saw in front of her only gave her more questions.

The language wasn't entirely clear, and Christine realized then that the words weren't in English, they were runic! Suddenly she was very grateful for the varied education she had received.

There were writings about an initiation, the Raun ceremony, tributes and trials. Trials of physical combat, spiritual combat, and the challenge.

Christine's brow furrowed in confusion as she closed the book, there was something so familiar about the symbol on the front of the book. Mentally she was recalling every story and legend she could remember throughout her travels.

When it came to her she gasped. Could it be?

She took another look around the room, and suddenly the chains and cells made sense. There were so many clues indicating what she now suspected, but suspicion wasn't enough. Her gaze fell on the pensieve.

She had to know the truth. She had to go back in...

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Alek's loyal wolves came to his side and soon the forest was aglow with colorful spells and hexes. There were many ways to be found worthy of joining the Eiriksen pack. Brute strength was certainly valued and gave an unnatural advantage during the three days of the full moon when they took on their wolf form. But the majority of each month was spent in their natural human forms and so assets in addition to strength were also prized. Intelligence and cleverness was important to Alek; the brightest of his wolves were appointed to his strategic teams to help him plan their expanse over all of Europe. A psychic ability, though not one of the challenges at the Raun, was also admired and any wolf proved their weight in accurate prophecies was granted into the fold. But a magical ability was also required, and one of the challenges prospective members could partake in to prove their worth.

It appeared these anarchists were only planning on partaking in the physical trials. Their magical defense was meager at best and Alek's wolves were able to quickly overcome them. The three followers already bound when the ring leader was dropped before Alek's feet. 

"What should we do with you?" Alek gave a wicked grin.

[Christine Montgomery]

The wind howled, smashing the branches of the nearby trees into the windows so that they made a scraping sound. A young Alek was on his hands and knees, using a scrub brush in an attempt to clear the muddy footsteps that had been tracked in. Alek muttered to himself, scolding himself for not checking his feet before coming in from the storm, but the muttering stopped as he heard his father approach. Alek's eyes shut and his shoulders fell as he knew he had not been quick enough.


Eirik was in a foul mood to begin with. Negotiations over territories in the south weren't going well. It was all moot, once the lines merged then it would all belong to the Eiriksen pack. Perhaps that too left Eirik with an abundance of vitriol that could not be spent on his enemies.

It could however be spent at home, on the worthless creature his wife had produced.

"What are you doing here? What's that you're doing?"


"I was bringing in the firewood," he said to the floor, his shoulder fell further. "Mother was cold from the storm." It didn't make a difference, he knew that. He could have been bringing in warriors by the dozens to join his father's legion but faults would be found in whatever task he performed.


"Now she has you gathering sticks and tending to woman's work. Once again you were caught in the kitchens, cooking! Are you now a maid boy? Do you wish to hide behind her skirts and lead the soft life which you are so obviously suited for?"

With each vicious question Eirik's anger grew.


Alek heard shuffling from behind his father's looming figure and when he looked up he saw Lex running down the corridor, fear written plainly on her face, only to be stopped by their mother. Aurora was watching with a clear detachment that required years of practice to acquire. She was highly successful at showing no emotion as her only son was beat mercilessly.

"I only wanted to be helpful," Alek said with a bit more vinegar than was wise.


"Helpful? Helpful! Be helpful as a man! Be helpful on the battle field! Not that you could wield weapon or wand with anything resembling skill as you are! Perhaps it's time for another lesson." Eirik snarled before raising his fists.

Lex was struggling against her mother's grip fighting to go to her twin as blow by blow reigned down upon the far too young child. She was held against her will silently seething with hatred for her parents.
***

Christine fought the images she saw trying desperately to escape the pain of a little boy being forever scarred by his father. She grew so passionately angry she cut her palm on the side of the pensieve as she gripped it tightly trying to push through to another memory. 

***

Alek's wails erupted as he cowered from his father, but the scene soon swirled and shifted until Christine found herself standing in a hospital room. The door to the hallway was ajar and Alek's mother could be seen speaking to an MLE officer.

"He tripped on his shoelace and fell down the stairs. I'm always telling him to tie his shoes properly and not run in the house, but he never listens."

Alek groans as he hears his mother's lies. "Shut the door," he whispered to Lex as he turned his head away. He would have done so himself but his arm was raised in a sling suspended above the bed and his leg sported a freshly wrapped cast that went nearly to his knee. There were stitches over his eye and his jaw was already purpling with a large bruise that met with his split and bloodied lip.


Lex was watching, seething, as her mother lied about Alek's injuries. How she could so casually dismiss the pain of her only son was sickening. At Alek's request Lex quickly shut the door and made her way to his bedside.

"Let's run away Alek." Lex said starting a familiar game meant to take Alek's mind off his injuries where they would plan their escape and how they would live somewhere else, find a nice family to take them in, where they could be happy.


It wouldn't work this time. Alek turned his head to hide the tears from his sister, not wanting to be weak in front of anyone. "There's no point anymore, sister. This is our lot in life. One day you will grow up and have your own family and be happy. But I don't want to pretend anymore that I'm ever going to be more than this."


Lex wanted to cry, "No." she said the beating too severe this time to pretend otherwise, but she could do one thing, "No, Alek, I will never leave you. I promise we will find happiness together."


Alek cried silently, knowing that happiness would never come while Eirik was alive. He reached for his sister's hand and gripped it tight. She was his foundation when the walls were crumbling.

Lex gripped his hand tightly and began to sing to him softly.

***

Christine couldn't handle the despair. She felt sick with grief and then guilt knowing she was trespassing on something deeply personal. She pulled out of the pensieve determined to walk away.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

"You should have given up as easily as your friends. Not very loyal, though, are they?" Alek watched the ring leader of the would-be rebellion over the bridge of his nose, his chin high in the air with confidence.

Alek turned and addressed the meager crowd that was left, most of the women and children having run inside their homes when the fighting began. "Everything I have done has been for the good of this pack! I have kept us safe, defeated our enemies, and brought new wolves into the safety of our family and I do so only with those who are worthy. Only with those who pass the Raun and continue to prove their loyalty to what we have created together! Your safety, your children's safety, is my only concern and for this treasonous act," Alek turned toward the rebels, pointing a finger at the foolish mastermind, "you shall be banished. Consider it a gift of my mercy that you leave here with your pathetic lives."

"Lock them out," Alek ordered his men. The rebels would be removed from the village with an enchantment placed upon them so that no matter how long they search or how detailed their maps might be, they will never be able to find this or any other werewolf village under the protection of the Eiriksen pack.

Alek turned away intending to return to Christine when the ring leader lunged at him, a blade drawn. Alek could hear the wolf's movements, the crouching in preparation to pounce, the deepening of the man's breaths, the sound of the blade being pulled from its sheath. Alek shifted his weight to the side, grabbing the man by the wrist and twisting his arm so quickly that the bone snapped. Alek pulled the knife from his attacker's hand and swiftly spun his body around to face the man and as he did so the knife sliced through the ring leader's neck and blood spilled down his front. Invoking the hatred and bloodlust he had inherited from his father, Alek reached inside the gaping hole in man's neck and pulled out his throat. He raised it in the air like a trophy for the entire village to see.

"This is what happens when you cross me!" he yelled as the dead man's blood ran down his arm.

[Christine Montgomery]

Christine was curled into a ball against the wall across from the pensieve. She wanted to break the damned thing. Why would he keep those memories?! She was hurting physically from the tortures she had witnessed. Alek had been nothing but kind and welcoming to her and she had pushed him about his past. No wonder he didn't want to tell her anything.

She shivered. He would be back soon and he would find out that she had violated his privacy in such a horrible way. And yet the longer she waited the more she knew she had to go back in. She couldn't leave things go until she knew for sure what she had suspected.

Reluctantly, as though walking to a cliff's edge, she approached the pensieve for one final look...

***

The night’s sky was lightening, the sun would be up soon though it would hardly breach the thick layer of tree cover so deep in the forest. A blond wolf was howling, his back paw bloodied as the steel coil trap clamped around its hind leg. The metal teeth that had pierced the animal’s fled ripped through the meat with attempt by the wolf to break free. A grey wolf watched from between the trees, stalking back and forth, his eyes never leaving the blond wolf as he snarled at the trapped creature.

The sun broke over the ridge in the distance, far beyond the view of the beasts in the forest, but the effect was the same nonetheless. The howls from the blond wolf turned into cries as a naked Alek begged his father to help him. His foot was caught in a hunter’s trap and he was not strong enough to pull the teeth apart on his own. Alek was no more than 16.

“Father, please,” Alek begged through his tears and he summoned all his might in attempt to pry apart the jaws. His hands grew bloodied as the steel hardly quivered.

“How many times have I warned you, boy! It’s your own idiocy that’s earned you a place in that trap. You’d do more good stuffed and mounted on the wall than as part of my pack.” Eirik’s face was cold, the disgust he felt for his son evident from a mile away.

“It was hidden under the leaves, father. The hunters are-”

Eirik cut him off. “The hunters will be the least of your problems if you do manage to free yourself from that contraption! Frankly, I’m hoping you die out here before they come to find you. Let some of the stronger animals gnaw at your flesh so that ridiculous blond pelt of yours won’t end up as someone’s rug,” he spat.

“Please, father. I’m begging you!” Alek stretched for his father’s hand and as he did so the sound of flesh tearing apart could be heard only moments before the sound was drowned out by Alek’s tortured screams. Eirik didn’t stay around long enough to watch his son melt into a sniveling ball of tears as he once again attempted in vain to pull apart the great metal teeth and free himself.

***

Christine pulled away, "I knew it..." she gasped and took several paces back, but instead of air she came up against a warm solid body and froze.

All of the air rushed out of her body as she jumped and turned to face the man behind her. "Alek!"

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Blood was splattered across his front and heavily coating his right arm. He'd attempted to wipe the mutineer's blood from his face but it had smeared across his skin. There was a murderous glint in his eye as he stood, snarling at Christine.

He'd left the village and his men to tend to the rest of the conspirators, not wanting to leave Christine alone. He was being considerate. But when he came home there was no sign of her, nothing to denote that she'd been taken but no note saying she'd left of her own volition. And then he saw the basement door open.

"I told you never to come here!" he roared at her. The walls shook with the depth of his fury.

[Christine Montgomery]

"I'm sorry!" she said quickly. She was still shaken from the images she had seen in the pensieve, and though his anger terrified her she still felt for the little boy who had been through too much, she reached out a hand to touch him.

"Alek..."

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

The amber in Alek's eyes seemed to glow and his features became sharp. The veins in his face and neck became more prominent, a deep blue color that contrasted sharply with his pale skin. It was the veela blood that he shared with his mother and his sister.

He barred his teeth at her, a low growl emitting from the depths of his chest. "Why did you come here?" he bellowed. He pounded his fist angrily at the wall, sending a ripple of cracks down the plaster.

[Christine Montgomery]

Christine jumped in fear as Alek's anger revealed another secret. Alek wasn't just a wolf, he was part veela, it explained why his fur had been lighter in color as well, not that Christine had the mind to think of that just then.

His anger was terrifying, worse than the anger she had witnessed in the pensieve from Eirik. With Alek, the anger was living and breathing, barely leashed. Alek in this light was more beast than man, and were Christine capable of thought she still would have found him strangely beautiful.

"I didn't mean any harm!"

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

"Get out!" he thundered, pounding on the wall once more. Large chunks of plaster fell to the floor. "You shouldn't have come here! Get out!"

He stalked closer to her, his eyes glowing brighter as they narrowed on her. Alek grabbed her roughly by the arm and dragged her to the door. He threw her to the floor and loomed over her, rage still painted across his terrifyingly handsome face. "Get out of here!"

[Christine Montgomery]

Christine's heart threatened to pound out of her chest at the rage she saw in Alek. She was terrified, but a part of her still wanted to reach him, to tell him that it was alright, that she understood, that she cared.

But he was in no shape to listen and Christine was in no shape to calm him down.

At first she had tried to heat her skin the way she had with the drunken men outside the bar, but her molten touch did nothing to slow Alek down.

When he finally stood over her she realized there was nothing for it, she had to run so she did. She ran in fear and terror and only looking back once as she fled from his estate.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Alek raged as she left; upturning the pensieve as he let loose a mighty howl that rang throughout the house. He brought his fist down hard onto an antique table that rested against the wall, shattering it into splinters on the ground.

His darkest secrets, his shame, were now known and he let out another howl, this one more sadness than fury. Alek hated the torment within him, he hated his anger and bloodlust. He hated everything his father had passed on to him.

[Christine Montgomery]

Christine ran fast and deep into the forest without looking back. She was so concerned with what was behind her she didn't give a second thought to what was in front of her. She had just barely escaped the grasp of beast to enter the jaws of another.

***

"Sir!" Caden said only a few minutes after Christine had left, "The Montgomery girl Alek, she ran into the Forest!"

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Alek was ready to tear apart Caden in his current mood, but the mention of Christine stilled his assault long enough for the fear to set in. The forest wasn't safe tonight. He pushed past Caden as he raced up the basement stairs and took a sharp turn down the corridor that would lead him to the yard.

Once outside Alek paused; listening, smelling the air for any sign of her. It was easier to pick up her trail this time than it had been last time he searched the woods for her. He knew the sounds she made when she walked, how her feet landed in a precise rhythm that matched the gentle sway of her hips that she demonstrated naturally and without effort. Her scent was familiar to him now, the mixture of her own natural scent with the floral bouquets of her shampoo. But there was another smell; it was warm and sour. Fear.

He found her trail easily and took off into the darkness after her.