Beauty and the Beast

[Christine Montgomery]

"Alek! No your back!" she said trying to stop him, then she sighed.

"I always liked my meat rare anyway." she shrugged. She wasn't worried about the scar either, all in all she considered herself incredibly lucky that she was in one piece.

But she was also ashamed of her behavior. She understood why he had kept his secret, and the kind of upbringing he'd had, but she had forged ahead anyway - damn her curiosity.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Her curiosity and determination were two of the more lovely aspects of Christine's personality, they just also happened to be the problem with Alek's secretive and violent nature. She wasn't safe around him, but he was realizing that his affections were not part of a ruse to hurt his father's first born. For her own sake, Christine needed to stay away from Alek.

He gave a forced smile at her comment before his features appeared somber once again. "I can have one of my men escort you home." Alek wasn't well enough to take her himself, but his wolves would take care of her if instructed.

[Christine Montgomery]

Christine gave him a hard look, but quickly averted her eyes as they filled with angry tears.

He was kicking her out. No she couldn't blame him, but it pissed her off all the same. They had come so far, but now that he was vulnerable he didn't want anything to do with her. She felt horrible at what she had seen, how awful his life had been, and so she couldn't deny him his isolation if that was what he wanted, but she didn't like it. No she was violently emotionally opposed to leaving him.

"If that's what you want." she said, trying and failing to keep the bitterness from her voice.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

He wasn't completely sure he wanted her to leave, but he was in too vulnerable a position to ask her to stay. "I'd prefer to take you myself, but someone's been making a fuss over my back."

[Christine Montgomery]

"You could let me stay." she said with a certain amount of stubbornness. Montgomerys were born stubborn, but her parents agreed that Christine had received a second dose. She pushed when she should submit, and she submitted when she should have fought, but whatever she did her heart was always in the right place.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

"And do what?" Alek challenged. Fawn over him? Wait for Lex to come home and explain what had happened? Finish the rest of his bourbon?

[Christine Montgomery]

"I don't know!" she argued back frustrated, "But you don't have to push me away!"

It had been a long evening, and perhaps it would have been best for her to go back home, but then she would have been alone and unable to stop thinking about him and what she had learned.

For all of Alek's supposed differences with his brother, they both pushed her away when she had wanted most to stay. But then that was probably her fault for pushing so hard in the first place.

Most of the air went out of Christine's nonexistent argument. She didn't know that technically Dorian was an Eiriksen, and therefore it would apply to him as well, but she knew Lex, and when an Eiriksen decided something there was no changing their minds.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

Alek was losing patience. "Dammit Christine, I don't want you getting hurt! You aren't safe with me."

He was a monster and every minute she spent with him was a minute more of danger she was exposed to.

[Christine Montgomery]

That was enough to send her over the edge, she stood abruptly, throwing the cloth into the washbasin and spilling bloody water on the floor.

"I am so sick of everyone deciding what is and isn't safe for me! I'm not a child, and I have been through more hell in the last year of my life than most people go through in an entire life time! I am more than capable of making those kinds of decisions and I thought you of all people would respect that!"

She was on the verge of tears now. Alek had been the only one (beside Bella) who believed in her. Who congratulated her on her cunning and abilities. Who didn't see her as fragile. It was his strength and faith in her that made her believe in herself, otherwise she might have still been locked away in her family's home convinced she was meant to play the role of damsel while everyone else decided how she could live her life. To have him break that faith now was soul crushing.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

It wasn't Christine's faults Alek was afraid of, it was his own.

"It has nothing to do with you!" he roared back at her, frustrated at her lack of understanding. "I'm a monster, Christine. I shouldn't have allowed myself to become so attached to you when I will only end up hurting you, or worse!"

[Christine Montgomery]

That softened her, but only a little. She went to her knees again sitting just in front of him so that she was looking up as he appeared ashamed in calling himself a monster. She understood why he felt that way in part by what she had seen, and because she knew how cruel society had been to his kind.

"You're not a monster..." she said quietly reaching for his hand. Slowly she brought the rough palm to her smooth flushed cheek and held it there.

"Not to me." she closed her eyes and leaned into his palm, before turning her head and placing her lips on his bruised knuckles.

"And I can take care of myself."

Now that she knew what she was up against.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

He wanted to believe her, that he wasn't a monster. There were so many factors that screamed otherwise, but the look of compassion in Christine's eye was enough to give him hope. And yet...

"I have no doubt that you are more than capable of handling yourself, love." He wanted to warn her further, but the tenderness she was demonstrating toward him seemed to warm his heart. He'd frightened her enough for one day and so long as she stayed in the house she would be safe from any of the fallout from tonight's short-lived revolt.

"If you insist on staying, would you be a dear and fetch me a drink? There's something about getting ripped in half that says I should have something stronger than water." He rolled to lay on his side, feeling weakened in several respects. Alek could no longer deny his affections for Christine and that thought, paired with nearly losing her tonight, was terrifying.

[Christine Montgomery]

She saw the hesitation in his eyes first. She knew he wanted to continue to push her away, and she gave him a hard look.

When he relented she only felt a little guilty for pushing so hard. She made up for it by retrieving his glass of bourbon as he requested.

[Aleksander “Alek” Eiriksen]

By the time Christine returned Alek had passed out again. His body would heal soon enough, but he had lost a lot of blood and exerted a lot of energy in the woods. He needed rest.

[Christine Montgomery]

She paused just beside the bed watching him sleep. With his features relaxed he still carried many of the same boyish features she had seen from the pensieve. Merlin he was beautiful. Christine could see why his father would be intimidated by Alek's handsomeness or confuse it with softness, Alek was simply gorgeous. Were he another man there would've been no limit to the women and broken hearts, but Alek's father had hardened him - thankfully not to stone.

She set the glass down on the side table and then sat in the chair by the window keeping an eye on him as he slept. At some point she too drifted off.