We’d been dating six months now. And for reasons that had less to do with my family and much more with his responsibilities to crown and country, Adam hadn’t had a chance to meet my sisters, granted Rose still hadn’t come back home yet, but she assured us by floating missive that she was well and happy and had a surprise to share with us that we’d never believe.

I very much doubted that, beings as how me and not Rose tended to have the unusual happen to us. But then, she was still absent from our lives. Though rumor had it that she and Dracula were in Blue Moon Bay, of a sort. No idea what of a sort meant, but every time Generva and I tested for our sister’s whereabouts we learned she was absolutely well and thriving. Wherever she was. So we didn’t worry overmuch, though we all missed her sweetness most dearly.

I tapped my foot and pecked impatiently with my nail at the bark of a tree I leaned against, staring at the pond with near obsessive attention. I’d not seen Adam in three weeks, longest span we’d gone without seeing one another yet and to say I was anxious for my male to return to me would be an understatement.

Generva too had a male now. A very scholarly bloke named Connor, a wolf shifter with a surprisingly droll sense of humor that actually had Generva and me in stitches more often than not.

The waters before me rippled and my heart practically leapt free of its cage. With a delighted shriek I raced toward the pond and didn’t stop at the waterline like I once used to. I strode in confidently, moving past the point of what once would have been comfortable for me. Past my knees, my thighs, and then up to the point where I floated. But I gently kicked my legs back and forth, bobbing on the surface with ease.

Adam called me his delightful little land fish now, and I took the compliment as intended. He’d changed my life in so many ways, and all of them for the better.

The instant his head broke the surface I attacked him with kisses and hugs.

He chuckled robustly, wrapping me up in his warm and powerfully strong embrace. “Guppy,” he murmured tenderly, before placing a sweet kiss that tasted of wine and other delicious things upon my mouth. I sighed, never wanting to be parted from him again.

“Miss me?” He asked a second later as he pushed my hair out of my eyes.

“I’m wearing a bathing suit, in the dead of night, and you ask me if I missed you. Of course I missed you, Crazy Handsome. With all my soul. Never leave me like that again.”

“Okay.” He nodded. “I won’t.”

I laughed, because of course I understood he had duties. But his face was entirely serious. I frowned. “Wait, are you serious?”

“Completely. It’s done, Myrtle. It’s done. No more trips away. No more time spent apart from the woman I love and intend to someday wed.”

I snorted, even as my pulse gave a thrill. “We’ll see about that. Weddings are expensive and it’s just paper and a ring when it’s all said and done. Our commitment to each other is already there, why complicate things?”

He shrugged. “You’re right, of course. So maybe you don’t want this after all? I thought maybe, but I could always take it back.”

He lifted his hand free of the water and clutched between two fingers was the most gorgeous ring I’d ever seen in my life. It was a simple band of gold with a pearl that shone with colors not of my world but of his. It rippled with the waves of sea glass.

“Adam,” I breathed, and looked at him with my heart glittering in my eyes.

His grin was huge and proud. “I love you, Myrtle Monroe and wish for the whole world to know it. But if you’d rather not, then I will never press—”

I’d always thought myself a modern girl, who needed nothing of the trappings of convention to make her whole. But that ring was lovely. And the man… oh the man, he was even better and if Adam wanted that wedding with all the bells and whistles, I didn’t mind it one bit. As long as he was mine and I was his.

“Yes,” I breathed, cutting off his clearly practiced speech.

His lips clamped shut for a second before he asked, “Yes?”

I nodded. “Yes. A thousand times yes.” I held out my hand to him and he took it with gentle tenderness. His thumb brushed against my knuckles before he slowly and easily slid the ring on.

When it rested upon my hand, it didn’t feel like the weight I always thought a symbol like that would. Instead it made me feel a part of something greater. Whole.

I smiled and felt the first tear slide.

He pulled me in tight for an even hotter kiss than the first one, this one with a little bit of tongue in it and oh my, the male could kiss. I wrapped my legs tightly around his wonderful waist, delighting in the slick slide of his tail against my flesh. I loved all parts of Adam, even the not so human ones.

His hot hand slid along my thigh and he shivered as he growled. “Gods, I never thought there might come a day that I would honestly say I loved human legs, but bloody hell, witch, you’ve damn fine ones. You think maybe later tonight we could do that thing again?”

I laughed, knowing exactly what thing it was that he referred to. “Mm, I might be persuaded. If Generva likes you, that is. She’s a hard nut to crack.”

He snorted. “Everyone likes me, didn’t you know that?”

I rolled my eyes. “An ego the size of the cosmos, that’s what you have, Crazy Handsome.”

“Mm.” He nipped at my lips and grunted deeply in the back of his throat. “And you love me for it.”

I sighed like the lovesick fool I was. “Oh, I do, my crazy male. I really, really do.”

We touched, we moaned, and my body wanted things that we had absolutely no time to engage in right now.

We both breathed heavy as we planted our foreheads against one another.

“We should go,” he whispered, “before we’re late.”

I moaned and gave him pouty lips. “She’ll understand, you should see her with her tweed wearing male, gah, it’s almost sickening. Except that I feel the same way about you.”

I patted his perfectly formed chest, sighing on the inside. He really was a pretty male.

With one final kiss to the tip of my nose, he gently extricated my limbs from around his body.

“Don’t pout, love. I’m home now. And I’m never leaving again. Which means the second we finish up with your sister, I’ll be taking you home and having my dirty, wicked way with you.”

My pulse sped up like thunderous hooves in my chest. We weren’t waiting till marriage, basically because in my mind I’d already committed my life to him and he to me. So to me there was no sense in putting off the inevitable. I was ready to start my life with him now. Right now.

Which was why I wouldn’t have minded skipping the nuptials completely, but Adam was an old-fashioned caveman at heart and I just wanted to see him smile. So if it meant I’d have to put on the white gown, so be it. I didn’t mind, it was called compromise, and his compromise to me was not waiting.

I was a bit of a ravenous beast between the sheets, couldn’t help myself. I’d been too long without the touch of a male and Adam’s touch, well… it lit a spark in me. Made me crazed and wild and hedonistic and he loved every minute of it.

He held my hand as we treaded water back to shore. The moment we got to land he shifted, losing his tail for his legs. He was quite adept at walking now. And no longer suffered the vertigo of the first night.

Walking over toward the tree, I picked up the items I’d brought for him to change into. Don’t get me wrong, I loved ogling his naked, honed body. What red-blooded female wouldn’t? He was perfection. But, I didn’t want Generva seeing my male’s goods. They were mine alone.

With a nod of thanks he quickly dressed and I sighed longingly when he’d covered up the male perfection of his form.

His eyes sparkled. “You can tear them off me tonight, if you’d like.”

I bit my bottom lip and fought a grin. “I just might at that.”

He took my hand. “You think your sister will like me?” he asked as we began the slow walk back to my sister’s cottage.

No longer mine anymore. I’d gone and rented a home for Adam and I to call ours, we’d needed our own space and well, I wasn’t lying when I said watching Generva and Connor suck face all the time wasn’t really my idea of fun. They were cute and all. But only in doses.

I shrugged. “I don’t doubt it. But even if she didn’t Adam, I’m not going anywhere. I don’t need my sister’s approval to decide who I get to spend the rest of my life with.”

A pleased grin covered his face. “I like the sound of that.”

“Well, you should.” I poked him in the ribs and he lovingly swatted my hand away.

He was incredibly ticklish my male. A fact I exploited with quite some frequency.

“So I was thinking of our wedding.”

I almost rolled my eyes, he was persistent my crazy male, but I didn’t because I knew this was important to him.

“And?”

“And, I think I know who will cater the event.”

It was my turn to hide my grin. “Oh? You don’t say?”

He stopped us by tugging on my hand and turning me toward him. I stared deep into his eyes as he stared deep into my own.

“I’m no longer to be ruler of the below, my witch, but I will always be of the royal line. Which means this wedding is going to be huge.”

I groaned. “Oh no.”

He shrugged. “I think you’re missing my point here, Myr. The caterer is going to have a lot of business.”

“Ah.” It took me a minute to really get it, but when I did I murmured, “Oh. Ohhhh, I see. And just how much is a lot, Crazy Handsome? For curiosity’s sake, of course.”

He grinned. “Well over a thousand.”

My eyes practically bugged out of my head. “That’s more than was there for yours and Meri’s nuptials.”

“Yes, but that was a spur of the moment thing and few could make it.”

“Few? There will still several hundred,” I laughed nervously.

“My parents know a lot of people. And the truth is, Myr, you deserve better than a slapdash marriage to a disgraced prince.”

“Never disgraced, Adam. And I never needed or wanted a title, you know that. I only need you.”

He palmed my cheek in his delightfully warm hand. Adam ran about ten degrees hotter than most supernaturals, which I loved since I always used to feel cold.

“Which is why I adore you, princess of my heart. But I’ve tasted your food, there isn’t a cook in the below that could even come close to rivaling you. And you know Father is wild about your deserts.”

I laughed. I’d visited his family several times since Adam and I began seriously dating and things had blessedly gone far better in subsequent visits than the first one. We all laughed about our strange start now, and that was nice.

“I do know this.”

“Good. Then it’s settled.”

“But thousands, Adam, that’s… that’s a lot, even for three amazing witches such as ourselves. Not to mention the fact that Rose is still MIA.”

“She’ll come back home,” he said sweetly, a look of concern pinching his brows.

I batted his words away. “I know she will. Of course, she will. Rose is the sweetest of us three, she would never knowingly wish any of us to worry or panic. Whatever has got her so distracted is clearly important.”

He nodded. “Well, having the help won’t be a problem. You could use our kitchens, they’re equipped to deal with large parties of food prep and the payday should be more than enough to handle hiring additional staff should you need it.”

“I… I couldn’t. You’re only doing this because you love—”

“I do love you, Myrtle, obviously.” He shook his head. “But my family would never allow a caterer to host an event such as a royal wedding if they weren’t absolutely the best of the best. Our siren pride is on the line.”

He wasn’t lying about siren’s pride, they had pride bursting from their pores in spades. Sirens didn’t suffer from a lack of confidence, I was discovering. Probably helped that they were all supernaturally gorgeous, all part of that siren charm.

“Father is prepared to pay several tens of thousands galleons.”

My eyes almost bugged from my head. “Excuse me? What? I thought I heard you say tens of thousands?”

“You heard right.”

“Good goddess, my sisters will never believe me now!”

He laughed. “They rarely do, and you that leads such an extraordinary life. That squirrel.”

“Oy, say nothing of that stupid squirrel. I quite tire of reliving that nightmare.”

“Yes, but it’s so cute, dear. I mean, how in the devil did a squirrel actually nest in—”

“Adam,” I lifted a finger beneath his nose, “I swear to the gods, if you speak even a word of that to Connor or Generva tonight I will curse your tail full of boils.”

He snorted with laughter. “You’d never curse my tail, you like my arse too well. But fine. Fine.” He kissed the tip of my finger and took my hand back into his. “Mum’s the word. Now, let us go meet this harridan sister of yours.”

“Shush, you devil. If she hears you calling her that, it won’t be me cursing you tonight. But she can be a harridan, I’ll give you that.”

We laughed together and began walking. We’d be a little late to dinner, but I doubted Generva would even notice. She’d become much softer in recent months, ever since finding her own mate.

Who’d have thunk that it would even be within the remotest field of possibility that the Monroe sisters would ever find happiness? And yet, somehow, without love charms to help us secure our mates we’d found our happily ever after.

Blue Moon Bay was changing, I wasn’t quite sure how yet, all I knew was that it was. For the better. And I for one couldn’t have been happier about it.

I just hoped that wherever Rose was, she was happy, safe, and as full of joy as I was tonight.

I rested my head against my big male’s shoulder and sighed so deeply contented. I could never have imagined that the day Adam stole me away would be the very second that my life would change for the better.

But it had.

Happily ever afters did exist. And I was living inside of the very best one…

The End.

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Turn the page to get Myrtle’s Snickerdoodle recipe!

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