Snow’s soft intake of breath was all that kept Huntsman from allowing his beast out fully. He held her tenderly away from the prince, glaring at the man. “Step away from her.”
The prince shook with fear and Huntsman became acutely aware the man had soiled himself—again. He stared down the length of the man, noting the puddle forming near the prince’s feet.
Grump approached and laughed harder. “You didn’t need to pee on anything. He did it himself.”
Snow looked around Huntsman at the prince as she clutched Huntsman’s upper arm. She tugged on him more. “A word.”
Huntsman nodded, knowing he was about to be scolded for his behavior as he permitted Snow to lead him from the great hall. When they were several rooms down she closed the door behind them and rounded on him. “I know.”
He froze.
“Know what?” he asked.
Her dark gaze never moved from him. She knew the truth of what he was—most did, yet she did not fear him as did the rest. She didn’t worry that his wolf would break free and harm her because she knew it never would. He would die before he permitted harm to befall her. His love of her was that great.
“Huntsman,” she said softly, her pale hand on his arm once more. “I know the truth.”
“What truth?” he asked, his emotions all over the place, preventing him from being able to think.
With a narrowed gaze, she watched him. “Are we going to do this all evening? I say something, and you echo it? We have been friends all my life. Is this the time for lies?”
“Snow,” he said, putting his hand over hers. “I would never lie to you.”
“I know the truth of what happened,” she said.
Chapter 2
Snow White couldn’t tear her gaze from the handsome man before her. His long blond hair fell over his powerful shoulders, as his blue eyes seemed lost for the briefest of moments. She pointed at him, making sure she kept his attention. She knew the man well, trusted him fully. She was close enough to him to know his mind would catch up quickly with what she was saying.
He gasped. “You know the coward did not save you? That he did not slay the queen? That I was the one to do so?”
Her lips quivered with the need to smile, but she resisted. “I know you are the reason I am alive, though I was fuzzy on the specifics. You have cleared those up for me now.”
He tried to step back, but she did not permit him to lose contact with her. “Snow, he is a prince. Go out and accept his hand in marriage. He is the type of man you should be with. The kingdom adores him. They think him your protector.”
She snorted. “They think he is a boy, pretending to be a man, and they will call him Prince of Pee before the day is out.”
She knew the kingdom well enough to foresee the title that would befall the man. Oddly, she was fine with it. While she was normally one for peace and love, the prince wore on her in the worst way. He was full of himself, and his boasting of falsely ending her wicked stepmother had nearly pushed her over the edge of reason. Snow had thought her longtime friend would step forth and correct the prince, righting the wrong. But Huntsman had done little more than glower at the prince since their return to the castle. He seemed content to allow the prince to steal his glory and fame—and sadly, to try to steal her as well.
With a sigh, she shook her head. “I know you have never seen me in the same light I see you, but to permit one such as the prince to try to claim my hand…really, Huntsman, I expected better of you.”
Huntsman stuttered and then shook his head. “What do you mean, see you in the same light you see me? How is it you see me?”
She eyed him. Did he really not know how she felt for him? Certainly, she had never come right out and told him and they’d never even kissed, but she’d wanted to kiss him. Wanted to know every inch of him. She had spent her life stealing chances to touch him whenever possible. The simplest of caresses would carry her for days. When her stepmother had made an attempt on her life, Huntsman had been the one to search for her and to save her. He’d tried so hard to keep her far from the reach of her evil stepmother to begin with, hiding her among the dwarves in the enchanted forest. He was always looking out for her, and she him. How could he not know that she loved him?
He filled the space between them, his frame massive in comparison to hers. He smelled of nature, of the forest after a fresh rain. She inhaled deeply, her eyes fluttering shut. She swayed slightly, her body tingling with the need to be even closer to him.
By the time she realized what she was doing, she was pressed against him fully, her breasts smashed between them. Gasping, she looked up to find his heated gaze upon her. Gone was the blue in his eyes, replaced by amber—a sure sign his beast had risen and was nearing being in control of his actions.
With a shaky hand, she touched his scruffy cheek, her thumb sliding over his lips. “Huntsman?”
He lowered his head, and she went to her tiptoes, their lips colliding. Heat exploded throughout her as she parted her lips. He used that moment to ease his tongue into her mouth. In that second, she felt whole, complete for the first time in all her life. As their tongues danced an erotic dance, she pressed her palms to his steely chest, knowing she’d never have enough of him.
A low growl emanated from the back of his throat, and he broke the kiss so quickly that it startled her. She touched her swollen lower lip, feeling dazed by their encounter.
Huntsman looked down at her, his eyes flashing with colors as he lifted her off her feet, his teeth lengthening quickly. She wasn’t afraid of him, she was excited by him. He growled loudly.
“Mine!”
Her breath caught as his verbal claim washed over her. Snow knew enough about shifters to know what he’d just done. He’d marked her as his, and she knew something else—it was permanent and something that happened only between destined mates. Her eyes widened as she stared up at him. “Huntsman?”
He lifted her higher off her feet, putting her eye level with him. “Run!”
She nearly laughed as she realized he was trying to protect her from himself. She rolled her eyes playfully. “Oh, Huntsman, really, stop. You’re not going to eat me.”
His gaze raked down the length of her body in a suggestive manner. “Yes, I am.”
She blushed and then slid her arms around his neck. “First, you must wed me proper. Then you can sample me all you wish when you share my bed and my throne.”
He released her so fast she nearly fell. Somehow, she managed to stay upright.
“I’m not from a royal family,” he said.
“Always with the rules,” she said. “Huntsman, we write our own future from this point forward. And I know we’re destined to be together for a very long time.”
He took her hand in his. “Snow,” he said, going to one knee. “I have loved you all of your life. Would you do me the honor of being my wife?”
“About damn time,” said Grump from the other side of the closed door.
Snow smiled and then nodded. “Yes, but only after you get rid of the Prince of Pee.”
Huntsman stood fast and made a move to grab the handle of the door.
Snow caught his arm. “No killing him.”
Huntsman groaned. “You always with the rules.”
“I love you,” she said. “Take Grump and chase off the prince. Then hurry back. The castle and the kingdom are ready for a wedding. Let us give them one.”
Epilogue
Snow smiled as she touched her swollen belly, looking out at the field where her husband was playing with their son. The three-year-old was giving his father a run for his money as he climbed over Huntsman’s back, giggling. Grump and six of his dwarf friends were there as well, each keeping the young prince entertained. Huntsman, the king, roared and came off the ground quickly, making their son laugh and squeal with delight.
Snow felt truly blessed with the happy ever after she’d always longed for. Huntsman had made fine a king. He was kind, yet firm. The kingdom was r
estored to its former glory. And soon, Snow and Huntsman would be welcoming another child.
She gave a tiny wave. Huntsman stopped romping in the field and ran in her direction. He swept her off her feet gently and kissed her passionately. “I love you.”
“And I you, my king.”
* * *
Author’s Note
I’ve always loved the tale of Snow White. She appealed to me greatly as a child because she had dark hair—like me. I always wanted her to end up with the huntsman, not the prince, so when the opportunity came about to retell the fairytale, I knew the time had come for Snow to be swept off her feet by a true alpha male.
* * *
NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Mandy M. Roth is a self-proclaimed Goonie, loves 80s music and movies and wishes leg warmers would come back into fashion. She also thinks the movie The Breakfast Club should be mandatory viewing for…okay, everyone. When she’s not dancing around her office to the sounds of the 80s, she’s busy writing sexy paranormal operatives. Mandy lives in Oxford, Mississippi with her husband and three boys. She has sold well over 1 million ebooks.
www.MandyRoth.com
RumpelIMPskin - Debra Dunbar
“You better wait for Gregory.” Nyalla bit her lip, taking a step back from what looked to me like a giant doorway with ragged edges. It was a wild gate, randomly occurring passageways to other…I don’t know. Realms? Alternate dimensions? Planets? I didn’t know what the fuck they were, just that they were happening with greater frequency since that asshole of a demon had torn the Traveler’s Veil. They needed to be closed before humans jogging through the park found themselves in fairy-land, or some creature from the other side came through. We had enough harpies, drop bears, and manticore as it was, not to mention the mermaids that had taken up residence in Lake Michigan. We didn’t need whatever was on the other side of this gate. But closing it took two beings – a demon to ‘see’ it, and an angel to close it.
“Hey, check it out. There’s a woman running.” I moved closer and peered through the gateway. “Dudes on horseback are chasing her and shooting arrows, and they are really lousy shots. Archery is not my strong suit, but I bet I could hit that woman from this distance. Oop no, I take it back. One got her in the leg.”
Nyalla gasped. She was my sort-of adopted daughter, my sort-of sidekick, and my sort-of conscience. “Sam! Are they going to kill her? You’ve got to do something!”
I intended to do something once my angel, Gregory, got here – close this gateway and go eat lunch. I had a thin-crust, wood-fired, sausage and black olive pizza getting cold on my kitchen counter. Where was that angel? He’d better hurry up. Maybe I’d share the pizza with him afterward. Maybe he’d give me some of his own sausage afterward. Haha. Sausage.
“Sam!”
“Oh, alright. Gregory is going to kick my ass for this, you know. He might be an angel, but he doesn’t like it when I mess up the time-space-continuum thingie.” I shoved the upper half of my body through the gateway, reaching out to the woman who was limping toward me. The archers were gaining on her, and thankfully were back to their previous ineptitude in landing an accurate shot.
The woman screamed. I’ll admit it probably looked alarming having a disembodied front half of a person reaching toward you from five feet off the ground. She looked back at the archers, then evidently decided I was the better bet because she grabbed my hand and pulled.
I pulled back, hauling her through the gateway as she kicked me in the face and used my ass as a hand-hold to get through. She was wearing a dress and the damned thing was draped over my head like a hood, which is probably why I didn’t realize the archers had arrived until one grabbed my arms and yanked.
In all honesty I think they were going for the woman’s feet, but with all the fabric and the flailing about, they clearly grabbed the wrong body parts. That’s how I ended up on the ground with a bunch of guys pointing their arrows at me, and the woman ended up in Nyalla’s caring arms.
I’m an imp, but I’m also a demon-turned-sorta-angel. I don’t give two shits about getting shot with arrows. I mean, it hurts and all that, but I just yank that sucker out and blammo – healed. So with that in mind I stood, brushed myself off, punched the nearest dude in the face and turned to climb back through the gateway. As expected, they shot me.
Son of a bitch, that hurt. Like, it hurt way more than it should have hurt. I went to pull the arrow out of my arm and nearly passed out.
“Halt. Don’t move.”
What kind of magical arrows were these? Regardless, I wasn’t moving. Nope, not one inch. I stood there, hands raised, an arrow sticking out of my arm and mouthed ‘help me’ back at the gateway – the gateway only I could see. Not Nyalla, not Gregory, not the woman I’d just helped rescue. The only way I was going to get out of here was through that gateway, and preferably before these fuckers shot me full of arrows like a pin cushion.
“This is all a terrible mistake. I fell through a…hole. Yes, a hole. I’m just going to turn around and go back through that hole. Don’t shoot me, okay?”
“Where is she?” one of the archers demanded. “Where’s the woman we were chasing?”
Probably drinking hot chocolate while Nyalla bandaged her wound and fussed over her, that’s where. “Through the hole. Which is where I want to go. I’ll send her back as soon as I go through. How’s that?”
Demons lie, even used-to-be-demons. Nyalla would kill me if I threw the woman back to these wolves. And yes, a powerful being like me was terrified of my human sort-of-daughter being mad at her.
“Through the hole?”
What were these guys, stupid? “Yes, through the hole. Gone. Poof. Just like I appeared. Poof. I’ll return her, though. I promise. Pinky promise and all that.”
Two of the archers exchanged meaningful glances. I didn’t like where this was going so I tried to edge slowly backward so I could launch myself through the gateway. One saw me and halted my progress, grabbing the arm with the arrow in it. Everything went white for a moment.
“The king will be furious,” one whispered. “What do we do?”
They all looked at me. Shit.
“She’ll have to do.”
Before I could make my great escape, four archers grabbed me and threw me to the ground, covering my head with some sort of garlic-smelling cloth and binding my limbs. The ropes must have been magicked, because my usual demon blow-it-all-up-and-escape technique didn’t work. Then one of them yanked the arrow from my arm, and this time I did pass out.
* * *
“She went through the gateway.” Gregory’s voice was cold, furious. Nyalla knew the angel wasn’t angry with her, that he only had feelings of gentle affection when he thought about her, but the fury in his words still made her shiver.
“It wasn’t her fault. She said she saw a woman being chased, that they were shooting her with arrows. You know Sam. She had to help the woman.”
Gregory’s eyebrows shot up. “You begged her to save the woman in other words?”
“Well, yes. I guess I did.” Nyalla chewed on the tip of her finger and looked at the woman who was huddled in a blanket from the car, sipping the hot chocolate that she’d brought in a thermos. “Her name is Goldie. She’s a miller’s daughter. She said the king was trying to kidnap her.”
“Because kings often kidnap miller’s daughters,” Gregory commented dryly. “Right. In the meantime, my imp has vanished through a gateway that I can’t see, and not returned.”
Nyalla glanced at her phone. “I called Snip the moment she fell through to the other side. He’s a demon. Even a Low should be able to see the gateway from within a few feet. He can’t teleport though, so he’s trying to catch a ride from one of the neighbors.”
Gregory lifted his hands heavenward, then he curled them into fists and slammed them downward. Suddenly Snip was before them, retching and rolling on the ground.
“Where’s the gateway,” the angel demanded.
Sometimes, espe
cially when he was worried about his beloved imp, Gregory was not very nice.
Snip got to his feet and staggered around a bit before pointing at a spot about eight inches to the left of a tree. “There.”
“Look through. Do you see your Mistress?”
Snip leaned close until Nyalla was afraid he too would fall through the gateway. “Nope. There’s some guys on horseback with a big sack on one of the horses. Huh. I wonder if that’s the Mistress.” Snip made a series of snorts that were his version of laughter. “Yeah. I think that’s her.”
Gregory sighed. “Wonderful. I’m going through. I want all of you to wait right here until I get back. Please do not allow anyone else to go through the gateway. Understand?”
“Got it,” Nyalla replied. Snip saluted. Goldie took another sip of the hot chocolate.
The angel patted the air like a winged mime until one of his hands vanished, then with a reminder to the three of them not to leave until he returned, Gregory vanished.
* * *
My arm was killing me. I was on a cold, stone floor surrounded by bales of straw with only the garlicky hood and a thin blanket for comfort. Oh, and a spinning wheel. I had no idea what the fuck I was supposed to do with that. Maybe I could use it for kindling to start a fire if I could manage to find a pack of matches. Although starting a fire in a room full of straw might not be my best idea.
I yelled and screamed until I realized no one was coming, then got to my feet to explore my surroundings. I’d assumed I was in some sort of stable or storage barn, so imagine my surprise when a glance out the window revealed I was in a tower – a really tall tower. I eyed the slit-like windows, wondering if I could manage to squeeze through them. I think I could, then freefall a bit before revealing my wings and taking flight. Easy peasy.
Once Upon A Kiss: Seventeen Romantic Faerie Tales Page 27