Cursed

24. Daurien The Protector

22. Daurien The Protector

Someone was knocking and the sound pounded through the thick fog of sleep like a drum. I reluctantly wrestled my eyelids open and then called for whatever was out there to come in.

The bed I was sprawled on top of was not my own and neither was the room I had awoken to find myself in. It was familiar however, all too familiar. I had awoken in this room many times before, though never alone. Every woman who had spent a night in this room passed before my eyes then and I willed them away, disgusted with myself. Who I used to be. Of all the women, of all the people who had ever set foot in this room, only one of them truly mattered.

It was curiously quiet in the room. I found that I was absolutely alone. There were not even any live furniture for I had dismissed them the night before. I was slightly mortified at the thought ofBelle waking before myself to find me laying beside her fast asleep. I would not have been surprised to learn that I had been drooling.

"Come in," I called, as I rubbed my eyes. Teapot entered the room and began to poor me a cup of tea. I took my tea with three heaping spoons of sugar as I always did and noticed that she seemed awfully chipper this morning. More chipper than usual that is.

"Care to relay the events of last night to your beloved teapot?" she asked. I was beginning to think that she wouldn't. I had hoped that she wouldn't.

"Not particularly," I replied curtly.

"You had better get yourself out of this room," she huffed, annoyed but in a somewhat motherly manner, "this room is upsetting you. Not good for you health if you ask me, being in this room. Why you insist on keeping Belle here with all of those memories of yours I will never understand." She was grumbling the last bit to herself as she exited the room on her cart.

I knew why I had given her this room. Aside from my father's whose room I could not bare to let even myself set foot into, and my own,which I had liven in as long as I remembered, it was the nicest chamber in Rose manor. I wanted Belle to have the best. A selfless creature like herself deserved nothing but the best.

Well,it was time to begin the day. I glanced down at myself and had I been human, would have blushed. I was wearing nothing but my trousers that barely covered half my thigh. And Belle had seen me this way. No that no woman had ever seen me in less and in this room specifically, but that thought did little to lesson my humiliation. It was incredibly indecent of me.

I rolled out of Belle's bed, one I had shared with many a woman and tiptoed to the door. It creaked open with the slightest nudge and I peeped through the crack. The coast was clear so I darted into the hallway in my mostly naked state and made a break for my chambers,shutting the door roughly behind me.

I leaned against the closed door to steady my breath for a moment after my sprint. And then last night's events hit me in full clarity. What was that scream of hers about? What could have caused such distress? And of course, the question I feared most: did it have todo with me?

What other reason did she have to look at me like that? I never wanted to induce such fear in anyone. Especially not her.

I called for a bath to be made and sat in my reclining chair to think. I ran my claws lightly through my mane. I had learned that using them to apply too much pressure anywhere on my body could draw blood in those first agonizing weeks as a beast, injuring myself on more than one occasion. I let out a slow sigh.

I sat up suddenly, feeling the urge to check on my rose. I had been getting these urges a lot recently. Over the years I had entertained now and then the idea that my time would run out and that I could find a way to end my long, miserable life. But I never really took myself seriously, being the coward that I am and always was. I knew I would never do it. Things were different now though. Now that Belle was here I wanted to be alive for her. What if she needed my protection? What if she were attacked my wolves again or if she had another nightmare that left her terrified like last night?