Loving an Ugly Beast (12 page)

Chapter One

“Oh no, this can’t be. I’ll never hear the end of it from the Fairy Godmother Council!”

Tiernan’s fingers curled over the bloody mess that was once his stomach, viscera and blubber sliding through the multiple lacerations crisscrossing his body.

How in the nine hells did he get saddled with the most incompetent Fairy Godmother to ever exist? Leading the knight to the dragon, helping him overpower the beast, rescuing the princess and having them live Happily Ever After... Wasn’t that what Fairy Godmothers did every day? Instead, he got one who couldn’t find her butt with both hands.

“Glad your priorities are straight, Fairy,” he growled, with not enough strength to lift his head, not enough strength to even raise his voice and yell like he wanted. His legs were numb, and blackness settled around the edges of his vision. “’Go this way,’ you said. ‘Trust me.’ I knew I should never have listened. Since when can a female give directions?”

The blond Fairy’s head jerked around nervously. “What do I do?” she wailed, and Tiernan really wished he had the strength to hit her, gallantry be damned. That the female above him was crying, but not due to the fact he was about to die, really set his teeth on edge.

“I know!” she cried, her eyes wide as she bore down on him. “I can grant you a wish! You haven’t asked for one yet! Make a wish! You can wish for healing!”

What an adventure it would be to become a Fairy Godmother
.

In his darkening mind, the words ping-ponged back and forth, brighter and more impressive with each volley. Tiernan tried to shake his head and dislodge the traitorous thought that seemed to come from somewhere outside of his own being. Blasphemy, insanity, such a thought. He was a knight.

With no king.

With no land.

With no family.

A knight who had nothing and no one to protect.

His lungs seized up. He was powerless to do anything but wait to see if they would work again. They did, but not without bringing up a quantity of blood through his throat and into his mouth as the price. Spitting out the blood, he knew there would not be another chance.

Before he could reflect, before he could decide if it was truly wise, he simply stated what the voice told him. “I wish I was like you, a Fairy Godmother.”

“What?” said Blondie Bimbette, not expecting this. “I didn’t say you could wish that!”

“You didn’t say I couldn’t,” Tiernan snapped back. “You just said make a wish. I did, now fulfill it before I die.” With that, he passed out.

A cacophony of voices, loud and argumentative, greeted him when awareness came upon him again. His eyes opened, and he saw her...

Tiernan’s lungs seized up again, and he wondered if this was the last time, if she was an angel sent down to bring him to Heaven. Maybe a devil to drag him down to hell, but no matter, he’d follow her willingly.

Her face was every secret desire he’d ever had come alive, every wish he never made for fear of being prideful. Those wide-set brown eyes, the color of rich earth, fringed with the thickest black lashes and set in the perfect oval of her face caused his heart to ache in his chest in a way even his recent encounter with the dragon hadn’t managed to do.

A thick fall of hair, darker than her eyes, fell forward in long waves, caressing high cheekbones and the most luscious mouth he had every come across. That plump bottom lip begged for a man’s teeth. With more willpower than he thought he possessed, he forced his gaze back to her eyes.

For a moment, just a moment, he saw feminine awareness in them, but then she blinked, and that awareness took flight, replaced by propriety and duty.

“He is awake, Godmother Sara,” she said, and upon hearing that deep, husky tone, stunned desire turned into raw want. He’d started to reach for her when another woman came to his side, bending slightly to have a closer look at him.

“Aren’t you a handsome one,” said the older woman, a chuckle escaping her as she ran a finger down his face. As her finger came to rest at the side of his mouth, she gave a delighted exclamation. “And dimples as well!”

“Godmother Sara, that is quite inappropriate and completely beside the point,” said the woman who had just eluded him. “He should not be here.”

“Hmmm,” Godmother Sara said, currently pinching his cheeks and not so surreptitiously looking down the expanse of his chest. Tiernan looked down, not sure what to expect since the last he knew he had a bloody pulp in place of a chest, but also not shocked to see himself now healed, a diaphanous shirt and thin breeches replacing his armor. He was as good as naked because with what he was wearing, anyone in the room could clearly see what he had to offer.

A quick glance around showed he was surrounded by women circling around the sumptuous couch he found himself now on, and yes, they were all in various stages of checking out his body – all except his angel, who was very studiously not looking at him and instead kept her focus on the woman who wouldn’t leave his face alone.

So, the one woman he was interested in couldn’t care less. Yeah, that ranked right up there with death by dragon. With tensed jaw and a sure grip, he grabbed the older woman’s hands, and being gentle with her frail limbs, placed those hands away from his face as he sat up. “What’s going on here?”

Sara smiled. “Don’t you remember, knight? You made the wish.”

So the blonde granted it. “Where is the ditz?” he asked, looking around. He didn’t see the ditz, but he saw his angel quickly cast her face down to hide her amusement.

She had taken the sight of her smile from him, the final insult in this insane day, and now he felt blood rush to his face. “What do you mean I shouldn’t be here?” he challenged her. “Why do you have any say in my life?”

That wiped all amusement from her face. “I am saying the truth. That wish should never have been honored, and you should not be here.”

“I guess that means you aren’t in charge then, since here I am. Are you all Fairy Godmothers?”

Godmother Sara smiled. “Cute but not that bright, eh, knight?”

He jumped up, suddenly restless. “Could you cut me some slack considering the almost dying thing?”

“Of course,” she said, waving her hand to get him to sit back down, a signal he ignored. “Naomi is no longer a Fairy Godmother. Her screw-up was too monumental to ignore. However, she offered you a wish while still a full Fairy Godmother, you made a wish while she was a full Fairy Godmother, and she granted it as a full Fairy Godmother.”

“A wish that no other Fairy Godmother would have granted in her place,” his angel interjected. “That wish was granted in panic. It should be made void.”

“While you are correct, Reina, what is done is done. We, as Fairy Godmothers, are responsible for her words.”

So his angel’s name was Reina. Still, the satisfaction of knowing her name didn’t quite drown out the fact she was actively trying to get rid of him. “Why shouldn’t I be a Fairy Godfather?”

Reina answered, her tone affronted. “There is no such thing as a Fairy Godfather, and never has a mortal been allowed to become one of us!”

“So I’ll be the first, no big deal.”

Her eyes narrowed. “The decision to never allow males was made over a millennium ago, for very good reasons. You shouldn’t be allowed to upset that.”

He gave her a lazy grin. “I don’t know. I don’t think I could do any worse than getting the knight I’m trying to help eaten by a dragon.”

Her look turned murderous. “I don’t want to replace one mistake with another.”

“Sweetheart, no woman who has met me ever called it a mistake.”

Before Reina was able to get past her outrage to form a response, Sara asked, “Knight, what is your name?”

He pulled his gaze away from Reina, though he did admit she was just as cute when she was livid as when she was calm. Maybe even cuter. With those eyes blazing, it was exactly how he thought she must look when she was engaged in strenuous activities of another nature. He had to turn his mind from those thoughts though. These trousers were not forgiving in that area. “Tiernan.”

“Tiernan, you better prepare yourself, because you are going to cause quite a commotion as the first ever Fairy Godfather.”

“Godmother,” Reina started, but Sara shook her head to cut her off.

“His wish was granted, Reina, and his wish shall remain granted. This is the final decision of the Council.”

“Thank you, Godmother Sara,” Tiernan said, the title feeling foreign on his tongue.

“Don’t thank me yet, Tiernan. You have the right to become a Fairy Godfather, but that doesn’t mean you will. You must pass all the training and tests that are required, and even if you do that, Fairy Godmothers are constantly monitored. You can be expelled from the program. Ask Naomi.”

“And if I’m expelled?” Tiernan asked.

“Then you’ll be moved to some other part of the fairy realm,” Sara replied. “Trust me, nothing near as much fun as being one of us. Plus I will openly mock you every time we run into each other.”

Tiernan laughed, the first time today he was relaxed enough to make the sound. “I understand. I promise I will live up to your expectations.”

“Alright then,” Sara said, and the gravitas she displayed only a moment before was replaced by amusement. “Reina will see to your training then.”

“Godmother!” Reina nearly yelled in protest.

“Reina, you will abide by the Council’s decision. You will train him fairly, and you will see that he becomes a first rate Fairy Godfather. Now, do you understand my words?”

“Of course, Godmother Sara,” Reina replied, but Tiernan could see the fire in her eyes sparking.

The voice had been right, it seemed, whether it had come from his mind or not. This was indeed shaping up to be quite an adventure.

About the Author

Born to the pothole-ridden streets of Pittsburgh, PA, Danielle Monsch started writing in a time long ago, a time when there were not enough vampire stories to read and she had to write her own to fill the void. Yes, such a time of darkness did indeed exist.

Danielle writes stories full of fantastical goodness and plenty of action, but always with lots of romance (and a bit of woo-hoo!) mixed in. Vampires and Werewolves and Demons and Angels, Sword & Sorcery, Fairy Tales, Updated Mythologies and the like – if it's out of the ordinary, it's fair game for her stories.

When not writing, Danielle reads comic books and watches cartoons (though she says she reads manga and watches anime, because saying it in another language makes all the difference). She listens to music, plays D&D, follows XKCD, watches movies with the Rifftrax on, and is mom to two amazing little girls and wife to her favorite guy in the world.

Contact Danielle by emailing her at
[email protected]
, see her tweets on twitter at
www.twitter.com/Danielle_Monsch
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Also, feel free to check out her various websites:
www.DanielleMonsch.com
(with all info about current and upcoming books),
www.SeleneDaniels.com
(for books written by Danielle’s erotic-yet-still-nerdy alter-ego, Selene Daniels) and her blog for fun and not profit
www.RomanticGeekGirl.com
(Geekiness & Romance! Two great tastes that taste great together.)