Chapter 7: The Truth

Belle's eyes sprang open at the cracking sound of wolf's neck being snapped. She was incredibly relieved when she saw Alex in his wolf form, looming over her now.

Alex stood firmly in the snow, standing in his attack position. Belle also noticed that Adam was fighting off the rest of the wolves that weren't on Alex. I guess they made up.

The four wolves that were with Alex had danced around him with caution. They knew not to attack because he was the alpha male. But these wolves didn't care, Alex courageously stepped into action.

Belle could hear the wolves snarling and snapping at Alex as he attacked the wolf that stood in front of him. Alex slashed at it, and it wails in pain, Alex threw that wolf to the side and continued to attack the others.

The three other wolves lunged at Alex, he manages to bite the neck off the first wolf, but then is tackled down by the other two wolves.

Belle's heart raced, her breath rushed out in frosty gasps. She feared gravely for Alex's life, and hated the fact that she couldn't help him. But that all changed when Adam threw the wolves against a tree. Adam roars loudly at the wolves, and they ran away.

Adam kneels down to Belle, offering his hand to her, but unlike before, Belle excepted it. Adam helped her stand up from the cold snow, and they both ran to Alex, who was no longer in his wolf form.

"Alex are you ok?" Belle asks as she helps him up, Alex gave an groan in response. Belle and Adam both noticed that Alex was bleeding heavily from his left arm. Alex lifted his head and turned it, "I'm sorry you had to see that."

Then suddenly, Alex faints into unconsciousness. He begins to fall back onto the ground, but Adam manages to catch him by supporting his older brother from behind.

Belle cradled Alex firmly on her part. Her and Adam walk back to the castle, the snowy wind blowing harshly in their faces.

Silence. That was the first thing Alex noticed upon regaining consciousness. He also felt warm by the nearby fire, he blinked his eyes a few times as his vision came into focus.

He was in the living room, sitting in front of the fire on a chair with blankets draped over him. His friends were in silent relief as their prince woke up

Alex glanced to his left and sighed in relief when he noticed Belle. He was happy that she was safe and comfortable. She was close to him, her eyes were gleaming with joy when she saw him wake up. Belle came closer to him and held up a glass of water for him.

"Drink this." She said softly, Alex gladly took it and gulped it down in mere seconds. He gave her back the glass and took in her appearance. Her hair was messy and her face was pale.

"Thank you, are you ok Belle? You look-"

"Terrible?" Alex shook his head no, "I wouldn't say that, you just look... exhausted. You're not hurt right?" "I'm fine Alex, why would you say that?" Alex looked at the dry blood on her white blouse. Belle followed his gaze, "Oh this," she pointed at the stain, and he shook his head, "is not my blood."

Alex furrowed his brows, Belle moved her head to his left arm. He widened his eyes upon seeing it with gashes and abrasions surrounded by dry blood. Those damn wolves really did a number on me, and it itches. Not thinking much about it, Alex proceeded to scratch it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Adam said, causing Belle and Alex to jolt their heads up. The beast sat down on the right side of Alex. The older brother shifted uncomfortably in his chair, whilst the younger one looked down in shame. "Alex, I'm sorry about my behavior earlier, I didn't mean to get angry, I lost control." Adam said sincerely, but Alex scoffs. "So I've heard."

The beast let out a huff, "Were you always this arrogant? Cause I sure don't remember." "Don't you try blaming this on me Adam, you were the one who threw the first punch." Alex rose an accusing finger to his little brother. "And I'm asking for forgiveness, but you're being stubborn about it as always." "I'm the stubborn one?" "You were always the stubborn one." "I think not!" "I think so Alex!"

Belle stares at the siblings in disbelief as they continue to bicker. They're just like the children at the supermarket. Belle about had it with this.

"Enough!" Belle yelled, the brothers jolt their heads to her, shocked to have heard her angry. Neither one of them have seen her angry.

"The both of you are stubborn!" Belle motioned to Alex, "You can't admit to your wrongdoings when you know you're wrong, which makes you appear weak." Adam laughs at this, but Belle wasn't done. "You shouldn't be laughing Adam, for you are the one who can't control their temper, which makes you look untrustworthy and violent."

Adam shuts up, the brothers look at each other, "I'm sorry." They say simountansly, "I really outta watch my temper." "And I need to admit my guilt." Adam turned to Belle, "We're both sorry, and I didn't mean to frighten you earlier. I hope we can start over." Belle smiled at him, "Of course we can Adam." The beast matched her smile.

Alex was very happy to hear that, then a smirk rose to his face. "So you came to me for love advice? Well, you came to the right man, I'm quite the ladies man." He teased, the tips of Adam's ears went red. It was said in a teasing manner, but Belle felt jealousy bubble inside her anyway.

Belle looked down at the ceramic bowl near her feet, steam coming from it. She reached down and lifted out a submerged cloth, and took it out. Then in a rapid motion, Belle's cloth bearing hand darted out suddenly, managing to press the wound on his arm directly and firmly.

"Oww!" Alex screamed and winced, "Sorry, that was an accident." Belle spoke, but her tone said otherwise, as if she meant to do it on purpose, and she did. Alex didn't believe her, but he decided not to press further. Belle retracted the cloth to damp it in the bowl, Adam noticed the tension between them and decided to make an excuse to leave.

"Well look at the time it's getting late I should be going to go to bed. See you in the morning." Adam said quickly and left straight to his room, not wanting to get in between them. Alex averted his gaze once more.

Noticing that Alex had fallen silent, Belle quietly began "Hold still." She raised the cloth once more, Alex gritted his teeth when it came in contact with his arm. But he became accustomed to the stinging sensation.

"Belle?" Alex began softly.

"Yes?"

He made sure that his gaze meet Belle's, so he made could make sincere eye contact. Belle went still, pausing from her careful cleaning of the wound.

"I'm sorry, for everything. I should have told you about my brother Adam, the origins of my family, and the curse that is inflicted on us. I promise I will tell you everything just don't leave me please. Don't leave me." Alex said, hoping that Belle will not leave him. Belle smiled warmly at him, and rest her hand on top of his.

"I'm not going anywhere." Belle's soft hands began to tend to his injured arm once more. Alex was very glad to have heard that, as were the servants of the castle.

In the dark depths of the late hours, Gaston and his loyal sidekick Lefou walked down the empty streets of the village, meeting with D'Arque. "How much further Gaston? This is taking forever." Lefou asked, trying to sound more agitated than scared. But Gaston could see right through him. And it didn't help in Lefou's favor when he squealed like a little girl when a spider crawled on his back. He ran to Gaston's side, who only rolled his eyes and walked faster.

Once he found the office of D'Arque, Lefou quickly entered the office, along with Gaston and closed the door. D'Arque was already seated, sitting back into his chair. In the candlelight, Gaston saw three drinking glasses as he and Lefou sat down. The older man poured drinks for all of them, Lefou gladly took his, slightly smiling at him. But Gaston refused to smile, something about D'Arque didn't sit well with him.

Lefou and Gaston took sips of their drinks, while the oldest man took a big gulp of his. Then he placed the glass on the table. "Now to get on with business, as to why you're here, Miss Cartier."

Gaston's eyes glistened, a grin forming on his lips. "Yes, she needs to know that marrying me is best for her. I need to know how to persuade her." Lefou nodded his head, agreeing with his friend.

"Fortunately for you I have one, but it will cost you." Lefou interrupts Gaston before he can speak. "We'll be willingly to pay anything you want." Gaston furrowed his brows and hit Lefou on the back of his head. "There is no we, /emit is only I, for I will be marrying Belle, not you." Gaston growled, he turned his attention back to D'Arque. "How much?"

"Thirty gold coins." A little too much for my liking, thought Gaston. "And you're sure that this will secure my marriage with Belle?" The sinister old man nodded his head, but since it will make Belle mine, "Deal."

D'Arque glanced down into his drink. "Why don't you tell me what you know about the royal family Walker."

To be perfectly honest, Gaston didn't know much about them, other than that they have not been around or heard from for nearly twelve years. So he was more than happy when his little sidekick opened his mouth.

"The Walkers in general have been around for almost a century. King Thomas and Queen Alice were married thirty years ago and given this region to rule since they were not given Paris. Then a year later they were having problems with the Hudson family of Ireland. Which ended up in fighting and war." Gaston nodded his head, he remembered his time during the war.

"And why they hold off having children their first few years of marriage. They had two boys, the first was Prince Alexander and then Prince Adam. Alex is selfless, caring and much more mature. Adam on the other hand is quite the opposite. He's arrogant, spoiled and ungrateful. Despite all these reasons, the brothers get along, half of the time. And the last thing I know about them is that they were left orphaned when they were no older than ten years old. But I don't know their where abouts."

D'Arque nodded his head, quite impressed that he knew this much information. "You sound disappointed, don't be. No one knows where and/or what happened to the notorious Walker brothers. There are three popular rumors as to what people think what happened to them. The first being that most people think they ran away from their royalty duties. That they were too young and not mature enough to lead." He finished with a sigh.

"I've heard that the Walker brothers were taken in by their other family in Greece. They live with their cousin Prince Eric." Gaston said, knowing the gossip that surrounds the Walkers. D'Arque agrees, "I've heard that as well, but it was later revealed that they didn't seek refugee with them. Right now Prince Eric has other issues to attend to, his most trusted advisor Grimsby is trying to find him a wife. But the prince is being stubborn about it. He claims that he has hasn't found the perfect one yet, but let's not worry about that."

"What makes you think that the brothers Walkers are back at their castle? There has been no sightings of them." Gaston said hasty, wanting to get to the point.

D'Arque pulled out a small stack of papers. He handed them to Gaston, "On the contrary Gaston, what I gave you were reports written by my informants that says they have seen Alexander Walker." D'Arque let out a small chuckle when he saw Gaston grabbing the papers fast and roughly.

Gaston growled, "These reports say that the Prince has been attending Sunday's mass regularly for years! That's impossible!" D'Arque raised his eyebrows, "How would you know that my boy? You don't attend mass."

Gaston clenched his jaw, "Correction Mr. D'Arque, I do attend mass."

"Not regularly though, every once in awhile you'll attend. And the main reason you will go is because of Belle. You stare at her the entire time." His little sidekick said, D'Arque laughed at this and Gaston hit the back of his head. Lefou rubbed the back of his head.

Gaston sat straight in his chair and continued on. "Anyways, Walker doesn't go there. I would have seen him, and your informants could have seen the wrong man. How would they know what he looks like if we haven't seen the royal family in over a decade?"

D'Arque pulled out a paper, Gaston and Lefou stared at it. "That is a painting of Prince Alex when he was twelve years old." The old man pulled out another paper and placed it next to the other one. "And this one was drawn by my informant two weeks ago. See the resemblance?"

Gaston couldn't argue with him, the facial features were the same, same eye color, nose, hair. Gaston let out a sigh, how could I have not seen this?

"Now that we know this, how could we this to our advantage?" Lefou asked.

"Good question Lefou." D'Arque leaned forward as did the sidekick and Gaston. "Do you know how badly the war damaged our village? Raiders came through our village weekly. Supplies and food were hard to come by and it took us years to finally have peace. At last we are back on track.""

Gaston raised his eyes but didn't interrupt him. "Villagers till this day are still angry at the Walkers. They blame them for the war, some of the villagers want them to be tried at the court for their actions, and others want them to be hanged. Can you imagine how enthusiastic they will be if you Gaston would find the long lost Prince Alex and make him pay for what his family had done?"

Gaston had a devious smirk on his face, "They will see me as a hero and praise me for years to come! Belle would be so happy of me she would marry me for sure!" Gaston looked up, "Brilliant Mr. D'Arque just brilliant! You're a genius!" D'Arque leaned back into his chair, amused by Gaston."

Gaston asked "So when should we enact this plan?" The old man said "When Belle returns, we can't attack the prince if she is there. She could get hurt or killed in the process." Gaston growled, "Let's see it to be that Belle remains safe and no harm comes to her."

D'Arque nodded his head, he refilled the three glasses and raised his in the air. "A toast, to the future." The two other men raised theirs as well. "The future." The three of them said at the same time and gulped down their drinks.

Unbeknownst to Gaston and Lefou, D'Arque hid a smirk behind his glass. Great, just great, these buffoons walked right into my trap. They will never see it coming.

Alex let out a soft grunt at the contact of alcohol on his chest. The Prince allowed Belle to dab his chest with oil while using a handkerchief. The ointment treatment brought both pain and pleasure to him. Belle continued her administrations and patted some on Alex's chest.

"Oh Alex," Belle keep muttering to herself as she swabbed an area.

After several moments, Alex reached for Belle's wrist.

"That's good enough."

"Oh, Al-"

The Prince put his hand on her shoulder.

"You didn't cause this, it wasn't your fault. I'll heal in time, no need to fuss." He said and lowered his hand after she nodded."

Belle blushed when he put his shirt back on. He grabbed her hand and the two of them walked out of the bathroom."

"Where are we going?" Belle asked, both nervous and excited. Alex and Belle made it to the top of the stairs, she quickly realized where they were. He opened the door, "The West wing." He held out his hand for her, she gladly took it. They made their way to the roses. She let go of his hand and examined the red rose.

"Adam and I were given roses ten years ago by a witch. The red rose is mine, the pink is his. The roses represent how much time we have left before the curse takes over."

Belle raised her brow, "So you were cursed, is that why you have the message? To warn others?"

Alex shifted on his feet somewhat uncomfortably. "There's another story to that, but let me finish this one." Belle nodded and he continued."

"The witch cursed all who lived at this castle ten years ago because Adam judged her by her appearance. The curse on him and the servants will be lifted once he finds a person to love and her to return his love. His punishment was to remain in the form of a beast.

"As you can see, the curse took another toll on me. The witch pitied me, she said for my compassion and honesty, she transformed me into a powerful wolf, but unlike Adam, I will only stay in that form when I am angry. I have to understand that people are evil before the petals on my rose fall on my twenty third birthday. When the curse does break, I will be in my wolf form, and will be released once the wolf side of me agrees to be released."

Alex walked over to the balcony, resting his hands on the railing. "I can except the fact that people are evil but the only way the curse will break for me is if I personally face evil." He let out a sigh, Belle stood next to him.

"What do you mean by personally?" She questions him as he stared into the forest.

"I have to face evil head to head. I can't just stop a robbery and expect it to go away, it has to personally affect me. The thing is, I don't have grudges with anyone, which is a good thing, but I don't know anyone that has a personal vendetta against me. That also doesn't mean that people have vendetta against me personally, but against my family. I'm sure you know by now that the royals are not always liked by the people. Especially the Walker family, we are quite infamous."

Alex didn't need to look at Belle to know that she agreed with him. Belle knew that most of the villagers did not like the royal family, and she couldn't blame them. "You didn't do anything to the villagers, the war caused the chaos. You can not be held accountable for that."

He shook his head, "I shouldn't be, but in the eyes of the villagers I am. One day I am going to right the wrongs of my parent's and thwart those who've corrupted my kingdom. But first, I must break that curse, and I will break it." He looked over his balcony, spotting the lights that illuminated the village.

Belle rested her hand on top of his. Alex looked at Belle, for once her eyes showed something other than pity and sorrow. They showed compassion, comprehension, and something new, love.

Belle raised one hand to and gingerly placed it on Alex's cheek. Alex couldn't help but stare at Belle's lips, then they slowly moved towards each other. Belle had closed her eyes and Alex met halfway, closing his eyes as their lips met.

Alex was gentle, brushing his lips ever so softly. Belle raised her other hand to his cheek, cupping them as they kissed. She molded her lips to his and deepened the kiss. Alex had to remind himself to have a care for Belle's lack of experience so as not to go too fast too soon.

Yet to his surprise, Belle titled her head, slanting her lips over Alex and pressed closer, moving her hand to sooth over his nape, rubbing gently, silently assuring him. Belle was relieved to feel Alex relax into her embrace, his lips softening beneath hers.

For what seemed liked hours later were mere seconds as they finally broke away. Belle's lips curled into an adorable smile. Alex had to restrain himself to not kiss her again when he saw Belle's flushed cheeks, and the way her lips were slightly swollen from the length of the kiss didn't help in his case.

"Belle, that was amazing... have you had practice of this?" Alex asked jokingly.

Belle blushed, she rested her head in his chest and laid her hands on his shoulders. Alex wrapped his arms the brunette's waist, gently pressing closer.

"We'll get through this, together." Belle whispered softly, Alex didn't say anything, he held on to her tighter. He felt so grateful that Belle didn't leave him once she found out the truth about him. He thought she was going to be frightened by all of this, but he was still skeptical about whether she would really stay or go.

As if Belle read his mind, she said "I'm not going anywhere Alex. I'll be by your side, always." With that said, Belle looked up and closed the distance between them. Alex found himself kissing her again, not that he was complaining.

(I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in awhile. But I'm still here, and hopefully the updates will come in faster. Thanks for staying along, don't hesitate to review!)