Well, okay, I didn’t tell him everything. I figured it was prudent to leave out the part about taking her virginity the night before.
There was doubt, and I accepted that. After all, I’d spent years digging this reputation for myself as a total monster. And hell, it’s not like I had such a noble reputation before the curse either.
But through Isla, I’d seen the man I needed to be. For myself. For my kingdom.
For her.
In the end, I think that’s what got through to him. That and Queen Jessica, at his side as always, elbowing him sharply in the ribs and hissing at him to quit scowling at me.
We were married a week later. Fuck waiting. I’d been waiting for her my whole damn life.
She came back to Torsund with me a queen, and the whole damn kingdom seemed to light up the second she stepped foot into it. The people were crazy about her, the palace staff adored her, and I loved her as hard as I could.
And I always let the beast out of it’s cage behind our chamber doors whenever she asked for it, which was often.
So if you’re looking for a happy ever after, this is what I can give you: a curse lifted, a heart mended, and queen to complete me, along with the son she ended up bearing me forty weeks to the damn day of the night I took her for the first time.
I’d been an idiot in my youth. Then a monster for longer than I wish to dwell on. But now, I was the man I’d always been meant to be. He just need to find his princess first.
And now? Now we’re getting ready for a ball of our own. You see, there’s another wedding about to happen. I wasn’t the only one who found something he was expecting that night. And tonight, we were going to toast to another happy ending. Tonight we’d toast to—
Well, like I said, maybe that’s a fairy tale for another day.
The End