Beauty & The Beast

Twelve

Two days had passed since Elena had seen Isaac. She knew that she had to let him go because if she was around him when he was the wolf, she knew that something bad would happen. What if the other wolves attacked her again? She thought. What if her knowing his secret made her in danger of the other wolves? She never thought about it before when she was happy when she was around Isaac, but the more she spend alone, the more those thoughts flew into her head. She was now scared. Terrified in fact. And because of that she felt that staying away from him would be a good thing. But that was hard because she wanted to be around him. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to be in big, strong arms. She wanted to be with him because whenever she was with him she was happy, she was smiling and it was the first time that she wouldn't be thinking about her mother. About the pain that she went through losing her. About seeing her father in pain because he doesn't have the love of his life around with him anymore. That he doesn't wake up every morning with the love of his life laying beside him with a smile on her face. Being with Isaac made her forget about all of that. But there was just one problem, being around Isaac meant that she would be in more danger of being attacked again by the wolves that almost attacked her before.

Elena sat on the bench in the centre of the town, the same spot where she would sit down and stick her nose into the book. To escape from the rest of the world. To escape from the thoughts that bombarded her. The thoughts that would send her insane. Her eyes scanned around the words but she found it hard to read the book. The words 'danger', 'pain' and 'death' stood out continually. She shook her head and slammed the book shut. Disgusted with herself, she slammed the book down on the bench beside her and placed her hand over her eyes. She rubbed her forehead with her fingers and closed her eyes tight. She tried to get away from everything by reading a book, but for the first time ever she was unable to escape from her life by reading a book.

Within minutes, Elena found herself not being alone on the bench. With her eyes still closed she felt the presence of another person sitting beside her. Her heart began to pound. She knew who was sitting next to her by the scent of his aftershave floating up into her nostrils.

Isaac.

Elena sighed heavily and shook her head. "Don't."

"Don't what?" Isaac asked.

"Don't say anything. I don't want to feel guilty."

"About what?"

"About the fact that I've been avoiding you. Okay."

"Damn. I thought that was just me."

Elena opened her eyes and looked at him. "What?"

"I thought that it was in my head. I thought that you were avoiding me. I didn't think that it was true."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise. I understand."

Elena frowned. "You do?"

Isaac nodded. "Yeah."

"What do you mean that you understand? What's that supposed to mean?"

Isaac leaned towards her and whispered in her ear. "I'm a werewolf. Elena. I understand if you're afraid. I would be too."

Elena leaned back. "I'm not avoiding you because of that."

Isaac frowned. "You're not?"

"No. I'm avoiding you because of something else. Something that I don't want to talk to you about because you'll think that I'm stupid. Or worse, you'll become overprotective of me and you'll get angry."